Last few days

My last few days:

Friday - Today it was mostly dull. This, and the threat of rain, combined to thwart my plan to go on the Shamanist shrine walk today – I will instead do this on Monday, having now completed my souvenir shopping and had my fill of Insadong (full of craft shops, art shops, souvenir shops, tea shops and coffee shops – your parents would love it [this is patently a lie given that, to my knowledge, most of 'my readers' are my parents and other family, and I'm not convinced it is the case that my grandparents would love it...the general point stands though...it's certainly true of my sister]. Small city that Seoul is (10 million) while in Insadong I bumped into the Korean and the American girls I met in Busan which made me smile.

Not much more to say about that really...check the Seoul album on picasa for updated pictures. This is funny [but only if you've paid any attention to the Ross/Brand rubbish]:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/cartoon/2008/oct/31/cartoon-credit-crunch-crisis


This is trying:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7697000/7697762.stm


Saturday – Today I went to help at Chi-He's school for a haloween/English day. Deciding not to go out except to the local bar (literally over the road from the apartment) the night before was definitely appreciated with the 8.30am start. The first job was to stamp each of the children's 'passports', asking them a few 'passport control' questions they arrived - ½ in the morning, and then again in the afternoon. The highlight of this task was the competitive element – who would get rid of all their name badges first...this tells you how dull it was. It was also cold. The children are aged 4-6...they have limited English.

I had been placed in the 'cooking class' for the day. In this class the children were learning to make a healthy (and YUMMY!) sandwich with their parents. So that's a ratio of 1 to 1 kids to adults anyway, plus some had more than one parent with them. Add to that the 6 other adults in the room and I felt somewhat surplus to requirements. After the 20 minute sandwich making sess' I went to the next room to 'sell' the children a juice carton, with scripted question-answer style. This was a perfectly nice job and some of the children clearly have alright English and can go outside the script...some struggled a lot though. Being asked to speak up by a Korean teacher did not amuse me given her sole reason was because she couldn't hear me – but she was stood 3 meters away and didn't NEED to hear me; never mind. Much to my surprise I was paid for the day – about $90 or so which is not an inconsiderable amount of money which was very nice and as I say, much appreciated. Following this very dull day (8*sandwich making class is not my idea of fun no matter how cute the children are), we had a bit of a shopping session (by which I mean Chi-Hé bought some stuff), got icecream and went to a cafe to have our feet nibbled at by Dr fish (the one's that eat the dead skin from your feet – I believe I've mentioned them before), before heading back home to the local BBQ place for dinner.

Sunday – Today we decided to relax and do very little. We had icecream for breakfast. We took a walk in the woods near by and watched films...yup. If you ever think about watching 'The Oxford Murders' - rethink, watch something else, anything else really.

Monday – Today I decided I'd go on the Shamanist walk in Seoul. My arrival coincided with that of two other Westerners, so I followed them (while trying to avoid actually meeting them) up the hill to a few nice temple buildings, and interestingly shapped rocks. All in all, the buildings were not particularly interesting – nor indeed the rocks, but the area itself was quite attractive and the views of the mountains in Seoul, and the fortress wall were very pleasant. Unfortunately the prison near there, built under Japanese rule, is not open on Mondays...never mind. Jumping on a subway for 5 stops down the line to an area with nothing in it, I jumped off crossed the platform and went 10 stops towards the shopping district I'd intended to go to – oops, my first subway mishap. Walking around this commercial area full of coffee shops, eateries and shops – including but not limited to international chains such as Gap – was quite pleasant, and I managed to replace my very sorry looking shoes...I think the girl in the store was somewhat confused when I kept the new shoes on and just left the old ones behind...but I really couldn't work out how to explain it to her and she seemed OK with it if a bit bemused :D. Heading to one of the many coffee shops I realised I may have an addiction when I ordered a double espresso and an iced caramel latte...whatev's.


Tuesday – Today. Another move, another goodbye, hohum...this might well be the last blog post...unless I think of some things I've forgotten, or I start it up again for another travel or something of that nature...will keep you posted.