Still no news about the templestay program. They have probably decided we sucked so badly that it couldn´t be saved.

The last month in Korea was a bit stressful. All of the sudden, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but at that point I was starting to get used to Seoul and everything and was actually starting to like being in Seoul quite a lot. Still didn´t like living with a family and looking back, I should have chosen to stay at my own place. But no room for regrets.

The weekend, 23-24th of January, I spent at a 5-star hotel in Spanish style, nestled in between Soraksan Mountain and the sea. It was truly a weekend of indulgence and tranquility. The first day there, Emily and I went for a 2-hour spa treatment that included mud bath, water and sound therapy, being “buried” in black mineral salt (my favourite) and last but not least a leg massage and facial. All of this for the silly price of around $50. For dinner we went to the nearby harbor. Here we walked past all the restaurant, where you pick your dinner that is swimming around in the big tanks. Emily´s host parents, being the experts, chose some different white fish and a cuttlefish. Then it is sliced and diced and served raw at your table. You then dip the piece of raw fish in one of the complimentary sauces and wrap it in a lettuce leave. This is sooo delicious and one dish I will truly miss. The day after we went to a famous beach, which I, off course, have forgotten the name of. It was extremely windy so after watching the poor soccer playing men loose their ball to the sea; we left to go to Soraksan Mountain. Here we were supposed to take a cable car all the way to the top, but unfortunately the wind was to strong so the cable cars had been shut down. As the true adventurers Emily and I are, we ventured out on our own to explore. After a couple of hours we started our trip back to Seoul. For dinner Emily´s family took us out for another favourite of mine: dok-mandu-gu, or something :-) It is a soup with dumplings, ricecake, egg and shredded beef and it is ever so yummy.

The weekend after, I was supposed to spend with Emily and her visiting friend sightseeing all the places we still had on our to-do-list. Friday evening most of us interns went out partying together as it was Matt´s birthday (even though he wasn´t there because he chose to catch the swine flu instead) and last Friday of the month, which means PARTYING in Hongdae. After a tapas inspired dinner we went to the first bar, where we bought a bottle of vodka, which was accompanied by fruit and snacks all for the silly price of $65. More of that in DK and AUS, thank you. After dancing, jumping and shaking that ass at a ton of different clubs, we went for some night snacks and took a taxi home. I don´t know what it is with me and late night taxis when I´m less than sober. For some reason I am very suspicious that they will take me to the right place by the shortest route, so I always end up raising my voice a bit and being very annoying (but amusing to my friends). But I have always ended up the right place for a very reasonable fare, so I just have to learn to shut the pie hole and trust that the taxi drivers know Seoul just a tiny bit better than I do.
The day after my whole family was going to a Korean spa, so I had to cancel my sightseeing plans and be a good host daughter and go with them. 90 degrees hot saunas are somewhat straining when you have been drinking and partying the night before and or just slightly dehydrated, so I started slowly in the 60 degrees one and build my way up to the 90 degrees one. And after that one I ran to the minus 15 degrees one, ahhh that was so nice. After the spa you, off course, take a shower. My host family was a bit concerned if I would be alright with the whole communal shower thing. I assured them, I was used to it from gym classes etc in DK. Okay admitted, it was a bit more extreme here. You had women of all ages and tightness walking around in their Eve costumes, scrubbing and washing away. I don´t mind nudity and taken a shower in a room with strangers but where ever I looked you had women sitting on benches, wide spread legs, lifting one boob after the other to get a good scrub under them. So I quickly finished my shower and had a quick dip in the bubble bath and then decided I was plenty clean.

Next weekend was in the name of food… and plenty of it. Friday night we went to see a Korean performance called Nanta. The performance took place in a kitchen, where 3 chefs and an apprentice were to cook a wedding dinner in only 1 hour. There was no speaking only the beats and rhythms of their cooking gear. It was hilarious; who would have thought a show where no one speaks and made by Koreans could be funny! I laughed the whole way through. After the show we went to Monkey Beach – a Thai inspired bar that serves their drink strong and in a bucket. Mmm we liked.

