New Hit Counter

I'm also trying out a new hit counter.  The last was hosted on Mars, and as such, slowed the site down terribly.  On last counting, the Mars hosted counter had 5,800 odd hits, so I'm starting this one off at 6,000. Mainly because it's a nice, big, round number.

Tell me what you think about the minimalist design, and whether it's as slow as the last one.

Oh and read the post below.  I didn't include this because it's an entirely different topic, and the last post was schizophrenic enough already, without adding this to the bottom (or top) of it.

So It's Come to This...

So I have to explain some internet terminology first. (In my own style)

Flamewar - When two competing sides of an internet debate (see: argument) get so inerged in the fantastically insignificant details of a petty (or sometimes not so petty) argument; that virtual blood is spilt.  For a brilliant example of this (in the sense of it being archetypal flamewar material - not in the sense of this ludicrous behaviour being brilliant, because, quite frankly, reading any forum for more than five minutes gestates suicidal thoughts within me) see any 'mac vs PC,' 'debate.'  Obviously the PC is better, so I don't know why everyone is so worked up over such a thing.

Secondly, another brilliant example would be the five yearly console war, between Nintendo fans, Sony fans and recently, Microsoft fans.  (What, people actually support Microsoft in one of their endeavours?  Perish the thought.)  People literally cry when a new console is announced.  Most fanboys cry twice.  Once when their company announces an amazing new console; and once again when the enemy announces theirs.  The astute will notice a glaring mistake, three's a company right?

In this case, the three companies in question are usually divided by: Most loved.  (Cue tears.)  Most hated.  (Cue tears of rage.)  And the 'meh,' category.  Time for another definition:

Fanboy - Someone so blinded by their irrational love of _________ , that they cannot see the virtues of competing products, or in some cases, anything else at all.

All this arose from a couple of comments on my previous post about what to do with a broken bone.  I maintain that you don't ice breaks, but let's get the flamewar started!

So my internet geekology lessons aside, what else is happening?

Well I'm glad you asked Sam, because I get paid tomorrow.  For the last four days I've been living on the meagre contents of my fridge.  This meant eggs every day (usually more than one.  How unhealthy is that?  Seriously I need that question answering) with leaves of some description, onion, garlic (contrary to popular belief you can never have too much garlic, and it makes everything taste better) rice, bread, butter, some spreadable cheese and water...

All I can say is, I hope vitamin pills do work.

Joking aside, four days of living a terrible diet isn't too bad.  As far as is humanly estimable, every other person on the planet orders takeaway four or five nights a week, and that's unhealthy.  That's unhealthy in more ways than I can describe in a lifetime.  And as mentioned, vitamin pills are surely good for you.  In the future all our meals will be consumed in pill form, so I'm merely working ahead of everyone else...

So this weekend was a complete scrub.  I did some marking, went to the gym for an hour, (it's amazing how much a crippled finger can destroy plans) and that was it.  The rest of the time I phoned home, slept and was hungry.  It was absolutely, fundamentally the correct decision to bring my ps3 with me, exactly for weekends such as this.  Unfortunately I don't have the right cables for it.

It's 1AM here, and I'm really not sleeping well.  The problem of having nothing to do, is that you think.  Thinking can only take two forms, invariably these are thinking about the past; or thinking about the future.  One is littered with stupidities, oddities and mistakes; the other is scattered with the possibility of mistakes, stupidities and oddities.  Which to choose from?  It's a tough decision; so tough that I wish I had enough money for beer, a well enough finger that I could go to the gym and wear myself out, or a working playstation.  Remember, these things exist for this very reason:  Living life in the now is hard.

Just for this weekend, I really wish I'd had an 'opt-out,' button.

Ow Ow Ow Or: What a Day Version Two.

So I broke my finger playing basketball.  No I haven't been to the hospital, I just know.  As a result this post is going to be short, and inaccurate.  Sorry.

I'm slowly getting better at this basketball stuff, but it'll be several years until I'm competitive.  Still no news on the american football.  I'm starting to hunger for a sport where you can actually use your whole body, I want something more dynamic.

