Goodbye 2012

Well I am going start by saying HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and New Year! Yet again this will be very scatty and probably won't include everything I did in December, so I will just give you the highlights,

If you know me at all, you will know my love of musicals and I have been to see another two! The first one was Les Miserable which was in my hometown Daegu. It was amazing! It was all in Korean but it didn't matter for me because I have been in love with this show since I first saw it with my friend playing the priest when I was still in school! Also I have seen the movie now and it is EPIC!!! See it! We then went to eat at this typical Korean place and ate live squid!!!! They obviously don't serve you a full squid and it's a fight to the death; they cut of the tentacles and they are still moving!!! They stick to your tongue, it was very strange!

The second musical was in Seoul and was the Broadway production of Phantom of the Opera!!!! Loved it!!!It was so great and they even got the Korean audience going by mentioning Gangnam, which is a tough one when you are talking about fitting it into Phantom of the Opera! Then we hit E-Tae-Won for a lovely meal and some drinks! At first I was quite taken aback when I asked the waiter for red wine and he said no, but he quickly resolved the situation and gave me mulled wine so obviously I was over the moon. I didn't think I was going to get my mulled wine this year so thank you Mr waiter. 

There have been many a meal and drinks with various people and among them there was a big Christmas company meal where you just sit and the boss orders the food and you eat, everyone was there which was good. This was followed by drinks and then No-rae-bang (the singing room) where two of my co-workers were absolutely hilarious! I even had a go by singing More Than Words with a lovely Korean co-worker. 

So-Hyeon, Chae Jin and me!

At work there was an elementary school speech contest; I watched all the kids say a memorized
passage and some of them were so cute! Especially one little girl who dressed up as a witch because that's what she was talking about and had little actions too! Also I got a little choked up when one of my students (as in I see him 4 times a week and is in a high level class called PT-ST who I am dreading leaving) did his speech. I also have an ex-student who, although she doesn't come to the academy anymore, still comes in and says hey to me. Some of the kids are just going to be hard to leave.

As usual I have been supporting my friend's bands by going to almost all of his gigs and being as it is a punk band, I guess I couldn't go to that many shows without being injured. So the guys all push each other and do this weird aggressive 'dancing' and one person was my drunk and aggressive than everyone else and just happened to run into me and so I go down taking the full-sized speaker with me and then he is on top of me. So now my coccyx is hurting! Apart from that the gigs have been amazing and if you want to hear anything from them then check out Mr Headbutt at   http://mrheadbutt.bandcamp.com/  and https://www.facebook.com/Mr.Headbutt . 

For Christmas there was a lovely charity do with champagne and Christmas performances where there was a little sing-a-long moment, it felt very festive! To make my night there was a raffle and I got to choose a classy pair of Disney earrings!

Christmas holiday for the family!

Christmas day was lovely, I got to Skype my mum and brother and open our presents online, thank you to my lovely mum who sent me some amazing presents! Also thank you to everyone who sent me things for Christmas, it was very thoughtful, you are all amazing- much love!!!! Then me and my friend went for a lovely Christmas dinner at her friend's house-delicious! Hats off to the chef- thank you Rachel! Also thank you Toni for being an amazing friend and letting me stay over for Christmas!

New Year's Eve was strange as I was working until 10 pm but then we headed downtown to watch some amazing fireworks! They also ring a big bell here at midnight and let lots of white balloons go with wishes attached which is really sweet! Then the party started and we went to Urban to dance the night away to some awesome tunes covered by an awesome band (Elicia you would of loved it!). So that brings me to now where I am surrounded by boxes, sorting out my room as I have to leave my apartment in two weeks. This year has been amazing and has just gone so fast. For people who are interested in my plans; I leave my apartment on the 16th and then going to stay at my friend's (who is dog-sitting at the same time -YEY),  for about a week, then to see my brother in Qatar, then to see my dad in France, then home to England on the 14th of February (yes, valentines day lol). Well that was December, thanks for reading, Happy New Year!!!

And at last I see the light....

So (lol that's for you Sarah!), I yet again have been abandoning my responsibility of telling the kind folks of England what I am up to. A lot has happened since my last post, but in classic 'Katie Style' I have forgotten quite a lot so I will just update you, in no particular order, on a few things I have been doing.

I went to a fabulous festival in Jin-Ju; the famous lantern festival (and therefore the people who have seen the Disney film Tangled will understand the title of this post)! I met up with a few friends and we walked round the castle which had massive lanterns everywhere of all kinds!

 There was also a place where you could write a wish and stick it to the lantern that was shaped like your Chinese birth-year symbol (mine, unfortunately, is a snake). Later more people joined our party and we made our own lanterns with candles inside and another wish taped to it. Then we went out onto a platform on the water and set our lanterns off floating down the river; it was a beautiful sight to see all the candles gliding away with everyone's hopes and wishes on.

A love that will last a lifetime!

We also got to walk across a big bridge that, although pretty unstable, was a perfect view point to see all the massive lanterns that had been made and set up in the middle of the water. There were all types of lanterns there including....Disney ones!!!

Oh yes, that's right!

I was of course over the moon! There was different musical performances and a great fountain display! Later we sat in a little tent for something to eat and drink. Later we wanted to go to a bar with proper walls and so some guys directed us to a place to get a drink. As we were walking around said place, we slowly all start to notice the abundance of middle-ages women with skimpy clothing standing in doorways; to cut a long story short, we had unknowingly stumbled into the red-light district of Jin-Ju -OOPS!

