South Korean Sojourn: Merry Christmas in Korea

Monday, December 28, 2009

Merry Christmas in Korea

We had a wonderful Christmas weekend! Thanks to our dear parents we had lots and lots of gifts and treats! I managed to produce lots of lovely sweet & spicy Christmas biscuits, Gluehwein and Christmas mince pies.

Thanks to our friends in Korea for good times: the Christmas Eve dinner on Thursday night, walk on Geumosan on Saturday morning, delicious pa-jeon and makkeoli for Christmas lunch, Sherlock Holmes (movie) on Christmas afternoon, Suanbo & Weoraksan snow, Cockburn's Port, pheasant & makkeoli on Boxing Day and a dinner party and live music to finish it all off with a flourish!

Here's to a fabulous 2010!

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2009: New Year's Resolutions

I've had a few weeks to think about my new year's resolutions for 2009. Most of them have to do with life in Korea and making the experience here more positive for myself. I feel we had a bit of a rocky start, but with the new year comes the opportunity for a fresh start. Hence my new year's resolutions are as follow:

1. Learn Korean: I would like to really apply myself to getting to grips with this language. In particular I want to learn basic everyday phrases with which I can communicate with people and hopefully have more positive interatctions with Koreans!

2. Take things as they come: I have safely concluded that things here are done DIFFERENTLY. There is no longer any doubt about that. Now the challenge is in simply accepting that and going with the flow!

3. Think Positive: this aspect of my personality has taken a bit of a beating since my arrival in Korea. Here's to a revival of my optimistic and happy approach to life!
(Thanks Philippines for the kickstart!)

Books I have read during my time in Korea

*A Change of Tongue (by Antjie Krog)
*The Grass is singing (by Doris Lessing)
*Three-Letter Plague (by Jonny Steinberg)
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa (Nicholas Drayson)
Angela's Ashes (by Frank McCourt)
Der Vorleser (by Bernhard Schlink)
Free Food for Millionaires (by Min Jin Lee)
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (by Kiran Desai)
Magenta (by Denis Beckett)
Nelly Kelly (by Lena Kennedy)
Schlaflos in Seoul (by Vera Hohleiter)
Silent Spring (by Rachel Carson)
Sophie's World (by Jostein Gaarder)
Tara Road (by Maeve Binchy)
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time (by Mark Haddon)
The Hottentot Venus (by Rachel Holmes)
The Mind of South Africa (by Allister Sparks)
The Old Man who Read Love Stories (by Luis Sepulveda)
Weep not, Child (by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o)

Cost of Living

I was under the impression that the cost of living in SK was quite low, but this is not quite the case: I think maybe Koreans earn more than we do in SA (when one converts it) and so for them it doesn't seem all that expensive but for us, saving, and converting everything to Rands (it will take a while for us to get rid of this habit) things are not that cheap. This is not intended to be a complaining session about prices, I just thought it'd be interesting:
For example a Litre of milk is 2000 Won ~R14, eggs are 3000 Won for 10 ~R21 and apples are 600 Won a piece ~R5.50 these are products which Koreans eat and drink a lot themselves, so are relatively useful for comparisons.
To give you an idea about western food prices: butter is 6000 Won for 450g ~R45 and rooibos tea (yes!) is 5000 Won for 20 tea bags ~R38! The deodorant myth is true: a can of Nivea deodorant (pretty much teh only one available)is 8500 Won ~ R65!! As for bed sheets, well I'm glad we brought one along, they are like hen's teeth: in Korea everyone sleeps on quilts!
Below is a list of some of the 'cheap' items in Korea, all the yummy stuff :)

Students' Nicknames:
One of the first activities I have done with my students is for them to choose their own nicknames. This is part of my effort to get my classes to be as English as possible to encourage teh studnets to sepak English only. The nicknames have been really entertaining! (Although I can't really let on to them how entertaining I find it!)
I gave them a list of about 40 English girls names to choose from, and many of them did this, but there were some who chose their own names independent of thelist, they are hilarious!
This list appears below and I will keep ading to it as I remembr more of the classic nicknames!

Things to adjust to in SK:

THE STARING! We really feel like aliens: people stare at us so much!
Toilets (at school and other public places: squatting is the name of the game!)
Shower (at home: hand held, over the basin: whole bathroom gets drenched!)
Bowing: to seniors and important people - well, actually to almost everyone except kids!
Shoes: take them off indoors! And wear 'indoor shoes' (=slops, not the in-between-toes type)
Driving: on the other side, luckily I'm only ever a passenger!
Food (of course: mostly tasty but some still very weird!)
Language - of course just plain different!
Money: Dividing everything by 140 is tedious!

Monday, December 28, 2009

Merry Christmas in Korea

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South Korean Sojourn

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Blog update COMPLETE!

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2010 New Year's Resolutions

sNaPsHoT oF kOrEa

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Other readable 'Korea' Blogs

2009: New Year's Resolutions

Books I have read during my time in Korea

"Wind in my hair": Boating in Panglao

Take a look at Julian's blog: It's very aptly named "Third Rock from the Sun"

Cost of Living

Things that ARE cheap in Korea (most things are not...)

My students' English Nicknames

Things to adjust to in SK:

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