Wrong Islands in Fall
The first day of November saw me sitting on the beach with my mate, Nanette, wearing sandals and a t-shirt. Strangely balmy weather for the time of year but very much appreciated. By the evening it was admittedly a tad colder and the following Tuesday saw me don a warm jacket for the first time. Then the cold receded again and it was back to a small fleece jacket. And just generally traipsing around enjoying the autumn here in Korea. It is one of my favourite seasons- in the top four definitely- as it becomes a more manageable heat and the leaves change colour and then fall from the trees in droves. Not being in England during autumn does have the advantage that I never hear anything about leaves on the lines. I have watched the rice being harvested from the fields near my local supermarket and then I have seen the rain hit in the last week. And it is time to admit defeat and permanently take the duffel coat out of moth balls for almost daily outings.
Winter is here- just two weeks after autumn really struck. It has been raining for the last week and it is not often that I am seen walking down the street without clutching my coat, pulling it tightly around myself, usually complete with hood up for maximum ear warmth. The rain seems to have put a large amount of people firmly in their homes and I was taken aback on Friday night to enter my local nd find only three people in it- two of them were working! It seemed a long time since the Halloween excesses of two weeks ago.
So I went to Seoul on Saturday night in search of people and life. And through the rain splattered streets I went until I found myself in the comfort of US66 in Hongdae and safe in the arms of a Long Island Ice Tea. I won’t go into details about the messiness of it all suffice to say that I was pretty impressed to be able to negotiate a discount when I had to check into a motel later in the night, having ‘lost’ the friend that I was supposed to be staying with that night.
In an effort to stave off the winter blues last week I went to the public bath house with my friend, Nanette, as nothing warms the cockles of my heart like getting naked with strangers- and it does seem to be the only place I see Koreans who are fatter than me, guess that they have some magic clothing which hides their bulk better than my jeans. The bath house is great- two saunas, four spa pools and various steam rooms- all for the same price as a bottle and a half of beer. And for a little extra you can be scrubbed within an inch of your life by someone’s mum who works there. Once you get over the initial discomfort of being interfered with by a grandma in just her knickers and can take your mind off the revolting amount of dead skin that seems to be coming off your body like the leaves off the trees outsides, the scrub is a great experience. And my skin feels so fantastic afterwards that I spent the whole taxi drive home stroking my forearms admiringly.
This weekend I am hoping to escape the winter blues by popping over to Japan with some friends for the night. We are going to a sumo tournament which should be interesting. I am heading to Seoul on Friday night and we are flying out on Saturday morning. Back to Seoul on Sunday. Yes, it is a shockingly indulgent thing to do but I think that I deserve it. This week shows me being back in Korea for eight months already and marks the five year anniversary of me dropping out and hitting the road. Things haven’t always been easy with the school but the friends that I have made this year have been incredible. I just hope that we all make it through the winter- such is the problem with having mates from the Southern Hemisphere who complain that Christmas should be a day of beach and barbecues, while hanging up plastic snowflakes and sending out cards with robins and other creatures that don’t exist in their life on them.
So I am sitting in my house, almost afraid to open the curtains in case it is still raining. Yesterday was peppero day which is essentially a marketing ploy by the people who sell long biscuits covered in chocolate. At some point in the past someone noticed that the sticks looked a little like the number one. And therefore two of them would resemble the number eleven. Following this logic four of them must look like two elevens or, in fact, the date 11/11. So while much of the world marked Armistice Day, we here in Korea had the usual teacher popularity contest of who would manage to get the most chocolate covered sticks from the students. I think that I won! And the joke is on me this morning as I woke up in a house with no food in it and have been reduced to eating said sticks to keep me going until I have the courage to get dressed and go outside for some bread and milk. Needless to say, these four inch long sticks are not very filling so I will have to leave you now to go out for food.
Lots of love
H
xx
Winter is here- just two weeks after autumn really struck. It has been raining for the last week and it is not often that I am seen walking down the street without clutching my coat, pulling it tightly around myself, usually complete with hood up for maximum ear warmth. The rain seems to have put a large amount of people firmly in their homes and I was taken aback on Friday night to enter my local nd find only three people in it- two of them were working! It seemed a long time since the Halloween excesses of two weeks ago.
So I went to Seoul on Saturday night in search of people and life. And through the rain splattered streets I went until I found myself in the comfort of US66 in Hongdae and safe in the arms of a Long Island Ice Tea. I won’t go into details about the messiness of it all suffice to say that I was pretty impressed to be able to negotiate a discount when I had to check into a motel later in the night, having ‘lost’ the friend that I was supposed to be staying with that night.
In an effort to stave off the winter blues last week I went to the public bath house with my friend, Nanette, as nothing warms the cockles of my heart like getting naked with strangers- and it does seem to be the only place I see Koreans who are fatter than me, guess that they have some magic clothing which hides their bulk better than my jeans. The bath house is great- two saunas, four spa pools and various steam rooms- all for the same price as a bottle and a half of beer. And for a little extra you can be scrubbed within an inch of your life by someone’s mum who works there. Once you get over the initial discomfort of being interfered with by a grandma in just her knickers and can take your mind off the revolting amount of dead skin that seems to be coming off your body like the leaves off the trees outsides, the scrub is a great experience. And my skin feels so fantastic afterwards that I spent the whole taxi drive home stroking my forearms admiringly.
This weekend I am hoping to escape the winter blues by popping over to Japan with some friends for the night. We are going to a sumo tournament which should be interesting. I am heading to Seoul on Friday night and we are flying out on Saturday morning. Back to Seoul on Sunday. Yes, it is a shockingly indulgent thing to do but I think that I deserve it. This week shows me being back in Korea for eight months already and marks the five year anniversary of me dropping out and hitting the road. Things haven’t always been easy with the school but the friends that I have made this year have been incredible. I just hope that we all make it through the winter- such is the problem with having mates from the Southern Hemisphere who complain that Christmas should be a day of beach and barbecues, while hanging up plastic snowflakes and sending out cards with robins and other creatures that don’t exist in their life on them.
So I am sitting in my house, almost afraid to open the curtains in case it is still raining. Yesterday was peppero day which is essentially a marketing ploy by the people who sell long biscuits covered in chocolate. At some point in the past someone noticed that the sticks looked a little like the number one. And therefore two of them would resemble the number eleven. Following this logic four of them must look like two elevens or, in fact, the date 11/11. So while much of the world marked Armistice Day, we here in Korea had the usual teacher popularity contest of who would manage to get the most chocolate covered sticks from the students. I think that I won! And the joke is on me this morning as I woke up in a house with no food in it and have been reduced to eating said sticks to keep me going until I have the courage to get dressed and go outside for some bread and milk. Needless to say, these four inch long sticks are not very filling so I will have to leave you now to go out for food.
Lots of love
H
xx
posted by Helen @ 10:46 AM
