Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Forgive me father for I have been slack.  It's been a few weeks since my last blog and for this I am sorry....  

Yes, my slackness in blogging of late has been duly noted... by many (I honestly didn't think anyone outside of my immediate family actually read this, but the numerous crabby emails I've received about my lack of posting suggests that perhaps I was wrong).  It's just that the weather has been fantastic lately (sunny and around 25 degrees most days) and  staying indoors to write my blog has been a far less attractive option than the abundant park-life that has been taking place.  Anyway, point is that I'll try and get my act together on a slightly more regular basis.

Two (or so) weeks in review...

Items on the agenda: trivia night, fajita/jenga night, hookah night, hedgehogs and a covert helipad adventure. See below for details.

Item #1: Trivia night

Location: "The Magnet" (aka. Now Bar)

Rationale: Mid-week public holiday, an excuse to drink (like we needed another one) and a chance to put our collective trivial knowledge to good use... oh, and raising money for charity.

The Team: Amy, Kit, Darryn and Phil 

We thought we had the trivia night in the bag... we thought wrong. Although, we did put in a cracking effort for the karma sutra - pictionary round... 

Well we weren't entirely wrong- we did have something in the bag... A Chihuahua.  After the quiz we were left babysitting said chihuahua in the bar while we drowned our sorrows over our tragic defeat... this photo highlights just one reason why dogs should not be allowed in bars.

Item #2: Fajita/Jenga night

Location: My apartment.

Rationale: Mexican food is hard to come by here... Jenga has so much potential in the 'seemingly innocent games turn drinking games' realm.

A recent trip to an American wholesale supermarket left me with an excessively large amount of fajita seasoning in my possession.  Given that a lot of decent foreign foods can be quite hard to track down over here, this is acquisition was big news amongst my friends.  In addition to this, my former co-workers left me as the guardian of a jenga set that they had previously used as a drinking game... basically (and it is a very basic concept), there are instructions on each jenga block, so each time you extract one from the pile you must do what it says.  For example; finish your drink, do 2 shots of soju, ask the neighbour for an apple (keep in mind all our neighbours are Korean), attempt an acrobatic feat, sing your national anthem... etc etc etc. So, last Friday, I invited a few buddies around for fajitas and jenga (if you didn't already gather that from the title of "fajitas/jenga night").  Unfortunately my role as hostess-with-the-mostest left me with little time to photograph the evening (actually, there were a few hilarious videos, but I promised they'd never see the light of internet), so instead I've opted for a photo from significantly later in the night after we'd migrated back down to now bar...

Fajita'd, jenga'd,maekju'd, soju'd and mandu'd out...

Item #3: Hookah night

Location: My apartment (apparently this weeks social hub of Yongtong)

Rationale: There is a hookah amongst us... and it keeps us away from the bar.

'Round here, we like to hookah (or shisha - depending on what you like to call it) and although there are a few cool hookah bars in Seoul, they aren't exactly convenient for an impromptu mid-week get-together.  However, as I mentioned before, we like to hookah , so my friends Kit and Joe came up with the brilliant idea of co-purchasing a hookah of their very own... and thus bringing the mountain to Mohammed, so to speak.  Over the last few months we have had a growing number of people partaking in hookah nights at Kit and Joes apartments.  Last Wednesday, however, due to extenuating circumstances, we were left without a venue at the last minute, so I volunteered my place.  Thinking that the 6 people who came for fajita/jenga night was probably at the higher-end of my apartment's comfortable catering limits, I was surprised to find we were able to squeeze 12 people and a hookah onto my lovely lino floor without too much trouble (in fact, I dare say that there was  a tiny bit of room between Joe and my fridge for one more)

Yes, I realise it looks like something of a boys night... un/fortunately (depending on which way you look at it), most of my buddies here are boys - aside from a few of the boys girlfriends (who sadly don't live in Youngtong), a lot of the girls I know here don't go out all that much.  As a consequence, I've been made an honorary boy - which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing, but I'm taking the glass-half-full approach.

In Korea, everyone leaves their shoes at the door... this was my doorway after about half of the group showed up.

Item #4: Hedgehogs

Location: The park

Rationale: I don't think there needs to be a rationale behind hedgehogs as a species... but my rationale for putting them on the items agenda is that they're pretty damn cool!

Not too much to be said about this item of the agenda - aside from that this is Blackberry the pygmy hedgehog - 1 of 5 that friends of mine own.  I want a hedgehog, but they are spiky and I discovered that I'm a little scared of touching them... but they're so cool, I want one!

