Let's go to the Philippines! (50 days to go!)

So my Christmas Vacation dates were confirmed - next step - book flights!!

I leave on Sunday January 20th and return on Sunday February 3rd!

I thought I would post what I think my plan is at the minute.......I keep changing my mind..... but after a LOT of research and choosing my **must see** places - this plan is looking the strongest so far! Writing it down helps me to organise my thoughts so even if my plan changes - I will do an updated post when I come back of what I ACTUALLY did!

20th - 28th Spend a week in Boracay
An island just 7km long and 1km wide and in 2012 it was named 'The Best Island in the world'.
White sandy beaches and clear blue sea!

This looks like PARADISE ....ARGH

28th -29th Sabang - Underground River
I will fly back to Manilia and then fly to Puerto Princessa Airport, from there I will get a mini van to Sabang. Sleep  over on the 28th and on the 29th visit 'The Underground River'.
It is one of the New7Wonders of nature - it looks pretty awesome. Then make my way to El Nido.

29th - 31st  -Make my way to El Nido to do some Island Hopping
There are many different Island Hopping tours to do in El Nido (See here) and I haven't decided yet which tour I want to take - but basically you go out from 9am to 4pm and explore four smaller islands - where you can swim, snorkel and chill on the beach!

1st Feb - Make my way back to Manilia
This will mainly be a traveling day- but we have the whole day - so we can take it slow and stop and chill anywhere along the way for a sneaky sunbathe.

2nd Feb - Visit Taal Volcano and lake
As 'OMG Facts' explains - In the Taal Volcano there is an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island -  It's also the smallest active volcano in the world!
You can take a boat to the lake - ride a horse to the top - check out the crater and the views and swim in the lake.

3rd Feb - Back to Seoul - Vacation over!

I'm sad about coming home.....and I'm not even there yet!!

I am so excited to see some sun again and be on such pretty beaches....... 50 days to go!!

Open Class, Thanksgiving and a very lazy weekend..... Week 14

Open Class

I had my first open class.... I didn't do anything stupid.....and the kids were great!
There was only one other Epik teacher and the Vice Principal and Principal wathcing....so it wasn't as scary as I expected.
The Principal also seemed to be taking part in the lesson - repeating the key expressions with the kids ....which made me smile.

I will thank my kids with Candy <3

Thanksgiving

We heard that the buses were going to strike on Thursday so I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to make it to my first EVER thanksgiving. But luckily there were a few of us coming from Chilgok - so we got a taxi together.....and then the buses didn't strike anyway!!

Around 15 of us poured into John's place - it was nice and cosy - and actually didn't feel too cramped.

And now....for the most important part....the food.

OMG....the food.

Eating and looking at what food to eat next......tactical eating. Thanks - Laura Reynoldss for the pic!

 

It was AWESOME.

Turkey....ham.....mac & cheese, green beans and stuffing. All delivered to the house.

Followed by cake and tequila.

I'm not sure if this was a traditional Thanksgiving, what with it being my very first one - but it made me very thankful to have made such a good group of friends here......ok, that was cheesy, I know.

Thanks Matthew Stroud for the pics :D

 Lazy weekend

Hmmm...so what did I do this weekend?!
Well - Number 1 - I got stressed out with 'Funky Pigeon' - you know the wanna be 'moonpig' company.
It's my sisters 21st Birthday coming up....ughhh scarrryyy.....and I decided that I wanted to get her a photo book - a little bit like a 'this is your life' book - so I researched - and the funky pigeon Photo Book looked really cool - so I set about making it.

I should have stuck to my original favourite..... MOONPIG :D

5 hours - 5 hours I designed this thing for. Which wouldn't have been a problem - if it then worked!

So after paying for my book - I then have to upload the pictures onto the server. This failed every time.....it would get to photo 2/23 and just stop.

I emailed them for help - they said it was my internet connection. Now my internet connection is pretty awesome - but I decided to trust them and try again, firstly - I connected my laptop via the cable - instead of using wifi ........ It still stopped at the EXACT same place.


Then I tried at a different house SAME ERROR.

So - I'm thinking that this isn't a connection problem. I could remove the software and reinstall - but this would then lose the 5 hours of getting everything right.

