New semester. Out with intensives, in with entirely new kids. Seriously, I didn't have one of my old classes. This made for an awkward start, but now it's like I've been their teacher forever. Plus, no problem kids and no problem classes! Win win!
Mid-September I went to a dance music festival by the name of Global Gathering. You may have heard of it. This being Korea, however, there weren't a bunch of twats parking corsas all over the shop. Instead, it was a 48 hour dance party, during which I managed to knock another thing off of my 10 Things to do in Korea list. I went with my old Ori partner in gatecrashing Korean wedding receptions Alex and her coworker Erica, and 3 of my friends from Dongbaek joined us on the Saturday. During the weekend, we also collected 2 Britons, a Korean girl (well, I collected her) and 2 Air Force guys, who managed to alter my preconceptions about USFK (United States Forces Korea) by being pretty cool. I also realised that I love dance music. Best act? Prodigy by a country mile, followed closely by Underworld, MSTRKRFT, Royksopp, 2NE1 (better than Dylan) and then G-Dragon.
I also stepped up my football with a trip to see South Korea play against Australia. A pretty good match, with beer, random Koreans and Park Ji-Sung aplenty. He even managed to be Man of the Match without scoring a goal or contributing to one. I have also been planning my travel escapades for March-countries on the list include but are not limited to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Egypt, Morocco, the Phillippines and China. Although I really want to try and squeeze Hong Kong in there too.
Something else hit me this month too: It's something that I've noticed (you'd have to be mad not to), but westerners are an ethnic minority here. It's an interesting experience to have a lot of the under 10s and over 40s hating you because of your skin colour. It's something that among other things has given me even more respect for civil rights & race equality campaigners the world over. Perhaps some of the more pronounced racists back home should be flown to predominantly non white countries to get a taste of their own medicine.
