My fight with a mosquito...

Last night, just when I was settling down in a nice, comfortable position in bed, I heard it. The clear 'buzz buzz buzz' of my arch enemy, the Mosquito. It was close. I contemplated simply closing my eyes and being done with it - but then I remembered how tasty I am to those retched things. I think I'm their heroin. They just can't leave me alone! I turn on my light, to find nothing. Silence. And then...I spot it, less than a metre away, silently perched on my bed head. I go to squish it - for it's the right thing to do with mossies! It flies away, too slow. Then I try again, and then a third time. Each with less success. This means war! There is no way I was going to let a small destructive insect ruin my nights sleep. I put on the mosquito repeller, almost knowing that it's too late for that. I hear nothing for a while, so I turn off my light. Just as I've settled down once more, I hear it. And then 'dam' it flies into my head. I swipe for it, but miss - all goes silent. 'I've got it' I think. Phew, I settle down again, but no, there it is again. Blasted thing. This went on for a while. Until I remembered I had bug spray in my kitchen. I whole can of it - and even if it meant killing myself with the poisonous fumes, I would do it!

I sprayed the whole of the bedroom/living room, and then lay very still until the bug can close. It took a while because the light was still on - but I was a woman with a mission. And when it came near - shhhhhhhhhhhhhtt I sprayed it like my life depended on it - which it almost certainly did! And then it just disappeared. Seriously! No writhing around trying to get the stuff off itself, no painful buzz, no nothing. I was almost disappointed. But I waited, just to make sure, and sure enough there was nothing but the sound of a bit of dripping water, far off in the distance.

I snuggled up and felt asleep soundly, all thanks to the orange flavoured bug juice!! I have paid homage to it below, as only a life saver sound be....

Enjoy your day and remember to stay say, from dangerous animals like the mosquito!

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside!

Outside is cold and rainy, and I can hear the heavy drops of collected rain dripping onto some plastic bottles while the rain beats the corrugated plastic roof of my awning. The air smells fresh, in only the way rain can smell, and although it's not hot, the cool breeze filtering through my open kitchen window seems like heaven. I think of home for a moment. Rain would never stop up from doing anything, but today I plan to stay in the house and enjoy being rained in!

At home, right now, with this amount of rain, the water would be collecting around the front of the house, creating a little reservoir that is nigh on impossible to pass without getting soaking feet. It's funny what you miss when you're about 5700 miles (9200km) away from home. But it's a good feeling, like my rare cups of tea.

Instead of reminiscing of days gone by in rainy England, I thought that I would take you through a sunny day in South Korea, so here goes:

Yesterday (Saturday, 7th November) Natasha and I decided to go to Daejin Beach in Yeonghae, so we got some Gimbop, water and our cameras and started along the road towards the beach. It was a really nice stroll, the weather was warm, but not too hot, the views were a little hazy, mystifying the surrounding mountains and the area was quiet apart from the two white foreigners chatting and the occasional passing car. The view above is of the river on the way to the beach, with the mountains behind.

We made it to the beach in just over 30 minutes, and when we got there it was so quiet. The only things around us were the sand, the sea, some oujima's and the seagulls. This is Natasha walking onto the beach. Check out her amazing camera :)

The picture on the left doesn't do the beach justice - it is so blue, with the little fishing towns far in the distance, and then mountains after mountains after mountains behind them. The sand is the slightly glassy kind, that's abrasive but in a very soft way, so walking around barefoot meant my feet felt so smooth last night and this morning. See...look at the beautiful sand...

Once we sat down, I opened up the gimbop (sushi) - I picked up the tuna

variety, it tastes sooo good! And I thought I'd share with you the joy of the gimbop! It starts with the layer of seaweed and then rice, then mint leaves, followed by a splodge of tuna, some pickle, crab, omlette, and a couple of other things, rolled together and cut into slices...mmm!

See, it's Natasha's favourite too! We sat for a while, and then played about in the sand (ok I played and build a sand castle while Natasha took pictures!) and then sat about some more. When it started getting a little cold at 5pm we decided to walk back to Yeonghae to meet up with the guys for some pizza. But not before we saw the unthinkable...

KOREANS ON THE BEACH OUTSIDE OF BEACH SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!! Shocking, but so cute! They had a few kids with them and they were just taking pictures and chasing after them. It was so lovely to watch.

And just because I think it's only fair to remind you of what I did on a delightful November day, check out my local beach one last time....

Love you guys and I hope you're all well! Keep in touch by leaving a comment, writing to me, or emailing me! I love letters and stickers and hearing about all the things you're up to!

Love, Me x

The joy of Shabu Shabu and friends!

Last night was the night for celebrating Keba's birthday, so we decided to go out in Yeongdeok. And the only thing better than Lotteria (the 'fast food' place) is Shabu Shabu, and we all heart Shabu Shabu!So, in the picture above, you have the hot broth on the left, and the fish broth on the right. We add a whole load of veg and then dip chicken bits into it, let them cook for about 5 or 10 seconds and then eat them. It's such a good, wholehearted sharing experience. Add to this shrieks of laughter, good humour, general chatting and some noodles, and you get an evening of fun and frollicks at in small town Yeongdeok. There was Jay and his need to put all the chicken in at once, Natasha and her choking from laughing too much, noodle burning, and general laughter, Keba just sitting taking it all in, poor thing! And me, laughing so much I hurt. Oh and whistling accidently because of the hot broth.