My boss left a little care package of croissant and other bread on my door.  It's unbelievably sweet of her, and the little smiley face post-it note on top is the proverbial icing.  Friday tomorrow.  Maybe some gym legwork, stay away from the hands; maybe I'll push the boat out and do some running, although I don't want to get too adventurous.

That will do for now.

Bye bye.

What A Day!

So the school bus leaves at exactly 8.23 every day.  On the button.

I woke up today at 8.26 and looked  at my clock.  I blinked and checked my computer, thinking my clock had stopped. Nope.  The alarm hadn't gone off.

For some reason I had slept with  socks on, which saved me a considerable amount of time  in dressing, (everyone knows socks are the hardest and most laborious part) and I was on the phone to get a taxi arranged.  I was pulling my trousers up as I headed out of the door, with no shoes on; my shirt had no buttons fastened.  By the time I reached the front door I had one shoe on.  By the time I had reached the end of the street, I had both shoes on - and was beginning on buttoning my shirt.

I ran up to the taxi, threw my bag in, and dived head first, pulling the door closed with my feet.  Okay that last part didn't happen, but that's the urgency I showed.  I arrived at school, having not showered, brushed my teeth or eaten, and cursing my crappy travel alarm clock.  Everyone else seemed rather nonplussed by my comedy entrance into the office, and I was there well before time.

The Seoul Trip, Then

So I went up to Seoul over the weekend.  It was the birthday of the Buddha on Friday, so everyone takes a day off.  I decided to test the capital cities' waters, as it were.

The coach trip is a tortuous five+ hours, (traffic dependent) so I took some marking to tide me over.  On the way up it was dark, so I couldn't see anything.  On the way back though, wow.  The middle of the country is entirely mountainous and seemingly devoid of human life.  The hillsides are covered in trees or fields, and for large swathes there are no houses, save for the occasional hermitage.  It's incredible how they've managed to slide a road through the hills, but they've managed it, and it's a testament to the ingenuity on display, that I ended up putting my book down and simply stared at the hills as they rolled past.  The road generally followed the contours of the land, so we didn't end up going through many tunnels.  One of the gauges of development (at least in my world) is the length and number of tunnels a country has.  The Alps in Europe, for example, have huge numbers of tunnels, and some that are extremely long.  Ergo, the countries through which these tunnels pass are rich, if not entirely developed (see: Italy).  The road I was on had a sufficient number to suggest they have the ability to build big, but for some reason I didn't get the same sense of endeavour that you feel when passing through the Alps.  Maybe their mountains just aren't tall enough.

Another great thing about the road is that it's pretty high, so you can see the fog and clouds rolling down the mountainsides.  It rained for most of the trip back, but far from being detrimental, it allowed me to watch these rolling clouds.

The actual visitation was bitter sweet.  The tower was awesome, and a lot of the time was extremely fun; just a few moments spoiled the occasion (entirely my own doing).  Plus the fact that I have no money was a bummer.  Luckily, thanks to internet banking, all parties have been reimbursed, and I thank them for their generosity.  For the most part, it was extremely good fun, and I definitely want to go back there again.  To the same place or otherwise, I don't mind; as long as it's with the same people.

Check out the pictures from the previous post to see pictures of Seoul from the tower.  Ironically I think the city is a little soulless, despite being tagged as 'the Seoul of Asia,' by the city planners.  It's a big, sprawling city too, which makes using public transport less fun.  The tube stations are four or five minutes apart, which equates to fifteen+ minutes of walking - just to give you a sense of scale.

The underground trains are easily the longest I've ever seen; just as a side-note.

I Have Pictures!

So I've been in Seoul for a couple of days.

I've not done many tourist activities, (as is my general trend when visiting capital cities) but I did manage to sneak to the top of Seoul tower.  The tower itself is relatively small:

But this graphic belies the true height (and by association, awesomeness) of the tower, because it stands on a large hill in the middle of the city.  It essentially doubles the height of the tower (at least) relative to this chart, because the tower is twice the height, and the rest of the city is in a divot.  The resulting view is, put quite simply, amazing.

