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.