CULTURE SHOCK

1. Koreans sometimes drink an energy drink made from human placenta. I have met one Korean who self-injects this concoction twice aweek for energy.
2. I know one Korean lady who, although living in this dynamic capital city, had a 9pm cufew until she turned twenty (which was just a few years ago.)
3. I've met one person who has been a teacher in Korea and described her experiences using corporal punishment on students. And this lady is a very nice lady.
4. During the economic crisis of 1997 many men in Korea lost their jobs. Some were to embarrassed to tell their families, so instead, put on their suits every day and "went to work". Actually they had nowhere to go, so went hiking in some of the many mountains in and around Seoul (in their business suits.) Apparanty this still goes on somewhat today and can be seen if you hike during weekdays.

NORTH ANTRIM COAST

I took my Korean girlfriend to the North Antrim coast when she visited in May. Only two hours drive from my home, I've been there several times. But amazingly, I'd never taken the breathtaking coastal road there. We had wonderful weather and it was a great reminder of just how fantastically beautiful Ireland is.

Giant's Causeway; cool shaped rocks jutting out into the sea.

Beautiful blue water covering all of Ireland; spectacular on a sunny day.
My mysterious girlfriend checking out the view from the beach.
Me surrounded by the green, fertile farms in Antrim.







The quaint town of Cushendall; a lovely place to recharge the batteries.
The Burn Bed and Breakfast; own by my mom's cousin Nuala, I highly recommend it.
The view from our window at The Burn; doesn't get much better than this.

HIKING AT HOME

Every time I go home, I like to climb the Slieve Donard, our town's highest mountain. This trip home was no different and we had the best weather ever for the hike giving beautiful, clear views from the top.
In the photos below; little brother Ronan and his Polish girlfriend Beata and there's also some tired, weak Korean girl being carried up the hardest part of the hike ;-)

REFRESHED

The sun is shining, the park is green, the birds are chirping and I feel great.

Hello patient blog-readers. Apologies for the long absence. Nineteen months living in the financial district of one of the worlds mega-cities without a single noteworthy holiday sapped the life out of me. But I'm back! After a month-long holiday in the Emerald Isle (Ireland) I feel refreshed, rested, happy and ready for the next stage of my life.

I returned to Korea yesterday and awoke at 4am this morning. Since I'll be starting work on Thursday and must return to my 5am rises anyway, I decided to get up and make the most of this spectacular weather. A bit of planning, a cup of tea and phone-call home from the park. And then a run around my area as the sun rose.

It probably sounds terrible, but I've never really been excited to be in Korea. I arrived here in October, which is the start of a long cold winter. I was pretty broke when I arrived so didn't really explore much or do many fun things. And as good as my job is, there are usually no periods of holiday time. So I just got into a routine of working and saving and having a few beers now and again. And after a year and a half, the longest period I've stayed in one country BY FAR without a big trip abroad, I realised I really needed a holiday.

A month ago if you asked me my favorite place in Korea, or what there is to do here, I would've struggled to give you an answer. But now, returning in the blossoming spring, I feel much more positive about this place and my time here. In fact, I actually feel kind of excited to be back here. It was about this time seven years ago when I flew out to Thailand for my first experience living in Asia, and the air here right now is reminding me a lot of that and bringing back some of the nostalgic excitement.

So, the main focus for the next few months will be saving money. But I've a holiday to Taiwan already booked for September, which is great since I've a new country to look forward too. And I'll also take a few weekend trips and stay in touch with the great outdoors.

And I'll try to make a better effort with the blog too :-)

BEAUTIFUL BALLOONS IN THE BEAUTIFUL SKY ON THE BEAUTIFUL GROUND IN THE BEAUTIFUL SEA

I went to the season opening game of the Korean baseball league last week. Exciting as always with the full stadium chanting and striking their thundersticks in unison. The home team, Doosan Bears, whose colour is white, released about a thousand white helium-filled balloons during the ceremony. Of course it looked very pretty against the overcast, yellow-dust* filled sky. But as they drifted away, I wondered what next? The balloons sink and land in the mountains or sea somewhere. And then? Just sit there for a thousand years? Or get eaten by a tortoise? Or what? On reflection it seems like a pretty horrible thing to do to the earth and nature for a couple of seconds of mild pleasure on our part, doesn't it? Or am I just thinking too much? And I was also wondering, if we have laws against littering and other types of pollution, and the Doosan Bears (as well as lots of other people like the organizers of the St Patricks Day parade recently) 'litter' live on national TV, shouldn't they be fined?