I managed to wangle a night-time visit (I prefer the neon cityscape to the concrete sea, as seen during daylight hours) and managed to take a few pictures that encapsulate roughly one fiftieth of the beauty of the nighttime scenery.  I had neither the skill, nor the photographic equipment to capture a greater amount of the beauty.

 This is the tower itself.  On an interesting photographic side-note; the next group of pictures might be an interesting way to learn about the digital equivalent of film grain.  At higher ISO settings, digital cameras produce 'noise,' this noise is odd colour pixels appearing because the wrong information has been created by the sensor.  This happens at higher ISO's because the signal is amplified.  Amplification causes darker colours to appear brighter, (the sensor is actually analog) but also amplifies errors (just as in audio terms).  The effect is most noticeable in large blocks of single colours (large areas of deep, dark shadow, for example).

Anyway.

The tower isn't that tall, but the climb up there is pretty steep and long, making me suspect that it's at least as tall again, by being placed upon a great big hill.  There were old stone ruins of (presumably) an old wall that was built along the same path as the road.  It would have been the perfect place to build a castle to defend the city, and were I emporer way back when, I would definitely have placed a castle atop this hill.

I include this one primarily because of the figure flying into the tower.  There were a number of suspended flying meshwork persons around the place, running along wires in tune with the wind.  I'm not sure how they were secured, but they moved quite freely when the wind blew.  It was quite nice watching them float around.

This is probably my favourite picture of the tower itself.  Like I said before, I had neither the talent nor the equipment to take a picture that truly did justice to the surroundings, but at least with this picture you get a sense of the shape and design that ordered this building.

Aside from demonstrating another photographic ailment (or effect, if so inclined) (see: vignetting (an ailment that appears to be common with lower quality lenses (at least as far as I can tell)))

This picture also show 1/50th of the awesomenss of the view I talked about earlier.  It really is spectacular, and I would recommend anyone who visits Seoul to come and view it from this angle.  It's just plain great.

The river has dozens of bridges spanning it (just like in London) and they're all frenetically lit by cars.

I include this picture to demonstrate the hill, upon which myself and the tower exist(ed).  It's a park, and has few to no buildings on it.  The dark area is the park, and shows how much higher than the surrounding city it actually is.  Now factor in that we are looking down at the hill, and realise just how far above city level it is.  Cool right?

This picture is reasonably self-explanatory.  Each window had world cities attached, showing how far, and in which direction, each city is located.  I'm roughly (see: exactly) 8,872.64km from England.  The .64 is preposterous, but it's nice to know it'll only take a decade of walking to get back home, should it hit the fan.  I also know the exact direction I need to take, too.  Handy stuff.  Why did they write 'Paris,' in bigger letters than London?

Busan is the nearest city to my island, and is, incidentally, the second city of Korea.  I've not been there yet, but will dutifully report on here when I do.  A handy 328.12km from Seoul.

This is the most skyscraper filled shot I could find.  They're all tall buildings (tall enough to stand out against the background noise of lots of other tall buildings) and probably represent a business district.  There were a few pockets like this one, but this had the highest density, and represented everything asian cities stand for.  (Phallic misrepresentation, primarily)

Of the journey up here: I will write more once I've made it back down to Goeje.  It was a five and a half hour bus journey I've to repeat in reverse, so I don't want to reopen fresh wounds, for fear of making the journey worse for myself on the way back down.

Note to Internet:

So having had time to re-evaluate the workplace gathering in the cold, harsh light of day; I've decided that it didn't really surprise me.  To enlighten readers, here's how the evening went:

It was a birthday gathering, to which all were invited, but by no means was a commitment required.  Out of simple curtesy, it was asked that people merely confirm their presence (or otherwise).  So we all arrived, except one, who was out playing basketball (having confirmed that he would be present.) So we ordered food.

At which point one person threw the food back at the chef (not literally) claiming there was beef in the chicken pasta.  This was a complete crock, and embarassed the host (the birthday person) no end. 

