Winter in Korea

I am really enjoying winter in Korea. So much so that I'm almost happy with the -11 chill. I mean, it's been a good excuse for me to buy new clothes, so why the hell not? The most exciting addition to my new wardrobe, though not for anyone but me, is a very exciting wolf hat, which I purchased at Everland when we headed there for Catriona's birthday. On arrival at our destination (it may seem silly to go to a theme park in winter, but less queues. Stroke of geinus if you ask me.), it was actually rather warm, which possibly also had something to do with the excitement I felt at being at a theme park, so I decided to forgo my coat and leave it in the lockers. Which was smart. For a while. I got most of the way around the park, going on the T-train, (possibly the best rollercoaster that doesn't go upside down ever and the fastest/highest) and the Rolling X-Train, which was over in about 10 seconds and was less than exciting and the ghost shooting game thing, which Hugh maintains he was awesome at, but I know he was lying, and riding a camel, before I decided that it was really very, very cold. After going on the log flume, which strangely had the longest line, and deciding that I couldn't stand the cold anymore, I did what any smart girl would do and forwent getting my coat from the locker in order to buy said wolf hat, which is essentially a cuddly toy in the shape of a wolf, that you can put on your head and attach with ear flaps. Ok, so I get laughed at whenever I wear it, but it's damn warm and that's the depth of my argument. The rest of Everland was cool and the highlight of the whole day had to be Patrick's terrified face when on every single ride. He finally managed to lift a hand on the Viking, turning to me and saying, "I'm not scared, see, I was a mother f'ing marine!" Yeah, you go, Patrico!
Another fun thing to do in wintery Korea, save for going to theme parks, is snowboarding, which is by far my newest favourite hobby. Yes, I have decided that I'm a bit of a fadist (faDist), but I really do think that snowboarding may be here to stay. I have now, thankfully, mastered the art of righting myself when I fall over, which is a massive win, and am starting on the turns, though going backwards is proving a little tricky. So far I've only been to Jisan, the local resort, that I headed to for the music festival in the summer. It's pretty cool and there's some good slopes (from what I've been told, I'm no judge whatsoever), but it doesn't compare at all to Yangpyong, the resort that Amy, Mike, Ruth, Ben, Hugh, Seb and Dan are heading to for Christmas! Yey! That's right, Christmas at the place that only missed out on the 2012 winter Olympics by 4 votes. There's night sessions, cross country, about a million slopes and 'gondolas'. I've got no idea what gondolas are, but I'm excited by the prospect. Plus, I'm going to make me a Christmas snowman. And a snow angel. I risk getting taken out by a boarder, but what the hell, I'm having that white Christmas.

The Trouble with A.

The beginning of November heralded a new semester in Pals Lab, therefore new classes, new schedules and a fuck lot to do, doubled up with the stress of all the make-up classes now that the kids are coming back after the swine 'flu panic (laughing on the other side of my face now). One of my new classes is IN1E, with Dean, a brand new kid in bright blue Harry Potter glasses. I can't decide yet if Dean was born as the Korean style Damien, or if he's just playing up, I swing wildly between the two assumptions, depending on what he's like each lesson. Today, he wasn't too bad, except for the time he thought it was funny to play dead on the floor, and was still there, with me trying to haul him up as Sarah teacher walked past. Not impressed.
Dean's mother is somewhat of a complainer. In fact, Dean has been with the school for about 3 months now and she's called at least once a week to moan about something. This begs the question, 'why doesn't she just take him out of school?' The answer to this, dear reader, I can't tell you, I can only assume that she just really likes to complain.
Since I've taken over the class, she's got me into a ton of trouble by complaining that I didn't give the kids homework one class - a disastrous mix up that wasn't really my fault, but still, then not making him do the subsequent two handouts, and, more importantly has complained that I'm confusing her little angel by pronouncing things differently to how they're pronounced on his Triumphs (the book we use) tape. It seems that I'm not American enough for her, which now means that I'm not American enough for Sarah. Sarah's tried this one before with the kindies when Jessica's mum also asked why I was speaking with a strange accent - it's called British, you plum. I got one over on that cowbag by acquiring her other child and now they both have a lovely British pronunciation. Ha! In your face, ajumma! Still, this week I was called into Sarah's office again and reminded that when I teach phonics, I must don an American accent, so that I don't ruin the poor little ones minds. Now, not to pass the buck, but there's a perfectly good American colleague right down the hall, if you want an AMERICAN accent, why don't you use the damn American to teach phonics?! Today's lesson comprised of me vainly attempting to use said accent, I even got lessons from Adam on how to speak with a Yank drawl, but no, it didn't work and I just a) made myself laugh and b) confused the kids even more. It didn't help that Sarah came in to watch most of the class.
I have decided to stop trying with the stupid accent, I have enough of an American twinge anyway and add it to 'stupid things Sarah tells me' pile. For instance, 'you hole punch wrong when making monthly plans' as in, you don't crack out your ruler and spirit level every time you put a piece of paper in a file that will only be seen by you and your co-teacher, 'you can't sit down at all during class', and 'you don't write your 'f's' properly. This all coming from a woman that until last month I thought kept asking me to make the kids read 'frontly', not 'fluently', as she apparently meant. Don't get me wrong, as a woman, I like my boss, but man, has she got some nitpicky ideas.

Pepero Day!

11/11. A sombre occasion in the UK. A time for remembering the dead and maimed in wars all over the world and buying poppies to help those that gave their lives for us. Not so much in Korea, where Pepero is a national day dedicated to...chocolate covered biscuit sticks!!!! Yep, you heard me. Chocolate covered biscuit sticks!!!

Rumour has it that Pepero day was started in Korea by a few schoolgirls, who gave Pepero to each other in the hope that they would all grow as tall and thin as a Pepero. Whether they gave the knobbly ones to each other in the hope that they would become disfigured and bumpy remains unknown. When Lotte, the (ahem), Japanese company (anyone Korean who is reading this, I jest. Lotte are Korean, yes, Korean. It's ok. Don't worry), heard about this they decided to fully endorse the idea and make every 11/11 a special day dedicated to consuming as many sticks as you can, resulting in a kind of Valentine's celebration. The shops are filled with as many different kinds of Pepero as you can imagine, strawberry flavour, multicoloured sticks, massive boxes set into heart shapes for couples, Pepero in mugs, as Catriona got from Patrick. It's rather sickening really, in all senses of the word.

On the positive side, I got about a million boxes from my kids. Which was rather nice. I've still got quite a few in my cupboard too, though the tasty little morsels are pretty hard to put down once you've opened a packet. Most of my boxes were covered in declarations of love and devotion, which, although I truly appreciated, were ripped up to enable me to get a quicker sugar rush - I need it when at work, ok? Those little beggars are such a handful. This meaning though, that by the end of this so sacred of days, I felt rather sick and much in need of some savoury foods. Or at least food that doesn't contain a high quantity of melamine. Yummeh.

