The 22nd of October was quite a while ago.  A very long time ago, especially in blogging terms.  I have no real excuse for the silence, a few reasons but no real excuse.  Sometimes it's hard to find the inspiration to write, especially when you think nothing all that noteworthy has happened.  Little things get in the way, and after a few weeks I seem to forget that I actually like writing and that updating my blog isn't a chore, it's something I enjoy doing.

Anyway since the last time I posted, here's what I've been up to in a nutshell:

On November 3rd Nick, four other friends and I, competed in a Spartan Race in Seoul.  An obstacle course not known for its ease, I was quite happy to complete the course, albeit with a penalty of 90 burpees due to three failed obstacles!  Apart from Nick who had to do none, we all had to do 90 which provided a nice amount of solidarity on the day!

Pre-race wanna be Spartans!

Gyeryongsan Mountain

I don't feel any fitter after our cycling trip around Jeju, but I suppose I must be, at least a little bit. Regardless or whether I am or not though, I was determined to use it as the kickstart I needed to get into a solid exercise regime, so last weekend Nick and I thought we'd cycle to Gyeryongsan, climb it, and cycle home!

It was lovely.  The cycle there was a little over 13 kilometers.  A good 6k at the start was all along the cycle track on the banks of the Gapcheon river, the river that Daejeon is built on, then there was a nasty 2-3k stretch along a fast moving dual carraigeway, followed by 4ish kilometer stretch along lovely country roads and lanes.

Gapcheon Cycle Track Section

Nasty, Fast Moving Section along the Dual Carraigeway

Nice Back Road Section

We didn't get up particularly early so when we got to the foot of the mountain it was about half twelve.  Gyeryongsan National Park, which translates as Rooster Head Mountain, is famous for two things: the cherry blossoms in spring; and a meal of makgeolli (unstrained milky-looking rice wine) and pajeon ( a cross between a crepe and an omlette, usually with seafood and scallions through it) after your hike.  However, it being lunch time when we arrived, we thought we'd tuck in before the hike.

Locals Taking Advantage of the Shady Mountain Stream

The hike itself is about 9km, passing two temples and a waterfall, and reaching two peaks.  The first temple you pass, is Donghak-sa, which is the most famous one in the national park, and as far as I'm aware it's just for nuns.  Then its on up past the waterfall, Eunseon Pokpo, which is pretty unimpressive at the moment given the lack of rain we've had this monsoon season.  From the waterfall, the trail starts getting noticeably steeper, and remains so, until you come to Gwaneumbong Peak (816m).

Donghak-sa Temple

Simple Simon on the Way Up!

The Top!

We didn't delay too long at the top, being out in the sunshine wasn't ideal so we carried on across the ridge, until we got to Sambulbong (775m).  We had a brief sos there before starting the just-as-steep decent, passing Nammaetap, another temple, on the way down.

The View from the Top.
You can just about make out the concrete jungle that is Deajeon in the background

Me Acting the Monkey Along the Ridge!

Nammaetap Temple

I have to say I was pretty shattered when we got to the bottom, and needed a bit of a break before getting on my bike for the cycle home.  But then, once I was actually on it, it was grand, all those kilometers around Jeju have paid off after all! In fact, we both enjoyed it so much, we did it all over again yesterday!  This time though, we set off nice and early and were back down to enjoy Pajeon and Dongdongju (a cousin of Magkeolli) in the early afternoon.  Much better doing it this way around!

Local Mayhem in the Stream again this Weekend!

A Much Deserved Feast of Pajeon, Dongdongju and lots of Banchan (sidedishes)

Having fun with the parents!

