Lantern Festival

We went along to the Lantern festival down at the Cheonggyecheon stream at the weekend, it was pretty however you can't tell from the pictures but it was heaving, felt a bit like being in a herd of cattle ....

Shrek

For Halloween we were asked to dress up for school, I played it safe as a witch but Jack put in the extra mile and went as Shrek! The kids loved it, (although some of them kept calling him Hulk) and he got a pizza voucher from the school for his efforts :)

Seoraksan

I have definitely been neglecting this blog a bit recently as our time here is coming to an end pretty shortly. Our final trip was to Seoraksan, kindly our lovely friend Ji arranged a condo for us to stay in and we had a fun weekend in the mountains. Although, to say it was busy would be an understatement, I have never seen so many 'hikers' in all my life! We sufficed with what I would call a walk, still there were some pretty views.

Lovely mountain view

Green sausage

Green tea cake, green tea cappuccino, green tea ice cream .... green tea sausage?!

Nope, chilli sausage thank goodness!

Global Gathering in Korea

After a couple of interesting experiences at Korean festivals we decided to give it one more go at Global Gathering and this time we were pleasently surprised! The festival was at Carribean Bay, usually it is a waterpark but the water had been drained out for winter, this made for quite a surreal setting, lots of pirates and waterslides alongside drum and bass and dance music! We made some new friends and saw a few acts including London Elektricity and Orbital, both of whom were great, so great in fact Jack felt the need to go and shake their hands, luckily he didn't get thrown out! We ended up back at home at 9.30 on Sunday morning with a pair of flashing Minnie Mouse ears .... how Korean!

London Elektrcity

Alan!

Family visit

Korean BBQ

On Saturday I said goodbye to my family who came to visit us for a week. I put them up in the local love motel (which was actually quite nice) and organised a substitute teacher so we could have a few days off. I  jam packed the week with activities including Hongdae nights out, cycling along the Han river, hiking, lots of BBQ, Nami Island trip, fishy experiences, a cat cafe and the DMZ tour! By the end of it we were all truely exhausted, luckily we had a couple of days holiday this week to recover, although they might need another holiday!

 Live prawns and fish head soup, yum!

Cyling along the  Han River

Nami Island

         

Beach party

This week instead of the usual Hongdae night out we decided to go to a beach rave organised by some other English teachers. After a long journey from Hongdae and a very dodgy taxi journey we made it to the beach, where there were more foreigners in one place than we have seen since being in Korea. Security was pretty tight too, not police or security guards but army soldiers 50 metres down the beach! It was certainly an adventurous night, fun but strange especially as we had to go to the airport to get  home, hungover and sandy we didn't fit with the pristine holiday goers!

Last semester!

Well our final semester has arrived (very, very quickly)! People teaching here say that Korea feels like a time warp and that feels about right. With less than three months left our thoughts are turning to our next step, possibly a quick trip to India, then home for Christmas! However, we still have plenty to keep us entertained here with family visiting and still lots of sights to see I'm sure this last semester will be our busiest yet!

End of semester snack party with one of my younger classes :)

Typhoon Bolaven

We survived Typhoon Bolaven! The typhoon hit the coast of South Korea yesterday and moved inland during the afternoon. We heard that several people were killed due to the high winds.  Fortunately it didn't effect us much and we went to school as usual, many other English teachers had the day off, it is the law apparently if there is a typhoon or hurricane but our Hagwon didn't seem to care! Whilst looking out from our apartment window at the storm we did see this ...

Some poor persons office destoryed :(

Busan

Sorry! I have been a useless blogger recently. Straight after we got back from Bali we had lots of grading and test preperation for our students final exams, then we set off on a much shorter trip to Busan for the weekend. Busan is a city on the south coast well known for it beaches and seafood. We arrived on Saturday afternoon after one of the best bus journeys I have ever had, spacious reclining seats and even enough leg room for Jack! As soon as we arrived we joined some friends on the popular Haeundae beach, it was a very luckily it was a hot day (pre-typhoon!) so we hired a ring and floated around in the water for the afternoon catching some waves!  We sampled some of the Busan night life that evening and we even managed to check out another beach before heading back to Seoul Sunday afternoon. A whistle stop tour of Busan! Not sure if we will make it back before we leave, only 3 months left ......

No shortage of shade here, the sun isn't popular!

Sky scrapers and sea

Beautiful Bali

Lunch overlooking Mount Batur,
 difficult to tell from the picture
but the view was fantastic!

We spent our one week holiday in Bali and it was a good choice too! It has a perfect mixture of culture, amazing scenery, great food and beautiful beaches which made for a great holiday. Some of my favourite moments included joining in with the locals and bathing in holy springs, venturing inland to have lunch overlooking a volcano, swimming with sea turtles on the Gili Islands and watching the surfers at the Uluwata beach. Instead of writing an essay I think pictures will give you a better idea!