Hhhmmm, Halloween!

I love Halloween! It's awesome! I'm not quite sure why I love Halloween, seeing as I'm not American, but I do. When I was a kid I used to be the only one in our end of the village that celebrated it, I can still remember the twitch of the neighbours curtains as the fat child dressed in lycra was dragged up the drive to beg for candy. Still, when I got inside and gorged myself while watching scary movies, I was a very happy fat kid indeed.

This year, I was a bit stuck for what to wear. Inspiration hadn't struck and it was Thursday (as you'll remember one of the days I had off), which is barely heard of in my books. I decided, on a whim to go as quasimodo, as I had most of the outifit (tearing up a shirt, boots, trousers), so could do it on a skint girl's shoe string. Excellent. One disaster with face paint and some stamping on a shirt later and I was ready!

Seoul was Saturday night's destination. I was very excited by the subway, as I'd read online that Seoul decorated their subway cars with Halloween things and people went a bit mental. All I found were some very distainful 20 somethings who didn't enjoy a girl dressed as a hunchback cuddling up to them for a photo. Goodness knows why. We headed on to Itaewon as I wanted to give the Wolfhound a go, as their was a fancy dress competition. Soon as we got in we realised that this was not going to be an easy competition and also that the place was so packed it was hard to breathe properly. Good for me, as I was stooped low to the ground, but the others, not so much. The standard of costume in my favourite pie selling pub was great, however and I felt pretty humbled. There was Flight of the Conchords, ajummas, hippies, many Supermen, though one guy trumped the rest by showing off most of his body, much to female appreciation and other such weird, wonderful and thoughtful outfits. We left.

We wandered aimlessly for a while, taking in the array of bloody colours and then headed to the Bungalow, a lovely club down the streets behind the Hilton where Gecko's et al is. They play awesome music and there is sand on the floor to give the place a holiday vibe (though I'm not sure how this'll hold up in December...). We took our seats and the campest man I've ever met came up and asked Ruth and I if we'd like to be in the fancy dress competition. I said yes straight away, as did Ruth, though on seeing the women in suspenders that we'd be up against she donated her spot to Patrick 'ninja assassin' Kim.

The rounds consisted of questions about James Bond, costume originality (or somesuch) and a catwalk show. I managed to stay in character the whole night, which was rather hard, though fun, specially when I spotted Anda in the crowd and humped the camp man whilst doing my catwalk display. It came down to Batman and a bondgirl, Super Mario and me. The tension was high. I was already amazed I beaten the women wearing nought to at least 3rd place, so I was happy as, well, quasi. Batman and the girl got chucked and it was just me and Mario. I decided to lob his banana peels at him in one desperate final attempt to sway the judges, the crowd (luckily our group had all managed to get the front row) were going wild and then, he announced it! I was the bloody winner! 500,000won! I'll thank you very much! Needless to say, I went on to Jane's Groove with a massive smile, having paid off the money I'd borrowed to go out and danced the night away! Just goes to show that using stuff that cost nothing from your tiny enough wardrobe somehow works. Go figure! =o)

Swine 'flu - only bad some of the time.

Because, thanks to the huge spread of the disease our hagwon is closed! Well, Thursday 'til Friday anyway. Or at least I get the time off, as Sarah messed up by signing a revised version of our contract and owed me two days off. Regardless, I've had the past two days off, which has been great, save for the fact I've got bronchitis and no money. Still, two days off! Whoo hoo! I've sat at home, relaxed, read, hung out at the pc bang with the kids and seen Amy, a nice relaxing time and something that was much needed, work was starting to make me foam at the mouth and claw at the walls.



I like the fact that I have time off for once, as the Korean attitude to work is to take no time off until you die, then you can relax, which for them is fine but I'll take my breaks now thanks, while I can do something with them. My boss obviously hired me as a western teacher (read, we take holidays) so shouldn't try to fleece us with 6 days off a year. Now I'm fine to go by most of the rules and regs around here, but a girl wants a break once in a while goddammit. Also, I've obviously come to Korea to check out the place, instead of just working here - I could work and not sight see in England, that's not what it's about. Sarah cornered me in her office the other day to tell me that she thinks I ought to stop going away at the weekend, as I'm obviously having too much fun. Too much fun? I've actually calmed down a lot since I've been here and I kind of resent that from her. I was once told by a coworker that Korean's order of priority (and obviously this isn't all Koreans, but listen), is 1)work 2)family 3)friends and that while I was here I should take that into account. What's the point of earning money if you're just going to sit on it and not go away? Or have fun with your family and friends? I feel sorry for the kids, they barely ever get a holiday and when they do it's a often just a weekend away on the east coast. When I think back to my fondest memories of childhood, it's generally going on holiday with the folks, even if Dad didn't really do much but sleep and drink and mum sunbathed topless, much to my mortification. Can't say I blame them though, they worked hard, why not rest and give yourself a pat on the back?

Anyway, I digress. Swine 'flu in Korea is tackled much like anything in Korea - with far too much over-enthusiasm. Children are being plucked out of school at a great rate of knots and the kids are being covered in swine 'flu masks, which they tend to where on an 'if I remember' basis and often are worn for about 20 percent of class time. Hand sanitiser is everywhere and ajummas walk around looking even more scared of westerners than usual, if that's possible. Even before the dreaded disease had hit over here, when John came to visit the Koreans were walking around making cross signs over their breasts and looking at him like he may grow a pig's head and infect them at any point. In fact, Sarah banned him from coming to our school, as it 'looked bad on us' and actually asked me to send him away for a week, you know, to Busan or something. I politely informed her that he was only here for a week and a half and therefore would be going nowhere, before bottling it and lying by telling her that I would send him to the other side of the country. She's also been really annoyed at me recently for not heading to the doctors to get my 'cold' checked out. Ok, so it's bronchitis and I should have been, but still. She even sat me down to tell me that I was now on my own in Korea so had to take responsibility for myself. Hmmm. Feeling like I'm definitely ready for a couple of days away from her!


So, although I find being grateful to a global pandemic a bit of a strange phenomenon, in this instance, swine 'flu (Sincheon 'flu as it's called here), I salute you. Now stop killing people, please.

Happy Chuseok to all and to all, a good train journey.

Yes! Finally it had arrived!!!! Chuseok (read, bank holiday)! Seeing as I'd been promised a million bank holidays in Korea and naively believed this without consulting a calendar, I've been pretty dismayed by the actual amount this year. In fact, Chuseok is only the second that I've had the pleasure to witness.

