The city of Jinju, an hour and a half from Busan, hosts a week long lantern festival every year along their river with a myriad of activities and events organised. We'd planned to spend the whole day in Jinju sightseeing and participating in the activities, but due to a very late night the night before it was 6pm when we finally arrived! First stop was dinner and then we walked to Namgang river for the lantern festival. The tradition of floating lanterns on Namgang River in Jinju City dates back to the 1592 Japanese invasion of Korea. In October 1592, during a battle between Japanese and Korean soldiers around Jinju Fortress, Jinju people flew lanterns high up in the sky as a military signal and communication tool with soldiers outside the fortress, while floating lanterns and ... read more

Today started out as a typical Friday morning, until I got to school! As soon as I arrived I spotted a load of vans and strange people walking around. All the 4th grade girls rushed up to tell me that something called "Golden Time" had some to school for the day and that it was "drama". I had the impression that it was a theatre group that had come to put a show on for the school. There was some interesting messages popping up on the school's messaging service - a helicopter would be landing in the yard at the end of 2nd period! 20mins into our class it landed, kicking up a massive cloud of dirt and dust as it did. As the rotors wound down, an ambulance raced in through the gate, circled the ... read more

Anneyung haseyo!! So the first week of my new life in Korea was spent in the KT Human Resource Centre in the city of Daejeon. EPIK organises a week long orientation for new in-coming teachers, to introduce us to life in Korea as well as work on teaching ideas. About 300 of us, from all walks of life, descended upon Daejeon, bound for cities and provinces all over Korea. It was a very strange and intense week. We were woken up at half 7 every morning with the exact same intercom announcement: "Good morning EPIK teachers, this is the announcment from the head office, breakfast will be served..." (More annoying for the fact that we had our alarms set for 8am, no need people!!) We also had a nighttime anouncement telling us to be back in ... read more

When I think of Malaga, I think of one thing - holiday resorts. The last leg of my trip was a day in Malaga before flying home to Ireland and my expectations were low. Fortunately I was proved to be wrong! I was staying in a hostel in the Old Town within easy walking distance of the centre. Malaga's history outdates Cadiz. Founded around 770BC by the Phoenicians, it has seen rulers from Ancient Carthage, the Roman Empire, and Arab Empire before coming under Christian rule again after the Reconquista. The archaeological remains and monuments all these eras have had the effect of making the city "open museum", displaying its rich history of more than 3,000 years. After setting myself up in the hostel (with people again yay) I walked downtown to see what the city ... read more

It was a sad day leaving Cadiz, but I had my bags all packed and ready for the long road home! I was transporting rum, sherry and wine home with me, which made for very heavy bags. It was after 6pm when I arrived at Cordoba, and VERY HOT. The muggy heat nearly bowled me over when I got off the bus. I got a taxi to the hostel and met my roomates immediately - two Americans called Mike and Chu. It was way to hot to go outside (43deg) so we all stayed in under the air-conditioning until after 9pm. And even then it was still ridiculously hot! Chu and I went out for a walk around La Juderia, the old Jewish quarter in Cordoba. The famous Mesquita is very close to where we're staying ... read more