Relaxing at the beach on the Gili Islands

Holy baths at Pura Tirtha Empul

Sunset on the Gili T

Surfers at Uluwatu beach

White wedding

Sorry we haven't blogged in a while, been in Bali! More on that next time. Before we went we were lucky enough to be invited to an ex-coworkers wedding. It was a very different experience from a traditional British wedding for several reasons. Firstly, Korean weddings tend to be held in wedding halls which are like large function rooms as opposed to churches. Secondly, the ceremony and the reception are held together in the same room, the entire wedding lasting around 3 hours in total. Thirdly, the food is nearly always served in a buffet style instead of a formal dinner. Finally, the bride gets to wear two dresses! Oh I also forget there is hardly any drinking which is very unlike any British wedding I have ever been too. Altogether, we had a lovely time at ou first Korean wedding, the bride looked lovely, the food was delicious and the new couple seemed very happy :)

The wedding hall

The happy couple

Anmyeondo Trip

So it’s been an age since I have written anything on the blog and in that time I have had a fair few adventures.

I  went on a trip to an Island called Anmyeondo with a couple of Korean friends I met at kick boxing.

To summarise; highlights included. Fishing with a beer, quad bike riding along the beach at sunset and a huge barbeque.

Lowlights include; Abba at full volume in the car all the way there, three boys staying in a couples room and applying face packs after we showered.

Brunch time

This weekend I enjoyed a very girly Sunday in Samcheong-dong, an area close to the largest palace in Seoul where many of the traditional Korean style houses have been preserved. Amongst  the houses are many cafes, restaurants, waffle houses and lovely boutique shops. After browsing the shops my friend and I had a yummy brunch this was later followed by waffles in the afternoon! We then met up with some friends and went to dip our feet in the Cheongycheon stream, finally finishing of  foody Sunday with Nachos and a Margarita! Good times, back to the gym this week though....

Looking forward to brunch!

Traditional Korean house

Cooling off by the Cheongycheon stream

Rainy days

As I mentioned in my previous post, the rain has begun. Throughout July and August the weather tends to be hot, humid and rainy. Luckily there are many sunny spells in between! It seems to rain most during the evening and at night often along with some amazing thundersrtorms that literally go on for hours! So far it hasn't effected us too badly apart from the sweat.

Korea does not look pretty on rainy days!

Goodbyes

Something you would have to get used to when working as an English teacher in Korea is friends leaving, especially if you are here for over two years. Our good friend Mike is leaving this weekend and we will be sad to see him go, we did however enjoy a great night out in Hongdae to see him off which included an Indian resatuarant, two clubs, a noraebang, chicken and beer and a killer shot!  We had at first planned a weekend beach trip but the rain has now well and truly started, there will be another post to come about this ....

Indian restaurant

Jacks costume

Jacks halloween costume as depicted by one of his students!

Jacks impression with gold banana!

Nanji campground BBQ

Nanji campground is based next to the Han River (the main river that runs through Seoul) as it is rare to have a garden or any door space in Korea many people come here to have barbeques. In true Korean style the barbeque area was extremley regimented and there was not a blade of grass, or the river in sight! However, we had a great afternoon/evening eating kebabs, jerk chicken and ribs and drinking an unlimited supply of beer form the campground shop!

enjoying the food!

meats

Summer days

Well June seems to be flying by and it is most definitely summer now, averaging between 28 and 30 degrees! This temperature is great when you are on holiday and have easy access to a swimming pool but it is a bit different when you are surrounded by apartment blocks. Luckily the school is well air conditioned although the same can't be said for our apartment! It gets a bit cooler at night though, perfect weather for spending evenings outside having dinner and drinks, which is how we spent this weekend!

Rooftop bar in Itaewon

On our way to Lake Park

Bits and pieces

Patbingsu - Redbeans, fuit, sweets and chocolate over shaved ice

Red pepper- the taste of Korea!

Socks galore

A meal out with our co-workers

Jacks 25th Birthday

For Jacks 25th birthday I surprised him with a trip to Everland, Koreas biggest amusement park! A group of friends joined us for the trip and we had a brilliant day, the weather was great and despite what I had heard the queues were not long at all. We made it on most of the rides including the T-Express (a large wooden rollercoaster) and a few other spinny things ha ha!

T-Express

Somebody must have told them!

After Chicken Galbi                      

                                                       After a day at the park we were all pretty tired, but the day did not end there! I arranged with some more friends to meet in Jongak and we all headed out for chicken galbi (a kind of marinated chicken with cheese and noodles, yum!), plenty of Soju then on to a beer pong bar for some friendly competetion and finally a Norae bang for some disastrous singing. It was a great day, thanks again to all our friends in Korea who made the effort to come and celebrate :-)