The Equatorial Guineans

Folks,

We're at the end of the winter inter-session, the period of time between the 'Fall' and Spring semesters. We're back to the regular semester from Monday.

The pic of the week shows the group of Equatorial Guineans that I met on my last day in Malaysia. 

The Equatorial Guineans

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On my last day, I checked out of my hotel at mid-day, and I didn't have my flight until after 7pm, so I booked myself on an 'island hopping tour' for the afternoon. The minbus came to collect me, and then continued to another hotel where we collected another group. They arrived onto the bus in great form, complete with cans of Carlsberg and a bottle of Martini. They were African, but when I listened I began to realise that they were speaking Spanish.

They are from the small country of Equatorial Guinea in Central Africa between Cameroon and Gabon. I had only heard of it before because they had a famously hopeless swimmer in the Olympics a number of years ago. 

They were just on a weekend trip to Langkawi, and are studying in Kuala Lumpur. As such, they were students away for the weekend, and they were going to have a good time. Two of the girls had drunk half a bottle of Martini waiting for the bus, and the second half was finished on the short journey to the boat.

I got chatting to them on the bus (a rare opportunity to practice my Spanish), and they rewarded me with cans of Carlsberg.

When we got on the boat they sang and danced their way through the tour. The others on the boat, a Muslim Malaysian couple and an Australian couple, didn't know what to make of them. The Australian couple were bemused, and didn't like that they kept getting splashed as the EGs tried to splash each other, and I think the Malaysians were a bit shocked. I don't think either couple could understand my relationship with them. I'd arrived with them on the bus, was drinking with them, and was obviously entertained by them. I think they assumed I was some sort of 'Daddy'.

I laughed my way through the day because I was so entertained by their optimism and energy. They invited me to have dinner with them that night, but I was going directly to the airport. I'd love to have spent more time with them.

Malaysian language

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The language in Malaysia is Bahasa Malaysia. They use the Roman alphabet, so it's easy to read. And as a tourist, its very easy to find people who understand English. But what I really liked was that they have also taken many English words from their time as a British colony, and they've just spelt them phonetically in Bahasa Malaysia. So from the airport I went to Sentral Stesen, you can get a bas or an Eksekhutif Teksi, shop in the farmasi, talk to the polis, or go to a refleksologi klinik. 

Work

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I've had a great break this inter-session, because I haven't worked since 22nd January. I had 2 weeks holidays in Malaysia, and there was nothing scheduled the following week. I had a one to one class scheduled with the president of the college for the past two weeks. But he was on holidays for the first week, and is too busy this week. 

But next week it's all changing. We are waiting with bated breath for our schedules, because that puts a shape on our semester. The new teachers are arriving and we're having farewell's for those that are departing.

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Well, that's it for now. So until next time,

Annyeong-hi kaseyo.

Éamon

Today's headline in Kookmin Daily: President Lee calls for sweeping crackdown on corruption in education sector

The Year of the Tiger

Well, I'm back in Korea after my holiday in Malaysia. I really loved Malaysia, and would recommend it to anyone. It's a bank holiday for weekend for Lunar (or Chinese) new year. This coming year is the year of the tiger.

The pic of the week shows the sunset on Pantai Cenang beach on the island of Langkawi. I took this just in front of my hotel.

Kuala Lumpur
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I flew Air China from Seoul to Kuala Lumpur, via Beijing. I was upgraded to business class on the first leg of the journey, which didn't seem very communist to me.

When I arrived in Kuala Lumpur I met up with a work colleague.

I wasn't really clear on the geography of Malaysia before I travelled. There are really two completely separate parts of the country. There is 'peninsular' Malaysia, which is south of the border with Thailand, and extends down to Singapore, and is next to Indonesia. Then there are the two provinces Sabah and Sarawak which are on the island of Borneo. Borneo is shared with Indonesia and Brunei. There is about 600km of South China sea separating the two parts of Malaysia, and all my travels were on the peninsula.

