Rainy days in Gangneung
Today I have that slightly cloudy headed feeling you get when you have spent most of the previous day in bed. Predictably enough this all day bed fiesta was the result of a prolonged drinking sesh on Saturday night. I feel that the weather has been driving me to drink recently- and it is no wonder that I feel this way once you know that it has rained here every day for the last three weeks- well, admittedly it didn’t rain on Sunday but it was too late by then. What kind of weather is this- months after the end of the official rainy season?
Wednesday night saw the usual hump-day party at Bar Bumpin where the boys did their best to forget the rain by all flirting with the same girl. The fact that this girl wasn’t me did in no way contribute to my early departure from the bar and the onset of a mild bout of depression that lasted until a particularly loud bout of shouting at my students on Friday afternoon. Nope, indeed I put the mood down to ‘cabin fever’ brought on by the rain- you see, it is actually possible to blame the rain for pretty much everything if you really put your mind to it- a year and a half in Dublin taught me that!
Thursday was a quiet night in for me. The newly instigated ‘British Comedy Night’ went ahead- the attendees being me and another English ex-pat plus some lager- shamelessly gorging ourselves on ‘Blackadder’ and ‘Red Dwarf’ episodes that I had managed to download off the internet. This week’s BCN had a distinctly Celtic edge to it since I had managed to get hold of a couple of ‘Father Ted’ episodes to the delight of all involved.
I thought that Friday night was going to be a quiet one as Rory had his Hapkido yellow belt test on Saturday. How wrong I was! I left work only to find a couple of foreigners sitting quite literally on the doorstep of my school- or at least in the barbecue tent opposite it. I bounded over and introduced myself. They had only arrived in the country three days before and so were thrilled to meet the first foreigner they had seen since they landed. They live in my apartment block and, after establishing that they were like minded individuals, I drew them a map to Bumpin and shared my knowledge of the city with them- namely the one store you can buy cheese and the one store that sells English language novels (and the correct way to pour soju but that is another matter). I was just taking leave of their jetlagged company when my phone ran and a slightly slurred voice came onto the line to tell me that he had been ‘forced’ to drink soju by his school and how I had to come downtown to make sure that he didn’t drink too much and miss his test the next day. As, apparently, I have the semi-official designation of ‘Rory-handler’ when he is drunk I felt obliged to go down there and nag him into going home- a seemingly impossible task which I finally achieved at around 3am.
When I eventually woke on Saturday I was determined to leave the house- rain or no rain. Despite the CNN weather page telling me that it was currently raining in Gangneung it seemed fairly dry outside. And it remained that way until I got out of the apartment block and into the car park. Fortunately I had planned ahead and had my umbrella with me. So I set off to the beach. To get there I had decided to walk down through the Uncurdled Beancurd Village that I live in, down the narrow lanes at the end of the houses, across the fields and take the 4km detour around the lake. I took loads of photos of the area because I have been very lucky in living in such a nice area this year. The results of this wandering photography tour are accessible through the link I sent you at the weekend.
It was great to be out of the house and breathing some fresh air. The footpath around Gyeongpo lake is usually jammed with people at the weekend- on bikes, skateboards, inline skates, with buggies, running, jogging or walking. But on this rainy Saturday it was almost blissfully empty. I watched the fish jump out of the lake like reverse lemmings and even saw a brilliant blue and orange kingfisher darting amongst the reeds. As I reached the other side of the lake (by circumnavigating it, of course, no walking on water for me) I became the sole diner in a food tent showing Korean baseball. I was so hungry that the Dol Sot Bi Bim Bab I had there was the best that I have ever tasted (steamed vegetables, rice, spicy sauce with a fried egg on top served in a sizzling stone pot). The last time that I actually made it to the bed in daylight hours it was totally covered in tourists and the hawkers catering to their need for cold drinks, watermelons, the odd henna tattoo or string of beads. Standing on the beach this Saturday I was hard-pressed to find enough people to make it worth counting them on the fingers of one hand. It reminded me of when I first stood on that beach nearly six months ago when, though still barefoot, I was wearing a duffel coat and scarf wrapped tightly around me. This time I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.
But the weather had definitely taken a turn for the chilly as I drained a coke while sitting outside a convenience store on the beachfront before deciding to treat myself to a cab home.
Having walked for a couple of hours already that day it seemed time to give in to the hangover that had been pressing on the inside of my skull for much of the day and get back into bed for a couple of hours kip before heading out to celebrate Rory’s newly acquired yellow belt.
Sometimes sleeping is just the best thing that I can imagine doing and the most rewarding. Even better was the fact that it was finally cold enough to get under my duvet and snuggle down properly- heaven! I woke up just before Nanette rang to invite me out for dinner and managed to pull myself out of bed an into a cab in the wholly unimpressive non-record time of half an hour. After dinner we met up with the rest of the usual suspects (well, those who had fought their hangovers well enough to make it out of bed) at Bumpin for a night of the usual drinking and debauchery- though, as usual, the scales were tipped more to the side of drinking than debauchery. A hundred and one photos and short pointless videos were taken on my camera before the end of the night. I got more than a little bit stroppy when everyone else wanted to stop drinking and go home though, given the hour, perhaps I was a little bit too free with the big girl’s blouse taunts.
I made it to bed around 8am- still laughing at the image of the boys indulging in a little Hapkido- both armed with a cuddly toy in each hand- one of which made kissing noises before shouting ‘I love you!’ every time it made contact with its opponent.
Now I have made it to Monday with the minimum of damage, cloudy head and scratch on my cheek not withstanding. I am putting off planning today’s lessons by writing to you guys, counting the days until my sister gets here (five) and the working days until the five day Korean Thanksgiving vacation (seven).
