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! 

Day 45 Monday

Sorry I do have a lot of days to get through so gonna have to make a few days fairly breif, spent the day trying to sort out my classroom a bit, had a few students in and out all day, but its exams so no lessons. Had my usual Monday evening Pizza and TV, just watching Gold Rush, I love it, the Hillbillies are so funny, but in fact incredibly practical, when it comes to fixing machines and moving huge piles of dirt around, which is really the main fascination with the show! I was asked by a fan of the blog for more info on pizza toppings (Haha Alright Mark!) Well I nearly always get spicy chicken because its so good, but it does vary, because as it comes it is incredibly spicy, and even though I like spicy food, the Korean definition of spicy is very different from UK version, and although I like it at the time it gives me stomach cramps in the morning. So I always try to ask for medium spicy, however my poor Korean generally just confuses them also depending on who answers the phone, I think the woman understands my Korean better,  but anyways the results are that sometimes it is not at all spicy sometimes it is unforgivingly spicy, and very occasionally it is medium spicy!!

Day 44 Extra Sunday

After a long weekend because of the Holiday it was kind of like having 2 Sundays, although we did actually have to go into work today for a special service for the graduates, you wouldn't believe how many end of year events one school could have, I would say more than 10, you here people saying goodbye to certain teachers and giving presents over and over again, its unbelievable. Anyways, after that I went to meet sweet little Heeji Beeji in Hongdae. Bless her she always looks so cute reading her little book when she is waiting for you, its almost a good enough reason to be late, haha well a couple of minutes anyways, don't wanna get myself in trouble here! Anyways we went to a bowling alley that is pretty cool and has neon lights. It was good fun as bowling always is, although I didnt get a very good score. I think Koreans have very slender fingers, so even with a 14lb ball you can only just squeeze your fingers in. They say "a bad workman blames his tools" not me! I blame average Korean finger sizes! We had some sausages as a snack at the bowling but it was exceptionally filling, so when we came out we didnt fancy dinner so much, which was a bugger as Heeji had promised to pay because I won the bowling, she'll probably never make that silly bet again!
Anyways then we went to meet my American friend Jay at a nice craft beer place that has a nice terrace. He was heading back to the states for a couple of months to sort some business things out, which is a bit of a bugger because I dont have that many friends here, not really sure if he'll ever be back, anyways was a good laugh! So pretty happy Sunday all in all.

Bless!

Day 43

Hey Folks, so sorry I ve not been on for ages, we ve had exam week at school and then all the end of year activities so I lost my usual coffee and a blog time of a morning. Anyways Im now on a 2 month holiday so have a bit of time to catch up. Some of the days may be a little brief, but I still endeavoured to keep them happy!
So the day after the Hell of a night! Saturday - I woke up to the sound of pots crashing about in my kitchen, so I assumed it must be a Heeji Beeji, but then I was half asleep and woke up about 10 mins  later and could work out if it was a dream or not. But luckily it wasn't she was in my front room being sweet and had bought some breakfast around. She always gets strange egg and bacon salad for breakfast, which although is not my first choice of breakfast menu, all breakfast is good! We just spent the day doing nothing except watching funny shows and having hugs. Its funny if you spend the day on your own doing nothing, you feel guilty like you ve wasted the whole day off, but if you spend the day with your loved one doing nothing its possibly one of the best possible things you can do and you feel proud and lucky! Anyways we had Pizza for tea and watched X-Men. The first one as we went to see the last one at the Cinema so Heeji has a lot of catching up to do, as for me I could always eat pizza and watch X-men.

Day - 42 Hell of a day Hell of a night!