Item #5: Covert helipad adventure

Location: New towers in Youngtong

Rationale: Keeping in mind I said 'rationale' and not 'rational': (a) we wanted to and (b) no one stopped us.  

Late one Sunday evening, after a day of hanging about in the sunshiney park, a bunch of foreigners got talking about the new apartment towers that had recently been completed in their town.  It was noted that although between them they had seen a combined total of approximately 3 helicopters during their time in Korea, the vast majority of high-rise buildings (of which there are many), have a helipad on the top.  Their conversation naturally progressed to speculation about the nature of the views one may encounter atop the aforementioned 40 story buildings... and soon enough these inquisitive and adventure-hungry foreigners decided that they would like to see the views for themselves....

The triumphant delinquents - moments after reaching the summit of the high-rise.

(with the lifts currently servicing only the first 10 of 40 floors, it really did feel as if we had just climbed a mountain.) 

Speculation no longer required.  The views were pretty sweet...

Holding my camera still enough to get good shots of them proved to be quite difficult.

So that's been the last 2 weeks for me - more or less... I went to the zoo last week with the kids at school and this week we had a mini-olympics - but that's another post all together.  I also started volunteering at an orphanage near my house this week.  I've been trying to organise it with one of my Korean co-workers for about a month now, but finally on Tuesday we were able to get it sorted to go down to meet the kids and assess their English levels... The orphanage is not at all what I expected (but given that my imagery of orphanages is entirely based on the movie 'Annie' and a terribly depressing kids home I visited in Vietnam, I'm not surprised my expectations were a little off).  It's run by nuns and it's a really warm, clean and comfortable place.  There are just 9 kids there at the moment and they all go to a local elementary school and have piano lessons and math tutoring like everyone else... they've just never had the option to learn English before, so Bunny (my Korean co-worker) and I will take them for a 45 minute beginners English class once a week and just hang about and play some games with them. So yeah, I'm looking forward to going again next week 'cos the kids there are sweethearts... and it's just really nice to be able to do something good while I'm here too.

Well, that's all my news for now - oh, except that a kid threw a banana at me today which reminded me of the Groucho Marx quote I used for the title of this post... anyway, I hope everyone back home has a nice ANZAC weekend.  Eat some ANZAC biscuits for me!!!

Flowers in trees are pretty

I have never experienced the seasons change as rapidly as they do in Korea.  A few weeks ago it was winter - freezing and snowing, the trees were bare and the grass was completely dead and brown... the next week it poured with rain, but I lost the need for my thick winter jacket... the week after, the sun was shining again - it was shining nearly all winter, but I could actually feel it's warmth this time.  The grass turned green over night and all of a sudden, the bare trees of winter burst into full, glorious spring time bloom - it is, in  a word, stunning. And better still, no longer am I bound to the confines of my apartment with the ondol switched onto high.  Now, my time off work is spent lazing about in one of the many nearby parks with a book or a few friends... it's noice. It's different.  It's unuuusual.  

Most of the foreign teachers around here had Wednesday off work due to a local or provincial election (can't be sure of which it was... most of the explanations I've received from my Korean co-workers have been vague and/or sketchy to say the least) - but we at the wonderful ECC were lucky enough to get Tuesday off as well! (yes, we were the envy of many).  So my fellow Aussie co-worker, Mardi, and I decided to head into Yeouido Island in Seoul to have a look at the Cherry Blossom Festival.  Wow....  I don't normally go ga-ga over flowers (or trees for that matter), but these flowery trees were gorgeous.  I must've said "it's so pretty" about 7 million times in the first 10 minutes of being there - and that's just the times I said it out loud. 

A stream running through the beautiful Yeouido Park - with the obligatory high-rise buildings in the background... wouldn't be Seoul without them.

(BTW.  Yeouido... seriously, how many vowels do you want to put in a single word!?)

I like photos that capture the old and new... well given that the park isn't even 10 years old (like most things in Korea) I guess I should say that I like the contrast between the traditional and the modern style - or something like that.

Purdy cherry blossoms... around much of the world, these would often just be regarded as nice flowers, but almost everything in Korea carries a deeper symbolism - even the letters of the Korea alphabet represent the land, the sky, people etc.  Aside from the visual beauty of blossoms, Korean thinking uses their short, but stunning existence as a metaphor for life.  The fleeting glory of the blossom signifies the precarious and transitory nature of life - something we're supposed to be reminded of during the festival.  Nice huh?

... Aaaand back down to earth - in the Korea of day-to-day-  an outing wouldn't be complete outing without seeing something completely bizzare... and here is a fine example.  Yes, these girls are riding a tandem bike - whilst wearing roller blades.  "Why?", you may ask?  Well, my guess is as good as yours... but it typifies the sheer randomness I see here on a daily basis.  I'm learning not to ask questions about it as the answers are generally more confusing than the behaviour in question.

