The world's longest Kimbap
Kimbap or Gimbap is such an institution in Korea that it if wasn't for their obsession with Kimchi it could be their national dish.*
Kimbap was first described to me as a Korean sushi and I have since discovered it was the name the Koreans used for sushi after their government tried to remove Japanese cultural references from Korean life following Korean liberation from Japan in 1945.
Kimbap as I know it resembles a sushi roll. It is made, usually, with seaweed on the outside then rice and filled with a strip of egg, radish, carrot, ham and either crab of tuna. It is rolled using a sushi mat and sliced into bite size pieces.
Kimbap is everywhere in Korea, it is always made by one of the mothers for the teachers to eat on school trips, it is their favourite picnic food and also a quick take away option if they are on the move. It was therefore a unique experience to be one of around 40 foreigners who, as part of the festivities at the annual Uljin Snow Crab festival, had been invited to help make the worlds longest Kimbap.
Every year at the annual Uljin Snow Crab festival they attempt to beat their previous record for the worlds longest Kimbap. This year flanked by the experts, an equal number of ajummas, the inexperienced foreigners including Kat Emily and I, helped cobble together something that looked, and tasted like, kimbap. Not having a clue what were were doing we bumbled our way though, copying others who looked equally lost. At the end our efforts were rewarded as they declared our mammoth 80 meter long Kimbap the longest ever made. Yipee!
The half made Kimbap.
Kat, Emily and me holding up the long Kimpab.
Once the kimbap making was over we were given a taster of our product served inside a crab shell.
Me and Kat show off our Kimbap.
Then being on an Adventure Korea tour, once we'd made our kimbap, we were whisked to the other side of the festival site for our next experience - releasing "a fish to wish on the sea".
We clambered aboard a boat and were taken out into the harbour where we each picked up a scoop full of flat fish and were told to make a wish as we returned them to the water. Kat went first throwing her fish into the sea only to be told the impact of hitting the water had probably just killed them all!
Kat whishes on a fish.
Next it was off to a traditional Korean style outdoor restaurant, gazebo, hut type thing to sample the fresh snow crab.
In the tanks outside there were crabs of priced ranging from 8,000 won (about 5GBP) to 70,000 won (42GBP) - were assured we weren't going to eat the 70,000 won ones!
Emily and me eating our dinner. (No I don't ctually have the crab in my mouth.)
The freshly steamed crabs arrived and everyone tucked in leaving the diarrhoea coloured juice than came out of the inside of the crab. Then the Adventure Korea tour operator, Seok-jin, appeared telling us it was delicious. If a Korean says something is delicious it usually means it is pretty disgusting and judging by the reactions of those who tried it, the diarrhoea juice was no exception!
VIDEO - Emily tries some "delicious" diarrhoea clolured crab - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/DSCF5217.AVI
After our feed we boarded the bus and began our journey to our accommodation a traditional Koren house in a traditional Korean village..
More to follow on the weekend shortly.
* Kimchi is a fermented dish made with seasoned vegetables and eaten with every meal - including breakfast! Most Korean households have a separate Kimchi fridge, most of the kids happily spend weekends at their grandmothers making Kimchi and so far I have only met one Koren who doesn't like it. Even the kids gobble up the spicy dish.
A legend, a superstitious village and a park full of giant Penises......only in Korea!
One afternoon a young fisherman took his young virgin fancee out to sea to collect seaweed. They stopped on a rock a short way off shore and she began picking seaweed. The fisherman returned to shore promising to come back and pick his betrothed up from the rock. As the fisherman arrived back on shore the wind got up and the waves became big. It was too perilous for the fisherman to journey back to his fiancee who was now stranded on the rock.
Eventually the high waves swept the virgin off the rock and she was tragically drowned.
From that day forth the fisherman in the small seaside village were unable to catch any fish. Rumor said that the girl's tormented soul was causing the sea to become barren. In an attempt to appease her spirit the people of the village began carving penises and performing rituals. Once they began doing this the fisherman were again able to achieve a good catch.
