ENGLAND

Well it's been more than two weeks already since we were in England but we've hit the ground running since we've been back so it's been hard to find time to reflect on the trip.
It was very strange for me coming back to England because although it had only been 14 months, so much had happened in that space of time that it felt strangely unfamiliar touching down onto British soil again. One of the first things I did was to try and get in the drivers seat instead of the passenger seat. A simple mistake but actually everything kind of felt like that for the first couple of days - everything was so different and fascinating to me, people looked different, people acted different, for just a few hours you get to see your own culture more objectively than ever before.

Anyway, I had a few days in Bristol and then Cornwall on my own before the Korean family all arrived. It was great to see friends and have good conversations (a good conversation is quite difficult to stumble across in a country where you're still learning the language).

So then on the weekend Eunmi arrived along with her mum and sister. We spent the night with our friend's Matt and Esther Way, which was great, and then headed out early in the morning for an open top bus tour (and river thames cruise) of London! Luckily the weather was great and suffice to say that everyone came away feeling deeply impressed by London with all it's spectacular sites and history.

After London we spent a night in Bristol. I think the shear size and amount space that we have in our British homes shocked the Korean contingent, but they seemed just as impressed by Bristol as they were with London.

Finally we made it all the way down to my Parents place in Cornwall. I know that for me and Eunmi it was a really special time, we haven't had much time together with the family, and Eunmi was doing very well with her English. As for Eunmi's sister and her mum or Ohm-ma as we seemed to keep calling her (which means 'Mum' in korean), I gathered that they really enjoyed it too, but they did spend a good deal of time sleeping. I guess it was especially difficult for them since their English isn't very good and neither are my translation skills...
Some of the highlights our time in Cornwall are surfing all together (a first time for all the Koreans) and also eating my mum's delicious food all together.

And then on out penultimate day we had our 'wedding party'. Unfortunately this was the only day on which it rained during our holiday in the UK. But by the afternoon the sun had come out and the guests had arrived, from our point of view the party was just brilliant. Eunmi got to meet all the people I love and miss, there was delicious food, a beautiful setting, beautiful bunting and a beautiful cake!

All in all it was a wonderful visit, and I can only hope that it will be less than a year until our next visit, but well have to see...

TOO HOT TO STUDY

On our return from our wonderful trip to England (more on that in my next post) Eunmi and I finally arrived at our house in Busan at about 5pm exhausted and Jet lagged only to start work the following morning. Actually it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but the first thing I noticed was just how hot it was! I was trying to teach with sweat pouring down my face in a 30 degree heat classroom.

I think its been a record high heat summer here in Korea. On that first day of teaching, no less, a television reporter crew arrived and started to film my class. Apparently they were doing a story about how its too hot for students to study and due to the electricity shortage in Korea at the moment, only schools that are suffering under more than 30 degrees are allowed to use air conditioning!
I tracked down the video, I'm in it for about 3 seconds, try and spot me wearing the blue shirt (also I'm behind the anchor at the start haha) also sorry but theres no sound.

WATER PARK

The temperatures are soaring, we've been working hard, just want to take a day to unwind... Let's go to a water park!

STUDYING HARD

Poor Eunmi has decided to attend an English classes every weekday this month. So that means after a long day of work Eunmi comes home at around 6:45 or 7pm and then at 7:45 she goes to her 2 hr class which finishes at 10pm. And this is every weekday!
It's a big commitment on her part, and she is enjoying it, but it's also very demanding to go so long without really resting during the week. It's great to hear her speaking in English though, and she's impoving all the time.
Anyway, so we figured we should try and do something fun this weekend, like to go a water-park or something haha.

FAMILY PICNIC

It's been difficult to see Eunmi's family altogether since the wedding, in particular Logi, Eunmi's 2nd brother because he's not only very busy but also been prioritising his time to see his delightful daughter Chae-yi. She has been living with his wife's parents family ever since she was born so Logi has to travel to the other end of Busan from us so we haven't seen him much. Anyway. So that's why it was really special for us to all go out on a picnic together by the river. Chae-yi has grown up a lot and she's just learnt to walk last week, but she's so cute. So we had a delicious and lazy picnic in the park which was just what we needed I think.

VISITORS FROM SWITZERLAND

A while back we had a couple of visitors come an visit us all the way from Switzerland. My second cousin Olivier and his wife Nadège. Actually we'd never met them before but they were doing a Tour of Korea so we gave them a place to stay as they visited Busan.

We had such a great time with them, it was only a couple of days but we went to all the tourist spots like the fish market, Busan tower, and even had time to go on a coastal walk followed by a true Korean karaoke experience, not to mention eating great food and having great conversation. The following day they came with us to church and we went on a church picnic which was nice and warm, everyone had prepared food to share and there is one guy in our group who is excellent at cooking so we enjoyed gourmet food out in the sun with all our friends.

So it was a really wonderful time for us, and I think Olivier and Nadège had a positive expereience of Korea too. I just hope that one day soon me and Eunmi can go and visit them in Switzerland!