Day 68

Woah this was yesterday! I have officially caught up with myself! Woke up around 1ish, err Heeji texted me and said she was just leaving work as she had had a medical appointment. So she was on her way round. Yes!! That was a good surprise, did my usual Heeji on routed panic tidying of flat! We just spent the rest of the day and evening watching funny ones - IT crown, Fawlty Towers, Father Ted, and Flight of the Conchords and had big hugs and ate doughnuts! What a great way to spend a Day, especially as a surprise!

Day 67

Wow I've nearly caught up with myself! Im now writing about the day before yesterday, having to hang around all day waiting for my new emergency passport, but thats another bloody story! Anyways wednesday! Wnet back to the dentist and amazingly it hurt more than before which was incredible. Also the bloody dentist then tells me he cant see me friday, I said I going to England on Monday for one month. I told him I asked him if he could do it all this week on Monday. He just said sorry, I said will it hurt, he said probably and gave me a prescription for some pain killers and said chew on the right hand side I said what for a month. I told him it was unsatisfactory, but he just said sorry. Anyways went to meet Susie in Hongdae, we went to Baby Guiness, Irish pub, and it was great to see her and catch up, as she is so funny and a really good friend. Later we went to a place called Sindaebang where I d never been before and met a Saudi Arabian friend of Susies, and her Korean boyfriend. They were pretty cool, we had chicken and beer and then went to a club and everybody got right on the Soju! We had a dance and it was a pretty banging club, good night with good company!

Day 66 - Crazy Day!

Woke up and Heeji was late for work, but I dont think it matters too much so long as she gets everything done. It got me up anyways. I was supposed to be going to an Art meet up group. I arrived at the station at 11am but no one showed up -  typical artists!! Anyways these old ladies had spotted me sitting outside the station and came and chatted. At first I thought they might be the art group, but they didnt speak any english and they certainly didnt look like artists! Around 20 minutes later they came back and I was still sat there. They said "Pagupa?' Which means are you hungry, I said I was so they beckoned me to come to lunch with them. After a long while of them arguing about where to go, we found a place and had noodle and sushi, was pretty good and not bad for free. Turned out they were christians, and they were telling me about some world peace event the wanted me to go to. They hooked me up with some other younger christians who ivited me for dinner and to a bible study class later that day. After I left the nice old ladies, I found a nice place in Sindorim to sit and have beer in the sunshine. I felt a bit guilty for wanting to sit in the sunshine and drink beer. But I am sure that is the objective of most British people when on holiday! I met a nice lady who worked in insurance who was half Japanese, half Korean, so chatted to her for a bit.
Then I went to meet the christians. We met in Sinchon and had a lovely Korean BBQ at a place I recommended. They seem very sweet, a girl called Da Hye and a girl called Jihyun. Then we went to the bible study group, and read some bible, a lady gave a talk, but it was a bit immature, almost like sunday school. Interesting though that all these Koreans meet to discuss the bible in English as there was only one other non korean. and about 8 Koreans. Someone had bought some clay as the talk was about god making us like pots, and then filling him with love. Well as you know I'm pretty handy at pottery so I made a nice coil pot.
After that strange little ordeal I went to beer o'clock, met a friend of mine by accident. Then got talking to some crazy Swedish guy, I joined him and his 3 other friends 2 more Sweeds and a Canadian. I took them to Woodstock and we got some pitchers. After that we went to Mikes Cabin, oh lordy Swedish people are crazy! Had a dance and some shots and it was a pretty funny evening, pretty funny day also!!

Day 65 - Dentist!

Had to go to the dentist today, thought it may be bad news as two of my back teeth were all broken, I had had them filled when I was in Vietnam but the had since fallen out and then I kept on putting off going. But the past few days I had a bit of pain in the bottom one, and was worried I would have to go to the dentist in England which is obscenely expensive. I went for a nice coffee in the sunshine before hand, in order to ensure a small part of my day was 'happy'. Ahhh! Dentist was more painful than I could ve imagined, both physically and financially. Crap! I had been saving money for England and that took a massive dent in it. 2 route canals and 2 crowns - around 800 quid!! Shit! After dentist, I felt I had earnt a beer after the ordeal, there is a nice place in Sinchon, I think one of the only ones you can sit outside. I had taken my laptop and did some blogging. Although I know that I was a bit heady from the anaesthetic and so apologies for the ranting of nonsense that day! Then sweet little Heeji turned up after work, we had a coupld of beers and then went to jazz club in Sinchon, is a nice place and the wine is quite reasonable. PLus Heeji had never been there its on a high floor in one of the buildings and has big glass windows overlooking the busy mania of Sinchon High street.

