Woo, it's been a while! In fairness, this is the longest-running and most consistent blog I think I've ever had (and, being a child of the internet, I've had a LOT of blogs...) so I'm not going to lie, I'm quite proud. It probably helps that my life is a lot more interesting now. Let's face it, "I went to a palace" is much better than "I slept for 13 hours then went on Tumblr" ;)
ANYWAY. Quite a few weeks ago now, Nick and I went to the Korvia BBQ. For the uninformed, Korvia is the recruitment agency we used to get our jobs in Korea. It's a great agency, with kind and caring staff and I don't think I'll ever be able to stop singing their praises.
One of the many great things they do for their recruits is they hold a party or barbecue when the weather is good, to give teachers old and new a chance to mingle and meet some fellow English speakers. It's really nice when you're far away from home with very little in the way of home comforts. I'm quite lucky, because every day I come home to my own little slice of England, but for many people, especially those in more rural areas, I can imagine the homesickness can hit hard.
So, after doing some shopping in the morning (we wanted to buy a "thank you and happy birthday!" present for our lovely recruiter, Daisy) we hopped onto the subway and headed off for Yatap. Annoyingly, we had to take quite a convoluted route there, which meant that we ended up taking the same amount of time as some people that came from much, much further away! However, the subway here is very comfortable so I'm not complaining too much.
When we arrived in the right area, we found some helpful posters dotted around, and slowly the sound of very non-Korean voices drifted over. Yaaay~
Pictured above: the aforementioned sign, my plate piled high with lovely lovely food, and the obligatory photo of Nick eating and wishing I was doing something other than taking terrible photos.
Past that, I don't really have anything particularly interesting to say. It was wonderful to meet so many different people, including a brief encounter with someone from Filton! (Holla, Bristol) We exchanged contact details with quite a few people, and I hope we'll get to meet up again soon.
I found it interesting just how many people we met that were media types. I'm not sure what to make of that, really. But, again, here's hoping we'll be able to make something because I really miss it.
After several hours and far too much food, it was mine and Nick's turn to take up our roles as volunteer chefs. Apologies to anyone that suffered at the hands of our inexperience. It was fun, and as hoped we managed to get chatting to a few more people this way, although I feel like maybe I scared off some others with a cry of "WHO WANTS SOME PORK?"
I'd say the one downside to this event is that there were so many people that once you had a group, that was who you stuck with. There were so many people there that I didn't even get to greet, let alone chat to. Some mixers and things would have been nice but then again I guess that's not everyone's cup of tea, especially if you're just expecting a laid-back meal and chatter.
We got the subway home with a group of people we'd been chatting to, through a mutual love of ridiculous stories, soju, and kpop. Meanwhile, I discovered a new feature on my phone camera that lets me use both the front and back cameras simultaneously. Why? Goodness knows, but expect many more terrifying doublecam photos like this.
