Rakhi: Joel and I have just returned from a workout at our new gym. When we joined on Friday, the friendly, muscly trainer showed us around the machinery and suggested a routine for the two us. I have to do various arm exercises followed by half and hour or so on the running machine. Surprisingly, despite months of no exercise, I am not as unfit as I thought I was and can easily do the routine and more; I'm already starting to feel the benefits of regular exercise. How long will this last though? Watch this space...!

After joining the gym on Friday and a short workout, we had to rush home as Joel's principal was taking us out for dinner. Although these occasions with the top dog can be awkward for fear of commiting a faux pas, it was actually quite a pleasant evening. The principal clearly really likes Joel and appreciates the work that he's doing. Although times are changing in Korea, the Confucian emphasis on inequality between the genders still exists. This was noticeable at dinner when the men began a sort of drinking game whilst Debbie and I watched! The principal and the other two men at the table boasted about how much soju they could drink, asked Joel how much he could drink and proceeded to devour bottle after bottle. Although I was included in a couple of the rounds, I was told that my role was to carry Joel home if he got too drunk! As we said goodbye outside the restaurant, Joel was absolutely fine but the principal was definately swaying from side to side! However, I'm sure the men carried on drinking after we left. As it's considered antisocial to refuse a drink, Joel and I have seen plenty of Korean business men propped up against things and stumbling down the road in their suits after a night of heavy drinking with colleagues! It's quite amusing!

Last Wedenesday night we went here to the Seoul World Cup Stadium to watch Seoul v Suwon in the K-League. The stadium is very modern and enormous, I don't think it was even half full. Although there was trouble between the two teams on the pitch, off the pitch it was great to see both team's supporters sat side by side and people even cheering for both teams; something you would NEVER see in English football. There was also large groups of Seoul fans and Suwon fans sat at opposite ends of the stadium behind the goals; these were the real die hard fans.

They came equipped with flares, drums, massive flags, loud vocal chords and really added to the atmosphere. Even though there was a bit of a ruck on the pitch (dirty Suwon players handling the ref) and the score finished 1:1, it was really good fun and so cheap, only 8000 won (about a fiver). We're going again this Wednesday to watch Seoul v Pohang- this time we're going to sit behind the goal with this lot and join in the jubilant chanting.

Today was the last day of my summer camp, tomorrow proper school starts again; it's been over 5 weeks since I did a whole days work, I think my bodies going to go into shock tomorrow! I've really enjoyed doing the summer camp though, not only has it been really easy, but I've had fun with the little kids. Some of them are absolutely lovely and even the loud ones can be quite endearing. Finishing work at 12:10 everyday hasn't been bad either!

Joel: Since we returned from our trip, we've woken every morning to clicking and whirring of cicadas in the trees surrounding our building. They make such a racket that for a while I struggled to imagine what they might look like. Finally, I spotted one at the base of a tree near our main entrance. They're pretty big, but it's still crazy that they can make so much noise. I've seen kids with nets and boxes taken out by their dads to catch these critters - I think as some kind of sport rather than an envirinmental health project.
Rakhi discovered a huge insect in our flat not long ago and called me in to deal with it, claiming it was "as big as a mouse". Of course, I assumed she was exaggerating so I got quite a shock when I saw it. It had antenae as long as my fingers and was easily as large as a mouse. I fancied my chances with a large plasic bowl and a piece of card but when I tried to place the bowl on it, it sensed it with it's antenae and jumped about three feet - easily waist height. After about fifteen minutes I took a shot from across the room and luckily managed to get the blighter trapped. I'm now pretty careful to keep the fly-screens closed. I don't really want a rematch.
Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day so when we finished school at twelve we set off to find the outdoor swimming pools in the parks alongside the Han river. It's not too far on the subway - just one change then a short stroll through the park and there we were. It was great to find a bit of green space in this vast concrete metropolis and to have a swim in the glorious sunshine. We could pretend we were still on holiday. I'm not sure how long the pools stay open for - maybe just till the end of the month - so we'll have to make the most of them.
On Saturday, we night went to Cargo to see Marcus Intalex play. It's great to go out knowing the music is guaranteed to be brilliant. I've heard some pretty terrible music here. A lot of shops and bars play some odd kind of Korean Euro-dance. Truly awful. Marcus is a good friend of Rakhi's brother so we managed to get in as guests and have a chat with him before he played. I'm still suffering a little now though. Too many G&T's I think.
I've done a bit of research and found out that the secound phase of the Korean football league begins on Wednesday. Seoul FC are at home to Suwon so we're going to go and see them. Tickets are 5-7000won for behind the goal seats or 8-10000 for the main stands. That makes the most expensive ticket about 6 pounds. Compared to rip-off Britain that's a steal. And you can pay at the gate; the stadium's huge and never completely sells out. Can't wait.

