Seoul, Mardi Gras and Pancake Day...
Hello again!
Last night something pretty exciting happened- we bought tickets to go to a World Cup game. We are going to see the brutal game of Spain versus Slovenia. Having researched both teams on the internet last night we are still not sure who to support- the Slovenian team had the best website but the Spanish players were honeys! So we are going for both by sporting t-shirts with big S's on the front and covering both sides at the same time, Good thinking. It is costing 66,000 won (1,900 won to the sterling pound roughly currently) and the game is in Gwangju on the 2nd June. I know that I said that I wouldn't be going to any matches but I think that I got carried away after England's defeat (slaughter?) of Ireland in the 6 Nations on Saturday night. We may have been having a Mardi Gras party but it stopped for the duration of the match. Despite there only being three Europeans in the room I was still outnumbered 20 -1 by the Ireland supporters!
Now, what did I need to tell you all about? I have been having problems getting into my hotmail account in the PC bangs and the problem is not helped when all of the error messages come up in Korean- leaving me more clueless than ever to the cause! So I am in a different one today and apologise for the lack of response for the last couple of weeks.
Last week was Korean New Year and we all had three days off school to celebrate. The traditional thing to do over the NY holiday is to go to your grandparents’ house here. Obviously our director had decided that Tim and me weren't going for the traditional feel when he gave every member of staff a NY present except us! But then again, their presents were 2 litres of cooking oil so I am not too sure that I have really missed out. Six of us headed to Seoul for the long weekend and we stayed in Itaewon. It was weird to be in Seoul- it is much bigger than Mokpo(!). to begin with we were still saying hi to all the foreigners, as we do at home in Mokpo, then we realised that there were more of them than Koreans- at least in Itaewon. And I saw African and Indian people for the first time since leaving the UK- and I found myself staring at them like some yokel/culchie until I realised what I was doing and pulled myself together. We ate in Burger king and drank in Irish pubs so it was really like a trip away from Korea for a few days. And I have to share with you my most favourite ever misspelling on a Korean poster- and it appeared in BURGERKING of all big US corporations to make such a mistake- here I quote word for word and the spelling is all BK’s not mine!----
'Try our mouse-watering chicken sandwich and take a lot of benefits along with it!'
We laughed for a long time at that and I have a photo of it on my wall. And funnily enough we were all duped into buying chicken burgers by this poster so maybe it was all deliberate! I can't really tell you much else about Seoul- it was mainly a drinking and shopping weekend rather than a cultural exploration of the city. I did manage to get a block of cheese though which is pretty exciting- cheese on toast here we come! I found yesterday that you can buy a cheese grater here in Mokpo but not the cheese to grate- interesting. We did visit the old royal palace though which was pretty cool if also freezing cold for most of our 90 minutes guided tour of the grounds. Our guide had the maddest accent too and seemed to slow down every time she said any dates and waved her hand in the air.
So we got back to Mokpo at midnight on Tuesday night- the journey was fun since they sell beer on the train and we made the absolute most of that facility. We then went to Nerrissa's house for another eight hours or so on the soju- having discovered lemon soju I have become a bit of a fan it has to be said. The normal stuff is like straight vodka and even thinking about it makes me cringe but the lemon stuff is more like an Alco pop but you still take it in shots. I mostly slept on Wednesday and made up to the fish for the neglect- though they still seem to be sulking and after a whole weekend of worrying about them not having enough to eat they haven't eaten a thing since i got back- the little sods!
Thursday was back to school and neither myself or the students really wanted to be there so it was a very painful day. We had our postponed Pancake Day on Thursday and we went for it Newfoundland style and hid things in the pancakes. I got a safety pin and a coin so I am having a baby and money- any chance of reversing the order on that??
Friday was a quiet night at the pub and Saturday we had a Greek style Mardi Gras- that is Mardi Gras with Souvlaki, which was fantastic!
As usual, I had in mind a lot of amusing little anecdotes that fled my mind the moment I sat down- sorry! So I will stop here and get back to you when my head feels less fuzzy. I had my second Korean lesson on Saturday and it is beginning to make more sense and I now have a Korean name- Ee Hee-yun. Ee is the family name that most of the class took on- mostly because it was the easiest to write- just a circle with a straight vertical line down the right of it. And Hee-yun sounds a bit like Helen really!
