Day 34

Yeaaaaahh It survived!!! Opening the Kiln was a heart stopping moment! But it survived perfectly, ahhhhh (That was like an ahhhhh relief rather than an ahhhhhh excited) Today Im kind of like AHHHHHH! Excited because I'm going on holiday tommorow with sweet little Heeji Beeji!!, but that is tomorrows blog, I mean todays WTF!
Anyways lets concentrate on what happened on Thursday Bertie, and just try to control your excitement!  What did happen on Thursday? I don't know, I'm too excited to think!!
Right concentrate, errrr well after school it was a beautiful day and still really hot, so I went out to meet my friend Jay for dinner, we were looking for a place to sit outside in the sun but Koreans do not like sitting in the sun so it is very hard to find outside seating, we did find a really nice chicken and beer place that was outside but not in the sun, so we settled for that. He is some kind of millionaire and was talking about  buying a business in Korea, because he loves living here but he is on a 6 month tourist visa, and if he buys a business he can get a proper visa.
Anyways he was going on a date at 8 30 so he left, he was going on a date with a potter, I told him that potters were more crazy than painters, and she lived up to her stereotype!
Anyways I went to Mamma Pippis to play Darts with Ryan, it was a really good match but he won the decider, still I'm getting better at being a challenge for him. Every game was close, except the first one when he hit 180, I had a couple of 140s though. Then I remembered I had left my darts at Sallys Guitar club, so I went to try and find them, actually the finding of Sally's Guitar club was the biggest challenge as I couldn't find it on the interweb and I knew it was in the tangled mess of streets between Hongdae and Hapjeong which is not an area I know so well. I was trying to phone Heeji to ask her where it was when I realised I was staring right at it! It was pretty dead except for Sally herself and a barmaid but I had a couple of drinks and chatted and we listened to some awesome tunes, and drew some funny pictures! Then went home, so a pretty reasonable Thursday all in all! AHHHHHHHHH!

Day - 33

Reasonable day at school, Some fun lessons and listened to some pretty amazing 70s rock, Free, Neil Young and velvet Underground. Put the Cross into the Kiln! Scary! Scary! Scary!

Ahh In it goes, that is 1 million Won in the oven! Just before I left school it was at 698 degrees on the display there, it will get to about 1200 degrees C before it starts cooling down. I hope it can handle it!!

Er anyways what else did I do? Oh tried to book hotel on Nami island but it was full and apparently gets booked up months in advance, so I found a really nice looking one just on the one side of the river overlooking Nami island, probably be quieter and nicer anyways. So rather exciting weekend planned ahead.

Went to meet Sweet Heeji at the Palace gardens - 

Awwe there she is look waiting for me, reading her little book! I'm 4 minutes late!

Such a cute dress!

She had some little sandwiches that were very nice, then we went to the Art Gallery in the Palace Grounds, as Heeji had found out that it was free admission on the first Wednesday of every month. I had not been to the gallery before although I had been around the palace grounds a few times its just a little palace but very beautiful and especially when lit up at night. The Art exhibition was actually amazing, it was a collection of works by an an Artist called Song Soo-nam, who is quite famous in Korea and featured both his own work and paintings in his families collection, which were traditional Korean paintings mostly and showed where he got a lot of his influence. I absolutely loved his work as it was not dissimilar to the type of painting I am doing at the moment, simple perfect abstraction born of a love of  form, calligraphy and Indian Ink. Oh god I love Indian ink! 

See its just pure sexiness! 

Anyways felt really inspired and motivated to get on and do some bloody painting, although I ve got to do this bloody portrait commission so its kind of like a obstacle in the way, a really boring obstacle! Although I was thinking I have a few weeks at the beginning of my Summer holidays, I was thinking of going away but still not sure if my new passport will arrive in time, so may just trap myself in the studio and get creative, plus there will be no-one here! 

We went for a lovely walk around the gardens and then we walked to a lovely little Korean restaurant that Heeji knew that had special Makgoli (rice wheat wine) Which was very nice as was the meal, though not really sure what it was. We were excited about our adventure at the weekend and we were laughing about the 'Her' film. Well I would say Day 33 was pretty bloody good! Day 34 could go either way depending on whether my cross survives the first firing!! 

Day - 32

Errrr well I cant say it was the most eventful day really, although that is not to say that I failed, as it was a happy day. I was very happy to see that my clay cross has completely dried in one piece, I decided to give it one more day to make sure and then we are going to put it in the Kiln tonight
 (Day 33).
Oh I had quite a fun time spending ludicrous amounts of money on art materials, with the big end of year order. Still got a lot to spend though!
Had a nice evening watched a really good film called 'Filth' based on the Irvine Welsh book of the same name which I had read and really enjoyed, I didn't know if James McAvoy would be evil enough to play the main character but actually he was brilliant, I think the best I ve ever seen him. The film was a very good adaptation of the book.
Then I watched the film 'Her' Oh my lordy that has to be the worst film I have seen this year, well I say seen I didn't get half way through it until I felt too nauseous and angry to continue. Why should such a story be included on a 'Happiness' blog you may ask? Well, I very nearly had to go and see it at the cinema with Heeji, but seeing as we are on a mission to find the ultimate cinema, this particular film had no fancy seat options whatsoever, so Heeji went with her friend, and we went to the X-men instead (RESULT!) So I felt relieved and happy to have not been trapped in a cinema, having no escape from the infliction of such a sickening film, to the point where every single line was cheesy and vomit inducing.  For those of you that are unaware of the film it is Joaquin Phoenix in the future having just broken up with his wife, he then falls in love with his computer operating system, who has the voice of Scarlett Johansen!!! Need I go on? The film is then a soppy interchange between the man and his computer and they even have sex. Anyways  one of the most spectacular things about the film is that it was directed by a man, this film should not be attempted to be watched by men, it is a 'chick flick' of the most grotesque proportions.  I just found out he also directed 'Where the Wild Things Are' A film I accidentally took my son to and was so bad I actually had to stare at the ceiling with my fingers in my ears, so Spike Jonze I will never accidentally watch any of your shite films ever again, and I am so happy to have dodged the cinema bullet, especially in bog standard seating!

Day - 31

Relatively sedate, was please to see my cross seems to be surviving the drying out process, so nearly over the first hurdle. Monday night is always my Pizza, bath and film night, often being the only night I ever stay in, so not too exciting but exceptionally pleasant all the same, also was looking at the options for our weekend away this coming weekend, so that was exciting!

