Joel: I spent most of today arm-wrestling with eleven year olds - and WINNING! I've been teaching the grade six classes comparatives (am bigger than, is stronger than, etc.) and we felt this would be a good way to get everyone interested. First of all, we set up a small competition amongst the kids to see who "is stronger than" who. Then, the winner in each class got to take me on. And don't even ask - of course I didn't let them win. You should know me better than that. More and more though, I'm thinking this is the key to good teaching, whatever the subject. HAVE LOTS OF FUN! I'm finding that if I try to come up with ways to keep myself entertained, the children have a good time and stay interested. Maybe the age gap isn't really as big as it first appears.

My Bugsy Malone project is now well and truly underway. I was glad to see Kim-Yin (the boy I said reminded me of myself) come along to audition and I manged to assemble a cast of 22 kids. I had a meeting with them late last week to give out the parts, tell them the story (with occasional translation) and show them the trailer for the 70's film which I managed to download. Kim-Yin is gonig to be Fat Sam and I took a bit of a gamble by asking a 3rd grade boy to play Bugsy. So, he's 7 or 8 years old but he seemed really good. By the end of last week I was starting to think I'd gone a bit mad and had taken on too much: these are 7-11 year old Korean kids who would probably rather be doing Cinderella for a school play - one teacher told me at lunch that this was the kind of thing they usually do. But now I've had two rehearsals and I can't believe how good the two boys I've mentioned are. They don't have to remember all the lines because it's going to be performed on a large outdoor stage and I'm going to prerecord all the dialogue. But straight away just reading the thing they seem to a have a much better understanding of the words and than I expected - combined with a natural flair for performance. I'm now feeling pretty excited about it.

Last weekend wasn't too bad. I was pretty done in by the end of it though and I'm still feeling a bit tired now after not having a proper weekend. At least we're off most of next week for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). I'll be finishing school early on Thursday to go and meet my parents at the airport. The last few weeks have flown by and now I'm dead excited that they're coming. We've found out about loads of events going on around Seoul next week to celebrate Chuseok so it's really the perfect time to come out here. Also, I hear the British heatwave came to a pretty spectacular end just as our Indian sumer was beginning. It's now between 25 and 27 in the afternoons and I had to root out my sunnies! I just hope my folks don't bring the weather with them.

Rakhi: All my grade 6 students have gone on a school trip which meant that I only had one lesson to teach today! I'm pretty grateful as I'm feeling shattered after working all this weekend.

From Friday to Sunday, The Office of Education put on a massive craft and educational type festival in Jungang Park in Bucheon City. From 2-6 Fri-Sun, Joel and I along with two Korean English teachers ran a language stall where kids of all ages could come and do role plays with us in order to practice their English. The gimmick of our stall was that Joel and I were dressed in Korean Hanboks (traditional dress- the Snow White and pastor outfits were kid’s sizes, I couldn’t breathe in mine!) and the kids could dress up in fairy tale outfits. Once in their costumes, they did a short role play with one of us and then had their photo taken. The two Korean teachers that we worked with were there to drum up business, sort the costumes out and take the pictures. Joel and I were the main event! We were such novelties in our Hanboks that over the whole weekend we caught the attention of hundreds of people; I don’t know how many complete strangers now have pictures of us! On the whole, working this weekend wasn't too bad but it was very tiring having to be ‘on show’ for four hours and be smiley, happy entertainers. By Sunday we were pretty fed up of being performing monkeys so were relieved to find out that we could finish an hour earlier.

I’m not sure who had the responsibility of compiling the role plays that we used on our stall but a couple of them were really funny. There was a Peter Pan role play that had the line "She's sexy!' in it whilst another had 'She's pretty but she's not my type!' The plays were mounted on boards and placed outside our stall for passers-by to see. A couple of them had a few spelling mistakes aswell so it was amusing to see ‘James’ an artist slash (Korean) English teacher working on the stall next to ours, come by with a marker pen to correct them! So often you can see incorrect and misspelt English language signs in Korea, some of them are really funny. Lots of people even wear clothes with English writing but have absolutely no idea what they say. A boy in one of my grade 6 classes wears a hooded jumper that says 'Nazi’s' on it and I’ve seen a little girl wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a hot dog and the statement’ I love my wiener!’

For the rest of this week, we’re busy with a dinner engagement with our co-workers and getting stuff organized for Joel’s parents. It’s going to be great having them over; we have plenty of ideas of things to do with them. Seoul is a great city packed full of things to do I’m sure they won’t get bored. Also, they have the best tour guides around!

