I guess that I should explain

Why did the trail go cold? Well, this journal was all about my time as a clueless foreigner in Korea- that is not to say that I am now a near-native, am in fact just as clueless and with less excuses- and I am nearing the end of my third year here. And I have a new plan which is on a new blog.

I am leaving this here in the hope that other people will find it amusing to read about a poor English girl struggling to make it through the average Korean day.

And, who knows, she might be back in Korea in the Fall of 2005!!

Thank you for reading!

Welcome to 2005

Well, here we are- big and live in 2005. Weird. Seems like just five minutes ago that we were discussing whether we would say ‘the year two thousand’ or ‘20-oh-oh’ and now we are halfway through the first decade of the new millennium and it isn’t as exciting anymore.

Not that life in general isn’t exciting. Life is infinitely interesting but this email will contain a finite number of interesting incidents. The fun all started on Christmas Eve where much of the teaching day was spent making Christmas cards with kids that can’t read or write English so came up with some interesting ways to spell Christmas- bless ‘em! I did write it for them to copy. Actually, the fun really started on the Wednesday before Christmas when the first snow of the winter fell during my kindergarten class. Snow is so much more magical when you are with kids. Thursday it snowed all day but it had all gone in time for Christmas so I was denied a white one.

To solve the conumdrum of how to get ready to go out while having arranged to meet folk immediately after class on Christmas Eve, I decided to have my last class of the day in my house. I only have the one student at that time and we had great fun opening some of my Christmas presents together. We chatted as I got my make up on and put my hair up. The owner of Bumpin had got a turkey in for our Christmas Eve dinner which was very thoughtful of him. I woke up the next morning, gathered together all my Christmas presents and went back to bed to open them. I watched the soap operas and opened presents- it was great!
Later that day, I met up with mates and we had Chinese food for dinner. Then we went to the DVD bang and watched a movie. We arrived in the bar to discover that all had been drinking in our absence and were quite mullered already. However, everyone appreciated the chocolate and Yule log that I had been sent. My friends’ gifts made me look really good in the bar that night!! We ended the day at the singing room and everyone came back to mine- left just before 7am. It was a good day.

Boxing Day was another movie day- we went to see Polar Express and had dinner again. Monday I went to Seoul, more socialising and another night in the singing room. Tuesday, was spent shopping, movie and dinner again. Wednesday- see Tuesday! Thursday was different altogether.

On Thursday we got up at 5.30 (me, Sam and her mate, Liam, that is) am, in the morning, o’clock. Why so early??? Because we were heading off into North Korea for the day. Well, almost. I have visited the DMZ (demilitarised zone) a couple of times before and been done the North Korean tunnel and spied on the farmers on the other side of the border.

But this was different because we went right into the heart of the DMZ. The DMZ itself goes from coast to coast in Korea and is four miles wide. In the middle of it is the MDL (the military demarcation line) and that is where you can find the object of our attention that day - the JSA (the Joint Security Area) which straddles the border between North and South Korea. We arrived at that place and went into the building on the South Korea side that was built for family reunions but has never been used for that purpose.

We were told that when we got outside we had to walk quickly, without stopping, in two lines to the MAC conference building. This building is half in each country. So when we got there we were able to walk around and so actually stood in North Korea for a few minutes. The guards in the room are South Korean and we were told that the door to North Korea had been locked. After that we were taken to an observation tower and allowed to take photos but told not to point at the North Korean soldiers. We saw the World’s most dangerous golf course and tennis court- we were allowed to take photos of the one hole golf course but not the tennis court, for some reason.

It was an immensely strange day but really interesting. The tour finished at about two after which we went home to nap. Friday was NYE and we went clubbing. It was a massive venue in the COEX mall. It was good but not as a good a show as last year but fun nonetheless. Probably because the beer was free until midnight. We got a taxi back at around 4.30. Yesterday I got the bus back to Gangneung, downloaded the New Year soaps and relaxed. Tomorrow I am back to work- bugger, bugger, bugger!!

I am attaching some photos for your viewing pleasure.
Happy New Year to you all. Hope to see you all in 2005 and catch up on all the gossip.
Love, love and more love
Helen
xxx

Changes in plans and then changes back again..