Woke up thinking ' Where the hell am I?' I thought I was in prison for a second, lying on a mattress in a room with no windows! Then I remembered, I'd fallen asleep in the massage place. The sweet little thai man came in and told me it was noon and he'd bought in a little bottle of ginseng on a tray. Its almost like being at a hotel except you get a massage for the same money! I won't lie, its not the first time the little thai man has woken me up with a bottle of ginseng! So I got up had a shower and cleaned my teeth and I left feeling as right as rain. Coffee was the order of the day, coffee, coffee in the sunshine! Found a nice little place to sit outside, actually got a little sun burnt. The went off to meet Heeji Peeji in Gangnam as we were off to see the Kasuma Yayoi exhibition, which is quite a trek away, accidently got off the train at Seoul National University instead of Seoul National University of Education and got very confused, but then I realised my mistake and then I actually bumped into Heeji on the platform, she was wearing a very cute dress, and I said she could be my Gangnam Girl! Gangnam is sort of like Chelsea, over priced and lots of rich people, but lots of fun to be had to. Anyways we had some breakfast and then went to find the gallery via a very pleasant walk through a park. Bless Heeji she thought she had booked the tickets but had forgot to press the last confirm button or something so we had to queue. The queue was enormous! But in a way it was good to see that modern Art is so popular and thriving in Seoul. Mind you everything's popular in Korea, because Koreans just love everything!! Anyways the exhibition was really good, well it was a spectacle and visually very appealing but I don't think there was too much depth to it, just a mad woman painting pretty pictures with dots! But we had a real laugh so it was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon!
When we came outside it was high time for a beer in the sunshine, oh wait I just remembered, I really must start forgetting about the option of having a beer in the sunshine a reasonable request here.  haha! But actually we did find quite a nice little italian place that let us have a beer on the terrace, it was very pleasant but there was no sunshine, you have to be happy just to be able to sit outside.

Anyways then we got a taxi to meet my bestest friends Vicky and Michelle, who had been away and I hadnt see for ages, plus Vicky is leaving so it was kind of like a leaving dinner for her. We went to a Brazilian place in Itaewon. Brazillian is just like an absolute meat fest! They just keep on bringing out more and more different varieties of steak and pork, but it tastes so good you litterally eat until you cant eat another mouthful, then you have about 6 more! Those Brazilians sure do know how to cook a steak. After dinner we went to this new hookah place on a roof top terrace, there were 2 german chaps with us as well so we were 6. The Laura turned up! Hooray!! I love Laura shes from Wales and is also one of my bezzies, shes well funny! We played some funny games and had a laugh. Then this comedy Portugese bay called Pedro, joined us and we went to Prost for a Margarita, as you cannot go to Itaewon with Michelle Penn without going to Prost for a Margarita!
Pedro persuaded us to go to this underground House music club, which turned out to be brilliant, the music was amazing and we danced and danced all night. After we were danced out, Heeji went home and we went Seoul pub, for a couple of beers before home! Hell of a day, Hell of a night!!!

Me and my favourite girlies and a german!

Day 41- Thirsty Thursday!

So this girl Jihye came in for the day and I went through 2 curriculums with her, and a load of other stuff as she was thinking about quitting her job as an Art teacher because she was afraid to teach IB and IGCSE so her headmaster contacted me and I said I would go through it all with her. There was a lot of stuff to get though and we were at it for 5 straight hours, but she was very grateful and sweet and I was glad to be able to help. I am actually very proud of the curriculum I have created this year so in a way (without trying to sound like a jobsworth) it was nice to be able to share it. 

After school there was an end of year party at the Head of High School's house. He's from Texas and he and his wife had made delicious fajitas and excellent Margaritas. It was quite funny too, as I sat with a couple of comedy Australians and had a few beers. After that I couldnt decide what to do as a few people were out as it was a national holiday so I flipped a coin and decided to go out, and then flipped another coin to decide to either go to Itaewon or Hongdae, turned out going to Hongdae met some of my friends in Shamrock and Roll, beat them at Pool which was great because they were so gutted as they take pool so seriously, I did play for them in their team one night, but they took it so seriously it took all the fun out of it. I mean Pool is for fun, Darts is serious!! Then I went to the Darts pub called Bulls which has like 5 dartboards, I got involved with some serious darts with some serious Koreans and wiped the floor with them which was great, I was right on it! Then went to Big Mamma Pippis to play Ryan but he was in the other Mamma Pippis so I played JiYoung who is a girl that works in there, she had actually really improved and she beat me 1 game out of 3. Then Ryan did turn up but he beat because I think I had peaked with my optimum alcohol/darts ratio! 