Day 64 - Sunday

Super day just relaxing with Heeji, and then she went to her book club. I had a nice rleaxing evening in on my own, which was a rare thing! Nothing much else to report. I ate pizza and watched 'Inglorious Bastards' Tarantino war film, it was a great film, brilliantly done and had some great acting. Although Brad Pitt was rubbish in it, I usually like him. But he played a really over the top hillbilly, I think his British accent is much more convincing. Great film though.

Day 63 - Jirisan

Woke up and had a few things to get together for our weekend trip, had to do some washing and sort out some head torches. Went to meet Heeji for dinner where we meeting the coach to Jirisan, which is a national Park. We had a lovely meal in a place called sadang, although we had to wait over an hour to be seated as was a popular place. It was worth the wait though. Then we got on the Coach at 10.20 and drove through the night. I did not sleep a wink. The bus driver was so bad, it was like he'd never driven a bus before, either that or he was intentiaonally trying to shake everyone on the bus awake. At one point he got stuck trying to get round a steep mountain corner. He stalled it and lost power steering, we didnt know if we going to go backwards over the edge of a cliff or something. We got to the first drop off point, there was the option of doing a 30 km walk, leaving at 3.30 am or staying on the bus and doing a shorter walk at around 15km. I wanted to do longer walk, but Heeji was abit too scared, bless her as she had never walked that far. I said with this driver its far more rational to be more scared staying on the bus. She said I could go on the long walk on my own, but really I just wanted to spend the day with her. So we stayed on the bus with the old people, children and fat people, for another 2 hours or so. We started walking aourn 6 am I think. I was a bit dissapointed, and a bit angry with the bad driver keeping me all night. So was feeling pretty exhausted when we set off. We walked though a forest for some time, it was almost like a rain forest, but was nice in the sunrise. Unfortunately the cloud cover was quite heavy so we didnt see the actual sunrise. Evetually we had got pretty high, and a beautiful vista opened up. Super Day all in all!

 We contiued up the path a lot of which was made into steps. It was quite tough going. But it was just nice to be on a mountain with Heeji. There was only 5 of us in the group. Eric the organiser, who is very nice. A funny guy from Idia called Mohammad and a larger american lady whom Heeji had met before, who was very nice but did not cope well with the climb. That was funny we had taken some noodles for lunch and Heeji asked me to put them in my bag. I asked her just out of interest if I have the water, the food, and the water proofs in my bag, wheat exactly do you have in your bag. She wouldnt tell me. I said do you have anything useful for climbing the mountain. She said no. She had over night things, make up and stuff for her book club tommorow!! Hahaha we couldnt stop laughing for ages, I know I notoriously bad a packing for going up mountains, but she seems to have got the award, especially as we could leave things on the bus!! Bless her!! Too cute! The last haul up to the summit was pretty steep, and there were lots of people. When we got there I 've never seen so many people all trying to stand on the top. There was a queue to have your photo taken by the head stone! We then turned along the ridge and walked a long for another hour or so before finding a shelter where we stopped for lunch, I found an enormous moth, I was not sure if it was dead or not, sometimes they just appear dead, but need some more energy from the sun. So I took it off the path and found a little sunny shelter should it come round again, beautiful creature though. On the way back down the mountain, we followed the mountain stream. It had lovely pools and waterfalls and we stopped and put our feet in. Wow the last 2 km was really heavy going, just walking over rocks, and tough on our knees. When we arrived we still had to wait a long time for Alenka ( the american woman) and the other group. So we had some food and Makgoli and beer and the food was soooo good. The advanced group turned up, and they were all in a foul mood and said the walk was a nightmare but they didn't wanna talk about it. I was a bit glad I hadn't gone with them as our team had nicer people, and the walk was plenty challenge enough. As soon as they arrived they had a beer but they didnt have time to finish, as Eric was keen to get going. We got back on the coach for another 2 hours. I was glad I wasnt them to finish a walk and have to get straight on the coach without time to have something to eat and drink. We stopped at services and had a hotdog. Then we went back to my house and had baths, and watched some funny shows.

Sweet Heeji, but check out the guy on the right!!

