who ... moi?

a social butterfly: scared of much, but not of many. never lets the truth get in the way of a good story. not a fan of acronyms, snakes and angelina jolie. a HUGE fan of Fathead.


this blog is black for ENERGY-SAVING reasons.

thanks for your understanding.
if it's too dark, put your glasses on old one.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

week 1 ends

the weekly teaching shifts run from monday - friday, or tuesday - saturday.  since we've been here, we've worked the latter and will continue to do so for the rest of the month.  when we started, we were told the saturday shift is "fun" and "easy" as the day is filled with games.

that the day's programme is based on playful activites, is true.  to use words like "fun" and "easy" to describe it, is nothing short of a misrepresentation of the truth.

yesterday we discovered the true meaning of anarchy. 

in the morning shift i ran the jumping rope class. i recall the ropes we used when i was knee-high to a grasshopper. they were thin and fluffy twists of thread. here, however, we used a maritime rope - wiry and thick as your wrist, this cable of death was one of the most frightening things i've seen a child swing around a room.

post lunch, i learnt that 30 children in a classroom playing balloon volleyball is not a game.  it's a warzone.  by the end of the day, i was proud as a peacock of my injury record - managing to keep it at a low average count of 6 per class.

Fathead managed the "egg" (read polystyrene ball) and spoon race station - and then for his sins, "around the world ping pong".  by the time we sat in the prize-giving ceremony that evening, his blood-shot eyes were glazed with fear-induced tears.  he looked like a broken man, and i knew exactly how he felt.

in celebration of the end to a long and hard week, we hopped into a taxi and joined the rest of the teachers at a korean restaurant in seohyeon.  whilst it goes against all standards i have back home (usually refusing to eat anywhere that has pictures on the menu), we were only too relieved to be able to order our meals by pointing to a photo.  we ordered what looked like a chicken stew, which turned out to be pork, however it was absolutely outstanding.  as we devoured the best meal we've had since we've been here, tears of joy began a-sprouting.

it was fabulous. 



the meals were mostly communal - with everything arriving in super-size-it portions ... even the beverages.

   
that pitcher held about 5 lts of hite (a local beer)

the dishes are enormous, and are brought to your table with a single gas burner, where you participate in the cooking process.  this dish (though not particularly aesthetically appealing) was really delicious too.









trying to wrap our minds around prices is proving rather challenging.  last night's feast cost each of us 10,000kw (which is a laughable R70).  then today, we wondered into a gorgeous little coffee shop, and paid 12,000kw for two cups of crappy coffee. 

go figure.

anyway, i digress.  post-dinner we strolled through the streets to a really characterful (is that a real word?  my spell check is on korean) pub, which was filled with ex-pats.  we drank, we played pool (badly), got to know our colleagues on a more intellectual level (instead of the usual "have you seen my crayons?" conversation).         and we laughed.       alot.





after a few hours, the rest of the team decided it was far too civilised and dragged us to two really cheesy korean night clubs - the one, neither of us can recall the name of. the other was  the lost angel - filled with half-naked american GI's dancing like the village people to k-pop hits.

eventually around 3am, we called it a night. 
a really great night.




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