More fun stuff Monday

So, it's been another jam packed week! I am starting to think I might need to slow down a little, as I'm feeling kind of run down and am possibly getting a cold. One of my co-workers has tonsillitis, and I am REALLY hoping it's not that!! But, that didn't stop me from having an awesome week and weekend. Sadly, no Jay this week. It's only the second or third time I haven't seen him each week since we started dating (nearly four months ago now). He had a huge event on - his company was opening a new subsidiary business to do with some business thing I don't understand (he said small start-up incubation, whatever that means). Anyway, because I am a lovely girlfriend, I made him his favourite cookies and left them in his mailbox on my way past his house on Sunday. I was going hiking, and it was only 10 mins out of my way, so I thought it'd be a nice thing to do. He hasn't been home to find them yet :)

So, last week - teaching was good, pretty normal. Wednesday was the Universities foundation day, which meant no classes, but we had to go in for a short ceremony, then I had lunch with some of my workmates, and then ended up being in a big meeting for the reading textbook I'm helping organise/write. We met with the dean and the publisher to see if it was going to go ahead. So far, so good, and we're going to start getting it written. I'm working closely with Thomas on a special advanced part of the book, which is really cool. He's a very smart guy, and I can learn a lot from him, but he also seems to really respect my input and ideas, so that's great.

We watched 'The Lovely Bones' for my film class on Friday. It's such a great film. But two of the Russian girls in the class were crying so hard they needed tissues. As the teacher, I just conveniently left the room during the really sad bits.

And then it was the weekend. On Saturday I babysat Ollie for a few hours. Yes, I was left alone with a 9 month old baby. I fed him, changed his nappy (first one ever), and all that goodness. I really like him - he's an awesome kid. Then Bekah came home and we had lunch and hung out for a bit. Then I went into Suwon to buy some new gym shoes, but returned with new jeans and a lovely sweater instead:

The jeans come from the men's section, but fit me perfectly! Score :) And for only $40.

On Sunday I went barefoot trekking and chestnut picking with a meetup group. The group was lovely and I had a nice time.

6 am catching the bus from home - cold and raining.

Really painful rock foot 'massage' road.

The muddy healing path

barefoot trekking

It's supposed to be healing mud.

Mandoo at the market with hot Nepalese guy, Subash.

Mandoo lady

Lunch

Pretty good for $6 each!

On to the chestnut picking/colllecting

I have no idea what I'm going to do with this bag of nuts I now have!

Then today, Monday, I've been feeling pretty yuck and resting most of the time. But, I did find the energy to make these:

The End.

Long Weekend Monday

It's the final day of my 6 day holiday, and I've had a great time! I did the Chuseok trip on Wednesday, which I wrote about below, and then on Thursday I spent the day at home skyping and crafting. I skyped with Amy in the morning and Jen in the afternoon, which was great. It was excellent to catch up with them both.

Then, I made these:

They're canvases cut with a craft knife. I got the idea off Pinterest.

On Friday I headed into Seoul to see the Alphonse Mucha art exhibition at the Seoul Art Centre. He's one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement, which is one of my favourites.

I couldn't take photos inside the exhibition, but here's some from outside. I bought some cheap prints that I'm going to frame and hang up as well :) It was really cool to see the original works - he's an artist I really admire, and a style I'd love to emulate sometime.

Then, in the afternoon, Jay and I met up to go to another exhibition at the Seoul Art Museum (different place from the Mucha one I was at). We went to see a huge selection of Gauguin's paintings (who'd I'd never heard of, but he's pretty famous). His stuff isn't my cup of tea, but I was with Jay, so it was fun :)

On Sunday I went hiking with a group to Gwanaksan. It was supposed to be an easy hike, but turned into a nightmare. It was pretty steep from the get-go, and just got worse. Eventually we were literally crawling across rock faces and hanging onto ledges by chains and ropes. It was very scary - like one miss-step and I'll fall off this cliff and die kind of scary. I was really unimpressed with the organisers, who are experienced hikers, who obviously had not considered the route when saying the course was 'easy and suitable for beginners'. It was totally inappropriate.

So, it was really difficult, and scary. And then, one of the girls in our group fell about 15-20 feet down a rock face and badly injured her knee. The emergency helicopter was called and she had to be air-lifted out to hospital. That put a real damper on things. Then, because that took so long, we only had a couple of hours to get get off the freaking mountain before it got dark and we couldn't see any more so we had to haul ass and get the hell down as fast as we could. Not so fun. Luckily, there was short-cut trail that only took two hours to get down and didn't involve death-defying crawls of rocky doom.

Yeah... not cool.

The rescue copter

Dinner after we got off mount doom.