Burgers, Chocolate and Scrabble - What a Sunday

 Woke up a little tired and emotional last Sunday but the sun was shining so we dragged ourselves out of bed.  Where to go though was a problem.  The problem was based on food.  Feeling a little over boozed and under nourished, the regular dose of kimchi and rice just wasn’t going to cut it.  There-in lies the problem.  Where to go in Daejeon to get something to eat if you don’t want Korean food.  We had three options:  Stroll to Gung Dong or Dunsan-Dong and hopefully find somewhere satisfactory or jump the subway to Eunnangdong and similarly keep our fingers crossed.  We ruled Dunsan out quickly enough, comparing it to a Temple Bar of sorts.  Eunhang-Dong was next to go for fear that the hunger grumps would get us after a half an hour on the subway.  To Gung-Dong it was without much hope that we’d find something totally satisfactory.

The River on a Nice Sunny Day

As I said though, it was a lovely day, there was a slight nip in the air but the sun was shinning and there were plenty of people out and about, strolling along the river bank.  After crossing the river and coming up to the road just at the edge of Gung-Dong, Nick let out a little yelp ‘Play Burger! What’s that?’  That’s a burger joint in Dunsan I remember hearing good things about is what it is! ‘Yes! Let’s go!’  Delighted with ourselves, we were too excited to wait for the green man to cross the road and ran across to various stares and the odd car horn beep!

After such initial excitement, opening the door of Play Burger and going in, could have been a massive disappointment but it wasn’t.  It was like we’d just stepped out of South Korea and into a cosmopolitan European city cafe.  Very Exciting!  The first such place we’ve been in since we’ve been here, which incidentally is almost exactly four months now.  The menu was just burgers, not that you’d expect much else given the name of the place.  No explanations, just the names of each one in an altogether too cool for school minimalist menu, but with lovely friendly prices to boot!  The menu said they were committed to using the freshest of produce and that everything was made in-house and judging by what we were presented with they weren’t lying!  I don’t think either of us spoke for about fifteen minutes apart from the old yelp or exclamation of joy!  A burger too big to pick up, crammed with goodies, a massive green salad, a couple of hash browns and a re-fillable drink all for just over a fiver! 

 Nick Lookin' Chuffed With Himself!

The Best Burger in Korea

After eating and drinking our fill we headed off in search of a coffee, feeling pretty content with life!  Little did we know the day was going to get better!  We found this tiny little cafe with kitch decor and a bit of a French feel to it.  I ordered a hot chocolate not really feeling like a caffeine hit and my god was I glad I did when it came.  It was a cup of melted chocolate with a little jug of steamed milk to add to it.  I was tempted to leave the milk out of it altogether!

 The Spoon Was As Delighted As I Was!

I Put Nicks Spoon into My Chocolate Too So He Could Join the Fun! 

We were trying to think of what we’d do next, eating and drinking had been well and truely ticked at this stage which made thinking of something a bit difficult.  I had a vague memory of someone telling me about a cafe near by there where you could sit and play board games so we headed off in search of said place.  We found it, but it was shut.  Done and dusted, never to open again.  Big sad face.  A spanner in our almost perfect day.  Until we turned around and saw it across the street.  Delighted once more, off we went hoping we’d find a game of scrabble, in English and not Hangul.  We did!  I ordered a couple of drinks, Nick went off in search of the facilities, we snagged the game of scrabble and plonked ourselves down at a table.  Next thing I knew, Nick was saying he was hungry and it was 8pm!  What a day!    

Serious Scrabble Face!

Valentines Day

These chocolates were on my desk when we got into work yesterday.  Valentines Day pressies from the boss!
It seems to be a pretty big deal in Korea.  All the kids in school kept saying to us on Tuesday 'Valentine Day tomorrow teacher!'.  In South Korea, and in Japan as well as far as I'm aware, it's traditional for the girls to give the boys chocolates so lots of Nicks students yesterday asked him if I'd given him any!

What have I been doing with my time?

