Friday, February 6, 2009

The working week!

This week was my first working week at my new school.

The school is one of the larger international schools and I am enjoying teaching in a large primary school - run very much like a UK primary school and with a similar atmosphere. My days consist of teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL) to different groups of children who need extra practice and help with English (all lessons in the school are in English). The lessons are only half an hour long which means there is never a slow moment!

Half of my new classroom
This weekend we are going to a women's prison to accompany some university students and look at the conditions of the women and their children. I am looking forward to seeing the "facilities" they have first hand.
This week I made another appearance in a PP publication "Asia Life". Asia Life is basically a monthly expat magazine that everyone (expat) reads but runs practically the same articles over and over. Its a bit irritating as sometimes it it highlights how shallow expat life can be - Its particularly annoying that you see the same people in it again and again. This is mainly because some of the photos are set up e.g friends of the photographer and secondly because there is a limited pool of people to be photographed at the limited expat events they cover!
Well this month it was me gracing its "social" pages - with my Martini in hand (of course). The event was the opening of a new club in the grounds of Gasolina - a favourite place of mine in PP's NGO-land: Bong Keng Kong. It seems like a good idea for a new bar particularly as Elsewhere - a bar which is an "institution" for some expats is closing shortly. It supposedly has legendary monthly Friday parties. I say legendary because I have never been...Tonight is the last one so....



Please note the US president shares the page with me - ha ha!!

Oh finally, on an amusing note - I've discovered Korea has a World Toilet Association (WTA) - They are claiming to be building what is said to be PP's "pilot" public toilet. However, this is simply not the case (!) there is a public urinal just by the National Museum - I think built in 1937 (so French...).
The building despite only having a partially formed brick wall is probably already in full use - Other facilities are simply not needed. The general approach by moto drivers and the like is to just go on any old wall that is available. The WTA can therefore claim that the "pilot" project is a success even if people will not go inside to use it!!!

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