From Kimchi to Curries.

Welcome to the Middle East. We have been in Dubai for exactly 3 weeks now. The intense heat, super-modern skyscrapers everywhere and mind-bending array of exotic foods keep reminding me how far from Korea I am.

I go to the local shops for bread and milk, and end up coming back with a few new spices or some random slab of meat to try cooking. I bought a piece of veal the size of my head a couple of days ago and now I'm just trying to decide which sort of curry it will end up having lived for.

but this post is not about the middle east. This is most likely going to be the last time I write about Korea. So before I get carried away with our latest destination, I'll cover the last few special things that happened to us in in the good old S of K.

It was a week of farewells. the first of which were the goodbyes to all our students in both schools. Kate's students were informed of her resignation well ahead of time, and for that reason her last few weeks were full of sad kids and goodbye cards. cute.

The kids at my school were told during their second last lesson with me, so it came as more of a shock, but they took it well, given that less than 1% of them were capable of having a conversation with me meant that they didn't feel like they would miss out on much I suppose. Besides, the way the system is structured for foreign teachers in Korea means that us foreigners tend to come and go on a very regular basis. 1 year contracts, very straightforward entry requirements, and not amazing pay mean that most people who come to Korea are just 'passing through' as we were, and did.

Despite that, it was sad to say goodbye to the one or two students who didn't make our lives miserable during school hours. The next foreign teachers at our respective schools will have big shoes to fill; but only because we left our indoor slippers behind.

Later in the week Kate and I went to our unofficial farewell dinner. It was a lovely, relaxed night out at our favourite local Korean BBQ restaurant with the co teachers who had been our best buddies at work for the last year. I know we will miss them, and it's possible they might even miss us a little bit.

I was lucky enough to be invited to an 'official' farewell for me another night at a local restaurant, along with all the teachers and staff from my school. Unfortunately, in case we haven't already mentioned it, in Korea it is considered respectful to offer the guest of honour a glass of soju (nasty korean liquor)... there were about 20 teachers, 10 staff, the principal and vice principal there.... so yeah, maybe I wasn't so 'lucky' to have been invited after all.. apparently we all had a really nice time, and all got home safely.

With all the official farewells behind us, Kate and I prepared for our final bye-bye-bonanza-bash at our little place in juk byeon (or jookie as we usually called it). It was a great turnout, and everyone talked a lot of crap, into the wee hours.
Thinking about all the time we have spent traveling so far, I can safely say that we have never met a more diverse group of people all striving for the same thing. It was always nice to have other people near us who were in a similar position, who we could talk to, compare notes, complain about stuff, and swap valuable information like where to find the one shop in town that imported Tim Tams (thats the ass-bra shop for those who dont know - thanks for the tip Rich). We both enjoyed the relaxed comradeship that we felt around the other local-foreigners in and around our town, but hey, thanks to viruses like Facebook we should be in contact with them all for a while yet.

super-quick-funny-story - for one reason or another I (brendan) was responsible for moving all our stuff from our place (in jookie) to pam and richs place in uljin (next town south, 10km away), since we stayed at their place the night before we left. so I had to shift all the stuff that we were giving them, as well as all the stuff that we were taking with us to Dubai. Anyway, I took a cab. The cabbie didnt realise that I was moving my life until there were too many bags to argue, and since he didnt speak english, he couldn't really object to it effectively. So I copped a mouthful from the guy, the whole way to Uljin, but it was all Korean, so I played the 'ignorant foreigner' card and just smiled. Don't worry, I tipped him a lot, so he probably doesnt hate me as much anymore.

OK, so the next day we headed to Seoul, and then on to Dubai. So now here we are, in a whole new country, in a very different part of the world. So far we haven't really had much time to look around the city, since we are still putting together all our paperwork for our new apartment and residency visas. But soon we will be in the new place, and be able to post something more about our latest location.

Thanks to Korea for a great 2010. We will miss Jookie and all the people and fun memories that it represents.

//Brendan