I've been pretty quiet of late, on my blog that is.  Things here are starting to become 'normal'.  All the strange and exotic things when we first arrived have all begun to blend into the background as we go about our daily business much like anyone else, anywhere else.  The language doesn't seem as alien.  The food which had so many unknown flavours in it when we arrived, is now exactly what I crave. When we got here first, I remember a friend telling me how she loves eating seaweed paper.  She said she used to be a crisp monster at home (Ireland) but now she chows down on seaweed when she's watching telly instead! I thought she was a lunatic but I'm beginning to understand what she was on about!  There is something nice about it alright!

I've started doing an online TEFL course.  I started it almost two weeks ago now.  That's another reason I've been so quiet.  It's taking up a lot more time than I thought it would.  It's a fairly intensive course; 120hours in 100days. I'm trying to do it in three, three hour blocks a week.  All the grammar is killing me!  I know what it all is, I've just no idea of the names of all the different things but getting my head 'round it all has already started to have benefits in school.  It's crazy really that Korean schools employ people like me, with no teaching qualifications what so ever.  Especially when you think that the kids parents are paying roughly US$1000 a month per child!

What else have I been doing with my time? I've been trying to get a bit fitter.  I started a program three weeks ago.  Its half an hour four mornings a week.  Friday will be the last day of it.  It's been mainly conditioning rather that aerobic cardio kind of stuff but i'm feeling so much stronger.  Once the weather warms up a bit more I'll get out and start running too.  We've got a really nice park about a kilometer up the road, with loads of exercise machines which is where Nick's been doing his running (until he sprained his ankle) and the river is really close by too.   You can run along the river bank for about twenty miles (if that's your thing!)

The track along the riverside, goes on both sides for about 20miles

Work's been going well.  Time is flying by, everyday seems like Friday!  One of the Korean teachers, Kate (who's 19 and isn't actually a teacher either), is working at Lexis during a year out from college (where she's studying Theology).  The aim is to improve her English enough so that she can pass the TEOFL exam and hopefully go to the States on erasmus.  Her reading and writing are almost flawless but her ability to understand and speak English are virtually non-existant.  When she reads, she has no comprehension of what it is that she's just read! Anyway, I take her for a conversation class once a week.  Last week she started telling me about her church and how much she loves it.  She spends every Sunday there from 10:30am til 9pm.  The church is on the 2nd floor of the building she lives in.  Her dad is one of the pastors.  When I told her I didn't believe in god, she asked me what I believe in.  She said, in a disbelieving, shocked voice 'Do you think we come from monkeys?'  So we spent the rest of the class taking about Darwin's Theory of Evolution and at the end of the class I'm not sure who thought who was more mad in the head!

Anyway, that's just a bit of background on Kate.  What I really wanted to say is what happened the next day!  I teach a class of twelve and thirteen year olds, called CH, three times a week, for half an hour each time.  They are one of the nicer/easier class I have.  They always do their homework, they rarely chat in class, if they are messing and you ask them to stop they will etc etc.  Anyway, I walked into their class last Wednesday and they were all standing up, gathered round each other, looking a bit distraught.  They are usually sitting at their desks so I knew immediately that something was up.  I asked one of the girls, Emma, what had happened and she said 'Kate teacher hit us' and put out her hand to show me.  Hitting the kids is a fairly common occurance in the regular schools but its almost unheard of in the academys or hagwons.  Apparently they hadn't been working hard enough so Kate had belted them all across the palm with a metal ruler.  Emma's hand seemed the worst.  You could see where the ruler had come down and her hand was all swollen on either side of the welt.  She couldn't move it, let alone pick up a pen!  I couldn't believe it.  Here she was, preaching to me all about her god and how happy her religion made her feel just the day before, and then the next day bashing the kids about the classroom!

Apart from the Kate incident though, my TEFL and my exercise are all the news I really have.  I'm settling down into being a 'real person' with a 'real job' and so far so good.  We really have such great little lives for ourselves here, the only thing missing is the sun!  Roll on the summer heat I say!