Let’s face it, it is never going to be easy to leave Korea. It is a compelling place, once you have got over the sheer panic of actually making it here in the first place, the late night bars, the friendliness of strangers, the lack of small talk in the hairdressers- just some of the reasons that I find it so hard to imagine packing my room into a backpack and heading off into the sunset.
But I got dangerously close recently. So close in fact that I had started to downsize my possessions and send out emails tp people who I considered might have room on their sofas for little old me. The reasons for my change of heart are difficult to put my finger on even for me. I think that I had had enough of always being the largest person in the room, being afraid to walk into clothes shops because of the petrified look of the shop staff, often being the tallest in the room (even if it was full of men), consistently being told by men that they ‘just prefer Korean girls’, sending people into fits of giggles just by speaking English, never getting enough vacation time, being so far away from my family and, I guess, having fallen out with two of my closest friends here in Gangneung didn’t help either.

I began to have doubts about my continued presence in Korea about five weeks ago. Then I woke up one morning and realised that I was mentally packing everything in my room into boxes and decided that it was time to go. I told everyone, except the boss, and started looking for work back in London. I think that the idea that I might have been leaving soon made me appreciate Korea more. And my friends here have been amazingly supportive of my indecisiveness. Then, two weeks before I was due to resign, Sam talked me round with talk of how much more fun travelling would be if I stayed until the end of my contract, picked up my severance pay and free plane ticket and scooted off into the world with more than fifty quid in my pocket.

So I have changed my mind once more and committed myself both mentally and physically to being in Korea until the end of my contract in March next year. The plan after that is still in the construction stage but has been tentatively entitled ‘My Dream Holiday’- so let’s just say that kangaroo is probably on the menu- though probably not literally! Just five and a half more months of kindergarten to get through- that’s around 55 more classes full of the cutest and most infuriating four and five year olds you could ever meet.

As you can imagine from the above mental anguish, a lot of the two months since I got back from Cambodia has been spent sitting alone in my beanbag in a darkened room, rocking slowly backwards and forwards…… well, that is not entirely true. In fact, I had a great weekend in Mokpo, yes Mokpo- my original home in Korea way back in the good old days of 2002. There was a bit of a reunion going on- class of 2002- and it was great to meet up with people, some of whom I hadn’t seen for nearly two years. A weird sports day had been organized, I am not going to go into too much detail but I did spend quite some time throwing ping pong balls into glasses of beer, it was fun. And we stayed in the craziest motel you ever did see- with a dildo vending machine in the hall and everything! I had a great time with everyone and it certainly justified the fifteen hours that I spent on buses getting to and from the south that weekend.

And that was not the end of the fun! I have also been to Seoul a couple of times recently and had friends visit the other weekend for Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving- a glorious holiday that lasted for five whole days this year and yet somehow still doesn’t make up for so many holidays this year landing on the weekends!!). My mates from Naju showed their dedication and followed in the footsteps of my Mokpo trip and came up here to Gangneung. It was good to have them up here and I really enjoyed showing them around Gangneung and indeed showing them to Gangneung. They came up on a good night as there was a concert in one of the three bars that I usually go to.

So we went to Absolut (the new bar owned by the guy that owns my other fav, Bumpin), the Warehouse (my boss’s bar) and finally Bumpin. People here usually go to those bars so we are starting to wonder why we even ask people where they went the night before- it is usually just a matter of trying to remember which order you did them in! To top it all off, Neil and Chris gallantly fished a sofa out of a skip for me in broad daylight and it has certainly added a little ‘je ne sais what’ to my room!

The Najus left on the Sunday and Monday saw me off to visit Mona in the back of beyond- ie less than an hour away on the expressway. It is really beautiful around her house and nice and quiet. We celebrated the solitude with a very enjoyable meal and bonfire. There was just four of us out there and it wasn’t so cold last week either. The next day we decided to go out to some caves. And rather then go to the local ones where the carpark is just step or two away from the stalagmite action, we drove for ages through the countryside only to find ourselves in a fake cave!

The drive was gorgeous and soon enough we were at Hwanseong Caves. Or very nearly. All that was left was a hike that was nearly to prove the death of me. I was hot and the walk was steep. Then we saw a sign saying that it was still another hour away. I was ready to quit there and then but they talked me round and Patrick actually pushed me for the last 400m. It was all worth it though. The caves were magnificent- huge and cavey with plenty of streams and waterfalls. Unfortunately my camera was out of action so no digital images to share with you. Which is a shame as the drive was also gorgeous.

