Off to Spain

I've not been updating this blog lately due to the fact that I haven't been doing much, so have had little to write about. Today that changes as my wife and I are off to Spain. We're going to the Canary Islands (Gran Canaria) for a week. It's our second wedding anniversary so we're taking a trip to celebrate and to relax. I've never been to Spain and even though the area we'll be staying in isn't so representative of Spanish culture and life I can't wait. More to write about when we come back.

Life in the slow lane

Still without Internet access at home but it's coming any day now. I'm told. I've spent the past week or so being driven mad by red tape and mixed messages from the bank, my broadband supplier, Manchester City Council and by the company who I pay electric bills to. Life in Korea was much simpler than things are right now. Things are slowly improving I think.

Life is a not moving at a fast pace right now. With no Internet or TV as of yet I find myself listening to the radio a lot, watching films and reading books. It's a hard life eh? It is great to relax and have the freedom of no financial 'sword of Damocles' hanging over me. I have been a little lazy though. When I am online I will be able to do more research especially on travel as I look to explore both my country and continent with my wife. There are plenty of things to look forward to.

Three months left. Plan A underway

And we're onto March. I now have three months to go before my contract ends. Time has been passing rather quickly of late, the seasons are changing and moods are improving at work. Things have been going well lately but this month is a big one. My wife finished working yesterday but it's not just me with the busy schedule.


My wife and I are starting the process for her spousal visa application for the UK. We're about to put together a list and then over the next few weeks we'll be ticking off the things we need before hopping up to Seoul to hand in the paperwork. The things we need won't be difficult to get but after that we'll be relying on sound judgement from the people in charge. I don't anticipate any problems but we have to make sure everything is perfect with the application.

12 hopes for 2011

Back to five months left in South Korea after extending my contract by a month recently. I'm excited about this year which is the year I am set to return home. I've been back a few times since leaving over five years ago but this time I am returning permanently.

Even though I'm going home I am taking a bit of a step into the unknown. There are a lot of things that I'll be doing that I haven't before with responsibilities on my mind that have never troubled me before. I'm thankful to have an amazingly supportive wife and together I'm sure this year will be fantastic.

My 2011 targets

1. Be a better husband for my wife at a time when she needs my attention, love and support. Moving to a different country won't be all plain sailing for her.
   
2. Help my wife get the visa she needs for living in the UK. There are some things I need to do and they seem to be straightforward but are essential.
   
3. Save a decent sum of money over the next five months. Again, this comes under being a better husband and being more financially responsible for the both of us. We're on target to meet the figure I think we will need to support ourselves for a while in uncertain times.
   
4. Try and not let my teaching deteriorate. The end is nigh! I have seen so many teachers just not try as they come closer to leaving. I'd like to be fair to my students.
   
5. Push myself at taekwondo and finish on a high. I think I only have two or three months left there so I'd like to improve my kicking and push myself more.
   
6. Have a few holidays and spend some time on a beach relaxing, enjoying the sun and Summer because I haven't done that here in a long time. When my time is up there will be plenty of time (if not money) for holidays but we really need a few weeks relaxing.
   
7. Leave Korea and the ESL teaching world for now to settle back to life in England. No more extensions now and no more living in a bubble. I'm looking forward to finally having a nice family Christmas back in England.
   
8. Find a decent apartment in city centre Manchester. I've checked some prices and they're affordable so we'll see what comes up. A city centre pad is what we need because we'll have all the transport links and my wife can gently ease into life in a city I know.
   
9. Lose a bit of weight and exercise more often. Perhaps a pipe dream but I would like to lose between 5-10 kilograms before I arrive back home.
10. Leave Korea on a positive note with no regrets and no bitterness. Many of my former co-workers have left on a sour note and have negative images and thoughts in their mind. I would like to go feeling appreciative for what this place has given me and feel positive about the times I'll be returning with my wife in the future.
    
11. Explore my country in more depth than I have previously and show my wife around the UK. Money may be tight at certain points and exploring my homeland may be a better alternative to expensive trips abroad.
    
12. Get a new job if possible. I have no idea what job I want. It's a clean slate but I wouldn't rule out some kind of teaching.

