Ah, well another delightful week in Korea brings the dreaded EPIK conference in Seoul – to induct us to a country that we have already been living in for 2 months – useful!! We had managed to escape the conference at the end of September as we were in Busan for Chuseok, but now the time had come to pay our penance! And believe me some penance it was... Firstly, we had to give up one of our weekends and then 4 more days to do this conference, however I was looking forward to getting out of An Cheon and into civilisation for a few days... however, it was not that amazing.. Firstly, we got up REALLY early on the Saturday morning – the day of registration for the conference, as we were told that if we got there early we would be able to share a room (shock horror for the non marrieds!)... this was not the case as we were met with severe resistance from some nowty dog who demanded that we show her a marriage certificate if we wanted to share – so our wishes were not fulfilled – shockingly!! I think it would be worth getting married just for the benefits in Korea – 7 days paid leave and not being treated like an actual 5 year old for once would be excellent! It got worse as I looked for my room 322, which had ‘restroom’ on a sign next to the door, as you do.... it was basically an old toilet that someone had dumped 2 beds and a wardrobe in – excellent! It still smelled like a really bad Korean toilet and still had a really loud whirring extractor fan in it – and no curtains!!! I was not happy with the whole situation and obviously got my negative Katherine face on for the rest of the week – always good! We did get to have fun after the whole registration saga though, as there was no activities on Saturday – we went to Itaewon and Insadong, both for the first time, Itaewon is the seedy hooker/tourist/tacky shops district – there is a US military base there – so lots of Yanks too! It was a really fun place, and apparently there was a place that sold salt and vinegar crisps, we couldn’t find it though – sooo gutted!! I know I keep going on about it, but I really need those crisps!!! (Edit – we found the crisps a week later, I’ve never been so happy – woo hoo!) Greg ordered a lovely handmade suit anyway, from the tailors, ‘Savile Row’! It had been recommended on internet forums and I would definitely recommend it so far – he’s only had a first fitting though at the moment, so we need to go back and collect the suit at weekend! I didn’t buy anything, but got lots of ideas for Christmas presents thank god! There is NOTHING to buy in Jeonju other than paper, so Seoul is a lovely welcome shopping paradise!! Insadong is a nice version of Itaewon, the souvenirs are similar but a lot more classy and nicer, and there is some nice art there as well – not that I appreciate art, but it’s still very nice!!! So, Saturday was nice, except I had to go back and sleep in my toilet, which was REALLY depressing, I bet I smell like a toilet by the end of the conference!!!
It’s now 2 weeks after the end of the conference so my memory is very shady – I really need to be more proactive with the blog! The only reason I am writing it now is because my internet is so broken – which is a very traumatic experience in itself – so I have nothing else to do ! L
Anyway, the rest of the conference basically went like this;
We would get up, eat breakfast (toast, jam, cereal, lettuce, potato wedges, kimchi – you know the usual kind of breakfast!!), go to boring classes/lectures for 3 hours then would escape to McDonalds/ Subway for lunch, then 3 more hours of lectures, then we would sit outside the gs25 (Korean convenience store) and have a beer and then have Korean class (which I actually liked, and Greg fancied the teacher!).. After Korean Class ended at 8, we were free to do what we wanted, and so this was the best part of the day! As we were in Seoul, we could eat Western food to our hearts content, which was ace! We got through an assortment of places, Bennigans, TGIs, Richard Copycats American Diner, but the best place was an Indian restaurant called Namaste! It was completely fit food, and really cheap too! Plus it was great to have a change from burgers etc – I would definitely recommend it to anyone!! I can’t remember where it was, or I would put it in the blog, and as I am writing without internet, I can’t check! Hopefully, I will remember to check before I post this and then I can add the location!! Anyway, I think food was the best part of the week, as the classes were boring and most of the people were really weird!! Our favourite was a lady we named ‘Joan Jett’ as she sounded like the Joan Jett dealertainer from the Imperial Palace Hotel Casino in Las Vegas (don’t ask!), who seemed drunk all the time, slurring her words and yelling randomly at things! She was a complete legend and definitely made the whole conference more entertaining!! Greg will describe the experience in more detail I’m sure! We did make a friend at the conference though, called Dave from New Zealand (this is a rare experience for us!) Unfortunately, Greg decided to shave Dave’s hair off in a really shit way with some bread trimmers, as you do! It was very messy and did not look good! But luckily Dave was very forgiving, I yelled at Greg a lot though, as he is crazy! (The night before we went to the conference he wrapped a volumising brush up in my hair, it got insanely knotted and we spent half an hour trying to get it out of my hair, taking most of my hair with it! I was not happy!) Anyway, Dave seemed more forgiving for some reason! However, to the rest of you – word of warning – Don’t let Greg near your hair/hair products!!
All in all, it was a pretty lameass week, but it was nice to be in Seoul, I love Seoul and wish to God I lived there!! The toilet saga continued, with me complaining several times, and them spraying air freshener in the room (did not work!), and I wrote a nasty evaluation of them in my end of conference questionnaire!! It’s an experience I hope we never have to relive again!!!
After the conference, we spent the weekend at Everland, Korea’s biggest theme park! Again, I will let Greg write about that, as theme parks are his thing!
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