Summit

Day 61 - Daejon

Well I went for a coffee and thought I would have a look on the internet as what to do in Daejon. Unfortunately the city is very spread out and I read it was difficult to find place in walking distance. I had read the expo park was nice and near the art gallery museum to so I got a taxi there. The expo park was crazy. It was like a massive deserted theme park. I was litterally the only person there. I couldnt understand why such a big theme park had been neglected as it was the summer, but apparently all big cities in korea take in turns to have an Expo park and show off and then they get deserted. Anyways it was scorchingly hot, and kind of surreal so I quite enjoyed it. I walked down a long the river which was nice. More massive deserted buildings with very unique architecture. I found the Art gallery and they said there was a picasso exhibition on but when I got there it was closed and also looked deserted???? However there was a small art gallery open that had a reasonably interesting abstract expressionist show on. Then went for a lovely walk around this lovely park, although it was searingly hot! Walked a long the river for a bit more, in fact i had walked 10km that day according to my walking app. Got a taxi back to the station and headed back to Seoul. Sweet little Heeji came round in the evening and we had pizza and watched some IT crowd. Nice relaxing evening after holiday.

Day 60

Spent the day drinking coffee by the seaside and went for a little walk along the front. Realising it was probably time i started heading back to Seoul. I had decided to break the journey up a bit and was going to stop in a city called Daejon which was supposed to be nice. I met a nice guy at the railway station who spoke good english and was also heading to Daejon, but he only wanted to alk about football, which I know nothing about! He was nice though. Arrived in Daejon around 10pm, and we said our goodbyes. Then went to look for a hotel. All the hotels looked pretty seedy. Or what they call 'Love Hotels' There were lots of numbers for sexy massages, but I'm sure you could have got what you wanted. A lot of Korean couples use love hotels as well, because it is normal in Korea to live with your parents until you are married, so couples need a place to go. Still it was only 35,000 won for a room (18 quid) Actually I was thinking to go out and see what Daejon was all about but I was so exhausted I just watched some Bear grills in the hotel and got an early night. 5 nights of holidaying was starting to take its toll!

Day 59

Found a nice coffee shop on the seafront, had some coffee and breakfast baguette. I wrote my blog for a few hours as had a fair bit of catching up to do. Like now! Afterwards I went to the downtown area and went to a Sashumi place I had been recommended by Un. Hmm was so good! I love a bit of raw fish by the seaside. After dinner I went to meet the boys who had tried to help me when I was lost. I hadnt realsied they were high school students and so only some of them were able to drink. So we went to Kareoke or Noribong as its called in Korea, so they could all get in. Its funny though, because all of them could have had a drink, but as they are Korean they follow the rules and only the ones old enough had a drink. Kareoke was well funny though and I gave them a few gooduns! After I left them I found myself in this ludicrously expensive bar, or I'm not sure if it was really expensive or whether they ripped me off, but the next day I checked my account and I had spent a small fortune. I think though because its a place where a lot of people own Yachts they re are some pretty fancy places but I didnt realise at the time. Anyways was a pretty funny evening.

Day 58 - Yeosu

Woke up, beautiful view from hotel window of the sea. And the bed was amazing. Just went for a nice long walk around the harbour, lovely little town stopped for some coffee and had a nice sandwhich for lunch. I found a nice little bar around 6 pm and had a couple of beers. Then it started torrential raining. Although I was under an umbrella and quite enjoyed the storm. A little man saw me sitting in the rain and ran across the street and handed me an umbrella, Another fine example of how sweet Koreans are. I had a nice chicken dinner and found some club, which was pretty expensive but quite nice anyways. Fairly uneventful evening really but nice all the same.

Day 57 - Makgoli Island

Well we woke up on the sailing the boat, the beds were actually really comfortable. We had breakfast bagels. We then set out for the Makgoli island. Again the tide was too low but there was a harbour at the back of the island that was deeper. So we went there, meaning we had to walk for an hour to get to the factory. The factory was a feature though, and the woman was very nice and showed us around, then we bought some Makgoli and headed back to the boat. Luckily some little man was driving past in a pick up we all piled in the back and he gave us a lift back to the harbour. Then we set sail again and went back to a spot where we could dive off the boat into the water. I wasnt really that much in the mood for swimming so just sat around chatting. The sunshine came out and everyone was happy and drinking Makgoli, and having a laugh. I did decide to jump off the boat in the end but I had left my James Bond swimming trunks on the boat rail to dry and they had fallen into the sea so I just jumped in fully clothed. The last few hours on the boat was kind of sad but was great atmosphere especially as the sun had made an appearance. When we got back to the harbour. I had decided to stay in the little town for a few days holiday, so I said my goodbyes to all my new found friends.