Hundreds of years later this legend has lead the erection(!) of a park consisting entirely of massive penises.
I stumbled across this place, called Haeshindang Park in Samcheok-si, by accident whilst on an adventure Korea trip. We were told to walk down to the beach with no indication of what lay in store. Soon we were laughing, joking and posing for almost indecent photographs as we came across sculpture after sculpture of giant penises.
Bright colours and many different sizes. Some of the sculptures resembled something you'ld find at an Anne Summers party, just on a much larger scale!
This was certainly a strange thing to come across in Korea, especially as a number of the carvings were explicitly detailed. Koreans are a fairly prudish nation who glare at us westerners for daring to bare our shoulders and show a bit of cleavage during the swelteringly hot summer months.
But the ajummas (old women) lost their familiar grimaces and accusing stares as they walked around giggling and looking in awe at the massive dicks surrounding them. One even stopped and jovially engaged in a competition with a passing foreigner to see who could shout: "oh my god" with the most dramatic effect!
By far the most surprising thing I have come across in Korea and possibly the only place I have ever seen a smiling ajumma.
I'll leave you the photos that I'm sure your dieing to see.
Me, Kat and Emily sat on a giant penis.
Detailed! This was actually a water fountain.
No comment!
There was a much more explicit version of this photo but I deemed it too much for the blog!! (There are some thngs your parents shouldn't ever see!)
I understand the park and the penis sculptures but I don't understand how these three men can be appeasing the sole of a dead virgin. Two of them appear to be masturbating and the dogs in the background are all staring at their masters penises. To me it just looks like soft porn!? But we had a laugh with them all the same!
Over and out for today. I'm getting good at this adding more content thingamy.
The saga continues
As the day of reckoning draws closer I decided it was time to contact i-to-i regarding my situation.
Naively I arranged my job through i-to-i paying them an absolute fortune for the privilege. It is incredibly frustrating to realise I could have avoided myself this situation and an awful lot of money had I done it myself. But alas it's done and can't be changed. I do have this advice for anyone looking at getting an English teaching job abroad: DO NOT use i-to-i. It is cheaper and easier to do it yourself. Just make sure you check you contract carefully and speak to foreign teachers at the school before you sign.
Anyway: i-to-i's website states that they will provide: "Support as and when you require it throughout your time abroad." On that basis they would support me in making sure I get the money I have earned. But no! After speaking with them on the phone last night I received the email below:
You must speak to John Lee your in country coordinator for advice regarding the details of your contract. We are unable to get involved as the contract is between you and the school. I do hope you mange to resolve your problems.
I had explained that I understand the contract is between me and the school but I signed on the recommendation of i-to-i, a supposedly reputable company. I also told her that I didn't need "advice" as I was already aware of where I stood legally. What I needed was support in making sure I was paid fully as per Section 2, Article 27 of the Korean Labor Standard Act. So in short that email basically says f**k off, we've got your money so we don't care.
I have since sent them a strongly worded email asking for a refund of the money I paid the to find my job because they are unable to offer the "support" they promised.
I'll keep you posted on the latest developments. But I'm not holding my breath. I guess they condone their country coordinators duping people into ILLEGAL contracts and dodgy working practices.
**If anyone is reading this who has had a bad experience with i-to-i please contact me. If there are enough people that have had a problem I'm going to write something on them and see who I can sell it too. At least that way it my avoid a few more people ending up in my, or a similar, situation.
"Teacher noooooooo!"
A couple of weeks ago our school held a speech contest. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to post some videos of the older kids and write a bit my afternoon classes that I so rarely talk about.
We were informed about the speech contest, by most teachers, around a month before it took place. From that moment onwards our sole mission in life (as far as they were concerned) was to spend a minimum of 25 minutes each week in a classroom full of agonisingly bored kids making them repeatedly recite, and devise actions too, a six line conversation or story book they had memorised weeks ago.
