Kensington Flora Pyeongchang

... all squished into cages next to the meat stalls...lol!! Not a big fan although Diana got some wonderful pictures of the piles of various sausages/intestines that were on sale in the same area - what a joy for a strict, hippy vege! In which case i should have known that a faux pas was to not recognise dried BUGS and instead think they were raisins - oopppsss!!!

Next on the hitlist was Woobang Land Amusement Park and DaeguTower which is not so far ...

This weekend I spent 10 hours getting to and from my friend's house in Hyeon-ri, near Inje. I think this is now my record for traveling somewhere Gangwon-do, but at least half of it was on Friday night so there was no journeying on Saturday.

My Texan friends Andrew and Garrett (who have been friends since the age of 3 or something and know exactly what each other are thinking) are living in Hyeon-ri and have managed to make a huge number of Korean friends ...

As usual, I spent some time in the last two weekends on trains. On one of these journeys I was wondering why it is that I often feel like I could sit on the train all day, and actually feel something bordering on anxiety when the eery music comes on to announce that we are nearing our destination. I used to think it was maybe mild agoraphobia, not wanting to leave the cocoon of the train, or bus, or car, (I didn't think it mattered) but last weekend it hit me: it's because I spend ...

Having watched 3 ladies playing badminton on the pavement in Yeongwol today I thought it might be time for another entry.

I feel like I've settled into life in Hambaek, Korea. I now know what I'm doing, teaching-wise, and I know where I can travel to at weekends!

Most of the teachers who live at the school return home to their families every weekend because they live apart during the week. My lovely neighbour, Su Jin, has one of her sons living with her here in ...

... 41-1 bus to park entrance. Some nuns on the bus were pretty surprised to see me, and one who spoke a little English told me a bit about the park.

Unfortunately, my plans to get away from it all were thwarted, as it appeared everyone in the country decided to take advantage of the sunny skies and hit up Chiaksan. There were people everywhere, and furthermore, my old friend from the bus terminal, Choe Hong Chael, wouldn't let me go off on my own. As I ...

This entry is taken from the journal I started writing when I got to Korea and before I got the internet in my apartment. It's very long and detailed but gives an insight into how things were and how I felt in my first week here.


02-09-09

I knew I would draw attention from Korean people, especially in a rural area, but I wasn't prepared for how much the school archery coach (surely in a school with 112 pupils that means PE teacher?) would stare at me during my welcome ...

... see atmosfeer met die plastiekstrandballe wat in groot netsakke by die winkels se deure hang langs die strandplakkies en visnetjies.

By een van die talle koffie kefeetjies stop ons.die hout stope het 'n skaduwee.Binne heers n aangename hout atmosfeer.Ons is die enigste gaste. Die einaar vra nuskurig van waar ons is. "Nam Afrika" (Suid Afrika) antwoord Willemien en beindruk die kafeemeester met die Koreaanse woord. Na ons capachinos bestel is ...

... beyond gruesome to sad for me as I watched the centipede slowly die in a bottle of alcohol. Fortune telling. There was the standard palm reading, but also this technique of placing lit incense cones on the top of ones hands I had not seen before. What was one of the more enjoyable activities though were the masked dramas and the parade we got to participate in. The parade went through the town to bring ...

... He's got a point! After we ate, we had a few hours to kill before DaeJun got back from visiting his family so we met our friend ShiUn. Only an hour after Burger King, JeongBin took us to McDonald's. He loves his burgers. So withing 90 minutes we both had two burgers, two orders of fries, and two cokes. ShiUn mentioned that he was probably going to get married this year, and was planning his proposal to his girlfriend of 9 years. I was ...

... Definitely not surfable, but not a lake, either. Probably best that it was blown out, I needed to sleep. We'd check the estuary tomorrow. Next day, Pete, the other teacher I met in the van, decided to join Mark and I for the dawn-patrol. Not a surfer, Pete just wanted to test the waters. We walked down to the estuary, suited up and ready to go. It must have been low-tide, and with all the rain filling the small estuary, the water was ...