The Cherry Blossom Festival was a nice day out for many a couple... as I imagine it would be anywhere in the world.  Difference here is that couples often wear matching outfits.  The matching aqua tops above are far from the best his-n-hers outfits I've seen, but at least it gives you an idea.  I once saw a couple wearing identical hot pink t-shirts with a picture of said couple printed (in a love heart) on the front. Let me also throw in that the guys carry their girlfriends handbags everywhere - no matter how girly the bag may be. 

Ahh... Beondegi - the bane of my pedestrian life in Korea.  Beondegi are boiled silkworm larvae... mmm... unfortunately it is also very popular snack here - you can get it in on the street, in restaurants, bars and even in a can at the supermarket.  Every bloody street vendor (of which there are many) boils up beondegi for peckish passers-by.  The main problem is (if you can get past the obvious 'you are eating freaking pupae' issue) - that it smells absolutely vile.  I have to remember not to breathe when within 15 meters of it, as it is one of the most pungent, thickest, stick-in-the-back-of-your-throat smells going 'round. I've had a few close calls with the old gag reflex and really want to avoid jumping on the Korean band-wagon that apparently okays vomiting on the street (although they do it when drunk... which, judging by the number of spew piles dotted around, is quite often). Moral of the story is: I hate Beondegi.

Ah yes.  Back to the Cherry Blossom Festival.... in all it's Korean-ness.

This picture is my attempt at capturing the Korean penchant for unashamedly photographing oneself in a range of hilarious poses... but they do it for serious.  I could have taken this picture a million times since arriving here- insomuch that everyday I see girls sitting on their lunch break taking pouty photos of themselves with their mobile phones... or just sitting and and checking themselves out in the obligatory hand held mirror.  I'm not sure how much of it is vanity and how much of it is just taking care of their appearance... but it makes me giggle.  

Another interesting insight into Korea... here you see families and friends picnicing on a hillside.  Well, to be accurate, this was less of a hillside and more of a ditch leading down from the blossomed Yunjungno street to large, noisy road.  I'm not sure why this was deemed a nice spot to sit and eat kim-chi and drink ginseng tea - particularly when Yeouido park was mere minutes away - but for some reason it was.  It's not like there was even a nice view across the large road onto which the picnicers were facing - there was just a big, packed car park!  I really don't get it, but again, I got a good giggle out of it!

I don't think I'll ever get used to the cartoons... This one is on a police station.  If there's one profession that shouldn't use cartoons, it would probably be the police, right?  And maybe politicians.  Which reminds me - the candidates for the election on Wednesday... well, their campaigns involved a lot of  dancing and singing in the streets.  One candidate (I only know him as #2) had his campaigners set up shop on a traffic island in the middle of a 6 lane road and dance on the back of a truck to cheesy music while illuminated by a range of colourful disco lights.  No joke.... perhaps candidate #2 is a joke.

I put this one in just because it is such a typical view in Korea - I like the views across the Han river because it's one of the only times (in Seoul at least) that you can see more than 100 meters in front of you - normally you are crowded in by big buildings.

Hehehe... this kid had a sticker with his name and parents mobile phone number stuck to his back.  It made me happy to see that this kind of thing happens all around the world - I remember my dad writing my name and address on my arm in permanent marker at the Royal Melbourne Show... just in case we got lost and it was really rainy or something.

More odd posing with flowers by the Koreans... that's three different photos going on in the background there...  Cos squatting with your face in a pot of flowers is the most natural pose you could get!

Meh... when in Korea eh? But just as I suspected, the photo looks ridiculous and will never make it's way into a photo frame in my house... mostly because it looks like I'm on a squat toilet hidden behind the flowers (perhaps I was?).  I'm yet to discover how any of the others taking this style of photo could have avoided the same problem, yet I'd put money on it that this pose is the source of many a framed photo in Korea.

Seoul through the blossoms.

Yunjungno street with its festival goers.  There were parts of the street that were so densely covered with blossoms that it felt like we were walking in a cloud... or a fluffy, white tunnel... or some other analogy that describes the feeling better... 

And to top off a great day, I found this.  It's a truck with rotisserie chickens on the back.  Yup, you can buy an entire chicken at a street stall... intended as a snack on the subway home?? Who knows, but I think it's brilliant.

Anyway, I hope that my day at the Cherry Blossom Festival gave you all a better insight into Korea... and how weirdly wonderful it is.

  Until I can be bothered blogging again...