DVD bangs.

Recently I've discovered a wonderful thing.

As some of you might know, I'm something of a film fan. When I decided to leave my London life and toil in South Korea for a year I knew jolly well that I would probably be without good films for most of the time, and I wasn't even sure I would be provided with a TV. Thankfully I was, and I get Sky which gives me a few good films every now and again and BBC World and BBC Entertainment (yes, that's right, I still get to watch House Invaders whilst I eat my breakfast, though it used to be better - Bargain Hunt).

I can also satisfy my film lusts by trekking into Seoul, or the nearest big Seoul "satellite city" Ilsan. All Western films are shown in their original language with Korean subtitles, so there's never any faffing at the box office with dubbing questions. The only problem with that is if a film ever has multiple languages and English subtitles they get over run by the Korean ones and you can't see 'em. So I haven't seen Babel, I knew the subtitles would be a whitewash. Cinemas only cost 7 or 8 thousand won (about 4 pounds) and popcorn is cheap, so it's not a bad thing to do often.

Still, like I said, I've recently discovered a wonderful thing. They are called DVD bangs. I recall reading about them in Lonely Planet, but I hadn't ever seen one so I thought it was one of those Lonely Planet myths (like some bars they describe as warm and cozy being as socially cold as the grave). No offense to LP, it's hard to stay up to date in printed books. One day it'll all be electronic and there won't be a problem. Good news for trees, bad news for paper manufacturers and wholesalers. Oh, whoops, I seem to have wandered off the point...

A DVD bang is an establishment full of small rooms with either big TVs or projectors. You choose a film like you would in a rental shop, pay 5000 won each (2 pounds fifty), then they throw it in a DVD player, show you to a little room, and you kick back on a sofa and enjoy! They don't give a hoot about food or drink you take in so you can have a little picnic or a few beers with your film. It is an odd sensation, but the minute I stepped into my first room I knew I'd love it. The rooms feel like nine months ago a cinema and a living room mated and that is what resulted. (Hmm.. I wonder what the gestation period for a living room or cinema is, and come to that which one would be the carrier?) The ones we've found in Munsan have projectors and massive screens, even though they aren't much bigger than a small bathroom. It doesn't feel too close or hurt your eyes though, well, no more than a cinema does. One day I'll take a photo. Until then you'll have to take my word for it - they rock.

John and I were wondering if they would take off at home, but I think the possibility of being a bit seedy (dark room, sofas, 2 uninterrupted hours) is a bit much. Pity... it would be a great opportunity to watch on a large screen any film you missed at the cinema that really deserves a big scale showing.

Go Bluewings!

Well, I've just about recovered from the St Patrick's day weekend. It wasn't particularly Irish but I had good fun with it. On Saturday John and I went to meet a guy we had originally met at the Muse gig. He took us to see his local team, Suwon, play football. It was rather impressive as the team plays in the Suwon World Cup Stadium, one of many built for the 2002 tournament. Korea still seems to be beaming about the event, and I see quite a lot of merchandise both on sale and being worn and carried about.

The game was quite good, with Suwon having the lion's share of shots at the goal and finally winning with a late goal. The stadium was nowhere near full but it was busy. At one end a sea of blue supporters banged drums and chanted throughout the entire match. Really, they didn't stop, it was pretty impressive. Suwon beat a team from the other end of the country (5 hours away by train) called Busan I-Park. The poor team had only managed a dozen supporters in one stand, but they had drums too and tried to give the blue army a run for their money... they failed.

It's a bit weird here because quite a lot of the premiership (or K-League as it's called) teams are sponsored by corporations and include them in their title. Busan I-Park, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i, and Suwon Samsung Bluewings all use corporate names to keep afloat. I think they need to though, as despite football's popularity Korean's seem more interested in European club football than domestic. I'm hoping to go and see Korea play Uruguay in a friendly next weekend, so maybe more supporters will come to that.

I've decided I like Korean stadiums though. You're allowed to bring in any food and drink you like, and they sell beer inside at not too much of an unreasonable price (about 1 pound 30 for a smallish can). Also, rather than the British tradition of greasy food at half time we were offered a pot of noodles (they do that very well here, none of that Pot Noodle nonsense) or a roll of sushi. The sushi was fab, but sitting in a football stadium eating it with chopsticks was somewhat surreal. Not a burger in sight!

So the football was good fun and, after getting a little lost coming out of the stadium, we managed to go out to some bars in Seoul to celebrate the Irish way. Unfortunately a pint of Guinness here costs 6 pounds, so I didn't feel Irish enough to shell out on one.