Over the Chu-Seok period (which I believe is like the Korean thanksgiving) I had a few extra days off and so I went to visit my friend in her new rural town called Bu-Yeo where there was a cultural festival going on. They had an amazing firework display! There were many stalls selling food (where you can get curly whirley potatoes on a stick!)and some activities which were for the kids :( . The also had this very strange performance which is the traditional Korean mask dance; there was a man and a woman and the man obviously liked the woman but the woman was being all coy, the man later turned around after attaching a massive...erm... well you know! I couldn't believe it, the old people in the audience were loving it and found it hilarious! A couple of weeks later there was a mask festival and I'm not sure why I didn't learn my lesson from seeing this little expo. I went on my own but some lovely foreigners took me under their wing and we had a great day, despite seeing some strange stories.

  

I have actually seen some more entertainment that is more suited to my taste; to add to the musicals I have seen, me and a few friends went to Seoul in order to see Chicago in Korean which was amazing despite me not understanding the language! There has also been a fair few nights out, mainly supporting my friend with his musical exploits and also not to forget Halloween when I dressed up as a giant monkey! I also went to an all you can eat and drink (I'm talking wine as well) in Gangnam and free entry in to the 'biggest' club in Gangnam which wasn't all that great so we went to a different area.

Yum!

I have been desperate to start celebrating Christmas, but my American friends would not allow it until they showed me how they celebrate Thanksgiving. I have had one other Thanksgiving celebration at uni, but this time a massive turkey was ordered from a company that delivers it cooked with gray and stuffing (being as most people here don't actually have a full-sized oven). Everyone cooked something and as I can't cook I brought alcohol and bread! It was great we ate so much and had so much wine! We played Mario-cart and Settlers of Catan! It was a great night and I found myself walking home at 7:40 in the morning!

Catan!!!

I am not sure if I have told people of the games rooms they have here where you don't pay a lot to sit and play any games the room has. When people lose they have inflatable hammers to hit them with or a tin tray which is dropped from the ceiling onto their heads!

Well at the moment it is the testing period which means that the foreign teachers (i.e. me) have only half their classes which is great! I actually only have 6 and a half weeks left which is crazy! I cannot believe how fast it has gone! I am sorry for this hap-hazard way of giving you information but hopefully it has done the job (at least a little bit as I haven't included everything). Love to all!

Posts are like buses...

Yes, here is yet another post to make up for my lack of posts recently. So aaaggeeesss ago I went to Seoul to see  (drum roll) WICKED!!!! That's right how amazing!




The night before we stayed over and ended up going to a pub that was so much like being in England it was unbelievable! They had the English pub smell, carpet and I'm pretty sure they hired typically English people to sit in there for authenticity!

Me, Hannah and the witches!!!

The scary dragon!!!

There's no place like home!

Galinda- with a Ga!

Elphie

Needless to say it was absolutely amazing - especially Defying Gravity!!! It was the Australian cast and they were epic!!! In a couple of weeks I'm going back to the Seoul to see Chicago with a Korean cast which will be great!!!!









The weekend after my Seoul trip I was off to Boryong to experience the Mud Festival!!!!It is such a strange concept- get a load of mud and people will come!!! And go we did! there were inflatables to run on, a place where people just painted each other, a place to get painted with colored mud, a jail where you could get mud thrown at you and a mud-wrestling pit! There was drinks free flowing and no personal boundaries! You get mus everywhere (places you don't even know you have), but luckily they do it right next to the beach so you can just go in the sea to wash off or the big swimming pool that is provided.

Clean

Dirty

Painting each other

Mud wrestling!

I have also been experiencing some typically Korean activities, for example I went for acupuncture where they use suction cups and needles with an electric current! I thought I dealt with it quite well but it wasn't exactly relaxing but my back did feel a bit better after. When I got home I had six large red circles on my back where the suction cups had been- I looked like a number six on a die! I have also been to a K-POP (Korean pop) dance class to get some exercise! It was so funny, and yes before anyone asks we did dance to Gangnam style! This year has been one for the records as we have had the hottest day, coldest day and the other day had the biggest typhoon. I was expecting a terrifying few days with the typhoon but it turned out to be little more than a spot of rain and a gust of wind. I thought it was a bit of an over-reaction until I was told that the typhoon had luckily avoided Daegu -phew!

There has also been a couple of changes in the last few months. Hannah, one of my close friends has moved away from Daegu to a more rural area which is cool because I get to go visit her and hear some of the funny stories she has to tell, but I also miss our weekday coffees! Also two of my close friends Lauren and Rami have moved back to the US and so they are sorely missed!!!One thing that has stayed the same is that I have been going to my friend from work's (Devon's) gigs as he is in 3 bands which has resulted in some great nights out and brilliant music.


The other week there was an amazing body-painting festival where you could watch the models being painted before and then watch the cat-walk. Then on the night there were some great fireworks! Here is just some of the amazing body-painting:

There were so many I couldn't put them all on, but you can see how beautiful they were! There was even a Madagascar themed design but I unfortunately don't have a picture of it, but I imagine my nephew would have loved it!!!!

I hope you have enjoyed catching up with my recent goings-on :)! Love to England and all its inhabitants!!!!