The Austen marathon continues...

After the completion of Emma I decided to take a temporary celebratory break from my mammoth text, however it was not before long that I rejoined Jane and delved into 'Persuasion'. Persuasion is destined to be my favourite of the Austen texts, the relationship between Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth kept me glued to the text and I swallowed it down in a matter of days. Not only is Persuasion probably my favourite Austen book, it is also now one of my favourite books. Yes I have only read two so far, well actually I have started the infamous Pride and Prejudice it's going slowly, slower than Persuasion but far easier than Emma, now I have become somewhat accustomed to Austen's language and sentence structure. As yet, it's not a patch on Persuasion but I have only 14 weeks left in Korea and 4 texts left to read so i need to get cracking.... I also have a copy of 'Great Expecations' waiting for me, however that is far more portable than the doorstop that is 'The Complete Novels of Jane Austen'...

Living on the Frontline

As well as trying hard to give my blog a massive update I also feel I need to mention the current political situation in South Korea. On March 26, The Cheonam, a South Korean ship sank killing 46 sailors. Last week, a report proved that a North Korean torpedo was behind the incident. The North have denied this, despite the signature found on the torpedo, and have threatened 'severe action'. A phrase that has made me somewhat scared. Words have been going back and forth between Kim Jong-Il in the North, Lee Myung-Bak in the South, China who share the Northern border of the North and USA who have been in Korea since the demarcation 60 years ago. Threats are being made, sanctions imposed. The North have exiled South Korean officials from Kaesong, and the South have stated they will no longer send workers to Kaesong, although I did read that a train left this morning as usual. If I was in the Uk, it is fair to say my interest would be elsewhere, I would more likely to be interested in the fact that Cheryl Cole has started divorce proceedings against Ashley. But alas I am not, i am a hop skip and a jump from the border, a ten minute taxi journey, around 4 miles. I am going with the concept of keep your friends close and your enemies close, don't panic until the Koreans panic and have a plan of action... And as I type, fearing for imminent attack, the sound of the jets earlier in the evening still ringing in my ears, trying to gain information from the BBC News, I hear the International football scores...

North Korea 2: Greece 2.

*I feel that as a former wannabe hack, i should embrace the writer within me and I am currently working on a piece that is more detailed as to what the feck is going on...*

Art Hunting

Last weekend, I headed into Seoul to search out some Art. The gallery I was aiming for was the Kukje Gallery, described in my Rough Guide as being 'North of Anguk Station' in Samcheong-dong, the area around Samcheong-dong street. As well as containing the gallery, the area appealed because of its apparent similarity to the European streets of Lisbon and Naples... After exiting from Anguk Station, feeling rather disorientated of what direction I was to head, I was lucky to have two fellow art hunters along for the ride in the style of Mary and Samy. We managed to find a map, find the street and stumble into the right area, the similarities between the traditional European cities was clear, long winding streets and a mish-mash of buildings littered with galleries, cafes, restaurants and boutiques. I can't help but thing in some ways the Koreans were somewhat deliberate in creating this atmosphere, especially with the amount of European style restaurants.. It was still a great place to be and refreshing from the usual architecture and atmosphere and crammed with Koreans, we barely caught sight of any other of those annoying foreigners! The Kukje gallery was the first gallery we visited, and showed two great exhibitions, the best being the exhibition entitled 'Night' by Jack Pierson, which bizarrely Mary had already seen part of when it was in Malaga! Pierson creates sculptures using salvaged lettering from old American buisness' to create narratives. Clearly linked to the concept of the American Dream, the pieces are glamourous and dreamy yet powerful. It lead to us trying to work out whether Pierson finds the letter then creates narratives, or does he create the narratives and then find the letters, finding the perfectly smashed bulb lights and matching coloured and textured pieces for 'Movie Star' for instance, or the broken linked letters for 'Trust'... Pierson is an American born and trained in Massachussets, he has previously shown in LA, New York, Dublin, Miami and Malaga! www.kukjegallery.com

After the Kukje gallery, we headed back through the streets into a whole host of other galleries, stumbling across another two great exhibitions, both I would highly recommend.

The first was Kim Beon at the ArtSonje Centre(www.artsonje.org) and the second Jungsan Kim, Yung Sik a 'space installation at Gallery Dam (wwwgallerydam.com).

