The new housemate

OK, so I have a new housemate, it is a kind of long term rabbit sitting task for my friend Immi.

Mr Noodles is a cool guy, he appreciates beer, cucumber and good music, I also have found that he is quite partial to watching Alan Partridge and Have I got News for you. We spend our time chilling out, he has a bit of confusion over language, I have found he understands English, Korean, as well as a few words in French and Dutch. Though where his knowledge of the latter two comes from I am not sure. Today we have been chilling out listening to music and studying, but he is a bit 날라리 (a lazy bad student) and can't focus on the books for long. Here are a few pictures so you can make your introductions, though I don't think he is very interested in travel, as I have found with many Korean inhabitants he is afraid of the outside world, of it's dangers, diseases, and cultural differences.

Daily life; procrastinating and enjoying my free time

OK, so since I arrived back from Thailand I have been attempting to spend my time in slightly different ways. I have been broadening my horizons and visiting some great places, as well as filling in some of the gaps in my experience here.

The weekend after arriving we spent a weekend messing about, through a combination of night times in the Park, Jim Chil Bangs and Baseball. The weekend was awesome and really chilled, though the going out on Sundays leaves Mondays very tiring indeed.

The weeks seem to follow the usual form, I mix my time doing marginal amounts of language study, writing and seeing friends, I have a good time with this, I have met many open minded, free thinking intelligent people here and that suits me down to the ground, not only do people intrigue me with their own stories and ideas but they are also great platforms for bouncing my own ideas off of, this might be a selfish motivation for social interaction, but it suits me fine. I find writing to be a strange kind of hobby, and I certainly understand the idea of writers block, it seems when I have ideas I can in no way write them down fast enough, and at other times I literally can't write my name. Korea is a truly energetic place, I find I can do many things without having to give myself the kick up the arse for enthusiasm which I do in other places, though my thoughts and behaviour are all over the place, so I think this is a time for pure experience, and on reflection I will be able to better articulate what and how I feel.

On Saturday I spent my morning at one of the Palace here, Gyeongbokung, it was beautiful and for the first time in a couple of months the humidity took a short break, making the tour a little less sweaty. I managed to take some cool pictures, and more importantly sit back and take a rest for reflection. The main issue with having a good social life and a job teaching language is that you get very little time to be silent and to spend time with your own thoughts. The palace is a great complex of small palace buildings which were home to the Joeson Kings of Korea, despite their relative grandeur to the rest of Korea, if considering these buildings by European standards, for a Royal complex this place is relatively humble, yet beautifully serene. I would say that they are a must see place when visiting the region, simply to relax and enjoy, before hitting the madness of modern Korean culture.

After the palace I went to the horse races, not really my thing, but it was amusing to see how gambling has these ridiculous Ora of seriousness all over the world.

Saturday night was again spent in the Park in Hongdae. It was chilled out and I spent most of my time with new people, namely a French guy named Olivier and a Korean Girl named Jo. It was good to spend time with randoms, and the place certainly had a chilled out bohemian vibe, the range of music and nationalities of people helps. With a mixture of random events, odd conversations and interesting people it was a successful night. It was also great to hear the adventures and thoughts of many new people. The night ended with a bit of time spent by the Han river which produces excellent views in the lights of dawn. I'm really not looking forward to the freezing temperatures of Winter.

And so it is back to work again after another weekend of adventures and debauchery. Keep it foolish...

Thailand

OK, so here's how it went. I finished work at 9.30 on the 28th of July, I flew at 8am on the 29th, arrived in Bangkok at 6pm, took the bus to the railway station, jumped on a night train, jumped on a morning bus, jumped on a morning boat, and finally arrived in Koh Pangan at 2pm. No sleep, aeroplane food, and many odd conversations after a day at work and I was on one of the world's premier party island, and I was knackered.

I contacted Eunyoung and James only to find that I had overtaken them, they were in Koh Tao. We met 5 hours later, I spent the time in between talking to some guys who have lived on the Island for years, they were married and seemed to live off of the backs of their Thai-wives hard work.

James and Eunyoung's arrival was great, was cool to see them and great to meet their new friend Louis from Belgium, he is a top guy.

The first day we went to the 'Half-moon' party, it was an experience but really not my thing, and to be honest the 40 hours without sleep did not help. Still it was a great night and involved much moving around the Island, I was pleasantly surprised by the Island's beauty and the abundance of space, the Party areas really were restricted to a few places, so you could get away.

The next day was fun filled and sorrow filled, we borrowed mopeds and headed around the island, this involved a lot of dodgy off road driving and lots of stops in great places. Not long after our stops we came into trouble, firstly with Louis and Eunyoung coming off in the sand, and shortly behind them James and I did the same, just hitting potholes and falling off, and few scratches on us, but more on the bike, safe to say this was an expensive day on motorbikes, still it was fun. Though I will never borrow a bike from uptight tossers again, it's India all the way for motorbike riding.

The rest of my holiday was great, it was very chilled and I did very litte, the Islands were beautiful, the weather hot, and the ocean warm, it was a vacation to remember, and luckily for me not too much of an adventure, because if it had been there is no way I would have come back, despite my affection for Korea.

The times were good, the people great and the weather fantastic.