It's been quite a while, and I apologise to those who do read this - things to do, other things to write and before you know it, two or three years have slipped away.
The reason to post again is that quite a lot of things have been happening on the Korean education front, most notable the cut-back on NETs. Native English Teachers. Despite the millions Korean's still spend on English education, the programs such as GEPIK and EPIK seem to have run their course, and are winding down.
To some, this was nothing if not inevitable. To others, 'tis a pity. To me it's meant that I now teach at two schools instead of just one.
And I feel that if money was wasted before, servng two schools really is a waste - the students don't get enough exposure to English as a means of communication as it is, let alone when I am there for only a single period, or two, maybe three at most, in their week.
And if that period is largely taken up by my Korean co-teachers (I now have four) to either explain what I've just said in English in Korean, or to teach the grammar in Korean.
In the excellent TV series, the Big Bang Theory, Sheldon often makes pronouncements about what he'd do if he was king of the world. Well, if I was queen of the world, I'd drastically recast the whole education thing.
How? Think Ken Robinson meets Summerhills meets Montesorri, with a dash of game theory thrown in, and you're getting close.
And if you know none of those, google them and think about it.

Summer and weddings!

Recently I was invited to attend the wedding of one of the teachers who also work at the middle school where I'm teaching, and since I just love Korean weddings I accepted happily. We all piled into a bus which took us to Gwacheon, where we stopped at the building shown above - one of the weirdest pieces of architecture I've seen in Korea.
It contains several wedding halls and a huge buffet area.

Here is a shot of my colleague on her way to the wedding hall. Didn't she make a lovely bride?

This shot of the building is taken from the courtyard outside the buffet hall, and shows just why I think this is a very weird design - is it supposed to be a crystal, a space alien or simply an exercise in shapes?

This shot shows the lake next to which the wedding hall is situated, and on which the swan boats ply their trade. Truly an unique settting for a wedding, and they make sure that no-one need feel left out - with three wedding halls and an hour per wedding, they coin it!

New premises

I moved to Hyundae building, wonrum tower in Seoshin on the 24th of February, and here are some photos to share the epxerience with you.
Above is a view of the living room of my new apartment in the process of being set up. I am always amazed at how much stuff I have that has no clear purpose beyond being there. I'm not talking about the books and CD's and TV and bed and such, no, it's stuff like pillows that are there simply to fill space on the bed, or the stuffed animals, or the pictures - stuff that is simply there as a reminder of an event or a person who gave them to you.


This is one of my new animal neighbours - a male ostrich who shares his pen with a rooster and duck of indeterminate gender.


A view of the tower in front of the building. This straddles a fountain and gives the whole place a very surreal air.
My flat is on the third floor, and in this photo you can see the window of my kitchen just above the blue lettering.


And here is the galbi restaurant that is right next door - we share the parking lot with them. I was a bit worried, knowing that this is also the local noraebang (karaoke song bar), that the noise would be a problem, but luckily the building is wonderfully soundproofed and so far, the only sounds that do filter in are distant thuds when someone slams a door.

As I'm typing this, sitting in the kitchen, the setting sun is shining on the laundry hanging on the balcony. The flats are oriented on a north-south axis, which means the morning sun warms the kitchen and the afternoon sun the balcony.

It's great being in a new environment, but the stress of getting there is a problem. I've been thinking that my next move should be to a mobile home - that way I never have to pack when I want to move!

Some more food

I love eating, and Korea is certainly very food friendly in that just about any large shopping centre will have a food court. like the one shown above. The food ranges in price from 3000 to 15000 won, and covers quite a range of flavours, with the emphasis on those Korean staples such as bibimbap, kimchi stews, ramen noodles or buckwheat noodles. The food is prepared once you order, and is really fresh and tasty, as long as you like hot pepper spiced food!

This is what I ordered from the food court shown above - beef on rice with vegetables, or sobibimbap. It cost 5000 won and came with the two little kimchi side dishes and some bean sprout soup. The cast iron pot is sizzling hot, and as you mix the food it still cooks a bit more. On a cold winter day, it is a really great meal.

Finally, I have to share my latest bread baking - an attempt to recreate the Cape Seed bread, a rich and tasty health loaf. It started when I cleaned up my kitchen cupboard and discovered a whole lot of flax, sunflower, pumpkin and poppy seeds, as well as a small pack of raisins and dried apricots.
The recipe used two cups of rye flour and one cup wheat flour (white), about two spoons of each seed, all the raisins (about 100g) and the five apricots chopped up into pieces, and enough hot water with yeast, two spoons of sugar and one spoon of salt to make a soft sticky dough. This then got placed in a buttered tin and left to rise for the night, and baked for two hours at 180 degrees Celsius in the morning. It was every bit as tasty at it looks!