Chuseok (추석) is the Korean harvest festival/New Year celebration and is counted on the lunar calendar. It dates back to old Shamanistic times and is a festival to ask for a good harvest and worship ancestors. My kindy had a Chuseok party, which involved me dressing up in the traditional Korean outfit, a hanbok, which was fun, however the fact that I have breasts and the mojority of Korean women doesn't proved a slight problem in my hired outfit and lots of fussing from the Korean teachers. Never have I wished for tape more. Still, the kids looked cute and were generally well behaved. We all got into circles and danced a traditional Ganggangsullae dance. Following the dancing I was sent into a room and left there, staring warily at what looked like a hopscotch board taped to the floor. Turns out I was supposed to teach the children how to play this game , whilst being recorded for the school's dvd, though I had no bloody clue of the rules and no stone to throw to enable the kids to jump. Thank goodness for Rachel is all I can say. In other rooms were the traditional steel hoop thing, arrow thing and jump rope thing, all of which have Korean names that I forget.

One of the great things about Chuseok, apart from the holiday, is the gifts. Other friends got such items as 'choice cuts of ham', make up and shower gel, cookies, pears and grapes. What did I get? Seaweed wraps. A fuck lot of seaweed wraps. I could just see the glint in my director's eye as she presented me with my 'gift' as I ran out of the door Thursday night. I think my smile threw her off, but my insides were screaming "What the hell?!" Ideas of what I can use it for currently stand at, making a seaweed jacket and risking being attacked by seagulls, making seaweed underwear, using it to write letters on and using it as a cheap curtain material. Hmmm. I may just learn to make kimbab. I think that could be a better plan...

Anyway, the weekend rolled about and I greeted Thursday night, aka, the start of the weekend, with as much joy as I had, being slightly skewed by the fact I was rather hungover after a lovely night with the kindy teachers and drinks with the (now engaged!) Patrick and Elaine - watching over a very drunk Korean man with his tiny penis out, lolling on a bench after collapsing with his head in his own wee. Korean's sure know how to party. To be fair to the Korean emergency services, they did send 2 of each service out, though each member just stood and stared at the offending guy, whilst no doubt debating who would write up the paperwork.

I digress. So, Thursday night, I jumped in a taxi to Suwon Stn to meet with Frank, Catriona and newbies Ruth and Hugh. After a drink in Lao, a visit (again - I love it so!) to the virtual rollercoaster and a wander we headed to the station and jumped on the 11.40 train. There was a bit of a rush to get on the train, but Frank assured us that the platform we were heading to was the right one. Seeing as Chuseok is a family thing, most of the Koreans in, well Seoul, I think, jumped on the trains down south to get to their loved ones. Now I'm not sure if every Korean in Seoul's family lives in the South, but that's sure what it felt like seeing as the train was ridiculously packed. For the first 2 hours we could barely move, nevermind sit or breathe. Please observe...

Awesome. After a 4 hour train ride, we finally got off at our destination only to realise that we were in Gwangju (far South West) and the rest of the group were in Gyoungju (mid East). Oh dear. We decided to drink some more, a grand idea, and headed to the nearest minbak for a kip.

The next morning started off as a bit of a party with the locals, watching the Gwangju police band play and drunks get rowdy. We decided to head straight to Gyoungju, instead of taking breaks and hopped on the KTX - shock, horror, without paying our fares. We figured that we'd pretty much paid for the train to Gyoungju anyway, so why not. Turns out we were thwarted at every turn and 2 train journeys (with a random meeting with Danny at Daejeon train stn, I see that boy every time I least expect it!), two forced ticket fares (we pretended to be asleep - Frank had a tendency to open his eyes) and 6 hours later, finally arrived at our destination, feeling like we'd seen more of Korea than we needed to, but richer (well, poorer in the literal sense), for the experience.

That evening involved a loving union with Mallory, Joey dog, Amy and Anda, partying with some 'Russians' and attempts being made to con us into paying their w150,000 bar tab, a prison bar, icky food, a sperm hat and a tantrum, but an awesome night all the same. We headed to bed early, by Korean standards, at about 3 to eagerly await the arrival of the next morning. When it came, it brought with it lovely sun and a trip to Bulguksa temple and Seokguram, a UNESCO site temple that holds a grotto with arguably one of the most beautifully sculpted pieces of Buddhist art in the world. Frank took a picture, even though it was forbidden. I refuse to post it, but needless to say that the shot didn't do it justice at all, specially as he took it from under his arm. The site however is gorgeous and the temples too. I'll put some of my pictures up at some point soon. I am constantly in awe of temples over here. Despite some people saying once you've been to one, you've been to them all, I have to disagree and think that each one holds it's own particular beauty and style. For example, you can't compare this temple and Bulyeongsa in Uljin. Both are breathtaking, but for entirely different reasons, and I am glad I've had the chance to see them both.

After visiting the Expo '93 building, which was pretty impressive, we headed to Bonggil-ri beach, where legend has it the ashes of King Munmu are kept in a tomb off the shore. As is our luck, we got caught on a stretch of beach and had no idea how to cross to the inviting lights about 10 metres across from us, seeing as we had all our bags and Mallory's dog. Still, I had my thinking hat on, and Frank had his muscles and we came up with a plan to use a piece of wood nearby that was floating on some barrels, making our very own makeshift raft. We used a length of rope joining the two sides of the sea and Frank hauled us across one by one. Oh, the fun we had, and the crowd that gathered! We finally made it across to the other side, ended up having a pizza and beer party and let some fireworks off from the pier. All in all an excellent night with excellent people.

Sunday morning heralded a nice morning and we all had a bit of a swim on the beach (upsettingly it's getting too cold to do that now). The boys decided to swim to an island just off the shore, and when there had a wee as boys are wont to do. It was only when they returned and we went looking for the tomb of King Munmu, that we realised the rocks that the boys had swam to and, more importantly pissed on, were in fact the tomb and the remains of arguably Korea's greatest King. The rocks are strictly offlimits to all and scientists aren't even allowed there to check if the ashes are scattered there. Whoops doesn't quite cover it.

It was with red faces (well on the girl's part anyway), that we returned to Gyoungju, to hire bikes and cycle round some of the tombs, the National Museum and the Anjapi Pond. All are very beautiful indeed. Here are some more photos.

A Seoulful weekend

This weekend I've had a bit of a cold, so decided to stay around Seoul for the duration. Well, more accurately, I was supposed to be heading to Dongdaemun with my Korean teacher, then to a firework show at the 63 building and then to The Phantom of the Opera, however, things don't always work out as planned.