Kim Beom creates work reflecting the world we live in through a variety of modes, including video, installation, fiction and illustration. He uses simple daily objects and subverts them. The exhibition includes for instance 'Safehouse of a Tyrant' a sketched blueprint for a house, featuring wolves and dogs and wolf dogs and a piece of video animation that includes 10 animated illustrations entitled 'Spoon, Tree, Hands, Wolves on Grasses, Cows, A Thought, Origin of a Leopard, Substitute, Risk and Hestiation', my personal favourites were Origin of a Leopard and Tree. What most attracted me to Kim Beom's work was his translation of Art into fiction, alot of his work includes language and he also writes 'books' two of which I managed to pick up in the gallery bookstore. I have flicked through but have yet found the right time to sit down with a nice cup or Rose Tea and indulge in either 'Hometown' or 'Noonchi'. I will of course let you know when I have.

Going Native Part 2: Jinjabang

We headed to the Dragon Hill Spa in central Seoul in order to celebrate Shauna Teacher's birthday. The spa, well actually a high class Korean Jinjabang, was my first Jinjabang experience, and in many ways I was spoilt but it has also prepared me for the 'dodgier' establishments (i have yet to actually set foot in another jinjabang yet). Nudity is a big part of the Korean spa experience and as westerners, Koreans tend to gawp. Korean women when naked, surrounded only by other Korean women, have no issues with modesty and tend to flaunt, wiggle, bend in any which way they please which can be a tad awkward especially when putting socks on first! However, it only took a short amount of time to get used to it and get used to it I did. The baths, the saunas, the steam rooms, the bodyscrubs WOW. My favourite bath had to be the seawater bath, outside and big you were supposed to 'walk in it' but instead we just submerged our bodies into the steaming hot salty water and felt very nourished. I got involved in all of the baths, some of which have useful names 'Ginseng bath' where you bathe in water mixed with Ginseng, some more vague 'Event bath' for instance, not sure what that was about! Essentially my first Jinjabang experience was pure heaven....

At the end of May, myself and Mary headed back to Dragon Hill in order to start our 3 day weekend on a relaxing and de-toxed note. This time we felt like professionals, the fear was well and truly gone, and we spent several hours soaking ourselves in the baths, sweating in the hot rooms and saunas and once again being scrubbed to within an inch of our lives. This experience is definitely something that will be missed when i leave Korea, i doubt London's high class offerings will be a patch on Dragon Hill where it costs £6 entry, £10 for a scrub and £20 for a scrub and massage, I plan to get involved as much as I can and I will also attempt to visit some others in my local area, well not that local I'm not sure I want my students or parents of my students to see me minus clothes.....

Going Native Part 1: Jeju

In the Rough Guide to Korea Norbert Paxton describes Jeju as a Tectonic Pimple, that this ‘Special self governing province is the crater pocked culmination of the hundreds of islands draped of the southern tip of the Korean mainland. A traditional destination for Korean Honeymooners, Jeju has been styled in similar tomes to the likes of Bali and Hawaii. When one steps out of the terminal they are immediately confronted by the giant palms that cover the island, necessity when attempting to a pass off a Hawaiian likeness. My trip to Jeju came courtesy of the brilliant Seokjin Park of Adventure Korea. From Gimpo airport I flew to Jeju arriving late morning, even though the flight was subjected to an hours delay due to a fire on the runway at Jeju. What lay ahead was two days of craziness. Following a traditional and tasty Jeju meal at one of the islands most famous restaurants, we took ferry ride around the south east edge of Jeju. The ferry ride itself was a cultural experience, a two deck boat, we were with the ‘sleeping hikers and families who were obviously using the trip as some kind of naptime, below was where the party was at with hordes of ajumma’s and ajoshi’s swigging maekju soju and dancing and singing with a man dressed up as some kind of Turkish belly dancer in drag! Very strange and a great insight into how Korean’s like to deal with ferry trips, I was one of the the few people with their camera out snapping away at the view, the random scattered desolate lumps of island and the fisherman perched of the end, the waterfalls and some rather interesting rock formations. After the ferry we walked around the harbour to Bird Island, named because it is haven where birds are the favoured residence, the walk was less path based and a bit more cliff climbing, trying to ensure my converse didn’t slip on a sea battered rock and I fell in the water and watching aghast as either side or me Korea women jumped past in six inch stilettos. I also got to see a piece of architecture that more than reembled Portsmouth’s Spinnaker tower, a landmark that does not need an international doppelganger! The second cultural visit was to an area which Brits tend to avoid, it was to the famous Jeju rape flower fields. Rape fields? As in rape seed? Yes. The Korean’s were going nuts for them and it was easy to get sucked into the hype and despite the potential to bring on a severe allergic reaction, I got well into the fields to have my photos taken amoungst the bright yellow flowers. The opportunity was popular, to save the entire crop from being trampled on by tourists, the famer had cleverly allows a segment of around an acre available, cornering off the rest with large signs and barbed wire. Despite this, there were still bus loads of Ajumma’s clambering over the wire to have their photos taken with the unspoilt flowers, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the money made from the rapeoil was probably designated on the farmer’s children’s Hagwon education.