Back to work for Thursday and Friday last week then off to Seoul on the Saturday. Now it is Tuesday and cold. Last time I wrote one of these things I broke into a sweat just putting my fingers on the keyboard, this weekend it got cold and I was so unprepared I found myself buying a poncho just to stay warm enough to get to the bus terminal in Seoul for my return trip on Sunday. Yes, PONCHO- wanna make something of it?

Today I got the devastating news that I have to teach my housewife class an English Folk song for them to perform at some event in December. I am toying with the idea of teaching them a Billy Bragg song- the sight of 20 housewives trilling ‘The Union forever, defending our right, down with the blacklegs, all workers unite!’ would be something to behold. But have decided to cheat a little and teach them an Irish classic, Molly Malone!

I am sure that I have forgotten loads of stuff that I meant to tell you but I have to get back to my sofa and staring at my lava lamp now. Who said that I never do anything useful!
Thanks to everyone for their love, support, advice, shoulders to cry on and offers of sofas, spare rooms and tents in the garden!
Love
H
xxx

Rainy days in Gangneung

Today I have that slightly cloudy headed feeling you get when you have spent most of the previous day in bed. Predictably enough this all day bed fiesta was the result of a prolonged drinking sesh on Saturday night. I feel that the weather has been driving me to drink recently- and it is no wonder that I feel this way once you know that it has rained here every day for the last three weeks- well, admittedly it didn’t rain on Sunday but it was too late by then. What kind of weather is this- months after the end of the official rainy season?

Wednesday night saw the usual hump-day party at Bar Bumpin where the boys did their best to forget the rain by all flirting with the same girl. The fact that this girl wasn’t me did in no way contribute to my early departure from the bar and the onset of a mild bout of depression that lasted until a particularly loud bout of shouting at my students on Friday afternoon. Nope, indeed I put the mood down to ‘cabin fever’ brought on by the rain- you see, it is actually possible to blame the rain for pretty much everything if you really put your mind to it- a year and a half in Dublin taught me that!

Thursday was a quiet night in for me. The newly instigated ‘British Comedy Night’ went ahead- the attendees being me and another English ex-pat plus some lager- shamelessly gorging ourselves on ‘Blackadder’ and ‘Red Dwarf’ episodes that I had managed to download off the internet. This week’s BCN had a distinctly Celtic edge to it since I had managed to get hold of a couple of ‘Father Ted’ episodes to the delight of all involved.

I thought that Friday night was going to be a quiet one as Rory had his Hapkido yellow belt test on Saturday. How wrong I was! I left work only to find a couple of foreigners sitting quite literally on the doorstep of my school- or at least in the barbecue tent opposite it. I bounded over and introduced myself. They had only arrived in the country three days before and so were thrilled to meet the first foreigner they had seen since they landed. They live in my apartment block and, after establishing that they were like minded individuals, I drew them a map to Bumpin and shared my knowledge of the city with them- namely the one store you can buy cheese and the one store that sells English language novels (and the correct way to pour soju but that is another matter). I was just taking leave of their jetlagged company when my phone ran and a slightly slurred voice came onto the line to tell me that he had been ‘forced’ to drink soju by his school and how I had to come downtown to make sure that he didn’t drink too much and miss his test the next day. As, apparently, I have the semi-official designation of ‘Rory-handler’ when he is drunk I felt obliged to go down there and nag him into going home- a seemingly impossible task which I finally achieved at around 3am.

When I eventually woke on Saturday I was determined to leave the house- rain or no rain. Despite the CNN weather page telling me that it was currently raining in Gangneung it seemed fairly dry outside. And it remained that way until I got out of the apartment block and into the car park. Fortunately I had planned ahead and had my umbrella with me. So I set off to the beach. To get there I had decided to walk down through the Uncurdled Beancurd Village that I live in, down the narrow lanes at the end of the houses, across the fields and take the 4km detour around the lake. I took loads of photos of the area because I have been very lucky in living in such a nice area this year. The results of this wandering photography tour are accessible through the link I sent you at the weekend.