Amy and I decided, that although 미진 couldn't make it to Dongdaemun, we would still head there for some valuable shopping time on Saturday. Dongdaemun, although less famous than Namdaemun, is far cooler and sells things that a person under 40 would actually want to buy. We wandered around for a long time, and I managed to buy some wool, which I was very excited about, seeing as I am getting back into my knitting swing, the aunts would be so proud! We also met up with a friend from home's sister, who seems very cool and is adjusting well to life over here. From Dongdaemun, we took a quick tube ride to Myongdong and to Forever 21. It was nice to be able to shop in a western style store with westerner style clothes for once, but I wasn't quite as enamoured as I thought I would be and didn't really come away with anything, other than 3 tops, which are nice, but not the trousers I'd hoped for. It was a slightly miffed Penny that got back on the tube a little later. I was cheered up though, by some very rowdy Korean boys, of about 17 who were playing dares. After watching them front roll down the carriage and stand up to shoot people, do the dance, en masse to 'Abracadabra' by Brown Eyed Girls (the latest Kpop senstation, think lots of neon and synchronised dancing) and pull some decent chin ups, Amy rightly commented that if that was us, we would have possibly been shot. True, but excellent to watch all the same.

Today was a lazy day - I skipped out on our plan of basketball this afternoon, seeing as I sound like a 90 year old woman with empysema and feel about as healthy, so a day of reading was on the cards for me, which suited me just fine. Playing basketball in the rain definately comes second to 'New Moon' (yes, I'm now addicited to the Twilight books. Sad, but I comfort myself with the fact they're New York Times bestsellers, like that makes it less embarassing.) and cookies. I finally dragged myself out of bed and headed to meet Amy at the bus stop for a journey to the Charlotte theatre in Jamsil, for the Seoul production of 'The Phantom of the Opera'. There was some debate on whether we should buy tickets for the 'pricey for teachers' sum of 40,000w seeing as the show was entirely in Korean, however I'm really glad that we decided to.
Charlotte theatre itself is a really beautiful building, located right next to Lotteworld (and the shopping centre, which I found, to my delight has a mini Trevvi fountain under the ground) and is built like a European theatre, which is in stark contrast to the tack and highrises around it. Inside is much the same, so I was glad that we decided to put on our Sunday best, even though most of the Koreans present thought that ripped jeans and tshirts were right for the event. We stopped for a nice glass of bubbly (at w5,000) before the show to take in the opulent surroundings, after I'd pigged out on some rice outside, looking like a hobo that is, and went in.
The set was the first thing that struck me, as is the way, and already I was hooked. What followed was 2.5 hours of immense singing, beautiful sets and costumes and sniggering at 'yogi, Phantom of the Opera!' Still. It was amazing and I'm so glad that we decided to splash out and give Korean opera a chance. Definately worth it.

The monks and the mafia.

So, this weekend we decided to head to Uljin, on the advice of Marit, one of Busan Ben's friends, who had been there the week previously and mentioned it was one of the best places she had been in Korea during her entire 2 years in the country. On checking the Lonely Planet, I was slightly disheartened, seeing as it seems to hate Uljin and views it only as a stepping point to get to other, better places. Oh how you were wrong, LP.

Seeing as it was the last day of 9-5 it felt like a bit of a long weekend, so all was set to make it the greatest imaginable. Christina was landing at 3.30 so was due to get to mine for about 5.30 - perfect timing, and Amy was due to finishee at 6.30. Christina (minus all her stuff for her journey to England on Tue :( ) and I headed to the ABC mart bus stop for 6.40, due to meet the Swanson at 6.45 and low and behold, who had made it before schedule?! Amy-do, that's who! So we were all there, two of us without mobiles, early! ASSA!!! Amidst must joy Amy headed to the toilet whilst Christina and I popped to Buy the Way and encountered what seemed like a comedy sketch, seeing as the woman serving us took so long, got something wrong and spent about 5 minutes trying to sort it out, when we only had 6 'til the bus was due to arrive. Cue many Mr Bean like antics and a dash to the stop in order to grab the 1112 to Gangbyeon. The journey was ok, and we were all feeling pretty smug, until we hit the Friday night traffic. Luckily, Faye was already at Gangbyeon terminal and purchased our tickets as we were only 2 stops away. As fate would have it though, our bus came to a standstill and Faye had to beg the coach driver to wait for us. Soon as our bus stopped I was off like a shot, with Christina and Amy in tow - though it seems I'd underestimated the depth of my panic and the speed with which I somehow travelled (I'm not normally fast in the slightest, in fact, dead tortoise would be a good description) and the weight of the beer Amy was carrying and when I finally jumped, sweaty and triumphant on to the bus, I realised that I'd left the other two behind - cue more sweating and running, before finally finding the girls and ushering them on to the bus just as it was about to leave. Luckily, the second bus ride was much more calming and, bar the pee'ing incidents, headbanging and the woman that wouldn't shut up, who, however, gave us free cheesecake the ride passed without incident.

On arrival at Uljin, we were anxious to find only one Family Mart and the bus terminal. Seeing as the LP had told us that there was not much about, we decided to sit and have a beer outside said Family Mart and discuss our next step. After a couple of beers we jumped into the nearest taxi and were driven about by possibly the nicest taxi man on the planet. He refused to let us pay more than w10,000, although the fare was nearer 20, and drove us around to many different places which we deemed too dead or expensive, before dropping us off at a minbak which not only cost us the paltry sum of 40,000, but, we found out in the morning, was in a prime location and on the most gorgeous stretch of beach I've seen since I've been in Korea. After we'd dumped our bags, we headed to a lovely place on the beach for a couple of well deserved Cass' (and a sleep for me) and then headed up for a nice kip.

Saturday morning brought the arrival of Ruby and Mallory. I have to take a second here to praise the lovely Ruby for finally getting her ass on an adventure weekend that was further than Gyyounggi-do - we were all so proud when we got the phonecall at 7am to tell us that she was on route! We all decided the easiest thing to do was to meet at Seongnyugul cave, which, housing rocks formed like Buddha, the Virgin Mary, a dragon and a penis was bound to be worth the 3 chunon ticket price. Luckily, the caves were really close to our minbak, so we got there in record time to meet the girls.

After buying our tickets, we donned hardhats and headed into the cave, already echoing with Ruby's cries of, "You can see my pants!! Oh God, what about the jeans?! Mate, you don't even KNOW how hard it is to get stains out of these jeans!". The inside of the cave was beautiful, with stalactites and stalagmites of many different colours and formations, underground pools and the possibility of seeing human bones, which, legend has it, are left over from the Japanese invasion sometime in the 1500's, when a group of people hid in the cave, got trapped and subsequently starved to death. Alas(?), we didn't see any bones, but the views definitely made up for it, as did the chilly inner earth air, which really cooled us down on one of the hottest days in Korea yet. After a long meander through the different rooms and tunnels, some of which were a tight squeeze to get through, and many knocks on the hard hats, we headed back to daylight and to the nearest restaurant for some unmemorable food ('cept for the caterpillar that Mallory found in her chilli - proteiny goodness). After checking out the frequency of taxis from our foody vantage point, we decided the the best thing to do was walk along the road, back in the direction of the minbak and hope that we could grab a taxi or a lift on the way. Lucky us...