Back at Natasha and Rob's, there was a whole gallon of chocolate icecream on offer, that we all just dipped into, then chatting and laughing more, a small chocolate icecream related spitting from laughter incident (not me!) and then Team America, before Jay and I traipsed back to Yeonghae for sleep!

Good times :D

The Sun Only Shines on Market Day!

Well, what can I say? I have complained about the bad weather and suddenly it's sunny and a little bit warm today. I feel like I'm in England in Summer, one minute warm, the next freezing cold. The only difference is there's very little rain! Yay!

I have no curtains in my house. This doesn't seem unusual - and so when I woke up today to the sun beaming through my window I thought "It can't be true, it's 9am and the sun is shining, but it's officially winter. I'm wearing my ski jacket and hat out, just in case!" Well we all know what that means right...it was hotter than I thought. My ski jacket was unzipped and I was glad to get to the gym to take off my extra layers. That'll teach me!

My point is - it's market day. The day when Yeonghae turns from the sleepy little town it is into this packed, bustling, rowdy town. This happens every 5 days. There is no parking to be found, no peace or quiet, no point leaving your house unless you either want an octopus bargain or one of the many varieties of Kimchi. Today, I desire neither! So, back home I plodded where I plan to read journals, books, and maybe watch a bit more of my movie.

Today's classes involve reading about Harry the Hair and playing a game, maybe tic tac toe esl style. And then my disaster class, where I plan to teach them the joys of 20 questions, fingers crossed and lollipop brides are the way forward!

A little disclaimer: You can buy more than just octopus and kimchi at the market, like shoes and clothes and squid (dried and live), dogs, cats, rabbits, hedgehogs, coat hangers (ok, so you're getting the picture :D) I'll try and get down there one day and take loads of pictures for everyone! Oh! And the picture in this blog is in Seoul, not Yeonghae, but I think that almost every blog should have at least one picture, just to make it pretty :)

Something I noticed on the way back from the gym today: The Korean's love their road signs, and as I was walking back home (about a 5 minute walk) I looked up at the sign, which told me to turn right to go to Yeonghae. My point is this: I was already in Yeonghae, silly sign!!!

My mind, one big bubble!

You read right! Today my mind is one big bubble, I got up late (no time for the gym), felt dizzy and sick. How bizarre! Ate a banana. Had a shower. Still feeling a bit dizzy and sick. Strange I think to my self. But I plod on. I log onto my computer. Shower. Make myself human. Make a cup of tea. Exciting blog for you all :p try and research some exciting topics for my kids. If they do well today they get a kind of games day on Friday (ultimate treat!!) No joy prevails. This is my most exciting part of my teaching day. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, but this is the part of the day where I get to think of the perfect lesson plans that provide just the right amount of fun and learning. But we all know my lessons are perfect anyway :p I wouldn't change them, apart from using more speaking in the classroom. Lunch with Denice. Good! Chicken tenders and coke. Then school to see where she works. Such a cute office and so neat! Come up with topic ideas and then come home. Still feel bleeeugh. Can't wait to go to bed tonight. No partying for me! Have a nice Wednesday - and remember you're almost at the half way mark to the weekend!

ps...you think you're cold, this is me in my wee little house, sporting a woolly hat:

And suddenly the tide changed!

I know I haven't really told you about my school or classes or anything, mainly because I'm still figuring them out But these last two weeks have been a nightmare for me in regards to one class. They are rude, cocky, annoying teenagers who don't want to be in the class. On Thursday, after class I decided that it wasn't necessarily my fault that they didn't want to learn English, but as I'm here I'm going to try my best to make it fun for them. Queue me sitting in front of my laptop searching the internet for answers (I've come to understand that the Internet is where I now learn most things!) I stubble across a game on an ESL website telling that if I try this I will most definitely succeed....hahaha I laugh out loud at the statement, thinking I have to try this just to prove them wrong.

What can I say? It worked. I wasn't even sure the kids knew any English, or how to speak for that matter...but I realised that they can, and they were awesome. I just need to keep this up, oh no! Now comes the fun part of searching for more answers! I love my kids...and bribing them with Candy :D but man it tastes good :D

It's official...winter has arrived...

Well, I woke up this morning, turned over and promptly felt grumpy. Not just because it was a morning, and a Monday morning at that. I seemed to feel something in the air! After not sleeping very well and then having to wrap myself in my duvet when I woke up, I just knew something was a miss. What was it you ask...well my friends I just experienced my first day of winter. And it's not even winter yet! It's only going to get colder :( Denice came over so we could get the bus to Yeongdeok for lunch, and she warned me to put on something warm - now generally this means wear a jumper or a scarf, not really wear your ski jacket and gloves and maybe a hat that covers your ears because it's link a wind tunnel out there. I froze! Actually froze. Even my school kids were cold. They were cowering round the space heater in the Hogwan doing their homework. How cute! Poor things. And then most of them sat in their little puffer jackets during class! Seriously, it's cold! And as I said, it's only going to get colder.

On a more positive note, this means that the possibility of going skiing is increasing, and with a ski resort only about 2 hours away from Yeongdeok I can ski on weekends! Oooh, so excited by that prospect :) And I also get to feel fine about sitting in my little cosy house watching tv and reading interesting yet irrelevant things on line and just reading in general. Oh, if only I had a log fire burning away in the corner :P

Well, that's all for the moment, posts to come include information about the hogwan, the kids, the little town, bus rides, friends, maybe Costco, TOPIK and things I miss from the West! It's 3 been 3 weeks now without so many things and people, find out what I'm missing and what I'm loving being without :)

Have a good Monday all x