Joel: I suppose now the working week is becoming something of a routine already. I'm really enjoying myself - there can't be many jobs as much fun as designing and playing games with kids all day - but already monday mornings are feeling just like monday mornings. Saying that, I have been a bit ill this week. What started as a mild hangover on Sunday turned into a full blown sore throat and yesterday I could hardly eat - certainly not anything spicy - which kind of limits things in my school canteen. I'm feeling much better now though, despite the incredible humidity - which I'm assured is only gathering pace.

So yes, last week we went out for dinner with my principle. The first I was told of it was about week before when Debbie mentioned that a group of students' parents wanted to take me out beacause their kids had told them that they were really enjoying my lessons. I think also that they want me to have a good impression of Korea and Korean people. Still, as with many arrangments in Korea, the information was vague. A number, perhaps four, perhaps six or more, of Korean mothers were to take me to an unspecifid location for dinner straight after work on Wednesday. The principle would be coming and probably the vice-principle but Debbie didn't know if she would be permitted and when I asked if Rakhi was invited Debbie returned from speaking with the principle to tell me he thought her presence might make the mothers uncomfortable. Things weren't looking good at that stage. No-one there would be able to speak English - but, of course, I was obliged to go.

When the day arrived, I was made to feel more possitive with the news that Debbie was coming (so at least I had someone to speak to) and there would be only two mothers and a father. I still didn't know where we would be going. When we met with the principle outside his office after school, he shot Debbie a confused look and grunted some Korean which she, looking quite confused herself, translated for me. The principle wanted to know if Rakhi was coming. I tactfully said I thought she wasn't invited. He waved his arms a bit and suggested I give her a call if she wanted to come. What? Only that morning he had said she wasn't able to come. What a strange way to go about trying to create a good impression of your country and people.

So anyway, we picked Rakhi up (she had to sort herself out pretty quickly - clearly she was more shocked and confused than me) and eventually arived at a Japanese restaurant. On the way in Debbie popped the question, "Do you like raw fish?" It's a bloody good job I can eat raw fish. I wouldn't say I was it's greatest fan of raw fish and I've never eaten a whole meal of raw fish before but it was Rakhi I was worried about. She might be more comfortable than me riding the Big Shot on the top of the Stratosphere Tower but she gets a bit squaemish at the idea of eating things with tenticles - which there were plenty of. On the whole though, as bizarre as the experience was, there were enough things we were prepared to eat to fill us up and the Koreans were very hospitable. Through translation they said some very nice things. On the way home in the taxi, Debbie told us she had asked the principle why he had changed his mind about Rakhi coming and apparently he said he had wanted it to be a surprise. Er....right.

Also last week, we went to a DVD bang. These are everywhere so we decided to check one out. I was well impressed. I expected just a small dark room with a couch and a large TV but what we got was akin to a personal cinema. The film was projected onto a huge screen exclusively for me and Rakhi (we watched The Incredibles) and we had a volume control, and huge leather bed-like sofa to sit on. It's a great facility. I can't believe no-one's tried to launch the idea in Britain. Actually, perhaps they'd all get trashed.

We saw plenty of footage of our English representatives behavior in Germany. I'm sure no-one's that surprised - it's the same every time. Of course, it may be propaganda of a sort, but we also saw footage of Korean fans watching a game on a huge outdoor screen in Germany. They were perfectly well behaved. Loads of fans from other countries joined them to soak up the atmosphere. And - get this - when the match was over and fans began to disperse, groups of Korean fans beagan the clean-up operation filling bags with empty cans and bottles. Could you ever imagine this from England fans abroad?

And now England are through to the last eight. Another encounter with Portugal, hey? We owe'm one! Come on Wayne!