So yeah, they angered me. Stupid Pigeons.

Number 2 - I watched US - X - Factor at Aprils house. Britney Spears.....Wooooo!! <3 <3

A girl after my own heart <3 Team Britney 4evz

Number 3 - I slept. A lot. And read some of my book.

And basically that was my weekend, there was no drinking, no hiking, no sleepovers - just one big chill. And I feel totally relaxed.

Oh and I pretty much have my Philippines Vacation plan alllll sorted - I will post it once my vacation dates are finalised.......If they're ever finalised!! 

Open Class preparation, sleepovers and Roger's Birthday......Week 13

Next Monday I will have my open class where my principal, someone from the Daegu office of Education and another native teacher will come and watch my lesson and give us feedback.

So the weekly mainly consisted of a bit of extra planning - we wrote a script for the lesson which we never normally do - we tried to keep it as similar to a normal lesson as possible.....with a bit of extra sparkle haha - like my coteacher giving the students the answers to most of my questions -  which confused me a little haha - but they just wanted to make sure that it didn't fail. (**spoiler - it went perfectly haha**)

The brother of the boy that I do my volunteering for has finally stopped screaming and crying when he sees my face. So he joined in on our little English lesson this week.....super cute.

I finally went to the fruit and veg market near my house that is there on a Wednesday - and oh my god - vegetables are soooo much cheaper there - and I got lots of 'serviceeeee' - which always makes my day that little bit better.

So with some carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, onions and broccoli - I made a stew for me, Cat and Laura for our Sleepover. I even attempted to make dumplings - they were nothing to shout home about - but they tasted similar to dumplings haha - I replaced Suet with butter!

So Friday night came - we ate Stew - watched 'Homeward Bound' 'How to lose a guy in ten days' and 'Sinister'. We were expecting to be freaked the hell out with how scary everyone has been saying Sinister was - but we spent most of the film laughing at the ridiculousness of it - we're just too cool to be scared (our halloween costumes were scarier! haha)

And then we decided to morph our faces with the boy's faces - well mainly my face - as Laura and Cat had a fringe which just didn't work .......we then sent them the picture - at around 2am - with no other explanation

Me/Roger

Me/Ryan

Sam/Ryan

It was a chilled night - we had one bottle of peach sparkling wine - and ate chocolate - but my bed with three people in it - did not make the best nights sleep!

The plan for Saturday was to go speed dating - but I had a really bad headache and I wanted to be on form for Rogers birthday - so I had a nap instead.

Cat and Laura went and it sounds like I missed a fun time - 25 dates in two hours - and some ermm interesting guys!

Saturday night - another Indian in the university area (this was cheaper - the curries were similar in taste - but I preferred the atmosphere, naan and samosas at Maya) - but I was surrounded by good company......wellll - company haha and we shared some Pororo cake for Rogers birthday.

Next stop a little bar in the uni area - where we drank a cocktail out of a flashing dispenser.

Then back to From B downtown - to get some more Jager for £15 - I decided to actually mix mine with coke this time - to hopefully not be as ill as I was the previous Sunday!!

I then finally managed to get myself to a Norebang again - after failing for around a month.

After singing some Aqua, Pink and Spice Girls - we realise that it's 7am - and we should probably make our way home.

Now this is when the highlight of my week happened.

Cat. Stairs. Slow motion. The most dramatic fall. Ever.

And then.....she gets up......and hasn't even laddered her tights!!

What is this magic?

Walking through the streets of Daegu that early - made me remember Casino nights and I was in the same sort of Casino mood - happy and hyper..... not the best when it's then time for bed.....but my 1 hour bus journey home helped me to feel sleepy again.

I woke up with NO hangover - feeling great. So me and Nina went for a nice hike in Chilgok and took a trip to Homeplus (the hightlight of anyones Sunday). I saw soooo many of my students - and it's so amusing how seriously shocked they are that I am out of school. 'Ooooooo LAURA TEACHER..........' and then coming running over haha.

One of my students has decided that my name is 'lolla skate' - it's difficult to differentiate between R and L sounds in Korean - so he thinks he's saying Rollerskate haha - I kinda like the nickname so I'm going to go with it.

