Hola,
Today has been pretty uneventful and I've packed all my stuff up. I'm really sad about it actually. I went to Myeong-Dong and bought this tee that I've had my eye on for a while, it's a designer one, BSX, a Korean brand but I really wanted it and i had my birthday money. On the way to a jewellery shop a guy grabbed me and told me how beautiful I was before teasing me about my eyes. I tried to use it to my advantage by getting a discount at his stall but it wasn't really happening.
I got the tube back and saw Korean boy who sometimes walks me to the flats.
On my way I took my chance to ask about western girls and Korean opinion on them. He said that we're pretty because of our white skin, it means that we were rich enough not to work in rice fields and get tanned. I laughed and explained that it was a good ting to be tanned in the UK as it shows you can afford to go abroad. Next he told me that we have wide eyes which is just a nicety. Also western girls have hourglass figures, or so I rather from the hand movements, Korean girls are straight. I told him that this was also funny as western girls seem to strive for a thin look, a more Korean figure and dress code. Finally he told me that my attention comes from looking Western but dressing Asian, looking like a young girl making me cute. I'm glad the flattery stopped there and was replaced by a chocolate bar. I'll be sad to leave my friend but I may email him to keep in contact.
I came in about 6ish and to my surprise the door went and everyone walked in. About five minutes later the doorbell went, Pizza Hut. They'd ordered a pizza with wedges on as a farewell meal. I was so excited, even more when I realised there was coke involved.
Overall it's been a good day, but I still don't want to go home.
Logging off for now,
Angharad

Labels: madu, orange line, pizza hut, seoul, western girl

Hi,
So last night when I left you I got talkikng with my host family. They asked me about m day so I told them about the folk village. Suddenly everyone disapeared and returned with huge books, photo albums. Apparently mother and fathers first date was at the folk village. They met in 1991 and where married in 1995. He proposed on her birthday and sent 100 red roses, it was really cute. Father takes alot of photos and many where of mother. After this album the wedding photos came out. They had three cermonies, one was more western with a big white dress and a suit. They got married at Lotte World which is like Disneyland, in the castle and the photos are adorable, she looks like a princess. The next was traditional in Korea and was done at the folk village, she was done up in Geisha-est makeup and clothes and hidden for the entire cermony. The last was a resgistars office where a suit and plain white dress were worn. The pictures are amazing and she looks so beautiful, it was breathtaking.
Next we had the honeymoon pictures where I saw a picture of father in a speedo, disturbing isn't even close to the word I have in mind. They went to Jujedo island which is really picture perfect, think Hawii style. Then we just had general photos and towards the end she pointed to her stomach and plainly said , 'baby'. Next we had the birth pictures, it was a little gross, not type the pictures we'd show in the UK if you get me and then really cute baby photos, brother is so adorable, I think I'm going to adopt an Korean child.
A few days after the birth, mother and father went to Japan for a holiday whilst brother was handed over to his aunty. I thought this was really shocking, and she just kinda popped him out an then went on vaccation, crazy.

Anywho, today was Carolines birthday so I got up and showered and stuff before munching my food eally quick and going to uni. On the way up I bought a chocolate cake and gave it to my father to hide in the office. I met Caz in the lecture and she thanked me. In her hands she had a package so I welcomed her and sat down. I asked where Helena was only to find out that she wasn't in. This confused me as Helena had the presents, so how did Caz have presents already? I looked over confused and realised that the presents were different to the ones that we'd bought, now I was trying to text Helena to try and find out what was going on.
Helena came in late and gave Caz her presents which confused Caz as she realised the things in front of her were not from us. She said that Mahinda had given them and we told her that we knew nothing about it. Nonetheless, Caz opened her stuff and was so excited. She read the card first and was questioning our mesages about loosing our souls to one of the presents. She rifled through them trying to see which one was the special one and squealed when she saw her braclet. I was so happy that she liked it, it was so hard to make (see post no. 32). Caz also loved her book which I then teased her about due to the fact she's bee trying to buy it for days only for Helena and myself to distract her.
Break time came and we bunked off to the computer room to update our friends and family on Korean life. Helena pretended to go back to lecture but snuck off to the western bar with the cake. We all met at 12 and got interiewed by the Keele Uni students who are also making a film. We all walked to the western bar and ordered Pizzas, they were lovely and had wedges on top. About halfway through Caz said she was full and Helena and I tried to keep her from eating anymore as we still had the cake. Unfortunately Caz forced it down, I was slightly worried as the cake needed to be eaten ASAP. We grabbed the plates and told Caz to watch out stuff as we sorted the cake out, however being nosy as ever she came to clear stuff away, making me shove her down the ramp. I think it was worth the pushing however and she was excited to see the cake. We all struggled to eat apiece and decieded it would go to a good home in the international office to be munched on.
I'll update later but,
Logging off for now,
Angharad

