March-ing On

Hello,

Just returned from dinner downstairs at the gimbap house in our building, where I had Budae Jiggae. Budae Jiggae is one of my favourites, it's basically a spicy stew with lots of bits and bobs in it, translated it literally means 'ham and scraps stew' and it is just that. Lots of bits of ham, spam and sausage, some instant noodles, some beans, kimchi and ddeok (rice cake) served with a portion of rice and some side dishes. It's pretty spicy, and gives you some pretty lethal farts, but it tastes great. I think during the Korean War a lot of the soldiers ate it because it was a good way of using up leftovers. That is still true today I suppose.

So, over half way through March and approaching the 6 month mark of my 2nd year. If I've said it once I've said it a million times, but time really does fly out here. It seems not so long ago I was stepping off the plane at Incheon thinking "well, here goes another year" and already it's half way through!

I made my semi-regular post-payday shopping trip to Seoul at the start of the month, bought some new trainers and also managed to source some UK-style meat products! Big Euan, who is now back in Scotland, gave me some details of a Scottish guy called Gavin who produces UK sausages, bacon and pies in Seoul, so I set about tracking him down. After a look on his website (http://www.gavin.co.kr/) and an email, I found out he has a stall in one of the big department stores in Central Seoul. And so, at a rather steep cost, I bought a few packs of sausages, bacon and steak mince pies. The sausages and bacon were excellent, and the pies were nice too, but a bit dry for my taste. As Korean apartments do not generally have ovens as standard, we had to borrow a couple of small toaster ovens to do the job instead. Here are the pies baking away.

Gavin seems to be a bit of celebrity in Korea, there's pictures of him meeting Lee Myung Bak and Princess Diana! He also apparently does the catering for the British Embassy and British Council as well as many international schools and companies. A good niche in the market there.

The weekend before last it was the return of the K-League for another season. The mighty Incheon FC were playing Busan I-Park at Incheon's Munhak Stadium (only a 5000 Won taxi ride for us) so we headed up and watched the game. As usual, the standard of football was shocking but Incheon got the win, and their new foreign signing (Jade North, an Australian) had a good game and acknowledged us at the end when we went down to shout his name. He looked pretty shocked that there were people there who actually knew who he was!

The above photo was taken just after kick-off. Incheon had the biggest attendance of any K-League match on the opening weekend, I would say the stadium was maybe 1/3 full at best. Still, a reasonable atmosphere.

Last weekend, Lisa and I headed off on a wee trip away. We went to Chungcheongbuk-Do, a region in the centre of South Korea. First stop was the city of Chungju, where we changed buses and headed to the nearby Chungju lake. I had hoped we could take a boat along the lake to the resort town of Danyang, but unfortunately it wasn't running, so we went for a shorter cruise instead. It was very cold, but nice to be out on the water, and we saw some of the lake and the nearby Woraksan national park in the distance. Here is a link to the photos on Facebook and a couple of the best ones.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=230800&id=777495416&l=3b33f9434c


The ferry pier on Chungju Lake. Ours was the small one on the right.

Lisa and I on board

Looking over to Woraksan.

After our cruise we caught the bus back to Chungju, changed buses again and headed on a very windy road over to Danyang, at the other end of the lake. Danyang is small by Korean standards, LP gives its population as 44,000, and it certainly wasn't that busy when we arrived. We checked into a 'luxury' hotel and explored a bit that evening and had some Dakgalbi (spicy chicken, rice cake and veggies cooked on a big hot plate).

The next day we were up earlyish, got a bakery breakfast and caught yet another bus to Gu-In-Sa. Guinsa is a Buddhist temple complex located in the mountains near Danyang, and it was pretty impressive. The whole place is situated in one valley, so you start off at the bottom and work your way up. There were lots of different buildings, dining halls, dormitories, shrines and of course a toilet or two. All were decorated with the incredibly intricate paintings and drawings you see on buildings of that type. At the top there was a very new looking building which was still to be painted.....some job that will be. It was nice to walk about and peer into the different buildings, and soak up the peaceful atmosphere.

The temple at the top of the valley

Looking down the valley

After exploring a bit more we headed back to Danyang and caught a train back to Seoul, where Lisa introduced me to some Vietnamese food (tasty) before we came back to Incheon. It was a great weekend, great to get away from Incheon for a while, and spend some time with Lisa. There was a lot of time on public transport, but it was worth it.

As of Monday, it was back to reality and teaching again. I have bought a new game for the PS3 so that has been keeping me and the boys busy most nights, and I have rejoined my old gym after the new one closed down, pretty much overnight. It remains to be seen if we will ever get a refund, I am owed two months worth. We are also managing to play badminton once a week, at the Somang building where we played a few times last year. It's a bit closer this year which is nice, and also seems to be a lot quieter, we haven't had to wait for a court as of yet.

It's become a lot milder in the last few days, but unfortunately there has also been an onslaught of the 'yellow dust' which blows over from China/Mongolia at this time every year. I might have to dig out the face mask if it gets any worse! This weekend, I am playing football at the venue where I hurt my ankle back in December, so hopefully there won't be a repeat. Greg and I are still eagerly anticipating the arrival of Oasis on April Fools Day, and the idea of Beijing is still bubbling away too. It depends a bit on when/if a certain close relative of mine plans to visit! Hopefully it will all work out.

Right, I'm off to play some Pro Evolution Soccer. I am still rubbish, and am suffering defeats almost every game against Greg and Neil. I'm going to put in some hard training though, so watch out boys!

Oh aye, in my previous blog I said Greg and I were giving up beer for Lent. Well, I think I'm over half way now and not a drop has been touched. And I don't really miss it. I'm just drinking a lot of Coke Zero instead! We all have our weaknesses........well I certainly do anyway.

Bye