It was great to be out of the house and breathing some fresh air. The footpath around Gyeongpo lake is usually jammed with people at the weekend- on bikes, skateboards, inline skates, with buggies, running, jogging or walking. But on this rainy Saturday it was almost blissfully empty. I watched the fish jump out of the lake like reverse lemmings and even saw a brilliant blue and orange kingfisher darting amongst the reeds. As I reached the other side of the lake (by circumnavigating it, of course, no walking on water for me) I became the sole diner in a food tent showing Korean baseball. I was so hungry that the Dol Sot Bi Bim Bab I had there was the best that I have ever tasted (steamed vegetables, rice, spicy sauce with a fried egg on top served in a sizzling stone pot). The last time that I actually made it to the bed in daylight hours it was totally covered in tourists and the hawkers catering to their need for cold drinks, watermelons, the odd henna tattoo or string of beads. Standing on the beach this Saturday I was hard-pressed to find enough people to make it worth counting them on the fingers of one hand. It reminded me of when I first stood on that beach nearly six months ago when, though still barefoot, I was wearing a duffel coat and scarf wrapped tightly around me. This time I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

But the weather had definitely taken a turn for the chilly as I drained a coke while sitting outside a convenience store on the beachfront before deciding to treat myself to a cab home.
Having walked for a couple of hours already that day it seemed time to give in to the hangover that had been pressing on the inside of my skull for much of the day and get back into bed for a couple of hours kip before heading out to celebrate Rory’s newly acquired yellow belt.

Sometimes sleeping is just the best thing that I can imagine doing and the most rewarding. Even better was the fact that it was finally cold enough to get under my duvet and snuggle down properly- heaven! I woke up just before Nanette rang to invite me out for dinner and managed to pull myself out of bed an into a cab in the wholly unimpressive non-record time of half an hour. After dinner we met up with the rest of the usual suspects (well, those who had fought their hangovers well enough to make it out of bed) at Bumpin for a night of the usual drinking and debauchery- though, as usual, the scales were tipped more to the side of drinking than debauchery. A hundred and one photos and short pointless videos were taken on my camera before the end of the night. I got more than a little bit stroppy when everyone else wanted to stop drinking and go home though, given the hour, perhaps I was a little bit too free with the big girl’s blouse taunts.

I made it to bed around 8am- still laughing at the image of the boys indulging in a little Hapkido- both armed with a cuddly toy in each hand- one of which made kissing noises before shouting ‘I love you!’ every time it made contact with its opponent.

Now I have made it to Monday with the minimum of damage, cloudy head and scratch on my cheek not withstanding. I am putting off planning today’s lessons by writing to you guys, counting the days until my sister gets here (five) and the working days until the five day Korean Thanksgiving vacation (seven).

Hope you all have a good week, keep those emails coming and I’ll try to get another of these group things out once my sister has left in a couple of weeks.
Take care, each and all,
Love
H
xx

Students and friends

Hello all,

I am sorry that I am being a bit rubbish at the old emailing thing at the moment. So many of you wrote and sent me big long updates and I meant to reply to each and every one of you (and will do at some point in the future but not today). Things are still going well here in Korea, although some of you seem to be offering sympathy where it is not needed. I think that I told you about the school and how it isn't all sunshine and roses. I have to admit that it took me a long time to settle into the new school when I first arrived and kept waiting for my old students to show up. And they didn't since they go to a school at the other end of the country. But since the English camp at the end of July I have realised how attached I have got to some of the kids here.

I think that their behaviour at the camp was just awesome, they had plenty of other people who they could talk to in Korean but so many of them chose to spend time with me instead. And indeed got very excited everytime I reappeared from doing some pointless waiting around in another room to be told what to do. It was also the first time that my director has seen me with the kids and I think that it was a bit of an eye-opener for me. I am naturally pretty quiet with the other teachers (it doesn't help when I can hear them talking about me all the time but don't understand what they are saying!) and they seemed to think that quietness extended into the classroom. Needless to say it doesn't and the kids know a very different me from the one the teachers see.

And the trouble at the school just reinforced how great the friendships that I have are- whether it was support and sympathy through the email, in a letter or meeting up with people here who offered me help finding work and somewhere to stay should I need it- I realised just how many special people there are in my life. I guess that what I am trying to say is that there is no need to worry about me. But thank you for doing so!