Malaysia is the most Muslim country I've visited. A lot of the women wear the veil. There are all different styles, from just a head scarf worn with jeans and t-shirts, and sometimes motorcycle helmets and heavy make-up, to fully head to toe in black with just a slit for the eyes. It was unusual to see the situations where women wear the full head-to-toe garb. I saw two games mistresses in a school, with their dresses right down to the grass as they ran around the pitch, and women swimming in the sea in Langkawi, still dressed from head to toe.

I liked Kuala Lumpur more than I expected. Mainly for the multi-cultural atmosphere and food. There is a Chinese/Indian/Malay mix, and the feeling is relaxed and easy. The food is fantastic in Malaysia, and I put on about 5kg while I was there.

Penang
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I met a guy in Seoul shortly after I arrived in Korea who had travelled extensively in Asia. I asked him what place he would most recommend to visit, and he said Penang, Malaysia. So for the end of our first week we headed there. However, I couldn't really understand why he had recommended it. It was way more built-up and industrial than I'd imagined, and there was a lot of shipping around the port. However, the food was even better than Kuala Lumpur, and our arrival coincided with the Hindu festival of Thaipusam.

Hindu pilgrims travel to a temple near the Botanical Gardens, bringing gifts (mainly milk to bathe the statue of Lord Murugan, a God). We hired motorbikes, and headed there, and went on the pilgrimage up the hill to the temple. We saw the more extreme penitents, some of whom had pierced their cheeks with skewers, and had hooks through the skin of their backs, and were 'towing' someone else up the hill. Not for the squeamish (as in ME), but the whole experience was really interesting.

When we finished in Penang, my friend headed back to Kuala Lumpur for a flight to Sri Lanka, where he was to be best man at his friend's wedding, and I took the ferry to Langkawi.

Langkawi
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I really didn't know much about Langkawi before I got there. I just knew it's the name of a lovely Malaysian restaurant in Dublin. I had heard that the most beautiful Malaysian beaches were on the east coast. But as I was already in Penang on the west coast, it seemed more logical to go stay on that coast.

I absolutely loved Langkawi. It's a lush tropical and quite small island. I rented a scooter, and was able to travel from South East to North West (about the furthest points apart) in about 40 minutes. There are beautiful beaches, and tall mountains. I went on a cable car trip to the top of one mountain, and got a beautiful view of the entire island.

It's also a duty free island, so alcohol was cheap, and there were duty free shops everywhere. In general, because it's a muslim country, alcohol isn't freely available. However, as I was in mostly tourist areas it wasn't a problem, although they recommend that you don't take it into your room if you're staying at a family guesthouse, and it wasn't unusual for it not to be available in restaurants.

I was supposed to travel back to Kuala Lumpur on Friday, for my final night. But I decided to book a flight (€60), which effectively gave me two extra days on Langkawi, because I flew to KL airport on Saturday night, and linked directly with my flight back here.
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So I loved my two weeks away, and the injection of sun and hot temperatures into my Korean winter was most welcome. I left KL at midnight when it was still in the high 20s, and arrived in a snowy Beijing six hours later at -6 degrees!

Well, that's it for now. So until next time,

Annyeong-hi kaseyo.

Éamon

Today's headline in Donga llbo: President Lee stresses 'no more feud' at his party

Winter Snow

Folks,

Well, we've had a cold and snowy couple of weeks, as I know you've had at home. 

The pic of the week shows the district of Yongun-dong as viewed from the apartment last week. But there's now a bit of a thaw on.

Weather

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The snow started in Seoul on St. Stephen's Day, but we had very little snow here until just after I sent the last email. Then we had a really heavy fall of snow that went on for a few days. It's amazing that it coincided with a similar drop in temperatures in Ireland, and Europe generally. Usually our weather systems are so separate, but we got exactly the same cold spell.

Here they're more used to it, though, and everyone got into the mode of clearing up as soon as the fall finished.

Classes

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When I wrote last I was delighted with my schedule. However, it didn't remain like that. Last week I was scheduled for just 3 hours work. But that left me in the firing line, and when a newly recruited teacher had problems with her visa I got a kid's camp for last week and next week. 

