The count down...

As we resigned our contract David and I will be going back to the UK in 15 days! We will be visiting are families for just over two week. Short but sweet ...I can't wait, I am very excited!!!

No teaching typhoon day!

As the Typhoon has hit Korea today our school has no students. Myself and the other teachers don't have much to do.... except make cute 'typhoon' pictures on paint/photoshop and surf the internet. This is of course fine with me! 

Throughout the day  I came across some extremely interesting articles about Korean Host bars...

Gangnam Host Bar (Click here!)

News article from the BBC/i player! (Click here!)

Weekend Camping in Namhae

On Friday there was warning of a typhoon so David and I were a little disappointed to have limited weekend plans. We woke up on Saturday morning and the weather was gorgeous. We decided to go on a impromptu camping trip to Namhae, Sangju beach. It took around two hours to drive to from our home, Gyeseong. The beach was beautiful. We set up our tent on a camping ground that over looked the beach. After setting up we spent the day swimming in the ocean, sunbathing and sailing in David's new boat! It was a lovely day. In the evening we ate our dinner outside at a local restaurant. After dinner we drank some beers by our camp fire. Then we went to sleep.

The next morning we woke up very early because it was scorching hot in our tent! After eating breakfast of watermelon, we headed back to the beach. We spent the morning swimming some more and floating around in David's dinghy. When the sun got too powerful we packed up made our way back home. On the journey home we stopped off a view pint and ate a picnic lunch. Overall a successful camping trip! 

One might say too much time on my hands!

I think I definitely have too much time on my hands and too many dolls lying around!

Bicycle ride around Gyeseong

This week we finish work at 5pm and we don't have Taekwondo this week as our Instructor is very busy. It is great having the evenings to ourselves, they seem to last forever. Yesterday David and I went on a bike ride. It was very pleasant! 

Chinese visitors

On Saturday David, myself, Shae, Adam and Suzi participated in a Taekwondo festival in Changnyeong. A group of fifty people, children and adults came from China. They are a Taekwondo School that visit Korea twice a year. Students from our Taekwondo Gym also visit China twice a year. This promgrame is set up so the children can interact with foreigners and share Taekwondo techniques. People also came from Seoul, Busan and other surrounding cities. The majority of  people were students from the local Changnyeong Taekwondo Schools and Changnyeong district. Overall there were around one thousand people attending. We got to watch many exciting Taekwondo performances as well as taking part ourselves. We performed yuk-jang Poomse 6 and Koryo.  A Chinese student performed Koryo with us.  It was incredibly nerve racking  but I was happy that I took part. David and I will be entered in a Taekwondo competition in November so this day was great practise!

On Monday the fifty Chinese students came to CEV and we showed them around the school and gave them a mini English Village experience. The children were split up into classes and we each took them around the simulation rooms for a short lesson. All of the students were very energetic and happy. It was strange only being able to communicate with them in English. I kept on saying the odd Korean phrase but then realising they didn't understand! It was a really nice and interesting experience. It is always great when the schedule is a little different.

Also on Monday a local camera crew came to CEV to record a segment for a local TV station. First they recorded us teaching a few lessons then, I had a interview. Overall it wasn't too stressful but I am not looking forward to seeing or hearing the completed piece! 

Summer Intensive Programme

This week we have a change of schedule because it is the Summer Intensive Programme. We work from 8.30pm- 5pm. I have it extra easy because  my class are only attending CEV for one week. Poor David gets to teach his students for the full two weeks. His students are really nice though so it's okay!

Team Ocean

 Team Space

Team Jungle

Team Alien

Team Treasure Map 

Liberation Day

Today is of course V-Day. In Korea this refer to it as Liberation Day in Korea or Gwangbokjeol which literally translates to "Restoration of Light Day." It is celebrated annually on August 15th and there is always a national holiday. It commemorates victory over Japan, which liberated Korea from colonial rule. Today David and I are off work...yippeeee! We spent our day relaxing, being lazy and generally getting over our holiday blues!!!

Summer Vacation- Bali

Vacation time...Whoop Whoop! Like always our boss insists that we write a DETAILED report about our daily activities on our holiday. Like I have said before I don't know who reads these reports but oh well at least I have something to post it here!!!

It's finally here, our summer holidays. David and I started our two weeks vacation on Saturday (28th). We headed down to Seoul early in the morning. It takes about four hours on the bus from Changnyeong. Saturday was also David's birthday so we spent the day celebrating it in Seoul, shopping and eating! In the evening we stayed in an apartment next to the airport. It was really nice. It had huge windows that overlooked the runway (kind of ) !!!

On Sunday morning we arrived at Incheon airport at 6 am. In total it took 19 hours to travel to Bali. We flew from Seoul to Kula Lumper (We had a stop over for 5 hours here) then Kula Lumpur to Bail. We arrived in Bali at 11pm and we were in bed in our hotel by 12am, which was great!