 I found a nice little place on the seafront and sat in the sunshine and drank some beer. I met this lovely guy called Un, who spoke exceptionally good english and we talked about philosophy. He was great! Then his wife turned up to pick him up so I went to find a hotel. I found a nice hotel, dropped off my things then went to find some dinner. I went t a nice little bar and had some sea food rissotto type thing. They phoned Heeji on my phone to see if she knew where I was staying but of course she didnt, but then she got worried and started phoning all the hotels in the area. Then we found a policeman and he thought he knew where my hotel was based on my discription, so I got a ride in the police car! Didnt think I would end up being taken home by the police but was pretty funny anyways and we found the hotel. Was chatting with the boys who worked in the hotel for a bit as they were pretty funny. Then went to bed!

Policeman and hotel Boys!!

Day 56 - Tall Ship Sailing Cruise!

Wow! Today was one of the most memorable days of my life! We arrived at port at around 7am, I got off the bus, bleary eyed and there was a couple of boys sitting on the bank drinking beer, I said bloody good effort drinking beer at 7 am, a canadian called Peter handed me a beer, and after my first comment couldnt say no. There was a little supermarket across the street, so I went a bought a load of beers and snacks and cookies and sweets. I always think on these kind of trips its really important to take things that you can share. Anyways took some lovely photos of the harbour (Oh just discovered Yanks spell harbour without a U! The insanity!) as it was quite spectactular in the morning sunrise. We enjoyed the sunrise for a couple of hours and then got on the boat at 9 am. As soon as the boat set sail, everyone was drinking, there was around 30 people, very international. I was the only Brit, a shit load of Yanks ( is it ok to say yanks in today's society, I guess its a bit deraogatory but so many of them were so lovely and I love so many of them, I think I dont care!) What is racism anyway? a lot of people accuse you of racism if you use the wrong words, , or even if you say that some races are different, which is ridiculous because all races are different! Racism, I believe is about disliking a certain race or discriminating a certain race. Well I take everybody on face value, as individuals. I love everybody individually unless they give me reason not to. In fact, it may even be a problem that I trust everyone and love everyone. But no race or no country has ever given me reason to dislike them or judge them. I think you can however dislike a countries politics, god knows I hate the british government, they are rubbish. Anyways massive digression ( I just had 2 route canals done and a hefty bill so Im drinking beer and ranting!) but please feel free to comment below if you ever dislike any of my views because, I dont actually beleive in anything (except love, beauty, friendship, happiness, and god!) Oh bloody hell where were we, oh yeah anyways we on a 40 foot wooden sailing ship with a load of lovely people drinking at 9 30 am, I would say that was a pretty good place to be. Everyone was chatting and introducing themselves, I d say there were about 9 koreans, 2 wonderful Irish people ( I think I can be judgemental, in saying that Irish people are always hysterically funny, and lovely and wonderful) Oisin was the offical Irish Photographer, and what a lovely prime example of a beautiful irish man. I would say about 5 canadians. Anyways lets stop with the judgements because everyone and I mean everyone was absolutely lovely, and well up for the CRAIC! First stop was the Makgoli Island, I ve told you about Makgoli before its a rice wine, anyways this island is famous in Korea for producing the best. Unfortunately the tide was too low for us to get to the makgoli island, so waht did they do? They sent out a little boat with no less than 79 bottles of Magkoli! Oh my word, then everybody got on the Makgoli and boy was it good! Then the boat went to a spot where we could all throw ourselves off the rigging, into the water. I had some James Bond swimming trunks that I somehow nicked of my brother, and everyone was laughing at them. I mean in europe they are quite the trend but anyways luckily I could not give a shit about my scrawny white pale skeleton body, nor my nuthuggers! There was a diving platform about 40 ft above the water, I near shat myself climbing up there, and it kind of made me realise that I'm never gonna conquer Everest but I overcame my fear as I was climbling up, put myself in a kind of meditatory state for the last 10 feet and jumped off the fucker anyways! Then we went to an Island that had some real dinasaur footprints. Peter and I stopped on this beautiful bench and the top of hill overlooking the sea and drank Makgoli and lauaghed and laughed and laughed. Anyway we lost the group, and then we tried looking for the dinasaur prints but got a bit lost and then we worried that we would miss the boat so we headed back. Luckily I found my beautiful new found friend Sonia, who is half Korean half American, and she said the dinasaur prints were amazing and they werent far, so she took me  and we ran to the place where they were. Oh my lordy, they were amazing! Dinasaur