Well done, well done

Oh yeah Halloween rocks. I'm still wrecked from the weekend but that can only be a good sign, as well as a sign of my old age... We managed to fit in everything we wanted to do, and I even threw together a lazy outfit (see left) at RMT - how last- minute is that! What made the night so good was the company. We were just laughing non-stop all night. With so much going on Monday-Friday (and assignments even to do on the odd Saturday) it's good to have weekends with good people to look forward to. People keep leaving, but I'm lucky to still have a good store of funny friends here.

After a lot of procrastinating, I got my assignment in on Saturday, although I wouldn't say it was the highest standard. I just couldn't switch on properly but it's still very early days and it's probably best to be making my errors now.

No rest for the wicked, even on a Sunday. We were up (relatively) bright and breezy to get over to World Cup Stadium for FC Seoul V Busan. We were missing a few influential players (a busy fixture list these days) so it was a bit more disjointed than it has been of late but we still ran out comfortable 3-1 winners. Goals this week from Jeong Jo Gook, Dejan and Choi Tae Wook. You can watch the highlights here. Wednesday's trip to Seongnam is crucial for us. A win and we are well on course to top the league and go straight into the play-off final (with the second leg at home). Defeat, and we might just have to settle for second and would have to face a semi-final. With Derry City FC returning to the top flight of Irish football on Saturday, I'm hoping for a clean sweep of league victories this season. Maybe that's asking a bit too much.

We had another busy band practice later on Sunday in Haebangcheon. With only days left until our first full gig at Rocky Mountain Tavern (Saturday, November 6th), we're still working at getting songs together and tightening other bits and bobs up. It's tough, but getting there. We're going to need two more rehearsals (so no trip to Seongnam for me on Wednesday) and I'm sure there'll still be some dodgy moments, but hopefully we can pull it off and have a fun night. If you haven't seen it already, our facebook page is here. All support is greatly appreciated!

Another Monday almost done, and not as horrific as they have been in the past. So glad to have nice classes that make work more of a pleasure than a pain. Hope your week is getting off to a good start, wherever in the world you are. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of our Halloween party at work last Friday.

Prepared, As Ever!

Well, it's that time of year where for some unknown reason we all think it's totally normal and acceptable to dress up and look ridiculous for no particular reason. I love it! It's always a bad time to be away from home because the celebrations in Derry are hard to beat. Still, we always manage to make a night of it no matter where we are. I have some great memories of Halloween celebrations in Seoul, playing gigs, shocking innocent Koreans in bars who have no idea what's going on, etc. The year Jim and I (dressed as spiderman and 'superhero') walked into a Korean bar in Hongdae for a quiet drink and asked for scissors to cut holes to aid our toilet trips, before being politely asked to leave. Definitely one of my classiest moments.

Last night, we had a Halloween party at work which actually ended up being a whole lot less crap than I had expected it to be. The students had a small budget and about an hour to transform their classroom into a theme of their choice with activities for other classes to take part in during the party time. My homeroom opted for a ghoulish casino (might go some way to explaining my appearance above) and really pulled out all the stops to make it look amazing. I'll put a picture of their work up when I can. The actual casino games took a bit of a back seat to posing for pictures and wandering around the other rooms. It was amazing how great all the classrooms looked considering how little time (and money) they all had to do it in.

About 20 minutes before class ended, they started cleaning up WITHOUT ME HAVING TO EVEN ASK THEM TO! Not a week goes by without a reminder of how different it is teaching in Korea and teaching in England. I don't see myself staying here forever, but I'm certainly going to miss the respectful behavior and positive attitude of students here, as opposed to the teeth-pulling (and sometimes overt verbal abuse) elsewhere. No doubt, teaching here has softened me up a bit, but I'll cross that bridge when and if I come to it.

As usual, it's Halloween (or at least the night we'll be going out to celebrate it) and I have feck all organized to wear. I was some kind of zombie teacher last night so I'll probably go down the lazy route and be a zombie again tonight. Bit of blood, torn clothes, make-up, fuzzy hair... that should do it. I actually gave away my 'priest' costume to a co-worker so I wouldn't be tempted to wear it for the FOURTH time. I definitely would if it was still in my possession. More to the point, I have an assignment due tomorrow that I just can't get into the frame of mind to sit down and actually write. Hence the blogging, the costume planning, the tidying, the doing of the laundry, the calling everyone about tonight's plans, the doing-anything-I-can-think-of-other-than-writing-my-assignment...

Before I go and face the inevitable, a quick plug for my mate's new Irish bar in Hongdae. It's called 'Shamrock n' Roll' and is very close to the little park across from the main gates of Hongik University. We headed there on Wednesday night for their first night of business and were all really impressed. It's a good size, easy on the eye, has a good selection of drinks, easy-going bar staff, big screens, and, well - it's an Irish bar! We're planning on spending some of our time there tonight and, if you're in Seoul, you could do worse than follow suit. Happy Halloween everyone!

My Dead End Friends Again...

I'm subbing in Ji's school today ('teaching' history and media) but it has been a pretty straight-forward day so far. I love having the chance to do the odd day here and there and it gives me an insight into what my job will be like when I land an International School job (note the positivity). There is a volleyball tournament here today with a lot of the other International Schools visiting. It's interesting how ethnically Asian-based this school is in comparison to others. The boys were complaining about not having a nice range of girls to drool over. I had the same problem when I was at school, boys! It's also interesting to see how the ethnic-Korean majority interact with the minority students. I can't say they do so very well, from what I can see...

I'm hopefully going to have a chance to talk over some of my preliminary research questions with the head teacher here after school. Interestingly, the sample questionnaire I have for her touches on issues of multi-culturalism, diversity, and learning to live together. At this early stage, I'm only interested in getting feedback about the nature of the questions to aid my methodology, rather than being too concerned by her actual responses. I have my first assignment due on Sunday and preparation is going quite well so far. At this early stage, I'm interested in the topic and so it doesn't seem like a drag studying. I'm sure that won't last too long.

Straight after I finish here I'm going to have to go buy some more snacks and decorations for our Halloween Party in class tonight. The girls are going to set up a ghoulish casino and get the room looking suitably spooky. The girls in the office are going to go round taking pictures and I think the best classes will win some money, so they're pretty well-motivated for it! It a should be a fun night anyhow and I'm glad I don't have to teach having been here all day already. I still haven't gotten round to sorting out my own Halloween costume so it'll be pretty lame tonight. There's a big Halloween warehouse in Sadang so I'll go there and sort something out tomorrow. Prepared well in advance, as ever. I was tempted to just wear my priest costume for the fourth time or whatever it is at this stage.

Before I wind this up for the day, a quick plug for our new band and a request. We're working hard to have a good set together for Rocky Mountain Tavern, Itaewon, on November 6th. I just set up a facebook page for us today so please check it out here, click 'like' or whatever is, and we'll be able to keep in touch with everyone about upcoming shows and the like. If you could suggest the page to friends, that'd be even better. Have a fun Halloween everyone!