Met Kate Middies bestie

 I got my bill for electricity for the month yesterday. I had prepared myself for a high bill.. after all I had been running the air conditioning on and off during the hot days. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my bill came to measly R100 ($10 approx). I was so surprised I even double checked it with my co teacher. Previously, at university my roommates and I were putting in about R200 ($20) a week each. And even then, we didn't dare turn on the air conditioning or heating. Utilities are cheap here!

I don't understand it... but hey its cheap.. so no complaints.

Korea seems to have a whole bunch of public holidays clumped together in one month.. So September and October has been comprised of 3 or 4 day weeks. I have gotten quite used to a nice day off in the middle of the week.. adjusting to teaching everyday is going to be quite a challenge. Wednesdays have become nap day.

The high school boys, as usual, always keep me entertained. This week I have been playing a game where they are given a topic in teams and have to guess 5 words that go along with that topic. Most of them scream, shout and publicly slate each other, so that their team will win and get candy. One boy stood at the front of the class trying to write the word 'banana'. He had the word perfectly correct, when a boy from another team stood up and starting manipulating him into believing it was laughably incorrect.

" Double 'n' crazy boy. It bad.. you  lose point. Changie it. I promisie. It will be much better" (He even had me a little convinced at one point)

One of my higher level classes.

Last weekend I went to Daegu with a bunch of girls that I met at orientation. Daegu is the third biggest city after Seoul and Busan and it is huge. It was really nice to catch up with everyone after a month of heading off on our own. Even though we went through the same orientation, we have all ended up in such different and unique situations across the country. Weirdly enough everyone seems relatively happy. Poor Philippa got ribbed constantly throughout the weekend for admitting that she walked dogs for Kensington Palace as her odd job in between university.

"So nice to be in the presence of Kate Middies bestie"
"You want the more expensive drink? Well I do suppose you run in those circles now"
"Pippa, I bet you had a totally different name before the royal wedding"
Everyone hash tagged (#) Princess when mentioning Philippa's name.

Philippa :) hahah

We spent most of the weekend in the downtown area where we stayed. I would recommend Danim backpackers to anyone who wants cheap and convenient accommodation option in Bangwaldong (the downtown area). It was only R200 a night ($20) and is just off the subway line. Everyone was incredibly friendly, even giving us advice on where to watch the SA vs NZ rugby match.  I dealt with Sukie over text message when booking (things are that relaxed). When we arrived, they pointed to a drying wrack and said, "Those are your sheets but they are still drying, grab them when they're done."

http://daeguhostel.com/

Our 6 man dorm.

A picture of all the girls. Sorry Saree- pinched your photo till I get home to my camera.

One of the coolest things I did in Daegu was visit a the Catdog cafe. Basically, it is a cafe where you sit, drink some coffee and play with the animals. It is a trend that I have never heard of outside of Korea.There are two levels, one for the cats and a higher level dedicated to the dogs. The shopkeeper explained, that most Koreans do not have space for pets and so they come to cafes to enjoy a little animal interaction. It may just be a personal preference but I found the cats a little boring. Sitting and watching felines sleep is not quite as thrilling as I'd imagined it might be. But the dogs... now they were cool! In fact the cafe gives you long gypsy style skirts to wear, so the dogs have something to chew on and rip apart.

Here are couple of foodie pics from my long weekend.

Over the public holiday, we had dakgalbi. This is basically a dish cooked in the middle of a table, with chicken, rice and cabbage (its much nicer than it sounds). Lindsay, Faridha and I... starving.

Cooking the chicken in the pot frying pan type thing.

All cooked and ready to eat.

One Friday, Tamrin and I went one town over to the Andong Mask Festival and ended up having a different kind of Samguypsal. It was was basically slow roasted pork belly on a rotisserie. It was different but surprisingly great.

making a mask at the festival.

All in all, a good couple of days. Bring on the weekend!!!