Snow!

The first snow fell in Korea way back in November, and early in November as well. In fact, we had snow for my birthday, 19 November. And, it was the usual snowfall - and inch or two - that I had been experiencing since coming to Korea in 2007.

However, yesterday evening and the whole of today, the 4th of January, snow has been falling almost non-stop and an estimated 12 inches have fallen so far. Not a blizzard by any standard, but heavy enough to make me say that I've never seen so much snow in all my life! The photo above is an example of how wonderfully snow transforms the landscape - this is the trash dump behind an abandoned restaurant that is now a fairy landscape.

The place where I live has a rich variety of dogs, and here you see one of them next to drift about two foot high. I know that dogs have the fur to cope with the weather, but it still pains me to see the callous disregard the Koreans have for them - the doghouse in the back is not for this dog, who has no shelter beyond the overhang of the puppy coop behind him.

A shot of the pines all decked with snow - a recent article has provoked much scorn from the English community for claiming that the Christmas tree originated in Korea and that they will be seeking compensation from commercial growers of these in the west.

This is the tree they are talking about!

And finally, a shot that I lucked in to - the snow and the branch combined to form an artistic composition that is well worth preserving.

Festive cooking and its aftermath.

With the snow lying on the ground outside, I thought it the ideal time to try my hand at making apple and strawberry jelly, seen here in the pot, boiling away merrily. The kitchen was soon filled with a fragrant, sticky steam. And, as I skimmed the foam and thought of having home made jelly on my toast, I thought of a Christmas quite a time ago, when my family visited a family that had been our closest neighbours many years previously, who had moved away to a farm. The daughter, Netta, and I were close friends, being the same age, and I must credit her with my acquisition of English - she taught me my first swearword! We grew up next to each other, saw each other through teenage tears and then moved into the world of grown-ups and drifted apart.
On this particular Christmas, however, back in 1973, our firstborn children were only a year old, and we were renewing our friendship that had been conducted via mail for about four years.
My parents, myself, my daughter and my sisters duly arrived on the farm, where we were promptly put to work peeling and processing the crop from a whole orchard of apricot trees into jam. That experience lasted me until now, when I finally felt the urge to preserve something again!


Back to the beginning of this urge - left-over strawberries from the Christmas trifle (more about that soon), and some apples that were just at the point of losing that crisp bite an apple needs to be eaten with pleasure.
Here you can see the chopped apples (four), the strawberries and a bottle of corn syrup which were the ingredients used, ready to go into my copper jam pot!
I chopped the apples with their peels, core an all so that the pectin will set the jelly, since I was going to discard the pulp anyway.


Here we have the final result after about an hour of cooking and skimming off foam, and testing for setting on a cold metal spoon. A beautiful, clear, pink jelly that is going to be heavenly with pork chops or on toast.
So the recipe roughly reads as follows: Wash and chop four medium apples, discarding only stems but keeping peels and pips. Clean and cut about 200 gr strawberries and add to apples in jam pan, adding 500ml of corn syrup or 500 gr sugar. If using sugar, add 1/2 a cup of water.
Boil, skimming off foam until a couple of drops of the liquid sets within 30 seconds of being dropped on a cold spoon.
Drain the liquid from the pulp using a clean cloth, squeezing out as much liquid as possible. Bottle in clean, sterilized glass jars. Allow to cool to room temperature, then place in the fridge. For my American friends, jelly in this case is a clear jam, with no fruit pulp, not jello!


And this is the trifle that started it all. I made this for the Christmas lunch my daughter and I had - a real South African meal of lamb chops, rice, minted peas and glazed carrots. The trifle, a cold pudding made from layers of stale cake, jello, custard and cream, with fruit added for a festive touch, is eaten in the hot December sun of a sunny Christmas with much enjoyment. And even though we had a wet and cold Christmas in Korea, this added a touch of sun and Africa for while!

Last gasp of autumn

Walking home a couple of weeks ago, I snapped these pictures, not knowing that I was actually capturing the last of autumn. There was just enough green and browns to offset the grey that was to come, and the sky was a lovely clear blue.
If I do move to Seoul next year, this will be the aspect I'll miss - nature decking herself in all her costumes through the year.

Here you can see the last of the grasses in seed, and a verge that is still green, even if a dusty green.

But the mists were rolling in, and the warning of the snow which came two days later was implicit in their presence.

One last look at the hills in their autumn splendor, and we will next see this in grey and white when the snow comes down!

Dinner and dancing...