Day 30 Sunday Sunday

Heeji was round for breakfast, so I cooked some Eggs and Bacon and we had coffee and Orange Juice, then had a bit of a lazy Sunday watching comedies. The weather was appalling so it was a blessing because you then dont feel guilty for not going out. Then Heeji went to her Bookclub and she said it was really successful and they had 13 people turn up. I went for dinner with my American friend Jay and we went to Beer 'O' Clock as the Pizza there is amazing, then we went to Hongdae for a couple of Beers and met these American who asked if they could join us, one of them said he had just finished his degree, we were talking about how insular Britain is from the rest of the world and UKIP and all that, and I said its a lot to do with it being an Island, and he said "Is it really and Island?" !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Conversation over!!!

Day 29 - Lovely Saturday

Woke up around 1 feeling a bit tired and lazy, I had intended to clean my flat but was being too lazy, then Heeji texted me, and asked if I was cleaning the flat for her, dam it I forgot I'd told her about my intentions to clean the flat. I decided to give it a proper cleaning so I whacked on the new Pixies album readying myself for seeing them live at the Eden project in July. Actually once I get in the swing of cleaning it can be quite fun. Oh and I borrowed a power drill off my neighbour and put up my new Art pieces, as well as a new vase giving my flat quite an Asian theme! Then I went to the supermarket to get some fancy dinner as I was cooking. The nearest supermarket is pretty posh and expensive, a bit like Waitrose, I still had no plan and only about 30 minutes before Heeji was arriving, they had lots of nice seafood so I figured if they had some avocados that were ready, I could make my spicy seafood avocado tagliatelle. Bought some reasonable wine and some stuff for breakfast and it came to an unbelievable 70 pounds. Thats the problem in Korea it makes more financial sense to eat out than stay in as groceries are so expensive, unless you just sit around eating pasta and rice. (Oh wait is being able to justify eating out every night a problem or an advantage? I think I know!)  Anyways got home just in time for Heeji and we had nice beer and crisps, and the cooking was fairly successful except the fact I had accidentally got margarine instead of butter, and I forgot chilli powder so had to use some chilli sauce, so wasnt as good as usual, but Heeji seems to like it and it was just so lovely to have a nice quiet romantic dinner listening to Nina Simone. I made some peppers and tommatoes and mushrooms as a side, so the complimentary colours were working!! Oh and I got prepared Sushi for starters which was delish.  Followed by the chocolate cake that Stephanie made which was incredible, then we watched Sherlock Holmes - Hound of the Baskervilles, as Heeji was discussing it at her Book club on Sunday as she had sjust finished reading it, it was the version with Richard E Grant as the evil one in it, who was great. Although I still think Jeremy Brett is the best Sherlock ever, cos he's so funny. Anyways was a lovely evening all round.

Bless!! 

Day 28 - Friday!!

Well as I ve already mentioned the day started off well with a chocolate cake, my colleague Stephanie made it for me for fixing her fish ornament. So I then figured if I had a nice homemade chocolate cake I could cook dinner for Heeji, so I invited her around on Saturday. Err cant remember a lot else about the actual day, I think I only had one lesson. Went to meet Heeji as we were going to see the X-Men. Noticed the way I ve changed the way I spell Heeji from Hijee, she said I was spelling it wrong in English, sounds the same and its not English anyways, I can spell it in Korean! Although I don't know how to work the Korean letters on this computer. I will do it later on my phone if I remember. In order to address another complaint about the blog, Heeji thought that people would think she was silly because of the 'locks' joke, I assured her they would just think she was cute, but I would like to point out that she speaks better English than any Korean I've met outside of school, except an old man outside the National Museum, which is remarkable since she only spent a couple of months in Australia, she also runs her own English speaking book club, bless!! I also assured her that when I speak fluent Korean in a few years time she would be able to mock my pronuciation as much as she likes, so she has something to look forward to! Anyways, we went to the posh cinema with leather armchairs that recline, and you can have beer to. Although, they were described as couple seats, but owing to the arms of the armchairs it actually puts you further away from your date than a normal cinema seat, so I think the search for the ultimate cinema will have to continue, but we re certainly getting closer. X-Men was pretty good, as always you can rely on the shit hitting the fan in a massive way! Although I didnt like the fact it kind of negated the whole existence of "The Last Stand" which is still my favourite, not only because of the immensity of fan hitting shit but because of a certain type 5 mutant red-head called Jean! There are so many anomalies in the X-men films its unbelievable!  After we came out the cinema we went to a cool Jazz bar, which is at the top of a building with big glass windows and is quite swanky with good views over the craziness of Sinchon and we had a nice bottle of red. Well I say 'nice', 'reasonable' is probably a better description, decent red wine is pretty hard to find, plus you pay 30 pounds for a bottle that would cost 4 in the UK! After we left there we intended to go 'Woodstock' which is like a really cool 70s rock bar where the guy has thousands of original vinyl. But we thought we d pop in to 'Beer 'O' Clock for one first. The chap said it was last orders but we have time for one, then this absolutely comedy Irish bay turned up, he was all bandaged up and on crutches, he asked us if we d like to join him on the terrace. The owner joined us two so it was kind of like a 'lock in'. This Irish guy was so funny we had an ifinity and were mercilessly abusing one another, which was good because I had been trying to explain to Heeji before, how abusing one another is a form of bonding! Then we went to leave and realised the sun was shining, it was weird because it really didn't seem that late. Heeji said she hasnt gone home in the sunshine for years after a night out, I hope I'm not a bad influence on her, I would much prefer it if she was a good influence on me, which I'm sure she is! Oh and a some point during the evening, I won a birthday present for my sweet little nephew Ernie on a darts stall, which are common place on the streets in Seoul.

