Hotel Amour And Symphony Suwon

... met us off the lift and before showing us into the wedding room introduced us to her parents. Surprisingly her father spoke a little English, and seemed quite happy to have us attend, even though we only had a very small link to the family.

The wedding room was an enormous room, with perhaps a hundred round tables and chairs around a 25m long platform extending out from the stage. We were shown to a table (unfortunately on the groom's side) and were later joined by a ...

... wealded by a group of about 30 - very impressive!

In counterbalance to all the historial authenticity of old Korea, I made my way back to the station and got the bus to Everland, and what a treat that was!

Everland (or Ebuhan, as they call it over here) is Korea's equivalent to Disneyland, but at only 35,000W (17 pounds) for the day it's way more affordable and totally hilarious. It's like Korea on acid ...

... up was sorting out a visa. With nine weeks until I was due to start, it seemed I had plenty of time to gather the required documents. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. Without wishing to fly home to Australia, I was forced to wait five weeks for a Korean company to verify my degree, and before I knew it Ania was due to fly to Seoul, and I was still without a visa.

Accepting the fact I wouldn’t be able to travel over with her, I began ...

... had met at church. At that time, she wasn't a Christian, but she had been invited to the Bible study that I was leading. I remember her walking in and me immediately thinking she was cute. I then determined, as the leader of course, to make her feel welcome. Well...I guess it worked! We started dating about a year later. That's a long story...so I'll maybe keep it for later. But it does highlight how many memories I have at the church.

When I was ...

... 9:00 a.m. we headed to northern Seoul and explored the Insadong Market. We ended up buying a really amazing antique ink stone (a big rock) that will probably cost a fortune to mail back. After that, we hiked up one of the mountains in Seoul to Seoul Tower to get a view of the city. The combination of tree-covered mountains and skyscrapers as far as the eye can see was amazing. We ate at a restaurant in the tower, took a cable car ...

... first-year kindergartners and they speak absolutely NO English! I was all alone in the classroom with 12 five-year-olds: two were crying because they are still afraid of foreigners, two were running around ON TOP of the tables, and one was on the floor screaming and crying because he was consumed by a swarm of fellow classmates who were trying to cover his face with plastic bags!!!! Ahhh! That was the day my break down happened! This week is so much better ...

Now I think I have pink eye...............and I don't have insurance yet, so......not too sure what I am suppose to do. (Our health insurance is active 4-6 weeks after starting employment....I can't remember which one). I took a nap today after work and when I woke up my eye was worse .......just like pink eye. I have an extra bottle of that antibiotic Dr. Gosses gave me when I ...

... It got to the point where his mom called and complained and wanted his name to be changed to Nicholas because he was goin nuts with his new knickname. Another cat named James wanted to change his name to "Cinderella Man" randomly which I did for him no prob, but because it was such a long name of course after awhile it got shortened to "C-Man" (pronounced: semen). So everyones running around calling him "C-Man !!!" . Another butthead duo of middle schoolers ...

... the deadly virus Japanese Encephalitis did little to quell the atmpsohere of panic in my mind. Though local sources have since denied such claims it still tends to stick in your mind like the infamous interrogation scene from Basic Instinct - though sadly only videos have access to freeze frame technology. Therefore when my reserves of insect repellent suddenly dried up on the second night in Suwon, panic began to set in. In the corner of the room however, lay what ...

... many defensive and offensive features, including arrow launching platforms, embrasured firearms bastions, angled towers, secret gates, and gateguard platforms. The fortress originally guarded the entire city. These days, however, Suwon has expanded well beyond the old fortress on all sides.