A very close friend left Gangneung a couple of weeks ago and it has led to periods of introspection for those of us still here- you know the kind of thing- what am I doing with my life and what am I going to do in the future and other such searching questions which are best avoided. And that is part of the reason that I haven't been able to get it together to sit and write long and (hopefully) amusing emails for you all. Day to day life is still day to day life whether it is in Korea, England, Ireland or Australia- just that the day to day trials are a little different here- I don't worry about getting bills every month, I worry about trying to find out what they are for and whether I should pay them or not and whether they are really for me or for the person before me- damn that language barrier! I worry if a shop assistant will let me into a clothes shop in the first place, never mind if they will actually find something that fits me once I am in. I worry that I have to travel three miles just to buy diet coke and that I can't seem to find skimmed milk anywhere. I got excited when a new supermarket opened up near my house last week which should give you an idea that life isn't a constant whirl of excitment.

Anyway, obviously, I still have a shedload of stories for you all- I have to tell you about the bath house and clubbing in Seoul but I am not going to right now. Be warned that I have bought a digital camera and so there will be photos online- feel free to ignore the invitation to look at them if you want to- most of them will be of the same people in the same bar anyway. I have always been snap happy and my new toy isn't really helping that. All it really means is that my poor old mum won't have to worry about storing even more photos albums at the end of each trip. I am going to try and take some outdoor shots soon too so that you can see a bit of this country that i am living in.

So this is just a touching base email really because I don't really have anything to tell you but felt I should make contact. I do feel guilty if I go more than a month without sending one of these group things you know.
Take care each and all
love
H
xxx

Happy Cambodia

It is hot in Korea. Not just a little bit hot but stiflingly so every minute of every day. The nights don’t offer any reprieve from the heat and the humidity seems to climb into bed next to me and snuggle up for a nap. My fan is working on overload and I have to reposition it every time I move in my little room. With the fan directly on me at all times I stand a chance of not suffocating but when I go to the bathroom I have broken into a sweat before I have even lifted my toothbrush out of its holder. The only relief is the air conditioning unit at work. Which is good and cold and yet is only available when I am in that one room. And I teach at several locations. Only one other has an air con unit and that is slightly less effective than getting the students to use their books to fan the air around. Kindergarten is just totally oppressive with the heat of 25 little bodies crowded together throwing themselves at me. And on Tuesday I actually slipped on the sweat that my shins had produced as I tried to get off the floor in the kindy. Nasty.

Which is just another reason why having a week out of Korea was so exciting and rewarding. Me and Sam decided ages ago that we would go away for the one week of summer vacation this year, rather than just get pissed up in Seoul like we did last year. I was put in charge of phoning the travel agents due to the fact that Sam’s phone is buggered. Well, I said that we had talked about it for ages but by the time I phoned to book it all the flights seemed to be full. It was a very stressful time- I was on the phone to a Korean lady with a slightly dodgy kiwi accent while at the same time relaying the conversation to Sam via MSN messenger. But it all worked out in the end and we ended up booking flights to my first choice. So this time two weeks ago found me frantically washing clothes and drying them within seconds in the heat of the Korean summer and just generally preparing to fly to Cambodia the next day.

Now, I have been out of the country a few times since I have been in Gangneung and have still not mastered the art of the perfect way to spend the night before we go. I always head up to Seoul after work and then am at a loss with what to do until the buses start running to the airport. We tried something new this time- the soju solution. Me, Sam and James settled down into a bar and proceeded to drink a bit. After James had gone home I was getting tired and wanted to get a motel for the night but Sam was insistent that it wasn’t worth it so we went to a DVD room- she watched the movie and I got an hour or so’s kip.

And then we slept again on the bus on the way to the airport and I dropped off again on a bench while Sam was pottering around the airport trying to find somewhere to get passport photos for her Cambodian visa. We hadn’t even left Korea yet and already I was exhausted. I think that I had also worn myself out a bit the previous week by getting all excited about the holiday. I think that there wasn’t a person in Gangneung who was unaware of my intentions!

Finally it was time to drag our tired hides onto the plane. We flew with Vietnam Air so stopped in Ho Chi Minh City airport. Where I ate the other half of the Subway sandwich that I had brought with me from Incheon and generally ooed and aahed over the selection of Cadbury’s chocolate at the airport until it was time to get on a smaller plane and head to Siem Reap.
The flight from HCMC to Siem Reap was only about an air and, after complaining on the previous flight that we are always given seats on the wing, it was disturbing to get on the plane and realise that this time we had seats under the wing. But we had great views coming into both Vietnam and Cambodia (I had my first glimpse of Taiwan from the aeroplane window) and finally we were there. The flight had been delayed but the guy from the guesthouse had waited for us and collected us in his taxi. Which he then persuaded us to hire for the next two days for $20 a day.

