Sunday, January 29, 2006

Happy Year of the Dog

I got a phone call on Monday night from Sam- erstwhile heroine of Lost Seouls. She told me that she would be in London the next day and it seemed a good idea to meet up with her during one of my endless lunch breaks.

We met, we ate dak galbi

sam and dak galbi

then I made her come to my class.

Then we went for pints at O'Neills in Chinatown.

me and sam

After a couple of pints and some great fried food it was time for her to leave. As we walked towards the pub door I said that it would be weird that it wouldn't be Seoul outside that door- given that I hadn't seen Sam since she left the land of the endless ojinga last March.

chinatown

'I don't know though,' she said and stepped to one side so I could see the lanterns adorning the street outside in preparation for Chinese New Year this weekend.

Then we got in a black cab- something I haven't done since I had a boyfriend rich enough to pay for one- and pootled off to Victoria Coach Station so young Sam could make her way home.


sam in the taxi

My students insisted, as have countless people before them, that me and Sam look the same- I just don't see it myself

in the taxi

it was good to see her before she returns to Korea this week with fiance in tow.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Easy PC

I am in the internet cafe and behind me someone has fallen asleep with their head down on the keyboard. They are surrounded by suitcases and snoring very loudly.

Why do I never think of this place when I need a nap? I usually make the most of the comfy sofas at the National Gallery- now there's culture!

Monday, January 23, 2006

Hunting High and Low

My mother was only five years older than I am now, the first time that I fell in love. Unlike other mothers she didn't discourage me or make comments about how they looked like a girl. No, that was left to my father. Even so, both parents seemed happy enough to let me spent hour after hour locked in my room with my love, the first time that I had been old enough to want to shut my bedroom door.

The love was pure, exciting and filled with the boundless enthusiasm of youth. I though that I was so luck to feel that way and pitied the loveless around me. Several of my friends had fallen in love the year before but I felt that I had invented it and they didn't really understand.

Over time it grew into an obsession, healthy or otherwise, which was a common problem amongst the lovelorn at my school. And although I was just 11 years old, I felt that I was loved back, understood and my emotions returned.

Eventually, inevitably, I began to outgrow my love. But the first cut is the deepest, as they say, and it was always precious to me. People would joke about my first love but I felt that a love that pure should never be something to laugh at, no matter how it ended. I may have only been 11 but this was real.

I will always remember how I felt the first time that I saw my love- the rush of excitment, a feeling that I had never experienced before. I first saw them at my friend, Kathryn's, house for there was more than one object of my affections, indeed my emotions were claimed by no less than three people. Three six foot tall Nordic gods in their mid-twenties.

Yes, I am talking of my first celebrity crush. The deserving ones were the members of Aha, of 'Take on me' fame- also known as 'that video' back in 1985.

And it is true that I have never forgotten them. And on Sunday I bought one of their albums on CD. Of course, I have it on vinyl from my original purchase in 1986, when I ran out of school during my lunch hour to buy it the day that it was released and carried it around school for the rest of the day as if it was the most precious thing in the world. Which, of course, it was.

Now I'm listening to it on my MP3 player and I am reminded of the emotions that led me to jump around the room the first time that I played it, putting a small scratch at the beginning of the first track. I was perturbed that the CD doesn't retain this jump but amazed that I could still remember most of the words. Memories rush through my mind and my heart and I am 12 years old again and singing as though Aha might hear me, recognise my love and realise that they loved me right back.

Not a bad way to spend the journey to work. And the reason that I will always consider six foot to be the most attractive height in a man.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Hola! Como estas?

Started learning Spanish this week with one of my students. Not sure how much of it I have taken in and so have to do some homework over the weekend. My homework on Thursday night was to order a beer in Spanish in a Colombian restaurant. I was fine until he started asking me questions like what kind of beer I wanted.

There has been a mad amount of languages going on at work this week as the Colombian guy has been learning bits of Turkish off the other students and saying them over and over in class. So I decided to get my revenge. I had to wait about an hour in yesterday's class until he said something in Turkish then I hit him with

'Turkce konusma!'