Being quite conservative the birthday-ee (the person whose birthday it was) was resigned to eating it, not wishing to offend anyone.  Whatever your views on culture over here, the birthday-ee reacted this way, and the shame was evident for all to see.  Whether you agree or disagree with the shame and blame culture here, you directly influence other people, so the least that's expected is to behave reasonably by their standards.

The same person went on to order a glass of water, at which point the cups were taken away, refilled and redistributed.  The person then refused to drink out of the glass, because they feared it might have been used by someone else at the table.  Me and the birthday-ee are now squirming at the pathetic attitude on display, and the humiliation of being sat next to such a person.  I don't necessarily disagree with their eating habits, (everyone has their quirks, afterall) but their demeanour was - frankly - disgusting.  And no one else batted an eyelid.

Feeling desperately embarassed and sorry for the birthday-ee, I endeavoured to keep them entertained.  Whether this worked or not shall never be known, conservatism is expected in the workplace, so a curt 'thank you,' could be for saving the life of your child, or for handing over a piece of paper.

I'm struggling to find a lesson in this.  I guess firstly; the people you work with will never be any more than colleagues, so expecting anything of them in the way of friendship or personal interaction is asking for trouble.  Affectation, rather than affection.

Then again... That's bleak.  Maybe it should be a slightly more complicated:  Colleagues are, at best, unreliable friends.

Yeah, that works.

I just hope the birthday-ee hasn't lost all faith in humanity.  Hopefully only in americans.

Note to Internet:

Talk about workplace gatherings.

Party Time

So I'm uploading these from the party the other day.  The camera is a Nikon D90, and I have no permissions for any of these pictures.  Let's hope no one finds out.  Then again, they can sue me for all they want, because I have no worldly possessions anyway.  (And no money for that matter).

First up, a picture of me; because everyone always moans that I don't post enough pictures of me.  Here is a picture.  Shut up now everyone.

It's in black and white because I'm wearing a particularly uninteresting coloured shirt, and it was taken with a flash - so the colours aren't that great to start with.  I'm also closing one eye to mask the fact that, by this point, my eyes are working entirely independently, and as a result, are facing in completely opposite directions.  It must be something to do with drink, and or tiredness.

Anyway, moving on...

This woman is also an English teacher, albeit at a different school.  She's pretty quiet, but was an (un)willing model for my first few dozen attempts with the new camera.  Thank you very much!

I don't know the  legalities of blog posting, so you shall remain without a name!

The flash was pretty harsh, as you can see, but there's not a lot you can do about that.

The girl on the  right owns the camera, the girl on the left could be anyone.  I've literally no idea who that is.  I may or may not ever see her again, so here's to hoping that she doesn't speak English, otherwise I'll end up in prison for misrepresentation or something.

Thanks for letting me borrow your camera, girl on the right!  (Again, no names for lawsuit purposes.)

My favourite picture of the night, and it's not even an animate object.  The picture looked pretty cool in colour, but it looks awesome in black and white.

It's now the desktop for my little baby laptop, and it will become the background for my work computer once I get in tomorrow.

If you click on the picture you can blow it up to full size.  It's a pretty low quality picture, but as of yet I have no means of copyrighting or anything, so have  at it, internet.  I also need a watermark for my pictures, once I get a nice camera.  If anyone wants to make me one, I'll give them a cookie as payment.  Sent anywhere in the world.

There are tons more photographs, but I need to check that it's okay to put them on the interwebs.

Watch this space.

Wow, It Rained

So today was a relatively fun day.  I took a rugby ball into school, and the kids were suddenly transported into an alien world they'd never seen before.  It was fun, but also tinged with some regret that they'll never get to play properly.  I hear that there is a team here, but one team on an island this size, means that exposure is awfully low.

I broke a new personal record for squats at the gym today, and subsequently fell over a plug socket in the floor, prompting everyone to laugh; behind their hands or towels, obviously.  Koreans are generally not as polite as some other countries, but they still stifle a laugh when it's at someone else's expense.  The ways they're rude include barging you out of the way when walking, although this usually results in them on their backside, and shouting at you for no real reason.  They don't shout at each other, so this is presumably an anti-foreigner defence mechanism.

