...I'm pretty sure the title of my blog for today makes it come across more exciting that it was this weekend as in terms of actual achievements over the last couple of days, there hasn't been too much to look back on.More importantly, probably for my bodies sake, it's been a reasonably relaxed weekend in which the three of us have spent the weekend recouperating from a busy friday at Talkster for Halloween.
After finishing the last post on my blog on Saturday, I spent a few hours waiting for Charlie to decide to get out of bed so that we could go go Yongsan, most of it watching basketball on Korean TV and playing on the computer.
At about 2pm still hearing snoring coming out of the room next to mine I started to think about heading out by myself but about fifteen minutes later Charlie decided to awaken and we were ready to go.
We hopped on the bus to Suwon Station to get the train from there and figuring out a way to buy a ticket on a machine which was 75% in Korean we managed to secure a comfortable ride on the overground train which at only 2,500 won is only 900 won more expensive than the subway and takes twenty minutes as opposed to a 1h 30 minute ride standing nut to butt with a bunch of curious Korean's staring at you....
Considering that this is about the tenth of so time either one of us has been to Yongsan it's a shame that this is only the second time we've used the train as we could have saved ourselves a lot of time and stresses if we'd have realised.
When we got on the train it was unfortunate to find that some people had taken our seats and not wanting to push them out of the way, me and Charlie sat in some spare ones up ahead. Of course two seconds later someone wanted to sit down where we were and turning back to our original seats the two people sitting there had decided to fall asleep. Instead of turfing them out of our spaces we sat at opposite ends of the carridge until they decided to move.
It was a pretty miserable day yesterday but arriving in Yongsan not feel like I'd run a marathon after having to stand up for ninety minutes we headed into the shopping mall above the station to get some dinner from Popeye's Chicken which is the place we usually go. Last time the pair of us went there we had terrible trouble finding it and this time around after realising we were on the right floor but not sure where exactly we go, we asked someone who to our disappointment informed us that it had been closed down....
By this point we were both pretty hungry so we found the first restaurant we could which had edible food and we were treated to an omni-rice and donkas for 6,000 won (£3.)
Ready to head off to the usual spot we buy games from we braved the rain and went to the electronics market. Continuing a day of disappointments we discovered that the game we wanted to buy hadn't been released in Korea yet and although we could order it, it would be at about eight times the cost that it would be back home.
Having made the trip all that way Charlie was determined not to leave with nothing so he brought a new game and also a new control pad to make the journey worthwhile.
On the way back we rode the train again (after some initial problems of not being able to afford a ticket because the price had unecessarily been jacked up) but this time for twice the price of before and four times the subway we were riding in the first class car of the KTX Express Train which featured laid back seating and foot rests as well as a ridiculous amount of leg room.
Spending twenty minutes in such comfort wasn't quite long enough for the pair of us but not knowing where in relation to Suwon the next stop was we decided we'd probably better get off the train at the correct stop, even though I'm pretty sure I could have ridden that train backwards and forwards for at least a few hours.
Back in Suwon we called Kevin and then went out for some dinner just down the road, and then spent the rest of the evening playing video games. I finished the evening off by watching Korean TV's offerings of the Premier League this weekend which, thankfully, included Arsenal's game on Saturday lunchtime so I was happy.
Sunday morning involved waking up earlier than my body was ready for to watch the live basketball game on TV (the sacrifices I go through just to watch sport) but as Inter Suwon didn't have a game this weekend it wasn't so bad as I could spent most of the morning in bed with no plans for the rest of the afternoon.
Charlie called me at about 12 to see if I wanted to go and get some lunch so the pair joined by Kevin went into nearby Namun to try and find the Popeye's Chicken which was there as after thinking we were going to eat it for so long, me and Charlie were definately craving it.
The rest of the afternoon was quite an advanture.
A couple of weeks ago while we were out at It Bar, Charlie had started talking to some guy about a tatoo he had. The guy didn't really speak much English but thanks to Hans' presence we were able to discover that it was over by Suwon Bus Terminal. Neither of the three of us really knew where the bus terminal was, but having seen it on the map a few times I figured it should be too hard to jump on a bus and get there.
