Alive and Kicking!!

Hi,

well lots to tell you, firstly my main point.
I have found Cadbury's chocolate! yes i am the luckiest person ever to have the privelage to shop on the american army base in Itaewan and be able to put the following things into my shopping basket:

Cadbury chocolate
Treseme shampoo and conditioner
cosmopolitan and vogue magazines! although they are the american version!
baked beans
real cheese (mature)
nice milk
colgate toothpaste
Oh and the major favorite of mine is there selection of Red Wine and spirits, so cheap too.

I know this sounds rather pathetic but until you try and shop in my local super market you will just not understand how nice it was to read food lables and understand them. Therefore i am currently eating like a queen!

Also on base there is a Subway, Pizza hut, shops, hair and nail salon oh and lots of restaurants. Excellent

School is still as fun as ever. Yesterday i cam home with the following:



Bizzare eh! not sure what that cake thing is but its getting lashed in the bin very soon! Anyway this is a regular occurence at school, the kids bring you food. obviously not always edible!

Friday night was Erins Birthday so we went out for italian then to some bars. here are some photos:


This is on the Tube!


Me and some of my fellow teachers


Me and the Birthday girl


Lani and Tyler:just arrived here last week: a couple from Canada.


The cutting of the cake!


Me and my new best friend! only kidding!


Stevie and Erin


Ariel my house mate! well we thought it was funny!


From here on it went down hill!


Now for some photos of my neighbourhood. These are on my way to work.








This is my desk at school, yes small isn't it. The pink basket it what i carry my pens, crayons, lipstick and lots of other crap in! nice eh.


This is the faculty office. Basically the staff room where i can escape from the kids.


This is the playroom at school, i can usually be found in here before lunch when i let the kids go wild for 15 minutes. I chase them for as long as i can so i tire them out for the next class, then i can have some peace!


This weekend without fail i must get my hair sorted, i look like a reverse skunk as ariel said! I have put it off long enough! it just looks wrong. with the way i am currently eating and the state of my hair it probably won't be long before i am sending you pictures of me looking like this:



love leanne xxxxxxxxx AKA Vicky Pollard!!

Health

Okay since i have been here, i have suffered with a couple of days of flu symptoms but generally everything has been pretty minor. But yesterday morning was quite amusing. i have hardly any voice, infact its practically non existant. Everthing was fine on Friday night so not sure whats going on there!! anyway i am sure its nothing to worry about, it doesn't really hurt or anything.. and didn't stop me having a few alcoholic bevies last night! ha ha

Well what i must tell you and i think you have to see it to believe it is the DUST!! and i am talking serious dust. Saturday morning was just a complete haze out of my window. You couldn't see the building opposite me it was that bad. There had actually been a warning about it on tv. Anyway i think this may have contributed to my voice being rather absent!

Today (Sunday) the dust has cleared thank god.

Also in my household Ariel has been extremely ill. She has been to three clinics so far (Casualty, bizzare place) and the International Clinic in downtown Seoul twice. She has Gastrointeritus, not sure of the correct spelling but i think you will get it!

Am sure the kids will love it tomorrow as leanne teacher cannot shout!!

Bye xx

Old Macdonald!

Today we went to the farm, or so i thought it would be a farm but it was in fact an allotment! kids loved it, here are the pics.

Field Trip!!!!

Just finished first two classes for the morning and have a nice long lunch break of 3 hours so decided to pop home for food.

Anyway before i left school i discovered a little schedule about a Field Trip on Wednesday 5th April!

Cool eh! but it appears that it may not be!

The basis of the trip is to take approx 100 Kindergarten students to a farm and help them plant lettuce!! seriously!! lettuce!

Oh and also it will be recorded on Video. I have to take part with my classes (cherry and rainbow) so i have to plant lettuce twice! and on camera.

I am going to take my camera because no doubt the kids will make it such a laugh. They will be over excited, naughty and loud... just like usual. ha ha

Just hope they don't tread in crap or anything cause i will not be cleaning the bottom of their shoes. Mind you so far my stomach has dealt quite well with the weekly nose bleeds, sneezes that are not just a sneeze but a stream of snot covering their faces and daily head,knee and arm injuries from them hitting eachother! or running into doors! yes they are all crazy kids!

Anyway, tonight i am off out to Bennigans, an american diner! its brent and trishas leaving meal. Trish is back off to australia for a few months then comming back to work in another school. Brent is gooing travelling for a few months and them also comming back to seoul.

