The 20 night wait, Part II

  Seoul, Korea Rep.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007

· Seoul, South Korea
· GMT +8:00 hours

2 days and counting

01 Mandu

A quick update. We've passed 7 nights since I enlightened you all to the ins and outs of our latest daily routine, the routine that sees us passing days - tick tock - in Seoul. 7 nights nearer to D-Day, December 20th, reporting day for Camp Korea (CK) work, with only 2 of the total 20 we had to endure to go. The fact that we're both looking forward to the imminent 6-weeks of administration and monitoring/mentoring of 45+ foreign teachers (as they go about their tasks of entertaining a class of Korean kids) shows how starved we are of things to do. Or, it could be said, we're looking forward to December 20th for another reason: because it marks the beginning of the end - the beginning of the contract that, upon completion, means the bank balance is replenished and we're back on the road again. Yep, having recently taken delivery of my Mandarin phrasebook and my travel guides on 'Nepal' and 'The Middle East' the collective juices of wanderlust are flowing again. My feet are sufficiently itchy and after the coming 6 weeks of tantalising talk to Meg about seeing the likes of The Great Wall in winter, the Tibetan plateau, the Himalayas, India and the Egyptian pyramids, hers should be too.

The highlights of the week that was

Tuesday evening, December 11th, saw Meg, in an attempt to accelerate her shaking of the flu, actually make it to the bathhouse, but balking at actually making it to the you-have-to-be-naked-in-the-presence-of-staring-Koreans baths themselves. Still, she enjoyed flaking out in the saunas, commenting that I sweat a lot more than she does. Nice observation Princess.

Wednesday saw the return to health of our oft-sick laptop. Yep, as I type I can say my trusty T22 is feeling reborn, and all it took was a complete system rebuild and a smidgen of superglue (don't ask). It doesn't whine anymore, it doesn't take an eternity to open files and, for now at least, it generally does what it's told. But, Windows being Windows, I'm sure the newly built registry is already on a downward spiral into chaos and it's only a matter of time before I actually do what I've been meaning

02 T-Pod Exclusive

to do for years - switch to Linux.

Meg finished her two weeks of private lessons on Friday, by which time she was almost back to full health and all that was left to do was shake a nasty cough.

On Saturday we did a full day of "helping out" (as CK termed it; we called it unpaid work, the worst kind of work) for CK, assisting with the orientation of CKIC, the overseas branch of CK (picture 2).

Sunday we purchased Meg's hiking boots which means we're all set for the post-Korea hills of Tibet and Nepal (and the muck and

03 Doota

dirt on the streets of India). To say she looks 'unaccustomed' to wearing such footwear would be an accurate statement, but she's wearing then in admirably.

Monday, yesterday, saw us reducing the weight of our bags by some 9kg's as we mailed home 4 different parcels of stuff we've accumulated over the weeks, stuff that no longer serves a purpose for the rest of our trip and, most importantly, means we might just be able to manage our bags once again (watch out Villa Maria - the bulk of the 9kg should be with you in 2-3 months). We unexpectedly spent so much in the post office that the staff gave us a few free Korea Post 2008 calendars as we were leaving. We must have looked like we needed cheering up. We cheered ourselves up in the afternoon by paying our first ever visit to a Korea cinema, taking in the movie 'I am Legend'.

04 Preconceptions

Finally today, Tuesday we paid another visit, our third in total, to the Canadian embassy where, in a small sound proof room, Meg submitted her application for a new passport, but not before answering a few questions as to why she wanted one in the first place from an English/French speaking Korean (now that's a neat skill-set for a Korean). We've to go back in 3 weeks and pick up Meg's new 48-page passport which will be her latest souvenir from the trip.

Day 121 to 127 Observations (December 12th to 18th 2007)

· 2nd attempt

05 2 Princesses

Okay, so I failed miserably in the last entry attempting to explain how dry the Korean winter is. What I meant was the air is void of moisture, something you probably deduced from my futile effort anyway. That's why you see humidifiers in most rooms here in Korea. Jay and his wife (our hosts, remember?) thought having one in our little room (picture 5) one night last week would help Meg get over her flu. So we tried it, only to wake up in a veritable rain forest; the air was so heavy with moisture that water was dripping down the windows. An interesting experiment/experience and one that didn't help the patient much.