About a 10 minute walk on, we all decided to head to a minbak by the side of the road to ask the proprietors to call us a cab, seeing as no one was stopping to pick us up and the sun was pretty scorching. On doing this, a car pulled up by us holding two young western guys, Ian and Jeffrey, and an older Korean dude. Ian, one of the western guys, who was driving, told us that they were on a temple stay and that the Korean dude with them was a monk and wanted us to come over to his temple for dinner and relaxing. Although somewhat cautious due to the look of said monk (he was wearing a string vest for one thing) we all decided (with much enthusiasm on my part) to accept the lift and head to the temple. On arrival, we found a traditional Korean house, with a small temple attached to the left, that we were informed was built in the 70's, along with the rest of the house. The whole plot was pretty simple, with an ondal heating system (underfloor fires that heat the room from below), many exposed stones, that were used to build the buildings and a basic structure. On entering the house, we were presented with watermelon and had a slightly stunted chat with the monk, translated by Ian and Charlie, Ian and Jeff's Korean friend, who was also staying at the temple. There were a few other people hanging round the place, a woman and her child and another monk, who dipped in and out in the early hours, but then became staple figures in the evening (save for the woman, who wasn't very well and didn't seem to happy to be there, especially with all the noise we were making).

After some soju and galbi, we kind of realised that these monks were more self proclaimed than anything else, especially after half of us were given the unwanted attention of one of the monks, later named 'Rapie Monk'. It seems that he'd had a bit too much to drink and decided that at least one of us would be his future girlfriend. Still, the they were all pretty cool, and the master monk seemed to be somewhat holy, and somewhat excellent, after he gave us a traditional Korean drumming lesson and let us dress up in all of his ceremonial gear. Amy drew the short straw in the fact she was dressed as a bald man (bion-te, which means pervert) with a small doll blessed with a huge wang but we all looked bloody amazing, and all got well into the lesson. I'd like to think that, after half an hour of constant teaching we were fabulous, but I feel that may be a lie, though Jeff definately had the actions down. Later on, master monk took me to the side and gave me a singing lesson. He told me that I had a very powerful voice and he really wanted me to stay and study with him. I was flattered! Alas, I didn't take him up on his offer, but it's nice to know I've got a career option for when I finally grow up and my feet stop itching!

The rest of the evening heralded more beer, more partying, more attempted fondling on Rapie Monk's behalf, some chicken on the beach, cool monk buying us soju, sea fighting and sleeping. A good night was had by all and I think that we were all really glad that we got in that car. Yey for random fun times!

The next morning Amy and Mallory headed down to the beach really early (and sans sunscreen - we warned you about the burns, girls!), and met some Korean guys covered in coloured in tattoos of dragons and the suchlike. They kindly offered all of us a free banana boat ride, so, after being plied with a bit of soju and some bulgogi, which was really rather nice, we took off for a ride. Much fun was had, though we were thrown into the sea a couple of times - all in the joy of it though. I went off to ask for prices for scuba diving, which I had been spotted earlier in the weekend, but found, to my dismay that there were no dives to be had that day. Sad times. Still, I shall dive before I leave Korea, it is my mission. And not just in Busan aquarium. Instead of lying on the beach all day, which I tend to get bored of, I decided to head over to Bulyeongsa (temple of the Buddha's shadow), an amazing ascetic temple located in the middle of some breathtaking hills, taking with me Faye and Ruby. After a long and farcical taxi ride, due to insufficent funds on our part, we were chauffeured up to the temple and given the chance to have a look around, before being driven back to Uljin's bus station. Bulyeoungsa temple is amazing, I have to say. It's not huge and isn't set up a mountain, or even a very big hill, but it is beautiful and immaculate and the Buddhist paintings, located in the buildings, are superb. To top this off, the views are spectacular and you can really see why sitting around the lake, (which is the main feature of the place, owing to a rock atop one of the hills that casts Buddha's shadow on to the water), is an amazing place for the resident female monks to attempt to reach Nirvana. We spent a while walking round and taking in the scenery before, as I mentioned, being taken back to the station to pay our fare. Not ones to hang around a station for long, we promptly got into another taxi and ended up paying a lot to get to Deokgu hot springs spa - where we bathed in natural hot springs, took delight in gawping over the hottest man in Korea's body, froze ourselves in outdoor waterfall baths, relaxed in lemon and jasmine baths and took in more breathtaking scenery and smells of pine and clean air before returning, 2 hours later, to the station, with enough time to spare to say bye to the boys from the day before and hop on to our bus. On the way back, we were informed by the girls that stayed at the beach, that the banana boat guys were in fact, mafia (a) it was obvious and b) the tattoos gave it away, plus the heads up from Charles and later chats to people), and that they had been really weird all day and then demanded money from the ladies for what they thought was service rides on their jet ski and rubber tubes. Hmm, scary times indeed. Still, no caps were popped in any asses and we all returned home safe and sound.

On a sad note, last night was Christina's last night in Korea, seeing as she'd had some personal problems and had to leave Jeju before her contract was up. She spent the last night at mine, and we went to dinner with Amy and ate some lovely galbi, before heading to the local dvd bang to watch 'Broken English' - an excellent film and then heading home to mine. She will be missed.

On a more positive note however, John arrives for his visit in two days!!!!!!! Yey to the English buddy! I can't wait and have been boring not only my friends and coworkers, but the kids about it nonstop for the past week! Bring on the fun times!

A salute to a jimjilbang (don't read on if you're affected by the thought of old naked women and rubbing!)

It has become clear to me of late that whenever I've mentioned jimjilbangs in this blog, it's either because I was seeking somewhere to stay due to being drunk or I've gone there to fight off a hangover. This is because, bar that one time with Amy, it's the only time I visit them. I've been meaning to visit one sober for a while now, and as today was the 5 month anniversary of my becoming a teacher (and therefore payday), I decided to head on over and treat myself to a massage.