After photos with the rapeflower, we headed to the O’Sulloc tea farm, wandered amoungst the tea plants and had a gander at the museum, before moving onto ‘Circus world’. Circus world was a circus show, unallocated seats meant it was a squashed scummage to find a good viewing point, and we found ourselves perched on the edge, inches from the action. The show consisted of some very flexible and rather young Chinese acrobats doing same crazy things involving bending, balance and lit candels, followed by a motorbike show, in which 6 full sixe motorbikes did tricks in a big metal ball! It was nerve wracking to watch. After the show we grabbed some food and headed to our pension. I wasn’t exactly sure of what a pension was although apparently the concept is rampant in Europe. It turned out a pension was essentially an empty apartment, complete with kitchen and bathroom in which you slept on mats on the floor. We dumped our stuff, before heading out to watch the night sea, sipping some maekju soju and trying out same amazing fresh sashimi that Seokjin had managed to purchase from a fisherman who had just caught the fish and was kind enough to let us experience it. I felt privileged from the first bite, it was AMAZING! He also showed us the manner in which Korean’s eat their raw fish, essentially it’s the same way they eat galbi; lettuce leaves, red pepper sauce, garlic and a dash of wasabi.

A night on the floor was surprisingly nice and I woke up feeling less bent than I had done for a while. We started off our second day, with a trek up to the Geomeun Oreum crater, the infamous pimple. IUnfortunately it had started to rain and was pretty windy. The fact we weren’t the only ones on the trail was also fun, to say the trail was packed would be an understatement, like most hiking paths during high season, there were queues midway up. It was a tough climb, weather wise, but the view from the top was brilliant and it was great to be this close to ‘the’ landmark of Jeju island. After our climb we headed to a traditional Jeju Barbecue Pork restaurant which was AMAZING, before heading off to participate in the optional activity of – horseriding, which was random and pretty standard, the best bit was watching the drunken old ladies on the horses, the poor horses! We then headed to Manjang cave, which contained the longest lava tube in the world, I’ve been in rather a lot of caves recently, in Chungju and Samcheok, but this one was by far the best, it was strange to be walking it path that was created by burning lava, and the patterns left behind were beautiful, if totally un photographical! We then flitted around the corner for some maze phone and a trip to the trick art museum, the outside was my favourite, multicoloured zebra’s are my new favourite animal! After the trick art museum, we had some time to burn, so we persuaded our guide to add two extra visits to our schedule, first ‘the mystery road’ and second, ‘Loveland’. The mystery road was a very strange optical illusion in which you stopped your coach, lifted the nadbreak and watched as you rolled UP a hill. Loveland was a little bit more intriguing. Built as a ‘sex education’ center to ‘advise’ those newlywed Koreans during their honeymood, ‘Loveland’ contains some rather graphic if not amusing statues and images of… well you can guess. It was a brilliant end to a great trip.

We flew back from Jeju to Gimpo on a packed plane full of Koreans who had come for a weekend of hiking and golf. We got back to Gimpo at around 930, and managed to find a local, ‘round the back streets’ bus that took us back to Geumchon, before we hailed a cab to Munsan. It was a great trip and I would highly recommend a visit to Jeju if you are in Korea. From speaking to others who were on our trip, going on an organised tour is definitely the best and most productive way of seeing the Island, some we knew had been before and had found travelling the island with no form of transport was tricky, frustrating and time consuming. Jeju was a great way to start off what was to be a fantastic month of great tourist activities.

I promise...

there is an immense upload coming in the next few days, Korea has been somewhat crazy but it is all starting to calm down a little - get ready for: Jeju Island, Naked Spa funtimes, Palaces, art, photography, theme parks and buddhism at the very least!

Love you all, miss you big time.

Only 3 and half months left!

xx

How it is...

So, the past 6 weeks have been totally crazy. The fact I am getting closer to the end of my contract, it's now a mere 3 and a half months before I am back in Korea, means that I starting to 'panic' in regards to assaulting Korea's tourist industry in the manner which a fat kid attacks cake...

April started with a trip to Jeju Island with Adventure Korea. It was an intense weekend but it allowed an opportunity for me to get a real taste of the Jeju way of life.

