A little surprise

So this particular surprise was tehnically spoilt by herself ....
however this particular surprise involved a series of notes ...( a LOT of notes) that she had written to keep me company until we see each other again.

I had instructions that i was to read 3 a week, Wed Fri and Sunday over every week until we saw each other once more.

So here is the lovely silvery package i received... on a Tuesday i believe it was.....




and here are the phenomenal multitude of notes that she hand wrote for me.....



and the card was for our 18 months Monthiversay :)


THank you :)

BIG BIG BGI HUGS for you :)

1.5 years, 18 Months, many weeks, and many many more days.....

To my girl...

There have been many many highs.

And many lows

But we have made it this far

Not without sadness, and not without tears

But together we are still.....

After these one and a half years


There are more difficult times ahead...

But there's also plenty more time to have good ones too

:)

Be strong :)

let us both be strong so that we can see this through.. together....




and THANK YOU for being so strong thus far... for holding us together when i had almost given up... thank you for fighting to hold us together still...


thank you for 18 months :)

thank you.....

2008 Seoul Drum Festival. (4-10-08) *updated*

Just some Vids from the 2008 Seoul Drum Festival :) all acts were excellent :)

the kid in the band with the red drums... he's 11... the band's from Japan... see if you can figure out what's the first song they're playing.. it's an AWESOME rendition of it.... it's the 7ths one down...


***okay now i have ALL of the videos on :) i actually ran out of memory that night much to my dismay.... right at the end where this psycho drum player was getting the crowd to chant "tae han min guk" (south korea's official name) with the drums.. was seriously cool!! ****

Gangnam day out.

So it's been a while since i've blogged about me going out anywhere... so today.. it's "Foundation Day" in Korea so it's a public holiday.
This week has been SOO awesome for me... it's a short week and on top of that, Monday and Tuesday were both exam days so we didn't do anything except administer tests (boring, but easy) and Wednesday was our only real day of work (after which I spent the night at a jjimjilbang 찜질방.... )I got there around .. 1030 or so and i left at 930 the next day.... of those 11 hours.. i honestly think i spent about... half of it under water.... it was excellent. THE best thing was spending a couple of hours soaking in the 41 degree spa punctuated by dips into the 18 degree pool (horridly refreshing... a truly rude awakening) then getting out and going to the 24hr canteen to get myself some cold noodles washed down by an even colder beer =) blissful :).

Okay so then Thursday was suposed to be a teacher's seminar day (basically a day of pure BS where we have a meeting abotu 'stuff' where the end result is that nothing changes anyway) but because last Friday, some schools went on an excursion to Everland (theme park just 40 mins outside of Seoul) the parents wanted to have a 'make up' class. But then because it was basically an excuse to babysit we didn't end up doing much anyway. First lesson the kids were late and missed, 2nd lesson i ended up just chasing my kids around on the 4th floor, 3rd and 4th lessons i played chess with the kids :P hahahaha fantastic day.

and TODAY after what seemed like a weekend already (the 찜질방 has scary recuperative qualities) ... was Friday :P so i met up with Jin and Ashley at the hair salon and for me i basically just hung out there for 2 hrs... watching "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" on my mp3 player..



After that Ashley left and Jin and I went and grabbed some Italian (my first here.. and definitely not disappointing). I really should've taken some more pics there actually..... but yeah had garlic bread, tomato and basil and 2 cheese pizza and some Chicken cream pasta... all quite good, and i washed it all down with a Chilean Merlot served chilled... which really wasn't too bad at all.. quite an enjoyable wine... cheap too.... sweeter than i expected from a Merlot, but good =)


After the LUNCH we went to the Leina Cafe, and just chilled out. Got a table near the open window thing and just one look at the boards outside i just KNEW i had to put my feet up and as soon as i did.... felt SOOO right being there =) like in Balmain or something. Got a couple of looks but y'know.. i don't care what others think... sipping on some excellent tea my feet up and just chatting to a friend.... an excellent day to spend a Sunday.... and an AMAZING day to spend a Friday public holiday MUAHAHAHAHA :P




My French *something something* Earl Grey and my Marco Polo tea i think ( super nice EG and MP is basically high grade mint tea... 10,000 Won !!! each pot !! )



"got coffee bitch?" :P



"got coffee roaster bitch? " :P



and the whole kit out where the FRESHEST roast coffee is made.... from all around the world...