Labels: back in time post, birthday, korea, living, madu, paris baggette, party, seoul, students, tired, tried, wales

Hiya,
So was very tired and went to bed earlish after writing my blog. I got up and had a shower about 6ish and my breakfast at 7.15ish. Now inbetween the time I went into the bathroom and brushe dmy teeth, father had his brecfast, got dressed and put on his shoes and was calling me to hurry up. I'm not really sure how he manages to do it but one day I'll catch him out.
We got to class really early so I got us good seats. Luckily we could finish at 10.40 as it was Dongguk graduation for some of the monks and teachers. Because the weather was good and we were all feeling refreshed we decieded that today would be good to do the Inwangsan Shamanist Hillside Walk. Now, I really do hate Korea Sparkling because not only did it lie to me about Noodle X being open, but it also lied to me about it being a 'hillside'walk. First we had to get out of the tube station and walk up this really hard slope, then up this hill to the top where we met some Americans and chatted then up some steps, and that was just the beginning. We got lost and started chatting to a monk who let us go in the temple alone to film and take pictures as much as we wanted. We searched high and low for the Shamanistic icons but only found Buddhist ones until the last 5 minutes where we spotted the drawings in the corner. We then moved on up the mountain, yes mountain, to these rocks which apparently look like a monk praying. I couldn't see it but apparently it brings fertillity. I figured I'd get blessed ready for the future and I done my prayers. I done extra as it's more work to ask for a girl than a boy, it sucked and my legs hurt after a while. We filmed a little and realised that there was a monk sitting on top of the mountain. Stupidly we figured we could get to him, how wrong we were.
We passed the Shamanistic temple, which was closed to our dismay, and carried on up the rocks. We met the American couple and figured that if they were climbing the mountain, than we definately could. Helena was a tad nervous of heights so I went first, she as behind and the Caroline at the rear. It was at this point that we realised flip flops were not the best idea in the world. I tried to find logs and gap in the stones to climb up and we stopped at the highest point to drink the cleansing mountain water. I'm pretty sure we almost deprived the rest of Seoul water for that time as it was really nice and cold. We carried on through the mountain and then started our descent. This was easier said than done and the sweat was running down me. I was at the back this time due to not being confident with going downhill. Helena became one with the forest and walked barefoot most the way and helped me to not slide down the hills.
We finished our walk and realised we smelt really quite bad and had to go meet a film direstcor. We wandered around a little and bought some t-shirts and spray and wetwipes to clean up. I thinkw e done agood job. We then went to meet Mahinda ina new area to get a taxi to the directors house. It was a strange place we went to, near an army base so many white girls and boys. It was unnverving and I really didn't like it there. It was too.. western and I think I'm now prefering the company of Asian people. There were all Americanised stores and one even called, ENGLAND! It was really disturbing. We bought a cake for Lee Myung-se, the director and went to his office in a taxi. He was a very nice guy and smoked like a trouper. He made us a lot of black coffee and was great to interview, I felt very lucky to interview him and he made me realise that I should be doing film, that life is too short. I could relate to him very much and we got talking about Anime and Manga series. I told the girls that he was my temple, my church. I am in much awe of the man. I gave him my email and youtube address, I hope maybe he will contact me.
After the interview his producer and assistants joined us and we went to Myeongdong for dinner. We walked up a dingey alleyway and I was surprised at how cool the resturant was. I had three bowls of rice wine which is really nice and he was kind and ordered omlette, cucumber, fruit salad and tofu for me and Caroline. Everyone had a good laugh and we made jokes about Mahinda, calling him the monk paparazzi because he takes about a million or so photographs.
Anyway, logging off for now,
Angharad

