It has been a hectic few days learning new things at school but Im getting more confidant everyday and learnt different activities to help the children learn English more effectively and have fun learning it.
On Wednesday night my flat mate Martin took to me to a traditional sushi restaurant (pictures in album) where we were given our own little room with a paper slide door, a lowered table and you had to sit on the floor which was nice because they seem to have under floor heating everywhere around Korea so it keeps your bum nice an warm haha. I tried lots of different things. Some of the raw fish was a bit plain but I had a lot of fried shrimp, gimchi, bean soup and of course good old Soju (Korean Vodka). Martin was surprised I had tried Sushi before he didn’t know it was popular in England but I explained there were lots of Japanese sushi restaurants about in England and I also explained about Selfridges and how they have lots of different foods from around the world but are quite well known for their sushi restaurant that has a conveyor belt that the plates go round on and the different colored plates signify different prices. He was very interested in this and we talked a lot about the differences between England and Korea.
In Korea the tradition is that the eldest person at the table pays for the meal so Martin doesn’t let me pay for any food.
The next night everyone from work went to the bar downstairs called Cheers (in photo album). Because all of the buildings around Korea are multi story buildings most restaurants are flat sized and there are different types of bars, restaurants, karaoke bars and shops in each building. If they aren’t on the ground floor you have to look up into the windows above or be told about where a certain place is because they can be very hidden. Anyway most of the staff came to the meal which was lots of different platters to share which is often the sort of thing 2 or more people have when having a meal. I asked if one of the foods was hot and they said no so I tried it, nearly flipping blew my head off! I guess Koreans have a lot higher pain threshold than me lol. Anyway after a long night of talking we eventually sifted out, again the eldest person in the party paid for the whole meal which must have cost a fair bit. I’m glad I am the youngest of my friends here and I’m also glad that this is not the regular tradition in England haha. One of the new things I learnt about is that when all Koreans are born a year old and turn a day older on their Luna new years day. Their birthday only marks the day they receive birthday gifts. So if I were Korean I would actually be 23 not 21. Scary.
As you might have been able to see in the school photos there is an xmas tree is still up at reception and there is a fake reindeer too. It is now the 17th of January and they are still up! Such bad luck. They also still have Neon Xmas lights up in bar windows etc and apparently don’t take them down until right at the end on January so I explained to the school staff how in England its bad luck to have Xmas stuff up after Jan 5th .
Anyways time for me to go to sleep speak soon xxxxxxxx 