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Hi everyone!
I'm just going to write a quick blog to document the last few weeks since my visitors left, then the next one I write will probably be about my Summer travels as it's only 3 weeks until the end of term and there's nothing particularly exciting happening in those 3 weeks!
So, as the title of this blog suggests, the weeks have been very much work-filled. I have settled into a routine of work from 7am until about 6pm each day in order to get everything done; then Mondays and Wednesdays I have Korean class after school, Tuesdays I have pilates and chiro, Thursdays I play netball and Friday I go to salsa. So my life has been very structured recently - just how I like it, let's face it :-) But such long hours in the week mean I can then enjoy the weekends without having to do any planning or other school work! So weekends are the topic of this blog (although I won't speak of the one where I wrote reports all weekend, or the one where I planned Science week and my lesson observation - those were anomalies I don't need to think
about!)
At the end of my last blog I was talking about going to see Iron Man 3. I'm glad to say this did happen and it was great. I particularly enjoyed that we were the only Western people in the cinema so were laughing by ourselves most of the time, considering our sense of humour was different to everybody else's who was there! Rachel and Katharine had an argument with the lady in Starbucks - she saw it as suitable to serve cream on top of an English Breakfast tea and then tried to charge them twice when Katharine wanted it changed - but other than that it was an uneventful weekend, apart from the Iron Man excitement or course!
The following weekend I had to do a first aid course at work on the Saturday, and then in the evening we went to the school 'Benefit Night', so it was very much a 'work-related' day. The first aid course was made fun by the guy delivering it. Well, he tried his best with the material he's got! I left the course knowing everything and by the time I'd cycled home I'd forgotten it all again -
as I do with every first aid course I've ever been on. If they must insist on changing the numbers of compressions every 5 minutes then I'm never going to remember it! Then we got ready straight away, put on pretty dresses and headed to the Conrad Hotel in Yeouido. Basically it was an event where teachers and parents got all dressed up and ate and drank. Then the parents bid on items that had been provided for the silent auction and it's like a money-raising event for the school. Liz and I put a prize forward where we will eat pizza and play on the wii with the children of the parents who win the auction! We are actually making good on our offer tomorrow at lunchtime with the winning children! Mmmmmm Domino's (and wii dance!). Anyway, the night was fun, we went out for a few drinks afterwards and woke up on Sunday feeling particularly tired! So, what better to do than go and eat our weight in food at an International food festival?! We weren't there particularly long but we had 4 different types of spring roll, a Gavin's sausage (from a man who lives in Seoul
making British sausages!) and other miscellaneous meats. It was great!
We were then even more cultural the next weekend when we headed to the Lotus Lantern Festival for Buddha's Birthday. We first met up with Praise, who used to be mine and Katharine's pilates teacher. She took us to this really cool cafe for a drink and then got really nervous as she told us she had prepared something for us! She stood up and walked over to the piano in the cafe and then played 'She' from Notting Hill to us. So cute! We then went on to the lantern festival and got some touristy snaps of the different lanterns they had prepared. A lovely Italian meal and some random Korean dancing then ensued in the street (I watched as Katharine and Nell got involved) before we headed home for an early-ish night!
Buddha's birthday just kept on getting better as we then got the following Friday off work for the main birthday event! We had booked tickets for the two day jazz festival and so set off to the Olympic park on the Friday with sun cream in hand! We basically sat in a large field
drinking fizzy wine and watching acts we didn't really know, getting slightly sunburnt. Oh, and eating of course - cheesey chips, hot dogs, salads, paninis - it was all going on! I applied factor 30 three times but still had pink shoulders! A few people from work were there so we just spent the time gossiping with them and planning our summer travels! The headlining act for the Friday was Mika, who was playing in the main arena. Little did we know that Mika is extremely popular in Korea and the stadium was packed! He was AMAZING! I know most of you probably won't believe me, but it was genuinely one of the best concerts I have ever been to! He was great! The best moment was the irony of him singing 'Big girls you are beautiful' in South Korea and even more ironic was that Rachel, Katharine and I were singing along to it as if we are 'big girls' (considering that's how we can feel living here). Great moment!
