Gakwonsa Temple

Today Ric and I visited our first ever Buddhist temple, the Gakwonsa Temple, on the outskirts of Cheonan.

The pond at the bottom of the mountain,
the temple is just visible in the mountains

Getting there was really easy, we took the 24 bus from outside Shinsegae in the center of town and got off at the end of the route. It only took 15minutes on the bus but once we off it felt as if we were hours away from the city. The temple is wonderfully enveloped by mountains so that the skyscrapers and traffic of Cheonan are completely hidden from sight. Instead all you can see are forests and  mountains. A short walk up a rather steep hill lead us to the temple.


The temple is spread over several beautifully decorated buildings, some are ornate shrines and prayer rooms, others were accommodation and study rooms for the monks.


Once we'd entered the main hall, removing our shoes as usual, and sat to take in the beautiful artwork, a monk came in dressed in robes. He began to chant and ring bells and the people around us started praying; they bowed, knelt, placed their heads on the floor and offer up the palms of their hands and then they stood and repeated the ritual over and over. It was very interesting, I've never seen anything like that before. The closest I've ever come to a Buddhist temple is the arch in China Town in Manchester. It was really exciting seeing something so completely new to me.

Me and Ric with our roof tile

The temple is still undergoing reconstruction and people had written messages of peace of the roof tiles that will be used. Me and Ric wrote our own little message and its cool to think that it will be put up in a temple in Korea and will stay there for possibly hundreds of years.

Amita-bul

Just above the temple buildings there is a 15m tall bronze statue of Amita-bul, the Budda of universal light. And then there are 203 steps to go down to get back to the road (I'm glad we chose to go down them and not up!)

At the bottom of the 203 steps

The main hall with the monk chanting

One of the shrines

Cheonan Football Stadium

After our cringeworthy swimming expedition we thought we'd have a look around the rest of the sports complex and see if there were any sports that didn't involve swimming caps and public hair.

The volleyball team is called the Sky Walkers and they have a pretty decent stadium, there were also tennis courts and squash courts. The most important part (for Ric) was of course the football stadium. As we approached we realised that there was absolutely no security and that the gates to the stadium were in fact open! We walked through the stands, past offices and laundry rooms and a kitchen (?) and then found ourselves a gate that opened onto the actual pitch. Now I'd like to point out that this isn't Sunday league I'm talking about, its a professional team with a massive stadium! We even went on the pitch and I had a nice sit down while Ric practiced his diving skills!

More like ballet if you ask me...

Swimming in Korea

Swimming in Korea was the most awkward experience of my entire life. I have never, ever, made so many faux pas in such a short space of time.

On Saturday me and Ric walked half an hour out of town to find ‘Cheonan Sports Complex’ – a huge area containing the city’s football stadium, volleyball stadium and an Olympic swimming pool. We thought it would be nice to go swimming as we went regularly back home.

We were doing well, we’d found the pool, managed to pay (£2.50 for both of us) and were all ready to swim, only when we got into the changing rooms things got weird.

First of all, everybody was naked. People were blow drying their hair – naked, chatting to their pals – naked, talking on the phone – naked, showering – naked, weighing themselves – naked! I had wondered whether it would be possible to get a wax done here in Cheonan – not anymore!!! Korean women definitely favour the natural look!

Once I recovered from the shock of walking in on a 70’s porno I quickly got changed and headed towards the pool, only to be stopped by a naked woman who told me “no cap no swim” and pointed to her head. After getting dressed again, going to reception, going to the swimwear shop and almost making a phone call to the absent shop owner from a Korean pensioner’s mobile, I found a lifeguard who told me “boyfriend two cap” – Ric had found me a swimming cap and was waiting in the pool.

Now I’ve never worn a swimming cap before in my life; nor have I ever tried to squeeze my particularly large head into a condom but I now realise the two are the same. As soon as I started swimming it pinged off and nearly took out a child’s eye.

Swimming cap adjusted, I realised that not only was I the only 6ft tall western woman among the 300 people in the pool, I was also the only woman wearing a bikini. All the other women were much more modestly covered up; costumes, t-shirts and shorts!!! Now that’s embarrassing.

At first I wondered why no one was actually swimming in the pool so big I couldn’t see one side from the other, but I soon learnt that in Korean swimming baths you can only swim for 50 minutes at a time. Then you have to sit at the side and have a rest for ten minutes. Public safety.

Additionally, the water was 50% chlorine 50% bleach, it stung my skin and eyes. The Koreans swim to one end of the lane and then queue at the other before setting off again.