With one week to go until the contest the efforts to bore the kids to death were stepped up. For one week all the foreigner lessons were dedicated to speech contest practice. Every time I entered a classroom and uttered those fateful words: "Speech contest" I was met with unanimous groans and begging cries of: "Teacher, nooooo!" It was then my duty to watch as each kid, usually more than once a lesson, dragged themselves to the front of the classroom and, most of the time, perfectly recited their given text.
I could begin to comprehend the incessant practice if the parents were going to watch the contest, something that stupidly I though would happen. But as I arrived on the day I realised the only people watching were the teachers and the other kids - who I'm sure couldn't care less whether their classmates pronounced the conversation, they'd heard them practice a million times, correctly. A fact that was proved by the inability of the assembled kids to be quite and listen.
Kat and I were told we were to be the chairmen - which meant we had to announce the kids. The rest of the teachers were armed with scored cards. In true Korean style these were numbered 10 to seven, so no matter how bad the kids were the lowest they could score was seven! You gotta love the Hagwon way!
Onto the video and a bit about each class, unless you're one of my parents, a stalker or insanely interested in the kids at my school I'd stop reading now! This bit is mainly so I can look back and remember the kids and my classes.
Three time classes - or in English - 3:00pm classes.
Basic Adventure - Kang - Story book: Teddy's Big Adventures
This was the one class I didn't have to teach speech contest to. The Korean teacher (Kang) in her incompetence seemingly forgot about the speech contest. So I wasn't told what to do with any of her classes until I went and asked the director about them four days before the contest took place! Usually I would have asked the Korean teacher weeks ago but Kang's English is so bad I rarely converse with her unless she is saying: "new book today," (this happens around once a month) or "..... absent". Because of our lack of dialogue I kept waiting for her to tell me what was happening then before I knew it it was the week of the contest and she hadn't said a word. Luckily this absolved me of responsibility of the boredom of one class, especially as the kids had already memorised the book as part as their normal classes.
VIDEO - Basic Adventure - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/Speech%20contest2/Teddykang.AVI
IN THE VIDEO - Left to right: Annie, Amy, Diane, Kate ??
This class is learning one of the books I teach in Kindy. I only know some of their names because new students keep appearing who don't understand the question: "What is your name?" Or Don't have an English name. Nobody informs me that a new student has started and tells me their name I just enter the classroom to find them sitting there (in fact that happened in this class today and I didn't notice her until about 10 minutes into my lesson!). I don't even have a class list so I only ever have a rough idea of how many students I'm supposed to have!
There are also some boys in this class but I didn't take any video of them. Most of these kids are ok. Kate used to be in a much higher class but for some reason disappeared from the school for ages then reappeared in this class. Amy has been at the school for ages but apparently struggled the more difficult books. Most of these kids are probably capable of a harder book as most of them can converse with me on a very basic level. The other kids I teach this book to don't know their alphabet yet! But who am I to judge how well the kids can speak English.
Super Fantasy - Henry - Conversation: Level 2
These kids are a nightmare. I teach the whole class three times a week and I take five of them for another two lessons a week. Most of them have big personalities and they can be incredibly difficult to control. Another problem with this class is that Henry (the Korean teacher) refuses to discipline the kids. "They are paying money we must be nice to them!" Yeah right! Since Cindy left and Henry took over this class their behaviour has gone from bad to worse because he refuses to tell them off. I can shout at them and tell them off all I like but it doesn't mean anything to them if they don't understand me!
VIDEO - Super Fantasy, Brian and Sunny - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/Speech%20contest2/briansunny.AVI
Sunny is one of the kids I really dislike. He is constantly doing something other than what he is supposed to. I usually spend my lessons confiscating various items that emerge from his bag whilst he's supposed to be reading his story book. He fidgets incessantly and NEVER has his story book open on the right page!
