A Magical Day at Lotte World

It doesn't get much more magical than Lotte World. So for the second year in a row we celebrated Daniel's birthday here and a wonderful day was had by all :)

Happy Birthday to our favourite little Irish man :)

Korean girls that wanted a picture with me! Korea rocks! My white skin makes me such a celeb here!

Queuing. ...Oh, how I miss that word. 

Trying his luck with a hot Korean chick. Standard. 

View from the hot air balloon ride :)

Inside the balloon. Don't worry Daniel, we don't bite. Much. 

What a BIG bow!

The Christmas parade got us all Christmassy and tingly with excitement. 

What happens after Lotte World? Gangnam of course. Duh. 

Birthday boy blowing out his candles! Hip, hop, hooray!

More cocktails in bags on the street. Apparently this is the thing to do in Gangnam now.  Good. It was far too snobby and pretentious before. This is more my style. 

...and then this happened. 

And now I've been there, done that, it doesn't necessarily ever have to happen again :/

Recent food "adventures" with the teachers ^^

My new favourite Korean food is 감자탕 (gamjatang) -which means potato soup. The fact its name is potato soup is strange though because it's not actually served with many potatoes but instead consists of lots of yummy pork spine meat. It's quite spicy and I definitely wouldn't have been able to eat it a year ago but it's absolutely delicious and I can't get enough of it these days. Until the other week, I'd only ever had it at school for lunch, but a new 감자탕 restaurant has just opened five minutes from me so I went with a few of the teachers to check it out. And it was amazing. Ahhh, I want to go again now looking at these pictures...

감자탕 cooking nicely in the middle of the table!

My serving. Ga Yeong had to help me with the bones.... eeeeeeeeew!

Chingus!

Ian was happy with the 감자탕 "adventure," too! Hehehe.

After our Open School the other week we went out for a big school dinner to a sashimi restaurant. I'm more of a meat girl myself (and had never even tasted sashimi before coming to Korea!) but the food was nice. The Soju was nicer though...

Soju from the Principal is a MUST!

LOVE this picture!!! Ga Yeong was very surprised by my 'one shotting' hehe!

... more Soju but not like I need it by the look on my face...

... and more! But I can't refuse. It's considered rude...

Persuading Ga Yeong to drink! I'm such a bad influence! Haha! 

The other day all of the school teachers headed to Bukchon for an afternoon of walking and exploring. Unfortunately I couldn't partake in that part of the trip but I could join in with what came afterwards... dinner! :)

On the way to the restaurant in Bukchon...

갈비탕 (galbitang) -beef rib soup! DELICIOUS! 

Whether it's just dinner with a few friends from the office or whole school dinners, it's always a really happy time. I love my school :)

Goodbye Pee-oh-na!

Last weekend I had to say yet another goodbye. :( And this was a particularly sad goodbye because it's my new Mancunian friend that I had to say goodbye to! It's been so wonderful having another Mancunian-especially one from just five minutes down the road from me- in Korea. Although, we've only known each other for a short time, we've had lots of fun together. Hearing another Manc accent, chatting about all the things we love and love to hate about Manchester and Prestwich and listening to Key 103 are just a few of the things I'm going to miss!

Celebrating our last night togther and the beginning of a new adventure....

... with all you can eat Korean BBQ! Oh yes!

... and of course, yummy Soju cocktails! Would've been rude not to! 

Wishing you all the luck in the world Pee-oh-na (possibly the last time you'll hear your name said like that!!) for the next part of your adventure! See you down under! xxx

Halloween Fun

Last week at school was lots of fun! I spent the whole week teaching Halloween lessons to my fourth and sixth grade students and my first grade afterschool class. It meant I spent most of the week dressed up as a witch complete with fake fingers which never stayed on for long because I couldn't do anything with them on!

Miss Farrell, witch teacher! Mwahaha!

I'm a witch and Ga Yeong's an angel... that's about right!

Making Halloween masks with Grade 4.

My adorable little Grade 1 girls trick-or-treating .

Grade 1 afterschool class with the Halloween treat bags. we made .

And last weekend was time for the 'adult' celebrations- Melisa's Halloween Party. I like my Halloweens here because North Americans really go all out with their costumes so they are lots of fun to see! Melisa made pumpkin pie- which was the most amazing thing ever and 'jellO' shots so the fun times were under way in no time at all! Unfortunately I didn't make it out any further than the party as I was still getting over an illness but a fun Halloween week was had nonetheless.