I felt that this picture was really good.... to me it just feels .. relaxed, but the concept of the picture is a bit cliche really... though also typical of Korea in one way and not at all in another.
Is/ the presence of technology, ear phones in.... hand on the phone.....
Isn't/ the solo thing..... it's rare to see Koreans doing things by themselves.... my impression is that everything that is done, medical appointments, errands, nail, hair, .. everything... is always done with company.
But for me, i fel this pic is..... fitting.
I know i just spent the last 7 lines ranting about a picture with me in it.... but y'know what ?

IF you don't like it you can go shove it :P hehehe



Jin's version.... the ever present coffee in front of her (though i admit, the coffee there is AMAZING.... not bitter at all, if anything it tastes watery.. but you can really smell and taste the chocolate, nutty, and all those other aromas and textures you read on the labels of others.) and phone to her head, trying to look super popular :P



Our dessert.... Ice Cream Waffles....



and again cos i like the focus of this pic....... I'm a photograph noob so it's rare when i pull off what i think is a nice shot.



And here we have a group of peeps dancing out a Ad jingle for a noodle shop called "Neoguri"



I didn't catch this pic in time but after the finished dancing and started walking away, the dude in white from the previous 2 pics pointed to me and they were all jumping up and waving :P hopefully the video uploads and you'll see it at the end of the video.



Afterwards we went over to Lotte World, Jamsil for a manicure..... that's right... i went and got a manicure (at Jin's behest) always wanted to see what goes on... and seriously... not much at all IMO...... shrugs* an experience nevertheless.



as a precautionary measure i'm going to say....."Shim, Ben, Joel..... and just in case... Seng...... SHUT THE HELL UP"

After THAT, we went down to the shooting range and shot off a couple more clips (2 beretta and 1 USP) 2 98's and 1 97. I couldn't convince Jin to shoot anything .... CHICKEN "i love peace' BAH!!!


and now... i'm at home :) chillin out posting here and someplace else too =)
;) *you know where*

Tomorrow might be meeting up with a friend to go to "Hi Seoul" festival at "Seoul Forest" which is nearby... will chuck some pics up of that too.

Carry on

So.... that one day gym membership has turned into some kine od permanent one :S i have no idea why.. and frankly i'm really not about to question it.... so i'm totally happy that i've saved myself $150 (aka 150,000W)
I've been a good boy and i've been going on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (... a total of 3 days so far :P )


Hmm what else....

Oh had one of my favourite students whom from now on i shall call "ultimate cuteness" in honour of a girl of the same honourific from Azrael's old site.

Anyway, this particular class that she's in is shared by me and Jin (all English teaching programs in Korea consist of a pairing of a Korean Teacher and an English language Teacher (ELT).
So anyway apparenelty during class with Jin, UC said to her (I'm not sure under what context here) that "when i grow up i want to be Bevan teacher's girlfriend" :P sweet right? :P and super cute.... (daughter sure.. but gf?? i think not) anyway... the smartest kid in that class (happens to be a boy) said to Jin "But teacher..... when UC gets old enough..... won't Bevan Teacher be a grandfather???"

hahahahahahaha when Jin told me i couldn't help but laugh (tho a small part of me said "... GRANDFATHER?!?!?!! ... why you lil shi-") because this boy always surprises me with how smart he is, so i merely replied saying "Y'know.....*he*'s way too smart y'know.... always so far ahead of everyone else.."



Okay .... on Wednesday night i went clubbing with some people i'd met the previous Saturday at another friend's Birthday bash.... going to this club was just weird... as expected there wasn't that many people there so like.. awkward much?
Anyway... after a lil while more people started to arrive at this club.... and several pairs came in (pairs as in boy boy and girl girl as well as boy girl) and they stand for a moment before .... breakinginto a synchronised dance routine.... I'm not what it was about it.. it was like these couples had their own lil thing all sorted out that they just brushed up when they got to a club... :S
just damn weird....just wanted to say that....


Also i went clubbing last night as a farewell for Nicole (who funnil enough will be back in month's time) and clubs here don't seem to have any crowd limits.... so they just keep letting people into these places :S:S:S until it gets to the ridiculous point where you can't even move let alone dance :S ... whilst enjoyable to some extent i must say that this.. in addition to the smoking inside... REALLY made it less preferable than Sydney clubbing, even though Seoul's clubs generally finish around 6am..

anyway that was just an update on things... hopefully i'll get some more ppl to go clubbing with....

anyhoo :)

Hope you're all well.. and i'm sorry that my posts are so long in coming :S
too much of a routine to be posting regularly i spose?

Compulsion.