As more and more South Africans flock to South Korea, the social networking available has grown, and these days there is actually an organization available to them - SAKORNET. And, they arranged a dinner dance at the Marriott Hotel in Seoul on the 28th to end the year in style. This is the party dress Christine, my daughter, had made in Iteawon for her - doesn't she look stunning?
And this is me, in my party dress from the same place as Christine's. Red really is my color!
Here I am with my two co-teachers, Mrs Yoon on the left and Mrs Kim on the right. Unfortunately their idea of what is 'formal' left much to the imagination...
A shot of the ballroom and some of the guests - we had an absolute ball.
And finally, Bernard, the social organiser for Sakornet, Christine and myself in front of the ice sculpture!

The menu was quite nice - salmon tartare, cream of broccoli soup, roast beef and lemon meringue tart - but I would have loved to see some SA dishes on it, things like roast leg of lamb, smoked snoek pate etc.

Still, the night was wonderful, the room we stayed in fantastic and the overall experience great!

Pepero Day!

The 11th of November, which, as you can see from this view taken from the classroom window, dawned cold and grey, is of course remembrance day for some.

Yet, many of my students were eager to get to school, for here in Korea this is Pepero day. What's that, you may ask? Well, it's basically the straight pretzel stick dipped in chocolate that we in South Africa know as Yogisticks. Why? Well, the reason given is that the long thin sticks are reminiscent of the 11/11!

Here they are, in most of their incarnations. I was given these today - a large single one, dipped in caramel chocolate and covered with nuts, a smaller one covered with pink sprinkles, and the more traditional small ones in boxes of ten. 

The green box holds sticks covered with chocolate and almond, the red box is the plain chocolate and the big brown box, which holds 8 boxes of 10, are those made with chocolate on the inside of a hollow tube. Judging by this, I'm pretty popular, since the idea is that you give more to those you like very much.

This, of course, means that some girls are flooded with boxes and baskets in which teddy bears, pepero boxes and other edibles are packed, while some get nothing. Yet another way in which we make sure our lives are as difficult as possible - it's great to be one of the popular girls, but it is hell for the others.

Anyway - Pepero sticks are made by one of the big groups here in Korea, Lotte, and it seems the day is actually very clever marketing on their part!

Chuseok

I've gone through my third of these thanksgiving ceremonies, and so far the tally of gifts received reads as follows:

2007 - Set of SPAM

2008 - Set of SPAM

2009 - Set of rice cakes

For those of you unfamiliar with SPAM, it is the canned, chopped and reconstituted 'ham' that formed a staple of many an army meal, and which, after the Korean war, became a hugely popular delicacy. It is fatty and salty and absolutely disgusting if you are, like me, a true meat eater.

So, you can imagine that I welcomed the set of rice cakes with considerably more enthusiasm! The two photos shown above show the opened box, with each of the little boxes holding a different color and shape of rice cake, and the lid - very opulent with its gold and royal blue finish.

As for taste - well, let's just say it's basically like mixing Rice Krispies with sugar and water and letting it dry - hard, crunchy, but no basic taste to it beyond sugar!

Purple

It is said that purple foods are good for you, if so, this must be excellent! It is a purple sweet potato - as you can see, purple all the way through. It tasted like any other sweet potato that has been oven baked, so it really only is the color that sets it apart.

Autumn

That herald and brightener of the wayside during autumn in both South Africa and here in Korea is the cosmos. I know of some gardeners who cultivate this wonderful flower, but most of us just enjoy the spectacle as they wave at us from unlikely corners and verges, nodding their heads as if saying: 'Yes, we know summer is over and autumn is here, and soon winter will banish us, but isn't it glorious while it lasts?'

Of course the crops are ripe and ready everywhere, almost begging to be harvested.

The orchards are not only flaunting their ripe fruit, in the case of the grapevines they are also releasing a heady smell, the promise of wine and juice, as you walk past. It intoxicates the senses and beguiles you into slowing down, winding down, getting into the pace of life getting ready for the winter sleep.

And it wouldn't be autumn in Korea without seeing the graves being spruced up for Chuseok. This five day festival is a thanksgiving for crops, honoring ancestors and just having a good time all rolled into one.

The practice of going to the graves early in the morning, bearing plates of delicacies to share with the ancestors to thank them for the past year and ask their blessing on the year to come, is one that draws everyone in a family together.

A final visit to the vineyard. The sight of them decked in autumn colors is surely on a par with a spectacular sunset!

Icheon Pottery Village

A place I've meant to visit for quite a while now is the Icheon pottery village. This is a place where craftsmen throw their pots and fire them in the traditional wood burning kilns, like the one shown above, and where they each have a shop showing off their wares.