A chicken and a cat  :)

Ga Yeong's first ever Halloween Party ^^

Fun times <3

Finding a friend to chit-chat with on the train :)

When I was on the train down to Gyeongsan a couple of weeks ago, something strange happened... a Korean person began talking to me... voluntarily!!! It's like pulling teeth usually trying to get a random Korean to answer a question and keep them from running away from you so a Korean striking up a conversation first, of their own accord, is just unheard of! (Visit Korea 2011--> This illustrates perfectly how most Koreans act when they see a foreigner AKA waygookin AKA alien!!! -So funny!)

Although random chit-chat with strangers at home while you're waiting in a queue of some description is usually fleeting, it's nice to be friendly and communicate with people that you come into contact with. The fact it never happens here can add to the feeling of loneliness. Korea would feel a lot less lonely at times if I could chat happily to people on the way to work or while I'm wandering around shopping or in the park or whatever.

But anyway, this particular day was different. I'd not long been on the train when I pulled out my copy of Breaking Dawn to keep me occupied for my four hour journey when I heard from behind, "Hi, do you like Twilight, too?" I turned around in shock to find a young Korean woman looking down at me smiling while clutching her own copy of the first book, and to my complete disbelief, it was the English version! Amazing! I was delighted. We chatted happily, mainly about our love for Twilight and in particular, Edward, for the duration of her journey until she got off the train about forty minutes later.

Before she got off she asked if we could keep in contact and we have which I'm really pleased about. The incident left me smiling long after the train pulled away from her station. I feel like I've been making lots more Korean friends recently which has helped me feel even more settled and given me an even greater love for this country.

Gyeongsan, Daegu and Asian Song Festival 2011

A couple of weekends back I headed down to Gyeongsan for a visit to Fiona's humble abode. And what a lovely weekend I had, too! Spending time with Fiona is wonderful as we're both from the exact same area of Manchester! It's great to chat to someone about home, all the things you miss and don't miss, with someone who understands exactly what you're talking about. And hearing another Mancunian accent is just brilliant, especially as mine is beginning to fade away!

On the Saturday we went to Daegu stadium for the Asian Song Festival concert. I was so excited about this concert since my obsession with K-pop (Korean pop music- and don't laugh, it's very VERY catchy and you hear it EVERYWHERE so it's difficult not to sing along and then, somehow, before you know it, you find yourself listening to it on repeat for hours on end!!) has accelerated drastically over the past few months. Some of the biggest Asian music acts performed at the concert, including performances by Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Thai and, of course, Korean performers. The big Korean groups I was most excited about seeing were boy bands, 'Beast' and 'Super Junior' and girl groups, 'Miss A' and 'Girls' Generation.'

We were even lucky enough to get VIP tickets so the seats we had were great. And although we were on the ground as opposed to one of the higher tiers we saw everything because Korean people don't stand up at concerts so my view was perfect throughout. Wonderful.

Beginning the afternoon the way all afternoons should begin... Korean BBQ!

Inside the stadium with our VIP tickets and free goodies including  glow sticks and blankets - best idea EVER ! 

RaNia = raunchiest Korean girl group in the history of Korean girl groups. 

As the night progressed it became apparent that K-pop is not for everyone. 

The Beast fans were absolutely crazy!! They waited until their boys came  on until they turned on their glow sticks to spell out... BEAST. Clever, eh?! 

Favourite group of the night- Miss A 

Everything was going swimmingly until it decided to rain. At first it was just spitting so we endured the getting wet but then it started pouring down and not everyone one had umbrellas, or the same addiction to K-pop that I do, and they decided to leave early before two of the 'biggies' had performed. I was so gutted. I wanted to stay but since I had no idea where I was and because hobbling around on a dodgy leg in the dark and rain and alone isn't the best of fun, I left with the others. Hopefully, one day I will have another chance to see the groups that I missed.

After the concert I had a 'Daegu night out' (oh yeah, the rain cleared up right after we left the stadium! Brilliant!) with Fiona and her friends which consisted of lots of alcohol (mainly in the form of bags-yay! I'm partial to a bag drink or two!) karaoke in the best bar EVER-'Champs' and just generally lots of fun and good times!

Pizza in a cup. Happy days.

Bag drinks!

Karaoke in the best bar in Daegu.

The next day was a bit of a wash out due to the excessive alcohol intake from the previous night but we did manage a nice lunch in Gyeongsan before I boarded my train bound for Seoul :)

Scrummy lunch before my journey back to Seoul.