Barbequed Streaky Pork Belly

Why has nobody told me about Samgyeopsal (삼겹살 ) before?? I've been here two months and I had it for the first time last week when I went out for dinner with a friend.  It's basically barbequed streaky pork belly but my god is it delicious!  Koreans are pretty big into their barbeques.  Nearly every second restaurant here has grills in-built into the tables.

The meat arrives and you lob it onto your grill with a set of tongs.  You're given a scissors (Koreans dont really use knives at the table) as-well, so once the meat has cooked a bit on each side you chop it up into bite sized pieces.  Then all the banchan arrive.  Banchan are side-dishes, and no Korean meal ever comes without them.  They vary hugely from place to place, and often from dish to dish, but you always get at least Kimchi and some sort of pickled radish.

We got loads of tasty banchan with the Samgyeopsal the other night.  Garlic cloves, onions and big pieces of Kimchi, all of which you through on the grill too, some shredded spring onions and bean sprouts and a few sauces.  You also get lettuce leaves and seasame leaves, the idea being that you use them as wrappers.  Pop a bit of everything into the leaf and make a little parcel.  Then lob it all into your mouth, mmmm!

It was so tasty that I dragged Nick to a BBQ joint on our street on Sunday for more!  We've been a bit wary of eating barbeque here because when we got to Seoul initially, we ended up with barbequed pig's intestine one evening, which wasn't fantastic.  Also, we were sick of smelling of our food for hours after we'd eaten.  Anyway, I promised him it was real tasty and marched him in the door!

It seemed to be a slightly more upmarket place than I'd eaten in during the week.  The barbeque was coal fired, not gas, and the prices were that little bit higher.  The banchan were also better, another tell tale sign of a slightly better place.  We got a big bowl of soup (the black pot in the photo in front of Nicks right arm) and an omlette (in the other black bowl, behind Nick's hand!).  Other than that the banchan were all the same, and just as tasty second time round.

Just as we were getting stuck into cooking our pork, the lady that owns the little corner shop beside our apartment came in with her son, who was about to head off to do his army service.  They sat down at the table next to us, ordered some barbeque and a bottle of soju 소주 (a very common local vodka type drink, drunk straight, in small shot glasses) and bought us the coke you can see in the photo!

If you run out of anything, bar the meat, you just ring the little bell on your table and ask for more at no extra cost.  We didn't need to ring the bell, but we didn't exactly leave much behind us either!!    

 And all this, plus a big beer each, for only 26,000won or about 18euro!

Happy Loolah New Year!

Lunar.  Ruler.  Loolah.  All sounds the same here!!  Anyway yesterday was Lunar New Year.  It's a big celebration here, the equivalent of our Christmas I suppose.  It's all about spending time with family and giving gifts.  The gifts seem to be one of three things: money, especially given from older relatives to younger ones; a toiletries hamper, which generally includes toothpaste and toilet roll; or a spam hamper! Yup, spam!  Apparently spam became something of a luxury item here during the war, it was only available if it had been smuggled or leaked from the US Army.  As a result, i suppose it has a bit of an exotic buzz to it.  Either way, at the moment its everywhere...in the corner shops, in the super markets, people walking down the street have big boxes of it...madness!  Happy New Year to ya Son, have some Spam why don't you?!!

Anyway as I said, New Year was actually yesterday.  We'd been told that shops etc would all be closed but we didn't really think about how/what we'd eat.  I suppose we did have our spam if things got desperate, and in the end they almost did.  There must be the guts of twenty restaurants on the little side street we live on so we were sure there'd be something open.  We were prepared to be beggars, not choosers.  Nothing was open.  Great!  So we started to walk towards Dunsan Dong, a pretty big commercial area about a fifteen minute stroll from where we live in Wolpeong Dong, in the hope we'd find somewhere open there.  We did thank god, the idea of a spam sandwich wasn't really doin' it for me I have to tell ya!  We had dakgalbi which a chicken and cabbage dish with lots of spicy sauce, garlic, onions, cheese, rice cakes and some other unidentifiable ingredients (to me at least!) all cooked up on a big flat pan at your table.

