Last week was a busy time for me at work, as we had tests, student reviews and a new teacher starting teaching.Whilst I was busy working, Graham went out on some day trips with some of our friends.I was very envious of him, but I did manage to make it out one evening after work to join them. Graham did lots of hiking, and also went to the Mai Son Temple of Stone Pagodas, where he got to try some smoked pork which is famous to this area.The temple looked beautiful, and I hope to make a visit there with him sometime.Our friends had a visitor over from Canada, so they wanted him to experience some traditional Korean things.So, one evening I joined them after work, at a soju bar to drink the jugs of fruit soju.Drinking soju this way does disguise the taste, but still gives you the terrible hangover the next day!We then went to the German bar for a few beers and some karaoke.Whilst there, a couple of Koreans with huge camera asked to take our photo.We said that was OK, but did not realise that they were going to stick around for so long, and take quite so many pictures.I think that they were working for a beer magazine, so you might see us someday!

On the Friday night a few of us went out for Shabu after work, as one of the foreign teachers, May, was leaving.We had a great evening, but it was early to bed as we had a camping trip planned for the long weekend.

Saturday morning, seven of us met up to catch a bus and then a ferry to the Seonyudo and Gogunsan islands.This is a group of islands on the west coast of South Korea that are joined together by bridges.For the first time we were a dominant group of English people, with only one of the group being American and one being Korean.The journey took us about 3 hours, and the ferry ride was pretty rough, as the wind was high.It was quite a challenge to set up our tents in the wind, but we finally made it without losing any tents!

We spent 3 days and 2 nights on the island, and spent our time swimming, cycling, hiking and rock climbing.The water was pretty cold, but being from the North East coast of England I'm used to that, and it was quite refreshing.Our Korean friend thought we were crazy though, as did the rest of the Koreans on the island.I think they diverted all tour groups past us to take a look at the crazy foreigners swimming in the sea!We hired bikes for a few hours and went cycling over the bridges to different islands and decided to climb the huge peak near our campsite.A couple of our group dropped out when they saw the steepness of it, and to be honest I was pretty shocked.They had put up ropes for you to use, but the climb was similar to what I've done when rock climbing in England, only we had no safety lines or equipment here!The views from the top were amazing, and it was totally worth it, but abseiling down with no harness was tricky, as my arms are not very strong.I also took a wrong turn at one point, as I was in the lead, and ended up getting stuck up a rock face.Luckily Graham was not far behind and came to rescue me and guide me back down.

Another highlight of the week was some of the food that we had.Our friend Helena had prepared a proper English picnic with homemade quiche, fruit pies and proper cheese.This was a real treat for us, and some things we'd been missing from home.It was also great for our Korean friend to be able to experience them too.It was a great weekend all round, and we are very grateful to our Korean friend for organising it.It made it so much easier for us having her there.

Maggie x