Halong Bay

Hello there. I've been a bit fluey this week, hence the delay in updating the site (not that I need an excuse really). At least, I think it's flu. I seem to have a different set of symptoms every day. Tuesday was chills, yesterday was a day-long headache, and today it's more of an all-over bone ache. Whatever's infected me wants to keep me on my toes. Also, I recently got hold of a few seasons of 24, so I've literally be unable to pull myself away from the screen. If you're are fan, you'll understand. And now I have finally gotten around to writing, I don't have long as I have to go to Korean class in half and hour (although bed would be preferable right now), so I'm gonna make it a brief (or at least as brief as I'm capable of) photo-heavy post. I still haven't managed to recover anything from my camera's memory card, despite having run half a dozen data rescue programs on it already. One of them spent 8 hours analysing the blasted thing and still didn't turn up anything of worth. The photos taken on Christa's camera are better than mine, as she has the ones of us kayaking and swimming in the bay - I didn't want to get my camera wet so we took hers out with us instead. It was mostly cloudy as you can see, although we were blessed with a few glorious hours late Friday afternoon, and we could even see some stars in the evening, though not as many as I was hoping for. I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining though, because as we were up on the deck after our boat had anchored, laying in the semi-dark sipping our wine, smoking our cigars and trying to decide what animals the islands around us looked like...it was bliss. We could've happily stayed there for ever I think. This is sunset, kinda. Anyway, it's now 11:30pm (just got back from class), so we'll call this one a preview and I'll get back to you when I've got me copies of Christa's pics.

Cursed

Bloody typical. It was mid-30s and sunny earlier this week! In any case, me and Christa are off to Vietnam on Saturday morning. We'll be back very early next Sunday, and I'll be here with a full report...um, well, we'll cross our fingers and say...sometime that week...

Oh yes, they treat us well!

The school got us all Seollal gifts! I am disproportionately happy: We see these gift packs in the shops whenever there's one of the major gift-giving holidays coming up, and they always make me smile. Finally I have one of my very own. You can get proper luxury all-Spam sets too, but I'll settle for this. Seollal is The Lunar New Year by the way, and the reason we have the three-day weekend to enjoy starting tomorrow. I'll be living it up down in Gyeongju, so I can guarantee there won't be any more postings until (I'll optimistically say early) next week. Sae hae bok mani mani bahdeusaeyo! Happy Korean New Year!

New Personal Best.

Hi there. So. It's been a while. Mianhamnida. Is anyone still here? So yes, there seems to be a pattern developing with regards to the (in)frequency of my posts these days. I see that. I won't promise things will change, because I've done that before and I feel my words may be meaningless now. Instead, I'll give you the run-down on how my weekly routine has been as of late, and next time you're here and I haven't posted, you can just use your imagination instead. Weekday mornings usually see me working my mojo in the magic classroom . This one's definitely more entertaining than teaching, but it can be fun for me too. I'd be happy doing 45 minutes of card tricks, but there's also a bunch of magical props in the room to mix things up. Most of them are pretty lame, and the kids can usually see straight through the tricks, but they enjoy it anyway. Sometimes, you'll get one kid who just wants to BELIEVE! and he'll imploring the others to 'just accept it! and stop spoiling the fun. My afternoons are even slacker, as I'm teaching pool! Despite the theme, the kids often end up using more English that they do in my other classes. This is because I put them in a three-minute time-out if they use any Korean at all, and since they really want to play, it forces them to stick to the rules to the letter. Few have played before, so we've not yet managed to get through a whole game. The way some of them handle the cue, you'd think they've never held any piece of sporting equipment before. Not that I'm one to talk about sporting prowess. I'm finally working day-shift again, so I can actually go out to play with my friends after work! Yet somehow I still seem to have very little free time. Monday and Thursday nights are Korean class 7 - 9pm, after which I'll come back and do my homework if nothing else is going on. Wednesday has become our weekly poker night, which I am yet to make a profit on. Tomorrow night being Valentine's day, half of regulars have bailed on us, so tomorrow night is Single's Night! Friday or Saturday night will probably find us singing karaoke until 5am, leading to the following day being mostly spent in bed. I really should post more often for my own sake - with my memory I completely forget what I've done otherwise...did I ever tell you about the time we accidentally ordered tripe soup? The only photos of interest I've taken in the last couple of weeks are from this Sunday's visit to Seoul Tower, one of the major tourist attractions that I've somehow never quite reached before. I think I said back before Christmas how refreshing it was not having to see any decorations being put up in November like back home. We are however still living with them mid-February. The Mighty Han. Public theatre. There's video too, but I can't do that to her. Or at least I won't, on this occasion. This weekend is the Lunar New Year, so a massive bunch of us are heading down to Gyeongju on the East coast. I don't have the faintest what the sights are down there, but it's my first time properly out of Seoul in seven months so I'm very excited! You might even get another post next week! The holiday means we get a three-day weekend to enjoy, but ultimately we're no better of as it just means we'll be teaching Tuesday-Saturday next week instead of Monday-Friday! But at least we'll be well rested. Or maybe not. There's a bit of a sickness going round again, but it's only mild this time. I have a bit of a runny nose and tickly cough is all. Not much, but it is enough to crack open the medicinal whiskey. There's a Korean citrus 'tea' called yu-ja-cha, which honestly looks and tastes exactly like marmalade, but I've discovered that with a shot of whiskey it is almost worth being sick for. I put the kettle on to make some about 45 minutes ago when I started writing this damn post, and now I'm finally going to let myself go and finish the job... Chal ja.