Day 27 - Fine Arts Banquet

Well it was a pretty unusually good Thursday, I finished the cross, so put it into the cupboard to dry, it is in the hands of God now, it has to survive drying, then firing, then glazing. But I figured that based on the assumption that God kind of likes crosses, he should answer my prayers. Clay is such a bugger though, its like a massive gamble. No matter how carefully you endeavour ( wait why does it say endeavour is spelt wrong, it wants me to put "or' at the end. Is that American spelling or just me, who knows?) to minimise the risks, there is always a massive chance it will not survive, each one of those 3 processes I would say of an object this big, there must be about a 70% chance of survival, so what does that make the overall risk?? Well dont ask me, I cant do MathS, answers in the comments below! And how does the fact that its a cross and I'm praying to God effect its chances? Unless God has got some valuable lesson for me to learn about clay, or perhaps Anger management. Anyways if its a gamble what are the risks? Well I will let my Deputy head (Head next year) down who commissioned it, the current head, who it is for, whom I'm sure will love it will not get his personalised leaving present ( he collects crosses), I will loose around 10 hours of time, which has also been hugely stressful and I will lose exactly 1 million won! (600 pounds) Haha Anyways its gonna work so shut up, the thought of it not working doesn't bear thinking about! Anyways here it is, now in God's hands -

Anyways the rest of the day was great too, we finished putting up the IB exhibition and it looks great and so proud of my lovely Juniors. There's Hye Joon in the pink trousers -

 I will put some more detailed pics up of their work later. Anyways Fine Arts Banquet, its kind of like an award ceremony for fine arts students, as well as music and drama Fine Arts also includes Speech, Debating, Publications, Creative writing. All of which I will be in charge of next year! Ahhh scary! (Ahh Wait!! someone just walked into my room with a massive chocolate cake for me!! Well thats tomorrows blog sorted, I mean todays! What??!!) Anyways I didnt realise we had to do a speech, but I guess I work better spontaneously, and luckily a few jokes popped into my mind! Then there was this thing at the end where the new Art's Honours Society Executives had to be sworn in. The Music honours Society did theirs before and had all these archaic speeches planned, like 'please step forward, I instill the position of secretary upon you.. Do you pledge..." Anyways no one told me about this so I got the mike and said 'I didnt realise we had to do some sort of Dead poets society induction speeches, so if my honors society could just get up on stage and maybe give each other a big hug that might be nice!"

 Hye Joon Receiving her award, bless her, she apologised afterwards for being so awkward on the stage. 

 National Arts Honours Society!

Anyways then we went for the banquet and my Honours soceity had done a fabulous job of decorating the table with handmade newspaper flowers. And the food was delicious I had two full meals, and a pudding ( oh just remembered I put two cookies in my jacket, I'll be having them later!) Anyways went home and watched the X-men as Hijee and I are going to see the new one tonight, at a really posh cinema, even posher than the one before, with special couple seats. So I guess I dont even need to write tommorows because you already know it involves Heeji Chocolate cake, X-men, and couple seats. I win!! 

Day 26 Quarter of the way!

Well I appear to have made it to the quarter mark, having been happy about something every day for the past 26 days. I am really glad I decided to do this challenge, as I think it has generally made me a lot more happy. I have always been a naturally happy person anyways, and maybe I have been happy for 26 days in a row before without having noticed. But on this challenge I have had to eradicate the shit days, the boring days, the days which nothing happens of any interest whatsoever. I think there is probably more benefit in eradicating all the occasional shit days, than having lots of good days. I guess I've always been pretty manic, and so it doesn't take a great deal to get me excited about something, but thats just temporary happiness, the real happiness that should be the goal of all ambition is 'contentment', a long term steady happiness that does not necessarily make you (bloody hell I just spelt necessarily correctly, I must becoming some kind of spelling legend! Mind you sometimes the computer swaps i s and e s around, without asking, its just making  assumptions and giving you undeserved confidence, like some sort of confidence trickster!) Whoops I digress, err yeah long term steady happiness which is not like jumping around going crazy but just content and thankful for blessings. That's the good thing about this challenge, it makes you thankful for something everyday, which should in theory make you more humble. When my life was in a complete mess, I always imagined it like a roller-coaster, up and down from one instant to the next, but like a roller coaster with none of those crisscross support thingys, ready to come smashing down to earth at any given moment. Then I guess I had to get some of those crisscross support things, they come in the form of friends, family, resposibility, finance, real life stuff! Although I have always felt lonely despite my many friends, I can still be completely irresponsible and my financial sense is abysmal. Its a lot better than it was and I am working on these things,and I now consider them which is a starting point. I would imagine true love is probably a fairly substantial amount of crisscross strut thingys but my experience of that has been more like an evil monkey, with a spanner ( or a monkey wrench, hed probably have a monkey wrench!) randomly taking bolts out of my roller coaster, often when its right at the top! Haha anyways what I was trying to say is that life does go up and down like a roller coaster, and often its ok to be sad, but you need those criss cross thingys else your f*cked! Haha I thought for a while a might be manic depressive, but in hindsight I realise I was just a manic who got depressed!
Haha anyways what did I do yesterday? Er fairly nice day at school, I worked on my ceramic cross for around 6 hours, and even though it was exceptionally frustrating, and nerve racking and involved a huge amount of painful concentration to the point where my eyes went funny around 11pm, as with all creative experiences left me with a feeling of satisfaction, plus I really did think I was getting there and pleased with the new design. Its a lot more simple it just has the Korean gate at the top which is the entrance to the high school, the little banner will have the haedmaster's dates and the knight on the shield is the crusader which is the school sports mascot. The lettering was just painful as you had to hold the knife at exactly the right angle.

Although putting it into the kiln is gonna be a bloody scary experience and I am going to say lots of prayers as clay is always a gamble and this whole thing has made me remember why I'm not a ceramicist!!

Day 25 - Arty Bollocks

Well the most exciting thing we did today was to put up the IB Year 1's (Favorite class!) Exhibition, in the performing Arts centre. They are such an amazing group, there is 22 of them which is a big group for 6th form, but in a way I think that's part of why they are so good, because the energy in the room when they are working is phenomenal. There is a certain amount of healthy competition as well, in that they are really out to impress and out do one another. Every project they have done this year has been better than the previous one they have just grown so much, and there is so much diversity from 8 foot by 5 paintings to conceptual magazines. One thing that is really good about the IB visual Arts curriculum compared to the English A-level is that it is so flexible, but also it is all about the meaning, and the message they convey through their work. So it has been essential to have lots of debate about the meaning of Art itself, and to get across to them that if it has no meaning it is not Art, by definition! I guess it was quite daunting starting to teach a new curriculum at the beginning of the year, being the only Art teacher in the high school and owing to the huge amounts of money the students pay to be here, I did feel an enormous amount of pressure all on my shoulders. Just yesterday and seeing the work they have produced in this final project though has made me so proud, I am really happy with the curriculum that I developed as I am confident the students are well on track to getting some really good grades next year.
Although I felt the upper 6th this year pulled it all together in the end, I think that they were sort of already doing their own thing by the time I arrived half way through their 2 year course, and so it was much more difficult to have a huge impact, rather just to encourage them, but so much of their work lacked real meaning. Whereas my first years I have been able to manipulate and mold by forcing them to listen me talking constant bollocks! I think one thing that has also been really valuable to their progression is the fact that I have displayed every single final piece they have created. As I keep on telling them Art is about communication and therefore the audience is as much a part of the work as the artist, just as in music or drama, where the audience is considered imperative. Artists can often be consumed by their own egos and their own pieces and loose that sense of sharing. So I have really learnt the benefit of displaying all their work constantly so they have an established audience, that is the rest of the high school, and have therefore created a dialogue between themselves and their audience. The concept of their work has now become the driving force behind it and the medium has become simply but essentially the vehicle. I would say they were pretty lucky because it took me about 30 years to work that out!!
Anyways the Exhibition is starting to look great, few more bits to do so will post some pics after. Had a great afternoon, listening to 'The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love' album with Hye Joon (favorite student!) Whilst worked on my cross and she was working on her clay hand, which is amazing. The evening was uneventful!