Anyways I had had a weird neck all week so after I come out of Mamma Pippis I went to get a massage at this Thai place, I paid for an hour, and it was so good, I remember thinking great I must still have a whole nother half hour left, at almost the precise moment of that thought I fell asleep like a light!

Day 40

Woah, Sorry folks I cant believe I haven't written in here for a whole week. Its been a crazy week I guess, and theres been plenty of fun moments, although I may have to make some days a bit brief to get me back on track. I guess the past few weeks I keep on being free during period 3 and I just go and sit in the cafeteria and write my blog over a pizza and a cinnamon bagel, but we ve had exam week since last Wednesday, so there is no real structure to ones day. Anyways Day 40 was Wednesday, spent most of the day trying to prepare for a young Art teacher called Jihye who was coming to visit the school to talk about my curriculum as she was starting to teach IB and IGCSE next year and was really anxious about it. I hadn't realised that we are actually one of the only school's in Seoul that teach the IB diploma in Visual Art, so I have inadvertently become the expert as many schools are starting to teach it. Anyways it was really useful to write up all my curriculum stuff as it needed doing, as we have to do it for school, although I knew that it was actually going to be read by someone so it actually made sense, whereas usually its just another pointless job of many, teachers are so often made to do. Anyways after school we had a Fine Arts End of year party, and I was ceremoniously handed over the baton of head of department, although I said we wouldn't all be able to fit in my flat for a party next year. After that I went back to my flat and Heeji said she would pop round with dinner, which was a lovely surprise, although did mean I had to clean and tidy the flat like a mad man! Still we watched some IT crowd episodes and it was lovely evening.

Bertosses' Existentialism Part 3

I get so fed up with people putting crappy cheesy photos, with some supposedly profound seemingly universally accepted form of philosophy written over the top. People seem to love sharing posts about following your dreams and then cracking on with their mundane existence, or saying dont have any regrets, I mean how irresponsible is that? Or it doesn't matter what people think of you! WHAT! Of course it does if you have any respect and don't wish to be a shame on your family!
Anyways I'm not saying that opinion is right because its just a random opinion, but it aggravates me that people say all this crap without actually thinking about what it means, and the pictures are always sickening! Anyways me and my negative thoughts on a happy positive blog, whats that about? Well actually I had a good laugh today coming up with some of my own posters!! haha

Day 39

We had the end of year awards ceremony in the morning, it was like any other award ceremony, pretty boring, although I was exceptionally proud of Ira when she went up to collect The visual Arts Award. I chose her because she was the best artist, which was an exceptionally hard decision to make, but if you consider, passion, hard work and actually what was the most compelling, powerful pieces of work, it would have to be hers. She was a very emotional student and a lot of her work was about eating disorders, she was at first a little shy of her work and was afraid to show it to anyone except to me, but I managed to persuade her that it was beautiful and she should be proud of the fact she had overcome her problems this year as well as all the stress of high school and the amount of pressure applied by Korean parents. In the end she showed all of her work at her final exhibition and, and not only was it emotionally powerful but it was also visually beautiful as well. I am sure she would never have thought that she was going to get the award as some of her classmates tended to score a lot higher owing to their  stringent application of the assessment criteria. The best artists generally never get the best results according to any educational assessment criteria from high school to Masters level. Its probably owing to the fact that they care more about the Art than the rules!! Anyways I was very happy to see that she was actually at the award ceremony in the first place and very proud when she went to collect it. The rest of the day was rather uneventful, was thinking of going out to meet Heeji but she was out with her friends, when she said she could meet me at 10:40pm I was already in my pants eating Pizza! So kind of settled in for the evening. I did find a well funny series me and my flat mate used to love called 'Gold Rush' about these well funny Alaskan hillbillies trying to run gold mines and failing miserably, turns out they have done another 2 series since we used to watch it so that made me laugh!!

It’s a waste to chase the pipe dream of a magical tiny theory that allows us to make quick and detailed calculations about the future. We can’t predict and we can’t control. To accept this can be a source of liberation and inner peace. We’re part of the unfolding world, surfing the chaotic waves.

