Last Friday I met up with some friends at the Noryangjin Fish Market just south of the Han River.
We walked up and down the stalls
looking at dozens of different types of fish but ultimately, were too nervous
to commit to buying one of the beasts. So instead, we wandered around the area
and found a seafood restaurant that had exactly what we were looking for – food
that came to the table still wriggling! Yes, I ate Sannakji - live octopus tentacle. Yes, its suckers
sucked my lip as I ate it. No, I probably wouldn't do it again. It was pretty
tasteless but the texture and the squirming was gross.
I’ll let the video tell the rest of the story…
On Saturday afternoon, glad to not have been eaten from the
inside out by the tentacle, three of us made our way to Gangnam and jumped on a
bus down to the Everland/Caribbean Bay theme park complex for Global Gathering Korea 2013.
End of Night Mess
HAPPY GLOW BAND
Fatboy Slim was headlining at 00.30 so we had plenty of time to
explore and see some of the other DJs after arriving at 7pm. Our evening began at
one of the smaller stages where we saw a Korean DJ called Shaun. I’d love to
find some of his stuff online but Googling "Korean DJ Shaun" hasn't gotten me
very far.
Next up was a special (and a bit strange for a dance music festival)
appearance from a K-Pop band Crayon Pop. These girls are huge at the moment! Elementary
school kids go crazy for their songs and know all the dance moves. I had been
introduced to them mere hours earlier but was already a big fan.
Main Stage
We also saw
Madeon and Porter Robinson and Ferry Corsten and Zombie Nation. Everything was
great and we made it back onto the bus headed for Seoul at about 4.30am – bed
before 6am. The next day I just wandered around in an exhausted stupor until it
was time for bed again (at about 7pm..)
Grading
Chilly
On Monday, my grade 6 kids had to sit exams. Usually this
means lessons are cancelled and deskwarming can commence. Alas, at my school
they gave me the terrible job of completing 93 individual speaking exams and
giving the students grades which go towards their mid-term reports. I felt
terrible… some of the kids who I know can do the work in class just came into
the room and froze!.. I had to fail quite a few of them. Oh dear…
It suddenly got much colder in Seoul this week – winter is
coming! And with it comes the longing to escape to warmer climes. I am getting
closer to confirming when I’ll be able to take some holiday around Christmas
and New Years – It all depends on when the Principal decides we should have
Winter English Camp. I've been dropping rather large hints about the fact that
I’d like to go away so fingers crossed they confirm this week so I can book a
flight somewhere…
Concentration
I was knackered on Friday afternoon - a full week of lesson changes, exams, teacher's conversation class catch up and not one, but TWO teacher dinners... I was fully prepared to stay in and have a quiet one but...I ended up at a bowling ally instead. Of course. The friendly Korean lady started to teach us how to bowl correctly but quickly realised how bad we were and left us to it... I was truly terrible and lost both games even after getting two strikes!
Riverside Park
Photo Op Stop
I've been cycling some more; I've been getting lost some
more…
But I went for a ride this weekend in unseasonably warm sunshine (back into
double figures!), with two friends Karim and Pete. We found a small Ecology Park and cycled around the financial district too. I got back to the apartment
after a full 31 miles and had just enough time to shower (with a beer, obvs),
change and get back out the door headed for Itaewon.
I met Katie then we were on the hunt for a bar that only
opened a few weeks ago and sells, rumour had it, DECENT BEER. Cass is the
Carling of South Korea – it’s cheap, it’s everywhere, and it tastes really
quite bad. So we found Cargo127 and were overjoyed to find a
Cargo 127
variety of bottles
and loads of different draft lagers and IPAs. Heaven. We kept it brief, knowing
we’d be back all the time, and headed to Gecko’s Bar where they play Premier
League games every Saturday night. We saw (the brilliant) Newcastle vs
Liverpool match with more decent booze and next thing I know Katie and I are
stumbling to catch the last tube home. On our own we both use the subway
extremely successfully but put us together and get us talking and – POW – next thing
we know we've gone 3 stops in the wrong direction!! Cue a dash up and over the
platform to catch the actual last train of the night and unstoppable drunken LOLs.
This has happened several times now…
Taster Trio
All change..
Today, I haven’t done much of anything – It’s been great! I
watched a lot of Netflix and caught up with X Factor, pottered about the flat a
bit and went for a bit of a walk. I moved some furniture around too – which reminded
me I never did that apartment tour – I’ll make a video this week. I didn't do
any of the planning I was supposed to do and I don’t feel guilty at all. On Wednesday
and Friday this week I have no classes at all so I’ll catch up with lots of
things then. I've also booked 2 nights in a hostel over on the east coast of SK
for a weekend of hiking in Seoraksan National Park in a couple of weeks time!
.JPG)
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