VIDEO - Super Fantasy, Eddie and Steven - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/Speech%20contest2/eddiesteven.AVI
VIDEO - Super Fantasy, Lilly, Rebecca, Emily, Jean and Nick - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/Speech%20contest2/lillyrevetc.AVI
The above video is of the kids I have for an extra two lessons every week: They are horrible to teach. When I arrived at the school I heard that the previous foreign teacher had named them Jurassic Park because during his lessons they would constantly make dinosaur noises! Lilly and Rebecca are wild (Kat had some good video of them fighting, screaming and running around during her lesson!), Jean and Nick are just difficult whilst Emily is the one good one who doesn't cause any problems. But Kat and I have suspicions Rebecca and Lilly pick on her a bit for being fat!
The conversation in the video I adapted from the one I wrote for pink class for their graduation. When I showed it to he Henry though it was too hard, saying that they wouldn't be able to memorise it. This was despite him wanting me to teach it for three 25 minute lessons every week for one month! A monkey could memorised that conversation in that amount of time!
At 3pm I also teach Super Special who have some of the best English in the school. I didn't take any video of them because their scripts were too long and my camera was running out of memory space, but I did take some pictures. Also this is one of few classes that are taught by me and Katrina: Katrina was given the arduous task of teaching them speech contest.
Amy and Luna.
Amy is the daughter of the aforementioned teacher, Kang. She probably has better English than her mother!
Arnold and William.
Arnold is one of the loudest kids in the class whilst William is the quietest and also the least able.
Crystal and Alice.
Crystal is the best kid in the class, this could be because she is one of the kids that hangs around the school for ages after her lesson. I'm guessing this is because there is no-one at home to look after her!
Kelly and Anna.
Kelly is very sweet. Whilst Anna is probably the most annoying in the class. She has a tendency to come and stick her nose into whatever you are doing whilst you're on your break.
Kenny and Kate.
Kevin and James.
Kevin is probably the loudest kid in the class and has terrible handwriting!
Four time classes - or in English - 4:00pm classes
Basic Junior - Jinny - Story book: The Crystal Starfish
You may recognised this book from the video of the kindergarten performance and graduation. The school (franchise) produces two versions of their books, one for kindy and one for the older kids, making my job even more boring!
I like this class but I really dislike the Korean teacher. She barley speaks a word of English but constantly looks down her nose at us foreigners. Every time you question something she has done or ask her why her class is different to every other one you teach she responds with: "The master said!" If you then dare to question further, ask for help or ideas on what to teach she goes running to Mr Kwak ("the master") and you're landed with a 10 minute incomprehensible rant form him about something which just required a simple answer from Jinny in the first place. I have given up communicating with her, if she doesn't make any sense I just do my own thing!
VIDEO - Basic Junior - Crystal Starfish - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/Speech%20contest2/crystalstarfish.wmv
First you see Jenny, Jinny and Tom then Tony.
On Jinny's instructions taught up to a certain page for the contest. I was therefore astounded when on the day she had made one of the kids (Tony) memorise the entire book. I only finished teaching this book last week (three weeks after the contest) and subsequently Tony has spent every single lesson since the contest causing trouble and generally being a nuisance because he's already finished the work I'm doing with the rest of the class. I swear sometimes they deliberately try and make our classes more difficult.
After the contest one of the students was moved up a level, you'd assume with his ability to memorise the whole book in half the time of the rest of the class that would be Tony, but no it was Jinny! I'm still trying to figure out why! (I have just come out of this class (three weks after the contest) and found Tony is moving up a level.)
Inter Junior - Sophia - Conversation: Level three, Story Book: His Name was Popeye
This is another class I like. They are all good kids who get on with their work and don't give me any trouble. They didn't even complain too much about the incessant speech contest practice. They were more than happy to learn their conversations and make up actions. I also like the Korean teacher, Sophia, she was the only teacher who thanked me for the work I put in to get her classes ready for the speech contest.
