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

Spring is in the air.....

It is a lovely sunny afternoon here in Incheon, and I have just returned from a walk up to the Bus Terminal along the Seunggicheon stream. I am at pains even to call it a stream, it is more an assortment of stinky pools bordered by a cycle path and assorted ongoing earthworks. To give the Incheon city council some credit, it does look like they are trying to improve it somewhat, by installing boardwalks and water features, but they will need to improve the water quality drastically if they are to prove useful.

Here a couple of photos from this afternoon. Despite what I have said above, I do like to get out for a walk, and it is a pleasant enough stroll.

The bridges up ahead in the above picture are part of the Suin railway line, currently under reconstruction. When finished it will link Incheon with Suwon.

Looking across some rice fields to the Munhak stadiums.

The new football (soccer) season starts next weekend, which I am thoroughly looking forward to, and then baseball kicks off (?) next month. Incheon FC have thankfully got rid of the popular, but awful, No.31. he has gone to league winners Seongnam, and we (I like to think of myself as part of Incheon FC these days!) have brought in an Australian and ANOTHER player called Dragan, as well as appointing the former Serbian national team coach as manager. Maybe Incheon will fare better this season with him at the helm.

Since our return from Japan, life has hurtled along at the usual frenetic Korean pace. Earlier this month Greg and I and some other Western boys went for a kickabout on a blaze (sand/earth) pitch in Yeonsu-Dong. We ended up playing against and with a whole load of middle-school boys whose coach seemed keen for them to play with 'real' footballers. None of us were particularly good, mainly due to hungoverness and lack of practice, but I did a lot of aimless running about as usual and swung a few decent crosses in which I was happy about.

Team Photo

Last weekend we pulled an all-nighter (the first since university for me I think) before heading into Seoul early on Saturday morning to join the USO (the US army's entertainment organisation) tour to the DMZ. It was Greg's 1st time, Neil's 3rd, and my 4th! If you read the news reports, you would be forgiven for thinking North Korea is about to launch a massive attack on.......well on the rest of the world, but despite this you are still allowed to tour within a few metres of the North and at one point actually step into the country itself (albeit inside a guarded building). If you want to see lots of pictures of the DMZ, have a look at my previous blog posts, as I don't want to look like a broken record on this blog.

Even though this was my 4th trip, the good thing is that they've all been different. This time we were allowed to take a lot more photos, and we spent a good bit of time standing looking over to North Korea inside the JSA, just outside the South Korean meeting hall, something we had not been allowed to do on previous trips. There was only one North Korean guard visible, you can just about make him out in the photo below.

For more photos and video, here are some Facebook links.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=221333&id=777495416&l=06765

I have to say I still found it fascinating, even though a lot of the sights were familiar to me. I don't think there is anywhere else in the world where the atmosphere is so tense, yet it is also so calm. There is something crazy about thinking.... 'if I run 50m in that direction then I will die'. The guards don't mess around up there. Hopefully they won't be around for ever and one day the DMZ may be dismantled, but its certainly not going to be during my time in Korea. Relations between North and South are frostier than they have been for some time.

On a less serious note, Tuesday was Pancake Day so Lisa and I attempted to make our own. Following good old Delia Smith's recipe, we did OK, although the amount of batter was a bit small so we ended up making another batch. Greg and I are giving up beer for Lent, which is so far going O.K. I am also forgoing sweets, which may prove more problematic.

My tossing skills are not great!

And that about brings us up to speed I think. March is looking good, the football next weekend, then Lisa and I are heading to Chungju (in the middle of Korea, a big lake) for the weekend on the 14th/15th, and then Oasis are playing in Seoul on the 1st of April, which Greg and I are going to. The teaching is still going well, the kids are all back to school now so the schedule is back to normal. The new school year begins this week (unlike August/September back home) so a lot of the 6th grade kids are going into middle school, and there will be a new intake of very little people to look forward to as well. Very cute, but no English at all. Hmmmmmm.......

Well, as I look out the window, the sun is setting over the new Incheon bridge, which is now joined in the middle (due to open October this year), there are a steady stream of planes coming in to land at Incheon airport, and the skyscrapers over on New Songdo are inching their way upwards. It's not the same as the view from Lovedale that's for sure, but I still enjoy it.

Return to Japan

Hello,

After the craziness of meeting Tom Cruise last month it was back to reality for a few days, but before long it was time for Greg and I to experience craziness of a different kind, as we headed to Japan for a hectic 4 days of sightseeing.

