♥ AMAZING LIFE ♥

Not much of a blog post but I've just been reflecting on how good life is right now and how happy I am and how much I have to be thankful for.

How can life be this good with FOUR MONTHS of endless exciting times still to look forward to?!?! MY LIFE IS AMAZING and I'm so thankful!


...and realising I've not sat and cried my heart out in months. Because my heart is happy and I'm finally at peace with myself ♥


THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I've never been happier! 

"On the count of three.."

On Saturday I finally experienced something that I've been wanting to try for a long time but have been putting off because, quite frankly, I was too scared. I bet the suspense is killing you, isn't it?! Well to put you out of your misery, I'm referring to my first Korean jimilbang experience. In English 'jimjilbang' means public bath. And at public baths in Korea, you get naked. Very naked. Cringe. Fest.

Ruth and I (actually the worst part about it was being with a friend. It was much easier when I had a similar experience in Japan with only strangers around me) encountered this 'getting naked with each other' experience at Dragon Hill Spa in Yongsan, central Seoul. Before the nakedness we spent time chilling out and relaxing in the sauna rooms. There are a few different sauna rooms to choose from: some hot, some very hot and there is also a cold room and a central relaxation room where families and groups of friends tend to hang out.

The central room leading to the little sauna rooms.

 After we'd had enough of the sauna rooms we decided it was time to go and experience the baths. It was so funny in the changing rooms (well actually not entirely! The fact I had three little, old ladies undressing and practically rubbing their bodies up against me was not all that great!) when it came to taking our clothes off. All the Koreans were whipping their clothes off at the speed of light, no problem but it took us a while longer. It was just so weird. Finally we decided that we'd do it on the count of three and after a little hesitation we did and off we went.

It's so strange to walk around inside the baths completely starkers and what's even more strange is how comfortable Korean women are with it, given how conservative most of them are in day to day life. They stand around chatting, or play in the pool together seemingly unaware of how exposed they are. We even saw one mother and daughter duo in quite possibly the strangest act of showering I've ever seen! But it's nice that they can be so relaxed and carefree. Being that naked and not caring is empowering and liberating. GIRL POWER!

The cold pool.
It was FREEZING!

When you get in there, there are numerous pools to choose from ranging in temperatures from very hot to very cold. There's also a Jacuzzi type pool which has individual seats that you lay back on which we thought seemed fun until we looked up and saw our naked selves in the ceiling mirrors above us! Needless to say we weren't in there for long! Open showers are also in the same area.

While we were in one of the pools we saw a massage parlour at the back of the room with about half a dozen old and half naked Korean ladies giving various massages and treatments. We decided in the spur of the moment to be spontaneous and have a full body scrub. And my, oh, my was that an experience! #1 weirdest experience of my entire life! Hands down! I don't even want to go into details. It was just weird on so many levels and I was glad when it was over. They washed our hair for us though which was nice and saved us the hassle.

The jimjilbang experience is like no other and I'm so glad I went through with it before I left. Albeit very strange at first, if you mange to relax, it can be a nice, relaxing experience and one everyone should have!

A jolly good weekend :)

My life in Korea is usually go, go, go and packed to the rafters with fun and crazy times and this weekend certainly was no exception!

Yummy street-food for lunch!

Posing for this picture was one of the funiest  moments of my life!
Bless the woman who was trying to figure out how to use my iPhone!
Hehehehehe!

On Saturday, after our Korean class, Stephany and I went to a pool party at the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon. During my time in Korea I've heard many stories about this daily event and how crazy it can get but no amount of prior warning could prepare me for what I encountered upon walking out onto that rooftop. The main shock is how small the area surrounding the pool is. There are bodies EVERYWHERE! Practically on top of each other! I'm not entirely sure how we made it around the edge of the pool without falling in with the number of people we had to squeeze past and climb over!