We were both cringing so much that we barely lasted half an hour before getting out and re-entering the chamber of bush to get dressed and run home in shame.

Dressing I made yet another massive blunder. After showering (not naked) I went over to my locker to get dry and dressed again, only once I was there I realised that everything and everyone around me was bone dry – I was the only wet person by the lockers and I was leaving a big puddle everywhere I went. You’re supposed to get naked and dry yourself with everybody else in the communal drying area! Could have been worse though – Ric did exactly the same only he had a group of little children tugging at the towel around his waist and trying to shoo him back into the drying area.

I wont be in any hurry to go swimming again in Korea!!!

My First Week Teaching

I survived my first week teaching! It's Friday and the week has flown by.

My first lesson was on Monday at 10am. I was really nervous - there's so much to remember; my kindergarten classes have 4 books to get through every morning, plus snack time and all the messing around they do. It went well though and so did all my other classes that morning. Every time I made it through a lesson without any massive blunders I got a a real buzz - by lunch time I had to go for a walk to get rid of all the adrenalin!

After that the rest of the week went smoothly and now I feel like I've worked there for ages. The kids are good, most of them are really motivated to learn and they are so bright; my kindergarten are amazing, they're 5 years old and yet I can talk to them as I would talk to a 10 year old English child and they understand everything. I can joke around with them and they joke with me too. It puts the English education system to shame but then again, I think the children in Korea are massively overworked. The older children go to normal school from 8am to 3pm then go to English school (that's my school) for 2-3 hours, then after that they will go to maths school, music school, art school and sports school - some of them don't actually stop studying until 10 o'clock at night.

I think I'm going to enjoy being an English teacher, its a lot more interesting than the job I had proof reading in England before I left, the children keep me on my toes. And it pays double - WINNING! :)

Korean Magic Toilets

I’d heard about these toilets in Asia that sing and dance and do all sorts of tricks, but I wasn’t expecting to see one. I thought they were a myth, or something you only find in the most high-tech areas of Tokyo. But they’re actually quite common here!

We were in Shinsegea, a huge department store in the centre of Cheonan (not actually shopping, just enjoying the air conditioning) and I found the most high-tech of toilets I have ever seen. It had a panel of buttons: some had pictures, the rest written in Korean: heated seat, music, water spray, blow dry and one button with a picture of lightening on it - I didn’t press that one!

I was very excited and wanted to take a picture to show my friends, so I bobbed down and pressed the water spray button, ready with my camera. I was expecting a gentle spray of water from the little pipe that popped out of nowhere – not the raging torrent that came out! The water shot over my head and hit the door behind me, rebounding and soaking all of my back, before rushing down the door like a waterfall and forming a river on the floor which flowed under the door and out into the rest of the room. It wouldn’t stop!!

Soaked and ashamed, I rushed past the queue of people waiting to use my cubicle and ran straight out of the toilets. I sped straight past Ric, telling him to “run!” on my way past and then burst out laughing.

Just as the torrent hit my back

So many buttons!

Mortified, I realised I had left my sunglasses in the cubicle and had to go back and revisit the scene of the crime.  

Our First Week in Korea

After travelling for over 30 hours, with no sleep, we arrived at Incheon airport and met our agent, Doyle, who told us ‘Korean people very hurry up’ – I think he was hinting at us to get a move on. Doyle didn’t speak very much English and quite clearly just wanted to get rid of us and get his commission.

All we wanted to do was to lie down, anywhere, and sleep. But we had to go straight to the school and meet people. Then finally we were shown to our apartment.

Our New Home

Our apartment is so much nicer than either of us had expected. It’s much bigger too. We’ve turned the living room into a bedroom-come-living room as it’s the only room with air conditioning, and we’ve even made a “chaise-bed” out of our spare bed. We’re are using the little bedroom as a walk-in wardrobe. There’s plenty of room for the two of us. I love it!

When people warned us about getting culture shock when we arrived here I didn’t expect it to happen to me, I’ve lived abroad before, I’ve travelled loads; but it really is a whole different world here.

Cultural Differences

• If you go into a building, you have to take your shoes off. This means in restaurants everyone is barefoot, and at work we teach wearing our slippers.
• In restaurants you sit on the floor.
• There’s a certain way to pour a drink, and a certain way to receive a drink. You cannot pour yourself a drink.
• When somebody gives you something you have to accept it with two hands. Where you put your hands is determined by how well you know the person and how polite you wish to be.
• Eating with you hands is social suicide. Eating with a knife is unheard of. For the first three days I was very hungry because I couldn’t operate a pair of chopsticks. I’m getting better though.
• Flagging a taxi as we would in England is rude, instead you have to make a kind of camp flappy hand gesture. You never, ever, get in or out of a taxi on the driver’s side.
• You bow to greet people.