More another time,
Last night something pretty exciting happened- we bought tickets to go to a World Cup game. We are going to see the brutal game of Spain versus Slovenia. Having researched both teams on the internet last night we are still not sure who to support- the Slovenian team had the best website but the Spanish players were honeys! So we are going for both by sporting t-shirts with big S's on the front and covering both sides at the same time, Good thinking. It is costing 66,000 won (1,900 won to the sterling pound roughly currently) and the game is in Gwangju on the 2nd June. I know that I said that I wouldn't be going to any matches but I think that I got carried away after England's defeat (slaughter?) of Ireland in the 6 Nations on Saturday night. We may have been having a Mardi Gras party but it stopped for the duration of the match. Despite there only being three Europeans in the room I was still outnumbered 20 -1 by the Ireland supporters!
Now, what did I need to tell you all about? I have been having problems getting into my hotmail account in the PC bangs and the problem is not helped when all of the error messages come up in Korean- leaving me more clueless than ever to the cause! So I am in a different one today and apologise for the lack of response for the last couple of weeks.
Last week was Korean New Year and we all had three days off school to celebrate. The traditional thing to do over the NY holiday is to go to your grandparents’ house here. Obviously our director had decided that Tim and me weren't going for the traditional feel when he gave every member of staff a NY present except us! But then again, their presents were 2 litres of cooking oil so I am not too sure that I have really missed out. Six of us headed to Seoul for the long weekend and we stayed in Itaewon. It was weird to be in Seoul- it is much bigger than Mokpo(!). to begin with we were still saying hi to all the foreigners, as we do at home in Mokpo, then we realised that there were more of them than Koreans- at least in Itaewon. And I saw African and Indian people for the first time since leaving the UK- and I found myself staring at them like some yokel/culchie until I realised what I was doing and pulled myself together. We ate in Burger king and drank in Irish pubs so it was really like a trip away from Korea for a few days. And I have to share with you my most favourite ever misspelling on a Korean poster- and it appeared in BURGERKING of all big US corporations to make such a mistake- here I quote word for word and the spelling is all BK’s not mine!----
'Try our mouse-watering chicken sandwich and take a lot of benefits along with it!'
We laughed for a long time at that and I have a photo of it on my wall. And funnily enough we were all duped into buying chicken burgers by this poster so maybe it was all deliberate! I can't really tell you much else about Seoul- it was mainly a drinking and shopping weekend rather than a cultural exploration of the city. I did manage to get a block of cheese though which is pretty exciting- cheese on toast here we come! I found yesterday that you can buy a cheese grater here in Mokpo but not the cheese to grate- interesting. We did visit the old royal palace though which was pretty cool if also freezing cold for most of our 90 minutes guided tour of the grounds. Our guide had the maddest accent too and seemed to slow down every time she said any dates and waved her hand in the air.
So we got back to Mokpo at midnight on Tuesday night- the journey was fun since they sell beer on the train and we made the absolute most of that facility. We then went to Nerrissa's house for another eight hours or so on the soju- having discovered lemon soju I have become a bit of a fan it has to be said. The normal stuff is like straight vodka and even thinking about it makes me cringe but the lemon stuff is more like an Alco pop but you still take it in shots. I mostly slept on Wednesday and made up to the fish for the neglect- though they still seem to be sulking and after a whole weekend of worrying about them not having enough to eat they haven't eaten a thing since i got back- the little sods!
Thursday was back to school and neither myself or the students really wanted to be there so it was a very painful day. We had our postponed Pancake Day on Thursday and we went for it Newfoundland style and hid things in the pancakes. I got a safety pin and a coin so I am having a baby and money- any chance of reversing the order on that??
Friday was a quiet night at the pub and Saturday we had a Greek style Mardi Gras- that is Mardi Gras with Souvlaki, which was fantastic!
As usual, I had in mind a lot of amusing little anecdotes that fled my mind the moment I sat down- sorry! So I will stop here and get back to you when my head feels less fuzzy. I had my second Korean lesson on Saturday and it is beginning to make more sense and I now have a Korean name- Ee Hee-yun. Ee is the family name that most of the class took on- mostly because it was the easiest to write- just a circle with a straight vertical line down the right of it. And Hee-yun sounds a bit like Helen really!
More another time,
posted by Helen @ 12:03 AM
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