Korean Music.

Here in Korea the music hype is focused on the likes of Korean Pop music- Kpop. Which is fast infiltrating peoples ears around the globe and being warmly embraced due to its upbeat tempos and cheeky innocent sound (for the most part), its how pop music once was, before it was dirty and slutty (Although it can also be the latter here too).


Heres a little snippet of K-Pop:

2ne1 these ladies are a tad more gritty than the average Korean pop band and thus I like them a little more.


You have to love abit of english being sung from time to time though:

Miss A: Two members are Chinese much to Korean people dislike!


Then theres the boys:

Big Bang: The biggest boy band in Korea.




All this being said I no very very little about Korean Pop music and although Its not really my kind of music I can appreciate that is its fun and LOVE the dance moves!


I have however found a Korean band I can enjoy, 10 cm (ship cm- ship being 10 in Korean). This is there song 'Americano' which is huge here at the moment. Yes, its about coffee.

The song is both humorous and....sarcastic! Can you believe it. I am trying to learn the words with my co-teacher and the boy has been trying to learn the chords.


The song goes something like:

'Americano, its good, its good, its good.'

'Americano, strong, strong, strong.'

'Do I want syrup, syrup, syrup'

'No thank you.'

The verse goes on to talk about different situations when they need coffee:

• After jajangmyeon (a cheap korean dish of noodles): Sarcasm, as the noodles are so cheap and the coffees so expensive.
• 
  
• After they pay the rent and have no money to eat....AMERICANO!!
• 
  
• When they have girl problems.
• 
  
• After a marathon.

Ah imagine singing about coffee back home, odd, no?! Here in Korea its just fine! They do love coffee.


Also in July we get to see them perform live at Jisan Rock Festival! 

Proactive Payday....helping the family

So I'm pretty late for this proactive payday...

I have been researching various companies and was a little unsure as to who to donate too.


Then my big brother posted a link on his facebook in a bid to raise 500pound for cancer. 


Decision done.


http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Jonjolleywillhelpkickcancersarse

Tasty, Tasty Duck!

A little while ago my co-teachers, Paul and I went out for some tasty tasty Duck. The usual duck meal here is o-ri bulgogi and is duck in a spicy sauce served with garlic, bean paste, salad and kimchi, all, in the usual fashion, wrapped in a lettuce leaf and popped in the mouth- Delicious!


This time we were in for a real treat, we not only had the wonderful o-ri bulgogi but also bbq'd duck. It may be my favourite Korean dish,nom nom.

The bulgogi, once its nearly over they throw in rice its great!

The skewered duck, bean paste (samjan), garlic and salad

BBQ'd/ Rotisserie duck

 The duck restaurant is situated in Edong, head down the main street (down hill) towards Krazee burger, turn right at krazee burger (as if going to gogi king/ giant step) and keep walking quite some ways (its a maze, I'm sorry) I think it may be the second to last turning on your left (but who really knows, sorry!).

Goodbye Hair.

Moments of greatness...

Today my 5th graders created profiles on themselves to play a game similar to guess who. I chose a profile at random from the mystery bag and read hints from the paper such as 'nickname', best friends name etc. After telling the class 'I am a boy, I have many nicknames' I moved to the next question: 'What's your hobbies?' Only to read this:

'bangcock'

Laughter and some confusion followed. I showed my co-teacher who nodded and said 'you know, stay home' I couldn't help reply (as I was partly confused) through laughter 'and just bang cock?' 


She didn't get it at first, but apparently to stay home in Korean is 방곡 which the student had wrongly translated into English phonetics bangcock. Good times.


This situation was actually reversed on me later in the day when I told my grade 3's 'Don't cheat' to which they all broke into fits of laughter and shouted 'Dongchim Teacher?'


Dongchim= Students clasp their hands together, pointers out and stick those two delightful fingers up your bum (they do it to just about anyone and everyone and no one gets angered!?)! Pretty hilarious as they were all standing in a line at the time with their backs to one another...


'Mum, Corey Teacher told us all to dongchim each other today, Corey Teacher's pretty cool.' At least to Korean children I would be!

Sharing Korea.

Koreans share, EVERYTHING!