We had a fairly quiet evening on that first night- looked around Siem Reap a little and commented on the amount of signs in Korean we had seen on our way from the airport. But your average Korean tourist in Siem Reap apparently tends to stay in the 5 star hotels outside of the town as there was little sign of the kimchi munchers where we were. The evening was quiet by necessity- not only were we knackered from the previous night but the taxi guy had also talked us into agreeing to get up at 4.30 the next morning to go and watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.
We retired to our (air conditioned) room and slept til the alarm woke us up the next morning.

It was still dark. We arrived at the entrance to the temple area only to realise that we had forgotten to bring passport photos with us for our temple passes and so had to be photographed there and then- at 5 am o’clock in the morning- not a photo that I want the world to see!
The taxi driver took us to Angkor Wat and we crossed the bridge spanning the huge moat and through the gateway to the temple. There was something very magical about being there in the dark waiting for the sun to come up and the hordes of tour groups also doing the same thing didn’t detract from that at all. In end we were not rewarded with a beautiful orange and pink sky, just the colossus that is Angkor Wat slowly emerging from the night. Very cool. It is big. There is no other way to put it. Big, bigger, biggest. As it became light enough to see we set off to explore. Feeling for all the world like a cross between Lara Croft and Spiderman we spent the next few hours clambering around and casting admiring looks over almost every inch of the temple. It is awesome and it is fair to say that I did take a photo or two.



Having gorged ourselves on the splendour of Angkor Wat, it was now nearly eight o’clock and the day was heating up a bit. As we reached the next temple it was obvious that we were in for a day of heavy duty perspiration. Ah well. We were amazed and smitten with every temple that we saw that day but one that was unique (hang on, they were all unique, is it possible to say that it was ‘more unique’? My grasp of English lets me down here!) and really stood out was Ta Prohm. This temple was built around 1186 and sometime between then and now the jungle has reclaimed it. Massive trees sprout from the walls and towers of the temple, their roots dripping down the walls like wax from a candle. The power of nature was very much evident here, huge chunks of masonry have been shifted and sometimes knocked to the ground by these gigantic trees. Hollywood could not have made anything better than this. I can’t say enough times how awesome it was and how no photo will every truly do it justice, believe me, my camera and I tried very hard to capture something of the spirit of the place.

It was a long, hot and awe inspiring day. At the end of which we were knackered and deserved a beer and a nap. We had a short sight seeing tour in a tuk tuk before heading back to the guesthouse. We were asleep shortly after nine that night.

The next day we were meeting the taxi driver at a more sociable hour to go to a floating village. The location of the village depends on the season and at this time in the wet season it lines the banks of the river. In the dry season, when the water level decreases, the whole thing moves back onto the lake. There are three ethnic groups living in a variety of boats and floating structures, the Khmers, the Vietnamese and the Khmer Muslims. And everything is on the water- the schools, the houses, the churches, we even saw a pig sty! At the time that we went the kids were all coming home from school, rowing themselves down the river back to their dwellings or lolling on the platforms in hammocks. We hired a boat which took us up the river to a restaurant and crocodile farm, where we drank coke and took photos. The boatman pointed out some things to us and told us that every one of the houses has a telly- powered by a car battery. It was really cool.



After that it was back to the guesthouse for lunch and then out to see another temple- stopping by Angkor Wat on the way home to take a couple more photos in the daylight.

Tuesday morning saw us up early again and on the 7.30 bus to Phnom Penh. A comfy six hour bus ride later, we found ourselves in the capital. The old colonial houses there were very different from the traditional houses on stilts that had lined the roads all the way to the city. Getting off the bus proved to be a hectic experience as hordes of people descended on us offering us everything from sightseeing tours to guesthouses to their grandmothers for a bargain price (OK, not quite that last one but then I didn’t quite catch all that they said). Fixing on one sign held in the hands of a smiling man we made our choice of guesthouse and were ushered to the waiting scooters. Perched on the back- one a piece- we saw the city on the way to the lake. On arriving at the guesthouse we were delighted with the view over the lake, the cheap beer menu and the hammocks at the guests’ disposal. We were told that a twin room was $2 a night but if we wanted to go a little crazy and spend an extra dollar we could have our own bathroom. That was three dollars BETWEEN us. We thought we should splash out.