Rakhi: This afternoon, Joel and I met up with Ryan and Kristen for a game of badminton. Not far from where they live, up a hill and in a park, there is an outdoor court. Although we were a bit rusty and the wind kept carrying the shuttlecock out (the main reason for our loss, honest), it was really good fun.

After cooling down and a quick wash, Ryan and Kristen wanted to take us to Costco. They've mentioned many a time how good it is for home comforts but until now, we'd never got around to going. When they told us that it was just like the Costco's in their native Canada I started wondering whether it was like the one in Manc and then I started thinking about gravy and Tropicana and Special K and cheese and other things i'm starting to miss. We weren't disappointed. Although they didn't have everything I could have hoped for and most of the products are American imports, there are certain important things (like cheese!) that are cheaper and better than in the local supermarkets. We've just been munching on 'extra zingy' cheese which is the best value cheese we've managed to find so far. It's funny to think that I left England with eight toothbrushes because I didn't know if you could get such things in Korea when in actual fact they have Costco's and Tesco's (aka Home Plus) with most of the comforts of home albeit slightly more expensive!

Since our holiday, i've been getting back into the swing of things at work. Thankfully, i've been eased into it as summer camp only runs from 9am-12:10 after which i'm free to leave. At the moment, it's too hot to work for any longer anyway; particularly since there's no air con at my school. Having finished all the grade 3 and 4 classes i'm halfway through camp now. I've tried to make it as fun as possible for the kids, as it is their summer vacation after all. For one of my grade 3 classes we had an British style birthday party. I taught the kids how to sing 'Happy Birthday to You,' made party hats, played some games and had a birthday cake. I think they really enjoyed it and I gained popularity by giving them cake!

For the last grade 4 class today, we had a Harry Potter theme day. Whilst 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' played in the background, the kids made Harry Potter glasses, did word searches, played games and did colourings. Don't these little rascals look cute in their glasses?!

So, tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is upon us again- they sure do come around fast!

Joel: Friday saw the start of the ninth annual Seoul Fringe Festival so Rakhi and I made our way up to Hongdae to see what was going on. It's an area we've never been to during the day before so it was great to get a new take on the place. We picked up a copy of the programme (containing a map) and set about finding a nice, air-conditioned cafe/bar to have a browse. Hongdae is jammed with cool little places - it's the area surrounding Hongik University which is famous for it's arts courses so I would imagine it's always had a bit of an edge. During the day we discovered a number of top little independent establishments - all with their own vibe and all completely unique. One little place on a row above some clothes shops was home to three of the fattest laziest cats I've ever seen - and I've lived with a very fat, very lazy cat. All three just sauntered around, ignoring the patrons and took naps here, there and everywhere: on a table ledge, on the bar etc. They clearly ruled the roost.
We decided we would get most out of an English language piece, or at least something that didn't require a good standard of Korean, so chose "Love Songs" by Cyril Wong, a one-man performance described as an "interpretation of songs that will break your heart and put it back together again". We took our seats in a darkened basement theatre not knowing quite what to expect. This guy was absolutely brilliant - his voice was incredible. His set included interpretations of "Unchained Melody" as well as pieces by Radiohead and Tom Waits. Stunning.
We also caught some street performances, the most memorable being a crazy musical duo; he looped beats on his laptop while she let balloons down into a microphone. Maybe this passes for avant-garde in Korea, I don't know.
Yesterday, we had the day off for Liberation Day so went into Seoul to see if anything in the way of celebrations was going on. We didn't find much of any interest but stumbled on the Museum of Contemporary art which is housing a Munch exhibition, so that made the trip worth it. Today, I began my second summer camp, grade 4 this time, and already it's clear they're a far less wild group than the first lot. The class went well but for the first time I was denied the comfort of air-conditioning and now I know how Rakhi's been feeling all summer. It feels like some kind of punishment. I'm trying not to moan too much about the heat but it does get pretty humid at the moment. And I am British - we must be world champions at moaning about the weather. Just wait till the Korean winter kicks in, it's all anyone will hear from me.