(Day 1) On Monday morning we woke up at 9.30am we had a much needed shower then ate breakfast in our hotel and then went exploring around our local area. For the first part of our holiday we stayed in Seminyak. This area is really pretty and our hotel is extremely nice. It is a very traditional building with shrines and beautiful arch ways with many exotic plants. The pool is pretty nice also. We spent the rest of Monday swimming in our pool, eating out for lunch, window shopping and walking on beach. In the afternoon David and I walked to an area named Kuta and done some more window shopping, ate dinner in a restaurant on the beach and drank a few beers before walking back to our hotel. All in all a fabulous first day!

Day 2 (Tuesday 31st) David and I woke up at ate breakfast at our hotel. We done a little exploring around our hotel grounds and at 11am we got picked up for our private tour around the island. Our first stop was a temple, next we visited a coffee plantation, our third destination was another temple up in the mountains. This temple was on the  lake. After this we stopped to eat lunch. Then we went to a monkey temple. I stayed in the car whilst David went inside. I was to scared! Our final destination was a temple on the ocean. I liked our final stop the most because the path leading up to the temple had many shops. I bought many cute things!

 After returning to our hotel we sat on our balcony and had a drink then we walked to Kuta, the next town over. After a little bit of window shopping we went to the beach for some food and more beers. Then we made it back to our hotel.

Day 3 (Wednesday 1st August) We woke up and had breakfast, at our hotel of course! For today we decided to hire a scooter and ride to a different part of the island where the beaches are apparently a little bit quieter. Although we didn't make it to our desired destination as it was more difficult than expected. This was okay because we still got to see a different part of Bali. In the end we spent our day sunbathing on the beach, swimming and body boarding in the ocean. In the evening we got the shuttle into Kuta and ate out. At the end of the evening we walked the 5 KM back to our hotel along the beach.

Day 4 (Thursday 2nd August) Today after eating breakfast we went snorkelling and went to turtle island. This was not as exotic as I thought it would be. It was more like a turtle farm. Many turtles in little baskets. Even so it was still nice to see many turtles up close. We also got to hold an iguana, large bat, sea eagle and of course turtles. We spent the remainder of the day at our hotel as I was a little ill. I was suffering a little from 'Bali belly!' We swam and had lunch at the hotel swimming pool. I napped and then in the evening we had a romantic meal by the swimming pool.

 Day 5 (Friday 3rd August) As I was still feeling a little ill we had a lazy morning at the hotel. Then we went out for lunch and went window shopping. I had an afternoon nap and David went swimming in the hotel pool. In the evening we got the shuttle bus to Kuta and ate dinner. I bought some dresses and jewellery and we walked back to our hotel. We ended the night we some drinks on the balcony.

Day 6 (Saturday 4th August) After breakfast we walked along the beach then had a drink in a pretty bar. In the early afternoon we went to Padang beach. We spent a couple of hours here and we headed to Uluwatu Temple. This temple had many monkeys. I decided to go into this temple. I didn't like all the monkeys running around but this temple sat on the side of a cliff and the surrounding view of the ocean was incredibly pretty. In the late afternoon we went to Kuta and done more shopping. David bought some clothes this time! In the evening we had a meal on the beach with cocktails. After walking home we had some more drinks on our balcony.

Day 7 (Sunday 5th August) Today we ate our final breakfast in our hotel! Then we made our way to Ubud.

We arrived at our new hotel in the early afternoon. Our new hotel is gorgeous, very pretty indeed! After exploring our hotel grounds and the surrounding area we got some lunch at a local restaurant. Then we back to our hotel and went swimming in the lovely pool. In the evening we got a shuttle to Ubud town and went shopping at the local market. After getting a taxi back to the hotel we had drinks by the pool and then watched some TV.

Day 8 (Monday 6th August) Today we woke up very early, around 6.30am! We got picked up for our 22KM bike ride. Our first stop was breakfast . We ate breakfast in a very nice restaurant which overlooked a dormant volcano. After this we went to a coffee plantation and tried some very strong coffee. Next we started our bike ride! It was a lot of fun.We went  through the country side, along rural roads through paddy fields and local villages. I really enjoyed this activity. It was definitely my favourite day of the holiday! When we finished the bike ride we had a buffet lunch in a traditional Balinese building. This was the nicest food I had the entire holiday.After returning back to the hotel we went swimming in the pool and then got the shuttle to Ubud. We spent more money at the night market, ate dinner at a lovely restaurant and went back to the hotel to relax before bed.

Day 9 (Tuesday 7th August) After breakfast we went for a walk in the paddy fields surrounding our hotel. Then we went swimming in the pool, had lunch in a gorgeous cafe that sold many western products. We ate turkey ciabatta and a ham ciabatta with french mustard and mayonnaise. We had DR. Pepper with cherry for a drink and a chocolate brownie for desert. It was amazing! In the early afternoon we had beers in the pool and then went back to Ubud for one last time. We had a couple full body massage..interesting! Then we spent the remanding of our money. Afterwards we had dinner and then went back to the hotel and had our final holiday beers.

Day 10 (Wednesday 8th August) The final day! We woke up and ate our final breakfast. We then checked out and spent our last two and half hours by the pool having a last swim! Then we got picked up to go to the airport...booooooooooooooooooooooooo!