I love(d) piano

I won't be hearing the piano every day now. Finally we moved apartments yesterday and said goodbye to the piano academy that we lived above for eleven months. It took us a long time to pack everything up as we've accumulated a lot of stuff over the years so we knew moving would take a long time. Luckily my wife was able to take the day off work and we definitely needed it.

We were told that the 'team' who help deal with things like this would start moving our stuff at 1pm. They came at 3pm and I had to leave for work not too long afterwards. I hadn't been able to eat as I'd been expecting them to come on time. This left me very tired at work as all I ate was some noodles and a few sweet snacks.

There's no point going over the details of the delay because it turned out OK in the end for us. The apartment we've moved into is one that a co-worker was living in, before the landlord decided he wanted her out of the building. It's an awkward situation and my co-worker has legitimate cause for complaint though I am sure there are two sides of the story.

She is upset and angry and everyone understands why and sympathises with her. She's had to downgrade apartment and at short notice. If I were her I'd be very angry given the reasons for her move. Having said that, we had to move apartment too and for pretty poor reason - my company didn't like my landlord.

Up until about 2am my wife and I were sorting things out and they still aren't finished yet. Things still need to be unpacked and moved to a good place. We need to figure out where we want furniture but the majority of the items are in their place and the internet is already working with the cable TV being sorted out tomorrow. When the place is finished I will post pictures. I already miss the pianos a bit though.

Keep fit mission

Today my wife and I joined a gym. We've talked about it for a bit and we both need and want to lose some weight and be in better shape. Although I do taekwondo it's only three days a week and it is not always as strenuous as I need. Given the luxury of a surplus of time it makes sense to do something else.

We scoped out a few places and chose one that I went to over four years ago. It's not big but clean, has enough machines to do what we want, is only fifteen minutes walk from our home, and is crucially is not busy at the time we want to go - around 8:30am. We paid 100,000won for four months. At todays exchange rate it works out at about £14 a month. Pretty cheap I think compared to gyms back home.

Today we took it lightly as we will do for the first month. We both really enjoyed it and felt great afterwards. One downer for me was the machine we used for checking our weight, height and age to figure out how out of shape we are. The machine claims that I have the body of a thirty six year old - four years older than I really am. It gave a figure of how much body fat I have and I have far too much. It also gave me levels to aim for or what I should be. Something to go for but I need to watch what I eat a bit more and drink less beer.

First wedding anniversary

Today is our first wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been a year already. Like every couple we've had our ups and downs, with some differences in culture and language those are inevitable but there's already been some great times with lots more in the pipeline. I can only wish that we continue to have a very happy and prosperous life together. Meeting my wife was the luckiest break I've ever had and being married to her makes me immensely proud and full of love and happiness. We're going to Seoul this weekend to celebrate. I can't wait.



It seems like I am always talking about and planning our future. Looking at the date I have seven months left working in Korea. The countdown is in full swing. It will be a bit of a wrench to leave - because the money is good - but it's for the best for both of us and we are very excited about or future in England together starting next year. Hopefully my work doesn't start to slide making me become a lazy presence in the classroom.



Further good news for me. After making some enquiries it turns out there was a payslip mistake for my bonus. They didn't pay me enough money for the days that I didn't use for vacation. In my next wage there will be close to 600,000won extra. Times like that you really appreciate working Korea. What a great start to October.

Number one question my students ask me

Reading the always interesting Busan Mike's blog today got me thinking. At my previous academy the number one question kids asked me was "What's your blood type?". Nowadays, for whatever reason I just don't get asked that. But as my students find out that I am married the questions reverts to babies.

Girls ask "Do you have a baby?". Boys ask "Do you have a son?". When I disappoint them and tell them no not yet, (I tell them that I don't have enough money for children right now which is 100% true) they appear deflated and bemused. Why would I automatically not have children, they appear to think. Their minds have not developed enough to appreciate that there is more to life than fulfilling gender stereotypes and being pigeon-holed into doing what everyone else is. I would like to enjoy my life the way it is right now for a while before having a child.

