3 months in… (actually, by the time I finished this we’re 4 months down. Blogs are time-consuming!)
So far, most weekends we have made the 2-hour trek down south to Seoul. Downloading all of the Harry Potter books onto my Kobo has made those 2-hour trips a whole lot easier to do! However, I’ve now re-read all 7 of them and the magic is all over *tears*.
We have spent a grand total of one weekend at home in Jeongok so far and on that one weekend we found out how busy the town gets. A lot of the soldier’s families, wives, and girlfriends come up to Jeongok for a weekend visit. It then made a bit more sense to us as to why there are so many places to eat and stay here in such a small town (as far as size and population go here in Korea- we live in a town the size of Busselton with 200 more places to go out to eat at). Also makes sense why Chris’ students call Jeongok ‘motel city’.
One of our first adventures on the first weekend after orientation was clubbing in Gangnam. That’s right- Chris went to a club and it was not against his will. We went to celebrate a fellow EPIKer’s birthday at a club by the name of ELLUI. From what we’ve seen, it could hold up to a maximum of 4,000 people. At once. It was a bit of a reminder of home, with drinks a minimum $10 (unless you were hitting up the $7 tequila shots). However, you could smoke inside there which was a bit of a mind bender since there are so many restrictions on where you can smoke at home.
As it turns out, ELLUI closed down a week later. Oops.
St Patrick’s day was something completely different. I guess we’re so used to events being so controlled and managed at home; turning up to a public square, buying your drinks from the closest convenience store and hanging out listening to some Irish jigs was just a bit too cool for us.
Festivities were finished up around 6pm and the majority of people hit the subway up to Itaewon to continue celebrations in the various foreigner pubs. We hit up the official after party at the Canadian bar, Rocky Mountain Tavern, mainly for the free t-shirt that came with entry.
Sara Hemsworth. Enough said.
So far we haven’t frequented too many of the crazy kinds of cafes in Korea, just two that fits into this category. The first of which was the Poop Cafe. How could you not want to put a poop shaped pillow on your head and drink out of toilet-shaped mugs? There was even a bonus squatter toilet in the middle of the floor, with a surprise pillow poop inside.
The second was the Caface Cafe in Hongdae, where you can have your face printed on top of your drink. Then lick your face off…
Other cafes to knock off the list:
- Harry Potter cafe
- Cat cafe (lots of antihistamines required for that one)
- Dog cafe (now done)
- Racoon cafe (also now done)
- Sheep cafe
- Owl cafe
- Lego cafe
- Hello kitty cafe
The list continues here. We’ll probably be able to make our own list up by the time we finish up here in Korea.
And for those of you who are wondering, but Sarah, you don’t drink coffee or tea, what’s the point of these cafes for you? Well, I have grown up marginally and have progressed up to iced tea. And it’s probably because it’s so sweet here in Korea!
It hasn’t all been partying and eating since we’ve been here- we have visited some of the cultural sites as well! I was lucky enough to be able to catch up with the previous teacher before me as she still lives in Korea. So we arranged to meet up and the four of us (Catherine, Jeff, Chris and myself) caught up for lunch (where I asked a bazillion questions) and then walked over to the Changgyeonggung Palace. Like with many Korean buildings, it was largely destroyed by the Japanese invasion and therefore rebuilt to resemble its original state.
Finally, we spent a Saturday checking out Lotte world, which may have conveniently been timed to go at the same time as a friend who was on a blind date with her principal’s son. Overall, not a bad theme park, although there were some eerily similarities to another well-known theme park… you know the one named after the guy who everyone thinks was a Nazi.
My ride recommendations: Atlantis and the Flume rides
Chris recommendations: Gyro Swing, Atlantis, and the swinging ship with Sarah because she loses control and starts to cry laugh.
alpaca our bags 