Friday is session vacation so i get the day off and a nice three day weekend. I will be going to visit a prison. Its a cultural thing okay! It was in the lonely planet book so instead of visiting bars we will be infact going behind bars! I know that wasn't funny was it.

Saturday is Tiesto and for those of you who don't know who he is well he is way famous!! more than Pete Tong! ha ha

Must go
Love to all
Leanne

Happy Anniversary To Me

Today is sunday 27th March and i officially left England one month ago and can't belive how quick it has gone.

This weekend has been fairly quiet as next saturday me Erin and Ariel will be going to Sheraton Hotel to see Tiesto, this will be an expensive night but can't wait!! This is the flyer for it.



I am even more settled now, had a manicure the other day and have joined the local dvd club. It costs 1000won to rent a dvd thats about 50p. So far have watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Family Stone and Guess Who. Today i aim to join the gym on my complex, it only costs 10,000 won a month think thats about £6. So will definatley take advantage of that.

Today i aim to get dressed and take the rubbish down. This is in fact a pure mission. My rubbish has to be sorted in to the following:

Paper
Cardboard
Food Waste
Glass
Plastic



Your food waste also has to go in special plastic bags. If you don't sort out your stuff then you get shouted out apparently. This happened to Ariel.

Also i have the funniest thing in my flat. Its a tannoy. At random times of the day and night you hear this Korean man talking. God knows what he is saying but its so bizzare. They have them in all the apartments!! Its just wrong!!! This is a picture of it!



Anyway keep the comments coming.

More Photos

Well i know your probably more interested in photos than me rambling on like a gabbie annie so i have attached some i think you may like.

This is the view from my apartment. Me and Ariel are in the penthouse!! well not exactly a penthouse but it is on the top floor.!!




This is my school, where i teach! yes i actually teach these poor babies!! Oh they found it hilarious today when i taught them see you later alligator, in a while crocodile! their parents must be devastated that this is what they a learning! oh and they know the phrase "crack on" basically kids get your books and work, and sit down oh and Zip it, i make the zip up the mouth motion! they are getting cheeky now cause they do the un zip motion and laugh at me!!



Now for some of the kids! the first couple are of them in their science lesson! look what they made! they are cotton reel things that go round! thats as scientific as i get!







This is me and Mike, he is a cling on. He loves Leanne Teacher! don't know why, i am forever telling him to sit on his chair, pick his crayons up, get his correct books out and to stop annoying the girls!




The Boys! this is Cherry Gang, left to right Neill, Nathan and Steven. Steven is always in tears, yesterday he ran into the door frame and had to come to the teachers office, bless he was sobbing his heart out! don't know what he had been doing as it was arts and crafts class with Ariel my flat mate! she was laughing! so was i though! Today Steven got exited doing the song "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes song and smashed his face on the chair! bless him, i scooped him in my arms from the floor and wiped his face, gave hima drink of water and he was fine! mother teresa eh!!



Who is the best team in the world????? yes the kids know its Everton! Balgan Dung means red shite (Liverpool FC) in Korean! ha ha




Stevie and Neill getting excitable for the camera!!



This is my mate molly, we met in Route 66, she is a backpacker originally from Boston and has been in New Zealand etc since she left uni! she got to seoul a week after me and is comming round tomorrow for a few bevvies and some dinner with me and ariel. Oh we got bought a rose, we took the head off it and shared it! yes we were drunk!



Love and Kisses

Lea
xx

Portrait!

Cherry Class had a speech lesson yesterday and they had to draw the person sitting next to them and write on the worksheet. This was a 40 minute lesson and at the end i was presented with this picture. ha ha



Pretty acurate really, with my yellow and brown hair, and my green eyes!! i asked chris if teacher was angry in the picture, he said no! i presume i look quite scary to them in general then!!!

Korea Folder

When speaking to other English teachers at work it becomes aparent that seoul is not just lovely city but its pretty damn crazy.

Daily we chat about the differences in Korea compared to our home cities. Concidering i work with Americans, Canadians and Australians we all seem to have the same views on the goings on here and the phrase "put it in the korea folder" is a genrously used.

Here are a few things from the Korea folder you might like to know!