The Saturday was less about the sun cream and more about the rain coat! It started off nice but at about 5pm the heavens opened. As Korea is
the most organised country in the world there were free rain macs for everybody, which was great, but I just wish it hadn't rained at all. We decided to stick it out to see Damien Rice, who was headlining on the outdoor stage, keeping ourselves going by eating more food and drinking more beer! Turns out it wasn't really worth it as he was pretty rubbish. He didn't say hi to the crowd, let alone thank us for all sitting in the rain, and then he proceeded to drink a full bottle of wine on the stage, smoke a cigarette and swear profusely between songs! They censored out the cigarette on the screens on the side of the stage, so that didn't go down well and he actually looked like a homeless man they'd dragged off the streets who had major issues with life! Others said they felt sorry for him, I think he should just sort it out! Anyway, despite the rain, and the rubbish-ness of Damien Rice, we had a lovely time! :-)
The last weekend of fun I've had was in Jeju, last weekend! We booked it as a celebration for Rachel's 30th and for finishing
our reports like good little teachers :-) We went on the friday after school, but because we are such good little teachers, and were working up until the bitter end, we very nearly missed our flight. A combination of us working too hard, the slowest taxi driver ever (very rare in Seoul) and bad traffic meant we pulled up at departures 18 minutes before our flight was due to take off. We ran in and saw there was a queue, which we stood in for about a minute, then Katharine just pushed in and said to the lady "late - help" and she quickly put us through and told us to get to the gate NOW! So we ran through security, ran to the gate, and then stood in a queue for about 3 minutes! Fastest check-in and security ever all to then stand in a queue to board the plane. We do make life difficult for ourselves sometimes. But we made it, we ate ourselves silly at VIPS - an all you can eat buffet place and then got a taxi to our hotel. I had booked a triple room but when we got up there we had a
Seoul Jazz Festival
Chiling in the sun!random apartment type thing with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and a huge bathroom. It was very random, and even more randomly decorated with gold velvet curtains and gold zebra print duvet covers! Anyway,it did what we needed it to do as we all pretty much passed out as soon as we got in there and all slept like a log :-)
On Saturday we got up and went straight to Starbucks for English Breakfast tea. We sat trying to decide what to do as the day was overcast and decided to get a driver and visit a few tourist locations. So we got a taxi back to the airport and the lovely lady at tourist information organised a driver for us! Our first stop was 'Love Land'. Now, with it being called 'Love Land' you may expect it to be 'lovely'. Unfortunately I believe it should actually be called "Phallic Forest" or "Sex City" considering the disgusting nature of the statues and exhibits in the place! It had to be done (the second time for Rachel), but I probably won't ever go again! We then headed off to the Trick Eye Museum for some corny photo shots, and then
to Gimnyeong maze (I do love a hedge maze!). My favourite moment at the maze was when we had followed Rachel's advice of 'always turn left', which led us back to the start! We then followed the map as we were too grumpy at failing to try again. I also enjoyed Katharine's freak out at seeing six cats who were friends with each other chilling out near the ticket office. Phrases like 'cats aren't friends with each other', 'what are they all doing milling around?' and 'they're like a pack - they're going to attack us,' had me in stitches! Katharine isn't a particular fan of cats in the first place but her complete disgust at this 'pack' of cats was hilarious! After a lovely time at the maze we headed over to Seonsang Ilchulbong where we were staying for the night. We were dropped off at our guesthouse and said goodbye to our lovely driver, only to be greeted by a lovely little puppy! Rachel and Katharine were instantly in love with it and they didn't care that the room was pretty gross, or that the guesthouse was covered in pictures of smurfs, as the puppy made up for
MIKA!!
He was AMAZING!! it! That evening we went for chicken and beer, I ate a cheese string, and then we had an early night, ready for our early start!
On Sunday the alarm went off at 4.30am and we left the room at 4.50am to climb Seonsang Ilchulbong itself, which is a volcanic crater also known as 'Sunrise Peak'. The owner of the guesthouse led us along the streets and up the crater just in time to see the sunrise at 5.24am! Katharine and Rachel wanted to kill me for getting them up so early, but I think they enjoyed seeing the sunrise once they got up there (maybe!) There were a fair few people doing it with us and it's something I wanted to do since visiting with Mum and Dad so I'm happy that I did :-) Katharine and I then had toast with cheese slices on for breakfast and then we all went back to bed for a couple of hours! We just got up in time to have another trip to Starbucks for an English Breakfast tea and then we got a taxi all the way back to the airport, with a little more time to spare than
There he is....
....being amazing! last time! We even had time for some duty free shopping! When we got back to Seoul we dropped off all our stuff at home then headed down by the river to make the most of the sun. We had some wine, beer, and random snacks donated by parents of some of the children we teach, who were also down by the river, including more cheese strings! All in all, a lovely weekend!
So I'm now sat on my sofa on a Thursday having a day off for 'Memorial Day'. I'm going shopping later, maybe to sit by the river, and then to see Rachel in a choir performance. All of this after the gym of course (only 3 weeks until holidays and bikini wearing!) and all of my internet jobs, like hire car booking for my return to England :-) Don't think I'm just getting a random day off though - I then have to go into work on Saturday for 'Founder's Day' - a big event to celebrate the founding of the school! I'm actually looking forward to it as I've heard that Gavin of 'Gavin's Sausages' fame is going to be there so I'm going to
starve myself in the morning so I can eat about 10 of them! Yes!
See you all very soon - 6 weeks until I'm home!
Claire xxxx
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