Hope you all have a good week, keep those emails coming and I’ll try to get another of these group things out once my sister has left in a couple of weeks.
Take care, each and all,
Love
H
xx
Wednesday night saw the usual hump-day party at Bar Bumpin where the boys did their best to forget the rain by all flirting with the same girl. The fact that this girl wasn’t me did in no way contribute to my early departure from the bar and the onset of a mild bout of depression that lasted until a particularly loud bout of shouting at my students on Friday afternoon. Nope, indeed I put the mood down to ‘cabin fever’ brought on by the rain- you see, it is actually possible to blame the rain for pretty much everything if you really put your mind to it- a year and a half in Dublin taught me that!
Thursday was a quiet night in for me. The newly instigated ‘British Comedy Night’ went ahead- the attendees being me and another English ex-pat plus some lager- shamelessly gorging ourselves on ‘Blackadder’ and ‘Red Dwarf’ episodes that I had managed to download off the internet. This week’s BCN had a distinctly Celtic edge to it since I had managed to get hold of a couple of ‘Father Ted’ episodes to the delight of all involved.
I thought that Friday night was going to be a quiet one as Rory had his Hapkido yellow belt test on Saturday. How wrong I was! I left work only to find a couple of foreigners sitting quite literally on the doorstep of my school- or at least in the barbecue tent opposite it. I bounded over and introduced myself. They had only arrived in the country three days before and so were thrilled to meet the first foreigner they had seen since they landed. They live in my apartment block and, after establishing that they were like minded individuals, I drew them a map to Bumpin and shared my knowledge of the city with them- namely the one store you can buy cheese and the one store that sells English language novels (and the correct way to pour soju but that is another matter). I was just taking leave of their jetlagged company when my phone ran and a slightly slurred voice came onto the line to tell me that he had been ‘forced’ to drink soju by his school and how I had to come downtown to make sure that he didn’t drink too much and miss his test the next day. As, apparently, I have the semi-official designation of ‘Rory-handler’ when he is drunk I felt obliged to go down there and nag him into going home- a seemingly impossible task which I finally achieved at around 3am.
When I eventually woke on Saturday I was determined to leave the house- rain or no rain. Despite the CNN weather page telling me that it was currently raining in Gangneung it seemed fairly dry outside. And it remained that way until I got out of the apartment block and into the car park. Fortunately I had planned ahead and had my umbrella with me. So I set off to the beach. To get there I had decided to walk down through the Uncurdled Beancurd Village that I live in, down the narrow lanes at the end of the houses, across the fields and take the 4km detour around the lake. I took loads of photos of the area because I have been very lucky in living in such a nice area this year. The results of this wandering photography tour are accessible through the link I sent you at the weekend.
It was great to be out of the house and breathing some fresh air. The footpath around Gyeongpo lake is usually jammed with people at the weekend- on bikes, skateboards, inline skates, with buggies, running, jogging or walking. But on this rainy Saturday it was almost blissfully empty. I watched the fish jump out of the lake like reverse lemmings and even saw a brilliant blue and orange kingfisher darting amongst the reeds. As I reached the other side of the lake (by circumnavigating it, of course, no walking on water for me) I became the sole diner in a food tent showing Korean baseball. I was so hungry that the Dol Sot Bi Bim Bab I had there was the best that I have ever tasted (steamed vegetables, rice, spicy sauce with a fried egg on top served in a sizzling stone pot). The last time that I actually made it to the bed in daylight hours it was totally covered in tourists and the hawkers catering to their need for cold drinks, watermelons, the odd henna tattoo or string of beads. Standing on the beach this Saturday I was hard-pressed to find enough people to make it worth counting them on the fingers of one hand. It reminded me of when I first stood on that beach nearly six months ago when, though still barefoot, I was wearing a duffel coat and scarf wrapped tightly around me. This time I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.
But the weather had definitely taken a turn for the chilly as I drained a coke while sitting outside a convenience store on the beachfront before deciding to treat myself to a cab home.
Having walked for a couple of hours already that day it seemed time to give in to the hangover that had been pressing on the inside of my skull for much of the day and get back into bed for a couple of hours kip before heading out to celebrate Rory’s newly acquired yellow belt.
Sometimes sleeping is just the best thing that I can imagine doing and the most rewarding. Even better was the fact that it was finally cold enough to get under my duvet and snuggle down properly- heaven! I woke up just before Nanette rang to invite me out for dinner and managed to pull myself out of bed an into a cab in the wholly unimpressive non-record time of half an hour. After dinner we met up with the rest of the usual suspects (well, those who had fought their hangovers well enough to make it out of bed) at Bumpin for a night of the usual drinking and debauchery- though, as usual, the scales were tipped more to the side of drinking than debauchery. A hundred and one photos and short pointless videos were taken on my camera before the end of the night. I got more than a little bit stroppy when everyone else wanted to stop drinking and go home though, given the hour, perhaps I was a little bit too free with the big girl’s blouse taunts.
I made it to bed around 8am- still laughing at the image of the boys indulging in a little Hapkido- both armed with a cuddly toy in each hand- one of which made kissing noises before shouting ‘I love you!’ every time it made contact with its opponent.
Now I have made it to Monday with the minimum of damage, cloudy head and scratch on my cheek not withstanding. I am putting off planning today’s lessons by writing to you guys, counting the days until my sister gets here (five) and the working days until the five day Korean Thanksgiving vacation (seven).
Hope you all have a good week, keep those emails coming and I’ll try to get another of these group things out once my sister has left in a couple of weeks.
Take care, each and all,
Love
H
xx
posted by Helen @ 10:35 AM