1: Koreans drive like mad people! trying to cross a road becomes a matter of life or death. the roads are not two lanes, theyare like motorways. Zebra crossings do not work and even when the green man is flashing don't think its safe.

2: People drive scooters, but the drive them on the road and on the path! yes paths aren't even safe!

3: Cheese is not available, only that processed crap in clear plastic! i payed £6 for a little block of cheddar at the imported food store!

4: It is seen as rude to blow your nose in the company of others! but men consistently spit on the street! nice. and i mean proper man spits, even the kids do it. Its just wrong!

5: When kids lose their baby teeth the dentist replaces them with silver metal ones, currently a third of the kids in Rainbow and Cherry class look like that guy from James Bond!

6: The food is way spicy! walking from class to class the other day one of the students handed me a cracker! i ate it as i was starving and my eyes started streaming, thanks for the chilli flavour cracker! thats the last time i eat something a student gives me!

7: When out in bars they have not heard of measures! obviously not a bad thing at the time but in the morning a different story when my head is banging!

So far i think thats it!! will just leave you with a photo of a bar in Hongdae! highly amusing name!!

Settled in!

Just sitting in my room, on the internet, on my laptop! yes i am finally sorted.
Unfortunatley due to me being rubbish with computers i could not figure out how to do the internet so andy sorted it for me. Nice one.

So i am currently sitting at my desk listening to the Chris Moyles radio show. Tomorrow if i am on-line at aroung 5:00pm i can listen live! I have cable Tv in my room but out of the 100 channels i get i can only watch channel 29 (style channel)shows friends, sex in the city and what not to wear, oh and some cool films) then there is AFN (american forces network) channel 40. This is just tripe. oh but they do show the Jay Leno Show which i have become a fan of!

Today is sunday, its around 4:00pm and i have been up a couple of hours. The reason is i went out with ariel last night to Hongdae, cool area about an hour on the tube away. Went to Route 66 and the Tin Pan, both foreigner pubs. mostly full of yanks. hardly any brits out here!

Yesterday i went to the olympic park, on my own! yes i braved the tube and thought i would go and check it out. here are some pics.







Considering the park is only 3 tube stops away it is so nice to see such an open place, with grass and lots of trees, sounds stupid but when you have to constantly dodge people in the street and get pushed and shoved on the tube, walking around a park is just brilliant.

Ahn-nyung-ha-seh-yo (hello)

well i am here and have lots of photos for you.....although i still can't work out how to put them in order! sorry.... Enjoy xx


This is me and Ariel my room-mate, she is from Washington DC. We were a bit merry in a Hip Hop club in Sinchon.



Ariel and Stevie - we went to a private Kareoke room! very amusing! plus i broke the tamborine they supplied us with!



After a hard night of partying we went to the local takeaway! was scrummy!





Picture of the Sinchon area. lights, lights everywhere!



My food on the airline (Bibinbap) quite tasty but wierd!



Me and Erin, went out for a meal and they gave us these dreadful pinis to wear! they were dirty too. Didn't want to offend so put mine on!! wouldn't do that back home!



Itaewan: American/English/Canadian area of seoul. Had a few bevies in Geckos, nice pub.



Photo when i arrived in Seoul, usual crap traffic/building scenery! but interesting eh



Cherry Class (my little cherubs)



Brendan and Holly - check out his hand! he has a crush on her - how sweet !



Neil and Hannah - Hannah is my star pupil - she brings me cookies so i give her gold stars on her work! wish the other kids would realise that treats for Leanne Teacher means rewards!



Jenna: lovely girl but very naughty. Her partner in crime is Lilly standing by her (one with the pig tails) right little pair them two!



Jeff - yes he sleeps alot! it was quite unusual to have him sitting up sleeping as usually in my class he lies across two chairs! how rude! mMust be my voice sending him to sleep! that or my lessons are crap!



Rainbow Class (so cute)

I have No Tact!!! Apparently!

Okay its the eve on my departure and i got a chance to update my blog. My packing is done and i am just in the stages of waiting, waiting, waiting!

Last night i had my leaving meal. Ate a tremendous amount of food and drank plenty of the red stuff!!( what a surprise!!)

