One fine "lesson"... and going out with a (norae)bang!

So, this is it. The last week. The home stretch. It feels so WEIRD thinking that this time next week I'll be on a plane heading back to sunny old (*cough*) London. How can NINE WEEKS go so quickly? It's ridiculous! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to going home, but that's not any slight on Korea's awesomeness - psychologically, I'm just ready. I came here knowing that September would be when I was going home, so, in my mind, September's always been the finish line ...and, of course, I'm actually just rather looking forward to being home for home's sake!

Not that that's going to stop me savouring my last week! So, with that in mind, I decided to ditch the classroom for my last lesson with Ha Young (my conversational English student) and have a field trip instead! First stop was the National Museum of Korea. Now, this is usually the point where you'd get some flashy, probably weird-angled photograph with an impressively witty caption, but, if I'm honest, there was fuck all worth photographing. No, I'm not demeaning Korean history (I'm working as a history TEACHER, for goodness sake!), but even I find it hard to get excited over rocks in boxes. Because that's exactly what it was. Rocks. In boxes. Not even special shaped rocks, or rocks that can do tricks, just plain old rocks. I don't care if they're older than time itself. THE'YRE JUST ROCKS. *YAWN*

Luckily, Ha Young shared my lack of enthusiasm, which was good, because I could drop the facade of being interested in rocks in boxes and admit that I was slowly coming round to the idea of breaking a bone just to get out of that place. So, next stop was the mildly more interesting Kimchi Museum at COEX:

...now I'm sure you don't need me to explain to you that posing with kimchi-wielding mannaquins wins over rocks in boxes any day. But, sadly, this was about the height of the Kimchi Museum. I don't even know who thought it'd be a good idea to give it the misleading label of a "museum". It was literally just a handful of rooms with a few models of kimchi in. But still, compared to the National Museum of Korea, those few rooms were a sanctuary. And at least the subject matter was interesting.

Having been well and truly museum'd to the eyeballs, I needed an injection of fun. So, milking the "it's our last lesson, we've got to do something fun!" motto for all it was worth, I somehow managed to get away with moving the "lesson" to COEX's Board Game Cafe. What's more, I was being paid for it. Geinus.

Okay, now while the title "Board Game Cafe" is, I'm sure, pretty self-explanatory, I'm going to explain it anyway. Basically, it's a cafe where, alongside the drinks menu, you get another (gigantic) menu... OF BOARD GAMES. Thereafter, you get charged by the hour, and can "order" as many board games to play - one at a time - as you want. A simple yelp will bring the waiter scurrying over with your next board game of choice and, if you ask politely, he'll even set it up for you and explain the rules. And it doesn't end there. You even get supplied with a nifty little rubber hammer, the purpose of which I was not entirely sure, but which the girl on the table next to us seemed to be using to beat her boyfriend into oblivion every time he came close to choosing a good block in Jenga. Needless to say, that Jenga tower didn't stand a chance. But really, this is why Korean kids aren't knife-wielding lunatics. They have noraebang, they have board game cafes: all good, cheap fun with your friends. And I'm not lying, it really is fun!

So, of course, we had to start our two hours of board-game playing with at least a thin veil of intellectualism. So Scrabble it was. By the end though, the pretence was lost and we were playing some strange Korean game which I think had something to do with making animals out of clay. I have no idea. But it was still hilarious.

After literally my most enjoyable "lesson" thus far as a teacher in Korea, it was time to venture out once again with Willow and Linda to... yup, you guessed it, NORAEBANG.

Now, bearing in mind that this may well have been my last noraebang, I intended to, quite literally, go out with a bang. So, when the Britney came on...

...there was literally nothing that was going to stop me from getting a perfect score. And it didn't even matter when Linda temporarily broke the screen during Kelly Clarkson. I'm not going to lie. I know all the words. Other highlights include Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You", Shakira's "Objection", yet more Britney ("Womanizer", "Everytime", "Gimme More") and an awesome rendition of The Cardigans' "Lovefool". So, if you want to take me on at noraebang, all I'll say is this: come prepared! :D ...and if Alicia Keys is your thing, you won't want to face off against Linda - she does a mean "You Don't Know My Name" and has got the dialogue interlude down to a tee. I actually wet myself a little bit when I heard it.