From my time here I have worked with a lot of co-workers and most of the Korean teachers have been women. For many, but certainly not all, their goal in life has been to find the right man and get married and essentially escape the life that they are shaping up to have. When they find that man they invariably get married and get married quite quickly, and what do you know, some nine months later they are giving birth. So I can understand why my students ask if I have a baby so quickly after getting married. I just wish they would not ask me the same question every other week.

My wedding day in pictures

Our 'wedding lunch celebration' day turned out to be great. A special day for my wife and I to remember always. Here are some pictures taken of us, my new family and our friends.

After being introduced I was asked to say a few words

I had to write down my thoughts because I didn't want to make any mistakes

Here we are waiting for my wife's mother to say a few words

My mother in-law said very little but was very, very happy

The cake arrives and we have to blow out the candle

The cake was still defrosting so it was difficult to cut it, despite them giving us a sword

My wife and I amazed that the cake was so rock hard

My co-workers, Sang Hee, Sung Young and Nick

My wife and I enjoying the day immensely

Another co-worker shot of Sung Yong, Nick, Ivan and Jong Bae

Jong Bae, Diana and Sung Yong

Our friends, Hannah and Mark who are also set to get married

Big assembled family shot. Can you spot me?

My wife and I, with her mother and her brother

Another picture of my wife and I with her mother

Here is my mother in-laws sister and husband, and her children and their spouses

At this point my jaw was starting to ache a little but we continued - those are genuine happy smiles though!

More photos? OK, just one more

My wife really wanted to throw her bouquet and her friend caught it

Now we could sit down. Next to my co-worker, Jong Bae

Here I am with my partner teacher, Sung Yong

My mother in-law starting to relax a little

Baby loves oranges?

Baby doesn't love oranges

Two of my wife's cousins. The one on the left speaks a little English

Now my mother in-law really starting to enjoy the occasion

Cheers to a successful day!

Special thanks go out to my co-worker and friend, Ivan who took most of these pictures and of course to all those who helped make our day so memorable.

My wedding day in Korea

I've been a little slow in writing this up, not because I didn't want to but because I've been knackered with the lead up to it, the actual day and a genuine lack of sleep afterwards so I'll try to describe things as best as I can now.

Last Saturday I had a 'Wedding celebration lunch', which ended up being basically just a wedding but without any of the vows. To explain further, my wife and I married some seven months ago but didn't have an actual wedding. Things have been great since then but at times I think my wife felt a little incomplete, like we weren't properly married so we knew we had to sort something out. In the end we decided to have lunch with some family and friends to celebrate our marriage.

In the lead up to last weekend I started to get a little nervous, which was very irrational because we've been married for so long but in truth I am a little uncomfortable dealing with crowds of people I don't know or don't know very well. I was a bit anxious and didn't sleep much and spent too much time thinking what would happen. I needn't have worried because we had such a great day.

Preparation for this didn't take as long as many weddings do but there were things to sort out which we managed to do quite easily and my wife deserves credit for all the hard work she put in. The day started at the wedding shop (don't know the technical name). The make up and hair for my wife and her immediate family took over two hours. Myself, they did put some stuff on my hair and I got dressed up in a suit which was bought a few weeks prior and then we were off to the hotel where we were maving the lunch.

After looking at a few places which could hold the number of people we wanted we settled on the Burgundy room at the hotel Novotel in Daegu. This is very central in Daegu and very easy to get in and out of. The choice proved to be a good one for us. The room where we had lunch was very good, with a view of the city centre that overlooked a park rather than the less salubrious parts.

When we got there we had to prepare some things and then to wait for the people to arrive. I waited with my wife, my mother in-law and my wife's brother. My mother in-law were wearing traditional Korean clothes (a hanbok) whilst my wife rented a wedding dress for the occasion. We greeted everyone who came. Invites were restricted to coming from my wife, myself or from my mother in-law. We thought we had invited around fifty people, but it turned out that sixty seven came, so they room filled out quite well. If forty people had come I'd have been happy but nearly everyone invited came which helped make the day special for all of us.

Inviting people was a little difficult for me. Firstly none of my family could make the trip and we had already decided that we would have some kind of celebration when we made our way back to the UK to live. Also being here for over four years I have made many friends and acquaintances and in normal circumstances would have liked to have invited many more people than I did. Because of the transient nature of my job I have met many people who have subsequently left and it would be impossible for them to come.

