Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
So for the 47th time, apologies for the lateness of my blog…. It has been a ridiculous amount of time since my last one and I don't really have any excuses so sorry…
I have done a few things since my last blog as I have had my first ever Christmas and New Year away from England, and been to Thailand for 2 weeks as well so with this part of my blog I will just concentrate on November and December, and then I'll do a separate blog entry for Thailand.
So November was actually kinda quiet. The first 2 and half months in Korea had been a bit crazy with going out most weekends drinking and seeing and doing lots, but things kinda slowed down a bit in November.
I did do one thing in November that was quite cool though, as I went with Lee across to the other side of Korea to a city called Sokcho. This is on the north east coast of South Korea, close to the border with the north. We went on a Saturday by bus so we could go hiking up a famous mountain in Korea called Ulsan Bawi. The weather in autumn is beautiful. There is pretty much no rain at all, and so most days are cloudless, beautiful sunny days, and it can still be 18, 19 Celsius in the daytime in November, so it is warm enough in the day but it's not oppressive heat.
Any way, I was in a rather hungover state on the Saturday morning of the bus ride as I had been out the night before with people from taekwondo, and so I was feeling rather tired and ill on the 3 hour bus journey to Sokcho, and I really wasn't feeling like climbing up a mountain!!! I had to fight the urge to throw up on the bus a few times, but thankfully the cross country buses are pretty smart and comfortable, and not like some s***ty Magic Bus or anything! ;-)
Despite my feeling ill, I got some popcorn chicken at the service station, and things got better, and then once we got there, we met Christy and Ronan from Daejon, and once I started walking, then it was good to sweat out the booze and get some fresh air! The climb is a little hairy in places, as it is quite steep, and Korea doesn't really do health and safety, but it was deffo worth it after you get to the top as the views are just breathtaking. For anyone coming to visit Korea, I would definitely recommending bringing a good set of trainers and doing the hike yourself.
Not much else happened in November. We went to Bucheon at the end of November for a curry at one of the few Indian restaurants there are in the Seoul area, and we also went for drinks afterwards. It was supposed to just be a lads night playing Fifa, but after someone suggested getting a bottle of rum at the restaurant, things soon took a turn for the better, and Lee ended up introducing a few of the locals to the "shopping trolley" dance which was pretty amusing. For those that don't know what the shopping trolley dance is, there is video evidence of this on Facebook! ;-)
Then into December and Christmas.…
For those that have never experienced a Christmas abroad away from family and friends, it certainly is a little weird. Korea has become more westernized over the years, but Christmas is not really their thing and they don't really celebrate it properly like we do in the UK. It was quite refreshing in some respects, to not be caught in Christmas for once and not being bombarded with it every day from the 1st November. Christmas just starts in Korea with about 2 weeks to go, and it is just a day off in Korea, no Boxing Day or 2 weeks holiday (or is that vacation now!) from work. Korea has the lunar New Year and their own thanksgiving holiday which are their 2 main holidays. Christmas Day in Korea is not really any different to any other day, as most the shops are still open which is a bit different!!!
Any way before Christmas Day there was a good few drinking sessions as is the custom of Korea.
There was Lee's birthday on the 2nd weekend of the month, where a couple of mates from Daejon came up and we went out to Hongdae and got drunk in a few bars and clubs, and had a good laugh.
There was a pub crawl the weekend after, but I missed this as I didn't have the spare cash, so I went and explored the area around the south part of the city of Incheon called Songdo. This area is a newish area of Incheon that is up and coming. It is occupied with very large skyscraper apartments, office blocks and big hotels. It is seen as the affluent area of Incheon, and it currently has the tallest building in the whole of Korea, and they are currently constructing one of the tallest buildings in the whole world there. It has not quite got to the stage of where it is lively and happening to go out drinking and eating, but I can see it being that place in 10 years.
I'd only ever been once before at night so I decided to check it out in the day. It was incredibly cold, but it was a beautiful cloudless winter's day and I got some good photos of the buildings and the area around Central Park. I also found the hotel where Jenny and Pri will be staying when they come to visit in May, so that was cool.
Then the following weekend was Christmas weekend, and I finished my proper lessons at school on the Friday 23rd December, and true to the Christmas spirit, Incheon had its first proper snowfall on that day which made things a bit more festive. On that Friday we all met up to exchange gifts for Secret Santa, and then it was Christmas Eve which was our main drinking day as we all had school on Boxing Day.