So, Jeju started the month on a bit of a high, it followed with trips to the amazing Dragon Hill Spa in central Seoul in order to celebrate Shauna Teacher's birthday followed by an amazing dinner at VIPS in Ilsan. The spa, well actually a high class Korean Jinjabang was my first Jinjabang experience, and in many ways I was spoilt but it has also prepared me for the 'dodgier' establishments (i have yet to actually set foot in another jinjabang yet). Nudity is a big part of the Korean spa experience and as westerners, Koreans tend to gawp. Korean women when naked, surrounded only by other Korean women, have no issues with modesty and tend to flaunt, wiggle, bend in any which way they please which can be a tad awkward especially when putting socks on first! However, it only took a short amount of time to get used to it and get used to it I did. The baths, the saunas, the steam rooms, the bodyscrubs. WOW! We spent around, 6 hours in the spa and it was pure heaven. After we headed to VIPS. VIPS is an all you can eat steak and salad restaurant, the salad bar was one of the best I have ever seen. It had everything that a westerner in Korea is craving but just can't wine, some amazing salads, chicken, fish, it was, well i guess you had to be there and had to have been eating rice, kimchi and rice for 7 months!

Dragon Hill was a great, if not rather late introduction into a past time that is a big part of Korean life on a daily basis and I was very glad I made that step. Another big part of Korean life is Buddhism.

Buddhism has always intrigued me, i like the concepts, the belief systems, the idea of meditation. I studied Buddhism at School and during the brief moment i embarked on a Religion, Philosophy and Ethics degree at Kings. The main thing that attracts me to Buddhism, is that the monks always look so unbelievably happy. Which for me says alot. Buddhism is the main religion in Korea, although today there as many people practicing christianity, Buddhism is somewhat more obvious and more celebrated. There are temples scattered all over Korea and of the three major holidays celebrated in Korea Buddha's Birthday at the end of May is one of the Big 3. . (The other two are Chuseok in October and Lunar New Year in March, Christmas gets about as much attention as St George's Day does in England) The opportunity for 'foreigners' to embrace Buddhism is readily available and in mid April, myself Jenny, Mary and Shauna headed to Jogyesa Temple in central Seoul to take part in their 'Templelife' experience.

The Temple life experience came at the perfect time, just two weeks before the Buddha's Birthday commenced. the date celebrated this year is the 21st of May, however the festivities commenced the weekend before. I headed into Seoul with the usual crew plus Samy and Katie to have a wander around the street festival and watch the infamous lantern procession.

As well as the lantern procession on 16th May, the 5th May was Children's day and Korean's love their children so much that all the schools have a day off! Instead of getting intoxicated and nursing a hangover, I decided to take it slowly and on the Wednesday we headed to Gyeongbokgung Palace, the biggest and the most highly regarded of the five palaces in Seoul. Gyeongbokgung was immense, both in size and the amount of people that also decided to spend Children's day there as well ( we thought we were being clever not going to a theme park!) but alas Korean's like and want and push their children to be cultured and the Palace promotes this by laying on free cultural entertainment, although i am not sure what magicians and breakdancers have to do with Korea's cultural history!.

After a nice 5 hour wander around the palace and the attached Folk museum, we headed to Itaewon to have dinner at one of my favourite restaurants 'The Flying Pan', which unfortunately was packed so we had to change venue and ended up in an Italian nearby which was good, but they just weren't quite as excellent as 'The Flying Pan'. As well as visiting Gyeongbokgung on the wednesday, the week had already been quite cultured with a nighout in Ilsan the previous Friday and a walk down the stream on the Sunday.

The following weekend was a tad more reserved, another trip into Seoul ( I told you I was in an attacking mood) to see the Steve McCurry photography exhibition near Gwangwahmun Plaza and a wander into Meyong dong where I went minorly crazy in H&M buying sundresses as well as managing to find some sandals that actually fit me in Forever 21!. Sunday was far more relaxed with atrip to Homeplus in order to pick up some Baskin Robbins ice cream and other general things to go in my fridge. It actually turned into a cultural excursion in itself, as Jen and myself decided to investigate the deli counter and come home with various containers of pre made galbi type stuff. I also bought a great seaweed salad, pre-pared in a little foil bag which is set to be my new addiction, if i actually manage to get myself to Homeplus again!

In other news, the hamster has grown alot, i may even be able to take a photo of it soon. Also after about 6 weeks of asking and nagging our school FINALLY confirmed our holiday dates and i have since booked a trip to Hanoi and Ha Long bay in Vietnam for the end of July. I am very excited, but don't want it to come too quickly because less than a month after I am back in Korea, I am leaving Korea and starting my PGCE at London Met and I have far too much reading left for it to come too soon. (Persuasion check LOVE IT!!, have also read Henry James' Daisy Miller, which was intriguing and have Great Expectations next to my bed)