P.s. - BREAKING NEWS! Me and Merv - in typical "us" fashion - have booked a last minute trip to Jeju-do for our final weekend in South Korea! Now, if you're thinking that that sounds like a funny name for a place, then it might help to know that "do" is simply Korean for "island", so the English would just be "Jeju Island". With that very taxing Korean translated, you're probably wondering where the hell this mystery island is! Well...here's a map!

So, that's Jeju-do. The tiny little bean-shaped island right to the south of South Korea, which is apparently a favourite holiday-sport for Koreans! So, teaching finishes on Friday, and we're flying out from Gimpo Airport on Sunday morning (which should give us enough time for one final celebration in Seoul on Friday night, as well as what I'm sure will be some much-needed post-celebration recovery time on Saturday!) and then getting our flight back from Jeju-do to Seoul on Tuesday evening, ready for the big trip home the next day. ...got to squeeze the last few dregs out of what South Korea has to offer before it's back to the normal life!

...whoever said the food in Seoul was a load of old shit had clearly eaten at this place...

*FAIL*

Sleepless in Seoul: one night in Hongdae and a visit to the DMZ

Aaaah, it's getting to that stage where everything's mentally winding down as I near the final stretch of my stay in Korea. Not that that means anything's getting less hectic - on the contrary, with such little time left, I've been injected with a whole new feeling of immediacy to make sure I get everything left that I want to do done before September rolls around! ...and that may well explain why I ONLY GOT 1.5 HOURS OF SLEEP LAST NIGHT! ARRRRRGH!

It's about time we experienced a Hongdae night out, so last night served as my initiation! We met up with Willow (from Busan) again, and a friend of a friend of Mervyn's from home (Sarah) and got our groovy things down to the Hongik University Area to lap up everything on offer. Linda (also from Busan, remember?) was meant to be coming too, but had to pull out because of a dentist appointment at the last minute! ...FAIL.

Merv, Willow, Me and Sarah

Sleeping on the street? ...POSE!

Anyways, we managed to find a really funky lil' club called "Jane's Groove", which was banging out loads of awesome English tunes (P!nk, MJ... even that "dragostea din tei" song which was big a few years ago!), as well as the standard K-Pop win. Now, I know it's old, but I'm still a MASSIVE FAN of Suju's "Sorry Sorry"... SUCH a tune! Check it out:

...and, of course, we had to join eveyone else in doing the funky lil' crossed-arms Suju dance when it came on! English pop really needs to catch on to the whole gimmicky dance routine craze! It seems like every other song here has one! ...there's "Sorry Sorry", "Tell Me" (Wondergirls), "Abrcadabra" (Brown Eyed Girls)...just to name a few off the top of my head! And what's more is, you can guarantee that eveyone under a certain age will know them all and be able to perform them when the music comes on... it's awesome! :P

So, the night was flowing away as we hopped from club to club until a time-check from Willow revealed that it was 4AM. Now, usually, that'd be nothing of note. But when you've booked a tour of the DMZ the next day, startin at 7AM (which means you'll have to be up at 6AM), the panic starts to set in! So from there, we rushed home, and I managed to get to bed by 4.30AM, totalling a glorious one and a half hours' worth of sleep. FAIL. I guess it means Merv can be given for the following poor display on the coach up to the DMZ though... (hahaha, sorry, dude!):


Anyway, with no choice, off to the DMZ at 7AM it was. Now, in case you're wondering, the DMZ is the Demilitarised Zone: basically the Northernmost part of South Korea representing the border with North Korea. Cameras were restricted in most parts of the DMZ, and it generally seemed to be a sensible idea not to step out of line, considering that a South Korean woman found herself shot dead by a North Korean soldier last year (okay, not at the DMZ itself, but at the one part of North Korea to which South Koreans are permitted entry as tourists: Diamond Mountain), and there were armed military personnel staged all over the shop. I'd rather stay in one piece for the sake of a handful fewer FaceBook photos, thanks! Also, we received a warning before setting off about unexploded land mines left over from the Korean War - and that if you heard a click under your feet when you were walking, you should stop moving immediately - not to mention that everything seemed to be shrouded in barbed-wire fences - all very reassuring...

We also got to take a trip underground to the Third Tunnel of Aggression, which is a tunnel leading under the North-South border and is supposedly one of sixteen dug by the North in an attempt to stage a surprise attack on the South. Again, photos were restricted, so I'm going to have to let Google Image do the talking. The wak down was actually quite funny – we were all provided with hard hats, because the tunnel is so cavernous and the roof is so low in places – and every now and then you’d hear a small *BOP* followed by a yelp as another person smacked their head on the tunnel roof. I lost count of the number times I did, being the lanky twit that I am!

