Month: December 2016
Turning 28.
I had another birthday here in Korea. I turned 28, which officially makes me 29 in Korea. What a ridiculous country. Oh well, there are worse places I could celebrate turning another year older.
My beautiful 6th grade class got me a cake and sang happy birthday. Adorable.
My birthday also happens to fall on Pepero day. Here, you give pepero to your loved ones to make them tall and skinny. My students were being artistic.
Eating birthday cake with chopsticks. How else?
Such a cute birthday gift from one of my fifth grade students.
Enjoying the autumn colours of Bundang park.
Enjoying the beautiful autumn colours in Bundang park.
‘No! I don’t want to turn 28! Oh, ok then. Pass the tequila.’
Autumn colours, Korea 2016
If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.
This September, we made a decision. The decision was that we would stay in Korea a little longer. We will return to the UK in July. The decision was giving me sleepless nights until it was hastily made. I keep the fortune I received in Tokyo in mind, if ever I have any doubts.
Jeju Island: Seogwipo
“Friendship … is born at the moment when one man says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .”
This September, three of some of my best friends paid me a visit. I hadn’t seen them in over a year. Here are some of the highlights of our jaunts through Seoul and Jeju.
Tokyo
This summer, we spent a long weekend in Tokyo.
The trip got off to a pretty disastrous start. We checked in online but didn’t realise that this was going to put us at the end of a pretty long queue at the airport. So, yes, I cried. We did not have time to be at the end of this queue and were on our way to missing our flight. By the grace of a sympathetic steward, we were able to skip to the front, grab our boarding passes and sprint to the boarding gate.
We would have been relieved had the plane not been delayed.
Eventually, we made it to Japan. We had visited Fukuoka before but this was our first trip to Tokyo. I feel like we were able to cram in a lot of things into our three day visit. We also got to meet up with friends that we hadn’t seen in over a year.
Tokyo skyline
Tokyo skyline
Tokyo Tower
Tokyo Tower
Tokyo by night
Hozomon
Hozomon
Street food, Asakusa
Imperial Palace
Shibuya Crossing
Super Mario cars, Shibuya Crossing
Wedding at the Meiji Jingu Shrine
Japanese food
When it was time to leave, our trip home was no less eventful. We couldn’t get a taxi, waited outside in the rain for longer than we should have and then had to sprint like Usain Bolt to the train station. By the skin of our teeth, we managed to get the last possible train to the airport. We were feeling pretty smug. That was until the air steward decided to tell us that the flight *might* be cancelled or delayed due to ‘adverse’ weather conditions. We were definitely lacking in the luck department when it came to travel on this trip.
We managed to board the plane on time, but had the most horrific flight home with the worst turbulence I had ever experienced.
Tokyo was worth it though.
Mightbeoversoon 