Sunday is generally my 'Skype day' where I can just be hungover and talk to friends from home.

 
The boy who I used to Aupair for in Switzerland has just got a new Iphone - with skype - so far he has called me on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We skyped for three hours in total on Sunday haha - it got me out of finishing my lesson planning and I got to catch up on what they had been up to.
It was good to catch up!

Saving money in Korea

One of the things that I'm asked a lot is
-How much money can you save in Korea whilst working as an English teacher?

So I thought that I would do a breakdown of how much I spend and how much I have saved in Korea so far.

One of the main reasons that I came  to Korea was to be able to live in another country and save money at the same time!! Unlike in Switzerland.............

The costs of getting out here were quite high (I needed a new laptop, TEFL, sending documents and blah blah blah)..... sooooo has it been worth it?

Money In

A standard month

I'm on the Level 2 payscale, living in Daegu so I get
2.1 million a month.
After my outgoings (School lunches, tax, pension, medical insurance etc) I come out with around
1.8 million a month.
I'm going to make things simple with the conversion rate and say that 10,000 won is around 5 pound. (That way I can just ignore the ten thousand and half it - which is how I convert things in real life in Korea.)
So that works out at around
£900 a month

Special months so far

Month 1 and 2 
I had to pay a deposit for my house out of my first two months pay which brought my pay down to
1.6 million a month - £800
Month 1 
The flight allowance came in at the end of month one
1.3 million - £650

Money Out (Monthly)

The things I have to pay for

Gas

20,000 won - £10

Electricity

15,000 won- £7.50

Broadband

40,000 won - £20

Phone Bill (Ok, I guess I don't haveeee to have the newest phone....but where would I be without my S3 - total phone love - and it makes my students think that I'm cool)

70,000 - £35

Total- 145,000 won - 72.50

As you can see my actual outgoings are a LOT less than if I was back in England.

The main reason for this is obviously no rent to pay. My gas and electricity have been around 5000 won less than this, but I've added a little bit as it might go up soon with winter coming. 

When I compare this to my bills in England - and back then I was sharing the costs - well, it makes me happy.

When I wanted to get the S3 - my coteachers were telling me to get an older phone as it was too much to be paying for a phone - but 35 quid - I am also yet to go over my data or minutes etc - or have any random additional costs added to my bill - which seemed to happen to me every month back home!!

Food (Eating at home)

I guess this is also a 'must buy' - but to be honest - I don't really eat at home - I mainly snack.

I get up too late to eat breakfast.

I eat lunch at school Monday - Friday.

There is also a snack cupboard at school that I help myself to.....far too often.

For dinner Mon - Fri - I usually just have some snacks or Ramen (Cheap noodles)

And then for the other times I usually eat out.

This whole cooking for one just seems too much of an effort - I probably should put more of an effort in - this would help with the healthy eating -but meh.

I personally spend around 50,000 a month on eating in.....max....this includes my bottles of water and late night visits to the shop to buy peppero sticks etc haha.

Large bottle of water -
1000 won 50p

Ramen
1000 won for one or (multipacks are cheaper) 50p

Peppero pack
1000 won - 50p

Eggs
5000 won £2.50

Cereal
5000 won £2.50 

Milk

1000 won 50p

Total- 50,000 won - £25

 Obviously this would be a lot higher if I actually ate at home.

Vegetables and fruit are expensive compared to the price of other things - so I try and eat as many vegetables as I can at school. There's also a market near my house on a Wednesday where I can pick up some cheaper vegetables.

Food (Eating out)

It is a LOT cheaper to eat at a restaurant here than in England.

But it also does depend on what food you're eating.

Standard price for a Korean Bbq (Including one or two bottles of beer to share) 

10,000 won - £5

A more expensive restaurant (like my fave Indian and Western places)

20,000 won, £10

Takeaway pizza

12,000 £6

Chicken Burger Meal from Farmers (The chicken place near my house)

4000 - £2

KFC - Fillet tower meal

7000 - £3.50

I would say that the general rule is that you will probably spend around 10,000 won every time you go out - of course you can go to cheaper places and more expensive places.

This is just a sample of some prices to give you an idea - this is not what I eat every weekend! 