We'd had it once before.  On our first night in Daejeon, Susan and Stephen took us for some and I remember not being all that fussed with it.  Yesterday however, I thought it was the business!  Our taste buds must have altered in some way to let us start appreciating the food more fully here.  Either that or the thought of a spam sandwich had made my tastebuds unusually receptive!

When we'd eaten a fair chunk of the meal, a waitress came and asked us if we'd like rice.  Not really sure what kind of rice she meant, she'd been motioning to the pan, we said yes.  Out came some rice, some dried seaweed type stuff, some more hot sauce and some seasame seeds, and it all got tossed into the pan and mixed up with the rest of it! Yum!

It was strange to see the streets so quiet yesterday but I suppose a foreigner living in Ireland would say the same thing on Christmas Day.  There wasn't a whole lot to do, what with everything being shut down, so after our meal we rolled home, got into our jammies and watched a movie.  What else would you do on a day off work sure?!

Calm, Quiet Day in Daejeon 

Awkward Oncheon!

Apparently falling off the blogger bandwagon can't be blamed entirely on Christmas Cheer, it being the 17th January at this stage and not a post in sight! My bad! I'll try to do better! So what's new since I last posted? Well...myself and Nick had a week off after Christmas and on one of the days we decided to check out an oncheon (spa)...see what all the fuss is about!

We’d heard about Korean sauna’s or jjimjilbang, mainly just that they are an altogether naked affair, men in one, women in another, but also that they are places with games rooms, relaxation rooms, places you can stay overnight- all in all a bit of a ‘must do’ while in Korea.  We came across an oncheon  in Yuseong (an area of Deajeon, the city we live in) and decided to give it a go.  Maybe spa’s are different, maybe they aren’t all naked, who knows?! So with a fair bit of optimism and a couple of pairs of swimming togs we headed off on the subway to find this place and see what it’s all about!

‘Excuse me, where’s the spa?’

‘Thirl Floour’

‘Eh…just wondering…we’ve heard that eh….is this a naked kind of place or….'

'Yes, naked one’. 

‘Right, yeah, great!’

Great!  Big red embarrasses heads on us!  Got to the 3^rd floor and there was a reception desk with a pricelist.  No idea what any of them were…basic entry was w12, 000 (€8) after that who knows what else you can pay for!  The girl at reception gave us a key each and we peeled off, me to the left into ‘Womens Spa’ and Nick to the right into ‘Mens Spa’.  And then the fun really began!

I walked in through the door way and there was a little room of cubby holes on my right (which in hindsight was so obviously for shoes seeing as Koreans don’t wear shoes inside) but I just looked at it with bewilderment thinking to myself ‘am I supposed to get naked in here??!’.   I walked past it into a fairly plush looking locker room, carpeted not tiled.  Reminded me of the locker rooms in Riverview when Derval took me there as a child.  Except for one thing- there were no benches or chairs to get changed at, just lockers, full length, narrow lockers.  I wandered  around looking like a total eejit until some woman came running at me (naked obviously!) ‘your shoes, your shoes, take off your shoes!’  She didn’t only seem put out I was wearing shoes, she seemed offended….great start Stef, nice one!

Taking my shoes off gave me a few minutes to gather myself.  I’d seen (some of) the inside of the place now, did I really want to do this?  I did think about just walking out, there and then, but then I’d only have to sit there and wait for Nick so I sucked it up and braved myself once more!

I wandered around aimlessly again trying to get a grip on the place before I took my clothes off so I could head straight to the nearest  spa pool with a bit of purpose!  Another lady (not naked this time!) stopped me:

‘Excuse me, where are you going?’

‘I don’t know’

‘OK, do you have a locker key?