When we first arrived in Korea we found it odd to order food as a group (although we are never responsible for ordering and rarely given a choice when dinning with Koreans). At the dinning table everyone shares the food, which is great as you get to sample many dishes (IF there are a variety of dishes available, many restaurants specialise). 


However, the sharing in Korea goes beyond just eating out. They literally share everything, its quite lovely at times and fairly confusing at others.


There are numerous stories told by foreigners here about being unsure if it was OK to eat  by themselves when they had taken an apple to school as part of lunch, as you feel obliged to take an entire bag of apples. 


Also, if you do take food into school and leave it in a communal area, say an office fridge, its likely it will be gone upon your return. This perceived minor theft by us foreigners is a great example of cultural differences. The week before the people who ate your goods probably stocked the fridge for you to enjoy too, only you had assumed that food 'belonged' to someone and steered clear based on your own morals. Who's the better man? 


It is still pretty weird when people start helping themselves to 'your' things.


On school trips students back packs are crammed full of sugary snacks, enough to feed a family and well, thats their purpose. The students share their snacks throughout the day with friends and teachers- I love school trips! The students parents also provide an unimaginable amount of food and drinks for teachers too. Glorious!


The Korean mindset to share to such a great degree leaves us foreigners often in a state of perplexity. Should we share the one orange we brought for lunch with the 7 other teachers in the office (who's name you may not even know and have probably only exchanged daily greetings for the past 6 months) or should we gobble it up as its part of our lunch as the school lunch of seaweed soup and rice you just ate did not suffice?!?


I discussed this with some teachers during our field trip and they assured me they sometimes get confused with it all too, but always end up sharing. My co-teacher told me the principle of sharing all you have is based on a prophecy:

"If you have just one bean, that too must be shared."

Another explanation as to why everything here is sold in bulk. I had better start stocking up!

I want to ride my bicycle...

We decided to stay in Pohang this weekend and hopefully save some money. I think I failed the latter. Saturday we headed to the beach for a little kick about, however it was darn windy and pretty cold so we soon dashed indoors for a hot drink. After purchasing our tasty drinks we were 'serviced'...sounds abit naughty hey. In Korea, JUST because we are foreign (maybe a little bit because everyone thinks Pauls a model too) we get serviced everywhere. It's usually a free fizzy drink in a restaurant. However, those 2 giggley Korean girls in Yogerpresso really know how to service people. FREE, frozen yoghurt, cereal, chocolate sauce, nuts and cherries. The freebie actually cost a little less that what we had spent. Winning.


On our way home we decided to check out Lotte Department Store. Its a huge mall here and pretty pricey as it contains only brand stores. What it also contains is the most delicious food court that shall now be visited more regularly by us. Kebabs, quesadillas, sushi, breads, cakes, doughnuts, sandwiches ah theres so much more.


After purchasing some tasty red wine (which we got 'serviced' 2 free wine glasses with, the wine was about 6 pound!), we headed up a walking trail behind our house. It's truely beautiful back there and just a 2 minute walk from our abode. We took the wine and guitar for a little hippie hang out time. Followed by curry and some drinks with friends.

Buddha's Birthday is just around the corner.

Once sunday rolled around we had decided it was time to head back to that delectable food court in Lotte and go food crazy. So, we did. We picnicked on the beach with our friends Tawny and Chris, who introduced us to Krispy Creme doughnuts Variety pack.

In a bid to erm, burn off all those eats we hired a 4 man bike, of which only 2 people can actually ride and Tawny and I were chauffeured about the beach. It was highly enjoyable if not a little scary when the boys decided we simply must do the little ramp onto the beach. Yes, they did have to get out and push to get us back up!

Once our 30 mins of beach buggying were up we decided to hire some new reclining bikes, these bad boys were immense!

He was having a good time too!

This badboy put those bikes to shame.

We looked like mini folk on mini folk bikes. They were also pretty tough to cycle and steer as you had to lean sideways to turn. Many a crash and tumble followed. Yet we were just warming up for some serious collisions in the football game that followed.

After such an active day we were pretty exhausted and headed home for delicious pasta bake using my favourite pasta sauce from home, which I also found in Lotte. Told you its a goodie!