Our Weekend: Freezing For A Reason

Friday saw the end of Winter camp and the start of a four day weekend, which is always welcome. And this weekend was particularly packed with friends and fun things to do.

On Saturday Nick and I headed to the beach early to take part in the Freezin' For A Reason January dip in the ocean for charity. I was umming and aarring about whether to do it or not, and at the last minute decided that I couldn't let Nick do it on his own. I won't be doing that again in too much of a hurry.






Saturday night was our last night out all together before Tash and I leave for our 3 week holiday in England and sadly Grace and Anna head off for greener pastures. To celebrate, or commiserate, we headed to KSU.

The next day was the final of the tennis, so we spent the night at Beached showing Murray our support. Sadly, us staring fixedly at the screen failed to help him, so we played darts instead.

Monday I became one of the guys and joined them on a walk up the mountain with Ziggy, on the way back down we treated ourselves to some goat, which is amazing.

And finally today, feeling like it's about time that I prepared myself to finish off this last week and a half that's left of school, I decided to relax. We went for breakfast at the coffee shop down the road and then spent the afternoon lazing in Spaland.

Amongst all of this, I also managed to watch Silver Linings Playbook, which I absolutely adored.

Now it's time to prepare for our last few days at school until March!

Our Weekend: Busan Sand Festival

Another awesome weekend spent relaxing in Busan.  It was lovely for the ROKD ladies to be down here, lots of sunbathing and soju induced fun made me almost forget I was missing the Jubilee back in the UK. What I wouldn't do for a cream tea right now...

Some of the lovely ROKD ladies

Dongnae skate track 

The metro ride where we were asked if we were stars by a
group of Korean boys,

Grafitti on the beach 

The most impressive sandcastle I've ever seen

Loving the blankets at Thursday Burger.

Haeundae Beach at night

Will it ever get old shouting Wingardium Leviosa
every time I have a firework in my hand?

Our Weekend in Pictures

This weekend we celebrated Tasha's 27th birthday and I think it's one that she won't be forgetting any time soon... It started with baseball which turned into a bizarre night out in Nampo-Dong in a Korean night club, next was a trip to Daegu to practise roller derby with the ROKD ladies, a swift KTX ride back to Busan so we could go out in KSU, no time for sleep but Haeundae beach seemed like a good idea at 8am in the morning, tried to sleep it off there but just got sun burned. The best bit was Tasha being so deliriously tired that she managed to walk all the way into my room and stand there for several seconds before realising there was Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday blaring out, a massive cake and lots of presents waiting for her! What was even better was Birthday cake for breakfast this morning.

A street vendor casually chilling with a kitten on his shoulder.

Happy Faces all around when he let us hold it. Not so happy
faces from him when I pretended to run away with it.

Sajik Baseball stadium

Homemade pom poms

Sleepy Giants Fan

Bet he's had a fair few trips from the tooth fairy

Alternative head wear

Bag Heads

Noone wanted to join in our metro party

The third set of people asking for their picture to be taken with us

The fan then preceded to take us to a techno club

Escorted home

Daegu for the ROKD monthly scrimmage

ROKD ladies in action

Trying to get the Baskin Robins cake home in one piece

Ready for birthday fun

The lovely Maybelle Kim

Our view in the morning

I don't know how he stayed asleep this long

Secret birthday hijack attack Natasha. Stevie Wonder was
playing and everything. 

Birthday cake which turned into Monday's breakfast

Trying to embarrass her failed miserably. She loved it.

Friday Favourite V4 : Beach Naps

The concept is easy; at the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was the cosmetic store Etude House and here is this week's...

Perfect after big nights out. Or walks across bridges. Or just after the ordeal of getting to the beach. Or just to cure pure laziness. Nothing makes me happier than a good nap on the beach, especially when the sun is shining.

We've become seasoned pros at these naps and have got the method down to a tee. First of all you evaluate how you feel and how much you need a nap. If you really need one you need to get as far away from the mass of people as possible. Secondly, you need to avoid wet sand so stay away from the sea, but don't get too close to the walkway as the people walking past will keep you awake. Once you've laid down you need to do a bit of a wriggle to ensure maximum comfort. Finally, if you're wearing a dress, before falling to sleep place your bag on the hem of your skirt to avoid embarrassing exposure caused by the sea breezes every now and then. Taking a towel is optional because you might not want to lug it around with you all day, noone will notice the mass of sand in your hair. Honest. Of course, if you're lucky enough to have a bag carrying man around, they might also not mind carrying your towel around all day too. In that case I would always take a towel.

Normally these beach naps are brought to an abrupt end, either by a white rat dog who's been dyed neon and forced to wear a coat, or by the giggles of some Korean girls near by taking a million self photos - but it doesn't matter because it's 20 minutes of sleep that I wouldn't have had anyway. I always wake up feeling 100% better and ready for our next adventure.

Natasha commented that although we have visited alot of Busan's beaches, she doesn't feel as though it can be crossed off the list until we've tested its napping credentials.

My favourite is Haeundae. I like it because it's generally hot when we go there, it's big enough to avoid people if you want a hardcore nap, and it's also busy enough to be interesting to people watch if you find that you're suffering from a bit of nap insomnia. Whenever we have visited Gwangali beach, it's always been far too blustery to have a good solid nap, so this is a no for naps in my eyes.

Be warned, some people have no grasp of the concept of personal space, so you may wake up with someone's feet right next to your head, which makes you feel like they've been watching you sleep.

Pretending to nap can also be a tool to avoid Korean boys who're soaking wet from frolicking fully clothed in the sea who then like to ask to have their picture taken with you.

So in conclusion, once you've nailed the technique beach naps are definitely one of the best things about Korea.