Check out the ‘Our Photos’ link for pictures from the festival this weekend.

Joel: Sunday, Sunday, here again. My challenge for today is to adapt segments of the Bugsy Malone playscript that I've found on the internet into a 10 minute version I can do with some of the kids at school for an upcoming arts festival. I've been given free reign and felt Bugsy Malone would be a good choice since (bizarrely) Rakhi has the soundtrack in her music collection and, of course, I've secretly always wanted to play Bugsy. I might be too old for that but now I can live out my dream through others. Ha ha! I'm sure it will be fun. Auditions are tomorrow and I've no idea how many are interested. I'm praying it won't be anything like the nightmare of choosing the special classes.

Norman Jay last night was brilliant. I''ve been really surprised by the number of top quality gigs that are put on in Seoul. Of course, it's an enormous city with plenty of punters but it does feel like we're here at exactly the right time. We missed a DJ Shadow gig recently because it was midweek but there are so many other things coming we're spoilt for choice.
On Friday night, Ryan and Kristen came over for dinner so we cooked a Mexican for them - well, I say "we", I drank wine while Rakhi cooked. They're both dead nice and Ryan phoned yesterday to say they'd agreed it was the nicest meal they'd had since they arrived in Korea...so compliments to the chef! Last weekend, I went out for dinner and drinks with teachers from my school because one of them is leaving. It was cool. I discovered a really nice bar not far from our place and a pool club which is close by too, although it's not cheap - depends how quickly you play.

I'm not sure what to expect next weekend but I'm sure it will be pretty painful. What I know is that, as part of government event to be held in a huge park, Rakhi and I will be dressing up in ridiculous costumes, teaching kids (also dressed up) a few English phrases and having our photos taken with them before waving them on their way. How many times we will have to do this I don't know. We need a cunning strategy to keep ourselves entertained. It's four hours a day for three days and I hope it passes quickly. How on earth did we get roped into it?

I'm not sure I've mentioned the appauling quality of Korean TV. There are a few highlights - namely The Donald Trump Apprentice and Project Runway, but as much as I used to moan about British TV I do miss so many of the quality programmes on BBC2 BBC3 and channel 4. I don't watch the Korean programmes but most seem to be really shoddy soaps. Of the English language transmissions available, films, on the whole, are restricted to American action flicks. There is a shocking amount of US reality TV - Fat Club, America's Next Top Model and American Idol to name but a few. And there are two channels that just show people playing computer games. Is that really entertaining? Thought-provoking? I know watching the Idiot Box is mostly a waste of your life but sometimes I'd just like to sit back and enjoy and episode of Derren Brown or Alan Partridge. We've always got the internet.

And today is Super Sunday! Chelski vs. Liverpool. I'm hoping we can get the game through the computer. Come on you Reds!

Rakhi: Uh-oh! I don't know what Joel and I have let ourselves in for but we've agreed to work all next weekend. The Office of Education are holding some sort of educational event in a park in Bucheon and Joel and I were asked if we'd help out by doing some English style activities. On Thursday, we left our schools early to attend a meeting regarding this festival. We had to sit through an hour long lecture conducted entirely in Korean after which we were still none the wiser! After the meeting two Korean English teachers led us into a room to explain what would be happening. Apparently, for four hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Joel and I will be doing English role plays with little kiddies. The best bit though is that we will be in costume! I have to dress up as Snow White and Joel is going to be a pastor! Ha ha!

Last night we went to the ultra swish Lotte Hotel to see the DJ, Norman Jay. The crowd was mostly young, incredibly hip and stylish Koreans. Although it was quite pricey to get in and drinks were pretty expensive, the music was great. I love Norman Jay and going to see him at Notting Hill Carnival is always a highlight of mine. Having missed the carnival this year, I was made up to discover that he was playing in Seoul. I think it's a really exciting time to be in Korea at the moment. Only a couple of years ago, very few international musicians would tour in Korea. Now, the country is making itself known to the wider world and bands and DJ's are realising the importance of the Korean market.