We were hardly given a moment to rest before the moto drivers (scooters) took us off to the Royal Palace, a beautiful golden building very similar to the one in Bangkok. It was a very calm place, made all the more so since we had to take off our shoes to enter any of the buildings. Then back to the guesthouse and another early night.




The next day was to be the most intense and least talkative. Once more on the back of the motos we went to the Killing Fields and then onto Tuol Sleng- aka the genocide museum. We didn’t say much to each other as both of these places seemed to be very private. The Killing Fields were smaller than I thought they would be. The shallow dips in the grounds show where the mass graves were excavated and the signs next to them tell you what was found in each. Nearly 9,000 thousand people were buried there and there is a building containing shelf after shelf of skulls which were exhumed from the site. On the way there my moto driver told me that he had lost both of his parents, his sister and brother to the Khmer Rouge. The sheer ordinariness of the location and the butterflies and flowers make it all the more poignant.
Tuol Sleng would prove in some ways to be an even more solemn experience. This old school was the largest detention and torture camp during the Polpot years and more than 17,000 people were ‘processed’ here. Only seven inmates were still alive when the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh in 1979. Many of the rooms have been left how they were found- with the instruments of torture still there. The Khmer Rouge photographed everyone who came through the centre and several rooms have row after row of these photos- men, women, often holding babies, and children all look out from these boards and it is impossible to imagine what they saw in their last few days. As I said, it is a very personal experience and so I can’t share my thoughts with you here.

After looking around the school in silence, wiping involuntary tears away, we sat in the courtyard for a while to regain our composure before heading back out to modern day Phnom Penh. My moto driver told me that I was lucky that I came from England, a country with no war. I could only agree.

We rounded off the day with a trip to the Russian market and some heavy duty shopping..
Thursday was our last day in Phnom Penh and our last full day in Cambodia so we felt we had deserved a day of relaxation. Therefore a majority of the day was spent swinging in hammocks and reading. Friday morning we caught the 6.30 bus back to Siem Reap, finished the souvenir shopping and went to the airport. We arrived back in Korea around 9am on Saturday morning and I made it back to Gangneung at around 4 in the afternoon. Tired, dirty, smelly but immensely enriched by a week in Cambodia. A beautiful country with a rich and, at times, tragic history. I would go back there at the drop of a hat! It was an amazing experience and the warmth of the people just added to the charm of the country which seems to win the hearts of everyone who goes there.

And so I will finish here. I recommend the country to anyone and hope to go back there again soon. One last point- Sam did all of the navigating with exceptional style and skill- all of it and we didn’t get lost once!
Love
H
xxx

Helen Goes Quiet...

Well, it happens to the best of us. Even I go through a quiet patch every once in a while. It has been rainy season here in Korea and rain here doesn’t bring a respite from the heat- in fact it manages to rain and be humid at the same time! Nice. But the rain has disappeared since the weekend to be replaced by blistering heat- I am fully fostering the English habit of always talking about the weather in my students here- with a good dose of complaining thrown in for good measure. Under my tutelage, you could pop one of my students into London and be hard pressed to notice the difference between them and a local when it comes to discussing the weather. I am so proud of them! Next step is getting them to refer to their umbrellas as brollies and stop them mentioning how handsome Beckham is every time England comes up in the conversation.

Since it is hot in Korea I could think of no better time to go somewhere even hotter. Me and my mate Sam should be heading to Cambodia in ten days for a wee look around and maybe a touch of shopping. I have wanted to go there since I first arrived in Sydney and met someone who had already been. Ever one to jump on the bandwagon at the point where it is getting dangerously crowded to do so, I have waited nearly six years to go myself- thereby ensuring that it is now firmly on any backpacker’s itinerary for Asia. I have never claimed to be anything more than a backpacker (no hint of an adventure traveller in me, it is not that I like my comforts, I just enjoy the company).

Other than gorging myself on the beauty of Angkhar Wat, I am hoping that the influx of backpackers will mean that I will be able to surround myself with ‘normal’ sized women. Over two years in Korea is doing nothing for my self confidence and self perception. I am overweight in any country but it is only here that I get escorted out of clothes shops by horrified shop assistants, fearing for the safety of their petite clothes. Part of me thinks I should lose weight to fit in, however, the more persuasive part of me tells me that even if I was tiny by western standards I would still be huge here so I might as well enjoy that ice cream(!) And the practical part of me points out that I have to stay the same size as when I arrived here otherwise my clothes won’t fit anymore and I will have to try and force my way into a Korean clothing store to re-clothe. Don’t let the practical side of me see the mirror by the way!