— RUDY RUCKER

Day 38

Monday, er nothing too exciting I got my clay cross out of the Kiln, errrrrr well I don't know, I think the glazing could have gone better, as it was a bit patchy in places but it survived and I'm generally quite pleased with it. I think its good enough for the presentation and I soon fixed some of the patchy areas with some varnish. So Im more happy its finished rather than happy with it. I guess it made me remember why Im not a ceramicist because pretty much the whole process was just stressful from beginning to end. I think its mainly the lack of control, dont get me wrong I love the concept of happy accidents in Art, but in painting you can correct the accidents, whereas in clay I think there are more accidents rather than happy accidents! Sad Accidents! Most potters tend to be perfectionists, as it is part of the nature of the finished product. Anyways its bloody done and Im sure he'll be happy with it. Errrrrrr I cant remember the rest of the day much, I was soo tired after the weekends activities, and the fact that bloody mosquito woke me up and made me sleep on the sofa again! Anyways in the evening I managed to entice her into the living room and although she did get me a couple of times when I was having my usual Monday film night, at least I got my room back, shes very little and quick. I know mosquitoes must not even be able to generate a single thought yet how can they give such a bloody good impression of being so devious! Anyways shes been hounding me for like 4 days now. Her greed will be her weakness, oh yes, Shelob you suck on my luscious blood until you are all fat and slow and then my parasitic  insatiable flatmate, we will create a special piece of Art on my wall composed of my blood, your exoskeleton and my footprint! Hahaha! Anyways I didnt watch a film I watched the new Game of Thrones episode, which was reasonable. Although I enjoy the idea, it seems like for the past 4 series they give the constant impression that the shit is going to hit the fan in a massive way, and yet there hasn't actually been much fan hitting shit at all, and here we are nearly at the end of the 4th series in which not a single piece of shit has hit so much as a hand held fan! I think that's how they must keep their audience through large amounts of potential shit hitting exceptionally large potential fans! Anyways enough of that I watched a few documentaries on mountaineering on K2 and The Eiger, I seem to ahve become a bit obsessed with these lately watching pretty much every documentary on Everest in existence in the past few weeks. I can't tell you how much I would love to climb mount Everest but I know for a fact I don't deal with altitude well as I got so sick when we were in the high Andes, I can hardy remember the first few days of the trip, except sitting on a mule vomiting and having the worst headache I've ever had, and I didn't even smoke at the time. Anyways that's an undeservedly long post for such an uneventful day, and I never even mentioned the happiest part of it, which was of course editing my photos and writing my blog about the fantastic and memorable weekend I had with sweet Heeji Beeji!

Day 37 Nami Island

Wow what a stunning view to wake up to, another beautiful day and the bed was so comfortable. We hung about for a while at the hotel and left around midday, to get some breakfast. We went back to where the death slide was and had some brunch, the area is famous for a spicy chicken Barbecue dish so we had that in a nice restaurant by the river. We got out tickets to the death slide but we had to wait like an hour or so, which was fine as its such a beautiful place to sit around, so we had some coffee and Ice cream and had some laughs. Especially when Heeji dropped her Ice cream 3 seconds after receiving it! We went and had a look at the bungee jump, it was only a small one but I think I had a bit of a hangover and didnt really feel like I could handle it.

Then we went up to the zipline lift, Heeji had a few Heeji Beejis but I think she was very brave about it. Its an 80 metre platform and 940 m long. we had to wait a little while but it was great fun and wasnt really scary at all.

View of the Island

View of the Hotel from the Island

A sweet Heeji Beeji!

When we got to the Island we had a little wonder around and looked at some Ostriches, and they have lots of sculptures. We then went and hired a tandem bike so we could do a tour of the whole island we found a lovely little spot away from everybody and had some beers, and dipped our feel in the river. Again it was another moment we both agreed we never wanted to leave, but we only had an hour with the tandem so we carried on exploring the island.

My Strange white skeleton feet and Heeji's cute toe nails!

We had a hot dog and a beer and then found a little garden where we lay down and watched some courting butterflies, then it was time to get the ferry home, which was sad. The whole weekend was amazing and cant really sum it up here particularly all the laughs we had. The whole thing was like some sort of amazing dream, we headed back to Seoul and back to reality, in the form of Pizza Hut!

Day 36 - Amazing holiday!