I was given 3 days to prepare a play which was to be put on on Thursday night. And I spent the first night working on Tacky, the Penguin before realising that one of the other teachers had done it too. So we had to switch, which left me with 2 nights to cast, rehearse and prepare. So Goldilock & the Three Bears had it's premier on Thursday night.

The previous week I had a lovely class of university students. We were working on past and future tense of 'be' in the context of occupations. As in - Before I was a waiter. Now, I am a dentist. I told them that now I'm a teacher, but before I was a computer programmer. For comic effect, adding that it was in 1953. I saw a couple of them working it out in their heads, before deciding that it was probably true.

Champagne

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My friends got married in South Africa on Christmas day. I decided that it'd be nice to leave a gift at their apartment as a congratulatory present on their return. I went to the supermarket, and checked the wine section. Wine is not really drunk over here, so there is rarely much of a selection. They didn't have champagne, just a few sparkling wines. I didn't recognise any brands, and thought they looked quite cheap (which they were). Then I spied a champagne cork in a fridge in the corner. I opened it and saw that it was a bottle of Moët & Chandon. I went to the cash register to check the unmarked price.

The assistant didn't know, and nothing came up when she scanned it. She checked with the other girls. They all tapped away, and read out numbers off the label, but still nothing came up. They then phoned the manager. He came and took the bottle away with him. About 5 minutes passed, and everyone was very embarrassed that I was still waiting. He arrived back and apologised because he couldn't find what the price was. So he said he'd give it to me for 'a cheap price'. I said fine, and he rang it up under some other champagne brand (It came up in Korean as Bu-ra-bo Shyam-pe-an). It wasn't until I checked the receipt that I saw the actual price, ₩2,850. Which means that I got a bottle of Moët & Chandon for €1.75!

As an addendum, I was able to leave the bottle of champagne outside their door on Friday night, a little over 24 hours before they arrived home. Secure in the knowledge that this is Korea, and it would still be there when they arrived. It proved a nice contrast for them when they arrived, as their luggage had been tampered with in Johannesburg and they'd had a mobile phone and some wedding presents stolen.

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Well, that's it for this week. I've just got one more week (with Goldilocks getting another 3 day spin) of work before heading to Malaysia on Monday week.

Until next time,

Annyeong-hi kaseyo.

Éamon

Today's headline in The Korea Herald: Confidants of late liberal president form new party

Happy New Year 2010

Greetings from a chilly Daejeon. We've had some very cold days, as I know has also been the case in Ireland. But today we're hovering around zero, and with sunshine and blue skies it seems pretty nice.

The pic of the week is some 'garden sculpture' from Clara's garden, taken in the fall of snow on St. Stephen's day. 

Christmas

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I went up to Seoul for Christmas. Taking the train on Christmas Eve. We checked around to see if there were people interested in meeting up for dinner, but most people had gone home or had made plans. So we booked dinner in the Irish bar, The Wolfhound. It's open on Christmas day, and they have a big Christmas dinner laid on. You need to buy tickets in advance. They have a full Christmas dinner buffet, with some asian options also available. The only problem was that there was a bit of a queue for the buffet. I had decided that I wasn't queuing for a second trip, so I ended up with a massively piled plate. But I enjoyed every bit of it.

It was just Clara and I that booked, and we were put sitting at a table with a two other people. They were a couple, from South Africa and the UK. We got on like a house on fire, and continued into the evening with board games that they had in the bar.

Highlight of the evening was when the snow started to fall and swirled around the first floor windows and the crowd broke into spontaneous applause because it was so Christmassy.

Work

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I had quite a busy end to the semester, because I had a lot of exams to set and mark, and then update the files and system in a process we call archiving. At the same time I had my two weeks between the end of semester and Christmas scheduled for intensive classes, and with everything I was really busy.

But now I've a much lighter workload. I'm back tomorrow, Monday, to a week of just one class a day, a total of 7.5 hours for the week. The following week is something similar, and there's just 1 hour a day the following week. Of course, all of this is subject to change at any time.