The jimjilbang in YoungTong is located across from Homeplus, on the 7th floor and is lovely, though pretty small. On arrival, I paid 9,000won (about 4.50), was given towels and pajamas and sent forth to the women's section (after depositing your shoes as it's very rude to wear outdoor shoes inside most places in Korea, save for some restaurants and most bars). Once safely through the doors of the female section you are expected to get naked, and completely so. Some people have attempted to bathe whilst wearing swimsuits, however, these have quickly been discarded in most cases. I chose to be Korean, as do all the girls that I know. From here you head to the showers and scrub yourself so that you are nice and clean. After the wash you can take a dip into any of the baths on offer, at the local there is a burning hot one, a waterfall bath, a cold bath, ginseng tea, and a normal like-you-would-at-home bath. There's also a steam room and a couple of saunas which are nice. Oh and jade beds, which Koreans think are amazing for health and some kind of shallow pool, which I think is filled with salt water. These baths are communal, so expect to be seated next to a Korean lady, who will often stare at you for a while, before getting bored a couple of minutes and a full up and down later. As it was, tonight I had a good few hours to spend, so I took in all the baths and worked my way around for about an hour, before deciding to take the plunge and get my massage.

Heading up to the front desk, I asked the kind, and clothed, lady where I could find the massage ajumma. She pointed to a wrong side of middle age woman, who immediately took a dislike to me, not sure why, but I think it had something to do with the fact I was a fat Westerner and was paying her pittance to scrub my naked body for half an hour. After I had paid (having to don my clothes again, walk out, pay and come back in), I spotted my ajumma getting her kit off and followed her to the massage room, which is placed to the side of the baths, in full view of all. Luckily my ajumma didn't stay naked, but donned a slightly fraying and mismatched set of lacy underwear, that, being mesh, showed everything anyway.
The ajumma asked me to hop on the table and then proceeded to rag doll me about somewhat to get me into the right position. This was to be a reoccurring theme through the process as our language barrier meant phrases like 'move over this way a bit duck' were obsolete. First, I was rinsed down thoroughly with hot water and then the ajumma came at me with the scrubbers, one on each hand. For the next 15 minutes or so she scrubbed me all over, and believe me when I say that no orifice was left unexplored. I felt somewhat perturbed about this at one stage and decided to close my eyes and imagine that it wasn't a 50 year old woman scrubbing me, but Johnny Depp and that bloke from the Notebook. This made me feel even weirder as I was in a room full of naked women, so I decided just to lie back and think of anything but what was happening. After my very thorough jiggle and scrub I was covered in baby oil and then alternately massaged and spanked (loudly, it was a proper cup, like you do when you clap really loudly to get attention), until I was as malleable as silly putty, in body, but slightly jumpy in mind, seeing as I never knew where the next hit was coming from and when it would strike - damn ninja she was. After a few rinses I was turned over and then the ajumma applied what smelt like honey and milk to my body followed by a strawberry concoction to my face. As this was soaking in she washed my hair for me and gave me a bit of a head massage before showering me and deeming me fit to enter the jimjilbang again. I even got a smile from her. Seems that being that close to someone will mellow the hardest of hearts. . .

After the massage, which left me feeling amazing, I spent the rest of my time in the sauna, touring the baths again and falling asleep on the jade bed. I topped it all off with a nice rinse and then made my way into the night. That was about two hours ago now, however I still feel amazing, truly relaxed, and my skin is so unbelievably soft that I keep stroking my arms and marvelling. Also, you know that line from 'Sin City', 'She smelt like angels oughta smell'? Well I do, despite the fact that it's boiling outside and I've got a bit of a glow on. Thank the Lord for naked scrubbing, it seems.

So all in all, jimjilbangs are amazing, and cheap and beat the heck out of English spas. Doubt they'd catch on in England though, you know what they're like. Right shame that, right shame.

3 days off and no money. Bah!

So, it turns out that my boss only wants to give me 3 days holiday this summer. She told me that 5 years ago, I would have gotten 5 days, but since we are such a busy hagwon, with so many kids, I will only be allowed 3 days now. This is something that I am going to fight, but, seeing as at the moment I am completely brassic, I have taken the three days, like a small whimpering child, whilst whispering 'thanks,' and will resume the good fight next week when I return - hopefully I'll get the extra two days and will be able to head to Tokyo in September time for the changing of the leaves. See, so it'll be worth it in the end.



Wednesday, the first day of my holiday was spent in the best way possible for me - lying in bed! Whoop! I use the excuse that I was completely wiped out and that I needed the break, which is partly true, but it's also that I'm an intrinsically lazy creature and a day in bed appealed to me. It wasn't a total loss though, I did a ton of Korean homework, listened to loads of ace music, read some and generally chilled out. It was great.



Wednesday evening brought the Butcher to my abode. We had decided to dump the original plan of going to Seoul for the evening and instead stayed local so we could join Amy, who's mummy had just arrived for a visit! Faye and I headed to Garten Bier for a quick soju cocktail to celebrate the holidays and then jumped in a taxi to meet Amy at the amazing shells restaurant near her house. A 9,000won taxi ride later and we jumped back out at Garten Bier. Yep, we'd managed to get completely lost and when calling Amy to let her know this, were informed that the shell restaurant, that was housed in a tent, had disappeared. We ended up going instead for shells at a place just across from GB/Now bar, which was barely satisfactory, but hey, introducing Mommy Swanson to shells and watching her using chopsticks made up for that. Good food, good company, good times. After, we left the Swansons to have a sleep, as Lori was rather tired after her journey, and headed to Now bar, to see who was about. There we met up with Trevie and Aidan and had a lovely pint before heading home.



Thursday morning we headed off to Incheon airport to pick up another Butcher! Faye's sister, Claire, was about to arrive for a two week tour of SK! Faye was obviously quite excited about that (as was I), so we ended up getting to the airport pretty early. You know, only about an hour, it was fine! ;) Claire came through the doors and Faye raced off, leaving me taking the photos of the beautiful reunion and feeling a bit like I was in 'Love, Actually'. Turns out though, the photos were shit and you do need a flash in a fully lighted airport. Sorry, Faybe!



Soon as we'd left the airport, we headed the 15 minutes or so, on the number 302 bus, to Eulwangi beach, which is on the west coast of Incheon. Eulwangi is noted as one of the best beaches in Korea, and we weren't disappointed when we arrived. Neither were the 20,000 Koreans that were also present on the beach, dressed in the usual attire of t-shirt and shorts, which made us feel slightly put out - biggest people on the beach and the only ones in swim suits! Once we'd had a quick scout of the area, we decided to find a minbak to stay in (turns out there's none on Eulwangi beach), so had a look around. The Lonely Planet recommended two motels, one of which seemed somewhat defunct and the other, far too expensive. Cost, it turned out, was a bit of a beggar, seeing as it's the middle of summer, so prices have soaaaared. The motel that we finally chose was 80,000 for one night. Cash was paid and we headed out for a drink. Annoyingly, a few hours later, we were accosted by the bloke in the motel across the road, who offered us a room for 50,000. Bugger. Ah, well. Least the room was nice.