Here I must mention that my wife and I have been to many weddings here in Korea. Some good, some bad, some terrible and almost nothing we'd seen together that we wanted incorporated into any celebration of ours. That meant no kids running around, trying to get people not to wear jeans and baseballs caps, no electric violins, no smoke or dry-ice machines, no confetti throwing bazookas and no cheesy wedding pictures. Of course, some things we talked about not doing we ended up doing (cheesy pictures of us) but that ended up being OK.

When everyone had arrived and sat down we made our way into the room. My wife's cousins husband (phew) introduced us with some words that I have been told were kind. I really appreciated him doing that. One of the unfortunate things about having a poor command of the Korean language means I am restricted in my communication with my wife's family. I wish I could have heard what he said.

After being introduced the spotlight really was on us. This is what I was having a bit of stress with. I don't like being the centre of attention but, that's kind of the idea when you have a wedding. I had decided to make a quick speech about how much I love my wife. I had to write it down. After I had finished I saw my wife holding back tears - was my speech that bad? Well I knew she was emotional and it turns out she loved what I said, even though it was very simple it came from the heart.

I asked my wife is she wanted to say something but she was unable to at the time due to the situation. My wife has subsequently told me that she was so emotional that if she had said something then she would have cried (happy tears!) so she tried to keep her composure. Then my mother in-law said some words. This day was really about my wife and her mother. It was great for them both to have a day where everyone was celebrating them. I know they both had a great time and they really deserved that.

We then had to cut the cake that we ordered the previous week. However it was rock hard. They even gave us what resembled a sword to help cut it but to no avail. Luckily it thawed out as the afternoon went on. After that the pressure was off and we went round the tables and thanked everyone for coming and encouraged them to eat. The feedback we got was that the food was good for the situation although I have to say I wasn't able to eat much because I was a little busy just enjoying the day.

I managed to talk with a lot of my friends and Ivan my co-worker took several photos that we will treasure. Bright sunshine filled the room throughout and I think things couldn't really have gone any better. At the end of the day we were tired both physically and emotionally, but with a sense of satisfaction that would be hard to replicate. The day exceeded our expectations and will remain in our memory for a long time hopefully. We now truly feel like a married couple.

The match that started my fire

Today brings me up to the six month mark of my marriage. I remain as happy as I've ever been and it's all because of my beautiful wife.

"Ton cadeau s'appellait desir
L'allumette qui porte ma flamme"

Fitzcarraldo kind of day in Korea

After about four days of cleaning and packing, yesterday we moved most of our things into our new apartment. The place had yet to be cleaned (done today, and what a great job she did) so we didn't sleep there last night, instead choosing to stay at my old place. Today was the day of actually starting off at a new place. For some reason this morning I decided that it would be a good idea to change mattress'. The idea based on my old place getting a new one just a few weeks ago and my ex co-workers saying that their mattress was worse for wear.

I convinced my wife to help me lug the mattress' to and fro to their 'new houses'. This sounds easier than it actually is. I have a new found respect for removal men. When we got the 'new' mattress to our new place we found that it was too small to fit in the bed structure provided. I can't fully explain how annoyed this made my wife. After much persuasion she agreed to move them back their original homes. At one point she did refuse to help me though and I had to shift the big mattress up a whole bunch of stairs. If you have seen Fitzcarraldo or the famous scene with the boat then you can picture the struggle I had. Despite all this, the move has gone well though and I hope to have plenty of things to say about how things are going.

Day at the basketball

After a week or two of persuading, my wife agreed to go with me to see a basketball game here in Daegu. I am not a fan of the sport but from experience I can say that its a lot more fun than watching professional Korean football or baseball. I'd only been to two previous basketball games (both in Korea) before and knew that the skill level of the players and teams wasn't fantastic. However, I did enjoy both times and thought we could have fun while not spending too much money. Christmas is coming, after all.