The day after, Emily and I went for a crazy shopping spree and I think that sealed the deal for both of us – it was now official that we had to send home some stuff and that we would have to smile extra much when checking in our luggage (as a little note: we were not all as lucky as Emily who got to check in almost 30 kilos twice, oh no I had to pay for f…ing 2 kilos at the small price of $60 – never flying Quantas again only Singapore Airlines from now on). After some serious shopping we had a buffet dinner at the 4 seasons at Walkerhill Hotel, which is owned by SK and the reason why I had to free tickets for the dinner. We laid down the strategy for the dinner: first seafood, then salads, then meat, then second rounds of the favourites and then dessert, dessert and more dessert. Yum, yum and more yum… everything there was so delicious and the best part of it – there was a lot of non-Korean dishes. After more than 2 hours of intense eating, we decided we would roll back home.

Next day we went to a service at Yoido Church, which is the church with the largest congregation in the world – 700.000 members. We stayed for about an hour and it was a truly amazing experience, especially the gospel choir was rocking it. After the service we went to Times Square shopping center, and no we didn´t do more shopping. We wanted to see Avatar at the world´s largest cinema screen. Unfortunately it was sold out that day, but we bought tickets for a performance just before leaving Seoul. Instead we decided to venture into the different food courts and supermarkets and take advantage of the generous food sampling they do there. So once again our day evolved around eating :-)

I don´t know how this ever happened, but magically it was now the last week of work. Writing it now makes my stomach turn around with butterflies, but I haven´t decided if it is because I was so happy it was the last week or if it is because I actually came to enjoy working there and was a bit sad it was my last week. But the last week was pretty much all about work, work and more work while preparing and rehearsing for our final presentation. We gave our final presentations Friday morning for 12 people from the HR department. It was very satisfying and rewarding to see their nodding heads and smiley faces while I gave mine. After the presentations they gave us a little wooden box with some beautiful ornaments on as a thank you. It is really beautiful and I am very grateful for it, as it is typical Korean ad not something I would have bought myself, but man it took up so much space in my luggage and it was quite heavy. At one point I even considered giving it to my host parents, but decided that would be rude and I would regret it. Our department then took us out for lunch, buffet again – my 3rd in one week:-) and after a stressful week that was soothed by lots of chocolate, I started feeling more and more like a hippo. And with my colour being more and more the colour of a Chinese radish, I didn´t exactly feel I was bringing my A game.
Sunday the 14th of February was Lunar – their new year. For lunch we went to some relatives house, where we had their traditional dish dok-mandu-gu (yes the earlier mentioned favourite). After lunch the family did the traditional bowing ceremony. First the oldest sit in the front and everyone takes turn to bow in front of them and thank them for this and that and then they are blessed by the elders. The children are given money after they bow. Hereafter it is the younger generation of adults´ turn to sit in front and this time it is only the kids that bow, again they thank for something and are blessed and are given some money. I also did both rounds of bowing and was also given some money by the oldest, oh well thank you :-) The 2 girls in my family doesn´t exactly like the other kids, because they only see each other once a year, and then everything revolves around comparing their merits in school and for the girls also their size and weight! The oldest girl in my family, which is very thin but still beautiful was constantly telling my about her new ideas of how she could be healthy and how she could lose weight, and then at the lunch one of her uncle’s came up to her and said she looked fatter than last time he saw her. Remind you, this is also the girl that used to cut herself a year ago when she was too stressed about an exam. Disaster waiting to happen! So we left early to go back to our own place. Around 6 pm we had dinner, I was a bit confused because I had been told the family on the mother´s side would come by for dinner, but then I was told they wouldn´t come until later and not have dinner. After our little dinner the family came and then the whole shenanigan of a huge dinner was brought out on the table. Okay did I feel cheated for not being offered that dinner instead :-) after the dinner Korea was playing Japan in soccer, so everyone watched the match in silence. As I had to fly to Jeju Island with Emily at 6 am the next day, I was to sleep at her place. So when the soccer match finished, I packed my stuff to go. But then my oldest host sister looked at me with a disappointed and sad face and told me that everyone had just wanted me to meet the cousins etc and now I was leaving. Oh dear, they f…ing had their chance, but they chose to stare straight into the tv screen not speaking one word to me. Plus I had told them days ago I had to leave. This was my constant problem with the family, no matter what I was doing it seemed to disappoint them if I wouldn´t spent every single free moment with them at home, regardless of them being home or not. I think in their world it would have been perfect, if I would just sit around at home, waiting for them to come home and then we could do nothing together. So throughout my stay with the family, I felt constantly guilty whenever I told them I was doing something. This was the major cultural difference and issue I had while in Korea, but it took up a lot of my thoughts and it just made everything less than really good.

