Helens belated post-sorry

Hey people! My turn to hog the spotlight. Righteo... we have been here for nearly a month, so much has happened but I wont write every single thing down- only what has been interesting to me so far in Gwang-ju.

First night I arrived I actually had food poisoning and battling fresher flu from the night before, so the bumpy bus ride (from Seoul to Gwangju - 5 hours) was rather sickening..all I did was sleep if I had stayed awake I would of made a mess of the bus. When I arrived at the university to be picked up by my Co-teacher Mrs Cho she said I looked in a bad way, so she insisted I go see her cousin who was a oriential doctor. She drove me there in peak hour traffic (took about 40 mins) as soon as I got to the doctors surgery I nearly passed out. When I went to see him the first thing he did was stick a small accupture needle in my hand and said it would make me feel better-and it did! That needle however had to stay lodged in my hand for the next 24 hours..ouch. then he performed a treatment called 'Moxa' on me where 3 pods of herbs where placed on my stomach and lit on fire. It wasn't sore but i sure was getting kinda spacey from smelling the herbs. It was definitely an experience to remember-quite different from western doctors. They dont believe in prescribing Antibiotics..but to treat things from Natural sources. The next day we all had to get a medical examination-more needles and pee in a cup.. yay fun!!

We all started school the next day. Im very fortunate, I live only 5 mins downhill from my school Sang-il Middle School. There are 900 students at my school (co-ed). This year I am teaching only 3rd grade (16 year olds- korean age). The students are super friendly, curious, polite at the first sight of me. I felt like royalty as I walked through the hallways as every student would bow to me- sign of respect. I have my own wee office (that I share with 5 other teachers). On my first day i witnessed a student getting caned in front of me. The sight and sound make me sick to my stomach and i wanted to cry. Then I got told the student was being smart in class. It is a very common sight to see the teachers all carry sticks (some big broom stick handles) to class. Physical discipline is very much alive at my school. My first week I had to introduce myself (using powerpoint) to all my classes ( I see 12 different classes a week, so I had to talk about myself 12 times in a week!!!) during my presentation I showed a photo of Julian and the classes just went out the door..I had some crazy questions asked about him "are you going to marry him, where did you meet him, he is handsome, he is cute, what does he do, where did u meet, how many children will you have, do you think your boyfriend is handsome? ..."etc..and some crazy questions I got asked about me was "you have nice eyes..have u had eyelid surgery (apparently its common to do that here), what is your bloodtype? if you can fly where would you fly to? Do you like korean toliets? do you think I am handsome? and even a few marriage proposals. Everyday in class you don't know what to expect. The other day I had a shoe thrown at my head at 100km an hour..everyday is different. You have to think fast!

We are very fortunate we came with about 20 other foreign teachers (they are from America, Canada, South Africa, England etc..) so it has been a blast getting to know them and hang with them in the weekends. Things we do in weekend is go to Nori bong (karoke), Drink Soju, Go to the markets, shop, drink more soju. Koreans love their soju.
One thing I will point out before I end my post is...I cant believe how incredibly cheap things are over here. You can get a bus ride and subway ride for 1000won ($1-2 aus dollars) to go anywhere you want. The food is cheap as! Julian and I discovered Kimbap restaurant is the place to go eat for 3000won you get a big plate of food that could feed 2 people and its super delicious!
I will put some photos on soon..so watch this space....