· Het!
When Meg ventures outdoors these days it's never without going through a very precise and well practiced routine beforehand. First, she puts on her thermal undershirt, then the 3 light layers that go on top of that. Next is her fleece, followed by her coat, tuque (2 of them until such time as I feel a need to start wearing mine), scarf & gloves. She was asked the other day if she was Russian. Not quite sure where that came from. Obviously not because she was bundled up, right? I mean, aren't Russians supposed to be able for the cold, just like Canadians? For the record it's not that cold over here. I'm quite okay most days with just a fleece. But not Meg, she who gets cold in the summer shade. I shudder to think what she'll be like come January when it does actually get cold. Btw, for you guys outside Canada, a tuque is a Canadian term for a winter hat and 'Het', pronounced 'net', is the Russian word for No.

· VHS
While you'll find it hard to find them in either Ireland or Canada, you can still rent VHS movies over here in Korea (at least in this area of Seoul you can). We went to rent a DVD the other night using Jays membership only to find that DVD's were few and far between in the store. Kind of weird really considering, 1 - how technically advanced Korea is and, 2 - how you can't walk 50 yards without being presented with an opportunity to by bootleg DVD's. Watching a VHS, with its jumpy scenes and mono-esque sound, brought me back a few years. The movie was 'The Good Sheppard'. A good movie but so long that it came on two tapes.

· Thanks again
The complements keep coming. Well, sort of. A couple from Kingston recently made this comment (Merry Christmas to you two also :)) -

'love the blog, I guess the Irish write better than they speak'.

Yep, we're all poets, scholars or raving drunks in Ireland (if you're lucky you're all three). Oh, and we are cunning and masters of self-parody. We use it as a defense to keep you outsiders off guard, just the way we like it.

· Christmas, but not as we know it
It is only 7 days until Christmas day. Not that you would know that over here of course. Yes, there are lights up, there is a huge ice-rink at City Hall, consumerism is in full swing (as it is all year round), you catch the odd glimpse of a fake-bearded Santa every now & then and that Mariah Carey 'All I want for Christmas' song is playing anywhere that plays Christmas songs. But generally it's a tame affair, especially by western standards. We'd both rather be at home for Christmas; this is my 3rd year in a row, and 4th year out of the last 6, that I'll have been away from Ireland on Christmas. But it's Meg's first ever Christmas away from Canada and she's trying the hardest to stave off the longing to be back in Ontario helping all the rest of you shoveling snow drifts from your doors (yes, we've seen the worst-storms-in-40-something-odd-years news). A few days ago we bought a small made-in-China Christmas tree complete with flashing lights, balls & bows. Oh, and a fancy star to sit atop the whole thing. The tree will be the centerpiece of our new camp accommodations come Thursday. Meg can't wait to get to work decorating it, which shouldn't take long considering it's barely 2 foot high. While decorating the tree we'll don our Santa hats, wish we had eggnog (have I spent that long in Canada) and play the only Christmas song we have with us, and the only one worth playing - The Pogues, Fairytale of New York'. Speaking of which, this article is another example of a world getting sillier and sillier by the day. Save yourself while you still can.

· Bad (Canadian) Santa
Keeping with the Christmas theme, here is an article that made us laugh. I trust it'll do the same for you.

· More Congratulations
A quick congrats to Kim & Scott on their new purchase. Hope that mortgage noose around your necks isn't too tight guys. Looking forward to a dip in the pool come the summer.

· Duty Free
Before I start this one let me first say that we're leaving Korea, all going to plan, sometime in early February. We won't be flying. Nope, we'll be catching the ferry from Incheon port in Korea to Qingdao in eastern China. The reason for telling you this will become apparent fairly soon.
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We paid a visit to a duty free shop today in one of Seoul's fancy department stores. I was treating myself and wanted to get some toilet water (for marketing purposes it's called 'eau de toilette' but I like to dispense of that fancy French stuff) and so went through the process of making the purchase, which included having my credit card swiped, showing my passport and having to supply a fictitious date of departure (I won't go so far as to say I lied, even though I did). Weird questions, I thought but probably routine - this is duty free after all. However, then I was handed a receipt and a map of Incheon international airport, Korea's international airport.

"Pick up your purchase here before you board your flight", the cashier said while pointing to the relevant area of the map.

"Eh..... okay yeah, great.... thanks" I replied, doing an admirable job, I thought, of hiding my surprise and acting as if I was totally clued into the procedure because I make these sorts of transactions all the time. We then left the shop, receipt and map in hand and minus my newly purchased toilet water, to wonder what to do next. We'll keep you posted.