VIDEO - Inter Junior - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/Speech%20contest2/Interjuniorsophia.wmv
As you can see in the video the last kid, Sam, struggled remembering the story book. He was originally doing conversation like the rest of the kids but his partner went on holiday or something (all Sam told me was: "Scott, plane, fly, no speech contest!") so at the last minute Sam had to memorise part of the book. Usually this wouldn't be a problem because the kids memorise the book as part of their lessons but thankfully Sophia doesn't make the kids do this making the lessons more interesting for the kids and for me.
Inter Adventure - Anne - Story book: There is a Town
This class is OK. They are a slimmed down version of a class I used to hate that was split because their ability levels were so different. Luckily I didn't get the completely useless kids but I did get the average kids. However since they have been in this class they are much more pleasant to teach. A bit too talkative and have taken to laughing at the way I say things (because obviously they know better) which is incredibly annoying. But on the whole they are an OK class.
VIDEO - Inter Adveture, There is a Town - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/Speech%20contest2/thereisatown.wmv
First you see Ricky and Shaun, then Katie, then Tom and Dennis, then Katie, Jennie and Christina, then Kennis, Eddie and Sky. They did pretty well with this book, but it was very easy for them.
Five time classes - or in English - 5:00pm classes
Basic Fantasy - Sophia - Story book: Teddy's Big Adventures
This is another class doing the very basic story book. These kids are complete beginners and were given the rare privilege of looking at the book during the contest because many of them don't know their alphabet yet. Personally it astounds me that the school expects the kids to memorise a story book before they teach the kids the alphabet - but what would I know? We recently had a meeting and were told to teach the kids to read - but we're allowed to teach them the alphabet or phonics so they can sound out a word we just have to use a story book to tech them to read! I guess the Koreans know what they're doing?? It just all sounds a bit backwards to me.
Luckily Sophia is the Korean teacher for this class and although she can't do anything I think she comprehends where I'm coming from with the whole reading thing. She has even let me teach phonics for a few lessons. So this class now know the vowels and their sounds. But I get a new story book next week so no more phonics! Just teaching them to read using the book!
VIDEO - Basic Fantasy, Teddy's Big Adventures - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/Speech%20contest2/teddysophia.wmv
Basic Adventure - Kang - Story Book: Sir Small and the Dragonfly / Silent e
I also like this class. They are usually pretty good. They love playing games although can get a little over enthusiastic standing on chairs, cheering and chanting at the tops of their voices. They also love nothing more than shouting the story book as loud as they can!
VIDEO - Sir Small and the Dragonfly, Jacob and Justin - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/Speech%20contest2/sirsmall.wmv
This was another of Kang's classes and so I wasn't informed about the speech contents until four days beforehand. Half the class were given their old story book that they'd already memorised whilst the other half to memories their new story book: Sir Small and the Dragonfly. They did remarkably well to memorise what they did in that time. Although one girl, who was struggling with this book, didn't turn up on the day. I only have video of two of the kids from this class because my camera was running out of memory space. The kid on the right of the video, Justin, is the brother of Irene from Kindy.
Six time classes - or in English - 6:00pm classes
I only had one class I teach at this time doing the speech contest. The other are older kids and were not entered.
Basic Magic - Kang - Story book: Sir Small and the Dragon Fly / Silent e
This is another class I like (or liked). Over the last couple of weeks loads of new students have arrived making it quite a difficult class because their ability levels vary so greatly. I am also very lazy with this class because I usually have a 25 minute break before the class, then Kang is always five minutes late out which means I get into this class just 20 minutes before I finish work and after winding down for half an hour. Subsequently by this point I am easily distracted. The kids usually have something to show me or a Korean word to try and teach me, that usually takes about five minutes of the lesson then by the time I've got them settled and started teaching anything there is only about 10 minutes left. Good job I'm only doing story book and they'll be bored after seven minutes. Just enough time to pack up and get out dead on 6:50pm so I can be on my way home by 7pm!
