Last Thursday was Children's Day; therefore we had the day off work.So on Wednesday night we went along to a new bar to celebrate having the next day off.The beer was pretty cheap, it's very close to my school, and has a balcony with seating out the front, so I think we'll be there a lot over the next few months!As I think I've mentioned before, in Korea you are supposed to order food when drinking. However, as foreigners we can usually get away with not doing this (which is good as the food is often expensive) and they just bring along some snacks or 'service' food instead. This is normally some corn snacks, nuts and occasionally French fries if you're lucky.On Wednesday however I think the new bar were out to impress us, as we were a group of about 8 foreigners, and they obviously wanted us back.So, they brought us toasted garlic bread snacks, fruit platters, something that looked like fried spam with dips, and then an ice cream cake.Let's hope they keep up this kind of service next we're there!

Thursday was a beautiful day, so I had organised a picnic at the memorial park.We all took along different types of food, various bats and balls, and plenty of sun cream for me.A group of us met up and had a fantastic day chilling out in the sun, eating, drinking and playing games.The park was pretty quiet, as many parents take their children to amusement parks etc on this day.There were a few Korean families around, but they were all sitting under the trees, hiding away from the sun and wrapped in jackets!The park had been decorated with some beautiful coloured lanterns and many flowers were in bloom.Later we headed back to our area, and to a local park which has a beer garden.The beer here is 2000won, about 1.10GBP, for a glass of draft beer, so this is another place we shall be going back too very soon!

Whilst sitting in the beer garden in the park, a woman set up a mini stage, put on some music and got up to practice an exercise routine.Within minutes there were about 30 women, all in their exercise gear, standing waiting for her to start an exercise class.Apparently this happens every day in the park and there are usually a lot more people there, but because it was Children's Day only a small number came along.It was very interesting, and quite bizarre, watching these women (and a couple of men) doing their exercises in the middle of the park, but such a good idea and great that so many come every day to join in.

It was a fantastic, but exhausting day, which was then to turn into a less pleasant night and horrible next day for me, and for Graham.I woke up in the night with stomach cramps, which I think must have been food poisoning, as I spent the next 36 hours in pain and on the toilet!This meant that I was not able to go into work on Friday, which was the sticker market day at my school.Therefore, Graham went to work instead of me!Now those of you that know Graham know how much he loves being surrounded by excited, screaming kids, so the prospect of going into my school was quite daunting to him….but he did it!And, I got many reports back from the Korean teachers to say what a fantastic job he did.

By the Saturday I was still feeling a little under the weather, so Graham went off to the motorbike shop to work on his bike, and I took a short walk around our area, which exhausted me!However, by the evening I was starting to feel much better, so we went to our friends' apartment for a party.Graham joined in the 'beer chugging' (see photo's) but I declined, deciding this might not be good for my delicate stomach!We then went to a local small park and let off many fireworks, which was fantastic.Many of our friends are from countries were fireworks are illegal, so they were particularly excited about being able to buy them so easily here.We then decided to continue on to a Nureabang, as a little karaoke seemed like a good idea.It indeed was, and was a perfect end to the night.

On Sunday we decided it was time to do some shopping, so went to the larger department, as here you can buy more western food and they have a better selection of wine!The great thing about supermarkets here is that they have loads of workers giving out free samples, so we managed to fill ourselves up on what they were giving away.We had various types of meats, fish, vegetables, along with lots of things which we have no idea what they were.The workers have little cookers set up, and are busy creating these free samples at the end of each aisle all day.We even got to sample some beer.Graham is thinking of going every day for lunch!

They also like to give things away for free with your purchases (like BOGOF) but luckily for us they do not use signs to say this, they just tape things together, but not always the same things!This all makes for a more interesting time in the supermarket, going around and seeing what you can find that has been taped to something else, whilst snacking on the freebies.

The one thing I do find strange though, is that buying raw meat is soooo expensive.Eating out in Korea is pretty cheap, and you can buy cooked meat at a not too bad price, but if you want to cook something yourself it costs a fortune!Even fruit and vegetables are pretty expensive in the supermarkets; you have to go to the market to get them at a reasonable price.And the cheese….you can buy a pepperoni pizza from the take away, with lots of cheese on, for 5,500WON (just under 3.00GBP) but in the supermarket, you would pay about 10,000WON (about 5.50GBP) for a block of cheese!It just does not make sense….but then a lot of things don't in Korea.We still love it though!

Maggie x