*yellow-dust (황사-hwangsa) is toxic sand that blows over from China and covers the sky and everything under it here in Korea at this time of year.

The pitterpatter of an unexpected winter (?) rain
The pre-dawn walk to work greets me
With double streetlight-umbrella-shadows

The pitterpatter becomes a roar
And a taxi splashes me in the darkness
But it's ok , it's going to be a good day.

WINTER HIKING

I went for my second winter hike last Sunday. Three Korean friend and I went to Cheongae Mountain. Although there was still a lot of snow, it was bright, warmish and breezeless so it felt more like spring that winter. Before this year I had never hiked in snow, but now am really starting to enjoy it. Though for safety, I must really get a pair of crampons soon if I don't want to continue bruising my bum.

[My hiking partners]
[Hyunjung's unique and energy-efficient method od descending the mountain.]
[Mijung, the weakest of the group, collapsed after only an hour.]
[Yours truly.]
[Hyunjung mixing it up with some freestyle sliding. Mijung and Jungoo laughed at her. Bad friends!]
[Two ladies and a wannabie gangster.]

LIFE'S 50 GREATEST PLEASURES

These days I'm very interested in the 'science' of happiness. I've read some great books about it like The Happiness Hypothesis (Haidt) and The Geography of Bliss (Weiner). And today I was very pleased when one of my students brought in a related article for News Day.

Batchelors Cup-A-Soup recently did a survey of 3000 Brits to find out life's greatest pleasures. I can't find drinking, making or buying soup anywhere on the list but the results are interesting.

It seems that most things that make us happy are quite small, and usually free, like the first snowfall of the year or catching up with old friends.

I've copied the list below, but I don't know how to reverse the order. So if you want the best last, you should scroll to the bottom and read up from number 50.

Top 50 greatest little pleasures in life:

1. A good night’s sleep
2. Finding a forgotten tenner in your pocket
3. Cuddling up with a partner in bed
4. Crying with laughter
5. Having a lie-in
6. Sleeping in newly laundered bedding
7. Getting a bargain
8. Making someone smile
9. Catching up with an old friend
10. Laughing at things that have happened in the past
11. Eating a Sunday roast with your family
12. Someone saying you look nice
13. Curling up on the sofa with a good book and a hot drink or soup
14. Discovering you’ve lost a few pounds
15. Breakfast in bed
16. Waking up thinking it’s a work day and then realising it’s the weekend
17. A random person smiling at you in the street
18. Looking through old photo albums
19. Eating a takeaway
20. First snow fall of the year
21. Singing your heart out to your favourite song in car
22. Having lunch with friends
23. Listening to a baby laughing
24. Having a massage
25. Reading a book or listening to your iPod on holiday by the pool
26. Playing in snow
27. Finding a pair of jeans that fit perfectly
28. Being chatted up
29. A girly-night in
30. A pampering session at home
31. The smell of freshly cut grass
32. Sitting in the pub with your friends
33. Looking at a baby asleep in a cot
34. Waking up in a room with an amazing view
35. Clothes shopping
36. Receiving a letter from a friend
37. Fitting into an old pair of jeans again after losing some weight
38. Staying up all night getting to know someone special
39. Your mum’s cooking
40. Getting dressed up for a night out
41. Watching a live band
42. Drinking a cold beer after work
43. Browsing in a secondhand book shop
44. Going to the cinema
45. Getting a new hairstyle
46. Your queue being the quickest in the supermarket
47. The cold side of the pillow
48. Watching a DVD
49. Getting tipsy
50. Popping bubble wrap.

TOP TEN TOP TENS

One of the topics we did this week in my adult general conversation class was Top Ten Lists. For homework I asked them to prepare their own top ten list of anything they want, preferably something interesting. There were the usual lists of favorite foods and places, but lots of original stuff too. Here's my top ten favorites of my student's top ten lists in no particular order:

TOP TEN...
1. situations I can't bear on public transport.
2. surprising things about mosquitos.
3. most beautiful English words.
4. longest bridges.
5. accidents I have witnessed.
6. lies men tell women.
7. things that surprised me in China.
8. world's healthiest foods.
9. Korean foods that Japanese people like.
10. times/places I'd go if I had a time machine.