Sunday again. At my 'church' - the PC Bang, that is, sending another blog. Just seen England beat France 11-9 to reach the Rugby World Cup Final. Fantastic stuff. This entry is mostly concerned with yesterday's speech contest at a local higher education college, not far from the national stadium and sports park (see photos). After completing my second week with what seems to be the usual mix of noisy and soporific students, myself, Andy and Wyn went to the Inte...

DAY 12: Philip is in the PC BANG again. So, I surprised myself by going to church Sunday. Despite starting to read 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins, I felt that I had little to lose by accepting an invitation from a Dutch preacher, Arianna. It was OK. Reminded me of Fakenham Baptists somewhat - more reassuring than challenging. I had to stand up and introduce myself (reminiscent of 31 Dec) and I received a welcome gift - a small hand towel. I think the...

Hi. It's Saturday evening. I'm at a PC Bang in Banji-dong - about 5 mins walk from my flat. Well, I've got through my first week. Admittedly, I only worked 4 days. No more holidays now, however. I've started taking classes by myself, which can be tough as some of the younger kids can be quite disruptive... they happily punch each other or push each other off their chairs. Got my 'safari' duck out on Thursday and used it to get Korean and English names from the ki...

Hi. I have finally managed to find a PC BANG in the centre of town in order to write my first proper blog from Korea. I was getting withdrawl symptons, having gone cold turkey for the whole weekend - no internet access at all. I also had no means of communication with anyone after I had been dropped off at my flat (address now on the front page). The phone didn't work, the plumbing needed fixing, the bed needed new sheets and my kitchen table needed new glass b...

Annyong haseyo (Hello) from Korea. I've arrived. What a strange feeling. At least I am feeling something now. Think I have been surpressing my emotions. After saying goodbye to Dad and Pete, it begun to hit me that I am going to be away for a whole year. I went to a Sushi bar and generally went for healthy options. The flight over was fine, managed to get a few hours sleep. I've had a lot of green tea, already, plus seawood soup and bibimbap (a typically kore...