Day 24

Well in all honesty I didnt do a great deal, I guess my happiest moment was going into school, realising I only had one lesson at 11:50, and proceeding to the cafe to write about Day 22 which was exceptionally happy to relive. I didnt do a lot else, although my colleague asked me to fix her fish ornament that got broke, and had huge sentimental value, so that was quite a fun little challenge, some of the chipped clay was missing so I filled it, painted it and varnished it, to look almost as good as new, which was the promise I made. Simple pleasures.

 The day of simple pleasures continued, I ordered Pizza, watched the new game of thrones and watched a famous Korean film, (F*ck I nearly wrote 'movie' then, ahhh I'm becoming Americanised!!!) called The Chaser, pretty good, Monday is always my night in and I do enjoy it!

Day 23 - Civilised Sunday

Well woke up relatively early as it was too hot, did some washing, wrote my blog, listened to a cool new band (new to me) called Dark Captain Light Captain. Then Sweet little Hijee walked through the door with some breakfast and coffee, She said she was gonna bring some eggs and bacon but apparently couldn't find much in the classic form of egg and bacon breakfast and could only find an egg and bacon salad, so bit of odd breakfast but still very nice and too cute a site seeing her come through the door. She did say the night before she has to read her Sherlock Holmes for her bookclub, so I did my blog for a bit and she read her book and listened to some tunage. We spent the day just chilling at my flat watching comedies and we watched the Last Waltz concert with the Band. Which she loved. We also planned to meet my Belgian friend Flow and his girlfriend for dinner. I said to Hijee, "Have you found anywhere nice for dinner yet." She said "I found a number of places but you weren't listening to me!"
"err what?"
An hour later "Have you found anywhere nice for dinner yet?" hahaha
She had found a nice place anyways, we went down to Hapjeong to meet Flow and Jiyoung, Flow's been here for 6 months as he is studying Korean, but amazingly he met Jiyoung on the aeroplane from London, so she was actually the first Korean he ever met, and they sat next to one another on the plane. Anyways we went for a nice pre-dinner drink on a terraced bar, then we went to a lovely Italian restaurant (wooah I think thats the first time I've ever spelt restaurant correctly!! Hope it wasn't an accident!) we had a set meal for 4 and it was four courses of really nice food and plenty of it, good choice in restaurant (yes did it again!) Hijee. Afterwards we went for a beer at Castle Praha, and had some jokes and laughs. Then Flow and Jiyoung went home and Hijee and I accidentally found a really nice home brewing pub called Beer Bazaar, ( I think I had seen it before but was put off by the name!) with a nice balcony, the beer was very good and reasonably priced. A lovely civilised Sunday!

Day 22 - Best Day Yet!!

Woah, this is gonna be a hard one to write I think, its so difficult to put it all into words, I will never justify it fully but you can always use your imaginations a bit!

So had a good 3 hours sleep, woke up late 8:40am. I was like shit, shit, shit I'm late for hiking trip, then I was like wait focus, how far do I have to get, checked the map as was gonna get the tube, but realised actually I was probably ok to get a taxi on time. I phoned Hijee to check if she was still going and awake, and she was on her way so off I went. Amazingly the taxi driver spoke English, and was quite funny. Anyways it was about 40 min drive, which is actually only about 7 pounds in a taxi in Korea. Anyways Hijee texted me on the way and said she had to get off the tube because she needed a rest because she was too Hijee Bijeed the night before, which was kind of my fault! So she was going to be 40 mins late, when I arrived I saw the rest of the hiking group, and usually I am always late, but I said I'd wait for Hijee, and we didnt really want them to know we were an item so I had to hide and run off. I texted Eric to say I was too late despite only being 20 yards away and 10 mins early! Then went to find a coffee shop in the sunshine, its often a challenge to find a coffee shop or pub where you can sit outside in Korea. They are not that into sitting outside, like in England, plus they don't like sun tans as pale skin is the preferred aesthetic ideal. Anyways found one, but it had a bloody no smoking sticker on the table, but I just put my tray over it by mistake and forgot! Anyways an hour later sweet Hijee arrived and we had more coffee and drinks and enjoyed the sunshine. Eric kept on texting to see where we were and we couldnt decide whether we wanted to try and catch up with the group, so we thought to toss a coin, but then decided we didnt want to be with the group anyways and we would just get a nice picnic, and go somewhere nice to eat it, as we were sort of in Mountain country. We got a taxi to the foot of the mountain and started walking up this wooden walk way covered with rubber, which ran alongside the road, it was really hot and up hill, this hot uphill wooden walk appeared to be never ending, and highly unpleasant with a hangover and I started to think 'I thought we were supposed to be having fun?' Anyways of 40 minutes we arrived at another car park and wondered why the taxi man didnt drop us off there. We then got onto the stone path witch was steep and winding, there was so many people walking up and down in covoy, that's one trouble, often hiking in Korea you dont feel like you can get away from anyone as its so busy, we kept on try to look off the path for an escape from the people and a nice place to have lunch but the path was fenced off either side, and so again we did not appear to be enjoying our hungover, hot hiking trip. Anyways we finally got to a coll where there was a cross roads, we flicked a coin to decide which way to go, and heads sent us up the narrower steeper path that appeared to have fewer people. Suddenly a gap appeared in the trees and Mount Bukansan looked amazing.

We kept on climbing still keeping an eye out for an ideal spot for luncheon, and soon enough that is exactly what we found. We had Kimbap (like rice roll sushi) and mandu with is like well nice filled dumplings. It was such a lovely spot we stayed for over an hour and it was out of sight from the path so we had it all to ourselves, we had some laughs, and listened to Simon and Garfunlkes Sound of Silence. Oh and we met a naughty Crow, who was very keen to meet us! 