So summer is well and truly here- yesterday was the day for eating dog soup for the maintenance of stamina- man thing- and chicken for the fainter hearted. My local supermarket has piped in cicada sounds throughout the food department. At first I was slightly disturbed by this but now I have realised that it makes it possible to enjoy the sounds of summer in an air conditioned environment which also stocks cheese. Every summer the sound of cicadas dominates the outside world in Korea. I like it but until yesterday had never actually seen one of the little fellas.

I finally came face to face with one while I was waiting on the pavement for one of my students to pick me up and take me to work (ah the benefits of adult students and their air conditioned cars). I heard a loud, almost electronic, noise. I looked down into the gutter to see something that looked like an enormous housefly. It seemed to be having some problems getting off the ground and I watched it as it tried, and failed, several times to take off. It looked like it was finally going to make it- having just got itself the right way up again which has to be a good start- when my student’s car pulled up and ran the thing over. Ca la vie!

While it is great to live in a city so close to the beach it isn’t that interesting during rainy season- nah, it is much better to wait until a typhoon has been forecast before cracking out the barbecue. We had a farewell party for Katie, my American neighbour and at times voice of sanity, and her boyfriend a few weeks back. We sat on the beach for a while, obviously just killing time until the clouds were in the correct formation where the appearance of food and a barbecue would summon rain. It was a great day- saved by the procurement of several large parasols from a nearby convenience store. We stayed on the beach until it got dark, set off some fireworks and decamped to town.

And since then I have been away at weekends. Fridays just aren’t the same without Katie and our favourite dak galbi dish. Two weeks ago I went south to visit my mates from the first year (a.k.a. the reason I came back to this country)- the land where the lemon soju flows freely and the mosquitoes hurt like hell when they bite! We threw a small fortune into a crane machine- I managed, helpfully, to set the toys up for the others to win but didn’t manage to win anything myself.

This last weekend I was in Seoul. I only intended to stay for the night which is why I didn’t bring a change of clothes with me. But a hungover Saturday morning ensured that I would still be in town when the drinks hit the table on Saturday evening. Oops! And still wearing the same clothes- which only got more attractive as the day turned into Sunday and the sun came out. Saturday night we were in Gangnam and then Itaewon- the GI and general sleazy foreigner district- where we entertained ourselves by watching men either be pulled into brothels or saunter casually in of their own accord. Add to that the sight of the military police going about rounding up the GI’s and escorting them back to the base- leaving a string of irate girlfriends alone in bars- and you have a pretty fun filled evening.

Me and Sam stayed in Jongro-sam-ga the next night and had a drink up the tower the next day- where the view of the city from the toilets was amazing. We walked through Insadong and with that nod to culture out of the way it was time to head back to Itaewon for our traditional Sunday afternoon pints of Stella.

As if the weekend wasn’t good enough, I met a guy on Friday night who possessed the holy grail, the elixir of life, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow- that is to say, the internet address of a site where it was possible to download the soaps and sitcoms from back home! A truly incredible claim which actually turned out to be true! I have been gorging myself on Eastenders, Corrie and Wife Swap since Monday night. My joy knows no bounds at the moment! But it was weird to leave the house after a double bill this morning to discover that it was still Korea outside my front door. I think that I have found this site just in time as, even as I was watching on Monday night, understanding the accents which were once my own has become more difficult! A truly unsettling experience! Going to need some speech theory when I get home, methinks, plus a vocab coach to wean me off saying things like garbage can, bathroom, pants, soccer and sidewalk. Don’t even get me started on leaving perfectly useless but decorative ‘u’ s out of words and asking questions like ‘did you eat breakfast yet?’ and them being grammatically OK in the context of American English. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with AE, just that it makes me homesick sometimes.

Anyway, it is too hot to be slaving over a warm laptop at the moment (oh matron!) so I will just leave you with something that one of my elementary school students wrote today (there I go again, junior school). We were doing ‘Have you ever …?’ questions today. One of the students, for reasons unknown and not anything to do with me, has the English name of Willy. Another student is a bit of a wise-guy which is, I am sure, why he asked Julie whether she had ever ‘eaten Willy?’ I had to laugh!

And on that note I will go
Love
H
xxx