6 weeks in and i am suffering from my first cold. Inevitable that at some point I would catch a bug, what with the working conditions and numerous kids spreading germs around (it gets much worse in winter apparently when the heating is on). I also woke up this morning and there was no running water. Kelly (Eun-jung) rung to inform me that it had been turned off in the district for maintenance. By Friday evening, 9 Nov, I was completely knackered. Owen and Scott...

A more difficult week at work. I lost my cool and through an eraser down the corridor at one point, which 'hit' a girl. The kids have been more restless but there are changes coming next week. A couple of my older Zenith - TEOIC and TOEFL - classes are being merged into a larger, Intensive-Couse (Upper), class. Effectively we are combining 3 of the rudest students with 4 of the quietest, plus a few cherry-picked individuals from other classes - so it should b...

Well, I had an interesting weekend. After volunteering at my second speech contest and visiting town, it was back into town for a Hallo'ween Party at the International Pub. Numerous things were happening in the centre of town, including some filming for a TV show and a talent contest in which the prize seemed to be a new car. Myself and Garry settled down to some free food and all we could drink for 15,000won. On offer was OB Beer, Gin, Vodka, Rum and Whiskey. I...

Four weeks completed, but it's a marathon, not a race. Settling down now into the teaching week. I am getting tired on a daily basis. Already extremely tired of the dodgy 'Andy and Euri' Americanised dialogues that we have to play to phonics classes. Slowly beginning to put names to faces - they all have English versions but not all of them will wear their name tags happily. I have a mixed bag of classes and because of problems, with different level abilities wit...

At the risk of sounding like I am in some kind of prison, it's three weeks down, 49 to go. I'm settling in and slowly making inroads into the culture and the language. I take my phrasebooks wherever i go and sneakily have a look before approaching a market stall, for example, and speaking only in Korean. I've started to teach myself Han-gul.. it should not take too long.. once I have got the basics, I should be able to build up, in my mind, the various combinat...