After that, we tripped over to Dorasan Station, which is the northernmost train station in South Korea, from which you can actually get the train to Pyeongyang, the North Korean capital. Obviously it’s not just as easy as hopping on board and setting off, however, and entry is clearly severely restricted. Furthermore, like I mentioned before, even if a South Korean citizen manages to get onto such a train, they're only permitted to one tourist destination: Diamond Mountain. Nevertheless, a shameless tourist photo opportunity was provided:

Finally, we ended up at the Dora Observatory, where you can look across the border (using telescope-thingies) into North Korea.

The most overwhelming emotion I got from the place was one of sorrow rather than danger. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there was a definite sense of tension in the air, what with all the armed soldiers, barbed wire and heavy restrictions on where you can and can’t take photos, what you can and can’t wear, etc. (hence why I’m decked out in a shirt and trousers in the above photo!), but I felt more sad for the fact that this is how things have gotten, rather than scared of what it might mean for me, especially considering that, up until the past few years, there seemed to be a renewed hope of improved relations with the North. One plaque next to the Peace Bell Monument (pictured) read:

“As we bid farewell to the 20th Century in which we witnessed the division of the Korean Peninsula, we welcome the 21st Century as a time of reunification and peace for all mankind. It is here at the point that marks the division of North and South that the hopes and prayers of 9 million Kyonggi citizens come together in the erection of the Peace Bell Monument.”

Clearly, just from the way the DMZ was presented to us, and from the way I've heard South Koreans talk in everyday conversation, there’s still an undeniable (and understandable) bitterness towards the North, but at the same time, for many people, that seems to be underlined with a genuine hope for reunification in the future. I just think it’s so sad. On a personal level, one of my students told me that her father hasn’t seen his parents since for as long as she can remember, since they’re in the North (where no entry to the South whatsoever is permitted, not even for the same single tourist-purpose as in the South). I just don't see anything changing for the better in the foreseeable future - the division's been in place for so long now, and, psychologically, it's just so ingrained... but I guess there's always hope; who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Let's learn hangul...!

Okay, so no rewards for timing, considering that I'm leaving in under two weeks, but I've started attempting to get at least a basic grip on the Korean alphabet! It's actually not that hard, since it's entirely phonetic. So, to write a word, you just have to break it down into each syllable, and then find the write consonant + vowel pairing to make the right sound for each syllable - then stick all the syllables together and you have a word! (In other words, you can tell how many syllables there are in a Korean word by counting the number of hangul!) The basic alphabet is pretty tiny!

The hard bit comes with knowing which hangul to put together to make each syllable and how to put them together. Every syllable has to start with a consonant (not necessarily an English consonant), and every syllable is made up of at least one consonant and one vowel. So basically, you start with a consonant, then just add a vowel to it and any another vowel/consonant sound needed to complete the syllable!

Since my name isn't Korean, when you put it into Korean, even though it's one syllable (James), it still gets broken down into multiple hangul to represet the sound. So, my name, James, becomes: "jay-eem-suh". Written in hangul, that's:

1. ㅈ + ㅔ= 제
   
   (j) + (ay) = jay
   

2. ㅇ + ㅣ+ ㅁ = 임
   
   (eh) + (ee) + (muh) = eem
   
   
3. ㅅ + ㅡ = 스
   
   (s) + (uh) = suh
   

So, if you stick all those bits together, you get my name: 제임스!

Korean words are easier to write, since, like I said, the number of syllables will be exactly the same as the number of hangul (and you can't always exactly replicate Western sounds using hangul), but obviously I had to teach you the most important word first!

Anyway, just as an example, here's an easy Korean word: gimchi. So, all you have to do is break it down into its syllables, "gim" + "chi", find the right consonant/vowel pairings for each syllable, then stick it all together! Behold:

1. ㄱ + ㅣ + ㅁ = 김
   
   (guh) + (ee) + (muh) = gim
   

2. ㅊ + ㅣ= 치
   
   (ch) + (ee) = chi
   

So, gimchi is 김치 - see how it's much easier with actual Korean words rather than Western ones? Not only are the sounds easier to make, but there are as many hangul as syllables. Not that it's easy... XD I still struggle with knowing how each syllable should look once the consonant(s) and vowel(s) are slotted together, and that's assuming I can even identify the right hangul to put together in the first place! And getting the right sound is trickier than you might think, since Koreans don't distinguish beteween "r" and "l" (so English words like "particularly" come out as "particurarry"), "b" and "p", and "g" and "k" in the same way that English people do (hence why "gimchi" is pronounced "kimchi" but written with a "g").