Of course he didn't understand but the Turkish guys fell about laughing at me telling him not to speak Turkish, in Turkish. All the rehearsing with my elementary class in the morning paid off.

I think that it is good for me, as a teacher, to be on the receiving end of the learning sometimes. It gives me a better understanding of what my poor students are going through and just how good they are. It has certainly made me more sympathetic and stop saying things like 'but I've told you once, how come you can't remember?'

As part of my ongoing Spanish emersion, we hit the salsa club again last night. I have seen this place many times over the years but never given it any attention until actually going in there last week. It has cameras pointing at the dancefloor and TVs outside the door so you can stand in the street and watch the action. I have to admit that I chickened out of the classes again but with good reason this time. I had company. There were several students and I brought another teacher along which made us laugh a lot because everytime one of the students asked an English question we replied in unison.

After a handful of beers and more than a sip of Wrong Island Iced Tea, both me and Sarah were up on the dancefloor. I danced with the guy that asked me last week (and asked again this week and later bought me a beer!) and she with some unknown. We were both a bit taken aback when we realised just how much these guys were enjoying the dancing, their interest was a little obvious.

I love going to the salsa club. The novelty might wear off in a couple of weeks but at the moment I am really enjoying something so different. I also danced with Camilo again and he started to help me 'right foot, left foot' but just gave up after asking me to move my hips and realising that I can't do everything at once. He then maintained a safe distance until the song finished. Smart boy.

Monday, January 16, 2006

How Korean are you?

My students tease me about being Korean. One of myJapanese students was lamenting the lack of fellow countrymen in her class- 'all the students are Korean and the teacher is Korean too!'

Technically I am not Korean but sometimes I wonder. For example, I really have to force myself to keep my shoes on in people's houses. Because they do. But it feels wrong, oh so wrong. When I am hungover I find myself craving spicy food rather than the traditional bacon buttie. I try to eat everything with chopsticks because it is too awkward to use a knife and fork. I never use the red board marker to write someone's name.

But worse than that. Since New Year I have put my age up a year. When I see people kissing in the streets I am quite taken aback. If the TV newsreader shows even a little cleavage I am shocked to the core. I can see the downfall in societal values whenever I see a woman smoking in public, rather than in the toilets as is acceptable.

When my Colombian student beckoned me over using his hand with the palm facing up I nearly punched him.

I haven't stopped requesting a visit to the norae bang at the end of the night yet. I keep calling my school a hagwon and forgetting the English word.

I feel more displaced than a lot of my students. I have even referred to London as Seoul on occasion.

But some things are much easier than I thought they would be. Since I left London in 1998, I have always sworn that I could not return because there is no way that I could face the daily commute again. Now, a mere seven weeks into working, I see that time on the train as a good place to catch up with my reading. I don't find the people here to be as rude as I remember, mind you, I don't find them to be as English as I remember either.

Overall, I think that working with international students in a school in Central London is a good compromise for me- I am neither here nor there.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Long Time No Blog

It has been a couple of weeks since I last wrote anything here. I don't have any proper excuses. I had a week off work between Christmas and New Year which was a time of extreme laziness where the most interesting thing to happen was this rather light snowfall

snow- honest

Though the snow we had driven through the night before was much scarier. This was the most wintery it got here. Then when I got back to work I had twice as many classes as before. Yes, a massive TWO classes a day. Mind you, they are both three hours long. Then again, so is my lunch break which is why I had time to meet Angelika, the Swiss girl I met in Perth, for lunch last week

angelika

We went to Waxy O'Connors for a half which nearly saw me fall asleep. My second fatal mistake was to have a hot chocolate before going back to class. I nearly didn't make it out of Starbucks awake.