We flew out on Friday the 23rd, my first and so far only experience of flying with Korean Air. A pleasant flight, and at around an hour and a half to Osaka not too long either. After landing in Osaka we picked up our Japan rail passes (which allow unlimited travel on almost all the JR network, very handy) and boarded the airport train. We decided we would head straight to Kyoto, even though we were going to be staying in Osaka (the two are about an hour apart). upon arriving at the very futuristic Kyoto station, we lockered our bags and hopped on a bus to the Golden Pavillion, Kyoto's most famous tourist attraction. It was impressive, a big gold-leaf coated temple sitting beside a small lake. Very peaceful.



At this point I'll also give the link to the rest of the photos on Facebook. Here's the ones I took.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=210280&l=e8359&id=777495416

Unfortunately my camera was playing up a bit so I couldn't take any pictures on the first and last days. Greg's camera filled in the gaps so i will try and post a few of his snaps on this blog too.

After the pavilion visit we wandered around Kyoto for a bit and then caught the Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Osaka. We went to the capsule hotel that Neil Munro and I stayed in last year and then headed out to acquaint ourselves with the Osaka nightlife.

The next day, we explored Osaka a bit more, and went to the aquarium/IMAX cinema (also where Neil and I went) They had a 'penguin parade' which was quite fun (similar to the one at Edinburgh zoo if anyone's been) and we were also gifted 6000 Yen (about 45 pounds) by a malfunctioning ticket machine, so that paid for our day!

That evening we met Gordie, who used to work in Korea but moved to Japan last year. It was great to see him and we had some good banter about old times, both in Korea and at Uni (he went to Stirling too, and was one of the initial reasons I came to Korea).



Me and Gordie. My favorite H&M shirt still gets a wear now and again!

The next day we managed to get up reasonably early and boarded the Shinkansen to Tokyo.

The Japanese rail network really is world-class. Trains are on-time to the second, clean, quiet and the Shinkansen was not too busy. There are trains every 10 mins or so between Osaka and Tokyo, and they cover the distance in around 3 hours. On the way up we had a great view of Mt.Fuji. It was just like you see in the pictures, snow-capped and beautiful.

Upon arrival in Tokyo we checked into our hotel and then set about exploring some of this huge city. First stop was an area called Harajuku, home of the Meiji shrine and, on a Sunday, an area where eccentric Japanese (and western) people gather to hang around and be photographed. There were a few goth-types, a Japanese cowboy and many other odd folk. The shrine was nice, located in a leafy park, and there was a Japanese wedding going on too, so plenty to see.
We left Harajuku and walked down busy shopping streets (paying a vist to 'Condomania'...no prizes for guessing what they sold) to the area of Shibuya....apparently Tokyo's coolest area. It also home of the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world, made famous in the film 'Lost In Translation' and The Killers video 'Read my Mind'. It really was a sight to behold. I took a video of one cycle of the crossing, bear in mind that during the day, that is happening every few mins or so. Crazy!

We headed out that night in the popular area of Roppongi, but being a Sunday it was pretty quiet. The next morning, it was up bright and early (5am) to head to the Tsjukii fish market. Why go to a fish market at 5am you may ask? Well, it is Japan's largest, and it is also famous as being the place where tuna are auctioned. It is a crazy place, lots of carts flying about and every sort of seafood/fish imaginable. I'd been to a big market down in Busan, but there was no tuna there. In Tsjukii, whole tuna were laid out in rows (all snap-frozen and numbered), some of them were HUGE! We briefly saw one of the auctions taking place

After a few more hours of sleep back at the hotel, we went to the nearby government offices (basically a big city hall) and went up to the free observation deck on the 45th floor. It was a bit hazy but we still got a good view of Tokyo. The Tokyo urban area has the largest population in the world (around 30 million) and being up that high it was possible to see how....the city stretched as far as the haze allowed us to see.

In the afternoon we paid a visit to the Ginza district, home of the 'posh' shops, and the Sony building. The Sony building is basically Sony saying "Look at all the cool stuff we make", and I have to say, it was pretty cool. I was only browsing, but Greg bought a nice wee MP3 player. After a nearby stop at a Nissan showroom

we headed back down to Osaka on the train for fish and chips at the British pub near the capsule hotel (very Japanese eh?) and had a reasonably early night for our morning flight back to Korea.

So that was Japan. Hectic and expensive, but incredible. It was tough going back to work but I settled back into the swing of things quite easily after a couple of days. Future plans include a ski/snowboard weekend at some point this month, DMZ again in March (providing North Korea don't start getting itchy trigger fingers) and possibly Beijing in April/May, depending on finances/holiday. I have been spending a bit of time with a Canadian-Chinese girl called Lisa recently, so we are going to try and go somewhere in Korea soon too. It is early days, but she is really nice, so we'll see what happens.