This is another class of Kang's so had very little time to memorise the book the video is of the twins reciting their old book, Silent e.
VIDEO - Basic Magic, Angelina and Julie - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/Speech%20contest2/silente.wmv
A lack of content
I apologise to all my devoted readers (I wish) for the lack of content on this blog over the last couple of weeks.
Things have been so busy with all the legal concerns over leaving and organising the next leg of the journey that the blog has been somewhat neglected.
I promise to try and up the amount of content over the coming week and hopefully normal blogging will resume shortly. Although I'm not sure for how long because as soon as I leave Korea (seven weeks to go!) Internet access will be limited.
I'm just about to finish writing a very long post I started last week.
Over and out for now.
The next phase is booked
I can't actually believe I've done it. I've booked my tickets to the Philippines. Nineteen days in the sun, six of them in Manila 13 of them at Brian's in Baclod on the island of Negros. Oooooo I'm very excited!
Can you believe you can book a hostel with a private bedroom but shared bathroom for less than 2GBP a night in Manila! I can't wait to get planning!
An update
A quick update on where I have got to with regards to my contract and the illegal clauses contained within it.
Because I have to play it by ear until he actually withholds, or doesn't, the million won that my contract illegally states I have to pay, things are a matter of ifs and buts at the moment.
I have now had it confirmed by the Korean Labor Board that he cannot (legally) take the million won under (as I thought) Section 27 of the Labour Standards Act. If he does take the money I have a claim against him with the labor board - whether or not that will make any difference to him remains to be seen. I hoping the bad publicity generated by him being hauled in front of the labour board will be enough to cajole him into paying. I've also discovered that any claim will be settled - ie. they will rule one way oer another - within 25 working days (excluding national holidays) and I can appoint a person of my choosing to act on my behalf.
Whilst this all sounds pretty good there are two problems:
- The Labour board cannot force him to pay or even attend the hearings! They can order him to pay but the board has not legal teeth with regards to enforcing the ruling. So if he chooses he can simply ignore it! If he ignores the ruling by the Labor board I would have to take him to small claims court in order to get the money.
- The person acting on my behalf won't be in the country for a total of 25 working days after I leave. Once again I'm hoping the claim won't get this far and if it does I'm hoping it is settled quickly (the 25 days is a maximum).
I am hoping that once he realises I know the law and I know what to do if he doesn't give me the money he will decide the easiest option is to pay up. When I resign I am going to ask him to sign something stating that he will pay me my usual salary on the 4th of June - one week before I leave work, unless I decided to change my visa to a tourist visa for a week. But even if I do this I will still be in the country and able to make problems for him. I'm going to refuse to talk with a new foreign instructor until he shows me that their contract doesn't have any of the illegal clauses in it and agrees to sign the paper confirming he will pay me the money. If I decide to work the extra week and he doesn't give me the money I am then going to make a fuss in front of as many parents as possible in the hope he my give it to me just to save the reputation of the school! Whatever happens if he doesn't pay up, once I have left, I have noting to loose by p***ing him off!
I have also found what to do about immigration. I need to send them a copy of my resignation letter, cancel my visa and get an exit order from them. Immigration can also grant me a tourist visa for two weeks from the date my employment ends. So I am considering giving four weeks notice then having a week off before leaving Korea. So I can do some exploring and see any bits I still really see. Plus my week is then free to deal with labor boards etc if needs must!
Well that's it for now. I'll keep you updated with any new developments. only 17 days till I hand in my notice!
I think I've got him - My contract really is illegal!
After finding out my contract contained illegal clauses I've spent three days trawling through the Internet on my lunch breaks looking for the legislation that confirms my suspicions. About 10 minutes ago I think I actually found it. In the middle of the The Labor Standards Act surrounded by legalease that most people wouldn't be arsed to wade through or comprehend there it was staring back at me. All that studying media law at uni helped me with something - it gave me the ability to trawl through endless legal statues and acts without losing the will to live!!