I told Hijee I would give her a mark out of 10 for her picnic before we left as Koreans are famous for making the best picnics, well it would have been a 10 because it was so amazing but she lost a point because we didnt have any water, and a point for kicking the Makgoli over the cliff! (Wine made from rice and wheat, Koreans always take hiking, it reminds me very much of  something we drank on the Inca trail in Peru, although in Peru it would be drank out of a filthy container!) Anyways onwards and upwards, we did after all have a mountain to climb!

After a couple of hours or so and some quite steep sections and boulders with ropes, we made it to the summit, although we weren't sure what summit or whether the mountain had a name or not, we were meant to be going up Bukansan but thanks to the coin, we just got fabulous views of Bukansan from our mountains, which was better anyways and we pretty much had it all to ourselves. The valley had quite an echo from all the people going up the more popular mountain and all of a sudden we could hear Eric playing his clay flute, which is a beautiful instrument and we had no clue where he might be as it carries a long way.  The summit consisted of a huge boulder, seen here being ascended by Hijee, but opened out to a large tableau, it was like the top of the world! 

It was so beautiful and sunny and the whole afternoon was like some kind of beautiful dream. Hijee said 'Look at all the locks!' I said "what?" she said "look at all the locks, locks, locks, locks"

"locks"

"yes locks, is that right?"

"I don't know I don't know what you re talking about"

She pointed and said "Locks"

" Ohhh rocks!!" hahahaha

We sat down on a little lock on top of the big lock, and we wanted to stay there for ever we had lots of jokes, and were laughing so hard and the thought of going down the mountain was saddening. We both agreed that had we taken a bottle of water the day would have been too perfect! This comes from a man who nearly died once in Spain, hiking in the sun, with no water! These life lessons always seem to take a while to sink in! We sat on our lock and watched the sun go down beyond Bukansan, we said maybe we could come back in 5 years time, and then I sang 5 years time by Noah and the Whale, and she thought it was funny. I asked Hijee if she would be interested in having an English boyfriend, she said "I would like an English boyfriend Mr. Young" I said " I will ask around!! No, I'm only joking, I would love to be your boyfriend so we had a big kiss and life could not have been more beautiful. The last drops of sun disappeared behind the mountain, and we thought we d best head down, before it got dark.

We didnt really know where we going but assumed, down must be good, however we followed the only path, but it did not appear to be going down very much we appeared to be following along a ridge for at least an hour, and we were in good spirits and it was beautiful although it was getting towards 7pm and the light was fading fast!

We finally found some steps heading down which gave us a bit more confidence we may be heading back to civilization, the steps then turned into a very steep path, with lots of very slippery rock faces and was a bit hairy at times, Hijee taught me how to say be careful in Korean. Finally we started to hear voices and came across a Buddhist temple, we came across a little country pub, we were so thirsty as we hadn't had any water and lost our Makgoli. Hijee said she didnt like the place as it sold Dog meat, so we thought we d just have a drink, she said we should order a little snack just to be polite, I dont think Koreans really understand the concept of a little snack, and we got a huge spicy chicken hotpot with vegetables, which was actually well received after the long hike and the tatseless Korean Beer tasted so good.

Little Snack!

The restaurant was quite a feature as it was so rustic, and there were odd country folk, milling about. After dinner we walked down into the town, and it felt like being on holiday as it seemed so distant from Seoul, funny thing was we didnt even know where we were!  Anyways we got a taxi back, and the taxi driver drove like a mentalist, and made Hijee feel sick, I dont even get car sick but found it pretty upleasant, anyways we got back to my house and I showed Hijee that clip from Team America with Kim Jeong Il singing about being so 'Ronrey' as the 'locks' joke reminded me of it, and we watched Flight of the Conchords and had a laugh a drank green tea. Lovely end to a lovely day! So glad the coin sent us left and so glad we missed the hiking group! Oh I think I ended the day with a girlfriend as well! 

We are not restricted. No boundaries have been defined, no inhibitions imposed. We have, for the while, secured, or blundered into, our release, for the while. Spontaneity and whim are the order of the day. Other wheels are turning but they are not our concern. We can breathe. We can relax. We can do what we like and say what we like to whomever we like, without restriction.

— GUILDENSTERN (ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD)

Day 21 - Sally Guitar!

Had great day at school, most of my lessons consisted of an amazng musical journey of 70s pychedelic rock initiated by having woken up with 'somebody to love' by Jefferson Aeroplane in my head. I was free last period, so I got to work on the new cross, having done a number of experimental panels, I realised that my plan was far too ambitious (like all good artistic ideas should be!) and that I could not achieve the detail I required to carve the school buildings out of the cross, I hadn't really condidered a plan B, as ambition should not allow such a thing, but realised I had to, and thank God, my creative mind threw one imediatly into my mind, the new cross being simpler, but I realised that it would in fact be far more aesthetically appealing, which is quite an improtant factor I believe in the line of ceramic crosses! Anyways, the cross itself used up a whole bag of terra the new Terracotta, so it took some serious rolling out. I 'm quite looking forward to creating a wood effect with a brown glaze over the terracotta, maybe like a kind of mahagony. Anyways, ran home to clean my flat as I din't want to risk Hijee seeing it (turned out to be wise!) then went to meet Hijee for dinner in Hapjeong, had a lovely meal consisting of a lovely muscle soup, raw pigs liver and stomach lining (All new experiences are beneficial! Wasnt as bad as it sounds) and a mian course of tripe and onions (when in rome!). Anyways we had planned to go to this Jazz club called Evans club, which I had wanted to go to for some time. On the way there we came across the coolest glasses shop I have ever seen, and decided where I'm going to get all my glasses from there, honestly I cant tell you how cool it was so adding some pics below! Then we went to Castle Praha which is an amazing pub that makes its on version of dark Czech Pilsner, and the architecture is all done out in Gothic style. I always accidentally find this place again and again but still not entirely sure where it is! Its like tucked away in the back streets of Hongdae, which is a bit of a maze. Anyways after there we were walking along and I heard the sound of Creams 'Sunshine of you love' blasting out from somewhere, which is a rare occurrence in Seoul I can tell you! Anyways we stopped and I said its live wheres it coming from, it appeard to be coming from an underground parking garage, but eventually we found some steps going down to a basement club. We stopped at the top of the stairs and I asked Hijee if she wanted to go down or whether we should proceed to the jazz club, she said she didn't mind and I couldn't decide so I said lets toss a coin, she said she thinks she knew what she thinked she wanted the results to be, I knew she was thinking Jazz as did sI think the jazz club may wel l be the best option, so as always I made the preferred option 'heads', but it was tails so down we went, and this place was amazing! It was called Sally's Guitar which I actually remembered I had read about and was pretty famous, the musicians absolutely rocked out, the guitar playing was just phenomenal, we got a bottle of wine, which wasnt cheap 130,000 won to be precise but it was pretty good wine, (again decent wine is a serious rarity in Korea!) Then after the bands finished we met Sally, who was super cool and some other bays at the bar and had a couple of G&Ts and Sally put some of our requests on, as did some of the bays, so we were all on the same Americana theme. Anyways I don't think Hijee is used to drinking that much and she was quite Hijee Bijeed by that time we left. So I put her in a taxi, and I went to Big Mamma Pippis to play darts as the barman is an amazing player, anyways I had 3 games and won one, which is good cos usually I reckon I only ever beat him about 1 in 5! Then figured I better go home like a sensible boy as it was 4am and we were supposed to be going hiking in the morning! Hows about that for self control! Im learning! Anyways I cant imagine the Jazz club could have been a better evening, the coin worked again!

Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.

Calvin Coolidge

Bertosses' Existentialism - Part 2 - Decisions, decisions

One thing I really struggled with when I was studying Philosophy, was the concept of free will. Do we have free will or is everything we do predetermined by our genetic make up and our social background. The majority of people believe in free will, and people get quite upset when you say it doesn't exist, because it implies we have no control over our destiny. Yet so many people live out their lives without ever demonstrating a single act of free will. Making decisions based on what they think is the best option, essentially means that they would have always come to that same decision based on who they are at that exact moment in time. I was 30 years old when I realised I had never made a single decision in my life, I just did the most obvious thing for my benefit and never gave it much though. I never chose to become an Art Teacher, it was just the most obvious thing to do. Like an animal act entirely instinctively without thinking, just takes the course of action which is most likely to result in their survival and the survival of their offspring.
Anyways, Existentialism in its generally perceived negative principle dictates that we are as animals and we act out our predetermined lives. This upsets people and it upset me a little to think that I am some mapped out course, determined by who I am. When I got depressed after Magz, I guess negative thought tends to be more prevalent, and I could see myself on this one track train, living out my life in Essex, being a teacher. I realised that I hated the concept of not having free will ( like a normal person!) and that the only way to exercise free will, is to disrupt the course of fate. As Jean Paul Satre suggests "it is our choice how we respond to determining tendencies."
Therefore, if we accept the fact that we are animals and making considered decisions is merely playing out the course of fate inflicted upon us. How do we then exercise free will? Well 'chance' is the only thing that disrupts determinism; coincidental, accidental occurrences that constantly disrupt the course of fate. So by allowing 'chance' to dictate our fate, is essentially the only way of making a real decision. I have 'decided' to let chance make my decisions for me, therefore constantly disrupting my predetermined existence, and creating something 'new'. I generally do this by tossing a coin, whenever faced with a decision, no matter how weighty the decision. Had I not thrown 'tails' a year or so ago I would have accepted a job in Malaysia, and my whole life would have been completely different. That may seem irresponsible in many ways, and to a certain extent it is by definition, as I therefore cant blame myself but the hand of chance, for my decisions. But actually I think once we ve made that decision then we have to live with the consequences in a responsible manner. I did not allow chance to make the decision to come to Korea, because I was so desperate to get off the fucking train resulting in teaching in Essex for the rest of my life, which I'm sure could have been a very happy life, but just not what I had in mind. However, I did choose to apply for jobs in Korea, following a 'chance' meeting with a Korean girl on a train from London to Devon, I had seen a few job's advertised but never really considered it. After meeting Jihyun on the train, I figured that I'd only ever met 5 korean's in my life, and every single one of the had been sweet, and funny and lovely! Which is actually an astonishing statistic, 5 out of 5, still it might of been accidental, but it turned out they were fine ambassadors of this beautiful country and its wonderful people! Mentions should go to Hartvig's ex grilfriend SungMee and a man called Hong I met in the smoking room at Saigon airport! Haha anyways sweet Hijee has just brought breakfast round, and I cant wait to tell you how amazing the last 2 days have been with her - Day 22 was the best yet!! The ramantic saga continues!

All that remains is a fate whose outcome alone is fatal. Outside of that single fatality of death, everything, joy or happiness, is liberty. A world remains of which man is the sole master. What bound him was the illusion of another world.

— ALBERT CAMUS

Day 20 Teachers Day

Well I got off to a happy start, as soon as I sat down at my desk a pupil came in and said Happy Teacher's Day and bought me a present. Although, I had not taught her for 6 months as she dropped Art because she represented Korea in Fencing, she said that her and her parents really appreciated all the support and encouragement that I gave her. It was so sweet, so I thought that was a lovely happy start to the day. Oh my ceramic cross was a disaster and fell apart as the clay was really crap, or it was too smooth and better for craft rather than modelling, so I got the driver to take me to the clay shop, which was exciting as I got to poke my finger into lots of different types of clay! ( I guess most people could never understand how that's exciting!) Anyways I chose a more grainier clay and also got some Terracotta. Oh then we had some amazing chocolate cake from our headmaster and fruit. And I got some chocolates and treats from the PTA. Anyways, then Hye Joon came down to Art (favorite student!) and I was pleased because I knew she would probably be the only other person to be as excited about the new clay as I was, and I was right! That afternoon I was free and Hye Joon and I got the new clay out and listened to Nick Drake, and I thought this is the best way to spend a teachers day! I just started to make some little test pieces for the cross as I wasn't sure which one to use. In the evening I felt really rough like a bit dizzy and coldy and sneazy, I think its from the pollution as it is particularly bad at the moment and I felt a bit the same before when it was bad. I think I might be allergic to Pollution! Anyways early bed. Other highlights of the day was planning a trip to Nami island with Hijee, which is this beautiful island in a lake surrounded by mountains, so thats a bit too exciting for words! Anyways its Day 21 now, more clay fun to be had and going to Jazz club with Hijee Bijee later, TFI Friday!!

Day 19 Super Day!