Recently we were in Seoul and I saw an idea I'd heard about but never seen put into practice. One of the city's cathedrals was having building work and the front was covered in scaffolding (sound familiar?). Over the scaffolding they had erected a massive photo of the front of the building to cover up the ugly construction work. It didn't hide it completely, but it was quite fun to see.

After a fun weekend it's back to school, which is alright but I am a little ill. Violent coughing fits come in bursts, but as long as I keep drinking water they pass quickly. I must be getting though 4 litres a day! It's not too bad, except when I'm right in the middle of showing some flashcards and eliciting words, "Good! Table! Now, what's thi- klhmph klhmph klhmph klhphm klhmph..." Hopefully I'll be ok in a day or two...

P.S. Kid update - the wee ones are beginning to understand their new names, or at least they understand who I'm talking to. However saying them is taking time. Philip is putting in a lot of effort but keeps saying "Pilip". The letter F has no comparable letter in the Korean language so when they start learning English all F's are P's. 'Sopa', 'Pootball', 'Pinished teacher!' R's also manifest themselves as L's for the same reason. Thus 'frog' becomes 'plog'. Really, it's not just a stereotype used in films for a cheap laugh. Oh well, they learn the proper pronunciations eventually, and I've learnt to understand them in the meantime.

Nearly St Paddy's day...

Well well. Not too much has been happening this week in my little world. Last week I went and saw Muse at Jamsil Gymnasium in the Olympic Park circa 1988. They were bloody awesome, though we did miss the first twenty minutes. We rushed to Seoul when work finished and got to the gig just after Muse came on. At an entrance and could hear them playing but were agonisingly told we had to enter from an upper floor. The bouncer told us to follow some Korean girl he'd told the way to. We did, but instead of leading us into the gymnasium she took us all the way round the Olympic Stadium. As you can imagine it was rather large. It was snowing as well, which didn't help. Eventually we started running when we realised she had no clue where she was going and we made it to the gig. I must say it's been a while and I was genuinely surprised my Korean gin-laden body managed the lap. Olympic Stadium's are pretty big you know...

I spent the next day doing 7 hours of teaching off about 3 hours of bad sleep. Not fun. I won't be trying that again for while.

School is plodding along quite well. I now teach 3 classes of small kids for an hour a day each, consecutively, in the morning. It can be rather trying, but I really have learnt a little more patience than I had when I first arrived. As some of you might have read I've named one class after some of my choir friends. I had called one Helen but I've had to change is as another kids in her year has that English name already. She is now Jessie (Elle's middle name). Sorry Aitch. So here's a quick update on how they're doing.

The brightest in the class is probably Chris and he also tends to be the loudest when speaking English. Peter is quiet but knows the answers to most things, although today he decided everything was called a table - I hold up a picture of a door, window, TV, sofa: "Table! Table! Table!". David is bright but mischievous, Philip is mischievous but not quite so bright. Korea reflecting England much? Haha. Fiona bullies whichever boy she sits next to, and is a serial crayon-hogger. Susie is good at speaking and gives me big waves in the corridors. Cathy's good at saying hello to Teddy, but is amusingly troublesome. Jessie is the funniest. She manages to speak but always has this amazed and slightly scared look on her face. It's as if she can't believe words like 'hello' and 'yellow' are flying out of her mouth.

I've never taught a class from the start of their English education before and it's actually really interesting to watch them progress and see which ones pick it up, which ones won't speak but know it, and which are just crazy. They are still in what I would describe as their "cute" stage but the demons are starting to come though. They like attacking me, today using hand puppets they made in their Korean teacher's class. We really shouldn't give them weapons.

I had the excitement of being in a market in Seoul at the weekend and spotting a Union Jack mug. Normally the mugs I've seen like that aren't particularly stylish, but I loved that ones shape, so I forked out a whopping 2 pounds on it. I particularly like the way it's got two massive Union Jacks (yes, yes, picky people, I know it's technically not a Jack unless it's flying on a ship, cut me some slack) on the side and yet it says England down the middle of them. Apparently we've cut off Scotland Ireland and Wales, but have kept the Scottish and Irish parts in the flag. I suppose it would stop us form being confused with the Red Cross. It's great to have at work though, I'm really and truly flying the flag now.

So everything toddles along. I'm off to do some grocery shopping soon. It may amuse you to know that the Sugar Puff-like cereal I eat most mornings, of which I've run out, is called Jolly Pong. Yes, I too never thought I'd eat something called Jolly Pong. Or at least I never thought I'd eat it and live to write about it.

Happy St Paddy's Day to all you mildly Irish people!

All change!

