This weekend worked WONDERS for the social bonds!! On Friday after school all the teachers went to the Principals house for a meal. Turns out that it wasn't his house but a patch inbetween lots of high-rise buildings where he had a little caravan and a garden patch.

Considering that some peoples Principals don't even look at them or acknowledge them in school, I considered myself quite priviledged to be invited. We started drinking instantly whilst all the food was being prepared (it was a team effort on everybodies part to make the meal) and then the remainder of the evening was spent eating, drinking and then we all went to a Karaoke bar (they call em Norebangs) and my Principal was the first to sing!! I took quite a few photos because I was so amazed.

As I said it was really good to be in an informal situation with all the teachers as it was so much more relaxed than in school. I tried testing a bit of my Korean language out with my Principal. He said that he would take me fishing on his boat (AMAZING RIGHT?) so I said 'Keeee?' which means 'REALLY?', he smiled and said he would. Later on in the night, Jay (me co-teacher) was talking to my mentor teacher and the Grade 4 teacher and they were talking about my conversation with the Principal. My mentor teacher said 'Simon you were quite rude when you said 'keee'' so I felt a little embarressed, and then Jay said 'Yeah Simon, that was actually f**king rude!' HAHA!! Apparently the Principal was fine with it, but its the whole social manners, hierarchy thing.

'Obla di, Obla daa life goes on!!' - Beatles

Anyway, we got a picture together (top)!!

Yesterday I played football with some locals chaps (thinking it would be a small fun game) and we got to the pitch and they had uniforms and were doing proper stretches and said 'yes today, it is the Catholics versus the Christians, it is a very big game'. Honestly I became a little nervous because even when I played football at Salford Lads Club the kids would ask me 'Have you ever played football before??'

Also I was the only white guy there and cars were turning up and staring at me and I thought, 'I'm not even doing anything and they are staring... they may very well wet themselves if I kick a ball'.

Really odd game of football as we had three half-times, but at the end of the match, the chap who asked me to come said 'Ahhhh Simon you very funny player!' and also if I kicked the football or managed to tackle anybody then the players in my vicinty would go 'Ahh VERY GOOD VERY GOOD!' Although in all honesty it was an amazing day; the librarian from work was playing for the opposite team which was shocking for both of us and ALL the chaps on the field were really welcomming.

So after the match, I went into town and instead of young groups of men looking at me oddly, they were saying 'Hello Simon!' with it. Unfortunately I remember no names other than Daniel, who was given an English name when he went to live in Australia for two years. However I feel more like a local from this weekend AND I had a stonking headache all day yesterday as the teachers drink like crazy (on the Friday night) and then I got back to Hallim at maybe 11pm and we had friends over from the city so we carried on until maybe 1-2am. That is a good 7hours hard drinking I think! So getting back to the point I played good football considering the night before.

Also on a note of badness my bike was taken the other day. Totally my fault really as I forgot to lock it up (I was quite excited about where I was going I think). So I went to the police station to report it but they were more keen to look at my pictures on my ID cards, with 'Ahhh Simon very pretty, very handsome', and then they asked to see my camera and looked through all the 200 something photos on it and then drove me back to the place where my bike got stolen, took a picture of it and drove me home.

Everything is an experience in itself here.

On the good side of the bad side, Jay is giving me his old bicycle and I'm getting money back for the bike (in a kinda of unofficial, but very official way :D). So overall it was a blessing in disguise.

So this picture is of one of the most famous men in Korea... King Sejong. He invented the Hangul writing format - 사이몬. So if it weren't for him, Korean's would have no written history, only oral, or Japanese written, or Chinese written, but most recently, English written.

And then the picture with all the gormless faces is the TaLK team of Jeju!! We are comprised of 4 generations at the moment :D. We got Aussies, Kiwis, Brits, Canadians, Americans, Koreans, Chinese peoples and South Africans; although he wasn't here this day, all in all we got 30!!

Then you got a picture of me school on the field trip. AWESOME day!! This week we have Halloween so are quite literally making things everyday until we have a party... hoooozar!