Woke up happy, first period was pretty exciting all the pupils were doing their lino cuts and some of them had some great ones. Cant think of anything too remarkable, had a nice cigarette on my balcony in the sunshine at lunchtime. Slow afternoon as was meeting Hijee. I met her in the city centre in the financial district where she works, pretty crazy place not dissimilar to Canary Wharf. Anyways she turned up looking all financial and hot in a purple dress, with matching shoes. We went to a really nice spicy chicken place, which was so good. After we got coffee and went down to this little romantic canal area, its kind of like a canal, but they have running water features, and glowing stepping stones, as well as nice rock gardens. Anyways whatever the rest of the evening was amazing! Nuff said! haha!

Day 18

Woohoo! Back to being happy again, woke up laughing and feeling happy! Its funny how some days you just wake up feeling negative about pretty much everything, but generally I'm always pretty happy, but I guess its only when doing this blog that you really reflect on the extent of your happiness. I suppose my helplessly romantic disposition is usually directly related to my level of happiness. Which at present is good! Anyways what even happened yesterday? Err oh wnet into school expecting a class but no one turned up, then I realised they were on some course thing so I went to coffee shop and had my ritual morning americano and cinnamon bagel early, and wrote my blog, which coincidentally is the exact same situation I'm in now, only Ive got homemade carrot cake cos wednesday is snack day and it is divine!. I only had one lesson, and I actully did a proper lesson with powerpoints and art history and all that, it was like teaching in England! Anyways started working on my ceramic cross, so went out in the beautiful sunshine and took a load of photos of the school.( as for those that missed it earlier its going to be ac composite cross with like all the school buildings sticking out of it) Must say its a bit daunting as it is for the headmasters leaving present and I really only have one chance for it to survive the kiln! Anyways rolled out an enormous piece of clay, and it wasn't big enough, so did it again with an even bigger piece of clay and found this really nice tool, which I think is designed for cutting crosses out of really big rolled out clay, it was very satisfying anyways. Then afterschool I went for a bit of a run, Ive been doing cross fit for the past few months in the hope it would ready me for starting running again but in fact it was pretty tough, and I was glad I didnt attempt to take on the mountain, not quite ready for it yet. Anyways had an amazing bath listening to Neil Young, then ordered well nice Pizza and watched Raising Arizona, which was shit! Then got text from Hijee saying she didn't want to see me, as we were supposed to meet today, I said why and she said she had had braces put on her teeth, and she thought it was ugly and was really upset. I reassured her that her sweetness goes way beyond a little piece of metal on her teeth and that she just needs lots of hugs and compliments, of which I can provide! So she agreed to meet, so meeting Hijee tonight whoop, whoop! Happy days!

Day 17 - Nearly didn't make it!

I was so tired when I woke up, I hadnt slept properly because it was too hot, so woke up in a bit of a grump, started panicking about money and its purpose, and regretting spending so much on so little, and wondering how you can have no regrets when you've been such an idiot. I just think it's a bit idiotic to just say dont have any regrets or don't dwell on the past, like you see on some of those cheesy facebook posts, with a picture of some girl dancing in the sunset! Did she just spend all her money on champagne, before the dance took place? I doubt it! Anyways the whole principle of this blog is about being positive, and I guess because its public, you have a certain responsibility to become a better person, so I guess I have to start learning from my mistakes to make them into positives. Anyways I texted Hijee a couple of times to see if she was ok, and she didn't text back all day and I had a feeling that she was upset about something. She finally texted me back and said she had accidently looked at my phone when she was looking for her phone the night before and seen I had lots of messages from different girls, and she didn't want to see me anymore. So I was pretty upset, bearing in mind that I had been single for a long while, and so there were a few girls that I would text from time to time. I felt really guilty that I had made her sad, and also selfishly I felt a bit sorry for myself that I had lost her. It had only been exactly one week since we first held hands on the fantastic day by the river, but she was so different, because shes the type of girl that makes you want to be a better person and her company is magical. Anyways I tried to explain myself, and I sent her the link to this blog, it kind of proves that she is the only girl in my life, anyways I went to bed feeling sad and thought I have failed at this blog now, because was pretty shit from beginning to end. So I was lying in bed watching some documentary about gangs in american prisons, and I got a sweet text from Hijee saying she missed be and she still wanted to see me. So I made it I had at least 10 minutes of Happy at around 10:30, I will have to take more care of her in the future because she is so cute!

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

— CARL SAGAN

Day 16

A Hijee Bijee Day is always a happy day! Hijee woke me up, which was a lovely surprise, I was going to meet her after her book club but it was cancelled so she came round. The weather was appalling, so we just stayed and ordered Pizza for lunch. Every moment with Hijee is amazing, she had a matching shirt and raincoat and unbrella, dark blue with white poker dots, too cute for words! I had to go to dinner at 6 at the Headmasters house, I really didnt want to leave Hijee. It was actually a lovely meal, and lovely people. Had a bit of an existentialist moment at the dinner party, as it was so surreal and suddenly thought. Is this the culture that I am a part of!? Anyways convinced Hijee to wait in my flat, so I made my excuses and we had a lovely evening watching Flight of the Concords, wasn't sure if shed get it but she did and we were in hysterics. Lovely Sunday!!

There are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely-or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.

— OSCAR WILDE

Day 15

Saturday, woke up and went over to see Michelle and Vicky, David was there too, so it was like the crew when we started teaching here, British  guys! was good to catch up and had a laugh! They asked if I was up for going out in Hongdae, so I was easily convinced. Hongdae was great, met my boss Marian, who is current Head of Creative Arts in the Irish pub, so it was good to have a chat and a beer with her. Met Jay, who wanted to go to GoGos because it was only 2000 won (1 pound!!) for a gin and tonic, and it was actually a good Gin and tonic! Met some comedy Koreans who we had a drink with. The went downstairs to FF club, which is like an Indie Disco, bumped into some English friends and  Angie and Somi, who haven't seen for ages. Then lost Jay, met some comedy Korean bays and hit the dancefloor for most of the evening.

Day 14

Was a good day at school, as my IGCSE pupils had a big hand in, so all this amazing work came in, which is always good. I couldnt get them to leave at 5pm on a Friday but after school studio time was really good atmosphere. The was gonna go to Life drawing but I just missed the bus, then waited 30 minutes for another one, that turned up completely full, so got the tube but was nearly an hour late so just went to the pub instead, met my friends Jay and Flow, hadn't been out in Itaweon for ages, think I remembered why, its like a big expat area full of American soldiers and girls with plastic surgery! Not cheap either, but I guess it was pretty funny and got down on the dance floor!

Day 13 - Lucky for Some!

