Never thought it would happen...

During one of our classes yesterday it became apparent that the lack of provision for those with Special Needs was not the only issue we would have to deal with in regards to behavioural problems or causes for disruption in our classes.

Special Needs children mainly carry on in regular school classes but drop off the register as they fail exams to get into High School - with no real specialist support (though in some cases a helper may be employed to assist them in school to a certain extent). This is due to the stigma attached to not succeeding in this country... a place which shamefully has the highest adolescent suicide rate in the world due to the pressure of exams and the need to be the best academically.

But today a new situation was flagged in our faces - Orphanages.

I had expected that such institutions would have existed here as there are orphans across the globe due to illness, low mortality rates, war etc. but I had not been prepared for the harsh and selfish nature of Korea in this respect.

It is not uncommon for a child to be placed into an orphanage if their parents get divorced! They just get rid of them!

Why? Because no one wants to get married to someone and be a parent of another blood line!

??? So they just divorce their own kids to look for a new partner? Yep!

We can't even imagine how this would affect the children involved - an eternal feeling of 'I'm not wanted'?

I know I'll not be able to change anything here in South Korea... and I know I'll have to hold my tongue on many things that will drive me mad while I am here... but even if I can't change it - I think that letting these children know (along with the other orphans) that they are the rice of Korea, the future of the country, that they more important than their parents is a must for me during the next 12 months and that I should go out of my way to make life better for them.

How can a parent ditch such a responsibility as a child just to copulate?

Rant over for now.

Field Trip and lesson planning...

So after two days of intense lecturing, learning Korean, watching Korean movies and trying to be sociable we were all looking forward to Monday's Field Trip to the Jeonju Hanok Village and then the Traditional Cultural Centre.  Everyone wrapped up warm and boarded buses to take us to our starting locations - classes 1 to 4 went to the Hanok Village first for a tour with some handicrafts (making a photo frame) and then off to a restaurant for some Bimbimbap for lunch.

This was our first real class group photograph (although 4 members of the class were missing as they had to attend the medical that the rest of us suffered on the first morning here), taken outside the Gyeonggijeon Shrine.

After going round the village we ventured down to Nambu Sijang a market area which gave us a real insight into both the people here and also the wears that they sold/bought in the markets. Some things were a bit "eugh!", such as the silk worms which they ate but there was also a fasinating selection of fruits, fish and beans/lentils too.

From the market we went to a craft village where we made the aforementioned photo frames from paper made in the village (using traditional methods).  The paper is also used in the making of doors and windows.

Then it was off to a popular Jongro Restaurant, Korean tourist restaurant, where we were all given some traditional Bimbimbap - a dish that translates as being an all in one bowl dish.  Some people loved it and the various other delicacies that were provided... others not so much! lol!



It was then onto an old traditional school which is partly being restored and not currently in use.  Inside the grounds was a tree which the Korean people hold very dear as it is over 800 years old... so of course loads of people wanted their photo taken with the tree and seized the opportunity to touch it!

There was soooo much happening throughout the day that I can't possibly post all the photos on this blog. 

Between dancing, drumming and traditional Korean wedding cermonies (Danielle was a Bridesmaid!) the day was packed and we were all totally exhausted by the time we got back to the university.  Unfortunately the day didn't end as soon as we all got back as many of us wanted to meet up to go through lesson plan planning for joint presentations on Thursday morning... an EPIK orientation teacher's day never stops!
So, as a means of giving you the opportunity to have a look at all the photographs from the day I have added in a slideshow below... fingers-crossed it works!

Grand opening ceremony and dinner!

Yesterday (Friday) we met our classmates and were given our theme/guidance for our lesson plan presentations which will happen next week... so of course we all immediately settled down last night to work on them - YEAH RIGHT!!!

We had an opening ceremony in the afternoon which included some displays of a drumming dance, taekwando and a fan dance too.  The Taekwando was definitely the most interesting and visually stunning and included some very fancy kicking the tripe out of wood and apples!

Here's a quick video of some of the bum-kicking fun!

And some pics of the rest to give you some idea of it:

After this we had a grand buffet dinner - thankfully we were the first to cotton on that the food was already sitting waiting for everyone and quickly getting cold so we jumped at the opportunity to warm up a little with the various dishes presented - some tasty... some just a bit iffy to our palates!

The venue was so cold that in the end we decided to head down into the town and find a pub where we could all sit and chat in a warmer surrounding!

Saturday would see us all having our first full day of lectures, Korean Language lessons and a Korean movie to watch... so we ended up having a quiet and early night... ...was that enough to convince you???  There were a few soreheads the next morning but that was due to Jetlag... yeah... that's the answer everyone is sticking to!



Hello Europe, this is South Korea calling...

Don't know why on earth I've used a Eurovision phrase so don't mention it...

We've arrived safely in South Korea and are settling into our university accomodation for a week of orientation in Jeongju University 'A place for Superstars'.

After very little sleep on the plane journey we did get a quick nap on the bus journey down to Jeonju and then had a very patchy night of sleep too (including a visit at midnight from one of the staff to give us some LAN cables for the internet... he surely assumed we would be wide awake!).

I've uploaded a quick video of our room for the next week so you can see what it is like!

We'll try and keep you posted throughout the week as to how things are going... this morning we have a medical examination which requires me to give blood... NOT looking forward to this! Oh, by the way we ended up turning the heating off completely and opening a window (-6 outside) to try and get the room cool enough to sleep - under floor heating nearly burnt our feet but is off this morning so its now a bit chilly! lol!

Leavin' on a jet plane!

Tuesday 15th Feb 2011.

Danielle and I have set off again on our travels/adventures - this time to South Korea for a year of God knows what!  Its the first time I have agreed to take on a contract of work without knowing exactly where I will be working, who I'll be working for, where I will be living and have a strong knowledge of my rights as an employee... so it could be a bit of craic! lol!

We flew to London with Danielle's sister, Andrea, and met up with her friend, Paul.  We had all arranged to go into London to see the girl's cousin performing in Wicked.  We were not disappointed! It was absolutely brilliant and we loved every moment of the musical.

We'd already stuffed ourselves with a nice warm Nandos prior to going to the Apollo Victoria... but we still loaded up on sweets and water for some unknown reason - Paul even indulged in some donuts!

After the show we went around to the stage door and I waltzed right in with Danielle and the others following - right past some of the new stars that appear in the cast.  We went up to Rachel's dressingroom and chatted with her for about 30mins as she removed the green body paint that seen her leaving the theatre last every night from the cast's side of production.

So, we left Andrea and Paul in England as we jumped on another plane this morning (Wednesday) and headed east.  I am currently posting this from Abu Dhabi, a nice, big airport with free Wifi!  We are waiting to board our next flight onto Incheon Airport in South Korea... which will take us another 7/8 hours of flight time with little sleep.

The next post will hopefully be from our room at Jeonju University where we are to be based for the next 10 days before being sent out to our respective schools and, fingers-crossed, some very nice accomodation for Danielle and I - our first real home (not counting the hut in Malawi!).