The next day I was up bright and early to go to Greenwich. Kinda of a lie really, I got up and eventually went to Greenwich anyway. I met Russ there and we went to Up the Creek comedy club. We went before Christmas and had a great time and were both eager to go back. What we hadn't counted on was being seated right next to the stage. Yikes. The first comedian wasn't funny but we did our best to laugh. This wasn't enough for her though and she picked on me. Not nice. Then I had a quiet time until the last guy who was very funny. So I didn't mind when he started on me too- though it might have been the few extra beers that I had imbibed by then that gave me the padding.

After the show there is possibly the worst disco that you can imagine. Needless to say, I drank too much and suffered the next day. But I did remember to bring my camera to get this photo of a statue of Nelson looking proudly over London and the stupid dome

nelson

And despite my best intentions, I neither househunted nor went book shopping or even sloped around Greenwich Market. Instead, I just sidled home and got back into bed muttering something about never drinking again. Binge drinking is neither big nor clever, kids!

Monday was the day of the Tube strike here in London. Anticipating all kinds of problems I got up earlier than usual to get to work. Turns out that my line wasn't affected and so I arrived at work too early and spend most of the day yawning.

The early start meant that I didn't really have the energy I needed when I got home that night to prepare for the observed teaching practise that I had the next day. All new teachers need to prove themselves with a couple of observed lessons in their first couple of weeks. Mine had been delayed. My class behaved wonderfully and it all went very well, much to my relief. But the feedback session ended late and I didn't get home in time to see my soap operas that night.

On Wednesday I travelled halfway across the country to go to an interview for a teaching course at Exeter Uni. This being despite the fact that I was loving EFL too much to want to teach English rugrats. But the interview clarified for me that I was better off in EFL even though the wages would shame McDonalds. Four hours travelling in each direction- nice! Though I did discover that in Devon some trains actually do request stops! You must tell the conductor who can then ask the driver to stop and let you off! I have never heard of that before.

Thursday was a late night at work because of a workshop, a bi-weekly occurence. Then on Friday I had to go to a Salsa club with some students. I was too shy to get on the dance floor or join in the dance lessons. The Colombians that I had gone with are rather nifty dancers who have never had a lesson in their lives. After the lesson, Camilo took me into a more secluded corner and taught me some steps. He is a very patient guy, as the bruises on his feet will prove, but eventually he had to find someone good to dance with.

I danced with an American guy who told me that the key to Salsa was to look surprised. And there was me thinking that it had something to do with moving my hips! It was a lot of fun even if it felt a bit too sexy to be dancing with my students like that(!) We said that we would go again next week and take some more people. And I promised that I would do the lessons next time so I could get less clueless about the whole thing.

The worst thing about my shameful performance was that I used to do Latin American classes when I was a kid- mind you, I don't think that I was any better then either.

Good job that Camilo is a patient guy as he is going to start teaching me Spanish this week. let's hope that it goes better than the salsa!

waxy oconnors

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Happy New Year

I think that I could count on the fingers of one hand the New Year's Eves that I have actually enjoyed. Despite all my good intentions, I usually end up having a crap time and paying for it with destroyed brain cells the next day. Last NYE was particularly sucky, finding me drunk and alone in a nightclub in Seoul as it did.

So this year I didn't even try. I stayed home with my sis and had a celebratory glass of champagne at midnight while watching the fireworks light up the Esssex sky.

Perfect!

And I had a lovely phone call from Korea a few hours before and that was all I needed. After eleven days off work I think that I have acheived a grand total of nothing and it feels great. I didn't even buy any shoes(!) Public transport was buggered over Christmas, what with the Tube strike and living in Essex. There weren't even trains into London until 28th December- too late to meet a Korean friend flying out that day.

So I didn't even try to get out there. Which has done nothing to help me lose the extra Christmas weight I am now sporting but what can you do?

Back to work today. I am now working 9-12 and then 3-6. Literally half of my class is Korean and the other half is Turkish. Not sure about the afternoon class but it looks a little Brazilian so far, I seem to have lost most of my Colombians- wonder if this will affect me wanting to go there. I'll keep you posted!

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