Well what a mammoth weekend!!

Friday started off pretty busy as KM had decided to combine the lessons in the morning. The meant I was teaching the adult and 5/6 grade class together for 90 minutes and then the kindergarten joined towards the end as well. So after scrubbing the underneath of all the tables because they had a thick layer of mould growing on it, (The joys of working in the equivalent of a cellar in wet humid Korea) I got to go home at 4.30!!

Jo and I were heading to Seoul for the weekend end to go to her directors restaurant and some workshop, I want really sure of the plans. She picked me up at and we headed off to Deachon. (Remember the place that took me 6 hours instead of 1!) We picked her another teacher and her 2 children.

We got to Seoul about 12 and went night shopping Dongdaemun Shopping Center we shopped there until about 3am and then continued to the restaurant. We got to Yangju-si at about 5.30am and settled into our room above the restaurant. We were then brought beer and proceeded to actually get very drunk considering it was now 6am!!

About 11.30, a woman came into our room and started to literally pull the blankets out from underneath us. She needed to clean the room for the next people and considering we were staying for free, we obliged. We were then sent into the roof which had a deck type thing with a cover and we slept there for another few hours. It was all very bemusing and comical.

We then woke up again at about 1.30, when Jo's director came up and we had some lunch. The workshop never really happened as we were too hungover and the person who was running the workshop didn't arrive.

We left abut 5 o'clock to make our way home. However we found a really nice Sculpture park and went for a wander around that.

We then found another sculpture park and art museum called Jangheung art park and looked around that one.

Then we found some amusement arcades and stayed there for a couple of hours. By this time , it was about 8.30, we decided it would be easier to stay and go home the next day.

However this weekend was a holiday weekend so all the rooms were booked up. We got back to the restaurant and slept for a bit in a tiny tiny room. We were then woken up again about 2am, and told the room was too small for us and we were to go and sleep in the restaurant. Fortunately part of the restaurant was Korean style so it had underfloor heating. We all went back to sleep in the restaurant - including the director and his wife!

I have begun to realise that I never know what is going to happen in Korea, so you just have to go with it!!!

On Sunday we set off around 10am and headed to Cheongam folk museum.

After this we drove to a pottery place. Which was really nice but after waiting an hour and 20 minutes for the girls to decide what colour pottery to buy in one of the shops, I was ready to leave.

By this time it was abut 4.30, the kids were really tired and whiny (as they had been most of the weekend, but that is a different story) I finally thought we were heading home.

Then I see a Hollywood style sign saying English village. Next thing I know we are driving up to it and parking. The English Village is really well known in Korea. It is basically a specially build village all in Englsih style where kids can go and learn English. Then Jo tells me were are only about and hour and half from the North Korean border! So I was estimating it would take about 4 hours to get home. THEN, I find out they want to look around the village but you have to pay to get in. BUT if you wait until 5 you can go in for free. By this point I was guessing I would not be home until 12/1 o'clock and was seriously annoyed.

We had a wonder around, it actually was pretty interesting but mainly amusing to see how thy had interpreted how an English village should look! There were a couple of Romania's working there, that I had a chat to in English also.

Finally we left at about 7pm and started on the way home. Having had enough of the kids, I plugged in my ear phones and tried to get some sleep.

Before I went to sleep, I noticed that the river we were driving along was protected by barbed wire and ahd military watch posts every so often. It turns out it was the Han River and the North Koreans would try and attack by the river.

So I finally got back to 'The Goon' at about midnight. I have never been so happy to be home. It was a fun weekend but a looooooooooooooooong weekend!!

So this is a rough idea of where I went!

Pics of the weekend here!