I showed her my key and she took me to my locker, all the while trying to keep my eyes from popping out of my head from starring at all these naked women walking around, not a bother on them! ‘Now, take your clothes off!’ and she disappeared!  Ok….try not to act too weird, this is obviously perfectly normal for them.  The woman came back a second later with a robe for me (delighted!) and I pulled it on quick-sharp and headed for the door into the pool and sauna room. 

The room was pretty big, rectangular in shape, and consisted off a shower block immediately to the left.  Ten showers in all, five opposite five.  To the left was another shower area, hand held showers, more of a hose-and-a-tap type job in front of a mirror.  Pull up a stool, sit down, get stuck in!  To the back of the room were the three hot spring pools.  The water comes from a source 350m under-ground and is pumped into these pools.  One is between 19-21°C, the next between 37-39°C and the last between 45-47°C.  No bubbles, not Jacuzzi style, just still water about waist deep so sit on the floor and be up to your neck in it, sit on the shelf and be only waist deep or sit on the edge of the pool and just have your lower legs in the water, the choice is yours!

I stood at the door in my robe feeling like a total eejit, thinking ‘what in gods name am I doing here?’  It wasn’t that busy, maybe ten or fifteen others there in total but it can obviously cater for a lot more, there must’ve been 100 lockers at least.  Anyway a woman was on her way out, had a towel around her shoulders making her seem less naked so I asked her if she could speak English.  She could. 

‘What do I do?

‘What do you need?’

What?!  I don’t need anything!  She explained that only soap is provided, no shampoo or conditioner (it was then I noticed all the other women, or the ones at the sit down showers at least, had plastic baskets with products in them…shampoo, conditioner etc)  I tried to explain I was clean, I’d had a shower before I came, I didn’t need a shower I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about!  She told me about the different pools, and the different sauna’s, of which there were three:  one dry one at 97°C, one wet one at 47°C and one much cooler one that was all stone inside where she said I could lie down and sleep if I wanted to!  Yes!  A nap, while I’m naked in a strange place, surrounded by strange people, sounds great! Absolutely!

I thanked her, asked her where I should leave my robe and made a bee-line for the body temperature pool.  Got in, tried to act like it was a totally normal thing to do and was just beginning to relax when someone came over to talk to me!  Apparently I needed to go back out and get two towels.  One to cover my hair (obviously!) and the other….well, no idea actually! 

OK try the sauna Stef, go on, try it!  Then have a shower and get the hell outta here!  Into the sauna with me so and as soon as I’d sat down more bloody women started talking to me!  Two women, in their fifties I reckon, both sitting cross legged without a care in the world, started asking me if there were oncheon in Ireland and did we wear clothes.  I obviously looked as awkward as I felt!  I made my excuses and left fairly pronto!

The whole thing was mad.  Apart from the naked part, and the fact that I’m a good aul Irish prude, it was really nice, really really relaxing, and such a nice way to spend an afternoon.  I think I was probably in and out in less than an hour but it is somewhere you could spend a while, a long while.  There was a dressing room when you come out of the saunas with lots of individual stations, each with a hair dryer, hair spray and gel, cotton buds, tissues, body lotion, eye gel etc so pop your robe back on (or not!) and spend some time there doing girly things.  There’s also a relaxing room.  You can pick up a pair of pyjama type clothes from the same stands you get the towels and robes from, pop them on, and head in.  There are loads of lazy boys, big comfy lookin’ armchairs, a magazine rack….stay there as long as you want.  Nobody will bother you, nobody will tell you your time is up.  You get such a sense of it being about personal time and maybe that is what it’s all about.  Maybe it’s to counter-balance the madness out on the city streets and the fact that the entire population lives on top of each other in massively high rise buildings.  Something like 90% of the population live in urban communist era style apartment blocks that don’t look like they have room to swing a cat in.  But here in the oncheon and as far as I’m aware in the jjimjilbang it’s about you.   Nobody will talk to you (unless you’re an offensive foreigner walking around with your shoes on, or letting you hair touch the water!), nobody with bother you and you can have time to yourself to think or just to be and to unwind and relax.