...and this, of course, only gets the sound - there's still the somewhat important issue of learning the actual vocabulary and then the teensy weensy grammar points to go with it! *cough* ...apparently Korean grammar is a trashy BITCH. Stiiiiiill, it's fun, riiiiight?! ;)

Anyway, this bloggishly-uncharacteristic lapse into intellectualism was inspired by one of my students, Jisoo, who, for the last thirty minutes of our final lesson on Wednesday, took on the role of my very own Korean teacher!

...now, don't get the wrong impression of me as a teacher - my lessons aren't usually characteristed by such role-reversals, but this was Jisoo's last lesson after six weeks, and she had given me a really sweet leaving gift...! :D (In case you're wondering, it's a traditional Korean souvenir box, made from shells! n_n).

What can I say? Clearly my teaching is of a world-class enough standard that my students feel compelled to shower me with trinkets! Blame me, not them! ;) (P.s. if you're reading this - yes YOU, the ugly one! - please comment! I know it's a shamelessly desperate shout out to space, but when the writing's this good, you've got to give something back, no? ...it goes against the very principle on which this blog was established, but just one comment would be nice! So, as a bit of an incentive, and to help me practise my Korean, the first person to comment will get their name written in hangul on my next post! So, c'mon! Follow the Jisoo example!).

EDIT: Right, here you go, Chris, here's my very poor attempt at writing your name in hangul.

Christopher:

1. ㅋ + ㅡ + ㄹ= 클
   (k) + (uh) + (rr) = kur
   
2. ㅇ + ㅣ+ ㅅ = 일
   (ee) + (ss) = iss
   
3. ㅌ +ㅡ = 트
   (t) + (uh) = tuh
   
4. ㅍ+ㅡ = 프
   (p) + (uh) = puh

So, Christopher would be written as:

클일트프

Just to note, the Koreans don't have an "f" sound, but instead use "p" - there isn't that much difference when you say it quickly, but Christopher is more likely to be rendered "Christoper" in Korean.

Also, note on the second one (일), we needed to make an "iss" sound, but, at the same time, maintain the rule of always starting with a consonant. So, for that purpose, there's the ubiquitous "ㅇ", which is a consonant, but when put it on top and pair it with a vowel, as we did here, it doesn't get pronounced. So that's how you make syllables which start with a vowel sound! Also, just as final point, be aware that that's only when "ㅇ" is on top, when it's on the bottom (LOL), it makes a kind of "ng" sound (e.g. "ung", "ang", etc.).

Okay, so my take on the rest of your name was:

1. Martin: 마틴
   (mah-teen)
2. Jing (pronounced "ging"): 깅
   (geeng)
3. Zhi: 지
   (jee)
4. Huang: 흐우앙
   (huh-uu-ang)

*PHEW* Why couldn't someone with a nice Korean name post on my blog?! XD Hehe, anyway a few things to note again: Koreans don't have a "z" sound, and instead use "j" (so "zhee" would be more like "jee") - also, the "w" sound (in "hwang") is made by combining vowels, so, in this case, you add ᅮ ("uu") and ᅡ ("ah") to get "uuah" which is as close as Korean gets to "wah".

So, putting it altogether, we have:

클일트프 마틴 깅 지 흐우앙

...I'd be interested to learn how much of that is actually right! XD

STOP PRESS: ICE CREAM FONDUE!

...literally perfect (except for the tomatoes! Ick! XD).

The Weekend Escape to Busan

Okay, I can honestly say that I'm happy that we were abandoned by Boug/Bong after all! If we hadn't have been, we wouldn't have gone to Busan and had the most AMAZING weekend!

So, we rocked up to Seoul Station at 7am to get the KTX (bullet train) to Busan, which gets you right to the other end of the country in just three hours. We ended up having to jump on first class (look at me complaining - sheesh, talk about Poor Little Rich Kid! XD), since all the regular seats were taken as we'd left it so late! But that was actually pretty sweet, and we were 200 miles away in Busan by 10.30!

We'd manage to secure a place at a hostel not far from the station the night before - £8 a night for a pretty decent place!