Talking of foreigners, this area is teeming with them.  The shipyards have bought in people from all around the world, and it often feels like there are more foreigners  in this particular part of Goeje, than Koreans.  When you step outside this little bubble however, it's normal (in that it's abnormal, if you catch my drift).

Every time we head past the docks in the morning, my brain explodes as to the size of the lifting machinery they use here.  They don't make the super tankers you see on these 'how do they make something so freakin' huge,' programmes, but the things they do make are pretty big in my world.

You occasionally hear them drop something colossal in the yards, and (bearing in mind they're ten minutes away) you think to yourself someone has crashed their car into a lampost.

In a similar vein, I saw construction workers outside, clambering around scaffolding (with no flooring, just great big squares, created in two dimensions) with no safety harnesses.  They were moving round ala ninja warrior, on the obstacle with two walls but no ceiling and floor - for those who don't know, you have your left hand and left foot pressed against one wall, right hand and foot pressed against another wall.  It was pretty awesome, especially considering they were high enough that a fall would be fatal, no questions asked.  And one was using an electric saw of some kind, while balancing on a single scaffolding pole.

The flip side is that they're hellishly efficient.  The road outside was dug up, down to the underlay (hardcore?  Hardcourt?  I don't know  how you spell it) and resurfaced in two days.  It's roughly 250m long, including all the odd pieces of side-street they've done.

The building outside that's being built gains a storey every week.

I recently got the opportunity to use a Nikon D90, which was tons of fun.  I'm waiting on the owner to send me the pictures, and hopefully I'll be able to upload some on here.  It was pretty handy, and the pictures looked to be of high quality (at least on the viewfinder) so maybe a couple came out  okay.  I was forced to primarily use the automatic modes, which essentially make it like a (frickin' expensive) point and shoot, but I did also manage to take a few snaps with the aperture priority mode, (to make the backgrounds all cool and blurry) only time will tell if they worked out or not.  It also had a pretty cool zoom lense, ranging from quite a strong wide-angle to a low powered telephoto.  I don't know the exact specifications, but it allowed for a varied range of shots without switching lenses, which is cool.

Anyway, we'll see if any came out.

In the meantime; bye.

Teachers Day

So Korea has a teachers day once a year.  Like mothers day, only for teachers.  Some of the students give presents, some give little letters and things of that nature; generally thanking you for your hard work and the fifty-odd detentions you gave them last week.

I've been working for a week, and I got a coffee mug, a percolator (plunger thing to make coffee with?), some chocolates (they didn't last long) and best of all - a pair of socks.  Awesome right?  I've only been there a week and one of the students gave me socks.  I guess I have an advantage  because they don't yet know what a hard-ass I'm going to be.  They pretty much all have tests next week, so I'm glad teacher day came up this week.

Socks aside, I've had three excruciating days in a row now.  Todays morning was terrible, there were dozens of things that went wrong.  The afternoon was okay, however I didn't get out of the office until 6PM, due to lesson planning.  To put this into perspective, school starts at 8.30AM and lessons end at  2.50PM.  Three days in a row.  That's not cool.  The overtime pay is pretty much illegal too, so there's no financial incentive, only the guilt tripping kind.

The gym closes at midnight though, so I managed to get in with plenty of time to spare, which is nice.

Anyway, I'm mega-pooped, so I'm off to bed.  Goodnight.

Basketball, and the Art of Not Falling Over

Basketball is quite good fun; if you're with friends, are playing non-competitively and don't mind being terrible at something.

It's kind of like bowling, in that you can practice one specific action one hundred times, and only hit it perfectly five times; all the while thinking, 'hold on a second, I did it exactly like this last time, why didn't I get it right?'  It's extremely frustrating, and when you only get a basket once every ten minutes you question why you're playing in the first place.

The reason, in case you're wondering, why I play in the first place, is fitness. It's exceptionally challenging, especially when everyone else is so much better than you are.  Everyone else runs half as much as you, (and incidentally - pockets twice as many points) while somehow making you run in circles.  I'm not really sure how it works, but the upshot is that an hour of basketball leaves you high and dry, wrung out etc.