Anyway mum, dad, grandad and Natalie, thanks for the most perfect evening, i had a lovely time and really enjoyed myself and i will miss you all very much. well that obviously goes without saying. xx

Anyway, due to the discraceful state me and natalie were in:

1: Drinking far too much red wine!
2: Singing the rolling stones songs with my grandad on the i-pod nano!
3: Sucking in the air from helium ballons on my very nicely decorated table! (Big River! Yes Big Hangover!!!
4: Oh and having a disco in my room at an un-godly hour! for which i did get a telling off for!! by mummy!!
5: Photos that are just wrong! me with wine stained lips!! nat with her Dodgy Tights!! actually i have a pair but yours don't spin round like mine! neill you know the tights i mean!
6: The rest is just a bit of a blur! but i had a good kip!!

Well anyway when we got home we thought it would be a good idea to take a last couple of photos to commemorate the occasion.

This morning we went through the photos and i have decided that due to the fact we look like a pair of drunks ( its true)Oh and that fact that i look like Pete Burns on a couple! i decided not to apply a photo of the apres meal!!

None of the 7 photos showed me and my best mate looking at our best ( we are in fact Gorgeous!!) so instead i have attached a photo of me and natalie from when we went to Creamfields 2005!! Yes i know the glasses we have on are rediculous but we thought we were cool!!! and they did a good deed when at lime steet at 7.30am half covering our tired faces!

Creamfields = an extremely messy night and a lot of dancing!! Natalie - 2manydjs if you ever find the album send it to me please xx

This ones for you nat!! Love you loads. Thanks for my lovely card and Present! Oh and what do you mean i have no tact! ha ha

Bon Voyage!!

Well today is probably the last day i will get to update my blog as i have a couple of hectic days before my departure on Sunday.

So far this week i have packed my case, un-packed my case, packed my case again and last night had the biggest strop because i am over my baggage limit! I mean i only want to take the essentials!!



The fact that i have to pay £43 per kilogram is enough to put myself off my clothes so have been strict and its still not happening!

I contacted Korean Airlines and after dialing about 300 phone numbers (total exageration on my part as usual) i managed to get a free 10KG !!! yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

so now with the help of super mum i have packed!! i can also get into my bed now as my room doesn't look like Great Homer Street market late on a saturday afternoon!! (those from liverpool will get what i mean) those who are not, basically it looked like a bomb had gone off in my wardrobe!! Basically i had to settle for the spare room last night.

Tommorrow (Friday) i get my hair done (bit more blonde obviously) and its my leaving meal at the Narrow Boat in Weedon. Probably last time i will look at a menu and know what i am eating..

Saturday = luggage labels to buy! and an early night.

Sunday = departure day! and total panic attack!

So goodbye England..

Please keep in touch guys, leave me lots of comments and next time you hear from me i will be in Seoul!!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

GOT IT !!!!!!!!!

Today i received my flight ticket. On the 26th February 2006 at 20:05 I will be leaving Heathrow on a 11 hour flight to Incheon Airport Seoul South Korea. As you will probably imagine its hit me now and my head is a mass of emotions!! Anyway suppose i'd just better get on with it and start packing......

Tomorrow i am off to London to the Korean Embassy to sort out my visa this end. Should be pretty straight forward and should be sorted by middle of next week. Then i just have to get my flight!

Anyway on Friday i travelled up to my favorite place "Liverpool" for a few days of goodbyes and a slight bit of partying.. oh and quite a fair bit of drinking may i add which was fabulous...

Friday also seen my last day in my job and went out for a meal with the girls! oh and Dipak sorry.. Got some lovely presents and basically was given a lovely send off... Now i am unemployed and its so nice. better not get too used to it though.

I have included a few photos from my Saturday night out in Liverpool so ENJOY!! Oh i put them the wrong way round so they gradually get a bit better...

As you can see i am sporting a nice hepatitis B bruise on my left arm which was actually made worse whilst in Liverpool by a certain Mr Ward!!

This photo was definatly in the Rubber Soul !!!

No idea where this was!!!


Start of the night!

Human Pin Cushion

As you may gather from the title of this posting i had my leaving presents from the doctors surgery today. Yes i had my Jabs!! and they hurt!! My arms are ruined, they were like two dead weights this afternoon in work..

I had Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Diptheria, Tetanus and my 1st Hepatitis B injection. I have another 2 of those to go! I didn't bother with the rabies injection....

Had some news from my school this morning and they informed me that i should recieve my visa confirmation number sometime next week. Hurrahhh, aparently there has been a back log at the immigration office and a Lunar New Year to contend with that has ultimatley slowed down the process... just my luck!