It seems it's been a very long while since i actually posted something about my day to day...

and today... i just felt like it..

So today... i felt compelled to... for several reasons
1/ i finally went to the gym after... 2 maybe 3 months now? :) so i'm very very proud of myself :P
in fact i also got in for free :P
Why? is it cos i'm so amazingly handsome ??

No....

then why? ..... actually...i have no idea :P she was telling me something in Korean.. and it wasn't "we don't take cards" or "cash only" i didn't know... and she KNEW i didn't know so he just let me in :P
hahaha

2/ So i get out of the gym and it's raining and i think to myself "well shit... that'd be about right"... but then i walked out into it and realised.... that it had been a while since i did walk in the rain, and y'know i gotta say.. i really enjoyed it. I loved the feel of the rain dropping lightly onto me the coolness of the water... the way it collets into drops on your body before trickling down across your skin. The freshness of walking through a mist of water...
A soft yet thorough cleansing, i couldn't help but feel revitalised but the simple pleasure of walking through the rain washing away the dirt off my soul and my heart.

It's still raining now, and i'll have to take an umbrella cos i've gotta dress up for a party... but i still remember the feeling of it... reminding me when i used to go home to Bexley.... my uniform seriously damp... and my hair looking super cool in a way that only rain can give it...

3/ I know i've bad mouthed Koreans a lot, accused them of being shallow, superficially polite etc but every now and then something happens that restores my faith in Korean culture.. and i guess people as a whole.
Here's what happened:

So i was walking in the rain and was waiting at the traffic lights happily enjoying the rain on me while others were waiting under shelter when i notice an umbrella covering me.. it's an old ajumma holding her small umbrella to cover me :) i found that amazingly sweet... it's rare for something like that to happen in sydney i find.. so i was very touched :)


so yeah apart from that... the kids are still annoying though some are great just like some days at work really.....


so yeah :)

that's me guys.

Hope you're all well and missing everyone......

so.. i'm like... 24 now :P

So today i turned 24....
2 days prior I received mail from Australia with with a package from my dearest.
Inside was a present as well as 2 cards :) one to be opened at 12am and another to be opened at 1159 pm of the 11th.

On top of all this my darling also made me a cake :)

So, my day goes on as normal go to work and head in and my co-worked remembered that it was my bday and wished me as i got in.

Basically the day goes on and on and i find out that 2 of my workmates got me a CK long sleeve top :P
quite nice :P

Also .. some of the kids i've taught over the last 4 months found out that it was my birthday and they all wished me well :) which is nice of them. Funnily enough the kids i told while i was teaching them didn't actually wish me :P and even nicer... 2 of the kids even did this :) cute right?



Anyhoo long day and at the end of it, i expected a cake (why? because every bday person gets a cake) and of course.... i got one :P
it was a lot more obvious when Joanna our elementary school head teacher came out of the (dark) staff room and held me outside :P

and then inside was everybody lined up around singing happy birthday :) which was really sweet :)

the cake was pretty nice looking



After having a piece of cake there was quite a bit of cream around my mouth and it looked kinda comic so i smeared a bit more and Nicoel took some pics......
Then Joanna comes along and rubs some on my cheeks :P

Course i couldn't let THAT stand :P so i fixed that :P




After THAT :P couldn't just have us two looking like idiots so... we fixed THAT too :P



Herena was oh so trusting :P so easy to smear cream over the poor girl :P




Nicole tried to run...... but me and Jo got her in the end :P


And Ashley..... poor Ashley was doing work, sitting down at her desk like any good head teacher should :P...... didn't stand a chance :P

After all of this good fun :P everybody was covered in cream :P the smarter and quicker ones made a getaway before things got bad :P

All these fairly straight laced people....... then i came here :P
and look what's happened :P

******************************************************************************

So on top of all this..... i asked parents if it was okay to stay home for my Bday and just have a home cooked meal by dad.... and it was awesome :) SOOOO good missed it quite a bit......



The happy bday boy (now 24 :P)



The Cake as requested (unbeknownst to me) by my much prettier half to my sister :)

***thank you darling*


The Bday boy with the dishwasher and the cook :P kekekekeke



Altogether now :)



This is my new soft toy to keep Manny company


And my parentals :)




It was a nice. sweet 24th. would've loved it somebody else was here..... but considering where i was ... i can't complain too much.....


and i must say THank you to everybody who sent me a msg on FB :)
feeling super loved :P hahahah


next cycle..... 2020 :S..... crazy.......