I got woken up by Heeji, at around 8:40 as she had phoned but I got ousted from my bedroom by a mosquito in the night and so couldn't hear my phone. Whoops was supposed to leave at 8, felt a bit guilty because she had been waiting for me and she so sweet. Anyways threw all my clean laundry into a bag and off we went. Traffic wasn't too bad getting out of Seoul and we were soon in the beautiful country side. We decided to stop for a snack, which as you well know is not really an option in Korea and we were soon surrounded by 20 odd bowls of food!

Nice light snack!

They had a lovely outside terrace overlooking the river but for some strange korean reason you were not allowed to eat on the terrace. We had a couple of beers with lunch and then took the beer onto the terrace, it was so lovely and sunny and beautiful I would have been quite happy to sit there all afternoon, and we probably did for an hour or so. I asked if we could have another beer outside but you weren't allowed to have beers on the terrace either!!!! Makes you wonder whats the point in having a terrace! 

Holiday mode!!

Then we set off for the Island, Heeji was a bit scared of the idea of the Death slide ( Zipline) to the island, as apparently it is Asia's longest zipline and is clearly the coolest way to get there. I managed to convice her that it wasnt too scary, however when we went to buy the tickets, the officious receptionist asked if we'd had anything to drink, and being sweet and Korean and honest Heeji said we had a couple of beers at lunch, so we were told we could nt go on the death slide. (The following Day we did ask why but the answer was too silly to contemplate or repeat) But rules is rules in Korea and everybody follows them. I got a bit sad for about 8 minutes because the plan was a bit ruined, but Heeji said not to worry and we went on this inflatable thing that gets dragged by a speed boat, It sort of bounces right up about 20 feet in the air and you just have to hang on, which was pretty fun. They had a nice jetty so we sat around on there in the sunshine for an hour or so, despite our plan changing the afternoon was very chilled and because we were in holiday mode we had not a care in the world and just had chats and I told Heeji lots of funny stories. Then we set off for the hotel, OMG the hotel was amazing! It was like a full apartment with a lounge and kitchen, and the view was absolutely stunning, facing the sunset over the river. We had some champagne and watched the sunset and life was beautiful!

We had spotted a restaurant near the hotel, so we set out for dinner, but unfortunately it was shut, bugger! Luckily we had bought some snacks earlier so we had a relatively light dinner and just had lots of laughs, stories, and lovely bottle of Bordeaux. We did go out for a little walk along the shore which was quite lovely, I tried to convince Heeji that I wanted to steal a little fishing boat, ( well not steal but borrow) I said it would be amazing and romantic but she wasnt up for the idea as she's too Korean! All in all an amazing day anyways! x

Day 35 Funky Friday

Final Glaze ready for the Kiln

Well was too excited about the weekend to concentrate all day at school, I had quite a few classes so we had funky Friday, which basically means I just play Soul music all day, as it gets everyone in a good vibe for the weekend, I started doing that before I left the UK seems to create a good Friday atmosphere. I glazed the cross ready to go into the kiln, which is the last scary bit to do! I got home and couldn't decide whether to go out or not. I asked a few people what they were doing and no one was up for it. Then John phoned who is an English teacher from school, I asked him if he was up for going out and he said he wasn't but he'll get back to me, typical John flakiness! Phoning me up to tell me he wasnt sure whether he wanted to come out. Then I texted him because I though we could go to Sally's Guitar, as I knew he would love it, as he is like 50 or 60 or something, but we have a shared love of Neil Young and Americana. Anyways he never texted back and his phone didnt work, I still was completely unsure whether or not I wanted to go out so had a bath, then flicked a coin and the coin said 'Yes', anyways then John phoned and said he was up for it. We went to Shamrocks and bumped into some friends and I said I'd meet them in FF later, then we went to Sallys, it was the same guy on stage as before but he is pretty amazing and John loved it. Then we went to FFs (which is like an indie club) but my friends weren't there and it was pretty dead. I was dancing and looked around and John had gone, no surprise there. So I went upstairs to GoGos which was a bit fuller and met some pretty funny Koreans who I danced with for a bit, so was a pretty funny night then went home relatively early.