On the whole, everything's going well at school, the only problem I have is with two of the grade 6 classes. Some of the kids have no interest in being at school at all. My co-teacher and I have tried various different methods to try and get the kids not only interested but to stop the noisy kids disrupting the students that do want to learn. These particular grade 6 classes behave the same way with their homeroom teachers so it's a problem that runs deaper than just English class. Every lesson without fail my co-teacher punishes the kids for being noisy, not listening to us, not listening to each other, sleeping and generally being annoying. The sad thing is that some of the students have gone back to their homeroom teacher's to say that they enjoy English but their classmates are stopping them learn. It's very unfair on them. What would the teachers in 'Unteachables' do I wonder?

Rakhi: Hi all. I've uploaded some more pics, just follow the link on the right...

Rakhi: Only last Saturday we were sunning ourselves on the banks of the Han river in the baking sunshine but now, what with the start of the new school term, it feels like summer has officially come to an end. This week for the first time since we arrived in Korea, we've had to shut all of our windows. It's no longer hideously sticky and humid and the cicadas have ceased their endless vibrations. I can't imagine what winter here is going to be like.

This has been my first full week back at school and I've found it pretty tiring...from lack of work rather than over-work! I have lesson planning down to an art form so it hardly takes me any time to do. Plus, I have a small library of material I can use so this saves a lot of time. This week after curriculum classes in the morning I've had at the most two classes in the afternoon. The rest of my time has been spent playing computer games, reading The Guardian, reading books and passing the day until home time. For my grade 5+6 after-school class on Wednesday I taught the kids comparatives (bigger, smaller, richer) and superlatives (more expensive, the most beautiful...) and one of the little girls told me that I was the oldest (apparently I look 50), ugliest, shortest, fattest person in the room. It's so rewarding when you get the kids using English correctly! I told her she looked like Shrek!

On Monday after school I went shopping with a couple of the teachers. We went to Ewha Women's University in Seoul which is said to be the best shopping district in Seoul for women; there were countless cool shops and stalls. Young Korean women are very beautiful with gorgeous shiny hair, super slim figures and contemporary, stylish outfits. Fashion in Korea is very similar to that back home except that nearly all Korean women always wear high heels and it's not because of their height because they're not all really short. I don't know how they do it-I've seen women climbing mountains and on the beach in them! Korea is definately as clued up on style as home. You can find all the latest fashions you would see in magazines but at bargain prices. Strangely, one of the best places to find nice clothes is in the subway stations! As land is so expensive, particularly in Seoul, no space is wasted. Most of the big subway stations double up as giant supermarkets, restaurants and underground malls. Whilst the clothes are not necessarily the best quality they are aesthetically pleasing and cheap, cheap, cheap! Ewha was great though and even though there were so many lovely clothes and accesories, I was very restrained and only bought a bag as I had intended. I'll definately be going back for more soon though!

We went to see Shane the other day to check how he was doing after his accident. Considering it was quite horrific, he thankfully wasn't as bad as either Joel or I expected him to be. We took him some National Geographics and doughnuts and went out for a bite to eat with him. His face was a bit swollen and he has no sensation in his lips but I reckon he's very lucky. It could have been so much worse.

The weekend's here again! They do come around pretty fast it's great! I think we're going to Insadong during the day tomorrow and maybe take in a palace or two then to see FC Seoul v Jeju in the evening. I have the chants down now so i'll be singing my little heart out!

Joel: I'm back at home after my first full day of the new term. Not that my day was particularly full. Debbie had prepared an English quiz/game to play with the fifth grade classes and I kinda helped out with it and only a handful of kids turned up for my special class so I just played a round of Scattegories with them. I get the feeling that the kids are eased in to the new term with very little real work being done in week one - just as there was (or is that wasn't) in the last week before summer. All of which is fine by me. I've been asked to come up with a 40 minute game to play with the grade 6 classes tomorrow so that's my job for tonight.

I wrapped up the summer camp on Friday and feel it went pretty well. At least all the kids who came can now ask "Teacher -how do you spell animal" (for example) instead of "Teacher! Teacher! Animal spelling." The kids actually all know lots of English words. I just don't think they've ever really been shown properly how to string them together. I'm under the impression that Korean is a much easier language to learn than English - if some effort is applied. Rakhi and I have been a bit rubbish really. We still rely an awful lot on menus with pitures when we eat out. Saying that, we did a have a good crack at it yesterday on an interactive internet site, and I had some basic Korean exchanges with teachers at school today (who seemed quite surprised and complemented me on my accent). I'm a bit sad the summer's over - I'll definitely miss those 3hr days.