The first week has been non-stop. We went out every night: meal with the boss, meal with all the other teachers, drinks with the other teachers, a meal just the two of us… and I’ve been observing all week at school so I didn’t even get chance to recover from my jet lag until weekend.

Me and Ric getting into the spirit

And now is my first day of teaching!!! Wish me luck!

Packing for a Year in Korea

How do you pack for a year? Seriously? 

Most of my friends (Stacey Groom and Jennifer Edwards I mean you!!!) can't even pack for a weekend away without needing a removals van for their things, I can't imagine them having to pack for a year. I'm excellent at travelling light thanks to having to carry my life in a backpack for so long, but now, presented with a baggage allowance of 23kilos I'm a bit unsure what to do!

Through talking to our future colleagues and friends who are already in South Korea I made the following list of things that I NEED to pack:

• Clothes and shoes suitable for extremely hot summers and extremely cold winters 
• Enough clothes and shoes to last me 12 months as Koreans are short petite people and I'm a 6ft giant, ie. I won't be able to find clothes or shoes to fit me over there!
• Nothing low cut (tough luck Korea)
• Deodorant  (uncommon/crap/expensive in Korea)
• Toothpaste (I've heard its sugary, foul tasting and doesn't contain fluoride)
• Tampons  (uncommon/crap/expensive in Korea)
• Suncream (contains bleach (?!) and is only available in factor 30+)
• Cheese  (uncommon/crap/expensive in Korea)
• Chocolate  (uncommon/crap/expensive in Korea)
• Slippers (no outdoor shoes inside)
• Bedding 

So, with a years supply of the above, plus the stuff I actually need (tea bags) I managed to amass about 40kilos of luggage! I've thrown away 6 bin bags of clothes but it just keeps coming!

I'll probably get there and realise I've got enough toothpaste to brush my teeth constantly for a decade, but I've totally neglected to pack any underwear.

So... the finished products:

My Life, 1 little back pack, 1 suitcase full of tampons and toothpaste

My sad lonely wardrobe

The Debacle of Getting a Korean Visa

Five Weeks Ago...
Once we had signed our contracts we had to get out degree certificates and police checks notarised and apostiled before sending them to Korea. You have to get a lawyer to do this and typically it is a very expensive process. Our lawyer, Anne, considering she must be earning at least £70,000 a year, was little more than incompetent. She didn't know that she had to send the original documents off to be apostiled by the Foreign Common Wealth Office [it's not like its her job or anything]. So all our papers went to London, came back up to Huddersfield with a note saying they had not been apostiled, and then had to make the journey again, taking two weeks instead of one. All that for the tidy sum of £260. Thanks Anne.

Two Weeks Ago...
After shipping everything off to Korea via UPS (£50 but very efficient) we eventually received a visa application number from the immigration office in Seoul. Then it was up to us to send our passports to the Korean Embassy in London. That should have been the easy bit. However, when I called the embassy to ask about payment and just to generally confirm the process and reassure myself that we were doing everything right, I was confronted with the most unhelpful organisation I have ever dealt with. "I can not confirm anything, please consult the website" is the standard response I received to numerous questions I asked over the two weeks it took to get the visas. Sometimes they would just mutter something in pigeon English and then hang up. So, with scarce information on the website, we sent our passports with a cheque for £80.

10 Days Ago...
"We don't accept cheque" said the Korean voice on the phone. Another panic, a rush to find a post office and send £80 to the embassy, this time in cash.

Yesterday...
The visa should take five working days to process, according to the unhelpful Korean accent on the phone who reluctantly disclosed a snippet of information. But with a double bank holiday to waste millions of tax payer's money celebrating the jubilee of a non-elected Queen, we had missed out on two working days. When I called the embassy (Wednesday) with only 2 working days left for them to issue my visa, post it, and for it to ger back to Manchester I was told "We cannot provide tracking information for your visa. If it is not sent tomorrow you have to come to London". They refused to tell me if the visa had been issued.

Today...