The three of us headed to the beach, which was truly lovely. White sand is in abundance and luckily, the sea doesn't recede too far at low tide, unlike many other beaches, that leave huge mud flats that aren't too good for sunbathing! We took a place under one of the many umbrellas and were soon caught by the locals, who asked us for 20 thou for the use of their umbrella!!! To all you UK people, that translates to a tenner! For an umbrella! We decided to move forward about an inch, so we weren't in the shade anymore and told the little dudes to sod off. A tenner. What is the world coming to?! Soon enough we had a friendly young man come over to talk to us, who amusingly hugged himself as close to the nearby umbrella pole as possible, as he in no way wanted to touch the sun. He chatted to us for a while, before getting bored, seeing as we weren't interested in chatting at that point, and wandered off. Later on, we decided on an umbrella for a while and spent the rest of the sunlight dozing, chatting and drinking. Which was generally what the rest of the evening had in store. I was completely relaxed, which Faye and I discussed, was a completely different type to our usual relaxation, you know, the one we feel after climbing a mountain, rafting, biking or being active. Not better, but equally as amazing. Just what the doctor ordered, we agreed.



The next morning we headed to the beach again and decided to stop pretending that our pasty skin didn't need an umbrella and shelled out the 20 thou for the priviledge of not getting skin cancer. Yey! Again, the day was spent relaxing, drinking and chilling and we were joined, finally, 7 hours after they'd set off (can I just point out that Eulwangi beach is only about 1 and a half hours from YoungTong), by Amy and Lori. Amy had somehow gotten more lost than anyone could ever percieve and took her mom on a tour of the upper Western part of SK. Well done, Ames! We spent the evening eating more shells than we ever thought possible (if you ever go in the day, it's the restaurant on the Carib hotel side of the seafront, with the rainbow umbrellas), which were astoundingly delicious and then heading to the beach to play with fireworks, meet a whole group of Korean men and generally have an excellent time. Especially Amy, who I think shocked her lovely mother with her flirting antics - that's our girl! We headed with our bags (we'd checked out of the expensive place that day, seeing as 160,000 for two nights was way out of buget) to the jimjilbang across the main road set back from the beach and paid 12,000 for a shower and a room to sleep in - there were no baths at all. Massive rip off and we were all a little mad that Lori and Claire's first jim experience was so bad. Ah well, there's always a next time!!!!



Saturday was spent travelling back to Incheon airport and picking up more of Faye's UK clan, this time, her friends Abby and Maddie. We all hopped on a bus, and the girls departed at Suwon in order to pop home and then take a trip to the Folk Museum, which is definately worth a look. Faye and I have been before however, so I headed straight back to YoungTong for another lovely day of chilling out and blog writing.

I woke up early Sunday to meet Amy and Mommy Swanson for a rather long journey to Sangbong (where we met Faye, Claire, Abby and Maddie) and then to Inje-gun (where we met Panda and Mike). Inje-gun houses the Naerinchon river, which in turn hosts many world rafting competitions and although is not amazingly dangerous in terms of white water, it is very beautiful and worth heading to just to take in the views, despite the amount of time it takes to get there. Not only does Naerinchon offer rafting, but also bungee jumping and a host of other extreme activities too, whether winter or summer. We had decided to raft again, this time with a company whos name I forget, though I'm sure I will be informed by Panda in no time. We were picked up from Inje station by a driver and ferried to the river, where we were quickly put into those lovely lifejackets with the ass strap once more, told to put on our helmets and then got the cool flourescent jelly shoes. Man I love rafting outfits!!!
After we had done this, we were driven by minibus to the start of the course, where a guy who spoke ok English went through the safety briefing with us and then broke our hearts by splitting us into two groups. Faye, Claire, Maddie and Abby were put in one raft, with a bunch of Korean guys and the rest of us stuck with the original instructor with another group of Korean guys. Turns out that the instructors felt that as there were so many girls, we'd have to be placed with men as, you know, they're stronger and all that. Hmph. Not sure that was true, but anyway. We started off nice and slowly, which was good for Amy, as she's a little scared of the water and therefore was a bit nervous. This wasn't helped by watching Faye and Maddie slip quickly into the water and have the raft ride over them! Luckily no one was hurt, which was a good thing and Anda and I were splitting ourselves with laughter the whole time and generally jeering. Heehe. The course took about two hours and during that time there was chance to swim, have water fights, rock the raft, spin, go through the rapids (of course) and generally get wet and have an excellent time. I really do enjoy rafting, specially with the amazing views and the chance to swim in a gorgeous and very clear river. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place!
After rafting we all had a few beers and headed to the bus station (annoyingly by taxi, the woman decided she was too busy to transport us back, so we had to flash the cash - not part of the original deal). The buses weren't that frequent and the one that we got, to DongSeoul took bloody ages. I think we left at 7.30pm and didn't get in until 11.30pm! We did however, manage to get the bus with our rafting instructor, which was very cool, however, he was of no help at all when Amy, who was rather wasted, needed the coach to stop so she could pee - however I was very proud of using my pidgin Hangeul to get him to stop and explain that she needed to urinate. When we finally got back to Seoul we said bye to Anda and followed the instructor who attempted to put us on a bus back to YoungTong, stuck us in a queue and then left. Despite his best intentions, we realised that the bus had actually stopped running, so, although we were going to take the subway to Gangnam we were taken in by another Korean guy, who told us it'd be easier to get a taxi there. Cue much faffing, missing the bus, finally getting to Gangnam, getting a different bus to Suwon and then having to get a taxi from Suwon to YoungTong. Pain in the ass. Still, turns out the 112 bus from YT goes to Gangbyeon though, will save me hours in terms of getting there for future trips. Bonus.

JISAN ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last weekend was the weekend I'd been waiting for for a long time. Jisan Valley Rock festival! Tickets (which were remarkably cheap for what we got), were booked months in advance (ok, well a month) and everything was sorted. I'd even cheekily changed my 2 day ticket to a 3 the week before, so that I could take in the full weekend. However, the two Friday bands that I was most excited about, Jimmy Eat World and Fall Out Boy (I know, it's a dirty, dirty habit, but I can't help it. Give me emo boys in eyeliner - I'm a sucker!) played Friday around the time I finished work - boo!!!!!





I ran home for work and waited for the call from Christina to tell me that she was at Suwon Station, which was where she was getting the shuttle bus to from Gimpo, the airport that she lands in when she comes over to stay (Christina lives on Jeju - lucky thing!) and then I headed over to meet her. Originally, we were going to catch a bus over to Jisan resort, which is located about 40 mins from Incheon city, in the same province as YoungTong but, seeing as Christina met a couple of guys who were going the same way and I got a lovely taxi man, we took a cab the whole way there, for 50,000, which was pretty good seeing as the bus would have ended up being more expensive for us and would have taken hours longer.





