Friday 30 April 2010

My School

The question is raised (in my own mind) as I walk into the school and meet the pupils for the first time; who is more afraid?  Seeing as they can smell fear, I cast it aside and talk to those who are willing.  Luckily my mentor is possibly the most popular person on the island so the children immediately skip past me and dive onto the huddle forming around the other teacher.

The school is pretty much perfect.  The staff seem friendly to a fault, and it's all kosher.  It's all a little too good to be true, and frankly speaking, I'm expecting a giant boot to fall from the sky - heralding the beginning of a monty python sketch involving something along the lines of: Destroying a mans' dreams.

I'm now petrified of making a terrible teacher and letting everyone down.  One hurdle evaded in the form of surviving the trip, the next is to become a teacher.

My Room

Here are some pictures of my room, as taken with the little webcam built into my little computer:

This is the right-most looking picture, from my bed.  I deliberately included lots of wall, so that you get an idea of the size of the room (I was originally going to stitch a group of pictures together, but that was going to be too much effort...)








My little kitchen area.  Behind the frontmost wall is a little wetroom.  Behind the bed is a utility room with washing  machine and whatnot.










And directly to the left of my bed is the tv, sans HDMI port.  I've not bothered turning it on yet.

And that's my room.  Overall it's somewhat bigger than I was expecting, and despite lacking character, it's clean and comfortable, bonus!

First Impressions are Always Fun, so Let's Write Some!

So first off, Goeje is huge. No matter what it may look like on a map, and no matter how small the population, traversing this island takes a substantial effort. I've no idea how long it took to reach this place once we were on-board, but it's not a journey to be undertaken on a bicycle!

Unfortunately the couple who bought me here did not speak any English, and I can't speak any Korean, so the journey was mostly silent. What with the language barrier and my insistent drowsiness, very little communication happened. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologise to the two who bought me over to the island for being incredibly boring, and I am grateful that you took your own night off to do so. And as a side-note, the woman driving should definitely pursue a career as a racing driver.

On a tangent, the landscape here is unbelievable. It's absolutely fantastic. Flying overhead on the internal connecting flight, I saw the towns and cities perched on hillsides lit up in neon. Obviously I couldn't see the hills themselves, they were merely silhouettes on the skyscape, but the combination of mountaineering skyscrapers (I don't know what classifies a building as being such, but these are pretty damned tall) and hilltop of complete darkness (presumably because they're too difficult to build upon) makes for a completely unique view. I had theorised, prior to visiting, that Japan and Korea might suffer from similar land space issues, mainly that the land is primarily mountainous and therefore difficult to build on; it seems this is definitely the case, although the problem appears somewhat less pronounced than in Japan. From a classically minded perspective the urban sprawl isn't particularly eye-pleasing, but the endeavour with which they've built is fantastic.

The flat is surprisingly clean, if unspectacular. The only downside is that the TV doesn't have an HDMI connection, gutted! I'll go out and get an adapter later, or if I can't find a shop I'll use the internet. As of writing this I have no idea what the internet is like, because I'm not connected yet. Just storing a few diary-esque thoughts until I do get hooked up.

Everyone seems pretty nice, and two even stayed up specially to greet me last night, despite it being around 1AM; which was a nice touch.

I'm going to have a mosey around later and hopefully pick up some supplied from the local supermarket. That is, if I can find the local supermarket...

Let's fall asleep!

So I've no idea what time it is. I'm literally clueless on that front, and on the front of where exactly I am. I might be in Dubai, or I might be in the centre of Holland, I don't really know. I am looking around for Korean looking people, and Korean sounding people, but I can't seem to find any. Normally this would trigger alarm bells in my mind, but in this instance, as I'm flying on Emirates airlines from Dubai, I won't run around screaming; yet. As portals into the (un)known go, this airport is rather vulgar. I know they're only building on desert that has none of the usual environmental costs associated with, say, Runway 5 greenbelt – but the whole endeavour is something of an exercise is vulgarity. The shopping area is the size of Heathrow terminal 3 in its' entirety, the check in areas have more x-ray conveyor belts than the whole of Heathrow terminals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5; and the people are completely humourless.

This is the american dream! Oh wait, wrong continent. Well the idea lives on, and is as strong and vibrant as ever.

On a lighter note (sic) the A380 is a marvel of modern engineering. The wing width is fifteen rows of seats, the dangle of which means you can't see the anti-air-disruption fins at the end of the wing. You know, the raised plates bolted onto the ends of the wing to reduce drag and increase efficiency. Well you can't see them when you're on the ground because the wings droop too much.