Rakhi: OK, just to get it off my chest, let me tell you about the not so great thing about this week. On Friday, I had a bit of a run in with my co-teacher. She told me that she finds me 'too accurate' because I always question what she tells me. The reason I do this is because she is so scatty. One day she will tell me something and the next day she will tell me something different. She is quite inexperienced and as it turns out, unprofessional. She came to me later in the day and apologised to me but she really shouldn't have approached me in the way she did. Anyway, it's not a massive deal, it was just upsetting at the time. I hope she has taken the weekend to cool down.

Now down to the exciting stuff! Yesterday our mate Shane met us at the massive electronics market in Yongsan. He's a big technology geek so was the perfect person to ask along to help us pick a laptop. Neither Joel or I know where to start when looking for such a thing. Shane was great though, he knew exactly what we should get and spent a good few hours checking out different computers and making sure we got a good deal. In the end, we settled on this Hewlett Packard number that has loads of cool features including a remote for watching DVD's. I think we got a pretty good deal and as Joel and I received our first pay check on Friday we thought it was a good little investment to splash out on! So, here I sit in our little study on our new computer!

On Wednesday this week, Joel and I went out for dinner with his principal, vice principal and some of the student's mothers. It was quite a strange evening but i'll let Joel tell you more about that. Also this week, Joel and I have been trying to catch as much footy as we can. Now we have cable, it's easy to get all the games. It's not so easy to stay up and watch them though- my body clock is wrecked! The week started with the Korea v France match at 4am. This was followed the next morning at 4am by the England v Sweden game. We're four years too late- if only we'd been here in 2002!

Other than the palaver with my co-worker, school has been good fun this week. Now that i've interviewed all the kids, my extra classes have started. it's great because I can do whatever I want- so i've been playing games with the kids. With the grade 3 class I played the 'Fruit Salad' game where each child is named after a fruit. Whoever is in the middle of the circle has to make a sentence about which fruit they like and run to get a seat from the kids that are named after the fruit called out. I've done similar games in my other classes and they have all been very funny- the kids have really enjoyed them. Next week, I have a really easy week, as grades 4-6 are going camping until Wednesday. I'm going to use the free time to plan lots of my lessons in advance, it'll be a great help and hopefully give me more spare time in the weeks to come.

Tonight, Joel is taking me to a classical concert. It should be interesting, i've never been to a classical gig before. We're going to put our glad rags on and head out for dinner first- i'm really looking forward to it! Then, is the England v Ecuador game, this one's on at midnight so it shouldn't be too harsh on us! Come on England!

Norebang

Rakhi: My version of Stevie Wonder's 'Superstitious' wowed the audience at the norebang.

But Joel was the true star; He was in his element at the 'bang.' The drama student in him came out during Shane's rendition of 'Thriller.'

Jason was loving the 80's cheese a little too much...!

Even Christine and Sam couldn't get enough...!

Rakhi: I've been so busy at school this week. I've had to plan and teach lots of lessons as well as interview about 150 kids for after school classes and the special class. I think my interview experience was pretty similar to Joel's. Some of the kids were brilliant whilst others couldn't even say 'hello,' I realised pretty quickly that to save my own sanity I had to just politely wave these ones goodbye as soon as they entered! Anyhow, I was really glad when Friday and the weekend rolled round again!

On Friday we met up with the Canadians Kristen and Ryan and our mates Shane and Jason. We met up in our area as there is so much to do and everyone lives close by. Shane is really sweet, I think he was concerned about my lack of female friends so he got two of his mates, an Aussie Sam and a Scouser Christine to come and meet us. They're really nice and now I don't have to bore poor Joel while I look at shoes and clothes! We had a few drinks in a little hof and then went up to this bar where there's a great view of the surrounding area. Then, Sam suggested we go to a 'norebang.' I've heard and read so much about norebangs but not been to one yet. They're singing rooms for all that don't know; the Koreans, like the Japanese are crazy about karaoke. We payed a small fee and were led into a room with a huge screen, tamborines and microphones. You select your song of choice, punch the number into a pad and sing your little heart out! It was very funny, a real blast from the 80's past!

