Some things that I do miss from home, and Seoul Land... again

Intending to follow on from my last post, I sat here for ten minutes trying to think of nine things I miss about home, and all I could muster was my dog, a greater variety of beer and the ready availability of sparkling water. Oh, and my family and friends, I suppose.

Three things I've experienced in the last week, quiz nights (we came third!), a curry and pro evo, would've made the list but I've been satiated. If I think of more, I'll just edit this post.

Thursday was curry and quiz night night in Itaewon, made possible only by the fact that instead of school we took the kindergarteners down to Seoul Land during the day. For more on Seoul Land look back to my post about it in mid-September. While looking after fifty kids meant we couldn't go on any of the big rides, I did get to on the baby-coaster. A guy called Alex wouldn't let go of my hand, so I was dragged on to keep him company. He buried his head in his lap and didn't release his white-knuckled hands from my forearm until I'd assured him that it was over. Cute. It was quite fun watching their faces light up with unrestrainable squealing glee (Harry), but the constant queuing got a bit dull. There were ten times more people there on Thursday than when we went in early September - on a Saturday. Since they were pretty exclusively schoolkids, of all ages, we concluded it was a Seoul-wide-end-of-season-let's-go-to-Seoul-Land-thing. It was still really warm though, as I found out at the end of the day when we took the kids on this huge white rubber hill-like arrangement. I ran around with the kids for half an hour and had literally the most fun I've ever had ever. Ever.

The two boys in the front here, Harry and Noah, look like they're having fun. Nathan (maths video Nathan) in the back car looks terrified. I just thought of another thing I miss a bit. Cheese. I'd love some cheese.

Catch up

Since my last post was all about Taiwan, here's some other stuff.

Couple of weeks ago we bought Korean Monopoly. They use world cities as opposed to areas of a city. Mayfair is Seoul, and Old Kent Road is Tripoli. Mild fun, despite not knowing what the cards said.
Next day, we went to a theme park. Korean theme parks are identical to theme parks anywhere else, though this one did have a sex education centre. Seoul Land is at the opposite end of the Blue subway line to us, ie, South of Seoul. Since we live close to the second to last stop at the north of the city, we easily found a seat, and spent the 70 or 80 minute ride in relative peace. We saw all it had to offer, and while it was a bit dated, it fulfilled all that was expected of a theme park, with two rollercoasters, a pirate ship (advertised as "Korea's largest Viking with the largest seating capacity among all Viking facilities in Korea", which is just brilliant), a log flume, spookyhouse, various spinny things and assorted sideshows and attractions. We left well and truly exhausted and a little nauseated, a feeling exacerbated by the fact we had to stand up all the way back. Or at least I did.
Last weekend was Chuseok, which is like harvest festival or thanksgiving or whatever. On Friday all the kids came to school wearing traditional Korean Hanboks, which made the place look like the wardrobe department at a school production of Aladdin, or an early nineties shellsuit shop. I can't decide which. Anyway, all the teachers had to wear one too. We borrowed teachers' husbands' stuff. Again, you'll find evidence on facebook... Here are some kids armwrestling, "chicken-fighting," and er, a bit of millinary.
The bottom two are the enigma that is Jasmine and Eric, both from my 'homeroom' class (I teach them twice a day and give them tests and that). Eric is cultivating quite a remarkable five o'clock shadow for a 6 year old, and rightly so, he's incredibly proud of it. He keeps stroking it and smiling to himself. I've had to grow my beard back to put him in his place.

OK That'll do for now. Tomorrow the kindergarten kids have a field trip which means I don't start until 3pm, hence my posting at 2am in the morning.