The final countdown...

Twenty three months in and only one left to go. Wow! What a journey this has been! Over the past two years I have experienced some of the highest highs of my life and some of the lowest lows. This has been an incredible, life altering roller coaster journey and the best experience of my life. It's hard to believe that in exactly one month from now I will have said my goodbyes to so many of my remaining friends, packed up and closed the door to my apartment for the very last time and be on my way with the next adventure.

Every day of my final month here I will reflect on what this journey has done for me and what it has brought into my life. I will try to savour each wonderful moment that is handed to me and face the inevitable final difficulties with patience and grace as I'm sure it won't be long before I'm missing all the annoyances and wishing they were back in my life! I will try to look at things with an appreciation so deep it will be as if I'm seeing them for the first time and I will try to create lasting images in my mind. I will make this last month the best it can possibly be! Here's to ending it all on the highest of highs and to going out with a bang! 

Last EVER 'desk warming' day!!!

Today is my last ever "desk warming" day!

Now, I could look at it (which I have been doing up until now, don't get me wrong!) as
1) an absolute joke
2) really unfair as I don't know anyone else who has to desk warm at this stage of our contract
3) a complete and utter wast of time

OR

I could sit back and enjoy having nothing to do as this will be the last day I am ever sitting in a school without having anything to do! Before long I'll be back to working from 7am-11pm, eating lunch on the go in five mins, running round like a lunatic all day long, adding five things to the to-do-list before crossing one off and not knowing if I'm coming or going! Oh joy. And soon enough, despite all the complaining I've done about it over the past two years, I will miss this concept of having nothing to do and desperately want it back even just for day. I must remember that as boring and mind numbing as this job has been at times that it has been the break I needed to find myself, enjoy myself and love life to the absolute max! I will appreciate it forever and I will never allow myself to forget what this has done for me. The good times and the bad.

Goodbye, boredom! It's been nice knowing you!

Day of fun with my girls

Yesterday was another great day with my girls! We met in Haebongcheon for a lovely Italian lunch and a long overdue catch-up (in which no stone was left unturned!) followed by another prompt course of food, this time a sandwich from a popular sandwich shop, lots and lots and LOTS of makkoli (Korean rice wine) more food in the form of seafood pajeon (Korean pancake) -seriously, I have no idea how these girls stay so skinny! So not fair! And afterwards, a walk to Itaewon where we bumped into some of my "foreigner friends" and continued our drinking with them, after the walk up Hooker Hill (Seoul's red light district, just in case you didn't get that by the name) and Jong-young's first ever sighting of transsexuals and prostitutes- so the fact they come as one package there came as quite the shock! LOL.

I don't have much longer left with these girls I consider dear friends so it really was lovely to have such a great day with them. There were so many moments of awe and adoration for them when they were sitting and talking to each other in English trying to overcome the difficulties and trying their hardest not to revert to Korean which would have been so much easier for them. LOVE THESE GIRLS SO MUCH. What a special day.

MUD FEST!!!

Mud Fest is the epitome of 'the most fun you can have and it still be legal.' Seriously. It's absolutely incredible! This is the second time I have experienced it now and both times I have had a ridiculous amount of fun and neither time have I even experienced it to the absolute max (the first time we only went for the day and this time I was limited as to what I could do in fear or further injuring my ankle.) But just being there and soaking up the crazy atmosphere is an experience in itself. It's bonkers and quite unlike anything I've ever seen or experienced before.

During the two week Mud Festival period the beach-side town of Boryeong is transformed into mud heaven and the small town is flooded with an excess of two million people from all over Korea, particularly expats, who come for a taste (or hopefully not!) of this unusual, fun-filled, nothing-quite-like-it festival.

 Inside the mud area of 'Mud Experience Land' are a number of inflatable slides as well as an inflatable assault course, a mud pool and a mud prison. And nobody comes out clean. You can also get yourself painted in coloured mud which I did this year and that, despite the very long queuing time, was a lot of fun.

After you've had enough of being filthy and covered in mud, and it's not long before my OCD alarm bells start to ring, believe me, people head to the beach to attempt to clean most of the mud off in the sea.

Because I went as part of an organised tour this year I stayed for the whole weekend and the festivities continued, in spite of the rain, back at our pension and long into the night including a dip in the pool, the discovery of a random little sauna room, an amazing BBQ tea, lots of soju, cards games and the the biggest mosquito massacre the world has ever seen!!

Before heading back to Seoul the following day we stopped off at the festival once again, but kept it clean this time, opting for a coffee and a sit down (can't handle like I used to!) before having lunch together.

Mud Fest is great fun and something that everyone living in Korea should experience! I'm just so sad that I won't have the chance to go again next year. Well who knows, I could always come back for the weekend! :)

Hello Kitty Cafe

So, I finally got my bum into gear and went to the Hello Kitty Cafe in Hongdae that I've been meaning to go to for forever! And I was every bit as wonderful as I had imagined it would be! So pink! So cute! So girly! It was great. And my partner in crime, Lela, was the perfect companion as she was in her pink, cute, girly element just as much as me. Neither of us could stop taking photos!

Just like any other cafe or coffee shop you can buy a range of drinks and snacks but here, they are all Hello Kitty-fied which is rather exciting. We found the prices to be reasonable and in line with other coffee shop prices although the Hello Kitty cakes were at little pricey at 10,000won each so I opted for the much cheaper Hello Kitty waffle and cream instead, a steal at only 4,000won a pop.

If you love the cute, girly aspect of Hello Kitty this is a must see place! No visit to Seoul would be complete without a visit to this unique cafe and I'm so glad I finally made it there before leaving!