Yesterday the weather was beautifully hot and clear, It was the perfect day to go up Seoul Tower. So go up Seoul tower we did. We got a cable car that took us up through a leafy mountain to the base of the tower. The area around the base of the tower was a plaza with shops, restaurants and outdoor decking to see the spectacular view of Seoul and the Han river. Inside the tower there was an indoor observatory deck from which the view was slightly higher. Each window in the observatory had a major city and the distance that it was from Seoul in that direction. It was strange to stand by the England window and read the phenomonal distance from us to it. Later, we tried to get up to the revolving restaurant at the very top of the tower but it was fully booked. Instead, after a lot of hassle, we managed to get seats in a bar on the outdoor deck. We sat there and watched as the sun went down and the lights of Seoul began to switch on. It was beautiful.

Today has been a proper Sunday. We had a nice lie in and then watched 'Casablanca' on our newly fitted cable TV. Most of the cable channels are pretty rubbish (because they're in Korean!) but all the world cup matches are on and occasionally a good programme and film. It doubles up as internet connection too so when we get our computer we can stop frequenting this PC bang!

The next mission, is to organise our summer holiday. We'll have about two weeks off so we've decided that we would like to travel around Korea for a week and then head to Jeju-do, an island off the southern tip which is known as the Hawaii of Korea. Very exciting!

Joel: It's Friday morning and I'm a little tired after watching England's laboured victory over Trinidad last night. The game finished at almost 3am and I was up again at 7:15. Luckily for me, I have a quiet day today. My timetable is such that every week I have a quiet day on either Thursday or Friday. Today, I have only one class this morning and one later this afternoon. It's pretty much the weekend again already.

So yes, we finally had the cable fitted yesterday - just in the nick of time. The cable guy was originally booked in for Tuesday but no-one came. We've since been told the cable companies had their busiest day of the year with people desperate to watch Korea's first game against Togo on Tuesday night in the comfort of their own homes. On Wednesday they couldn't come out because once again the heavens opened. When it rains here it truly rains! And bizarrely, yesterday we woke up to a gorgeous sunny day. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to the weather patterns in Korea - only that it's always an extreme of some sort. So finally yesterday the great man arrived. Of course, the World Cup games were the main reason for signing up, but I'd hoped as well that the would be lots of good programs on the other sixty or so channels. A quick flick last night left me a little disappointed. Amongst the Korean news and quiz show channels, the best English language programs on offer were a collection of Steven Segal and Jean-Claude van Damme films, a VERY old episode of Friends and some Sex in the City from season 2. Still, there's a cinema over the road.

On Tuesday I started teaching the Teachers' classes. It's all female teachers (the men are all too afraid of "losing face". This is clearly a big issue in Korea. I think they should all just chill out a bit) and I have two classes of six teachers per week. I was told there would be one class of beginners and one of intermediate level but it turns out both classes are of the same level and they all speak English very well. All of them are very intelligent (as I expected) and have remembered most of the English they learnt at school - but are a little rusty. I planned a lesson for them on body language but they wanted to spend the first half of the class finding out about me. One brought me a box of drinks in as a present and another has invited me over to dinner next week. I hadn't given it much thought but I suppose it's just as big a novelty for the Korean teachers to have an English English teacher in their school as it for the students. I think it will be a good challenge designing lessons that will continue to interest and stretch them.

On Wednesday evening we took Yeon-hi and Debbie out for dinner after school to thank them for all the help the have given us. Debbie has been a great help in so many ways. Whenever we have had a problem or have needed to know or do something she has done her best to sort us out straight away. She's a pretty busy woman - she works full time (including alternate Saturday mornings) at the school as well as studying a University course so it's been greatly appreciated how she's helped us. She told me this week that when she found out there would be a native English teacher coming to the school she took an intensive English conversation course because she was so nervous. What a sweetie. We took them out to a traditional Korean restaurant on the high street near our place and had kimchi pancake with noodle soup. We let them order because we didn't have much of a clue and it was lovely. Then we moved on to a hof called BOX on the 9th floor of a building near Yeokgok station. The decor there's not great but the music was okay and from the window you get a great view over the area where we live. You can see our flat and my school - which is quite high up on the distant hillside. They recommended we drink lemon Soju so we shared a pitcher. It was a dead nice evening despite the terrible weather outside.