Labels: bath spa university, buddhist, donguk university, free market, Lee Myung-Se, madu, mahinda, monk, mountain dew, seoul, shamanistic walk

Hiya,
So I'm feeling better since the last post, I guess it's because I came to the uni with host father and I had to wait 2 hours alone, making me mope over everything. The tube takes an hour and I have to walk through a big park to get to the metro. I then have to go up the steepest hill (I swear it's like pen-y-fan) before getting to uni. This nice young boy helped me in the uni today as he could see that I was quite upset. When it was lesson time, he got me to my class and explained I was late because I was very homesick. We had an orientation today and met our buddy. Ours is called Nancy and she likes to make jokes about our english. She taught me some words which I later found out mean 'stop staring at me' and 'please go away now'. We got our library cards and explored the campus abit. We then met up with Lucy and decieded it was ready for lunch. Seeing as me and Caroline didn't want Korean food we went to a baggette shop and bought 2 bagettes and a glaric bread. We sat down and ate before realising that the glaric bread actually had sugar on!! How weird is that? I just hear Peter Kay in my head going 'Garlic bread? glaric bread with sugar on? That's the future that is'. Apparently most savioury things are sweet and vise versa. They also don't really have sugar here by a syrup that you pour into the drink.
We then all sat down and had a very long meeting. We decieded to go to a spa on my birthday and a theme park for Carolines, I'm quite excited. I have everyones phone number and bought a new notepad for my lessons. We've decied to rent a mobile each to get hold of each other as we want to call and for emergencies. It's important because we all live so apart. We also discussed host families and I realised I'm lucky as I'm in a quite well off family as I sleep in a bed and get normal food like toast for the morning (poor caroline had fish bone soup this morning). At one point me and Caroline went to the toilet and this crazy woman kept shouting at us to try help give us directions, was crazy. We have loads of plans for the week though so it should keep us busy. Our main sheduale is 9.00-12.00 is lesson time, 12.00-12.30 is free time, 12.30-1.30 is lunch, 1.30-2.00 is meeting time and 2.00-6.00 is filimg and work and sightseeing. Time after that will probably be for dinner as we don't want to burdan host families too much.
After our very long meeting we met up with 4 previous Korean students who studied at Bath Spa and 3 students going to the UK to study there in September. Mahinda was very nice and treated all of us to food at a nice Korean resturant. I sat next to a girl who was very persistant on making sure I ate alot of pepper paste, it was hot. I had Bimbamba which was beans, egg, seaweed and rice. It was very strange and I mainly ate seaweed and rice. Caroline was lucky as she got a car and the host family took her home, dropping Helena on the way. Lucy and I walked to the station and caught the metro. I was quite confused at first and thought I was going the wrong way but I was alright and I worked it out. I managed to get a seat today but about halfway the tube stopped and everyone had to get off. A man tried to explain that the cleaners had to come on and we had to catch the next tube. I'm pretty sure if he wasn't there I'd be cleaning a tube right now!! I managed to get off okay and find my way home. I was abit nervous on the way as it was dark and I was walking alone in the park but I got home okay.
My host mother just made me ice cream and fruit with a smoothie drink and we all talked about our days. Brother (that's what I'm having to call him) has an exam on the 7th and he is nervous. If he passes he gets a new game for his DS, he is studying very hard. I explained today that I actually live in Wales. I had to draw a map and explain what it was like there. I also managed to try out some Korean on them, they seemed very impressed. Host father is still not home, he works long hours, 8.00am until 10.00pm. I'm thinking of a shower now as I am very hot and sticky. I've been told to avoid fan death today that I'm allowed to open the window, hallujah!
Logging off for now,
Angharad

Labels: bimbamba, crazy, england, fan death, fruit, garlic bread, ice cream, korea, library, madu, metro, wales