I dreamt that the postman came and I signed for my passport, so relieved, only to open it up and they'd sent the wrong passport back. Instead of my details on the photo page it was a Chinese man called Won Wood. I woke up in a panic still unsure whether it was real or not. I barely took my eyes off the front door all morning, knowing that special delivery would have to come before 1 o'clock. Never in my life have I been so interested in the post arriving. The postman, blissfully unaware of my tense morning, sauntered up at 12.40 with only 20 minutes to spare. I grabbed the package out of his hands before he'd even reached the door and all my stress was gone.

I HAVE MY PASSPORT AND VISA. I AM GOING TO KOREA IN THREE DAYS!!!!!

I'm so happy now, I hate leaving things last minute but there was no other option really considering we only got the jobs six weeks ago.

A Proper British Day Out to Southport

The beach at Southport, considering it is a seaside resort, is probably the town's least attractive feature.

Today, Ric and I went on a proper British summer day out. We got up early, packed our picnic in our cool-bag, and got the train to the seaside.

Now don't get me wrong, I have been to Southport before, I did not expect white sandy beaches, nor did I expect to see the sea, but still I managed to be slightly appalled at the state of the beach. After the considerable walk from the train station to the beach, we finally sat down and unpacked out chicken butties, sausage rolls and pork pies - just like I used to with my grandparents when I was younger. The food was nice in spite of the group of teenage boys that decided to play rugby right over our heads, the stale fishy smell that came off the sand, and the smoking, drinking, swearing pregnant Mum's parading up and down the sea front. It wasn't quite  the way I remembered it as a child.

Enjoying my picnic

The Gardens

Abandoning our plans for a chilled day on the beach we walked out to the sea (yes, it is possible), got an ice cream, and went to the gardens just behind the beach. The gardens are much nicer. A big pond, well-kept lawns, lots of greenery and places to sit - it was no wonder all the pensioners had set up camp on the grass instead of on the beach - there was even a Tom Jones tribute playing in a nearby fish and chip shop!

We did all the standard 'Day at the Beach' activities: fish and chips, arcades, souvenir shops - and had a very lovely day. Even Southport town centre is pleasant to walk around - its quaint and has a good range of shops.

 Proof that there is sea at Southport

To top off the British summer day out we even got sunburnt, even though I took suncream in my handbag! I don't know what it is about English people in the sun, as soon as it comes out we're out lapping it up, but we never take care of our skin the way we would abroad. So now I look like an over-cooked gammon.

Footprints Recruiting - Review

My boyfriend and I applied to teach in South Korea with Footprints Recruiting. Their website boasted wonderful reviews, excellent service, a world famous reputation and a company represented as an experienced and dedicated team of well travelled professionals.

Unfortunately the service we received was abysmal. When we first signed up and applied to Footprints they were pretty quick to respond and Skype interviews were arranged the same week. The interviews went great and the friendly guy on the phone gushed about the "personal co-ordinator" who would guide us through our EPIC application and be there to answer all of our questions. We were thrilled, especially as the EPIC programme is pretty complicated with regards to the quantity of information and documents that you are required to send over to Korea.

That Skype call was the last personalised communication we received from Footprints. In the two months that followed we applied for positions in the EPIC programme and awaited a response from Footprints. Nothing.

After a couple of weeks we sent a follow up email requesting confirmation that Footprints had received our EPIC applications. Nothing.

We posted questions on the forums. No answer. [update: we received a reply 5 months later, when we were already in Korea teaching!]

We did receive numerous generic, unrelated emails that began "Hi everyone!"

When we finally received a relevant response from Footprints (two months later), we were told that we could not apply for EPIC as a couple, and that we would have to apply separately and risk being placed at opposite ends of the country. This was a lie, the EPIC programme does accept people applying as a couple, in fact it is encouraged. I believe that Footprints had neglected our application until it was too late to apply.

Footprints suggested an alternative public schools programme in Korea, but could not guarantee that we would be able to apply as a couple.

By that stage we'd lost all faith. 4 months had passed since we first contacted Footprints and were weren't a single step closer to going to Korea. We'd wasted so much time applying to Footprints, applying for EPIC, sending emails, posting on forums, gathering our documents... it was very discouraging. We decided to look for a job through a private recruiter, and started our search on Craigslist.

We sent one email, to one recruiter; a Korean man named Doyle Kim. Within minutes he'd replied with a job opening for two people. He arranged phone interviews for the next day and once we'd done them he had our contracts sent over just 4 days later.  By then end of the week we'd accepted the jobs and were ready to send our documents over to Korea.

Footprints Recruiting are unorganised, unhelpful, unprofessional, a massive disappointment and a waste of time.