And on that note, I will sign off for now. Speak soon..........

Pre-Japan blogtime

Hi,
To make this post a little more exciting (can a blog be exciting...of course!) I'm going to set a challenge to you, the reader, but also to myself, to test my writing skills and imagination. Yesterday, Neil, Greg and I went to Seoul and met Tom Cruise. Pics and a video are below, but in my post today I'm also going to try and include as many titles of films he has starred in, or will star in, in my blogging. Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to identify as many as possible and then leave me a comment with your answer, or for those of you who don't have Blogger accounts, a Facebook post would do. For those of you have neither....answers on a postcard. Mission Impossible? I think not.

So, the last time I blogged it was New Year's Day I think. Unfortunately, I had to work the next day, the firm I work for decided they would not give us any easy rides over the festive period, so all the young guns were ready for their English lessons on the Friday, but I was not! The last few weeks have been all about being reserved and trying to save cash, I feel I know the color of money all too well right now, such is my attention to how much of it I am spending. The Won-Yen exchange rate is pretty poor right now, which means I will have less to spend in Japan. I am hoping it will improve and I have been hanging on to try and get the best rate, but that in itself is a risky business. It's a shame because I really wanted to buy a Samurai sword this trip. As it turns out, Samurai swords have been flying off the shelves recently, my friend Gordon who lives in Kyoto got caught up in it on his way home from work the other day, as many Japanese people were rushing to a store to buy the last samurai they had left in stock. Sounds pretty mental.

Greg and I are preparing for our trip, we still have to get our passports stamped with a re-entry permit so we can get back into Korea, and also buy our rail passes before we leave. We fly out with Korean Air on Friday, I joined their website to get discount tickets, I get a flyer pass at the silver level, but unfortunately I am not a goldmember yet. Maybe if I do a bit more travelling I can achieve that! the rough plan is to do Kyoto on Friday, then meet Gordie (legend) on Saturday and have a night out with him, and then head up to Tokyo on Sunday, and then back down to Osaka on Monday night. By the time we head back on Tuesday morning, I am anticipating being pretty tired, so I will probably want to sleep on the plane, but I also have a window seat, and I love looking at the view. How to see the view but also sleep at the same time? I suppose I'll have to have my eyes wide shut ha ha!

Anyway, back to Korea. I have been doing a bit exploring of the Yeonsu-Gu area, I went for a nice walk the other day down by a kind of river (more like a storm drain really), here is a photo looking up the river.



It was bitterly cold that day (the river was frozen over) and it has been for the last while. I used to think I liked the cold, and ice and snow, but these days i consider myself to be more of a rain man. Roll on the days of thunder and lightning, and long hot summer days!
Today, Greg and I took a trip to the Incheon landing memorial and then climbed up the hill and walked back to Yeonsu-Gu via the trail. I think Greg enjoyed seeing the various pieces of military hardware from the Korean War era. I am glad I wasn't in Incheon at that time, it must have felt like the war of the worlds back then. There is still the threat from North Korea of course, but if both parties make all the right moves another crisis can be averted I'm sure. For now, both sides still seem to think they are top gun though. Anyway, here are a couple of photos from today.



It was a shame the visibility was so poor, very hazy, with a sort of magnolia/vanilla sky, that although meant we couldn't see much, was beautiful in itself.



Me at the top of the hill. I was losin' it a bit at this point, due to my fear of heights. Ahhhhh!

And so, onto the highlight of the year for me so far (early days yet!). Yesterday, Greg, Neil and I went to Yongsan CGV and awaited the arrival of Mr Cruise, in Korea to promote his new film. There was already a big crowd gathered by the time we arrived, but being three big Western boys (some might call us the outsiders) we were able to make our way to almost the front of the masses so that when he arrived, we were in prime position. Tom has a reputation for being very good to his fans, and he didn't disappoint. He must have spent almost an hour singing autographs, posing for photos and talking to fans, including us. I think he was genuinely surprised to see some Western faces in the crowd, and exclaimed "what are you guys doing here?" when he saw us! We had a bit of banter about some of his films, and told him that "Scotland loves you" to which he replied "I love Scotland". So there you go, for those of you north of the border, Tom Cruise loves YOU! We had all brought along DVD's for him to sign (we would have been happy with one, but having one each provided some collateral), and despite me dropping mine (thankfully, there are a few good men in this world, and one of them gave it back to me), he signed them all. We also got to shake his hand and when we left he said goodbye to us, and he seemed genuinely happy to have seen us. I was certainly happy to have met him.
Here are a few pictures, a video (loud!!!) and also a couple of links for pictures and a video taken by a Korean company in which you can hear us and see our arms!








http://tv.jknews.co.kr/article/news/20090117/8580075.htm (the Korean video with us)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=206137&l=697ec&id=777495416 (my facebook album of TC)

A good weekend is almost over, and now I have four days of teaching left before Japan. This time next week I will be far and away in Tokyo, maybe sipping on a cocktail, but definitely drinking in all that Japan has to offer. Until then, goodbye.

