Coffee Helps

Coffee Helps will be quiet for the next week or so, because I’m taking a holiday for Christmas. Oh, I’m going to China in the morning, did I mention that? I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and I’ll be back with tales of Beijing and Xi’an come January. I’ll leave you [...]

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When learning some Korean vocabulary today, the word for “food” wouldn’t stay in my head. Obviously this is quite an important word for me.  But no amount of chanting or writing it out over and over again would stop it from slipping out of my mind. Frustrated, I wrote “food” on a bit of neon [...]

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I seriously love Korean food. I didn’t at first. In fact, I referred to Western food as “real food” for my first month here! And I most certainly didn’t understand or agree with comments I’d heard on the subject of the infamous kimchi: “it will grow on you, trust me!”; “you will grow to love [...]

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My work Christmas dinner was on Thursday night. I must admit, this was the first time since I’ve been here that I worried I might start to feel a little homesick. I was exhausted after work thanks to a late night the night before, so I went to take a nap on the school sick [...]

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Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, But the very next day, you gave it away. This year, to save me from tears, I’ll give it to someone special. … Once bitten and twice shy, I keep my distance, But you still catch my eye. Tell me, baby, Do you recognise me? Well, it’s been [...]

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It has just occurred to me that soju really is, as a Korean friend proudly informed me, “the cheapest strong drink in all the world”. Drinking is a big part of Korean culture. In some contexts, this is a fine thing. What could be nicer than spending Friday night grazing at a constant supply of [...]

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On Saturday I took a trip to the DMZ – Korea’s somewhat scary “demilitarized zone”. The only stand-off left over from the Cold War, it’s basically a two mile-wide expanse of wilderness, lined with barricades and armed guards on either side. It was a fascinating day, involving drives through landmine-filled forest areas, glimpses of North [...]

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As we all know from my frustrations with the visa process to come here, the Korean immigration authorities are very strict and faultlessly thorough. One of the things they’re very clear about is that you can’t work for anyone other than the employer named in your visa application – an annoyance if you decide to [...]

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One girl I know and am becoming quite good friends with (let’s call her Yoon Chung, because, well, that’s her real name and I am completely incapable of coming up with Korean pseudonyms) is fairly well travelled. She’s lived in both Canada and America for a few years, meaning that her English is miles better [...]

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…and because when you find yourself, 3 stone overweight and fabulously unfit, teaching South Korean kindergarteners the Macarena all day, you have no real way of expressing your own amusement at the situation.

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