Indisputably the best part about the hostel though was the fact that, because we were living communally, we got to meet loads of other people from all over the globe who were travelling South Korea too! We were staying with Willow (from the US) and Linda (half Korean/half Australian), both English teachers in Seoul who'd escaped to Busan for the weekend like us, as well as Frederick (French) and Alex (English), who had both reached Busan during their own lone travels of Asia! It was really cool getting to meet them all - but... more on THAT later!

So, as soon as we'd arrived in Busan, and before we'd been lucky enough to met all of these crazy globe-trotters, we made the typical tourist beach to Haeundae Beach. Now, despite the fact that Haeundae is the title and setting of an apocalyptic "Day After Tomorrow" style move just recently released over here (check out the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZql4G_eno), luckily, we didn't see any tsunamis or wanton-destruction, just an endless stretch of sun, sea, parasols... and MORE PARASOLS.

Literally, have you ever seen so many parasols in your LIFE?! NO, you haven't! Apparently, it's quite popular (or VERY popular, if the above picture is anything to go by) for people to go the beach but not want to tan. I spoke to one of my students, and she said that people her age don't mind tanning, but others have told me that being pale is more "in", kind of like a reverse Western logic... conflicting stories! Either way, there were A LOT of parasols. Another funny thing was the fact that there were loads of people patrolling the beach SELLING MEXICAN CHICKEN! ...umm, WHAT?! Surely when it's as hot as it is in Busan (and in Busan, it's HOT), you want something to cool you down like an ice cream or a bottle of water? ...not FLAMING HOT MEXICAN CHICKEN! Straaange...!

Anyway, the beach was so big that we eventually managed to find a more tranquil area, where we could just sit with our toes in the sea and relax in the sun, diving under the cover of our own parasol every now and then just to ensure we weren't fried like the Mexican chicken that everyone else was scoffing down.


...the picture probably does all the talking, but, in case you're blind or just stupid (XD), it was AWESOME, and made such a difference from the hustly bustly city life of Seoul. I love that about South Korea: the fact that it's just so diverse a country. You can have breakfast in the city in the morning, hope on the KTX and go to a stunning beach like Haeundae for the afternoon, then hit the nightlife big-style in the evening!

...which is EXACTLY WHAT WE DID! It was when we returned from Haeundae in the early evening that we met Willow, Linda and Frederick, and, after quickly hitting it off, we all headed out to check out Busan's nightlife. Willow had been told about a club called "The Velvet Banana" by one of her friends back in Seoul, so that was our first stop of the night (well, after we stopped off at a bar conspicuously named "50 Cent", but the less said about that the better! XD). So, we rocked up to The Velvet Banana at midnight and...


...IT WAS COMPLETELY EFFING EMPTY. On the plus side, they were playing Miley Cyrus (:D!), but I seemed to be the only one who appreciated that fact. Nevertheless, we took advantage of the free drinks on offer, and by the time we'd chilled out a bit, it had started to full up, so me, Willow and Linds took to the dancefloor. Well, actually, we took to the STAGE - some guys on the dancefloor were doing a synchronised dance routine (you don't get THAT in England!) and we had to outdo them somehow, so we hopped on the stage and started struting our stuff! Needless to say, we won the Dance War! (We even got some claps for our moves! XD).

A shout-out must also go to the random Korean girls who jumped in our picture above. LEGENDARY.

So, after we'd completely demolished The Velvet Banana with our stage dance moves, we hopped in a taxi and headed to another club ... and if we'd been disappointed with how empty The Banana had been, then this club (...I can't remember what it was called! :S) was the answer to our prayers!

Now, two clubs and six hours later, we were all struggling to keep going (bearing in mind that I'd got up at 6AM in the morning and had little over FIVE HOURS sleep!), so after a second round of showing the Koreans what we had to offer on the dancefloor, we headed back to Haeundae Beach to lap up the nighttime scenery. Sadly, the camera couldn't do justice to the BEAUTY of Haeundae at night, but, trust me, it was GORGEOUS, and so much fun just sitting there and chilling out of the pure HEAT of the last club.


