Another day, another holiday...

Turns out this might just be the shortest working week in the history of the world but I am enjoying every second of it!

After the three day weekend came just one more day of class before it was time for a day off again! I've long been a campaigner for the fact that both parents in a family get a day during the year but when is children's day? Turns out someone in Korea thought the same thing and made today 'the birthday of all children' and gave them, and us, a day off school. Wonderful stuff!

It took us a while to decide what we should do today as none of us have been paid yet and Charlie is still kinda short on monday so we thought we should probably do something a cheap. Having lucked out with the zoo being so cheap for our adventure on friday we took the advice of Anna and decided to head towards 'Seoul City Hall' which is just a little further away then Yungsan on the subway.
Before setting off we decided to start the day with a little bit of basketball 'horse' down at the park. Being English and playing with two American's I was obviously the underdog and it didn't take me long to realise that I was well out of my depth after the first couple of shots. There's a reason you don't see many, if any British players in the NBA.
I think the guys were taking it easy on me as I didn't manage to get too badly embarassed in the end. Kevin managed to hold onto one of the 'titles' by winning both games, I think I am going to have to get myself a ball and get down there and practice to surprise them!

We met Marie at Suwon station at about 12.30pm and hopped on the subway, took about an hour to get to 'City Hall' and obviously we were staving to headed to a restaurant called 'Italy Place' just across from the station. Inside the whole place looked brand new with authentic Italian objects all around. Naturally it was staffed completely by Korean's who know as much about Italian food as I do Korean but it was a lovely meal and excellent to be able to use a fork for once!
After that we headed across to the entrance to a Palace we had seen across from the restaurant. We were just in time to see the end parts of what seemed to be a 'changing of the guard' ceremony before heading inside to look at the surroundings!

There wasn't very much inside the Palace at all, no real exhibits, just some paintings, but the writing about them was all in Korean so we didn't learn very much. We tried to watch a show that was going on in the middle of the park but after waiting for five minutes and seeing nothing but people stretching we decided it best to move on.
There didn't appear to be an awful lot around that area so we decided to head back and make a stop at Yungsan Electronics Market (yeah thats the third time we've been there!) But this time we were actually determined to find the market and not end up inside techno world.

Aside from the mild drama of not making it onto the train fast enough and being left on the platform while Marie, Kevin and Charlie all made it on to the train we all arrived and eventually after a bit of help from another 'foreigner' we managed to find bits of the market. Next time we go I will actually take some pictures but there was literally wall to wall gadgets in that place. If it's been invented it's on there.

Charlie was still on the hunt for a PS3 and after searching through tons of computers, towers, mortherboards and other assorted things in several various locations we managed to find at least two different areas which sell computers. Charlie began with his usual "Playstation 3, how much" routiene and we could tell we were in the right place when the stalls started competing to sell the console at a better price than the person next to them. I think he got the business card of one place and will return next week to buy a console but we'll see!

Both me and Kevin were checking the prices of Ipod Touch's (I don't really need one after not buying my nano that long ago, but I feel I should treat myself!). The places we asked were selling them for around 410,000 won which as I discovered when I got back was quite expensive, certainly more expensive that you can get them on amazon for. I feel I might have to wait until I get back!
By this point all of us were nakered and in need of food once more so we decided to come back to Suwon Station and get something to eat.

We went up to Omato Tomato (we felt they owed us one after the HowWrongDae incident) and after trying to work out what each thing on the menu was we were plesently surprised to see that the food wasn't actually that bad. Infact I really enjoyed mine. We've done pretty well to say that we've only brought one meal which was nasty while we've been here!
I had a rather random concoction of 'Cheeseburger Omnirice'. It was basically a cheeseburger on top of an omlette filed with rice as the name suggests but it was delicious. Kevin had a Beef Curry Omnirice, Charlie a German Sausage Omnirice and Marie a Triple Cheese Omnirice. We decided to head home after that as neither of us could take the walking anymore.

Aside from the trip into Seoul today I really haven't had much to update my blog about in the past couple of days. On Sunday I went and took a walk around the first part of Hwaseong Fortress Wall and then yesterday I just had my classes as usual and went out to dinner with the guys at the Med. place in Suwon.


Back to the grind tomorrow but only for three more days before it is the weekend again!