Joel: Seoul is now sweltering in incredible heat. We returned from a tropical island on Tuesday to find Seoul is even hotter. Gone are the clouds and the never-ending barrage of rain. Now it's all sun and hot, hot, hot! I don't know how long I can cope.

Highlights of the last two weeks (in no particular order) -

1. Being able to wake up and jump straight into the sea. For four of the nights we spent on Jeju we were thirty seconds walk from the beach. And the sea is so clear. On Monday we took an early dip and were surrounded by small schools of fish. Great way to start the day.

2. The views over Seoraksan national park. Absolutely stunning! We made our way up in the first cable-car of the day and were treated with amazing scenery. Check the pics.

3. The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand at Pentaport Rock festival. Both gave absolutely superb performances. We discovered that this was the first ever multi-stage rock festival to be held in Korea. They tried something in 1999 but it was rained off and despite heavy rainfall this year it appears they had made better preparations. Also worthy of a mention - a magical moment came for me when approaching the main stage after arriving on Sunday. At the close of a song I didn't know, the American singer/guitarist standing centre-stage declared "We weren't going to play this one - but what the heck!" and then (the hairs on my neck are on end as I write!) plucked out the first few bars of the Extreme classic "More than Words". It was the Extreme man himself, Nuno Bettencourt, with his new band the DramaGods and I felt like I was accending to heaven. And I'm not joking! I sang every word.

4. Busan. It seems like a great little city. Much easier to get your head round than Seoul. Like
Seoul, it has a tower but strangely, wheras Seoul tower is ultra-modern and very touristy, a trip up Busan tower is like going back in time. Very few people were there and at the top all that existed were a few old photos of Busans most famous buildings going up and a grotty little cafe - a Korean greasy-spoon. Lots of nice shops and bars in Busan though - we found a Bob Dylan-themed bar called "Crossroads" with a great selection of on-request music. Also, we chose the hotel in Busan based on the knowledge that they served an "American style" breakfast. And it was lovely. Is it sad to include this as highlight?

5. Playing beach football with some Korean lads in Hamdeok. We played three on three, first to five and my team won 5-1 after a virtuoso display of trickery from the only foreign player, who set-up four then scored the winner. Move over Eric Cantona.

Lowlights were very few, but here they are -

1. Being scammed out of fifteen quid for a smal bowl of fruit at a beach-side eatery.

2. The mud at the festival. I never experienced the famous Glastonbury mud baths but this was pretty bad. Still, it didn't seem to dampen anyone's enjoyment. I would have liked to have camped but think we made the right decision to sleep and shower at home each night. I was absolutely caked on Friday.

3. Okay. The story of the legendary "Tottering Rock". Folklore has it that high on a hillside in deepest Seoraksan there exists a rock that can be moved by one person (be it only very slightly -making it "totter") but 100 people or more can not push it from it's ledge. And many thousands have tried. We had read it could be found after a 3km hike from the centre of the park and it was signposted all the way. So off we set. The day was fairly cool and the climb not too tricky but we were relieved when we came upon a sign reading Tottering Rock 0.6km. A short while later I thought we had arrived when we came upon a group of people having their photo taken by a rock on a ledge. I began to approach them but was called back by Rakhi, who had seen a sign. "No", she cried "This isn't it. Look. Ulsanbawi, this way." I took her word for it since she had the guide book and we continued with the climb. As the track began to steepen and we both began to tire, I offered Rakhi words of encouragment, constantly assuring her it would be just around the next corner. But it never was. Then we stumbled on another signpost only bizarely this one said "Ulsanbawi 0.8km. "You're joking!" we both gasped, "This can't be right. They've made a mistake." But by now we were determined, so we battled on and barely noticed that our climb was taking us into the clouds. Soon all foliage and greenery was behind us and we were just climbing rock staircases, high in the sky with no view but cloud. In the distance we saw a red metal staircase bolted to the side of the verticle rockface ahead of us. "I must be just over this staircase" I assured her. But as we began to make our way up Rakhi lost her will. "I'm sorry, I don't think I can do it. I can't see anything below me. You go on alone." "It's okay", I told her "If you don't want to go any further we can head back down and find somewhere to eat our picnic". Which is what we did. Rakhi felt like a failure but I tried to tell her we had still done amazingly well. We found a small flat area to sit and eat and rest. And as I tucked into my first sarnie, Rakhi rifled through our guide book and then froze. "Oh my God. You're not going to believe this." And she read me the following passage.