Hola,
Today has been pretty uneventful and I've packed all my stuff up. I'm really sad about it actually. I went to Myeong-Dong and bought this tee that I've had my eye on for a while, it's a designer one, BSX, a Korean brand but I really wanted it and i had my birthday money. On the way to a jewellery shop a guy grabbed me and told me how beautiful I was before teasing me about my eyes. I tried to use it to my advantage by getting a discount at his stall but it wasn't really happening.
I got the tube back and saw Korean boy who sometimes walks me to the flats.
On my way I took my chance to ask about western girls and Korean opinion on them. He said that we're pretty because of our white skin, it means that we were rich enough not to work in rice fields and get tanned. I laughed and explained that it was a good ting to be tanned in the UK as it shows you can afford to go abroad. Next he told me that we have wide eyes which is just a nicety. Also western girls have hourglass figures, or so I rather from the hand movements, Korean girls are straight. I told him that this was also funny as western girls seem to strive for a thin look, a more Korean figure and dress code. Finally he told me that my attention comes from looking Western but dressing Asian, looking like a young girl making me cute. I'm glad the flattery stopped there and was replaced by a chocolate bar. I'll be sad to leave my friend but I may email him to keep in contact.
I came in about 6ish and to my surprise the door went and everyone walked in. About five minutes later the doorbell went, Pizza Hut. They'd ordered a pizza with wedges on as a farewell meal. I was so excited, even more when I realised there was coke involved.
Overall it's been a good day, but I still don't want to go home.
Logging off for now,
Angharad

Labels: madu, orange line, pizza hut, seoul, western girl

Hi,
So last night when I left you I got talkikng with my host family. They asked me about m day so I told them about the folk village. Suddenly everyone disapeared and returned with huge books, photo albums. Apparently mother and fathers first date was at the folk village. They met in 1991 and where married in 1995. He proposed on her birthday and sent 100 red roses, it was really cute. Father takes alot of photos and many where of mother. After this album the wedding photos came out. They had three cermonies, one was more western with a big white dress and a suit. They got married at Lotte World which is like Disneyland, in the castle and the photos are adorable, she looks like a princess. The next was traditional in Korea and was done at the folk village, she was done up in Geisha-est makeup and clothes and hidden for the entire cermony. The last was a resgistars office where a suit and plain white dress were worn. The pictures are amazing and she looks so beautiful, it was breathtaking.
Next we had the honeymoon pictures where I saw a picture of father in a speedo, disturbing isn't even close to the word I have in mind. They went to Jujedo island which is really picture perfect, think Hawii style. Then we just had general photos and towards the end she pointed to her stomach and plainly said , 'baby'. Next we had the birth pictures, it was a little gross, not type the pictures we'd show in the UK if you get me and then really cute baby photos, brother is so adorable, I think I'm going to adopt an Korean child.
A few days after the birth, mother and father went to Japan for a holiday whilst brother was handed over to his aunty. I thought this was really shocking, and she just kinda popped him out an then went on vaccation, crazy.

Anywho, today was Carolines birthday so I got up and showered and stuff before munching my food eally quick and going to uni. On the way up I bought a chocolate cake and gave it to my father to hide in the office. I met Caz in the lecture and she thanked me. In her hands she had a package so I welcomed her and sat down. I asked where Helena was only to find out that she wasn't in. This confused me as Helena had the presents, so how did Caz have presents already? I looked over confused and realised that the presents were different to the ones that we'd bought, now I was trying to text Helena to try and find out what was going on.
Helena came in late and gave Caz her presents which confused Caz as she realised the things in front of her were not from us. She said that Mahinda had given them and we told her that we knew nothing about it. Nonetheless, Caz opened her stuff and was so excited. She read the card first and was questioning our mesages about loosing our souls to one of the presents. She rifled through them trying to see which one was the special one and squealed when she saw her braclet. I was so happy that she liked it, it was so hard to make (see post no. 32). Caz also loved her book which I then teased her about due to the fact she's bee trying to buy it for days only for Helena and myself to distract her.
Break time came and we bunked off to the computer room to update our friends and family on Korean life. Helena pretended to go back to lecture but snuck off to the western bar with the cake. We all met at 12 and got interiewed by the Keele Uni students who are also making a film. We all walked to the western bar and ordered Pizzas, they were lovely and had wedges on top. About halfway through Caz said she was full and Helena and I tried to keep her from eating anymore as we still had the cake. Unfortunately Caz forced it down, I was slightly worried as the cake needed to be eaten ASAP. We grabbed the plates and told Caz to watch out stuff as we sorted the cake out, however being nosy as ever she came to clear stuff away, making me shove her down the ramp. I think it was worth the pushing however and she was excited to see the cake. We all struggled to eat apiece and decieded it would go to a good home in the international office to be munched on.
I'll update later but,
Logging off for now,
Angharad