When you're in-flight, and the wings have resumed a position of relative normality, the wing has ripples in it, akin to a calm ocean, where certain areas are reinforced and others sag. Needless to say the whole experience is rather disconcerting, as are the myriad noises the plane emits while flying. I'm unsure whether the noises are due to my proximity to the various gears (due to being completely and entitrely encompassed in cattle class) or whether everyone can hear the noises. The various bumps and grinds do lend the craft an intangible mechanical feel however, and I'm rather fond of the mechanical in general.

It holds six hundred people, (both decks are identical in size, but the top deck houses rich people, with extremely long legs and even longer budgets) and roughly fifty screaming children. I think the children come as part of the plane, an optional extra along with the alloy wheels and booming sound system.

Let's Racially Profile!

Let's Racially Profile!

Having walked through into the departure lounge attached to the plane I'm soon to travel in, I was subjected to numerous security checks. Primarily including two ticket checks, along with two passport checks, some people are subjected to an extraneous passport check and extra quizzing. The questions asked were of the banal police type; do you have a job? Where are you flying to? Do you have any money with you? Are you planning to blow this plane up?

Of course I escaped the extra questions, being tall, white and boring looking. The police officers obviously didn't understand the memo regarding the racial profiling however, as they just asked two Asian couples whether they were terrorists. Plainly this is madness, as Oriental Asians aren't terrorists, only those in the Middle East are. The whole thing is stupid, racist and defunct, now that anyone of any race can be born in any country, have any religious view and grow their beard to any length. Why bother with this nonsense? It doesn't make me feel any safer, and I'm damn well sure it won't put-off any potential miscreants.

The bullish police officer would be much better served walking the beat in London, preventing and solving actual crime – instead of terrorising those of us who are leaving the country.

The whole thing is a stupid waste of money.

Monday 26 April 2010

False Start

So I was scheduled to leave today, but my flight details were changed at the last minute.  The new schedule is sometime on Wednesday, (the flight time hasn't been confirmed yet) luckily no longer requiring a Herculean run through London via auto-mobiles and trains.  My visa has been procured, and bags are packed.

I'm not sure what to do with the extra time though.  I feel that something should be achieved with this time, but I don't know that this short amount of time will allow me to do anything productive.

I'm also a little sad that I can't fly on an A380!  Maybe my next flight will still be of that type, who knows.

Sunday 25 April 2010

Time to Run!

So I'm Korea bound on Monday.  The news is somewhat sudden, and I only found out when I was in Hull.  Unfortunately I'm only due back from Hull today, on the Sunday.

Monday is also the day I'm supposed to pick up my visa.

So I turn up at the visa office upon opening, pick up my visa, run headlong to the airport (at a guess, 50 miles away) and dive onto a plane.  This plane (which I suspect is a new Airbus A-380!) heads to Dubai, I then jump off, run onto another plane heading for Korea and swan in, as nonchalantly as is possible.  I then jump onto another plane, head down the country, roll off the final plane (because I'm now too tired to jump) and drive down to wherever my final destination is.  Not literally me driving, although I'm now qualified to do so...

And that short paragraph is how the day should proceed.  I'm far too nervous about any number of things going wrong, so I daren't commit any to paper.  However, from the above, I'm sure you could surmise any number of problems.

Just don't utter them aloud, otherwise they may well come true.

Saturday 17 April 2010

Attack of the Volcanic Entities

So as it turns out, mother Earth has gastroenteritis, and England is suffering from a freak occurrence of ash.  Like the erstwhile earthquakes inflicted upon Hull, much has been made of the catastrophic meaning of such events.  Everything from flying horsemen and impending apocalypse, to global cooling (an ironic comment, in more ways than I can list) as a result of reflected light rays etcetera.

Of course, this affects us not a jot, and despite the billions of dollars lost in revenue, the relative gain in PPM of Ozone will benefit the NHS in the long-term, as melanoma are reduced; subsequently costing less to treat.

And therein lies the problem of macro-economics - there are as many variables as people, making any attempt at predicting or modelling events futile.

As a side-note, I'm gearing up for the Korea bound move.  Having previously refused to accept the move as nothing more than speculation and idle hope, the necessary preparations have begun in earnest. (With or without my approval, ala my schooldays (Thanks mum!))  So I'm desperately trying not to get excited.  I'm failing, it must be said.

Country number fifteen, here I come!

That is, if the ashen cloud lifts.

Here's to positive thinking, eh!

Oh, and if you could all puff your cheeks and blow directly into the air, I'm sure we can hurry the cloud along.

Friday 16 April 2010

Visa and the Process

I'm heading to the Korean Embassy in London on Monday in order to retrieve my visa.  I'm sure it will be painless and smooth running, just as all my other paperwork gathering exercises have been...

I've started procuring items for the transition now, including attire suitable for a teacher.  This painful and laborious process must be completed in order to become a fully fledged professional (in any field), and results in a life changing alteration to self image.  Maybe.

Driving test soon too.

That is all.