In sickness and in health...

Danielle has had a rough two weeks with sickness which resulted in her getting a needle in the bum and a couple of days in bed... but it didn't stop her having a lovely weekend away to Seoul and then spend most of this week taking it easy to make up for it.

We have both been surprised at how tired we constantly are all the time - getting home ready to die each evening and being shattered at weekends too.  It's hard to tell whether it is the late onset of jet-lag or the change to our diet - or both - or that we are awake at 6.45am during the week which results in our bodies wakening at around the same time on weekends too despite our best efforts to sleep in.... but we are working on it and maybe a bit of extra exercise will help!

So, what have we done since our last post - well, probably the key event was going to Seoul, for Bryannie's birthday a fortnight ago, to see Cirque du Soleil's Varekai.  It was breath taking and made me pine for the days of yore when I might have been both more physically capable and ballsy to have had a go at flying through the air, leaping around a stage and generally dressing up in some fantastical costume on a stage.  It made me think whether I could have been able to keep a toe in the performance element - but to be honest with myself I doubt I'd have been of the right calibre for a show like this one!

The weekend in Seoul was very relaxed - and we were with a few other couples too which was a nice change though we did also miss some of our other friends who we would normally have been with - but big crowds have their logistics problems too so for once we were very happy with our lot.  There was no set schedule or places we had to be (besides the show) or anyone else to pander to - which made it a really nice atmosphere!
We met up on the Friday night and went for some food - beef instead of pork - which may have been the only mistake of the weekend (or it may have been the McD's) as the chances of cross-contamination was particularly high as cooked meat was moved to the side as raw flesh was chucked on top... at some point over the weekend Danielle got sick and it was too hard to tell whether anyone else was effected by it too as two of the other girls were already ill when they arrived on the Friday too! lol!

On Saturday we all went off in different directions to do our own things - some went to the racetrack to place a few bets on the ponies and others went shopping.  We decided to do the touristy thing and see the sights of Seoul via bus - but we got waylaid on route!

We got the metro towards the pick up point for the bus and came out to a massive square with a few statues along it.  It was very clean, very pretty and also very impressive! The statue behind us is of the king Sejong the Great who was the 4th King of the Joseon Dynasty and the creator (or at least the patron) of Hangul - the written symbols of the Korean language.
Around the back of this statue is a door which leads downstairs to a exhibition all about him and the development of the language.

From here we followed the square to the end where we discovered that we were at the Royal Palaces of which there were a few - and decided to have a look around with a view to coming back if we had time either after the bus or the next day.

But once we got closer to it we ventured inside, and wanted to see more...

IT WAS MASSIVE!!! In the end we spent around 3 hours walking around it and only seen about a third of the area which had the palaces restored and kept in exquisite order.



There were men dressed in traditional costume at the main gate - guarding the entrance much as they would have done hundreds of years ago.  They had traditional weapons and even the changing of the guard too of which there was as much pomp and circumstance as you would expect at Buckingham Palace.
There was a museum, a children's museum, an arts centre, displays of old buildings from the 50s and 60s, replicas of historical statues from across Korea... and much more that we didn't even get to see! In fact, in order to show you the images I had to rearrange my Flickr sets so I could stream the photos on here.

So - this weekend we decided to stay at home in Chungju again and relax.  Saturday was a lazy but expensive day.  We walked to the shop where I bought my bike to leave it in to be repaired as the back wheel had buckled and needed fixed by someone more qualified than I.  From there we walk into the town to waltz around the shops and then headed to get some snacks for a pizza and movie night we were hosting.  This last stop resulted in us buying an oven - unfortunately all the instructions are in Korean... there is no translation available online... and it sounds like a microwave when on but we'll figure it out this week as I try making a few bits and bobs!

Sunday saw us venturing out towards Chungju Dam, with Hanna Bear, to see what all the fuss was about - as everyone was talking about seeing the Cherry Blossom Festivals here... it turns out there are two sides to the Cherry Blossom Festivals - the lovely Cherry Blossoms and the awful entertainment they provide (it was NOT entertaining!!! X-Factor NOT!!!).

The most entertaining aspect of the day was the matching clothes that couples and families sometimes wear here in Korea - especially young families will wear matching jumpers or t-shirts which looks really cute but also funny, though adults do it too.  We were also lucky to catch a couple of molested dogs decorated by their owners... no idea why though! lol!

So, I'm off back to class and will prepare myself for a week of baking and roasting (lots of accidents and errors are expected as I try to figure out what the oven is doing and how it works)... fingers crossed I'll work it out and get some good results in the end!