I probably eat out around 8 times a month (Saturday and Sunday nights) - I will round this up to give a total of - 

Total- 100,000 won - £50

 Sometimes a little part of me thinks that I should stop eating out so much to save money - but when I think that I eat out eight times a month for 50 pound - then it's not really worth missing out on the social occasions and the nice food to save that small amount!

Other bits and bobs that I pay for every month

Transport Card (This card allows me to travel on the bus and metro around Daegu and Chilgok - a standard journey is around 1200 each way 60p - no matter where you are going - so even when I have to catch the bus from my end - to the opposite end of Daegu to see Laura/Cat - then it still costs me the same -I use this card quite a lot so I top this up every month)

30,000 won - £15

School Club (I pay into our 'English Zone' fund - which buys us snacks for the office - I def eat my fair share - and we also use the money to go out for dinner around once a month)

20,000 won- £10

Taxis (I am getting a lot better than when I first got here - I used to take taxis downtown all the time - it costs me about 10k to get downtown - which is only £5.....but if I get the bus it's 60p..... haha. However of course I can't get the bus home from a night out and if I'm not sleeping at a friends house - then I have to take a taxi home - it also costs a little bit more at night time)

50,000 won - £25

Total- 100,000 won - £50

Running total - 395,000 won -£200

The rest

I try to send home 800,000 won - £400 a month, so this leaves me with around 600,000 won - £300 left to play with for all my other activities - socialising, travelling, clothes shopping and of course drinking.

Here's a few things that I have bought so far to get an idea of the prices

Return Train ticket to Busan 

30,000 won - £15

A dress - or a bag - or a pair of shoes (If bargain hunting)

10,000 - £5

Cocktail in a bag

5,000 - £2.50
Night in a hostel
10,000 - 20,000 - £5 - £10

Pint of beer 

3,000 - 6000- £1.50 - £3

Winter coat

80,000 - £40
Socks
1,000 - 50p

Organised Trips (Transport, Accomodation, Food, drinks, skiing, ski wear etc)

170,000 - £85

So far I have always spent 'the rest' and generally have around 20,000 - £10 left in my bank by the end of the month.

But that's AFTER I have taken my savings out.

Savings (Monthly)

As I mentioned earlier I give myself 1 million to spend and then send home the rest of my pay - 800,000

So in total I send home £400 a month

Which is definitely a lot better that I've managed to do for the past couple of years......and I'm still managing to do things. 
We went on a five day holiday to Namhae.... I'm going to the Philippines for winter vacation.
I still get to buy clothes, I can go out for food, I can go on skiing trips...... ok there might be the odd occasion that I have to say no to - I couldn't go on holiday to Thailand as I couldn't afford the flights - I couldn't come home for Christmas as I would spend too much when I went home - but well, I would be turning into a spoilt little so and so if I started complaining about that.

I feel I might slowly be getting control over my money again.
Of course - this money that I'm sending home isn't going into some magical savings account just yet - it was expensive to get here - and luckily my parents lent me some money. So my first few payments home have gone towards paying that off....... and then there's the student overdraft that has now started charging interest.......

So yeah, I will be happy when I finally have 'no' money - instead of minus - but I am getting there and I'm getting to have a good time whilst doing a job I enjoy at the same time.

Hopefully in a few more months - this will be me!

Special months coming up

Of course I should also mention that there will also be some special months as I come to the end of my contract and when I renew

Renewal Bonus
When I renew my contract at the end of the year - I will get a nice 2 million won bonus 
£1000

  Exit Allowance
When I leave Korea they will give me the flight allowance again - 1.3 million won
£650

Severance Pay
When I leave Korea I will get 'Severance Pay' equal to 1 months pay for each year that I've worked here for. So if I stay for two years - that will be (1.8x2 = 3.6 million - £1800) - but yeah that's a long way off......and who knows what I will want to do by then

Holiday Planning, Packages from home, 'hiking' and Ryans Birthday......Week 12

On Tuesday we finished school early to have some 'cultural time' - this happens once a month - last month we went to a temple which was cool.
However it was cold this week..... so we went to a coffee shop and had milkshakes....

Matt had an issue with ordering and ended up with a kids drink (fruit loops included)

I was happy to leave school early......buttttt my FedEx parcel was on it's way and I was desperatly hoping it would get there before I left school.....but I was being unrealistic.

