claireinkorea

After watching about a hundred episodes of Grand Designs recently, I have actually designed the basic style of my eco-house. Now all I have to do is work out how to get enough money to one day built it…

I just completed a twelve week French Improvers class and really enjoyed it. I was surprised at how much came back to me from studying GCSE French at school, and I hope to do more in the future.

i actually only made it to £4500. But that was still enough to go travelling and more than I have ever saved before by a long way.

Changed my mind about having a tattoo in Korean and instead got an Indian mehindi-style tattoo on my foot whilst in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

Unless the world stops making books this will probably never happen because I always buy books faster than i read them.

I’d love to do an MA in film so that I can learn more and turn my lifelong obsession with movies into an academic interest. I’d also like to turn my annoying habit of constantly talking at length about films into a legitimate one.

I have taken my first steps towards being more politically active and I have started writing letters for Amnesty International again. I had stopped when I moved to Korea, but I didn’t really have any excuse – you can post a letter of complaint or support from any country.

I’m open to other suggestions….

I was good and I stuck to a decent budget,but I still managed to get exactly what I was looking for. I have an Olympus SP510-UZ. It has about 7 megapixels and 10x optical zoom – and I love it. It cost about £200. But the kind man in the shop threw in loads of extras, so I have a tripod for it, a battery charger, a bag, and some other extra bits and bobs. And look at the lovely pictures I can take with it!

I made it to the £2,000 mark! And i coloured in the space on my little money-counting chart thing that I made. One-third of the way there and 5 pay days to go…

Before I can learn more french I realised it is necessary to refresh my existing knowledge of the language. The last time I studied french was ten years ago – in high school. God that makes me feel old. Anyway, I have joined an online french programme on the BBC website and so far I’m not doing too badly. I thought I had forgotten it all, but when you see the words in front of you, it is surprising how much comes back. Hopefully, now that I am doing TEFL and learning Korean, I’ll have a better understanding of the language aquisition process and might even pick it up a bit quicker.

But I have taken Korean lessons for 5 months and I think I have learnt a reasonable amount. Unfortunately, I have to stop going because the time is no longer convenient, but my friends and I have started our own study group and we’re going to try and keep learning.

I have always loved taking pictures, and I got more into photography when I bought my first digital camera last year. It only cost me £100 but its been great and helped me take some really good pictures (see www.flickr.com/photos/claireinkorea).

Ever since moving to Korea though, I have become more and more obsessed with photography, and with the notion that I may have some limited talent as a photographer. I’d love to be able to sell some of my photos. But i know that my camera is not really high enough quality for professional photos.

So then I thought that I would try and get a proper, professional digital SLR camera. But they are so expensive! Now I am having to settle for a higher quality digital that is not an SLR and see how I do. But I still have to save up some more money!

I plan to go travelling for 7 months after I complete my contract here in Korea and I have estimated that I need about £6000 – or thereabouts – in order to do that. I am saving half my salary every month at the moment and so far I have just short of £2000 and 6 more pay days to go. In theory that would only add up to £5000, but the best thing about TEFL teaching contracts in Korea is the bonus you get at the end of your contract – equivalent to one month’s wages!

I had always been scared of the idea of skiing, but the fact that it was always too expensive for me to consider doing, meant that it wasn’t an issue.

However, in Korea you can spend a day skiing, including equipment hire and a lesson, for £50! So I no longer had a decent excuse for not trying it. And, as i had promised myself that I would spend at least some of my time whilst I am travelling and living abroad conquering fears and trying new things, I knew I would have to try skiing.

So in February, myself and a group of friends, most of whom were also skiing virgins, headed for Muju in Jeollabuk-Do. We had a lesson – during which I discovered that I am one of the few people in the world completely incapable of getting back up from the floor without taking my skis off. Which is obviously a fairly fundamental skill (however, I was able to take my skis off whilst sitting down). I also discovered that I can stop myself both using the correct technique and by making myself fall over :)

It was a great day and I am glad I tried it. I certainly couldn’t say that i was completely over my fear. But I took a big step towards facing it. And I managed to do so without any serious injuries!

I want to get a tattoo of a korean word, written in hangeul (korean script). I am livng, and teaching english in Korea, for a year and would like the tattoo as a reminder. However, I cannot decide on a word that would be suitable. I’ve looked up many words, and they either seem too random or too cheesy!

My friend Rachel has been drafted in to help me and these are some of our suggestions so far. What do you think?

Pure – Sun suhan
Rare – Dumun
Patience – Innaesim
Spicy (I love spicy food) – maeun
sunset glow (because of my red hair) jeonyeok naeul