footprints! You could just imagine this dinasaur running along millions of years ago. The sun was setting and I was looking at dinasaur footprints with Sonia. What a beautiful person is Sonia? She was like a massive hippy, she s from Texas, and one thing I know about Texas is that it breeds real 70s style hippies, I know Brittain does to (whoops nearly wrote England rather than Brittain, but actually some of the best 70s hippies I know in England are from Wales!) Anyway if I was to ever go to America again I would be heading straigh for Texas, I mean Music, Art? They have got some of the best! In history! Americana is like my favorite type of music and like all the greats hail from Texas, (except Neil Young of course who is Canadian, who I am going to actually see in person in about 3 fucking weeks!!!) Anyways, Sonia's beautiful Aura was bigger than the 40ft sailing ship by about 10 ft, and I guess we had a certain affinity because we were both hippies! Woah! Next part of the story gets a bit hazy, Magkoli is a lovely drink but I swear it has hallucinogenic properties! As far as I know we all got back on the ship and sailed to a different island for a pork korean bbq. It was amazing such a lovely meal ( oh that was wierd just as I wrote the word amazing it sang on the speakers where I am now, youre amazing just the way you are, I know bloody awful song but anyway!) Ahhhh! Heres where in the story I had a massive blank out (fortunately, even when I am in such a state I dont know whats going on, which is rare but we had been drinking now for around 20 hours! Apparently I'm still amusing and completely non aggressive! Unlike my dear brother who tends to start abusing evrything and everyone!) Anyways I wake up in a room, everything is pitch black and I'm on a bed, I cant find the door and I thin I was still hallucinating from the Makgoli. Oh shit I really did in my Makgoli addled mind think I was in prison, I thought I ve finally done it, I was so scared, it was awful, I dont know, I was half asleep, half dreaming, half makgoli halunccinating, but in my mind I thought it was the end of everything I knew! hahahaha! This hideous reality, I know it sounds unbeleivable but for that half an hour or so I really thought that life as I knew it was over! I tried to feel my way round the walls of my cell, vaguely trying to recall what had happened. Actually shit, I just remembered in writing this, I thoguht I had been captured by some kind of Somali or Thai slave traders, oh yeah that was it, it was part of a dream I had had before I woke up that I had been captured through no fault of my own. and that my destiny was now out of my control and I was in the hands of slave traders. Yes that was the fear I had, fuck it was scary! And yes that does confirm my beleif that Magkoli in large quantities has hallucenic effects. Anyways then somebody opened the door, and it was an american guy from the trip, OMG I gave him a big hug! I was so glad my nightmare was over! Apparently some kind sole had put me to bed in the Captains cabin, and the captain wanted to go to bed, only to find his bed occupied by a lunatic like me! Anyways went back to the main refectory and everyone was playing drinking games. So with my apparent elation and release from Somali pirates, I found a new energy and joined in with with the drinking games for a while anyway! And that my friends and fans and wonderful people who read my blogs from countries I know not how you ve found me is what is called one hell of a fucking day!!!! Love ya

Day 55

Hey Folks I'm going to try and be a bit brief because I have fallen behind a bit. Today I had to pack all my stuff for a little boat holiday I'm off on tonight. Was supposed to meet my sweet friend Suzie for lunch but she has some kind of insomnia and didn't wake up. Anyway eventually she did and I so I went to meet her in Itaewon for a drink we had a couple of pints of London Pride in an English theme pub. My god I miss English beer. It tasted a small bit like london Pride, but god do I miss English Ale. Sha'nt be long now!Anyways I hadn't seen Susie for ages because she went to England to see her English boyfriend for 3 weeks. He was just setting off for a cycle ride around the entire world for charity, he's amazing, its a shame I only met him once before he left korea, but I sponsored him and he has a really good blog of his travels, which I follow. Anyways shes lovely, and sweet and funny, so was great to see her. Then I went to Hongdae to meet sweet Heeji Peej, we had a wierd mexican which was like a cross between a night club and a fast food restaraunt! Then we met Heeji's friend, Eunhi who was really sweet, and I was glad that Heeji and I have got to a stage where I can meet her friends. Then I had to rush across town to meet the bus as I was off on an organised sailing trip in the south of south korea. I only just made the coach as the tube was so slow I lept off got in a taxi and he dropped me off in totally the wrong place, so had to get another, coach left at 11, I got there at 11.01. Everyone on the bus was drinking and I thought shit I wish I'd bought some beers, but I had had a few and was tired so wasnt really in the mood for meeting loud drunk americans. I had a few hours sleep on the 6 hour journey and then this day turns into the next!

