Bucket List No 43 - Ride a bicycle built for 2. ACHIEVED!

Its been ages since we last saw our friends Katy and Danny so they decided to come and visit us in Pohang this weekend.

But first, we had a shopping trip to Daegu on Saturday morning where I found a Gap sale! Dangerous indeed and I spent a LOT of money there but got an amazing maxi dress, 4 tops, and a sun dress so it was all very much needed……as well as some spangly items from Accessorize. After a quick munch in Gorilla burger, we hopped back to Pohang and our friends arrived not long after.

My new maxi dress from Gap, which I am in love with. And clearly that's also me in the picture, yep yep yep, tall and skinny, long thick brown hair.

We went for a walk up to Sunrise Park in the incredible heat and humidity (in retrospect a bit of a mistake) and looked out over the beach and Pohang. We then walked up to iPark and took Katy and Danny to Dinomeat for a meat feast! We have become regulars in Dinomeat and the guys now recognise us. Oops.

And no trip to Pohang is complete without a trip to the beach at night to see all the fireworks (okay, small hand-held fireworks) and POSCO in all its neon glory (there is a massive steel factory in Pohang and they light it up BRIGHTLY with lots of neon every night, kind of like Blackpool).

POSCO steel works at night. Looks like a fun park no? Nope, just lots of polution and lollipops.


Fireworks for sale on the beach. For the small price of 60p to £3.00 you can have an array of gunpowder action and may also loose an eye or hand.

The following day we decided to achieve another point on my Bucket List and rented tandem bikes down at the beach. Now, seeing lots and lots of cute Korean couples cycling about made me think this would be a nice romantic, loving, relaxing, fun experience. I was wrong! Clearly, we should have realised that me and Garry both like to be in control and lack trust in each others driving/cycling skills. A few arguments ensued but we made it to the end of the coast and back with only half my toe missing - Garry thought it was funny to do a “no hands” stunt which resulted in me freaking out and using my toe (in flip flops) as a brake. Ouch. Danny and Katy, who are clearly much more in love and couply, had no accidents.

The cool kids hanging down the beach.

Me trying to make Garry really excited about riding a tandem. I'm not sure I was having much success.

Katy and Danny, who look like a Korean couple with their matching t-shirts (they promised this was an accident but I'm not so sure........)

Eager and excited! It didn't last long....


Now from the picture you cannot see the full extent of the injuries but needless to say I almost lost a toe. Tandems are dangerous.

And we all survived!

Anyway, we had a fab weekend and the work dread began to set back in again as all too soon it would be Monday once more......

Bye bye for now and thanks for reading x x x x

Oh dae han min guk!

One of the busiest weekends since we arrived in Pohang has just passed. So first of all, it was the start of the South African World Cup and on Friday night was the opening match between South Africa and Mexico. Our South African friends, Kate and Adalet had come to Pohang for the weekend as well as American Matt so on Friday night we went out to Tilt for drinks and football. But a late, drunker night was not on the cards for us as we had to get up early and teach at Garry’s school camp at 8.30am the next day.

South African ladies.

South Africa and Korea collide.

Watching the match in UV glory.

So, rather than having a summer camp at Garry’s school they had decided on a weekend nglish Camp for 2 days from 9am til 2pm. And stupidly I volunteered my services for this (for a small price…). There was also another English teacher, Vinnie, who came to help out so we each had a class of 20-ish middle school boys to teach for 2 days. And it was all a little bit disorganized and haphazard but we got through it! It was really weird for me teaching Middle School as I was so used to Elementary students but it was really nice being able to talk much more freely and have them understand, not nearly so much miming and enthusiasm was needed to keep their interest.

Garry’s co-teacher took us out for a delicious lunch on Saturday aftersoon to a duck restaurant in Jansangdong which serves marinated duck strips with onions, potatoes, and other veggies which you wrap up in lettuce leaves like sam gyup sal. And after you have eaten all the meat, you fry some rice up in the tasty oil and munch that. So good! One of my new favourite foods in Korea.

In the evening it was the first South Korea match against Greece and Garry’s PE teachers had invited us to their home to watch it with them. Now Koreans go crazy supporting any Korean who is good at anything (Kim Yuna, Park Ji Seung, the golfer lady) and for the World Cup it was not excption! A massive TV screen was set up on the beach and everywhere you went you heard this song...(which even features Kim Yuna, the ice skater, which is just so exciting for Koreans)....