On Wednesday night I hunted down and killed the mosquito that had been preying on us for two nights. Little b******. Between us we must have ten or more bites on our bodies. I was scratching constantly all Wednesday. It's been a relief to be able to sleep undisturbed once again.

Tomorrow we're planning to go up Seoul tower - they latest in our series of famous towers we've been up after scaling the Stratosphere in Las Vegas and the TV tower in East Berlin last year. Like those others, there is a revolving restaurant at the top so if we can get a table we might have dinner at sunset. I'm really loving it here.


One small footnote: I can't believe I've not yet mentioned the kids' English nicknames. All the kids in grades three and four were asked to choose English nicknames for themselves and make name badges. I'm not sure if this was for my benefit or simply for novelty value but once they started coming in I couldn't quite believe it. Maybe no-one properly explained the concept to them, or perhaps no-one really cares, but very few are really English sounding names. First come the terrible mispellings, like Matu and Jeniper. But this I can cope with. Then, there are a group of quite hippy sounding names that I think are interesting - these include Season, Star, Sky, Thunder (surely a horses name) and Zen. Then there are those that just sound odd, like Tablo, Medic and Bobo and Bingo. In one class I have kids called Puma, Nike, Reebok and Adidas but they know they're being silly. Beyond these there lies another group - those whose names I can't say without smiling, those that are utterly bizarre. How can you call a kid Milk with a straight face? How about Pig, or perhaps Dog? Sometimes I can't contain it. Especially with one class, whenever one kid puts his hand up. The boy who I give first prize to, and I think he makes a worthy winner, is Brain Buddy. Brain Buddy! Where did he get it from? I say no more.

Rakhi: I have been doing a lot of teaching this week. It's really good fun. Some of the kids are a bit of a handful but as they are so competitive i've realised that it's a good idea to split them up into teams. There are four teams in each class and if students are good they get a point for their team. If they are bad they lose a point, the winning team gets a stamp at the end of the class. Strangely, it really works, the little blighters are desperate for stamps! From this coming week i'll be starting teacher's classes and special classes. Tomorrow, I have to go through the same interview process as Joel to select my special students.

On Wednesday this week I had my first real language barrier problem. I was taken out for dinner by some of the teachers from my school (which was absolutely delicious) and as we were leaving, myself and another teacher popped to the loo. The toilet was some proper high tech toilet seat with loads of buttons around the rim but I thought nothing off it. Anyway, I went to flush and realised that the signs for the buttons were in korean. I tried my luck and pressed one of them. To my horror a jet of water was squirted into my face! I tried to move out of the way but the stream was rebounding of the door and back onto me. I didn't know what to do and could't work out how to turn the thing off and in the meantime I was getting drenched. I decided the best thing to do would be to vacate the cubicle as fast as possible. I manouvered my way around the jet, opened the door, and slammed it shut behind me. But, water was leaking out from under the door. Highly embarrassing-I didn't want the other teachers to think of me as a stupid foreigner! I had to go back in and try to work out how to turn the thing off. I opened the door and manouvered my way past the jet again, but it was so forceful that I was still getting soaked. I pressed as many buttons as I could and eventually the thing retracted. Thankfully the teacher in the next cubicle was taking a while and I managed to sort myself out a bit. I dabbed myself with toilet roll an tried to make myself less 'wet-looking!' The teacher reappeared and asked if evrything was OK. 'Yes' i replied sheepishly and told her I would wait outside! I don't think she suspected anything but if she did i'm sure she had a good laugh. I know I did when I recounted the story to Joel!

I really have to learn more Korean!