The trip there takes about an hour by express bus either from Seoul or Suwon.

This little shop had some of the best celadon ware on display at quite reasonable prices. Celadon is a glazing technique developed by Chinese potters to mimic jade, that lucky and heavenly stone, in vessels that ordinary people could own. The artists are two brothers, Kim Bu Yung and Kim Ha Yung.

The glazes vary from a delicate bluish green to a darker aquamarine hue, and good celadon ware has a depth to the glaze that makes you feel as if you are gazing into it. These ones certainly had that.

This shop, belonging to Hyang Ro Bit, also displayed some of the rami cloth quilting made by his wife. Rami cloth is similar to linen, but is stiffer and more airy at the same time, and is used for summer hanboks, as opposed to silk and brocade for winter ones. Unfortunately the shop itself was not open yet, so I couldn't go in (yes, I know, the door is standing open, but that was to get air into the shop!), and had to content myself by snapping a picture that is less than perfect due to the reflections in the windows.

This shop belongs to one of the female potters, Hyu Li Min, and this display of plants complemented the flowery designs of her work on the big urns in the background.

This shop specialises in kimchi pots. The kimchi pot is made with thick red clay walls, then it is glazed with an iron rich glaze to give the almost blackish brown colour. They come in all sizes - small, ornamental or gift pots to the big, serious ones that will hold the kimchi for a whole family.

If you're ever wondering how to spend a pleasant morning, if you like pottery and pots, and if you want to buy some truly unique pots from the artists, you could visit this delightful place.

DMZ visit

All that was needed to convince me I'd travelled back in time and was at a stope entrance at Grootvlei gold mine back in South Africa was the sound of the drills and the rattle of the cocopans as they trundled ore out, but then reality struck home - I was standing at the point where South Koreans had intercepted a North Korean tunnel dug under the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ.

North Korean soldiers or slave labour had dug, chiselled and blasted this tunnel and three others under the 4 km wide stretch of border with the intention of either infiltrating or attacking the South. That is, the South Koreans have discovered four tunnels - there may be some they have not found.

We headed down the tunnel from this point to the place where the last (or first, depending on your point of view) of three barriers blocked the tunnel. A steel door, barbed wire and a small window through which you could see the next barricade. The thought of the recent saber-rattling that had been done by NK suddenly did not seem so far away or unlikely to erupt into real warfare.

This peaceful fountain, with its oak tree and bushes, stands outside the barracks and post where Korean soldiers keep watch over the valley. On a clear day you can see all the way to the NK watchpost on the other side. The Korean on the stone of this fountain, 망항수, means watchport.

The juxtaposition of this buddhist bell tower and the camouflage brings home just how commonplace it has become - over fifty years of watching each other across the border, at times the leaders talk and then they don't, but we watch and live our lives here.

Here I am under the ROK sign on the wall of the barracks.

The visit was surreal on many levels, not least of which was the thought that tourists come here every day, looking out across the border at what is, after all, merely a prolonged cease-fire. I think this is what I sensed that day - the Korean war is by no means over. I pray that it soon will be, and that the unification so many Koreans dreams of will become a reality.

Water, water everywhere...

No, this is not some weird moonwalk or some more Caribbean Bay fun - it's a long exposure taken to try and capture the water flood that followed on two days of solid, and I mean solid, rain!

The bus we were on spent 40 minutes here as people argued about whether we could move from the high ground we were on here, to the lower parts and get through the water.

Here is a video showing the bus driver and several passengers and police arguing. The telegraph pole at the end is significant - normally you can see about 2 meters of black and yellow stripes. Eventually we did edge our way through, passing a less fortunate bus canted at 45 degrees in a ditch!

Caribbean Bay

So after the last weekend's fun, Sean and I dragged a reluctant Christine (so it was mom and the  two kids!) to Caribbean Bay. Up above you get a panoramic view of one of the pools and the supertube (watertube?) winding its way down the hill. I tell you, the one thing that is tiring is climbing those steps to build up the potential energy so that you can translate it into kinetic energy - talk about physics in action.

Speaks for itself, doesn't it?

This is the bottom of the Boomerango slide, and a fraction of the crowd that was waiting to ride it.

One of the fun experiences - having a bucket containing about a 1000 liters of water dumped on you! Luckily it splashes onto a little balcony of evenly spaced boards first!

The wave pool, from the deep end. No, I'm not in the water, there is a ledge here. You'll notice that all the people here at the deep end are in life jackets - apparently Koreans either cannot swim or are too lazy to tread water. So you hang there in your life jacket, bobbing up and down like a duck as the waves pass beneath you...give me Clifton, or Blouberg Strand, or Jeffrey's Bay any day!