Labels: back in time post, birthday, korea, living, madu, paris baggette, party, seoul, students, tired, tried, wales

Hiya,
So was very tired and went to bed earlish after writing my blog. I got up and had a shower about 6ish and my breakfast at 7.15ish. Now inbetween the time I went into the bathroom and brushe dmy teeth, father had his brecfast, got dressed and put on his shoes and was calling me to hurry up. I'm not really sure how he manages to do it but one day I'll catch him out.
We got to class really early so I got us good seats. Luckily we could finish at 10.40 as it was Dongguk graduation for some of the monks and teachers. Because the weather was good and we were all feeling refreshed we decieded that today would be good to do the Inwangsan Shamanist Hillside Walk. Now, I really do hate Korea Sparkling because not only did it lie to me about Noodle X being open, but it also lied to me about it being a 'hillside'walk. First we had to get out of the tube station and walk up this really hard slope, then up this hill to the top where we met some Americans and chatted then up some steps, and that was just the beginning. We got lost and started chatting to a monk who let us go in the temple alone to film and take pictures as much as we wanted. We searched high and low for the Shamanistic icons but only found Buddhist ones until the last 5 minutes where we spotted the drawings in the corner. We then moved on up the mountain, yes mountain, to these rocks which apparently look like a monk praying. I couldn't see it but apparently it brings fertillity. I figured I'd get blessed ready for the future and I done my prayers. I done extra as it's more work to ask for a girl than a boy, it sucked and my legs hurt after a while. We filmed a little and realised that there was a monk sitting on top of the mountain. Stupidly we figured we could get to him, how wrong we were.
We passed the Shamanistic temple, which was closed to our dismay, and carried on up the rocks. We met the American couple and figured that if they were climbing the mountain, than we definately could. Helena was a tad nervous of heights so I went first, she as behind and the Caroline at the rear. It was at this point that we realised flip flops were not the best idea in the world. I tried to find logs and gap in the stones to climb up and we stopped at the highest point to drink the cleansing mountain water. I'm pretty sure we almost deprived the rest of Seoul water for that time as it was really nice and cold. We carried on through the mountain and then started our descent. This was easier said than done and the sweat was running down me. I was at the back this time due to not being confident with going downhill. Helena became one with the forest and walked barefoot most the way and helped me to not slide down the hills.
We finished our walk and realised we smelt really quite bad and had to go meet a film direstcor. We wandered around a little and bought some t-shirts and spray and wetwipes to clean up. I thinkw e done agood job. We then went to meet Mahinda ina new area to get a taxi to the directors house. It was a strange place we went to, near an army base so many white girls and boys. It was unnverving and I really didn't like it there. It was too.. western and I think I'm now prefering the company of Asian people. There were all Americanised stores and one even called, ENGLAND! It was really disturbing. We bought a cake for Lee Myung-se, the director and went to his office in a taxi. He was a very nice guy and smoked like a trouper. He made us a lot of black coffee and was great to interview, I felt very lucky to interview him and he made me realise that I should be doing film, that life is too short. I could relate to him very much and we got talking about Anime and Manga series. I told the girls that he was my temple, my church. I am in much awe of the man. I gave him my email and youtube address, I hope maybe he will contact me.
After the interview his producer and assistants joined us and we went to Myeongdong for dinner. We walked up a dingey alleyway and I was surprised at how cool the resturant was. I had three bowls of rice wine which is really nice and he was kind and ordered omlette, cucumber, fruit salad and tofu for me and Caroline. Everyone had a good laugh and we made jokes about Mahinda, calling him the monk paparazzi because he takes about a million or so photographs.
Anyway, logging off for now,
Angharad