Stephany soon became acquainted with the not-at-all-impressed-and-about-to-punch-somebody-in-the-face-Chelsea but once we found our little spot and I dipped my feet in the water, I was instantaneously transformed into the calm, relaxed, fun-loving-Chelsea that likes to grace us with her presence every once in a while. And things only got better as the drinks started flowing. As the afternoon went on the place got crazier. Scantily clad girls everywhere, drunken bouncing around on the inflatables in the pool and some pool side grinding action thrown in for good measure. It really was quite the eye-opener and the first time I've ever experienced anything like it. It's how I picture the crazy American 'Spring Break' parties to be. I always wondered what those parties would be like. And now I know.

Utter craziness!! 

...and then the drinks started flowing! :)

Long Island Iced Teas in the middle of the afternoon?
Sure, why ever not!

Drunken fun in the pool :)

One of my favourite pictures ever! 

❤

The very next day was another action packed one! I was up at 6am for my Caribbean Bay adventure with Naz and co. Caribbean Bay is the largest indoor/outdoor water park the world(!!!) and located just outside of Seoul. During the month of June KEB (Korea Exchange Bank) ran a special event with discounted ticket prices for its account holders so instead of the usual 50,000+won prices we entered for just 10,000won each which really was quite a spectacular saving! As I'd wanted to go for such a long time I jumped at the chance when I heard about this special offer

.

One of my favourite parts of the day!
Me trying to pay for the ice-cream with my locker key
...and Naz's "Can I get hana Passion Rainbow" order.
FUN TIMES! :)

We had a fantastic day and the park definitely lived up to my expectations but of course, with such low ticket prices, came the world and its wife and the queues for everything were ridiculous with 1.5hrs being our shortest waiting time. I totalled the amount of time I'd spent waiting in queues that day for the queue to get into the park and the three slides/rides that we went on and it came to six whole hours! SIX HOURS!
Whoa.

A great gang to spend the day with!

So glad I finally made it there after wanting to go for so long!

Amazing weekend! One of the best!

"Ticket for one, please."

Yesterday I did something I've never done before and something that I would never have even considered doing if I was still at home... I went to the cinema ALONE! At home I would have considered this such a "loser" thing to do but it's something that many Koreans do often here. So that, mixed with my new attitude of relying on nobody but myself for happiness, encouraged me to do it. So I did. I went to see Snow White and the Huntsman and I had a great time. I loved the film and and got myself a popcorn and Coke set—that turned out to be my breakfast—and it was great because I didn't have to share it with anyone! It's strange because it's not like you actually talk to your friends when you go to the cinema anyway so it didn't really feel any different to any other time I've been. So why I always thought going alone would be weird, I will never know because it's really not. Can't wait to do it again :)    

From now on, not only will I refuse to rely on others for happiness, I will no longer limit my experiences to live by society's expectations either. 

Live a life free of limitations. Always. 

Ice-cream and a 50 minute walk home...
balances itself out
...well as far as I'm concerned, it does :)

I COOKED MY OWN KOREAN MEAL!!

After my cooking tuition from Seolhee the week before, I managed to go ahead and make my first Korean meal completely alone. And what's more it actually turned out edible... and more than that... pretty damn good! Even if I do say so myself! This is going to be my signature dish from now on. I can't wait to make it for people when I'm home. I just wonder how long it will be before I can convince them that rice cake is actually good once you get used to it! :)

Tteokbokki success! Yeah! Go, me! :)

Love, love, LOVE these kids!

Today two fifth grade girls that I taught last year came to visit it me at my desk three times! They just wanted to chat and take pictures with me but they also kept asking if they could have my phone number or email address. It's normal here for students to have their teacher's mobile number but it's still very strange to me so of course I said no, much to their disappointment :( I did however tell them that I'd consider it for after I've left... and they were delighted. Bless.

The students here really are the loveliest kids and I really do love and admire how confident some of them are now when talking to Ian and I. It's such a great achievement for them and something for us to be proud of, too. I'm glad I'll be leaving confident in the knowledge that I did what I set out to here. :) 

Tteokbokki sleepover :)

Cooking. Ugh, that dreaded word. But as much as I go round saying, "I can't cook to save my life" and scrambled egg on toast being as exciting as it gets in my kitchen, saying that I 'can't' cook would be incorrect. It's more a case of laziness. For me there is absolutely no enjoyment in cooking for one. It's expensive, tiresome and boring and I would much prefer to spend my time doing something else. Anything else, really. However, throw another cooking companion into the mix and a real purpose for cooking up a storm, other than to please my own belly, and I'm all over it... like gravy on chips!