In all fairness it left England on Friday and arrived at my school late Tuesday afternoon - pretty good work Parcels2go!

So my parcel arrived whilst I was out....so I knew it would be there waiting for me the next morning.

Wednesday I pretty much ran to school - and was not disappointed with my parcel!! Thanks mum and dadddd <3 <3 <3 <3

Wednesday night - Grace, Alicia and Nina came round and our plan was to talk about what we were going to do over our school vacation - buttt not everyone had their dates confirmed so we basically just spent our time drinking and stalking our friends on facebook....... productive.

However we have decided on a location........ The Philippines......
I will chat more about this when I have my dates confirmed and my flights booked as I don't want to jinx anything!!

On Thursday - on of the coteachers at my school was doing a lesson on different ways to say hello and I ended up helping how to speak 'pirate' - helping with the correct prounciation of - Arrgghhh - Ahoy Matey. Yes, this is my real job...haha.

Friday was a strange day.
We had to go and watch an open class to rate and review another epik teachers lesson (she will be doing the same to us next Monday) - and well things were not as expected.
1) We got the time wrong - we thought the lesson was at 11 something - it was at 9. (so we watched a video of the lesson instead)
2) We nearly hit a man on a moterbike getting there.
3) After the lesson (if you are my principal - look away now - nothing to see here) - we decided that we didn't want to go back to class (me, matt and three of my coteachers had come along to the open class) - so we went for a drive and then had a walk down where the trees were all pretty and took some photos.

 

I arrived early to a lesson and I generally play some English songs when this happens - they asked for Boney M - Sunny - and started doing a dance haha....cuties.

Morning glory Christmas socks. Good one Korea.

We had decided to do something productive with our Satuday and go for a hike.

So we all met at DongDaegu bus terminal - then realised we had to go to a bus stop just around the corner - setting off a bit later than expected - we arrived at Mt Palgongsan.

We all decided that we wanted to see the giant buddah and were all ready for a big hike.
It turned out to be a short stroll.

We were given some 'delicious' free food

 We then had a picnic.

 We saw the Buddah.

We maybe pushed some kids off the swings.

Realised it was getting late and we should go back if we wanted to get ready for Ryans Birthday party.
Next time our hiking will be more successful.....I'm sure.

I went straight to Cats - as standardly I had packed a dress in my hiking bag (always prepared) and planned on leaving my stuff at hers, sleeping there, and taking my stuff home in the morning. Jagermeister had other ideas.

We went to 'From B!' for Ryans Birthday - again Jager was only £15 (30,000won) a bottle - I decided to make the most of this........

Cue me taking a taxi back to Chilgok a couple of hours later - managing to delete 50% of my contacts on my phone so had no idea who anyone was - drunkenly eating grapes in bed - which I then dropped on the floor and stood on when I had to make a quick exit to the bathroom in the morning.

Vom. Vom. Vom.

Sunday was not a good day.

Def worst Korean hangover so far. It really made me wish that I was back in Newcastle and able to share my hangover with other people - where there was no need to have to talk to the other person (talking would have killed me) - but just knowing someone else is there dying with you too....and both fighting for the bathroom - and being able to order food online.

I knew eating would make me feel soooo much better. But I had the issue that I couldn't get out of bed. I tried to make toast twice.....but burnt it on both occasions as well my body wanted to vom again. Thanks.

Around 6pm I finally started to feel like I could stand up...... April helped saved my life by coming with me to the Indian restaurant...... we ate......a lot. The fresh air and food made me feel sooooo much better. So we then went for milkshakes and cake.

We saw an interesting Restaurant name ....Cock into the garden.

Haha I failed at doing Jillian Michaels on Sunday - I had been so good the rest of the week - and I ate sooo much food and cake -  but my stomach was pretty empty after spending all day being **ill*** so hey - it's allowed.

I bought my teachers a Pepero set, as the 11/11 is not only Rememberance day..... but Pepero day.... imagine a 'Mars Bar day' or a 'Galaxy Caramel Day' - rumour has it if you eat Pepero on this day - you might turn out tall and skinny.

Getting skinny by eating chocolate - sounds legit.