It's definitely good for general all-round fitness, and when we finally get to play some american football, I'm going to be ready.  For what?  I'm not sure yet, but I'll be ready nonetheless.

Too Hot to...

It's not been so bad today, but lately it's been too hot to dress particularly neatly.  I keep expecting another teacher  to tell me to tuck in my shirt, or straighten my tie (even though I don't wear one) and walk properly, don't drag my feet etcetera; then it dawns on me that I'm the teacher.  It's amazing how often I forget that.

So my first day went okay, the first three classes were tough, primarily because I misunderstood the lesson plans from the previous teacher, so I ended up going over the same things again, oops!  This also meant that I set the same homework, so that went down well.

My afternoon classes went much more smoothly, partly because some of the kinks had been removed, and partly because they're older children.  It's hard to tell which classes are going to be the best, but I'm sure some will emerge as frontrunners.  Anyone who gives me chocolate receives an instant A on their next test - no questions asked.

I went to the local (sic) department store over the weekend.  Well, not over the weekend, but during.  The local store is around a twenty minute bus journey, and despite being imposing outwardly, is surprisingly small inside.  It's like a Tardis, only backwards.

They didn't have any of the things I wanted, so I guess I'll either wait or get them shipped over.

The most surprising thing was that TESCO has a branch here.  All the advertisements were the signature colour, and the store was laid out similarly; however something wasn't quite right.  I caught myself thinking: 'It's TESCO's Jim, but not as we know it.'

There's no Marmite either, which is a bummer.  That coupled with the food stalls erected about the store with servers dishing up octopus and squid led me to suspect the store manager wasn't English.

Friday

So it's Friday.  The first (and only) week of observing teachers is over, and next week is the beginning of a new endeavour.

Yesterday I played basketball properly, for the first time.  I say properly because I've played basketball in school, but it was more a case of who can push whom over first.  The actual sport is quite fun, especially when you play it with friends.  The technique of shooting is beyond me and, frankly speaking, I don't think I have the finesse to become good at this particular game.  It's fantastic for fitness however, and I'll carry on for that aspect  alone; playing with friends is the icing.

Aside from a fire alarm last night, there's little else to report.

I'm going to the gym later, hopefully I won't be shouted at this time.  (I still don't know what I did wrong!)

Oh and now that I've been alerted, I'm on the lookout for 'Calpis.'

Warning, Swearing Ensues!

So I held out this many days, I'm quite proud of myself.

The driving here is appalling.  From the first time I stepped into a car (literally within a couple of hours of being here) I knew the driving here was terrible.  I didn't want to pre-judge everyone however, and am glad to say that my boss can drive pretty decently.  (I'm not just saying that, she's the best driver I've seen so far, She won't ever read this, so it's not simply a bum-kissing exercise... Ok stop looking at me with those accusing eyes!)

Anyway.  The drivers here pretty much ignore red lights at their whim.  I wish I were joking about that.  The Korean reliance on technology has also had an unexpected side-effect, their digital world extends to the accelerating and braking aspects of driving here too.  Drivers are either 100% throttle bound, or 100% braking; there is no middle ground.  You can get whiplash without ever having an accident here.  It's not an isolated phenomenon either.  Some people drive like that in England, but not everyone.

There are some serious bum-clenching, avert yon eyes moments in just going to the shops.

And on being a pedestrian I can say this: (this is where the swearing comes in)

If you see a car coming, you get the fuck out of the way.  Even if you're on the pavement you step a foot away from the road.  Crossing the road isn't actually too bad.  I spoke to one american who likened it to a feeding time frenzy at the zoo, and cars most definitely have right of way; but it's similar to rush-hour London in that it's every man for himself.  Don't bother waiting for the green light, just go - blinkers on and get marching.

I've been told that Korea has the highest pedestrian mortality rate in any first world country, and that really would not surprise me.  Especially considering that most of the roads don't have permanent pavements.  Just like Japan, the streets are a free-roaming area.  Unlike Japan however, there are no laws governing who goes where.

Or maybe I have it totally wrong.  Maybe there is a code, so complicated that I've not deciphered it yet.  Like an ant-trail, with returning worker ants on the inside, outgoing ants on the outside, and the cyclists dipping between all lanes.