Got of to a good start as I had my Lino print making class, which I had done my demonstration for, so all the pupils started to print their own, some of them were amazing, so there was a great buzz in the room, and it was a fun, satisfying and messy lesson, to the sound of 'The Buena Vista Social Club', just how an Art lesson should be! Then Stu (deputy head) came down as he had asked me to make a ceramic cross, as a leaving present for our current headmaster. I had an idea of making a composite cross in bass relief with all the buildings from the school sticking out of it. He like the idea and so I said I would do it for no less than 1 million won (600 pounds) so bit of pocket money! Although, it is a bit daunting as it is quite an ambitious design, I am not a ceramicist, and I only really have one chance for it to survive the kiln! Then I got my second commission of the day, from a parent who had won a charity auction for me to do a child portrait, the winning bid was 500,000 won which is quite cheap but for a good cause, he asked me if I would also be keen to paint his wife. I told him the auction price was exceptionally cheap, so it would cost him 1 million won, and he said can we meet in the middle so we settled on 750,000, more pocket money for Moi! Anyways afternoon went pretty slowly as I knew I was meeting Hijee after work, but was not too long until I met her in Sinchon, she had come straight from work so she was looking all elegant and hot! I had also forgotten how cute her voice sounded. We went for a Mexican, which was a bit weird as we both thought about going to the same place beforehand. (There must be over 700 restaurants in Sinchon!) We then went to see The new Captain America, which was pretty entertaining and much better than the new spiderman. Walked home feeling content and fell asleep like a baby! Hahahaha!

Day 12 - Back to School

Well I woke up on the sofa as I had my first encounter with a mosquito the night before. I woke up and it had bitten me all over my hands and wrists for some weird reason, (not that a mosquito would ever have a reason!) It was so itchy anyways, then I heard the little bastard flapping around my head so I decided to slap myself in the face, dam it I put the light on to try and find him but couldn't see him anywhere, until of course I got back into bed and heard it again. How can they appear so devious when they are not capable of a single thought? Anyways I was too tired so I left in my bedroom and went to sleep in the lounge. What's this got to do with being happy you ask yourselves. Well of course I woke with vengeance on my mind, clear headed I went into my room to search for the little bastard, there he was sitting on the cupboard, all fat and slow now after a belly full of my tasty blood. "Haha my insatiable friend your greed will be your down fall!" I picked up a slipper, readied my self ( as you only get one chance to dispatch these things) and swiftly found my target! Amazed at the amount of my own blood, but letting out an evil, satisfying laugh! So that was 2 seconds of 'Happy' to start the day! I'm sorry but I hate mosquitoes SO much, almost as much as they seem to LOVE me. No other insect would I delight in killing, even a stink bug (which are these evil looking things in korea that also there way into your flats) I would put in a tissue and remove, and I even helped a locust to freedon who had got stuck in the laundry stairwell for 2 days, back to relative freedom, or a birds mouth who knows! Anyways the rest of the day - went into school, happy realisation that I only had 1 lesson to teach as half my groups have finished their courses and gone on exam leave. Woohoo, coffee shop, bagel, wrote my blog, good start to the day. Then a girl from Korean Art came down to ask for help with her lino cut, which was ideal because I had to see if the press worked as I was supposed to be teaching lino cutting the day after. So we got it working and then I printed my lino cut, based on me arriving in Seoul, and all the craziness of the town and the funny looks and the happy faces. So I printed it out and I was pretty pleased with it so I think that was my highlight of the day. Rest of the day was fairly uneventful, had a rare night in and had pizza and watched flight of the Concords. I arranged a date with Hijee too which can only be a happy thing!

Memento mori—remember death! These are important words. If we kept in mind that we will soon inevitably die, our lives would be completely different. If a person knows that he will die in a half hour, he certainly will not bother doing trivial, stupid, or, especially, bad things during this half hour. Perhaps you have half a century before you die—what makes this any different from a half hour?

— LEO TOLSTOY

Day 11

Buddha's Birthday! - Woke up and texted a few people to see what they were up to as was a beautiful day and had to get out. The went to meet Vicky, Michelle and Mitchell in Insadong, where there was lots of excitement and festivities for Buddhas Birthday. We had a nice Japanese lunch, Michelle and Mitchell went home but Vicky and I decided to walk round the place gardens as the weather was so beautiful. We found a beautiful place to sit on the grass in the sunshine, out of the wind. It was great to catch up with Vicky as her and Michelle are my bezzies in Korea from the beginning but the past few months I havent seen them so much. So I updated her on my love life and we had some jokes. Then we went for a beer in the last drops of sunshine. I met Sohee for dinner, who was my first girlfriend in Korea, who I hadnt seen since feburary. She couldnt understand the concept of being friends, but we shared some lovely memories and she was my best friend in Korea for 3 months. I was worried it might be a bit weird, but actually we had a good laugh and it was nice to see her.
Anyways another lovely day, back to work tomorrow, may have to try a bit harder to find happy elements! But Im sure Ill manage! I said to Vicky yesterday how happy I was, and I know it may just be that life is pretty sweet at the moment, but I do think this blog thing is great, normally I probably would do something happy everyday, but its the fact you cannot have a single day when you don't do anything fun, and I suppose writing about it does make you appreciate the positives!

Day 10 Oh my Lord!

What an amazing Day!! Woke up in a complete state of excitement again, but this time after having had a good nights sleep. Went to meet Heeji by the river, we had a nice walk along the river, it was so sunny but very windy so we decided to turn off the river down one of the canals, we found a beautiful sheltered place to sit and drink our coffees in the warmth of the sun. Learnt the word Oorro which means Duck! Then we held hands for a little bit. We carried on along the canal towards the world cup stadium, without really knowing where we were going, then we climbed a little mountain, that had a beautiful viewing platform over the city and the river Han. Then we went off the beaten track and into the forest, and we came across this little glade where there was some sun loungers, it was a bit like being in some sort of amazing dream. Then we went down the hill and got a taxi back to Hongdae, and went to the nice Hawaiian restaraunt that has amazing bbq and a beautiful beer garden, that is like being transported away from the craziness of the busy streets of Hongdae. I am so glad I flipped a coin to decide whether to go away all weekend, because the coin said no, and I had the best long weekend. Anyways today is Day 11, Thank the lord for Buddha (is that allowed?) As its his Birthday today and so we have the day off, the sun is shining and I'm feeling very happy!

A superb Existentialist quote for the day that sums up Day 10 -

The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.

— SOREN KIERKEGAARD