31st Aug: That day again!

Well the 31st of August has come around for the 27th time since I was born and that means i'm now 28 years old! (In Korea... although I was already 28 years old here!). Of course I am actually only 27 according to the English way but that's different cultures for you.

The day started with opening cards and gifts, great food in the middle and a very nice location for the evening; SamcheongGak which is a restaurant recently made famous as a TV drama about chef's is filmed there and is on TV at the moment. We actually saw them filming a scene when we arrived. The view from the terrace is perfect. Korean traditional tea is ... incredibly bitter but good for a man's health! (not that green stuff in the glass, that's kiwi juice - delicious).

29th Aug: Last day of Komdo

It's only been 9 weeks since the first day but after training normally 4 times a week and numerous group gatherings for dinner or drinking it seems like about 6 months. Every other Friday the club goes out after training and this Friday was one of those so after finishing training and after I took a few photo's with our teacher and others we went to a nearby restaurant.
What I didn't expect though was that they all knew my birthday was coming on Sunday and had prepared a surprise for me. After we sat down (on the floor) I was presented with a cake complete with candles and some really nice gifts from the group (a miniature bamboo sword, handmade fabric print of our komdo photos made by one of the members, and a very beautiful sword bag to keep our swords in which you can see in one of the photos!).
I really didn't expect anything like that, as since I had not been able to speak Korean that well my conversation with everyone had been limited to say the least, but they said that "we sweat together so we are like family now". I even had the Korean version of 'Happy birthday' sung to me. Before we left I had to say a quick speech which I certainly wouldn't have been able to do 3 months ago, but I just about managed to thank everyone for putting up with my poor Korean and for the gifts, and let everyone know I really enjoyed being in the group.

27th Aug: Changdokgung

We were able to visit this place by taking an English language tour, you can't walk around unguided as this place is on the world heritage list. Changdokgung is another palace which was used by the kings and queens of Korea a few hundred years ago. We call them palaces because royal families lived there but they are very different to the palaces western kings and queens were (and are) living in, being more about peace and quiet.

26th Aug: Class mates out in SinCheon

Wednesday: Our Korean class has been really fun this month, and since it was the final week we went out in SinCheon for food, drinking and of course Noreabang (Kareoke). It was a good night out starting with meat buffet (bbq style meat you cook at the table), then moving on for patbingsu (ice-cream kind of thing) and then kareoke. Justyna the only girl had to go home at 11 but the 4 of us left (2 Japanese, 1 French born Korean and me) stayed out drinking and eating until about 3am.
Since the metro finishes at about 12:30 there are 2 options, you can either get a taxi home or find a nearby Jimjilbang (sauna and rest place) andd just sleep there. The two Japanese guys live in SinCheon so they walked home, whilst the 2 of us left coulnd't be bothered to go home so paid £4 and went to a nearby Jimjilbang. When you go in a Jimjilbang you are given shorts and a t-shirt to change into, put your stuff in a locker then you just wander around and use the various saunas, hot rooms or just sleep anywhere on the floor. It is a strange experience when you go into one for the first time but basically there are people just sleeping all over the place on straw mats. Sleeping on the floor with a 3mm thick straw mat isn't the most comfortable way to sleep but you can get a half-decent nights sleep. When you're ready to leave you just get showered up and head home on the Metro (or straight back to work as many Koreans do).

24th Aug: Han River boat trip

Sunday 24th: Me, Tina, her mum, Tina's Sister and her Sister's boyfriend had dinner at a great restaurant in Kangnam (expensive area of seoul, South of the river). The restaurant was buffet style and the food, mostly seafood was excellent.

Afterwards Tina and I went over to the Han river to take the boat trip. There are a few baot trips you can take which pick up and drop off at various points along the river, whilst you enjoy the lights of the city from the river.

Bangdigi!

I thought popcorn was a relatively new invention, but it looks like it's been around in one form or another for a long time. Here's Korean Bangdigi (Bang!-digi) being made. It really gives you a shock when you're not ready for it as it's very loud. The guy shouts "Bang-i-ya!" before letting it go but it doesn't make much difference, everybody still jumps! This stuff is the main Korean beer snack and tastes great!

Komdo again

Tina had a day off from training and decided to take lots of photo's instead, so here's me in full Komdo armour. I can tell you, it doesn't look that hard swinging a bamboo stick around but it really is very difficult and very tiring. It's almost 2 months since I started but since we've been going normally 4 times a week it seems like a lot longer. The amount of sweat (and therefore smell) at the end of a session wearing that lot is unbelievable!

City Hall

Basically the place where the city hall is. They are currently working on it so it's covered by the bid Korean flag thing. They have a nice fountain which kids love to get soaked in and a big grassy area. It's not often you get to walk on grass in Seoul, so I took the opportunity to remember what the green stuff feels like.
There was a parade kind of thing going on nearby, so I got a photo with one of the guys in traditional clothes.

Nearby is the start of Cheongyecheon river which eventually goes past where I live, so we had a look at the impressive start area and then spent an hour walking back home along the river.