The Labor Standards Act, section 2, Article 27 states:
Article 27 (Prohibition of Predetermination of Nonobservance)
An employer shall not enter into any contract by which a penalty or indemnity for possible damages incurred from nonobservance of a labor contract is predetermined.
Correct me if I'm wrong (and I will check it out properly) but doesn't this mean he can't provide me with a contract that predetermines penalties for non completion of the contract. Ohhh I'm so glad I found it.
Next i-2-i. I wonder how they will take to the news that their company is providing people with working contracts that violate Korean Labor laws!
My first international yachting reporting assignment!
Last weekend saw me following in Helene's footsteps and embarking on my first international yachting reporting assignment.
I visited the 700 Yacht Club in Seoul, networked with some important and influential people, dined on the best fish and chips I've tasted since arriving in Korea and was given a free sailing lesson. I even took Kat along with me in her capacity as official "photographist"!
We arrived at the club without realising! Whilst trying to decipher the very small map I had we came across a manky looking barge near where we thought the club was and decided to go inside and ask for directions. As we walked in Harold Shim greeted us shaking my hand and offering to show me around. The inside was far more elaborately decorated than the outside: as the saying goes "You can't judge a book (yacht club) by its cover (barge!)."
Harold Sim showed around and introduced us to a club member called JP. JP worked on something to do with Welsh relations within the Korean government. I can't remember his exact job title but he obviously earned plenty of money and dropped into the conversation that he had been lunching with the Welsh ambassador.. oh and that he had played gold with Cathrine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas. He was also one of the better looking Koreans I have seen and before the end of the day had given Kat his phone number!
I interviewed Harold Shim about the club and his passion for sailing for about fifty minutes during which time he recounted stories of sailing experiences in America, New Zealand and Korea. He had a great passion for the sport and after living in America for 25 years had decided to continue sailing when he returned to Korea after being lucky enough to watch the competitors practice for the Louis Vuitton cup in New Zealand. When he came back to Korea an encounter with a sail boat that was moored way out in the harbour and getting to it perched on a very small piece of polystyrene with another man and a carrier bag prompted him to decided that there had to be easier ways to sail in Korea. A few years later he set up the 700 Yacht Club.
Once the interview was over we were given a sample of the fish and chips served in the restaurant that was opening the following day. The meal was accompanied by tarter sauce made to a recipe devised by Harold. Being a man of many talents, he's a lawyer by day, half way through the meal Harold proclaimed that the fish batter wasn't cooked to a high enough standard explained exactly what was wrong with it, then disappeared for 20 minutes to give the chef a lesson on how to cook! Despite Harold's misgivings I though the fish and chips was delicious, certainly the best I've had since leaving England.
After dinner Harold took us out and gave us a sailing lesson on his favourite boat a Magnum 21 Trimaran. The fastest boat the club has. It was a pretty amazing experience to be in control of the boat even if I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing. Turing the rudder the opposite way to the way I wanted the boat to move took a bit of getting used to. But once I got the hang of it we managed to pick up a bit of speed. It was also strange sailing in the middle of the river with the city reaching high into the sky on both sides. There was something calming about being out in the middle of the river and seeing the bustle of the city all around but being too far away for any of it to bother you. I could see why Harold loved spending his weekends out in the middle of the Han river.
After the sailing lesson we thanked Harold for his hospitality and left. It was then I realised my MP3 player had accidentally deleted the whole 50 minute interview! So instead of relaxing on the bus on the way back to Kumdan we spent the journey desperately trying to remember as much of what he'd said as possible! Luckily between the two of us we remembered most of the important details and I managed to concoct a pretty good article with only one email to Harold to confirm a few details.
I'll leave you with some photos of our sailing experience.
Harold Shim sailing a Magunm 21 Trimaran along the Han River in Seoul.
A windsurfer in the middle of the Han River.
Me and Kat on the boat.
Me sailing the boat - not a flattering picture!