Labels: bath spa university, buddhist, donguk university, free market, Lee Myung-Se, madu, mahinda, monk, mountain dew, seoul, shamanistic walk

Hiya,
So I'm feeling better since the last post, I guess it's because I came to the uni with host father and I had to wait 2 hours alone, making me mope over everything. The tube takes an hour and I have to walk through a big park to get to the metro. I then have to go up the steepest hill (I swear it's like pen-y-fan) before getting to uni. This nice young boy helped me in the uni today as he could see that I was quite upset. When it was lesson time, he got me to my class and explained I was late because I was very homesick. We had an orientation today and met our buddy. Ours is called Nancy and she likes to make jokes about our english. She taught me some words which I later found out mean 'stop staring at me' and 'please go away now'. We got our library cards and explored the campus abit. We then met up with Lucy and decieded it was ready for lunch. Seeing as me and Caroline didn't want Korean food we went to a baggette shop and bought 2 bagettes and a glaric bread. We sat down and ate before realising that the glaric bread actually had sugar on!! How weird is that? I just hear Peter Kay in my head going 'Garlic bread? glaric bread with sugar on? That's the future that is'. Apparently most savioury things are sweet and vise versa. They also don't really have sugar here by a syrup that you pour into the drink.
We then all sat down and had a very long meeting. We decieded to go to a spa on my birthday and a theme park for Carolines, I'm quite excited. I have everyones phone number and bought a new notepad for my lessons. We've decied to rent a mobile each to get hold of each other as we want to call and for emergencies. It's important because we all live so apart. We also discussed host families and I realised I'm lucky as I'm in a quite well off family as I sleep in a bed and get normal food like toast for the morning (poor caroline had fish bone soup this morning). At one point me and Caroline went to the toilet and this crazy woman kept shouting at us to try help give us directions, was crazy. We have loads of plans for the week though so it should keep us busy. Our main sheduale is 9.00-12.00 is lesson time, 12.00-12.30 is free time, 12.30-1.30 is lunch, 1.30-2.00 is meeting time and 2.00-6.00 is filimg and work and sightseeing. Time after that will probably be for dinner as we don't want to burdan host families too much.
After our very long meeting we met up with 4 previous Korean students who studied at Bath Spa and 3 students going to the UK to study there in September. Mahinda was very nice and treated all of us to food at a nice Korean resturant. I sat next to a girl who was very persistant on making sure I ate alot of pepper paste, it was hot. I had Bimbamba which was beans, egg, seaweed and rice. It was very strange and I mainly ate seaweed and rice. Caroline was lucky as she got a car and the host family took her home, dropping Helena on the way. Lucy and I walked to the station and caught the metro. I was quite confused at first and thought I was going the wrong way but I was alright and I worked it out. I managed to get a seat today but about halfway the tube stopped and everyone had to get off. A man tried to explain that the cleaners had to come on and we had to catch the next tube. I'm pretty sure if he wasn't there I'd be cleaning a tube right now!! I managed to get off okay and find my way home. I was abit nervous on the way as it was dark and I was walking alone in the park but I got home okay.
My host mother just made me ice cream and fruit with a smoothie drink and we all talked about our days. Brother (that's what I'm having to call him) has an exam on the 7th and he is nervous. If he passes he gets a new game for his DS, he is studying very hard. I explained today that I actually live in Wales. I had to draw a map and explain what it was like there. I also managed to try out some Korean on them, they seemed very impressed. Host father is still not home, he works long hours, 8.00am until 10.00pm. I'm thinking of a shower now as I am very hot and sticky. I've been told to avoid fan death today that I'm allowed to open the window, hallujah!
Logging off for now,
Angharad

Labels: bimbamba, crazy, england, fan death, fruit, garlic bread, ice cream, korea, library, madu, metro, wales