really been meaning to post but i have been totally neglecting my blog...i was just writing an e-mail to my cousins when i realised i would have to write the same thing here so i am cutting and pasting...only doing it because it's a super long post about a super long week...
but before this week, a quick update...school and work are all great. i'm having a blast. the kids i teach are wonderful and the staff at all 4 schools are really supportive. it's getting cooler but i am ready to see some snow covered mountains although the autumn leaves are beautiful. i have loads of pics but i can't download them here because it's slow so go to my flickr site and check them all out at once...
www.flickr.com/photos/queenbean79

so here it is....bean's chuseok week that was...

hey...
so sorry this e-mail has taken so long to get to you...i have had all intentions to write to you but i've been super busy/lazy....the two extremes...
it's amazing how fast time flies...in just less than a fortnight i will have been here for 2 months already! can't believe it. it seems like a lifetime almost but it also feels like yesterday i left home...

so work, friends and just general day to day stuff keeps me busy. sometimes at school i do nothing but sit at my table and wade through endless e-mails sent to me by friends from epik, but by the last e-mail, possibly about 40 on a good day although they have died down a bit, i am totally over typing or reading and end up just sitting here and listening to music of watching youtube for hours. although it's not a bad thing to be doing it gets a little tiring after a while...leaves me feeling more tired than if i actually did something!

i have been doing a lot of travelling on the wknds but not seeing a whole lot. most of my travels involve eating and drinking with friends rather than going to see the sites. once you've seen one palace...you know...

all my friends are scattered all over the place and one by one we are making our way to their homes to spend time in their cities. my friends are hoping to be able to make the journey up north to chuncheon to spend my bday with me which would be awesome. my aunt said that she would make kungpoungee for my friends and i which is going to be delicious!can't wait...so should i wait for presents from you guys? hehehe

i have had the busiest week of my life i think this past week. has been so much fun too...after work last friday i got on a bus and headed down south to daegu, about 3hrs40mins from home. i met up with a bunch of friends who all congregated in daegu for chris' bday wknd. there was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much eating and soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much drinking...such a fun weekend. we actually went to see a movie too called 'our happy time together' well, some translation like that...it was one of those korean movies that is going to make you cry right...a man is on deathrow and a girl come totally reluctantly because her nun aunt thinks she can help/learn from him/each other...so they do and man, sooooo sad....of course i cried right, but you at one stage in your life have to watch a sad movie in korea with koreans....omg, i have never ever heard soooooooooooooooo much crying in one room before...there was sniffling a plenty and tears freely flowing...it was kinda amzing to listen to...

i left daegu with andy, ben and chris and headed to jinju which is south west of daegu to see the lantern festival. we were meeting other friends there.it was so beautiful. we got in late on monday night but decided we had to look around. we totally lost track of time as we were admiring the views around the river and lighting roman candles. it was about 2 when we looked at our watches and headed slowly back to the motel.
i stayed up til like 5 chatting to my friend james...we all forget sometimes how little we really know about each other as we've only known each other for like less than 2 months and with every conversation i learn something new and interesting about each of my new friends...

on tuesday night the lantern fest was impossible to wade through as there were soooo many ppl around. we were really glad that we'd seen it all on monday without the crowds as i was beginning to feel really uncomfortable with the crowds. i egged on my friends to climb a lot of stairs to get to the top of a building as i thought it would be a good view from there down the river, little did i know that as soon as we landed on the rooftop a huge and amazing fireworks display started...it was amazing...andy loves fireworks so he was very happy...

wednesday i returned back to daegu with the boys and hung out for a while before taking the bus back to chuncheon. thursday was spent preparing for chusok and helped make songpeon and jeon all day. man, it's hard work cooking...so much to prepare for...then we had guests so we ate and ate and ate and ate...then ate some more...i am ballooning out man, so much food this week!

friday was chuseok day adn we had jaesa at home then ate and ate then went to visit with grandpa and greatgrandparents to pay my respects. the weather was glorious, almost summer weather...after lunch, yes more eating, i caught the train to seoul to meet up with friends for chuseok wknd. many of them have family in seoul so they had been up for a few days but the wknd was just reserved for us. i booked us into the seoul international youth hostel which is really new, clean and safe which everyone was happy with.

friday night was magic...we went and grabbed a little dinner then headed to apgujeong, super expensive part of seoul. i wanted to visit a jazz club called once in a blue moon...super famous apparently, been in loads of movies and tv shows. the atmosphere and ambience was amazing, the prices of drinks was not, but for the night out like that with good friends and music a little over the top is ok once in a while right? the girls got a bottle of aussie wine, which back home would have cost maybe about $15 at most, we ended up paying something ludicrious like $65...the most expensive cab sav i have ever had in my lifetime....possible ever will have...
the night was great though, and everyone enjoyed themselves which really is the main thing. i am definitely going to save a little and go back...really enjoyed it there...

saturday we trekked around seoul city for a little while then headed up to namsan park where seoul tower is. the walk around the park was nice but the stairs were not. we broke up into two factions, the i'm going to trek all the way to the top group and the i'm a lazy ass so i am going to take a taxi up to the top group...but in the end, we all kinda took cabs for one reason or another...man, we were fools...as seung rightly said to us...hehehe...

the tower was good fun and it was a great chance to see all of seoul from up there.now i've been i don't have to go back right? hehehe...not a bad tower, it looks like it's been refurbished on the inside so it's all nice and clean. well presented.
after the tower we headed back down and took the subway to jamsil...lotte world...lw was having oktoberfest which the boys were extremely excited about. we'd downloaded some coupons which gave us some tumblers and entry and free beer for most of the night which suited us to a tea. we'd gotten there just in time for the speed beer drinking competition...i have to say, first time in my life that i have ever drunk anything, esp beer that fast...but needless to say, first times a charm right? i beat the other girls in the first round. andy went next but was beaten by a guy who spilt most of it down his front and andy's dancing was better too....lame...

i went back onto the stage and this time i was up against a girl and 2 guys who had won their heats...the guys again were messy...i drank every last drop and danced my booty off...that's how i ended up winning at oktoberfest in lotte world and have a lovely clock hanging up on my wall for it now :) more eating and drinking followed...we ended up going on the monorail and the one and only real ride the drunken basket...if we weren't already so drunk it would've made us feel drunk...but so much fun...craziness..

the rest of the night was a bit of a mixed bag...

most of my friends left early on sunday to take trains and buses back home...i hung out with darree for a bit at the bookstore then after she left i went in search of coffee..i found some (not that good) but i did stumble across the seoul drum festival which was so cool. really fun, interesting and a diverse...i sat and enjoyed the show for just over an hour and then headed towards the train back to chuncheon...

so that was my chuseok week. phew...
back to school...