HELP ME.......TO HELP YOU.

How many did you get?

Festive Update

Hello,
First of all in the true style of any 'publication' I would like to wish all my 'readers' a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It was lovely to receive some cards and packages from some of you, anything waiting in the postbox when I return from school is always great.

I am writing this on New Year's Day, sitting on the couch in my apartment. I bought a wireless keyboard/mouse last month which means I can basically sit on the couch and control everything from there. So lazy, but so good too! I have now got my apartment pretty much the way I want it, it is still messy and cluttered in a typical Neil Jardine style but I like it, and I have everything I need.

So, since the last time I blogged, December and all associated with it has been and gone. It is a good deal colder out here now, the gloves and hat are utilised most days, and we had a reasonable snowfall a couple of weeks ago. Here's a couple of photos from that day/night. Beautiful in a funny sort of way I think.






What else in the last month? Well, as we all know and love (yes........) it was St. Andrews day on 30th Nov so I went to huge lenghts to celebrate and hungoverly (word?) hung a Scotland flag out my window. I doubt many people noticed, and even if they did, maybe they wouldn't know why, but any excuse to be proud of Scotland is an opportunity I take, and I actually think it looks quite cool in the picture.



I have been playing a little bit of football, just 5 or 6 aside mess-abouts, but unfortunately in mid-December that was put on hold as I went over on my ankle quite badly. I stupidly kept playing on it, but by the end of the day i could hardly walk. A visit to the doctor and some x-rays the next day revealed that thankfully there was no break, just ligament damage, so i was fixed up in a splint and went for a couple of physio sessions involving ultrasound and various other devices that I have no idea what they were and whether they were doing anything useful. One in particular involved various suction cups that were placed on my foot and then sort of pulsated. I can only imagine it must be a similar feeling to have several small puppies constantly nibbling your foot. Very strange.
Just before Christmas it was my brothers 21st back in London which I was sad to miss. I spoke to him on the day and passed on my birthday wishes, but I would have much preferred to have been there in person. I guess that is one of the downsides of working abroad, events and celebrations back home are missed, and I do feel bad when it happens. All the video calls and fibre-optics in the world cannot replace being able to give someone a hug in person. Hopefully in Stewartie's case I will get to do that later this year if he comes to visit.

And so onto Christmas. It had been decided quite a while back that we would return to the Seoul Hilton on Christmas Day, so I set about creating a Facebook 'event' and invited a few folk. A few folk ended up being a few more, and then a few more, until I found myself frantically calling the Hilton about a week before to see if they could get us a table for 24! All credit to the staff, they were brilliant, and, on the day, we arrived to find one huge table to accommodate us all. Here are some photos from the day. Those of you who read the blog from last year's Christmas may find some of the backgrounds in the pictures familiar!





We tucked into a delicious buffet, then had a couple of drinks downstairs in the Oak Room (I had a wee Glenmorangie...only 6 quid!) and then briefly visited the adjoining casino to waste some money. I then caught the subway (yes, the public transport operates as normal out here on Christmas Day) back to Incheon and had a reasonable early night, as we had to work on Boxing Day. All in all, another very nice Christmas in Korea.

Of course, Christmas is only one half of the festive period, and last night it was back to Seoul again for New year. I didn't take Hogmanay off work like I did last year, so after finishing at 8pm it was a dash back to the flat to get the kilt on, and then into Seoul. We got there about 11, and made our way down to Bosin-Gak, where we went last year to watch them ring the big bell with all the crowds. It was another amazing spectacle, with lots of fireworks, music, Thai lanterns and some peaceful protesters unhappy with Korea's president Lee Myung Bak. I read today his approval rating is 34%. I wonder how much longer he'll be around for......
After the bells we caught a taxi over to Hongdae and saw out the rest of the night there. Here are some pictures from the night.

Greg and I. Greg doesn't have a kilt, but he does have a kilt towel. So, with a few safety pins and a belt, this was the result. I think it looks brilliant.








By throwing a few baseballs at some wood I managed to win this delightful 'Hello Kitty' stuffed toy. Here is said toy, myself and Kebab man striking a happy pose.