Holidays

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I had requested my holidays for Christmas, because my friends Chris and Tash were getting married, and I was invited to their wedding in South Africa. However, with the intensive classes I couldn't get the time off.

So I have 2 weeks off, the last week in January, and the first in February, so I'm heading off to Malaysia, to meet up for a week with my friend Justin, who'll be travelling there at that time. I'll then have a week on my own after he heads to a wedding in Sri Lanka. So I'm really looking forward to that time away.

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Well, that's it for this week. I'm putting this mail also in Google Wave, so if you know what that is and are looking for an invite just let me know. If you don't know what it is, don't worry, because nothing is going to change with the emails.

Well, that's it for now. So until time,

Annyeong-hi kaseyo,

Éamon

Today's headline in Donga Ilbo: N. Korea hints at easing stance toward S. Korea, emphasizes overcoming economic hardships in New Year message

Pepero Day

We're flying through the semester. This is week 12 of 15. Beginning to think about the final exams, and Christmas.

The pic of the week shows three of my Chinese students in the International Business School. I arrived into class and they were all wearing animal hats, with bears, lions and pandas. 

Pepero day

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Some Korean celebrations are difficult to understand. Pepero day is a good example. Pepero is a type of wafer stick, sometimes covered with chocolate. Wednesday was pepero day, and every shop and supermarket was selling them. There were aisles set up in the supermarket for it, and stalls set up in the city centre. It was along the lines of the Easter Egg displays at home. However, as far as anyone can tell me, there is no basis for it, other than they want to sell more pepero. This is a link to a very colourful, noisy, busy, and very Korean style, website to promote the day. 

Cold weather

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The past few days have been very cold. It was snowing lightly when I got up on Sunday. And my students tell me it was minus 5 the other night. It's certainly cold going to my morning classes on the scooter. I'm wrapped in scarves and gloves, but haven't yet found how to protect my eyes, which are always streaming in the cold.

I don't know how I haven't contracted H1N1, because I've had a lot of students off with it at this stages. Rates of infection were due to peak on 13th November, with infection rates of over 4,000 per day, and 52 deaths. 

Scooter

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Speaking of the scooter, it cost about €170 at current exchange rates. But I've now received €178 in taxi fares allowances since I got it. So it's totally paid for at this stage. It's a great purchase and I love it.

Online translater

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My students are very fond of writing in Korean or Chinese and putting it through Google Translate into English as a shortcut. It's normally very obvious. For example, this week one of my Chinese students sent me an email, and wanted to say that her homework was attached to the email. 

Dear Teacher, my homework is in accessory clamp. Thanks!

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Well, that's it for this week. So until next time,

Annyeong-hi kaseyo.

Éamon

Today's headline in Segye Times: Panel reviews Sejong City plan for economic, science hub

Hand Sanitiser Edition

Well, the traditional Korean over-caution about foreign threats is well to the fore with the H1N1 threat. I was in Seoul for an English teachers' conference, and there is controversy in the neighbourhood in response to a university plan to build new dorms.

The pic of the week shows a guy painting the apartment opposite. He's on the 10th floor, working alone, suspended by a single rope and sitting on something similar to a child's swing. And not a bother on him. You see a lot of abseiling for cables or maintenance, and workers dangling over moving traffic for street works.

Seoul conference
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I joined the Korea Teacher's of English to Speakers of Other Languages organisation (KOTESOL), and we had our international conference at the weekend. It was an excuse to have a big night out in Seoul, and it was a very late one.

Visiting 'the others'
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Most of the English teachers in Daejeon are in the new downtown area, called Dunsan-dong, which is where most of the private schools (hagwons) are. The town is quite divided between the old downtown, Eunhaeng-dong, nearer to me, and the new downtown. In 'Lost' parlance, I call the teacher's over there 'the others', and we rarely mix. Two English teachers that I worked with in Costa Rica are 'others'. They've been here since before I got here, and I'd only met up with them once. So I gave them a shout last week, and we decided to meet up. It was strange meeting them outside the tropical climes of Costa Rica. We all agreed that we're quite happy here money and workwise, but that we still miss Costa Rica a lot.