Since I last wrote we've done quite a bit. We've been to two FC Seoul games. The first with Ryan and Kristen and the second on our own. The first game was a little frustrating - ref lost control, Seoul should have won - but the the second game was ace. We realised first time around that there seemed to be a better atmosphere behind the goal so when we returned that's where we headed. There's loads of singing and dancing and fireworks - especially when Seoul score - and some of the songs are strangely familiar. One trundles along to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" and another la-las to the melody of "The animals went in two by two - hurrah!" while everyone pogos left and right with arms wrapped around each other. It's not exactly "You'll never walk alone" but I'll take it for now. Anyway, the game finished 3-1 to Seoul and next up is home to Jeju on the 9th. F C SEO-UL OLE' OLE'!

We went out to dinner with my principal again last weekend. The surprise that really shouldn't have been was that only a couple of hours before we were due to meet I recieved a call from Debbie to say the principal wanted to know if Rakhi would like to come along. SURPRISE! Not.
Anyway, Rakhi came (I begged her) and all was well. We were taken to a Galbi restaurant (a Korean BBQ) after I had said to Debbie that galbi was my favourite Korean food of all that I had tried. So at least no tuna eye-sockets were forced down me this time - nothing raw and nothing fishy. Great stuff. My principal is pretty sound really. He has asked me again about what we plan to do at the end of our contracts as he wants me to stay on - which is a really nice feeling. From what I gather he's a much more friendly and welcoming chap than Rakhi's principal, who we ran into on the underground on Saturday. I had naively assumed that all Korean principals would look and dress pretty similarly or at least all be smart and presentable. This guy looked quite frail and dishevelled and sat there opposite us fading in and out of sleep. Rakhi said he always looks like that. It's been clear from the start that I've had the better deal in terms of schools, principals and co-workers - but then Rakhi has been taken out tonight by some colleages, so there must be some teachers at her school who really want to make her welcome.

Other things we've done in the last ten days are:

Bought a matress to sleep on when my parents come over which is now only three weeks away. We're starting to get plans together for things to do while they're here. My dad's pretty keen to check out the demilitarised zone and spot some North Korean troops so that's a must - although I'm sure it will be very strange. Also, we'll be making another trip over to Seoraksan National Park - I know they'll both love it there.

Been to the gym five days out of seven. Although I haven't been since Friday. Planned to go tonight but...er...got sidetracked.

Bought a basketball. We haven't been able to find a proper badminton court nearby but spotted basketball nets in the little park up the road so we spent an hour yester playing one-on-one and shooting some hoops. Less boring than the gym.

Joined Costco! We did it. We're now members of that great American institution. A real life Homer and Marge. It gives us access to PROPER CHEESE, GRAVY, HASH BROWNS, PROPER BUTTER and many other things unavailable or stupidly-priced elsewhere.

Said goodbye to our Scouse mate Christine who came to the Pentaport Rock festival with us and is going to work in Laos. She left us a huge bag of herbs and spices we didn't have since she knows we cook quite a bit - bless her.

I've just answered the phone to a friend of mine, Shane, who's been on a mini-tour of South-East Asia over the summer. I asked him how it was and he said I should look at some pictures he'd just e-mailed me. I checked the pictures and they're of him, bruised and bandaged in a foreign hospital ward. He told me that a week ago he came off a bike in Malaysia and went through the windscreen of a car whose driver had fallen asleep. He's still pretty bruised and sore - broken nose, ribs, dislocated shoulder - but feeling much better. I reckon he's lucky to be alive. Rakhi and I both returned to school last Friday to hear truly tragic stories. The nine-year-old son of a teacher in Rakhi's school was involved in a car accident over the summer and now lies in a coma with brain damage. Utterly tragic. I know car accidents happen everywhere but I regularly see horrendously dangerous driving here. Loads of vehicles - partiularly motobikes - fly through red lights all the time. I don't know what the law is but it's crazy. Motorbikes whizz along the pavements, beeping pedestrians, and even weave in and out of people who are using zebra crossings. I would NEVER want to drive around Korea. It scares the shit out of me.
I returned to school last week to hear that one of the grade six students drowned in a river while on a summer trip. There was a short service held on Friday morning at the school. I don't know all the students by their Korean names (they have English nicknames for English class) but tomorrow I'll be teaching all the grade six classes and I know I'll be able to work it out by the empty seat. There really aren't any words.

I told Shane we'll be taking him out for a beer asap. So glad he's alright.