Oh and for those of you with an atlas (or google)  I think I live in a place called Okpo.  I'm definitely not sure about that though.

And a double Oh, for anyone who remembers Pocari Sweat from Japan, they have that here too.  Epic.

Boy, What a Day

So as has been my custom since coming to Korea, I awoke at 5AM.  My routine is actually surprisingly healthy, as I've a lot of time to prepare food in the mornings.  Today however, I thought I'd push the boat out even further and do my first clothes cleaning; what a mistake.

I'll go right ahead and say it, I didn't check the washing machine outlet.  I assumed it would drain into the drain, which, in fairness, it kind of did.  The problem is that the drain in question was covered by a recessed plastic block, meaning twenty centilitres of fluid filled the recess, while the rest poured out all over the floor in the utility room.  This was happening while I was having a shower, and by the time I'd finished, there was water everywhere.  The room is quite small, and the washing machine is enormous; the resulting pool could have housed any number of aquatic animals.  They would have to be washing machine safe, of course, but I might well have kept an aquarium back there.

So this happened around twenty minutes before I was due to leave for school.  I didn't know whether the utility room was entirely waterproof (it is thankfully) so I started bailing out with the bin, (the only waterproof container I could find) running to the sink and back, getting almost as much water in my flat as in the sink.

So eventually I just gave up, and headed to school.

Sports day was great fun - the Korean teachers (and some children) played the English teachers; (also with some children) but the score was rather unsatisfactory.  I'm talking football now, by the way.  It was a 1-1 draw, and it is only in playing football that we are reminded what a loathsome game it is.

I was initially afraid of hurting the Korean teachers, being somewhat larger than they were - but I need not have feared.  They were throwing shoulders and barges while being nippy around the park.  The whole thing was good fun, and the kids loved it.

After school I had my customary hospital visit, for the health insurance scheme.  I had three blood samples taken, (I didn't pass out or vomit for the first time ever!) eyesight checked, (which was funny, because the woman only knew the numbers 4 and 7, and the letters X and C, so I had a 1/4 chance of guessing correctly anyway) hearing test, blood pressure taken, height measured, weight measured, (85kg, +5kg since Christmas, I think my new target will be 90kg) the pee in a pot test, (for what reason, I don't know (answers are welcomed)) a chest x-ray and a basic dental check.

The whole thing was pretty painless, except of course for them taking all my blood.  One of my colleagues even asked me what the hell happened after I'd come out of the hospital, because my eyes were sullen all of a sudden.  That's what drastic blood loss does to you.  Three vials.  Was that really necessary?

So I came back to the room, drained the utility room (it transpires that a simple bung removing operation was the solution to the flooding.  Wish I had known that earlier!) and am shortly going to take a shower.

After today (27 deg C Humidity unknown, but pretty high) with all the stress and running around, the lesson plans for next week can wait.

The Weather Then.

It's humid.  Really humid.  This makes it feel substantially warmer than it is, (as of right now, 20 degrees or so) although it will get much hotter than this.

The beaches are nice, but the water is too cold for swimming at the moment.  Presumably the water will get warmer too.

Everyone is really nice, and the kids in school are pretty energetic.

I seem to have hit the jackpot in terms of location, because the supermarket (which I've only visited once, in order to get some breakfast; everyone has been so kind that I've not needed to cook yet) and gym are within five minutes of me.  Pretty much everything I need is already here, (thank you previous owner!) and so my shopping list is rather sparse.

I'm going to play some american football later in the week.  My limited experience of this sport suggests it will be easy to  begin with, (as it was when I played it before) but I suspect as with all things, the more involved you get, the more intricate the theory becomes, besides; it's always fun to learn new things, especially sports - it should be a laugh!

I'm debating whether to bother with pads or not for the training, we'll see how it goes.

I'm still suffering with timezone differences.  I woke up at 2AM today, and despite my best efforts only dozed until 5, I'm going to be zombified tonight.

I need to get myself a camera.  I find myself looking up at the scenery at every given opportunity.