One of the teachers had bought us South Korea t-shirts which was so sweet and kind so we donned these (despite it being SO hot) and headed out in to the heat. First we ha to meet our friends for dinner as it was also Matt’s birthday weekend (did I mention it was a busy weekend) so Dinomeat it was. Dinomeat is a grill BBQ style Koreas restaurant where you can eat as much as you want for W13,000 (about 7 pounds) and there is a huge selection of meat, including sam gyup sal, marinated beef, sausages and much more. You cook it all on a grill and then wrap it up in lettuce leaves. Yum yum!

Dinomeat glory.

World Cup Hite.

The birthday weekend boy surrounded by meat - he is as happy as a pig in shit!

We all look so supremely happy!

Reds Go Together apparently.

About 7pm we met Kimm Yong Wan and his wife (PE teacher No. 1) and they took us to PE teacher No. 2’s house. It was a really great night and lots of fun watching the Korea match with Koreans! They had made lots of food and of course, fried chicken was delivered half way through. They had even bought a mini keg of Heineken beer which was really good – but they had no idea how to pour a proper pint! PE Teacher No.2’s son was also there and he is undeniably one of the cutest Korean kids I have seen yet. We took him a present of a little Thomas the Tank Engine with English letter bricks and he loved it. He also loved posing for photos and was just cute. He did not like however, when the football started and he got no attention. By the end of the match it was too much for him and he had a tantrum, shouting and screaming(in Korean) “Daddy, not watch telly! Daddy, not watch telly!”. Bless. But South Korea won 2-0! Oh dae han min guk!

The feast laid on for us at PE Teacher No.2's house.

Kim Yong Wan a.k.a PE Teacher No.1's wife.

PE Teacher No.2 and his wife.

Heineken keg!

Cutest one yet with the little Thomas train.

Pose No.1

Pose No.2 = wink

No idea why Garry is sad but he is.

Pose No.3

In the morning we had another early start for camp and afterwards met Corey, Paul, Matt, Kate and Adalet for Matt’s birthday lunch and cake!

He is SOOOOOOOOOOOO happy. Best birthday face ever.

Kate really wanted to eat the head off the dragon.

A great weekend but so tired by the end of it. It was like a weekend back home, where are is just too much to fit in and too many people to see!

Night night and happy birthday Matt Brown – you are a legend.

Sandcastles in the sky!

Another weekend and another random festival in South Korea. This weekend it was the turn of Busan Sand Castle at Haeundae Beach. I love beaches and love sandcastles so really there was no option! The crew for this expedition was to be Garry, Matt, Corey, Paul and, of course, me. We had a quiet old Friday night with some ten pin bowling and BBQ chicken and Matt had a night with his favourite sheep, Shaun.

We got a really early (for me anyway) bus at 8am and arrived at Haeundae Beach about 11am after bus and underground travel. However, I think we were a bit eager and too early – it was pretty quiet! There was a massive hill made out of sand that people were surfing down, a beach volleyball tournament in progress and sandcastles being built. We decided to get some tasty Mexican food at Senora’s (Matt was a very happy boy and got a second burrito for munching later), got some beers and headed back to the beach. By this time it was much busier and some of the bigger sandcastles had been completed and were AMAZING! There was an Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, Statue of Liberty, Jesus and a massive dragon/cat race car thing. I don’t understand the patience these people must have but wow, it must take a lot of time. There was also a stage set up with your usual K-Pop dancers but we decided to head further along the beach and get a nice spot by the water.

Me and some sand.

Making the Eiffel Tower.

The Statue of Liberty

Crazy Car sandcastle.

But you just can’t keep Matt down so we volleyball action it was!

Paul.

Me and Corey fighting it out!

Matt going for it.

Corey the ballet dancer.

Paul hitting it up.

Mon, not sure what to do with it. I am Scottish after all and a girl.

Love this pic, well done Mr Burns.

Clearly Paul is more photogenic than the rest of us.

Check out the action.

Before heading home we got some tasty burgers at a gourmet burger place and then got the last bus to Pohang arriving around 1am.

Tired and sleepy, off to bed for me………

Half Marathon Mission - Day 1

So, I started running again recently in Pohang after joining a gym (no sense does this make but at least I am exercising!).

So after a few weeks running me and Corey hatched a plan to run a Half Marathon together in September time in South Korea. We thought it would give a goal to our running and see how far we could push ourselves.

Here is the link to our training plan if anyone is interested and it won’t be soon before I am knocking on your door for sponsorship pennies to raise some money.......

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244--6851-2-2X5X8-4,00.html

Wish me luck!