We went to an Irish bar for Christmas Dinner called Shamrocks in Hongdae, Seoul. It was predominantly British and Irish lads and we had a good old munch, and it was nice to eat foods that I hadn't eaten for over 4 months. We also had a good ol' drink and singsong and it was a decent laugh. I did start to feel a little under the weather as the day wore on and I felt incredibly bloated too, but it was a good day nonetheless.
Then Christmas Day was weird, as it was spent at home alone in my apartment. I seemed to have a full blown cold, and I only left my apartment to go to the pizza shop for my Christmas Dinner of pepperoni pizza. It was certainly the weirdest Christmas Day I've ever had, and when my family Skyped me at 10pm Korean time on Christmas Day, it was a bit depressing as I felt ill, and I also knew I had to go to work the next morning, so really I was kinda happy once Christmas was over and done with.
The week between Christmas and New Year was okay though. I had to do a week of winter camp, which is an English camp that the school puts on for certain students to continue learn English for a week. I was given twelve 4th grade students (aged approx 10) and I was to teach it on my own, and come up with the teaching ideas myself.
It was quite challenging coming up with enough ideas to cover 8 hours of teaching on my own, as I didn't know the students and they were of mixed ability, so some of them had a quite low English level.
It was good though, and overall it went okay, and I learnt a lot about teaching here. I also enjoyed being able to teach what I wanted to teach, rather than follow a textbook.
Then my camp finished on Friday 30th December, and we went for a few beers to celebrate a few people's birthdays on the 30th, and then it was NYE on the 31st.
NYE in Korea was a lotta fun, for me personally I enjoyed it more than Christmas. We went into Seoul to a place called Bosingak which is a popular place to see in the New Year in Seoul. We climbed on to an entrance to a subway, got told off by the police, and met a load of randoms from around the world that were there to celebrate the New Year, and we let off a few firecrackers too!
Then it was on to this club called Monkey Beach or Monkey Island, I can never remember which one it is… to meet some mates who were coming from all over Korea. Lee advised me the club was based on the Thai idea that you buy booze by the bucket, so I was very excited at this prospect, and getting some practice in for Thailand!
It didn't start too well, as it was pretty difficult to find the place but eventually we found it (or rather the pre bar) and we proceeded to have a brilliant night there. Buckets were about 6 quid but there was plenty of alcohol in them, and the venue had bed type areas with pillows, and blankets, and I even noticed a game of Jenga. I got a ridiculous amount of drunken photos from this place. We did try going to the main Monkey Thingy around the corner, but it was too busy there, so we ended up just staying at the first Monkey House until about 6am. I then don't remember too much but needless to say I got the subway back to Incheon at about 8.30am separated from others so I must have had a good night! ;-)
And so then the following week I had a couple of extra classes at school but most of the week was free and that led me up to Saturday 7th January and my trip to Thailand, and so I'll leave that for the next blog.
Before I go, just 3 more things I've learnt about Korea since last time…
- Even though Christmas isn't really their thing, Koreans still don't have any problem with leaving Christmas decorations up well into the end of January. I still heard Christmas songs in a coffee shop on January 27th and I still saw a Korean wearing a garish Christmas jumper with reindeers all over it, on the 10th February!!! Maybe they're just trying to be uber-cool in some sort of post-modern, ironic kinda way, but chances are they just don't give a s***! ;-)
- When a party of 6 people rock up to a restaurant, Koreans see fit to only provide one menu for everyone to share. I recall asking for 2 more menus once and they advised me in broken English that they had none left…they must be expensive to print or something!
- Most Koreans can be quite shy until they've had a drink, so a stranger is unlikely to engage you in conversation in a public place. However, if they do try and speak to you in a public place, there is a strong possibility that they are trying to recruit you to their church….this has happened to me a few times. The weirdest one was when I was running once, and in the corner of my eye I could see a man in a suit start running towards me from across the street, I was a bit perturbed by this but when he eventually got in my way all breathless, he asked me what my name was, where I was from, and what my religion was; I said catholic, and he said "no problem, would you like to come to my church on Sunday, there will be free refreshments"…
Alas I declined despite the prospect of "holy kimchi" on a Sunday. Any way if a Korean stranger talks to you on the subway, there is strong chance they may be trying to recruit you to their church, or there is a smaller chance that they may be offering you a Korean bride, as also happened to me and Lee once…..needless to say we took a card just in case!
'till next time folks...
- comments
Sarah Gaskell well you never fail to entertain little bro xxxxx
Sarah Gaskell oh and where is the Thai blog???????
Leigh hahaha brilliant stuff :-) glad you're enjoying yourself mate! cant believe how quick 6 months has gone, skyope will happen one day i promise!!!