Fallen off the blogger bangwagon and onto the Christmas cheer one!

It appears that the festive season has got the better of me here in Daejeon!  We might only have arrived here two weeks ago but already we've been swept up into the full swing of things and as a result I've fallen off the blogger bandwagon!

Last Saturday was the Daejeon Annual 12 Bars of Christmas....lots of english teachers, mainly from Ireland and The States, all dressed up like eejits, entering fully into the festive season!  We were under the impression that everyone went all out costume wise and the louder and brasher the better....so we entered into it in full spirit only to realise that not everyone took it as seriously as we'd been led to believe.  BUT....we did come third in the costume competition...not bad seeing as we hardly knew anyone there!!

Apparent from that, things have been a bit quieter since Su and Steve left to head off on their well earned travels...there were an awful lot of farewell dinners and drinks to be had...but now its just us, settling into our new apartment in a new city, going to our new jobs!

Old Downtown

The 'shoe' bridge, downtown Daejeon 

The track down by the river there goes all the way along the city...i think you can get 20 odd miles out of it on either bank, its a class running/walking/cycling track

A Welcome Lunch and a bit of Teaching Practice

The couple (Brian and Jennifer) who own/run the school (Lexis Foreign Language Institute) Nick and I will be working for took all the staff out for lunch today as a welcome to the two of us and a farewell to Susan and Stephen.  We went round the corner and up to the 3rd floor to a deadly little buffet style place.  There are so many restaurants and bars etc on the 2nd and 3rd floors of buildings that you just have no way of knowing about unless you can read Hangul (the Korean Alphabet)....which surprisingly enough, we can't do yet!!  Its such a strange feeling, wandering down a street and having no idea what any of the buildings are 'cause you cant read the signs....its all loud and neon and flashing but its all squiggles and therefore meaningless!!

Check out all the fliers on the gound....thats 'advertising'!  People are employed to just throw fliers on the ground, hundreds of them, and then someone else comes around in the morning and sweeps them all up!  Pure madness!!

Anyway after lunch, Jennifer waned us to shadow Susan for her first 3 classes, so from 3pm til 4:30.  It being her last day of work though, there wasn't too much teaching going on...it was all games and party food!!  Great craic! If only that was the way it was going to be everyday, we'd be laughing!  The two of us whipped out some white board markers and started drawing things...classroom pictionary, and the kid who guessed right got a dollar -  A fake dollar! They seem to have this dollar reward system going on in the classrooms....the kids get stamps when they've done their homework well and 3 stamps amounts to a dollar.  Every so often then throughout the term the school throws 'dollar parties' where the kids can spend their hard earned dollars to buy stuff like pens and pencils as well as sweets and chocolate etc.

Getting up for lunch today was a bit of a struggle...we'd a pretty late one last night.  Everywhere seems to stay open as long as there are punters willing to keep drinking which is a bit dangerous!  Anyway we ( Myself, Nick, Susan and Stephen) went out for dinner and then on to a bar called 'Santa's' for a few drinks. It's apparently called Santas 'cause the owner's name is Mr. Ho!  Anyway next thing we knew it was 4am....disaster! Santas seems to be a regular haunt 'round these parts so no doubt we'll have plenty more merriment in Mr. Ho's over the coming year!

Our New Abode in Daejeon

 The bathroom is in to the left there just before where the hoodie is hanging out of a light fixture!

 The kitchen's at the end of the hallway there, and the bedrooms are down to the right.

The sitting room, with its mad decor! Apparently it was a bar of some sort before it became an apartment hence the mad lights and funny little brick wall with inbuilt flower box!

And the best room yet....

The bathroom!!  Directly opposite these two shower heads are two more! And a mad lookin' free standing bath tub in the middle of it all....the apartment might have been a bit more than a bar in its previous dark life!!