So, by the time we'd reached 5 in the morning, and impulsively decided it'd be good to look for a DVDbang. Remember the whole "bang" craze? ...DVDbang's just basically a room where you can chill out and watch the latest filmsexcept, as I've recently discovered, it's SO MUCH MORE than that. Yes, a DVDbang isn't just for film-watching, it's for sleazy, make-out film watching. The stories say that the sofas are covered in cellophane and that there's a customary box of tissues in every room. In other words, PURE SLEAZE. Of course, having discussed the trashiness of DVDbangs, we wanted to experience it for ourselves! So there we were, at 5AM in the morning, traipsing the streets of Busan looking for a dirty DVDbang. ...sadly our prayers were not answered and we didn't get a chance to experience the sleaze for ourselves - don't worry though, I've still got two weeks here! Mwahaha! XD

...okay, so that was our first (eventful!) day in Busan. Next came Day Two, when we made a trek to Beyonce Temple. Okay, it's not actually called that, it's called Beomeosa Temple, but that's not as fun, right? So, Beyonce it was!




Now, Beyonce was definitely much more of an exhibitionist than her Seoul-counterparts! I had thought that Gyeonbokgung in Seoul couldn't be topped, but Beyonce definitely gets the prize of being the best temple I've visited so far! Mainly because she's in the middle of the mountains, as opposed to all of the Seoul temples, which are all on the ground level amongst all the other city buildings. So while Seoul perhaps offers a better clash of old and new, Beyonce definitely wins on the natural, unspoilt scenery factor.

At one point, I actually thought I heard people praying to the tune of "Single Ladies", okay, so it wasn't, but there was a definite resemblance! Hahaha. Oh, and there was also a stand giving out free tea, which was OLDER THAN ME! It had been brewing for TWENTY YEARS - that's crazy! Definitely made me feel like a baby amongst all this history, and yet another example of the awesome diversity of Korea (soju in a club by night, twenty-year old tea in a mountain temple by day!).

So that was our second day - sadly we weren't able to spend longer in Busan, since teaching carries on as normal during the week, but, as weekends go, we had an AMAZING time! ...strangely enough, being in Busan actually made me miss Seoul! I guess I just feel settled in Seoul now! That being said, I'm glad I seized the opportunity to see more of the country outside of Seoul - I would've hated to have gone home having only spent my time in one city, and, as you can see for yourself, it was such an awesome experience!

Anyway, in the unlikely event that you've bothered to read this far, well done! Have a cookie! n_n

Tteokkboki on Chicken Day? Oops...!

So, one of my students turned up today and old me that she'd slept so much yesterday that she'd ended up having no lunch or dinner, and had had no breakfast this morning either! (*PRIORITY FAIL*). I promptly told her to sort her life out and GO AND GET SOME FOOD! So she popped off and came back armed with some tteokkboki (Korean rice cakes) and sundae (sadly, if you come to Korea and order sundae, you won't be getting any ice-cream, but pig's liver sausages instead - hmm, I think I'll take the Western option on that one! xD) and we had a mid-class feast! Mmmm! Now, don't you wish that you had a cool teacher like me? ;P

...okay, so without questioning my coolness as a teacher, if we were going to be really Korean about it, we probably should've had some chicken instead. Why? Well, firstly, chicken doesn't want to make me barf like the thought of eating pig's liver does, but, perhaps more interestingly, during the month of August, Koreans celebrate "Chicken Day" three times: basically just a day where everyone (prepare to be shocked! *drum roll*) eats chicken for the day! (Now, you didn't see that one coming did you?). It'll usually be samgyetang - remember what I had at Eun Hye's restaurant before? It's that delicious rice-stuffed chicken jigae (soup), and the reason it's so popular in August is because it's meant to be a good way of getting protein and nutrients to, as Wiki puts it, "[replace] those lost through excessive sweating and physical exertion during the hot summers in Korea." So it's delicious, won't make you want to hurl AND will keep you pumped for the muggy Korean summer! Cleverrrr!

EDIT: Okay, so Boug (or "Bong", which is apparently his actual name) has gone from hero to ZERO. Just as we were getting ridiculously pumped to set off camping, we get a text saying that apparently his crew were too noisy at the campsite and have had to leave, meaning THE CAMPING TRIP HAS BEEN CANCELLED. EPIC FAIL. I'm effing GUTTED - grrrr! Guess I shouldn't have expected TOO much from someone named Bong! xD Nahh, I can't really blame him, I was just really looking forward to it! ;_; But, every cloud has a silver lining and all that, so, down but not out, me and Merv booked a spontaneous trip to Busan instead! How excitiiiiing! :D We're setting off at 6 tomorrow morning (so much for weekend lie-ins!) and have sorted out a room at a local hostel for Saturday night, so be prepared for the story of my weekend in Busan when I get back! :DDDD