day 54 - back to another amazing day

Well went to Hongdae had an amazing brunch in a japanese restaraunt,  it was like curry with a egg and bacon,  had I had a hangover I would say it was possibly the ultimate cure. In korea they eat spicy noodles for a hangover, in England we eat egg and bacon. So its like the perfect combination. Good old japan! Then went to buy some new glaasses. Korea is like the best place to buy glasses, there is so much choice and half the price of the UK. I got one pair of blue and one pair of orange. I love orange! And blue!  In the evening I went to meet heeji peeji. We had wanted to go on river cruise buffet but apparently u have to book 1 day in advance. Anyways we sat by the river and had a beer and it was one of those romantic situations where u really dont want to be anywhere else and u want time to just freeze. We had a kiss and Heeji said the thing she was most looking forward to about coming to England was being able to kiss in public! I know its not really apropriate to have a passionate snog in public in england, but in korea you cant even have a peck on the lips. Like when you meet, even if its your wife! Anyways cant complain because living in Korea is the best thing in the world!! Anyways time got the better of us and when we finally left the river bank all the nice riverside restaurant s had stopped serving so we ended up with chicken and beer. In korea they have these chicken and beer places, and actually the fried chicken is soooo good. Even better tgan the fried chicken in hackney and thats saying something! Cos those afrocaribeans can do fried chicken. Anyways the fried chicken place was on a jetty on the river so it still turned out to be an amazing romantic evening and we laughed lots and lots. I cant really put into words how lovely it is spending time with Heeji Peeji is ~ like some kind of magical dream! Thats about as close as I can get!!

day 54

Well spent the day in school just tidying and organising my classroom. Went on a nice musical journey of heavy 90s metal. Iron maiden, soundgarden, pearl jam I think there was even a bit of metallica in there. Hey joon appeared in my class room and asked if I need any help, bless her. Oh shit I only just realised that was probably the last time I ll ever see her. Anyways it was satisfying day as my classroom is kind of in some kind of order. I ve spent like 4 straight days in there just tidying, it is quite amazing how messsed up an art room can get, its just like a constant battle of holding back the tide.

day 53

Well not the most exciting day, however according to the system I only have to be happy for 10 minutes per day. In fear of failing this task I went down to yonhui dong and had nice lunch and sat in the sunshine. The evening I got pizza and caught up with game of thrones! Sorry but even a person as manic and excitable as myself can have a relatively mundane day sometimes! Its only one out of like 53 so bollocks anyways!

day 52

Sorry  for being crap with my blogging lately, but been having too much fun. I know one shouldnt confuse the past and the present with a journal, but im currently sat in the sunshine in a beautiful town called yeseo drinking coffee so thought I d do some catching up. But forgive speeling mistakes and lack of punctuation as I can hardly see the screen. Amyways day 52 was rather uneventful, just stayed at home nursing a hangover and watching gold rush on my badass new flat screen television. In fact I had that kind of post 3 day bender depression a bit and was even worried I might not have anything good to say about the day. However, who shoukd be concerned about me not eating properly and come round to my house with some healthy dinner. Yes you know the cutest little Heeji Beeji of course. Awwwe I hadnt seen her for like 4 days because she went on holiday at the weekend. So a relatively mundane shitty day turned into an amazing evening. Awwe I miss her now just talking about her.

day 51

Kind of nice sunday really, went out in hongdae and sat outside in the sunshine, then went to bug mamma pippis to play darts with Ryan. He kicked my arse though, hes so good! I did hit a 140 though. Met with my friend Jiyoung and had some mexican, shes so funny so had a really lovely time witg her just chatting and laughing. We used to date, but it didnt work, so it was nice to know we could just be friends. Koreans dont usually be friends with their exes, but when we were dating we sometimes used to go out with her korean ex, so shes pretty down to earth and cool.