The tickets were 7,000won each (£3.50) for the area we sat in. These were the cheapest tickets available but even from the back you could see all the action. As soon as we got there I could see my wife would enjoy the day. Her enjoyment made me have a great time too. She really got into the game and the relaxed atmosphere. I enjoyed the game even though Daegu Orions lost to Ulsan. I don't think the game was particularly good but that wasn't really the point because I didn't have any stake in the game. The buzz in the stadium was good and there were no breaks in the action/entertainment. Hopefully we can go again some time soon.

New name. Again

I am constantly having my name said wrong or incorrectly written (here in Korea). Yesterday I heard of a new name for me. Hyeong Boo (형부). It may sound like an insult but it's not. One of my wife's friends used it over the weekend. I didn't know what it meant so asked. It means older sister's husband. My wife doesn't have any sisters but here in Korea it is common to hear of friends referring to an older friend as 'older brother or sister'. It is an affectionate term. I doubt I'll hear this name again pretty soon but it was nice to hear about it.

Five days in Hong Kong

A break away from it all. Time to leave the behind the day to day working life of an ESL teacher in Korea. Over the Chuseok (추석) period I spent most of the time in Hong Kong with my wife. We also had enough time to visit Macau, twice. On reflection though we enjoyed our time in Hong Kong I feel that we didn't do as many things as we did last year. If I could do it again there would be a few things done differently but of course that's not possible, still perhaps next year. Still the point of the vacation was to relax, enjoy the days off and to be with each other. We definitely achieved that.

We had planned to go to Hong Kong a few months before Chuseok arrived but we didn't actually book the flight and hotel until a couple of weeks before departing. For a time I thought that the holiday might not happen or may be truncated but thankfully we both managed to have five consecutive days off together. The day we departed for Seoul-Incheon-Hong Kong was also the day we got married so the vacation turned out to be a honeymoon. Too short for a honeymoon I know but next year we will more than make up for that.

We arrived in Hong Kong before midnight on the Thursday. As it takes up to one hour to get out of customs and to arrive at the hotel most places were closed or would have been closed after dropping our stuff off at the hotel so we decided to relax, get some beer and some food from the local convenience store. We were pretty tired to do anything else. Myself, I only slept twenty minutes the night before and we had a long day, setting off for Seoul at seven AM and spent most of Thursday lugging suitcase and heavy bag around the city.

After a fine sleep that night we headed for Macau the next day - write up to follow. We got back from Macau in the late evening but instead of going back to the hotel to freshen up we headed out for a meal in the Soho area. Last year we spent time there too and I can tell you that pretty much every restaurant there is superior to all the foreign restaurants in Korea. Such a choice of places to eat. I immediately felt at home again in that area. In Korea, especially Daegu where I live there are precious few places to have a good quality non-Korean meal. We went to an Italian restaurant and I ordered the finest Lasagna I have ever eaten and still, three weeks later wish I had more of that on my plate. Washed down with some decent beer, i.e. not Korean OR Heineken the meal truly hit the spot. The night was coming to a close we headed back to hotel ready for what lay in store on the Saturday.

Little did we know that we would end up in Macau again just the very next day... Aside from going back, temporarily to Macau we decided to spend the morning and afternoon shopping. We took the excellent MTR train to the Citygate Outlets mall (near the airport). I perhaps selfishly stocked up on some hard to find food supplies that I wanted to take back to Korea. We also spent quite a bit of money buying clothes, shoes and other items that are a bit cheaper there than other parts of Hong Kong and Korea (wish I had taken more money in general though away with me). After that we ate and headed off to Macau and after coming back we again headed to Soho but to a different restaurant, this time a Mexican one that we went to last year. Initially we didn't want to go back to somewhere we had eaten in last time but we couldn't decide where to choose to eat and we were running out of time. We were both thankful that the place stayed open after all the places had closed down as they let us eat our meal in peace enjoying each others company. The clocked ticked down and before we knew it, it was late and we were tired and headed back to the hotel.

