Fun Beaches in Korea

April 21, 2016April 21, 20167 Comments

In the Summer Korea has a very popular festival that gathers thousands of people on the beach, its the Boryeong Mud Festival. The mud is said to ex-foliate your skin and those who ought to know say that your skin feels really soft after you wash all the mud off your body. My husband and I decided to go to Boryeong a few weeks in advance to look at the sites before the actual festival and this is what we found.

We took the local city bus to Boryeon and got off at what looked like a summer wonderland. It turns out it is a water park with all various fun activities like slides, pools and one of the only flow-riders in Korea.

We also discovered a very cute park to take pictures and where some boys were riding bikes and skate boards

Boryeong isn’t just for those who want to visit the mud festival, it has a variety of activities like zip lining and paint balling along with many eateries and hotels for those who want to stay for the weekend. There is also a camping site and a lovely spa that sells mud beauty products at affordable prices.

To get to Boryeong from Seoul you can take a bus from Seoul Central City Bus Terminal, to Boryeong (보령). From Boryeong Bus Terminal, take a bus bound for Daecheon Beach. There is a bus every 10 minutes. alternatively you can take a train from Yongsan Station or Yeongdeungpo Station, to Daecheon Station. From Daecheon Station, take a local bus bound for Daecheon Beach.

From our humble city Seosan you can take a bus (40 minutes) to Boryeong bus terminal and then from there a bus to Deacheon Beach. Getting back to Seosan takes some planning though because there is only a bus every 2 hours and the last bus leaves at 7 pm

The 2016 mud-festival this year will take place during the weekend of 15 July.

Living in a Shoe box (Korean Apartments)

April 19, 2016July 19, 20163 Comments

Korea has a population of around 50 million people and a land mass of around 100,000 square meters. therefore Koreans are the king and queens of stacking stuff. They stack their houses, their dishes, everything. Everywhere in Korea you’ll see tall apartment buildings. Even in smaller cities, 4 story apartment buildings are very common. In addition these apartments are around 25 square meters. Huge upmarket apartments are more in the range of 60-80 square meters. So how do we survive living in an apartment the size of a “shoe box”

Most Koreans don’t spend a lot of time in their apartments. They don’t invite people to their homes either. Korea has an amazing night culture and whenever you walk around you will see families, couples or friends in coffee shops and restaurants. There are always people on the streets during warmer months. Social gatherings happen outside the home, therefore you do not need a huge apartment or house to entertain your friends like you do in western countries.

In conclusion living in a shoe box is not as bad as I thought, at first I thought I might get annoyed with my husband because its just the two of us in this small apartment but I enjoyed the closeness we shared. In the Winter months we stayed in bed together and watched movies until late. When it became warmer, we started playing PC games against each other. When Spring came along we spent increasingly more time outside. Walking around our city and exploring areas we didn’t know. By the time winter came along again it was fun spending time with my husband indoors.

Spring has arrived

April 14, 2016April 13, 20163 Comments

As I walked home from work tonight I couldn’t help but stop and admire the Cherry blossoms at night.

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End of month dilemma

April 12, 2016October 24, 2016Leave a comment

Its one week before pay day. I don’t want to spend any more money this month, so food wise I have to make do with what I’ve got.

2 Kg baby potatoes
3 kg chicken breasts and a small packet of salmon.
1 packet of mushrooms
1 yellow pepper
1 Onion
1 packet of penne pasta
Baby tomatoes.
Wheat flour, chicken stock, eggs and various spices, oils and butter .

Meal 1

Chicken pie (serves 2)

I cooked the 2 chicken breasts and 5 small potatoes. Sautéed the mushrooms and onion in some garlic. Added half a block of chicken stock and mixed it into the mushroom mix

I then Peeled the potatoes, cut up the chicken and potatoes into smaller pieces and added everything together. I added some thyme and black pepper

I then made the crust with flour, butter, salt, eggs and water. I poured it on top of the Chicken mixture and baked it in the oven until the crust was golden brown.

Meal 2

I was a little lazy, I was planning on making potato quiche but I ate the eggs for breakfast

I made baked potato, fried mushrooms (sautéed with garlic) and salmon.

Meal 3

Pasta (serves 2) 20160407_124925

I made half a packet of pasta the usual way but added some chicken stock to the water. I then fried half an onion and the yellow pepper. I made a white sauce and added everything together. I then topped it off with some fresh tomatoes because it looked kind of dull.

Geeky Fridays

April 8, 2016April 8, 2016Leave a comment

I am a real geek at heart. I love reading books, playing computer games, reading comics and watching movies. In winter months in Korea the only thing you can do is stay indoors. Therefore I have rekindled my love for computer games.

SO… this is what I’ve been spending my free time on. This Video contains 2 minutes of game play.

The game is very realistic. If you get shot once in the head, you die. If you get 2 body shots, depending on the amount of armour you have, you die. There is no health-bars for any player so you cant see whether you’ve hit someone or not. If you see them going down, they might have decided to lie down or they might have died. You just have to take your chances.

Furthermore it is slow paced as you have to play strategically. Running in shooting and screaming will only get you killed.If you were a fan of Counter Strike, you will love Insurgency. But beware, it is slightly different

You cannot upgrade your guns. Everyone starts out with the same stock guns.
You don’t always know if you’ve killed the other player. They don’t have health bars
You don’t know how much health you have. You too, don’t have a health bar.
The game is objective based. You have to get capture or defend the objective.
You can choose to play “modern warfare” (Insurgent forces vs Terrorists) or “Day if Infamy”, where you can be either a Nazi soldier or American soldier.
You can play PVP or against the bots. Either way you play with on-line players on your team.

You can buy it on Steam for around $16.