Well, it's all a bit of a faff here. We've just started the new school year (in March, jolly confusing, they change with the Lunar New Year here). The school's directors have been stressing greatly over the new school timetable and for the last few days we've being doing classes somewhat off the cuff. I just sort of sit in my classroom and assume that some students will turn up soonish. They generally do, and the female director comes along and checks they are all there. She's rather scary for the kids, and when told to shut up they don't hesitate, but she's a sweetie to me.

We've got a schedule up now for this week, though I've been told it will be changing. Luckily they've accommodated my and John's need to go to see Muse in Seoul on Wednesday, so we're getting earlier classes! Hoo-rah!

In the elementary part of school each grade has ability classes. They are classed using two numbers, the first of which is the grade while the second is their ability. The higher the second number the cleverer the class. I teach classes including 1-4, 1-5, 2-4, 4-5, and 5-4, so it would seem I've been trusted with some of the cleverest students. Which is a compliment.

The hardest thing about the new timetable is that some of the classes have changed. Kids have been switched around depending on how well they did all year and in an end of year test. Some classes are the same but some of mine are a mix of up to 3 old classes, so finding out which books they were all on and where they were and then deciding where to begin again can be a little trying.

Everyone else is flapping and faffing though, and the more other people flap the more chilled out I tend to become, so I'm happily cruising through this week.

The exciting thing is that I became the proud owner of a new class of five year olds, and I was given the joyous task of naming them. I knew I'd been wanting to name some kids after people back home so here was a perfect opportunity. I had seven to name, as the helper and I already chose to call the Spiderman obsessed boy Peter (as in Peter Parker, Spiderman's alter-ego, for thos of you not in the know). He is really obseesed though, he even comes to school dressed as Spiderman, with movie-merchandise boots 'n all.

I toyed with using my family's names, but I thought that might be a bit too weird. I'm teaching them using a book called 'Teddy's Train', in which the language is taught through the adentures of a teddy called, surprisingly, Teddy. Trying to get kid with my degree-holding parents and brothers' names to say "Hello Teddy!" and wave just seemed too laughable. Also one of the teachers at school is called Jenny, and there are already quite a lot of Tom students, so it would have got a bit confusing.

In the end I opted for some of my friends names. I went with people from choir with the hope that the grouping will help me remember their names faster. Some couldn't be used, unfortunately. Ellie is already the name of a teacher here and I though Eleanor would be two long. Two syllables tends to work best with young-uns. Also Joanna couldn't be used as that's my name here. Well, when they can remember it, it is. Another few names were steered clear of because I already had kids with those names or something jolly similar (sorry Anna, Rosie, Paula, and Charlie). Anyway, after a quick think I went with easy to say names from the sopranos, altos and tenors. So congratulations Catherine (shortened to Cathy), Susie, Philip, David, Helen, Fiona, and Chris. You all have a small protege being groomed in the Enlgish language by yours truly.

With the help of a teddy called Teddy.

Lunar New Year

This weekend I enjoyed the splendour of one day off work thanks to the lunar new year. Unfortunately 2 of the three national holidays fell at the weekend, but one day is better than nothing.

After doing a bit of research I decided the actual New Years day, Sunday, was the best day to go to Seoul if I wanted to see some colorful displays. So on Sunday morning my buddy and I set off. The train was surprisingly crowded. Lunar New Year is a family oriented holiday, with the main 'business' consisting of younger adults and children performing deep bows to their elders, and then getting money in return. [Note to my parents - I think this is a ritual the Ridd household could do with including, for spiritual succor of course.] But once the bowing was over with I suppose there was nothing to do at home, so Koreans go and visit other people they wish to pay respects to.

Lunar New Year didn't have quite the build up or big lavish parades I was expecting. The main difference around my little town was an increase in food shopping activity and the appearance of many gift sets. Traditionally Koreans give gifts of meat or fish, and so the more practical gift sets tend to include tinned tuna, dried fish, or meat of some kind. My favorite by far was the Spam gift set, though I can't see this taking off in the UK. Great to see though, especially for a Monty Python fan such as myself.

Once we arrived in Seoul my buddy and I toddled off to the National Folk Museum, located within the grounds of Gyeongbokgung Palace. The palace itself was alright, but nothing particularly special I'm afraid to say. You can't really blame the palace or the Koreans though. It has rather a troubled history, including being burnt down few times, enduring years of neglect, and being torn down so that Japanese invaders could erect a government building for Korea's Governer-General. When they occupied the country the Japanese took very few pictures before they tore the ancient buildings down, so modern historians have a hard time of trying to reconstruct representations fo the old palace. I didn't get to see the gardens and lakes though, so maybe a second look will reveal some beauties.