We arrived at the resort about 7, just when it was starting to get dark, and met up with Busan Ben and his friends Colleen and Jack. We made our way straight to campsite A, which was where Houley was camping that came highly recommended (even though it was on a hill). Ben, Jack and Colleen wasted no time putting up their tent perfectly whilst Christina and I (ok, mostly Christina), threw ours up, with the resulting 'tent' looking like a dying, wrinkled turtle. We got the last laugh later on though, seeing as it pee'd it down and Ben's tent wasn't waterproof. We had an extra 3 bodies taking up space in our tent that night!


Around the time we'd finished putting up the tents, we heard the first chords of the Starsailor set, so took ourselves swiftly down to the Green Stage, which, brilliantly, was right near our site. We grabbed some beer and headed in. I have to say I was very impressed by Starsailor and didn't even realise how many of their songs I knew, never really having given them the time of day before. Definately glad that I saw them though, their set was up there with one of the best acts I saw the whole weekend, and the standard was high. During the set we saw my friend Veronica, who was just at the fest for the night and looked very happy to be there - I would have hated to have left though, takes a stronger woman than I to leave the festivities, class the next day or no! Afterwards Christina disappeared off to get changed, so Ben, Jack, Colleen and I waited for her for a while before realising the she'd actually disappeared and that the figure Colleen had seen running to the main stage was, in fact, the girl herself. We hurried over to the main stage sans Christina to watch Weezer, who were headlining Friday night. Weezer did play a brilliant set, but I was pretty shocked to see how old they were getting, there were wrinkles and bald heads all around - sorry Weezer, but it's true! Still, much dancing and singing was had, specially to 'Island in the Sun,' which was played brilliantly. When the set had finished, we headed to the Jaegermeister tent, next to the Green stage and which, after the last band each night turned into the Electro Session tent, and drank some interesting cocktails, I got an excellent piggy back from Ben and we all met up with a very wasted Houley. The rest of the night remains a blur, but I have been reliably informed that I fell asleep with my eyes open, which drew a crowd, and the rest of the pictures speak for themselves. An excellent eve!





After the departure of Colleen, Jack and Ben from our tent, Christina and I awoke about 10am and decided to head to the swimming pool. A note on the resort here - it's awesome. I was expecting a Glasto style venue, but I was completely mistaken. There was a swimming pool, food hall, good lockers, real toilets, which were amazing, however the portaloos that were also provided were brilliant too, being supplied with lots of loo roll and soap and being kept very clean. Now, I know it's not the festival thing to be clean yourself, nevermind shower or swim, but hell, this is Korea, so I did it! Haha! I can be so crazy sometimes. . .



After a swim and a wash we headed to the main stage, found the Busan massive and collapsed, dozing in the sun whilst listening to some excellent bands - some Korean, some not. Of note were the amazing Human Instinct, a random old geezer band from New Zealand, who got us boogieing away, and Uncle Kim, who were equally as brilliant. I met with a couple of Koreans and we danced 'til sweat was pouring off us. Faye arrived, as did Ben and Frank and we spent a perfect afternoon doing nothing but dancing and having fun whilst looking at the mountains nearby and the beautiful dragonflies who were drifting over the venue all weekend - mating season you see, they were procreating everywhere, though I prefer to think they were there for the music.



That evening, after we'd freshened up somewhat, we grabbed some bbq ribs and headed back to the main stage for Basement Jaxx. From what I've heard Faye likes them, though she was totally subdued during the entire set. Honestly. She also didn't ask everyone she met for the rest of the weekend if BJ were not the best live band they'd ever seen, ever. The atmosphere for Basement Jaxx was pretty electric and all the Westerners and Koreans were going equally mad. Houley decided, just before the set however, to pass out, on his face, which was a worry. Still, after some shaking and a couple of slaps from Faye and I he rolled over, shouted 'an dae' a couple of times and then let us haul him up - but only after trying to curl up and sleep round our ankles. Entertaining, after the original panic! The set was awesome and we all jumped around like crazies until the very end. Those women know how to shake it, and the tunes, as always, were immense. After Jaxx finished we all headed off our own way for a little while, with Faye and I going for a walk around the lovely lake at the back of the site and the others carrying on drinking. On the way back from the lake, I found myself an amazing tent, by itself in the middle of the path, so I stole it, wore it and ran around the main stage, causing corruption and making friends for an hour of so. Much fun, however, it was cut short just before I could get to the dance stage (I was preparing to start a 'how many Korean's can you fit in a tent?' competition) by two Koreans chasing me across a path screaming that I had stolen their tent. Whoops! Turns out it did belong to someone after all, though why they'd leave it in the middle of a path, with no possessions in, is beyond me. Still, I apologised and walked away a little abashed. Anyway, the rest of the night was spent dancing, chatting and generally doing what you do at festivals, however, for once, I headed to bed relatively sober about 3, which was actually a stupid idea, as I could feel the floor - making for a less comfortable nights sleep than the day before! You try to be sensible....



Sunday arrived with a birdsong and a ray of sun, and the groans of Frank, Faye and Christina, who were far more hungover than I, for once. Faye and I left the other two to nurse their heads while we went for some breakfast kimchi jigae and a shower, in order to feel human for the rest of the day and wash off all the dancing sweat. Pretty sure we did not smell to good when we woke up. After meeting up with Trev, Houley and the rest of the Suwon lot, we headed to the beer tents by the main stage and sat down to have a bit of a Sunday session and watch of the world go by. After a while, Faye, Ben and I decided to head off for a bit of a nap by the entrance fountain, which set us up royally, and got rid of the residual hangover (I was just tired, honest!) so that the drinking could commence again. We lost Ben somewhere after that, but the Butch and I had an awesome couple of hours walking about and chatting to people, and the birth of the CHUNON dance was heralded about 7 o'clock. For those of you that are unfamiliar with CHUNON, well, it's hard to explain. Generally a chunon is one thousand one, and it all stemmed from a day out and another crazy ajumma. Anyway, the dance rocks - that's all you need to know. We finally met up with the rest of the group and headed to the front of the main stage for Oasis. Faye and I were hoping to hear 'Stand By Me,' which we'd earlier dubbed our song, but alas, it wasn't to be. They did however, belt out the old classics and everyone went suitably wild. Turns out that it was one of Oasis' last gigs, which is sad, though we should have seen it coming as Noel and Liam were cocks to each other all night, repeatedly walking off stage etc . On another note, Noel kept on his parka, despite the sweltering heat, all set. You could actually see the sweat through the jacket by the end of the night. Not very nice at all.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, so after Oasis Faye, Christina, Trev and I headed to a taxi rank and got a taxi home, all feeling a little poorer, a little heavier and a lot happier. Truly, Jisan did rock.