Day 50 - Half Way to Summin'

Wow I can't believe its half way, Heeji just sent me a text to say I had numbered the days wrong, so I had to go back and change like 10 titles. Its a good job I have a mathematician looking out for me else I would have had to have been happy for a whole extra day! Day 101 I'm gonna do absolutely sweet FA! (That's polite for F*ck All! for my non English fans, and F*ck is kind of polite for Fuck! Oh and 'Fuck All' is the rude way of saying nothing!! haha) But then I'll be happy doing nothing exciting that day so I'll still be happy anyway so there you go!
Day 50 - Last Day of the school year!! Wow that was good timing for my 50 mile stone, had I the slightest concept of Maths, you could have accused me of planning it! Last Day did a bit of tidying in my room, then we went for big faculty leaving lunch (like I say how many bloody leaving functions do they want??) Anyways it was nice and everyone was excited and emotional, we had to do this thing where all the newbies which was me, because they have a saying "that you are new for the whole first year' had to run through an arch tunnel made up of all the teachers hands, giving high fives, (Americans bloody love a good high five!) and then we got certificates, gave big old Mr. Kevin Baker a big hug, which was nice because he has been an amazing headmaster (or Principle as Americans say) and I will miss him. Picked up my new television which was a bit exciting! Korean telly is hysterical, plus kind of hoping it will help me learn Korean, which is one of my main objectives next year, language is freedom! Heeji helps me with my korean but actually im embarrased how little I ve learnt. Sometimes heeji pretends to be Japanese in restaurants so I have to practice! Anyways, went out that night to shamrocks with teachers. I dominated the pool table for like 2 hours, with various koreans trying to beat me, but made some new friends with these korean army bays.  Korean friends are the best, also met a reallt nice french girl called Alice who knew lots about Art. Always good to practice my french.

Day 49

Friday - Last day for students!
Was a strange format to the day, started with a leavers assembly where students get awards and what not. Then the students have a series of 7 minute lessons, which I guess is kind of nice because they would do all the lessons they would normally do in 2 days in like 2 hours so they basically come around saying goodbye which is nice. Hye Joon gave me a packet of nice chocolates and wrote me the sweetest letter as she is leaving, it made me cry, and has done pretty every time Ive read it since.  Student/teacher love is a unique form of love it has an element of paternal love but there is also a mutual respect, some students just make it all worth while, I will miss her because she would always be in the room after school and help organise me, she was a great help. But also just to see her change as an artist over the past year has been a privilege to be a part of. She is moving to Russia to finish for her final year at school because of her father's job, so it is also sad that she is leaving half way through her IB. Anyways like I say the odd one or two students make it all worth while and do give you a sense of purpose, although being an existentialist I wouldnt know anything about that! No joking, a sense of purpose is what keeps us going, true nothing happens for a reason, unless of course you create a reason!
Anways was a nice day saying goodbye to all the students and a number of them said very kind words to me.
That evening was the students graduation, wow Americans don't half do that seriously, its basically the same as when you have just got a degree, they all wear gowns, we have to wear gowns, there is all this rigid formulaic order and speeches. Considering American got all their traditions from England they seem to have made up a lot a long the way. Well I'd say it was very much based on what we do in England as a degree ceremony, but I can't even remember what happened on the last day at my school, I think we just smashed the place up, caused as much trouble as we could and then went out and got drunk! Anyways it does make you proud to be part of such a school as it was pretty impressive, they even had a pit orchestra! After 3 long hours of ceremony!! They all went outside and threw their hats in the air, and we said our final goodbyes. Which was somewhat emotional as I did have a lot of love for my seniors, a girl called Reca came up to me and thanked me for changing her whole perception of Art! Just another one of many really talented, boring, perfectionist realists, I'd manage to turn in to a full blown, large scale, exciting expressionist in the course of my career, I seem to have that effect! Is there a place for realist painting in the modern world? I don't know, maybe in the sense that the better the realist, the better the expressionist they become, so its an important part of the journey. But since the invention of the camera I can't really see the point. (again feel free to argue in the comments box below!) Anyways thats another artistic lesson that took me until the age of 27 to work out for myself!
Anyways in the evening I went out with Vicky, which was great, she truly has been my closest friend this year and I am so sorry she is leaving. She started at the same time as me, but I think Seoul is a very hard place for a single, young, white woman of our age. I guess they are not that interested in Korean men and all the white guys just want Korean women, because they are so unspeakably hot! Sorry is that racist? I don't know, I think it's whats called positive racism, which is ok! I have met a number of white men who are not that into Korean women (bloody racists!)  but they do really well with all the white women, because the single white women are having such a hard time of it.
Anyway I digress, (Anyways has to be the most commonest word in this blog, mainly owing to all the digression!) Vicky and I had a wonderful evening, we went to Beer "O' Clock and had the best pizza ever, and met this lovely couple, she was English from Nottingham and he was American. They came with us to Woodstock and then we went for a boogie in Mikes cabin which was pretty bloody good fun all in all, and a great last night out with sweet Victoria Scott.

