So, yeah, its ah, been awhile...sorry!

Hi all,

Sorry for the slackness in posting over the last 6 weeks!  Life has been hectic here, and it just seemed like I always had other things to do (like watch the latest K-drama, Facebook, go out for dinner/drinks, study, etc), and then it seemed like I had so much to blog about i'd need a whole day to update.  So apologies for taking so long to update my blog.  I'll endeavor not to let it get so long between blogs again.

OK, so where was I....ah, Spring time.  Well, Spring lasted a couple of weeks here and it's now getting as hot as hell.  After midterms, I went crazy running around doing various things, I went to Shanghai for a few nights to go check out Expo and shop (shopping in China is CRAZY...got a cashmere winter coat tailor made for AUS$80, so good, I love it.).  Since being back, i've just been gearing up for final exams.  Yesterday and today I had two Korean exams, and Monday/Tuesday I have another 4 exams, so this weekend is going to be study, study, study. 

I can't believe this semester is almost over.  I realised yesterday that i've been in Seoul for almost 4 months.  It's gone so quickly and i'm so pleased i'm here for the year, as i'm definitely not ready to go home yet.  But it's going to be sad to say goodbye to all my friends who are leaving (especially Angie and Vanessa - I will most definitely be visiting California next year to see you guys!! Vegas here we come!)

I'm off to Europe in less than a month, and I think i'll be there for the whole of July.  I'm due to come back to Seoul on 1st August, but I may come back earlier, not sure yet.  I have no solid plans for Europe as yet, except that I'll be in London/UK for 2 weeks, then Paris for 3 or 4 nights, and I want to go check out Berlin as well.  So who knows what's going to happen.  I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends in the UK!! It's been AGES!

OK, so since i'm short on time, here's some pictures of what i've been up to the last 6 weeks, enjoy!

The picture of the tunnel (dubbed the 'rape tunnel' by Alina), is what we walk through on the way to Edae.  It's quite safe, but if it was in another country (England or Oz), then  it'd be super skeezy.  Here, it's full of some cool graffiti which we took pics of one day.

 

This restaurant is in Hongdae and was featured in one of my favourite K-dramas 'Spring Waltz', so i had to take a picture.  It's so strange watching dramas here now and seeing places i'm familiar with.  The other day there was some drama playing on the bus I was on, and the restaurant they were at is just next to my dorm.  I go there for lunch once a week. 

The above are photos from the dog cafe in Hongdae.  It's craziness there. There are so many dogs.  Vanessa and I went to check it out, and it was actually really relaxing.  I miss our animals at home, so it was nice spending time with some dogs.  The golden was my favourite and a little beagle liked me.  He kept coming to sleep on my lap.  Very cute.  Though, it is kind of a strange place.  The dogs seem to be well cared for and are walked, so it didn't seem too bad, but, some of the dogs were really quite fat and if someone buys treats for them, then it's like a stampede (see the last pic above).

So thanks to the Korean language school I go to, we got free tickets to a Seoul FC match on Children's Day at the World Cup Stadium (a public holiday here for kids - love it).  It was so much fun.  People go nuts here, and there was like 60,000 people in attendance.  They had fireworks everytime Seoul scored a goal (4 times they went off), the Seoul fanclub had flares and all sorts of stuff, and people really get into it.

Waffles after the game in Edae.  There's an ajumma (married Korean woman) who has this little hole-in-the-wal place, but her waffles are the best, and only $2.  Sooooo good and thanks to Mio, I now know where she is!

Night shopping in Dongdaemun.  So good, though getting a taxi out of here after the trains and buses stop on a friday night is a nightmare.  Dodgy cab drivers can charge what they like. We only had to pay an extra $8, but it still peeved me off.  If I didn't speak Korean, then it would have been impossible to get him to discount the fare for us.  I heard of another two students paying like $80 to get back to the dorm, so we were lucky to get a fare for $18, but it's still twice the price.

So we went bowling in Apgujeong, a fancy part of Seoul south of the river.  It was so much fun, and the place was really cool.  To bowl was super cheap, but drinks were relatively expensive (actually, just what we'd normally pay in a bar at home, but expensive for here).  Some people I know had been on a weekday and seen several members of Korea's biggest boy bands here, and some other people had seen a few movie/tv stars, so we came to check out the talent.  Unfortunately none were there (that we could tell anyway), but it was a lot of fun and I'm keen to go back.

Gyeongyecheon stream in downtown Seoul - all lit up and decorated for Buddha's birthday.  It was so nice, and it's actually a really nice place to walk in Seoul at anytime as they always have cool art things going on.

Filming for a Korean tv show - Misuda.  The show screened a couple of weeks ago and I'm in it, singing a Korean children's song.  Very embarrassing, but kinda fun as well.  This year is all an experience!

Yonsei's Akaraka festival.  It's a weeklong school spirit festival, and it was so much fun.  Lots of food, dance and music performances, and various other things (a trampoline for adults and a blow up slide!)

So this brings us up to the time pre-Shanghai.  As you can see, I've been really busy, so that's it for the moment.  I'll try and get the blog fully up to date by the end of next week, as I have heaps of pics from China, plus i've been doing lots of stuff here as well.