Joel: So... 1-0 to England. Slightly disappointing game but three points nonetheless. We found a great place to watch it. We met up with fellow Englander Kevin and friends in Sinchon and decided the Western bars in Itaewon might be the best place for the best atmosphere. The six of us took two cabs there (cabs are cheap as chips) and met in place called the 3 Alleys. Now this place was AWFUL. There were plenty of England shirts but also loads of Germans?!?! and the two rival sets were already singing and generally being hostile to each other - and this is still two hours before kick off. Also, there was nowhere to sit. So - Rakhi and I walked up the road to a bar called Jesters we had heard were showing it. To our delight the place was much quieter and a table in a prime position by the big screen was free. After informing the others, I approached the bar to get drinks and noticed the barman fiddling with his laptop. Surely not, I thought, is that not Gary Lineker on his computer screen. It was! And they were going to be showing the live BBC feed through the internet. Unbelievable. I think we've found our venue for the rest of the competition. And hopefully we'll get the cable fitted this week for the late games.

This week has been fun. Tuesday was a national holiday so I took Rakhi up to the enormous Kyobo book store where I'd bought a couple of her birthday presents. Unbeknown to me there is also a massive music section there I had walked straight past. Everything from Arctic Monkeys to The Zutons. In the evening we met up with the Canadians and went for a barbecue near to our place. We ate enough food to feed a small tribe and with drinks as well it came in at about 3pound fifty each. To cook ourselves the things we want to make at home costs more. None-Korean ingredients do cost quite a bit. Things like breakfast cereal and fresh fruit are even beyond Sainsbury's inflated prices - it's cheaper and more fun to eat in local Korean restaurants. Saying that, we've now decided to boycott the Tesco's Homeplus. Not just because of the stalking incident; it's mainly down to the prices. We've discovered a little Korean supermarket that's cheaper and closer to our place and we can get fresh fish and some veg from the local market. We've got quite into the bartering now and can get 10-20% knocked off most things there.

On Wednesday I started teaching the special classes and it went okay. I'm still trying to suss out the different levels I'm teaching but it's all good fun. Some of the stuff I've prepared they've just raced through and other things have been a bit too difficult. The special class I taught on Friday to the grade 3's and 4's was the best lesson I've taught so far. I decided to teach Feelings and after introducing the new vocab (happy, sad, angry, embarrassed etc.) and drilling them on the pronuciation of each I set up an acting competition to see if they could act out and correctly guess the different words. This is one thing I've discovered about teaching kids; a good way to keep them interested is to turn everything into a competition. They're so desperate to win it's ace. I was the same (still am!)

The task facing us this week is to make sure we can book our holidays at the same times and when we want them. With the extra lessons we're doing, we are each entitled to 36 days paid holiday and we're already planning for visits and trips. We're both going to have to be tactful and assertive.

Rakhi: I am a genius! I've worked out how to post pictures. Anyway, here are a couple of pics from my birthday...


As you can see, we've already made some lovely friends. Much fun was had by all!

Joel: Interviewing the kids for the special classes was tougher than I expected. With nearly 250 of them interested I should have realised that giving two and a half minutes to each would cause the process to last for ever. At the end of Thursday afternoon I had interviewed less than 60. It was five o'clock and half of those waiting had been told to go home. On Thursday evening I realised I had to be ruthless. If a student entered the room and couldn't give some sort of response to "Hello. How are you?" then they probably weren't special class material.

On Friday I discovered I'd now been allotted most of the morning as well as all afternoon to complete the selection. I think I had them worried. Some kids were head and shoulders above others and thier ability was obvious. Other really couldn't say a word in English - they clearly taken bad advice to even bother coming. It was those in the middle ground that were causing me difficulty. I had to make snap decisions about kids' futures and the principle was relying on me, as an expert of sorts, to get it right. I wound up exhausted at about four o'clock having drank a litre bottle of water in the afternoon session. I'm hoping I made the right decisions. One kid in particular stood out for me - his English wasn't as accurate as some of the others - some of them were like robots, they'd clearly studied very hard. This boy though had such an incredible enthusiasm - his answers were unexpected - our conversation went off on tangents - he mimed things if he didn't know all the right words. As he left the room he turned back and shouted "Thank you teacher, please give me a chance..thank you..I love you." He reminded me a bit of myself. I gave him the highest mark.