Unfortunately, Hello Kitty was bad company, always ridiculing Greg and I for our outfits, ordering expensive drinks and generally misbehaving. So....by the end of the night, she had taken a bit of abuse. There really is no excuse.....and I was full of guilt when i awoke this morning. Sorry Kitty, wherever you are.



And so into 2009 I go. I have no idea as of yet where I will be this time next year, and right now that doesn't worry me. In the short-term, myself and Greg have booked our tickets to go Japan at the end of this month, hopefully Neil will join too, he has just returned from a week in Thailand with his girlfriend but hopefully we can all head to the land of the rising sun together. Other plans include a possible ski-trip and going to see Tom Cruise when he makes an appearance in Seoul later this month. In the meantime, i will spend my days trying to keep warm and continuing to educate Koren children the difference between 'coffee' (the hot beverage) 'copy' (replicating something from one original) and 'ko-pee' (the Korean for nose-bleed)

All the best for 2009.

All the leaves are brown......

Hello,

As you can maybe guess from the title of this post Autumn has arrived in Korea, and the leaves are indeed turning brown, as well as many other prettier colours. Autumn in Korea is a rather brief affair, it tends to go from the heat of the summer to the freezingness (word?) of the winter with little in-between, but right now it is definitely fall (as I have to call it in school). The hat and gloves are still in the wardrobe, but it won't be long before they're needed again.
Amongst doing other things, I have been busy kitting out my apartment with various new things. The TV is proving a great buy, and on Saturday I added a sofa so I can sit in comfort instead of hurting my back on the silly chairs provided. Here is a photo of the new couch.



It's pretty big (almost 3m long) but is very comfy and at the price (300,000 Won/ 150 pounds) is a good purchase I think. I will sell it on when I leave so it is a kind of investment too. I have also (finally) restocked my fish tank after it had lain empty for almost a year. This time, the inhabitants are not lobster/crayfish/shrimp that are capable of ripping each other to bits, but more docile fish. There are 7 in total, 2 big (I say big, they are maybe 2" long) and 5 small ones. The big ones are named Ginny and (neo) Bobby, after the two mascots of GnB, my employer. The 5 small ones are collectively named Five (5ive) after the 90's boy band. Here is a photo of them in the tank.



You can see Ginny and Bobby and just about make out one of Five to the left of GnB. I am slightly worried about GnB because when i feed them, Five are always much quicker to get to the food and so I think GnB might be getting a bit hungry. I tried fishing Bobby out tonight and putting him in a little bowl and then added food, but he just stayed motionless and didn't eat anything. Stupid fish.

Other events of note....It was Halloween here a couple of weeks ago, so Greg, Neil and I dressed as cowboys and headed out on the Friday night. It was Neil's girlfriend's birthday on the Saturday so we dressed up again and went for a Italian in Seoul. As Halloween was on the Friday, i also went to school dressed as a cowboy. It's not a big day in Korea, but my school used it to have a 'points party' (where the kids use the points they have earned to buy stationary, snacks and face painting) and a lot of the kids were dressed up too. It was a nice break from teaching.

Here are a few photos from the day at school and the nights out.





I think this one looks a bit like a nightclub.








We went to the final Incheon game of the season last weekend at Munhak, Incheon needed a win ensure a play-off's place, but were sadly beaten 3-1 by local rivals Suwon. They did well in the 1st half but didn't take their chances, and crumbled in the 2nd. A shame. At the end we went down to near the pitch and repeatedly shouted at one of the players (a Serbian guy called Dragan who used to play for Rangers) until he acknowledged us. It's the little things that keep you happy I feel! So that's the football finished until March when it all begins again. Hopefully Incheon will do better next year.



And that's about all that's happened worthy of a mention in the blog I think. We are starting to think a little bit about Christmas, I think we may well head back to the Hilton in Seoul where we went last year, the food was excellent and I think it is probably the most Christmassy place in Korea on the day.

I hope everyone is doing well back in the UK or wherever you are....lots of love as always x

Oh aye, there are some more photos as always on my Facebook page, here is most recent album link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=166172&l=d910a&id=777495416

Address

Ok, Here is my new address for my APARTMENT. I type apartment in capitals because I now live on the the 9th floor of a big block of flats, so anything larger than a postcard/letter may not make it up to me. I will put up the address for anything larger (wishful thinking?!) when I get it, it will be Sunny's school.

English:

South Korea
Incheon City
Yeonsu-Gu
Yeonsu-2-Dong
599-1
Duson Iriom (Building) 3 Cha.
Apartment 907


Korean:

SOUTH KOREA
인천 시
연수 2 동
599-1
두손 이리옴 3차
907호

If you can somehow print out the korean one in I think that would be better.
byeeee