So considering that my cooking skills have never mounted to much, what I'm going to say next may come as a bit of a shock. On Friday I cooked my very first Korean meal! I know! Told you you'd be shocked! My lovely friend Seolhee came round to mine for a tteokbooki making, movie watching (that part kinda failed!) sleepover and oh, what fun we had!

Tteokbooki is a popular Korean dish which can be bought readily and cheaply from street-food vendors all over Seoul. It is particularly popular with students and quite often their number one choice of food on the way home from or between schools. The dish consists of two key ingredients- tteok (rice cake) and gochugang (red chili paste) and was much too spicy and difficult (rice cakes are an acquired taste!)  for me to eat for a long time but now I can't get enough of the stuff! It's really quite addictive and something I'd happily buy and eat on the way home from school every day... if only my waistline would agree.

I'm so thankful to Seolhee for my step-by-step tutorial! Buying the ingredients at the market and making it together really was a lot of fun. It's a skill that I will make an effort to remember forever. I'm really looking forward to being able to make such an original dish for friends and family at home (once I've located Manchester's Asian market and stocked up on all the ingredients that is!)

Memorial Day

The 6th of June is a special day in Korea; it's Memorial day and the day that Koreans remember and pay tribute to all those who died during the Korean War and other significant battles. Being such an important day for the nation it is also a public holiday meaning that I had the day off work. I thought it would be nice for me to honour  the true purpose of the day and pay my respects to those who lost their lives fighting for their country while learning more about Korean history at the same time. So I made the journey out of Seoul across to Incheon (Korea's third biggest city) and visited the Incheon Landing Operation Memorial Hall.

At the end of Japan's thirty five year rule over Korea at the end of World War II the Korean peninsular was divided in to two by the USA. In the years that followed the division between the two countries deepened with the North establishing a communist government and the South a capitalist government and it was in 1950 when the North opened fire on the South marking the beginning of the Korean War. Within the first few days of the war the capital of Seoul (meaning 'Capital City' in Korean which was changed after the country's independence from Japan just a few years earlier) became occupied by North Korean forces and destroyed almost entirely. The Battle of Inchon (Inchon was the romanised spelling of Incheon at the time) was the amphibious landing of UN troops delivered as allies to Korea and the Inchon Landing Operation, led by General McArthur, was the movement which led to the reclaiming of Seoul.

The memorial hall exhibits a collection of weapons, artifacts and vehicles from the war and the operation in particular as well as pictures documenting what life was like at that time. There is also an 18 meter long memorial tower as well as the national flags of the sixteen countries that participated in the war. On this day, the South Korean flag is flown at half mast in memory and respect.

My time at the memorial hall was both informative and eye-opening. I now have a much deeper understanding of Korea's history and the division of the North and South. As the war was never actually declared 'over' the countries still technically, and very sadly, remain at war with one another. I truly hope that one day this wonderful country that has been my home for the last couple of years can find and move forward in absolute peace.

My chingu and her birthday :)

This week was Ga Yeong's birthday and we celebrated by going to Hongdae together for the first time! We had decided beforehand on a Hawaiian restaurant called 'Aloha Table' which was my first experience, excluding the countless 'not-so-Hawaiian' pizzas of the same name, of this cuisine. And it did not disappoint. We ordered three dishes—which of course we shared, Korean style—and each was really good. We had a taco salad, a burger with cheese, pineapple, egg- the works! and Loco Moco- an interesting dish consisting of white rice, a hamburger patty and topped with a fried egg. You mix it all up together before eating. It was really good! 


As well as the delicious food there was lots of chatting and catching up, loads of photos, present opening and cocktail drinking. The first and, sadly, most probably the last, birthday with my chingu but what a great one it was! ♥