Rakhi's birthday was really good fun. We met up with some friends in Hogdae and visited a few bars that had been recommended by those in the group who'd been to the area before. There are some brilliant little places around. It was great as well that so many people who we've only really just met were up for coming out for Rakhi's birthday. They're all dead nice as well. Plenty of people we definitely hope to be seeing more of. It was a great night.

Last night, after leaving the insanity of Lotte World (it was like being in a place somewhere between a huge Vegas casino mall and the set for The Wizard of Oz - with rides!) I realised that near one of the stations on our route home was Dublin's Irish Pub - I'd spotted it in our guide book. Superb, I thought, all these local hofs and nice bars are okay but wouldn't it be great to pop into a proper little Irish pub for a Guinness. I'd expected Gangnam to be less busy and vibrant than other area of Seoul we'd visited but was completely wrong. It seems as though everywhere we stop on the underground we discover another little city with plenty to see and do. It was Saturday night and Gangnam was really buzzing. From the outside Dublins looked very much like an Irish pub - plenty of Guinness adverts, olde and wooden, maybe a bit large - but when once inside we were shown to a table I was begining to fear the worst. There was noe standing at the bar. No old Irish men trading the craik. On one wall was a giant TV screen showing a J-Lo concert. IN AN IRISH PUB!! I couldn't believe it. It's okay, I though, I'll have a pint of Guiness then we can go. Then I flicked through the drinks menu (?) and couldn't quite believe my eyes. A pint of Guiness - nearly a tenner. NEARLY A TENNER!!! We had a bottle of lager each and left.

Today we relaxed and learned some Hangul - life will be so much easier when we can read signs and menus. Tomorrow afternoon I'm heading out to Incheon with Debbie to get register for my "aien card". This will allow us to get mobiles next week - which will be handy. Slowly but surely we're settling in. It's great when a plan comes together.

Rakhi:The celebrity status is still in effect! Today Joel and I were followed by a group of girls from my school around the supermarket! We hung around in front of the beansprouts for about 5 minutes to see what they'd do and they just waited behind us until we moved again. They even tailed us outside of the supermarket and followed us down the road and accross the street! Very bizzarre indeed!

They're not all weird stalkers though, so of them are really sweet. Friday was my birthday and some of the kids made me cards, wrote me letters, gave me earrings, necklaces, chocolates and sweets, which was all very kind. My birthday celebrations started with me waking up to a flat full of balloons and presents from Joel. He really did his best to make sure I enjoyed my first birthday away from family and friends including appearing at the front door after work with a birthday cake and candles. In the evening, we met up with some friends of our training course and went to some cool bars in Hongdae. We ended up in a tiny little club where the DJ played all our requests so much fun was had. Then on Saturday Joel and I went to a massive amusement park in Seoul and although we were feeling slightly tender from the night before we went on some of the rides. As is always the way though, the best rides had huge queues and we couldn't be bothered to wait so we will be returning to go on the jet-ski rollercoaster ride!

Tomorrow is the first actual lesson that I will be teaching. I've planned my lessons and drawn about a hundred clocks today (i'm teaching one grade how to tell the time) so hopefully all will go well. I reckon my lesson will be a shock to the system for some of the kids as all they are used to in English lessons is watching an awful CD-ROM. I don't know who makes these language CD'S but my co-worker insists on using them all the time. Basically the whole lesson is planned for the teacher, just press start. I refuse to use them though as they are mind numbingly stupid and teach really bad American English. It's not 'soccer,' it's 'football!' And, it's 'mum' not 'mom' OK!
I'm on a crusade to eliminate the use of American English...