The statue of King Sejong

I have now been living in Seoul for just over a month. Things haven’t been as easy as I thought they would have been but I now feel as though I am starting to settle in and enjoy myself. Having arrived in the winter time with temperatures dropping as far down as minus 13 there isn’t a whole lot that you want to do apart from hibernate and keep warm. Unfortunately this results in you living the life of a recluse and you do start to feel a fair bit of hatred towards the country you have just decided to relocate to. However once you have adjusted (and got your heating fixed) you soon start to cheer up and venture out into the huge world that South Korea is. Now normally I would have done a lot more sight seeing than what I have in this past month, however I am not a fan of the cold and will not be making the stupid mistake of visiting a country in it’s winter time again...especially when it’s winter time is worse than the one I have grown up with. 

So when I say I haven’t done much sightseeing..I actually mean that I have only managed to visit one tourist spot. This doesn’t mean that I haven’t visited a number of different places and areas in Seoul, but of course they were for the essentials, drinking and shopping. After a while I started to realise that I know very little about South Korea so I decided to take it into my own hands (gloved of course) and battle the cold in hope for some Korean knowledge. Last week I went to visit the statue of Kings Sejong which also has a museum underneath. King Sejong was the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea and his reign was from 1418 - 1450. He is widely celebrated in Korea as he is known for creating the Korean writing system, best known here as Hangul. Before Hangul was put together the Korean people used Chinese characters for writing but as this was very complex and difficult to understand King Sejong decided to come up with a script directly for Korean people, therefore establishing a cultural identity. 

I also had the chance to learn about Admiral Yi Sun-shin who was a Korean naval commander, he is best known for leading the flight against the Japanese invasion in 1592. Unfortunately he was killed in the final battle and (according to the museum I went to) in his dying moments requested that none of his men know of his death as it would distract them from the battle. Here in Korea he is considered extremely heroic. This was a good day out and as soon as it warms up I intend on visiting a lot more places, especially the palaces. 

My first few weeks in Korea

I arrived in Seoul almost three weeks ago to begin my years contract in teaching English to  Korean children. So far the job has been great, training was a bit tedious but all worth while and the temporary accommodation was definitely livable...but difficult to settle into especially when you knew you were to be moving again within two weeks. But now I have moved into my own little apartment, been to the local supermarket (Tesco) and am properly teaching my own classes everything seems a whole lot better...apart from the weather! Whilst I am writing this blog it is minus 8 outside....probably about minus 5 in here but I have my trusty hot water bottle with me, thanks to a certain Winder ;p. I have also recently purchased a fan heater as I devastatingly got told that January is Korea’s coldest month where it will be expected to drop into double figures of minus. 

Due to this I haven’t been able to do much sight seeing yet as not even my trusty poncho is able to tackle the this extreme weather. I complain about how cold it is in the North of England (especially Jeffs house) but from the day I land back in England Im really going to try to not moan about the weather. 

The children I teach are 5 years old Western age..In Korea they are 6 as the Koreans believe that you are one from the day you are born.I am not a fan of this notion as in Korea I am already 25. I teach 11 students and my voice is normally quite sore after having shouted at them all day to sit down and listen to me. The day it snowed was definitely a kindergarten teachers worst day, nothing I said would stop them jumping around and screaming excitedly about the prospect of snowball fights after school. Despite all this I do love my class (especially after seeing what the other foreign teachers have to put up with) because they are all very sweet and extremely clever. Their English is great and they communicate very well.
A major difference that I noticed straight away with the teaching in Korea compared to England is that you are expected to be very cuddly with the children, you are urged from day one to hug them, stroke their hair and pick them up. At first this did feel a bit strange but now Ive completely adjusted to the sight of Korean children dangling from their teacher and it does feel very natural. The school is lovely, its a very warm and colourful place and all the teachers are very friendly. Despite not actually doing any sight seeing..I have managed to check out some bars :) My first weekend here I was taken to Hondai and Itaewon ( I expected this place to be great as soon as I heard about “hookers hill” - an area of the city where the bars used to be brothels waaaay back in the day) and Im glad to say it did not disappoint. The food here is great, there is so many different choices of Korean restaurants and Western places, that you can find anything you want at almost any time, so far it appears that Seoul does not sleep..The 24 hour burger king down the road from me has seen me a fair few times since I moved in! So my only issue is that I miss everyone, being 9 hours in the future of you all makes it very difficult to arrange sociable contact hours, however I am very excited about the idea that I will be in 2013 before you all, expect a drunken email ;) lots of love from Korea xxxxx