Well off to Jeju Island, which is the major destination for honeymooners in Korea. Thus, Emily and I decided that it might as well be our honeymoon too, who says that honeymoons are only for newlyweds and that you can´t have several in your life. With the outlook of never getting married, I decided that at least I should have one honeymoon in my life and who else to have it with than my faithful and lovely companion throughout these 3 months in Korea. We explored much of the island in our 3 days getaway and again we had lots and lots of food. And as you can see on the pictures from our trip (unfortunately my camera refused to cooperate, so only Emily have pictures from the trip, but she tagged me in them) we had a lovely honeymoon, true Korean style with sticky icky photos of us making hearts everywhere.
My last day in Seoul, Thursday the 18th of February, I met with Emily and Victoria for breakfast to say see you soon in Brisbane. Afterwards I started packing, but I started feeling worse and worse. I couldn’t tell if it was nerves that made me nauseous, but I went to bed for some hours. Then my host dad came and took me to the post office to send my discrete, small box off 13 kilos (ha ha mom you feared it would be closer to the previous mentioned 80). As he had to go to work afterwards, he dropped my off close to our place so I could walk the rest of the way home. Luckily, I had safeguarded myself with a plastic bag and not after many minutes of walking, I had to make a little detour into an alley kneeling down with my little plastic bag in front of me. How miserable can you be… here I was in a little alley, feeling ever so sick. Was it a sign from some higher powers that I should just get the hell out of Korea or was it the opposite. Any way I managed to get up and get home to my bed. The rest of the afternoon, I spend in bed when not puking my guts out. Around 6 pm it was dinner time and off course my sweet host mother had made all the dishes, I had told her I love. I forced myself to eat a little of it, as there was no understanding off my hand gestures trying to explain I was really sick. After dinner we did a little gift exchanging ceremony, I got a Korean cook book. Ever so grateful as it was my intention to buy one, but with the lack of space in my suitcase I decided not to. They also wanted to give me a jar of some paste that they use in many of their dishes (yes also in another of my favourites), but it was so large and heavy that I made the excuse that customs in Australia would confiscate it. Probably not true, but there was literally not a single empty spot in my bags (which is not quite true considering I found room for the sunglasses, camera and jeans I bought in Tokyo – it is a question of priorities).
After a long sleepless night, I got up in the morning finished packing and said goodbye to the mother and my oldest sister. I wanted to hug them goodbye, but they are not very touchy people with “strangers” so it was rather awkward. I still felt like s*** and the drive to the airport was a test in endurance. Man this was so not the best way to start a week in Tokyo. In the airport, I said goodbye to my youngest sister and my dad. They were both so sweet and the girl told me, she would never forget me and the dad expressed his gratefulness for me having stayed with them. I also got a letter and a small gift from my oldest sister to read in the plan. They have all been so grateful of me being there, and I think I left a big mark in their lives with my positive and supporting nature. Even though it also spurred some old conflicts to resurface, I believe it was for the better. Despite my constant complaining over my situation, I am also very grateful that they took me into their home and lives for those 3 months. I know I will always have a family in Korea now.

Feeling sorry for myself over being sick, I splurged and upgraded myself to business class on the flight to Tokyo. And oops I also bought myself a new watch. In Seoul, I went with my oldest sister to see the Andy Warhol Exhibition and in the souvenir shop they had some Andy Warhol watches that were quite cool but very expensive. So when browsing around Seoul Airport I stumbled upon some Andy Warhol watches at a very cheap price, there was nothing to do but to buy one. An eternal memory of Seoul and a lovely afternoon with my sister.