Day 48

It was a work day today so no students, we are just given the day to sort our acts out and try and get ready for the summer. Although I was lucky enough to have Hye Joon and 2 other  Art students come in all day and help me sort my classroom out, what my classroom needed was a woman's touch, they sorted all my equipment out in to separate trays, and we had had a big order so we unpacked that. Obviously I got over excited with all the new equipment and started pulling out of the boxes, soon to be stopped by Hye Joon who was ticking things off the order form! Anyways it was great to have it all sorted and I cant tell you how much time these kind students saved me.
In the evening we went for a lovely meal with some of my friends for the British School, it was like american Bistro style, it was really good but exceptionally heavy, I had pork!

Day 47

Im trying to speed these up as Im like 10 days well now 8 but I suppose its a blog and its there to be read and sometimes its nice to just rant, or whatever, I'm not sure what the point is, reflection perhaps. Anyways Day 46 was fantastic and Im just currently enjoying being in a nice coffee shop without a care in the world so here it is!
Err well another day at school last day of Exams, enjoyed again being trapped in a room reading the book Heeji gave me. Its great that we can both be a bit into philosophy and have proper conversations about literature, I think that makes her into whats known as 'a keeper!'
We had big faculty leaving lunch, and old Mr Baker finally got presented with his cross that I made, he seemed very happy with it, and I got a lot of lovely compliments from the staff, although  compliments are always nice, when you are not 100% pleased with a piece of Art, you almost feel a bit guilty when praised. Mind you I didn't feel too guilty about being given 1 million Won for my trouble! I literally had to give the money straight to the IT department for the 2 mobile phones that I had lost this year, but I guess it was good to pay for them with money that I magicked out of a lump of clay!
I went out in the evening to meet Heeji Peeji, to go to the cinema we met in a very roundy shopping centre to watch a film, and we went for a superb Italian meal beforehand. We had really nice couple seats, although the cinema did not serve beer, so the quest for the ultimate cinema continues! Although I dont ever really fancy a beer in a cinema, its a question of principle that the ultimate cinema should probably serve beer!! The couple seats were probably the best yet! We watched some weird film with Tom cruise farting about being trapped in the same day over and over again because of a bunch of earth invading aliens that could alter time. Which had I been given that synopsis I would probably thought was shit. Luckily I had no idea of the synopsis or even the title of the film beforehand, and despite it ridiculousness it was actually captivating from beginning to end! Maybe not what you might call groundbreaking or memorable though! ( There is a comments box below if anyone would care to give it a more optimistic criticism!)

Day 46

Fairly mundane Tuesday, had to sit in an exam for 2 hours, but Heeji had lent me a really interesting book called "The Art of Loving" by Erich Fromm, who I had heard of before, its about the Psychology and philosophy of Love and detachment. She didn't lend it to me because she thought I needed lessons on the Art of loving, (although even lessons you know are good to refresh!) but they had just finished on Sunday in her book club, and I had expressed an interest in the idea. Its more theoretical than a 'self help' book, I'm far to sane to need a self help book!!! Hahahaha Anyways quite enjoyed being trapped in a room with a book for 2 hours where no-one can get at you! Other than that the only other real highlight was fixing the box for the Headmasters cross, which made it look fancy. I got the school carpenter to make the box I just fixed it up with some foam board and silk. The task itself was not unlike every other aspect of making the cross - amazingly infuriating but eventually satisfying.
Oh wait shit I just remembered something awesome that happened today, there was an amazing thunder storm in the evening, the lightning was immense just everywhere behind, in front sometimes it seemed to be so close it was right above your head so I just sat on my balcony and enjoyed that because I was sheltered. Took around 300 odd photos to try and capture one of the forks and nailed it eventually!

Actually just deleted around 600 photos of nothing to get these 3 shots of lightning!