The palace was made better by the Korean adults and children running around in traditional Korean dress, Hanbok, who gave it an 'oriental' kind of feel. Hanbok looks rather like a large tent on the women, and the men wear large parachute trousers and tunics. It may not be particularly flattering but they use bright colours so the clothing is exciting none the less.

During the afternoon we enjoyed a performance at the Folk Museum of what was described as fusion music. 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' played on traditional Korean instruments (including lap zithers called Gayageum, wooden flutes called Juggeum, and odd string things which I think are called Haegeum) is an odd sensation but not entirely unpleasant. The big drums were the best part, but unfortunately they were only allowed to get really loud and riotus once.

The museum also hosted a variety of traditional craft tents, at which children could try out activities like kite making, flute making, and mask painting. All for a small fee of about 2 or 3 pounds. The kites weren't particularly big and were simple wood and paper affairs, but some of the Korean blokes managed to get them really high in the sky, even above the roof of the three story museum. Jolly impressive. The palace's surroundings were also impressive as they included many striking hills and mini-mountains.

After the museum we went to one of the cities big malls to visit a bookstore called Bandi and Lundi's which has a great English section (classics 20% off, thank you very much) and we caught a film. Flags of our Fathers. I've seen better war films but I've also seen many worse. The mall was packed full of teenage Koreans out to spend the money they'd been given that morning. They all looked rather pleased with the world.

Later we went to a few bars with the assumption that the college aged kids would be out spending their money, but not many joined us. Maybe they were allowed out for the afternoon then herded back home for an evening meal. Still, they can't really complain. Aftyer all, they were just given a wad of cash for simply bowing. [Hint hint Mum and Dad...]

Korean 6 year olds with talent?

Last weekend I was denied my Saturday (again) in order to participate and watch a talent show featuring the kids from my kindergarten classes (6 and 7 year olds). I was asked to welcome people at the beginning and to compare a faux beauty pageant.

Mostly it was ok, the kids were quite good with theirs lines, even though some needed a bit of a prod in the right direction. The only problem was the insistance on using radio mikes. They "miked" (can that really be a word?) me up for the first thing I did, and I stood on stage with the kid I was welcoming everyone with. I said my first line and - you've guessed it - nothing. Faulty mike. So, rather than let me use the regular-on-a-wire microphone I grabbed I was forced to stand on stage whilst some geezer rushed on to change the microphone and it's transmitter, which involved undoings of jackets and many an embarrassed look towards the audience. I managed to make a joke out of it though, so not all bad. One of my colleagues caught it all on my video camera, so I can replay the cringiness again and again, joy.

The insistance on trying to use radio mikes continued for quite a while before they realised it wasn't happening and thankfully switched to oldfashioned microphones. Technology is not all good by any stretch.

This week is plodding along. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and we're doing some activities at school (any excuse to not teach seems to be the sentiment here). The weekend brings the excitement of Lunar New Year, and a day off work! I hope to enjoy some festivities, so maybe I'll get some good photos.

Last weekend.

Unfortunately I was required to spend Saturday at a teacher training thingy in Seoul. It was incredibly dull, full of people talking about different series of teahing books (a lot of sales pitches disguised as teahcing method lectures) and I didn't really listen much. I wouldn't have minded if it hadn't meant getting up at 7 am. That may not sound too bad to you but it's over an hour earlier than I get up to go to work!

Getting up that early, and catching the 8 o'clock train, only had one advantage: I got to see the sun rise. And it was good. As we sped south it rose on my left hand side over the cold and barren landscape of northern South Korea. The area is hilly, with a few big mountains in the distance, and I expect it is used extensively for crops in warmer weather, but at the moment it is rather bleak. Running alongside the train tracks there are many small allotments, and they are also squashed into small patches of ground in towns and cities. Street sellers and market stalls tend to sell a lot of this small production stuff.

The landscape has two main features other than the hills; electricity pylons and large congregations of blocks of flats. I hope, in warmer weather, to travel more around the country and see some of it's beauty, but for now my Korean world is dominated by man made objects. Not surprising, perhaps, as South Korea is the 19th most densly populated country in the world (480 people per square kilometre). Most of the countries that are higher on that list are tiny ones like the Vatican, Gibraltar, Macau, Bermuda and Monaco. The only large countries that have a higher population density are Taiwan and Bangladesh. All of this is to say that South Korea is a crowded country, so it's not suprising there are so many blocks of flats and infrastructure objects.

[Geek that I am I actually find the list of high population densities quite interesting, for example the population desity of the UK is almost exactly the same as that of Jamaica. All this thanks to Wikipedia.com. I love that site for facts and figure.]

Anyway, despite the industrialism I still think it's beautiful, but then again a great sunrise can probably make anything look beautiful to me.