Ajuma protest
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The item that I've got most response from people since writing from Korea was about my summer ajuma class. The ajumas are housewives, but the term is synonymous with a small, older but strict woman. Anyway, there is a protest outside the university these days, because there is a proposal to build a new dorm. They're appalled by the idea of more dreaded 'foreigners' being housed there. On a Monday and Wednesday I have to go past them on my scooter, usually stopping right beside them at the lights. I hear the 'foreigner' word in the middle of their Korean. But if I smile at them, they're too polite to smile back. The other day they were all wearing surgical masks, with black X's on them. So I guess there's been some sort of a gagging order. Yet another example of the very healthy protest movements of Korea.

Swine Flu
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I'm not sure how things are back in Ireland with the swine flu threat. But here it's being dealt with in a very Korean manner. There are hand sanitisers everywhere. Whoever is in the business of making them must be getting very wealthy. Every public building has one at the entrance. In addition, many people are wearing surgical masks (and not for a protest). You see it from time to time here in public places anyway, but it's at a different level now. Most of my Chinese students were totally housebound when they went home, because their parents thought that the risk was too great to go out of my house. It's getting closer though. A friend of mine (and I was out with her on Wednesday night) went down with it over the weekend. And she's on 7 days quarantine.
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Well, that's it for this week. I'm off now to prepare for my classes tomorrow morning. I'm running a bit behind because I was away for the weekend, and have been marking the mid-term exams.

Well, that's it for this week. So until next week,

Annyeong-hi kaseyo.

Éamon

Today's headline in Kyunghyang Shinmun: Influenza A shows signs of pandemic

Definitely Autumn

Well, I'd almost forgotten about the weekly update it's been so long.

I had a great trip home in August, and I'm well back into the new semester here.

The pic of the week is the view from my apartment. This is from the front, looking North, I guess. In the foreground are a group of allotments where locals grow vegetables. The group of buildings towards the right, just before the mountains, is Daejeon University. My own university, Woosong, is just a turn left at the junction on the main street that's visible, Daehak-ro.

Trip home to Ireland
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Well, since my last email I've been home to Ireland, even though that was a long time ago at this stage - August. I had a great trip. It was primarily family-focused, and mostly concentrated on catching up with my niece Robyn around her six-month birthday. I did get to Dublin for a long weekend, and caught up with some people. However, it was holiday season and a lot of people couldn't make it.

Work
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I'm back in the swing of things at work. I much prefer working in the semesters. In the summer and winter university breaks - called 'the intersessions' - we get very bitty classes. We have schedules that change from week to week, and we're always meeting new classes and new students, so there's no continuity.

Now that we're back in the semester I have a firm schedule until the second week in December. I now know all my students, and, for me, that's a much easier way to work.

Autumn is here
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One thing that Koreans are very proud of is that they have four distinct seasons. And it's true, although spring and autumn are brief compared to the long winter and summer seasons. We're now well into autumn. It's colder, although today is quite beautiful. Even on the 10th floor I have the windows wide open. It's currently (Sunday afternoon) 24 degrees. The mountains are changing to autumnal colours, and the Koreans are out hiking. En masse.

Mid-term exams
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We're actually at the mid-term now. And it's mid-term exam time. To give you an example of the level of some of my students, this is an actual example of the submission I got back from one guy. All they had to do was to match 8 supplied words with the gaps in sentences.

• My sister has been making poetry since we were kids. She wants to be a director.
• I can only run for a short time. I'll never be able to run a home movies.
• Don't put those marathon on your letters! They are from my collection.
• Jet Li signed coins for half an hour last night outside the movie theater.
• I enjoy all types of literature. But wildlife is my favorite.
• I saw an excellent program about the animals of South America. There were some fantastic images of autographs.
• I don't think collecting kites sounds like fun. I like to spend my money!
• People love to fly stamps in the park near my house on windy days.

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Well, that's it for this week. So until next week,

Annyeong-hi kaseyo.

Éamon

Today's headline in Chosun Ilbo - President, ruling party will push to cancel gov't office relocation plan