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!