We observed some more lessons yesterday which was fairly straight-forward. The kids were older and much better behaved than the little rats in kindergarten. On Friday we start teaching for real and we're feeling pretty excited about it. We've been told not to plan any lessons as yet as the first day should be about getting to know the kids and developing a relationship with them.
At the moment we are staying with Amber & Sarah in Gimhae. Their house is in a different neighbourhood to our school. From what we can tell Gimhae is split up into about 7 different neighbourhoods (locally known as 'Dongs'.) Our school and accommodation as of tomorrow is in the central and busiest dong- Nae-dong. Sarah & Amber are about a 10 minute scooter ride away in Samgae-Dong. Samgae-Dong is really quirky and quieter than the centre of Gimhae. There are colossal amounts of restaurants selling a huge array of interesting foods. Last night we went to a traditional Korean restaurant with Sarah and Jake which was incredibly tasty and very cheap. We sat on the floor around a table which had hot coals burning in the middle and then we ordered our preferred meat (piggy.) We then cooked the meat ourselves on the hot coals and once cooked wrapped meat, rice, salad, garlic and Gochujang (red chilli paste) in lettuce leaves. It was so tasty and felt very authentic.
Some of the Korean food is really excellent and it seems that rice and Kimchi (spicy pickled vegtables) are served with every dish. Bibimbap is also listed on most menus which is a mixture of meat, vegetables and rice mixed together and can be served hot and cold. One of the tastiest dishes we have had so far is Bulgoggi which was stewed beef marinated in soy sauce cooked with spring onions, green peppers and shiitake mushrooms. Very tasty indeed.We have found our favourite coffee shop which is called 'Rottibun.' They serve delicious buttery buns which melt in your mouth and taste delicious. We try to incorporate this into our schedule every day!
There are lots of fish restaurants in Gimhae that have huge fish tanks outside crammed full of crabs, lobster, eels, flounders and octopus. As well as this there are restaurants selling more unusual things such as whale and dog meat, though these are only found on the outskirts of the city. The restaurants here are so cheap that it is actually more economical to eat out than cook for ourselves. This suits us very well! However some things are very expensive or impossible to find- it is impossible to buy savoury bread here- even the garlic bread is coated with sugar which made for an unpleasant suprise! And cheese costs about £8 for a 100g block!
The weather is hot at the moment and most days it reaches about 25 degrees celsius. Korean women refuse to let the sunlight touch their skin and are covered from head to toe to avoid this from happening. They either have a parasol with them at all times or a face mask and visor to keep the rays off their face. The women here also seem to work incredibly hard up until a ripe old age. The parks are full of groups of older women crouched on their knees cutting grass and keeping the flowers neat and tidy. There is a real sense of pride for the surroundings that the Korean people live in, they really do care for and look after the city that we are in. We were in the park the other day and one of the railings had fallen over. A group of teenage boys walked past and actually picked the railing up and repaired it- can you imagine what they would have done had we been in the UK?! They are also mad about recycling here and quite a few of the public buildings have solar panels. We have also noticed that the Koreans are insanely health conscious and the parks all have excercise machines in them which are free for anyone to use. Vitamin C sachets are consumed like sherbet regularly and it is even possible to go to the doctors and get pumped full of vitamins via a drip. This all sounds a bit far fetched but it is probably essential as the working hours for Koreans are so long. Even from school age kids are expected to spend 12 hours a day at school and then participate in clubs as well as doing their homework. Our friend has a student who starts class at 6am and doesnt get to bed until 3am because they have so many classes and so much work to do.
We are heading out for dinner tonight with some people in the dong and we should be heading off to Busan (Korea's 2nd largest city) at the weekend. We will keep you updated!