"Heundalbawi is a rocking stone located in front of Gyejeom Temple. It rocks even if only one person pushes on it, but it will not fall even if as many as one hundred people push it.
Ulsanbawi is a rock mountain located in the north of Oeseorak It rises to an elevation of 873m above sea level. Every side of this rock mountain is a precipitous cliff. The path up the slopes is rather treachourous making it popular among serious mountain-climbers."

Serious mountain climbers? Precipitous cliffs? We were going for a picnic! When we'd stopped sweating and caught our breath, we laughed pretty hard.

But now we're back in Seoul and back in school. Today was quite odd. I didn't see any other teachers in the school - just lots of workers revamping the playground area and toilets. The first day of my summer camp went okay. The kids are there of there own accord so I'm trying to make things as fun as possible - lots of drawing and making things rather than drilling. It's great that Rakhi and I can share our ideas, plan lesson together and lighten the work load.

The next big thing we're looking forward to is having my folks come to stay at the end of next month. I'll just have to make sure they know not to let Rakhi be the tour-guide.

P.S. You can see some of our pictures if you click the link on the top right of the page. I take no responsibility for the captions - they're R's

Rakhi: It has been so much fun exploring Korea over the last couple of weeks. We've done and seen so many things I don't really know where to start.

The first leg of our trip was spent travelling down the east coast of Korea to Busan on the south eastern coast. Travelling around Korea is relatively easy as buses depart the cities bus terminals regularly and are fairly cheap. Our first stop was Gangchon in the north east of the country. Gangchon is a picturesque lakeside town popular with university students because of the outdoor activities on offer. Our main reason for going to Gangchon was to do a bungee jump; unfortunately as we visited just out of peak season it wasn't up and running yet. However, as there are more bikes (push, motor, moped, quad...) than people lining the streets, we did hire a moped (safe and easy to drive) for a couple of hours. Joel loved feeling the wind through his hair as we drove alongside the lake and up to a beautiful waterfall.

After leaving Gangchon we headed to Sokcho on the eastern coast. Sokcho is the gateway to the beautiful Seoraksan National Park- top of the list of Korean national parks. As it turns out, Sokcho itself is a happening city and was well worth a visit for it's beach and modern architecture. After relaxing on the beach, exploring the city and having a lovely dinner, Joel and I headed back to our motel to get an early night before hiking around Seoraksan (meaning 'craggy peaks') the next day. We'd been warned that the park gets incredibly busy and hiking can be frustrating as there are queues of people on all of the trails. With this in mind, we woke up at 5am and headed to Seoraksan bright and early. When we arrived at 6:30 am, we were the first people in the park! Seoraksan park is divided into 3 sections, outer, inner and south Seorak. The area is absolutely enormous and it would take days (not to mention super human strength!) to see everything. We opted for the sights in outer Seorak as they are the most accesible to visitors coming from Sokcho. We got a cable car to the top of one of the peaks, saw a ruined fortress and a buddhist temple and watched the sun rising over the East Sea and Sokcho. It was utterly beautiful and the air was so revitalising and clean; a welcome change to the smog of Seoul. After exploring the top of this particular mountain, we got the cable car back to the base and set off on a 45 minute hike to a couple of waterfalls. When we reached the furthest waterfall, we had a little rest and dipped our feet into the icy clear water to cool down. The next sight on our Seoraksan list was the Tottering Rock but that's another story and I think Joel should reccount this one! By the time midday had come, the park was filling up, we stayed for another couple of hours before returning to Sokcho to collect our things and head to the next place on our whistle stop tour of Korea.