After about half an hour of waiting in the briskly chilling Korean weather we got the bus we needed and headed out with what little instructions we had. Starting to come across some familiar teritory we discovered that we were infact heading to E Mart and when using my listening abilities to full effect I heard the word 'bus terminal' over the announcement, we hopped off the bus to discover that we were actually in front of E Mart and that the bus terminal is actually behind to the shop which we have been visiting for six months...obvciously none of us ever picked up on the fact that alot of busses to by there, we just thought it was a popular stop.
On the way over there Charlie had called the place and although they didn't speak a word of English, the fact that they answered the phone pretty much told us that they were open. Doing our best to look around the area for a tatoo place and with the name that Hans had given us we walked about five hundred meters behind the bus terminal hoping it would be obvious where it was, but forgetting we are in a country where nothing is obvious, we recieved little reward for trying to go it alone.
We called Hans but he didn't answer, so we called 1330 which is the English speaking information line which we have only recently discoved you can used to help you when you are struggling. They called the tatoo parlour and asked where they were, and were given the reply, "opposite the bus terminal, behind a pizza hut."
With this knowedge passed on to us we then started to look for a Pizza Hut, one which me and Kevin could swear we had seen before.
Continuing on with the method of sweeping the area about 500 yards deep we went in the three different directions we could, asked people if they knew where pizza hut was, went up to a high spot to get a better view and even typed the word 'tatoo' in Korean into Charlie's phone hoping it would help....sadly, we were found wanting and thinking we had run into another 'How-Wrong-Dae' incident, we decided to check out an interesting building which was across the road to see if it could provide any answers.
Well it didn't provide is with any answers but it sure did provide us with some entertainment. Walking towards it we saw people with shopping carts coming out and thought we might be walking towards some undiscovered department store. What we didn't count on when we walked in was it being a warehouse which actually sells some quite useful things in bulk. Walking around the first few isles we found pretty much every piece of cutlery we have ever used in a Korean restaurant, including pans, plates and dishes which our food is served on.
They also had a bulk food section where you could by like 20kgs of rice of 10kgs of popcorn for a ridiculoudly low price and walking further round we discovered the sale of massive amounts of fruits and vegetables, presumable for restaurant or shop owners. Eager not to miss out on a bargin Kevin picked up some tangerines and a menu picture for his favourite food in Korea whilst Charlie brought a cantelope and some chop sticks. I think I will definately be taking a trip there before I go back home to buy myself some cheap souveniers to take back to England with me.
Despite finding something to fill our minds for a little while we came back outside determined to find the Pizza Hut which we had been seraching for originally though we decided to end out search almost immediately after seeing our boss Elizabeth and her informing us that there were no pizza huts in the area.
Slightly disappointed by yet again failing to find something which we thought would be easy to come across we jumped in a cab home and met up a few hours later when we'd started to feel hungry again.
We took a walk to the Pizza School close to our house and after eating three pizzas between the three of us we decided it would be a sensible idea to spend some time on the swings, slides and roundabouts in the park nearby (Don't ask why.) If the sight of us to Korean's isn't strange enough already, imagine seeing the three of us playing around on a kids play park.
Kevin decided to brave the roundabout after almost a full pizza to himself and after agreeing to ten spins, he soon found himself upping that to about 40 when we realised without taking outselves out in the process there was no real way of stopping it.
The motion sickness feeling of the Viking Ship which came to Talkster on Friday obviously wasn't enough for me to learn as I spend a good five minutes swinging backwards and forwards on a swing made for five year olds contemplating whether or not I could jump a two foot fence which was a couple of meters in front of me. Deciding that one trip to Korean hospital was enough I soon declined to prove my theory!
Well that was my weekend....like I said it wasn't as busy as the last few might have been but it was good to be out of the classroom and having some free time to myself all the same. Back to the classroom tomorrow and with no Halloween this week rather scarily the next thing we have to look forward to is Christmas which is amazingly only 7 weeks away...how ridiculous....
Anyhow folks, I'm out for the evening. Hope you've all head a bearable weekend, take care
Ben xxx
'The harder you work, the luckier you get...'
Gary Player
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