Onto the Sunday and I owed this day to Boo Young and tried to let her do as many things as she wanted to do. We took the Star Ferry across Hong Kong and initially headed to Tsim Sha Tsui. We knew what were looking for. I was buying a wedding present for my wife (we agreed to try to find ones in Hong Kong). We were headed for the Tiffany jewellery store. After trying two of their stores we managed to find a necklace which my wife loves and seems to be very happy with. Then we decided to go window shopping in the surrounding area but couldn't find what we were looking for so headed to Kowloon park and had some ice cream. It was one of the only times we were able to sit down and enjoy the scenery in the hot weather. It would be nice if there was such a park in down town Daegu. Stopping for a rest gave us time to plan our next move as we headed to the very large Langham Place mall in the Mong Kok district of Kowloon. Having been before we knew what the place was like but it's such a big building, fifteen stories of shopping. Boo Young enjoyed herself there. We also took time off to have lunch, a korean looking dish which was from Japan. Similar to bibimbab here in Korea but with beef and rice and some vegetables. Very enjoyable, the meal gave us the energy to sift through all those stories.

The day was far, far from over. After the shipping we headed to the Ladies Market in Tung Choi Street. We went there again last year but at that time it was late evening. This time was a different experience. The street just doesn't seem to stop. Stalls and stalls and stalls selling mostly similar stuff ranging from the Asian looking to the cheap Western looking clothing. Most of the things on sale were clothing, artifacts, pottery, DVD's and watches but there were some good stuff too. If you go there just MUST bargain and haggle and never ever pay what they ask for. By bargaining and having a tough stance you can get 30-60% off everything. To be honest the things they sell are made at ultra cheap prices and not worth much at all but some do look good. Bargains can be had, I picked up a nice leather bound pocket notebook, some scarves and two nice looking Chinese style bowls, plus some tat. I enjoyed the bargaining and could have bought much much more but to be honest we didn't need anything and our bags were already filling up so we headed back to the excellent Star Ferry and headed to the hotel on Hong Kong Island.

Feeling refreshed after taking showers we decided to leave early, around 6pm to go to Victoria Peak. This is one of the premier attractions for tourist visiting Hong Kong. The 'Peak' is actually a mountain, Mount Austin which has a tram which climbs the mountain at a steep gradient to take tourists to the top. At times the ascent appears to be improbable as it looks just too steep but the tram manages it and when you get to the top it is more than worth the wait. The view is magnificent. To our astonishment there was a mighty cue when we got there which I thought might take two hours to get to the front. It only took us one hour but headed up the tram to take in our night time view. After a meal which wasn't as good as last years we took many pictures of the fantastic view of Hong Kong, Kowloon and Victoria Harbour. At night the view is a sight to see. So many lights it feels like all of Hong Kong is lit up. Very picturesque. Sadly we couldn't manage to take a decent picture of ourselves there but paid for a professional picture which was worth the money. Again, it was getting late and after a long day, our last full day in Hong Kong 2009 we made our way back to the hotel.

Waking up early to take advantage of the free shuttle bus we departed from the hotel. Alas our plane back to Incheon was for 2:30pm so we didn't have much time left. We again headed for the Citygate outlet to take in some more last minute shopping. I managed to cram my suitcase full of much needed items for Korea life from the supermarket there. If only there was a supermarket like that in Daegu I would be so much happier here. Such choice and quality it was refreshing and stimulating to be able to get whatever I wanted. Our time in Hong Kong was over but never to be forgotten due to the circumstances. I'm sure we'll be back again as there is much to do and enjoy but not for another year or so.

Some great points about the holiday were; We relaxed, spent wonderful time with my wife, managed to pick up some souvenirs and see some more places in one of the great places of the world. It was also reinvigorating for me to eat several quality meals and enjoy the diversity of drinks there, specifically the choices of beer.

Some not so great points; lot of travelling around left me tired and ironically needing some more time off, we didn't go to some of the places we planned to, some of the Chinese tourists (not the Hong Kong locals) were the rudest bunch of people we've ever encountered. Koreans have something of a bad reputation and rightfully so at times but they have nothing, nothing on the Chinese people we met in Hong Kong. I found this stange as it wasn't like this last year or when I was in China in 2006 where the Chinese people were pretty kind and in general not rude at all. Perhaps we were unlucky...

No matter, this didn't sour our much needed time out in Hong Kong. At no stage did I miss Korea or think about work at all. Having said that I felt good when I returned to Korea, it is my home away from home for the time being.