After spending the night in Samcheok we travelled along the east coastal roads to Gyeongju, the ancient capital of the Silla Kingdom. Today, the area of Gyeongju is like an open air museum as there are relics such as tombs, pagodas, buddhist deities, tumuli (grass covered tombs) and more, everywhere you look. We didn't have time to see everything but we did go to the national museum and to a huge Tumuli park. Tumuli are huge grassy mounds which serve a similar purpose as Egyptian pyramids; royal members of the Silla dynasty are buried in these tombs with their treasures. The tombs are then covered with stone slabs, gravel, concrete, clay, dirt and grass until a mound shape is formed. The whole area is an archaeologists dream!

The last stop on the first leg of our tour was Busan, the second biggest city in S. Korea. In Busan, we experienced our first Korean hot spa experience. There are hot spas all over Korea and the one in Busan is the biggest. Neither Joel or I knew what to expect though what we did know is that we'd be going into seperate women's and men's areas and stripping off! As it turned out, the spa was a real treat and felt amazing after the gruelling hike around Seoraksan. In the women's bit, their was the main spa area, an aromatherapy spa area, an outdoor steaming hot spa which was great to sit in as the heavy rain was pouring down, a hydrotherapy spa which soothed by achy calves, cold water spas, beauty treatment areas and more. Although the genders are separated, they can borrow robes and meet in the sauna area on the floor below the spa's so after an hour or so Joel and I met up here. The sauna area was a real treat as well; there were numerous saunas designed to hinder various ailments and skin conditions. There were also restaurants and sleeping areas as people often go to the spa for the whole day to relax, eat and sleep. It was great and all for less than a fiver each. The next day, we wandered around Busan and went to Asia's biggest fish market. Needless to say, it was pretty smelly and there were a few stalls selling whale meat. Also, as the weather was glorious for a change, we went to Haeundae Beach, mainland Korea's most famous beach. The next day, we headed back to Seoul on the super fast KTX train for the start of Pentaport Rock Festival.

Whilst we'd been away, we'd heard from friends that the monsoon season which had come to an end over most of Korea, was still in full flow in Seoul. All our friends who had planned to camp at the festival had now bottled out and decided that they would get taxis home as it was so wet and the ground would inevitably be a mushy mess. After some um-ing and ah-ing, we thought it best to do the same. When we reached the site, we knew immediately that we'd made the right decision, we spent the first evening of the festival holding our flip flops, wading ankle deep in mud and sloshing around to The Strokes. The next day, we returned armed with wellies and it made such a difference as the ground had gotten even worse. Still, the whole festival was really good fun. We had good company and great music; I can see why Franz Ferdinand were the closing act on the Sunday- they'd be a hard act to follow.

So, yesterday we returned from the final leg of our journey. The last week has been spent lazing on the beautiful sub-tropical island of Jeju-do. Initially, we booked a hotel for a week on the south of the island in Seogwipo as we planned to stay in that area for the whole time. When we got to the hotel however, it wasn't what we expected and it was about 30 mins by bus from the nearest beach. We made the decision to move to a beach area on the west of the island and it turned out to be a great move. Hyopjae beach was beautiful with white sand and mottled green and blue sea, it wasn't too hot either unlike Seogwipo in the south which was unbearable. We stayed in a decent minbak (basic accomodation with shared facilities) a stones throw from the beach. It was the ideal location to rise in the morning, stroll a few metres bleary eyed and jump into the sea to wake up! Our friends Ryan and Kristin who were also holidaying on the island told us that the beaches on the eastern coast were beautiful too so after a couple of days on Hyopjae, we decided to check those out aswell. We stayed one night in the capital of the island Jeju City before heading on to the east. On the way to Jeju City, Joel and I thumbed through the Lonely Planet for accomodation reccomendations. Eventually, we decided to splash out as we were nearing the end of our holidays and for the past few weeks we'd been staying in basic accomodation. For the one night we stayed in the swanky Oriental Hotel, we were the pefect guests! The beds were so comfortable I had a hard time getting up for my buffet breakfast! Once in Hamdeok, we did very little but eat, read, sleep, swim and watch sun sets over the sea. It's been a lovely relaxing week.

Now, the start of summer camp is looming...