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!