It's a Wednesday night, Wednesday the 11th November, a day special in the UK and Korea, but for very different reasons. In the UK, it is remembrance day, where we reflect on past conflicts and remember those who gave their lives for our country.
In Korea, it is Peppero day. For those that don't know, Peppero is a chocolate snack that is quite popular here. It is somewhere between a Cadbury's Finger (in taste) and a Matchmaker (in appearance). As far as I know, Peppero Day was dreamt up by the Lotte company (who make them) as a marketing gimmick, and boy has it worked! All day Peppero was flying about the school, the Korean teachers received a lot more than I did, and I gave out a few in every class as well.
When I last blogged, Korea was still reasonably green, everything was still looking pretty alive and fresh. Now, just over a month on, Autumn is definitely here. The trees are all turning shades of yellow, orange, brown and red, and most of the undergrowth is starting to die off. I notice it most when I go running down by the stream near Yeonsu. The cycle path that runs along the stream was being encroached by a lot of undergrowth a month ago, but today when I went for a run it had all died back. As for weather, it is yet to get really cold (although we had two days of near-freezing temperatures last week), but I am now wearing a sweater to school most days and I recently invested in a new winter jacket in preparation forwhat is to come!
Following on from my last blog, it was Canadian Thanksgiving Day on the 12th October so the previous day Lisa, her friend Candice and I headed through to one of Lisa's friends (Lisa was the bridesmaid at her wedding) and her husband who live in a suburb south of Seoul. We made some cookies specially, which actually tasted quite good! There was a quite a few people there, and we played a few games and ate roast chicken, mashed potato and various other goodies....a nice change from Korean fare.
The following weekend was Lisa's birthday weekend. On the Saturday we headed into Seoul mid-afternoon, and caught a 'deluxe' taxi up to N-Seoul tower (the N stands for Namsan...the mountain it sits on top of http://www.nseoultower.net/english/) I had a reserved a table at 'N-Grill' the revolving restaurant at the top of the tower. It was a great meal, and of course the view from our table was pretty nice too. Some of the 8 courses included smoked salmon, sorbet, a delicious Waygu steak and a little personalised cake for Lisa too. It was pricey, but worth it. Here is a link to the FB album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=329832&id=777495416&l=b50c32e565
Lisa with her bubbly.
The view from our table. Looking down to central Seoul.
After dinner we took the cable car back down the mountain and then caught a taxi over the river to Gangnam where we found a hotel for the night. The next morning, we headed on the subway to Seoul Grand Park. Located on the outskirts of Seoul, this huge park has a zoo, theme park and various other attractions. First stop was the zoo, where we saw (as you might expect at a zoo) a variety of different animals. Some of the enclosures were quite good (especially for the birds) but some were also a bit poor (I felt sorry for the bears in particular). Also many of the Korean visitors were doing things like throwing food to the animals, and we saw one man kick a pane of glass that a baby lion was sleeping against....I think respect for animals in Korea is sadly a lot less than back home. It was nice to wander about though, and I think Lisa had a good time. After seeing most of the animals we caught a chair lift back down to the zoo entrance then a funny little tram decorated as an elephant to the theme park entrance.
Seoul Land is probably the 2nd or 3rd biggest park in Korea (after Everland and Lotte World). We bought a 'big 5' ticket, and then proceeded to queue for ages to get on: dodgems, 2 rollercoasters, a sort-of merry-go-round and the haunted house (the latter was a bit disappointing, but the others were good).
After leaving Seoul Land we caught the subway back to Gangnam and then the bus back to Incheon. Overall, I think Lisa had a great time, which was the main thing, and I enjoyed myself too!
The next weekend was quiet, but the following Monday, I had an unexpected day off. Korea is currently in the grip of a swine-flu epidemic, and as a precaution one of my academies decided to close down for two days to prevent the spread of it among the students. I decided to make the most of this bonus day, so I headed out to a few islands West of Incheon. Getting there involved taking two ferries and a bus (a bit like getting to Iona!), and once I was on the main island, a bus took me across to the middle one (they were all connected by bridges), where I was able to hire a bike. The islands have a small population and are not a very popular destination (especially in October) so it was really quiet, a perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of Incheon. I cycled around, visiting a couple of areas used in the filming of famous Korean TV dramas, and saw a sculpture park with several 'interesting' statues. Here is the FB album link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=332899&id=777495416&l=7221525b84
On the way back to Incheon I came back across the new Incheon Bridge. It really is a huge structure, and also cuts about 40 mins off travel time out to the airport from Yeonsu which will be great whenever I fly anywhere.
For Halloween weekend, it was off on another trip. This time it was with Lisa and the friends we saw at Canadian Thanksgiving. They had hired a pension (self-catering house) near a town called Gapyeong (about an hour East of Seoul) so on Saturday morning it was up bright and early to make the trip into Seoul to catch a train there. Once we arrived at Gapyeong we stocked up on groceries and then got a lift out to the house. it was quite remote, hidden up a valley and surrounded by trees all in glorious colours. Unfortunately, shortly after we arrived it started to rain, but we went for a game of football anyway....although we got absolutely soaked! After we'd dried off it was time for some movies and games, and then the owners brought us up a ready-to-cook-on BBQ to our balcony for us to cook dinner on. We had some Samgyeopsal (thick cut bacon...very fatty) and some DELICIOUS steak, and then played a few more games before bed. The next day we had planned to go ATV'ing (quad biking) but time was too short so Lisa and I went for a wee walk before we headed back to Gapyeong. We had a nice Dakgalbi lunch before the train took us back to Seoul. It was a great weekend, I was a bit worried about fitting in, as I was the only European there, but it was a good laugh and I met some nice people. Here is the photo album, the photos from Gapyeong begin on page 4.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=291456&id=777495416&l=c39fd4db88
Beautiful colours.
Group shot. Spot the Scot?!
And that pretty much brings us up to speed. Last weekend was spent in Seoul shopping on Saturday, and then on Sunday Neil, Callum and I went to a sauna up in Bucheon, which was relaxing. Neil and Kyongmi are back from their extended break at home and in Europe, it sounds like they had a great time and they are busy looking for work now that they're back in Korea. This weekend I think Neil will come down to Yeonsu for some gaming and a few beers. November is so far quite quiet, although Lisa and I are planning on taking a road trip down the East coast in 2 weekends time. Apart from that I have nothing else planned.
School is still going fine, a few Korean teachers have come and gone but my schedule is pretty much unchanged, and I am still enjoying it, every day is different, and the job still challenges and rewards me which is good. Lisa and I have had a rocky last couple of months, but we are still together and I am going by the saying 'whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. I hope it's true.
I am now really looking forward to going home at Christmas, my plans when I'm back in Scotland are a bit clearer, my time will mainly be split between Iona, mum down in Penrith and the Philps in Fife, with stops to see granny and grandpa and in Edinburgh too. It's going to busy, but it will be so nice to be home again and to see everyone.
I will update the blog before I return to the UK, until then I will leave you with the English writing on my bread bag, it's priceless. Someone could make a good bit of money advising big companies out here how to use English properly on their advertising.
"Paris Baguette 56 Hour Premium White Bread - It kneads a dough with the boiling wter high temperature and hour from low temperature and maturing a natural taste deeply and it saves with chewy it is soft there is the recording wall hun-dred which it will chew it does and a possibility of feeling simultaneously with the bread. the flavor taste there is a possibility of seeing and it is a bread."
That is word-for-word. All the spelling and punctuation is as it is on the packet, the only thing I have done is change it from all capital letters to all lower-case. Amazing. My favorite part is the final 5 words.
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