I was extremely pleased to get off the mountain, and it'll be a while before I go hiking with that group again. I've got two more hikes coming up, but they're with a different, WAY more relaxed group, so that should be fine.

Today I've just been relaxing, done some work, went to the gym, and am now doing some cooking. I'm attempting to make eggplant chips with the ageing eggplant in the fridge :) Tonight I have a date with some popcorn and the movie 'The Great Gatsby', which Jay kindly lent to me. Good end to a great holiday.

Chuseok Holidays Wednesday

It's holiday time! Three days off, plus the weekend :) So, today I went into Seoul with a meetup group and did some Korean kind of things. It was a good group, really lovely people, and I had a great time. Jay, again, too busy to come. Well, in truth, I didn't even bother to invite him. I have invited him out on Friday, but I think he's going to say no. You remember a few days ago when I said all this working was ok with me? Maybe it kind of isn't.

Anyway, here's some photos of today:

The whole group in front of city hall

Playing traditional Korean games.

On the Chongaechon 

Lunch

Me in traditional Korean costume (hanbok)

Boys with silly hats.

Plum eye-shadow Saturday

I was in Seoul today, looking for craft supplies. I wasn't really in the mood, and the place I was in was just too huge and crowded. Looking for specific supplies in a massive 6 floor market is a bit overwhelming. I've done some internet searching and am headed back out today to an underground shopping mall and a big stationary store to try to buy some wool and some canvases. I could buy what I want online - but I like exploring the city while I'm at it. It's not so much fun to just click and buy online - unless I just can't find what I want.

So, although I didn't get any craft supplies yesterday, I did buy some new make-up. I think I've mentioned that I'm getting more into make-up, and my favourite store (Etude House!!) had a sale on so I got some light foundation and some plum coloured eye-shadow. It's by FAR the most intense colour I've ever tried, but I've read in heaps of places that the colour is supposed to really highlight green eyes. I had a play with it last night and quite enjoyed the results.

Because I'm a 'member', I got a gift pack :)

It's bold, but I like it.

bad lighting, but you can see the eye-shadow well

I went out to a group dinner on Friday night - we had some yummy Japanese food. Then I met up with Jay - who is so, so busy and pretty stressed out. He seems to be the kind of person who handles stress very calmly, but he very clearly doesn't have much time or mental energy to direct towards me right now. Which, interestingly, I'm ok with. The things he tells me about his work and all the stuff he has to do, it's clear he does put effort into finding time for me and staying in regular contact- probably more effort that I would be able to, were out roles reversed. So, although I'd like more time/interaction with him than I'm currently getting, I feel like the fact that I'm getting any actually says a lot.

Friday night's chicken domburi

And that's all from me for now - art, make-up, and boys :D I'm honestly having a great time!

Five on Thursday

1) Today I saw a squirrel fall out of a tree. The branch it was on broke and it fell down. The squirrel was shocked, but fine. Because it was unhurt, I thought it was hilarious.

2) One of my students told me my class was fun and the time went very fast. Awesome!

3) I got given a box of chocolates. Yum.

4) I made cookies.

5) I'm happy (touch wood).

One of those days Tuesday

I've had one of those days... you know one of the ones you're lucky to make it home without being run over or falling in a mud puddle? I dropped things, forgot things, spilled things, messed up a meeting place (not my fault), and just generally had a crappy day. Even my mum had a crappy day - getting bitten by a disgusting and huge alien millipede. My day was so bad, it was internationally infectious.

So, five things that make today ok:

1) Starbucks hot chocolate with whipped cream. Always get the cream.

2) delicious salmon for dinner.

3) money.

4) Being able to walk to work.

5) Cool co-workers.

Missed my Hiking Monday

They spelled the station name wrong on the meetup site, so I ended up in the wrong place and didn't have time to make it to the right meeting station, so I didn't get to go :( But, there are lots more hiking trips, so I still have three more I'm signed up for. All is not lost!

So, what did I do with my weekend? Well, Jay ended up being free on Friday and Saturday, so I went and hung out with him. We went to a lamb restaurant, which was quite a novelty -  not much lamb is eaten in Korea. And then on Sunday when I missed my hiking, I just had a tourist day in Seoul and took some photos.

This is my plant

I want some 24K Gold Snail Cream

Autumn is here, apparently

I'm not sure what's on B1

Some big fish in the little river

Seoul's 'reclaimed' river

I found a plant market

More river

New nail polish with sticker :D

I just finished a meeting at work about writing a reading book, which I think went well. And now I'm attempting to roast a chicken.

Oooh, and this morning I squatted 50kg! Only 4 times, but that is a new record for me. Very pleased with it :)