영국여행 | England (Day 3)

Perspective tricks?

On day 3 we finally left London and headed west to Birmingham to see Nick's grandpa, after which I would head southwards to Bristol and Nick would just go back to London.

We took the train, which is always a nice, relaxing way to go, and after years of gross Megabus journeys (PSA: for the love of all that is good and holy, don't poo in coach toilets) I think I cherished it a little more than I'd expected to.

Birmingham looks different to how I remembered it.

It was a bit confusing to see the progress in Brum New St station, since the last time I'd been there most of it had been closed off and it was a nightmare to get to any platforms. A lot of it was still closed off, but navigation was easier, there was more room, and you could see a lot of progress had been made! (In my opinion anyway). We transferred trains, met Nick's grandpa, and sped off to a pub for a proper pub lunch.

영국여행 | England (Day 2)

We started our day reasonably well and didn't sleep in too late, and had a deliciously English/unhealthy tasting breakfast of toast, fried eggs, and various forms of breaded potato with Nick's brother.

We went to the shops to see to several errands such as getting SIM cards for our phones and sorting out bank things we'd been having trouble with.

I was also determined to find some shoes and jeans to bring back to the land of clothes for tiny people, but didn't have much luck or time.

We did, however, have time to make Nick try on this hat.

We were trying to take it easy on day 1 and 2, but we were also determined not to fall asleep at anything earlier than 8pm to fight off any jetlag that could jeopardise our tightly scheduled holiday. So, in true British style, we "went for a walk".

It was nice to see all the British wildflowers and trees and people and air for a while. We also saw some seemingly wild parakeets, which was baffling. What exactly happened to England while we were gone?

We went to a great little cafe that we love, which was thankfully still there (we're damaged by the impermanence of Korean establishments), for lunch and had proper sandwiches. Take that, Paris Baguette!

Korvia Summer Barbecue

Hello from your friendly neighbourhood BBQ assistants~

Another incredibly late pre-summer catchup, this time it's the Korvia BBQ!

For anyone that doesn't know, the wonderful Korvia is the company that helped myself, Nick, and hundreds of other people from around the world make the move to South Korea.

The barbecues and parties that Korvia throw for their recruits are there to let people meet the people that helped them share the bureaucratic deadweight that is trying to get work abroad, as well as other native English speakers that might also be in or near your placement area. It's a great idea to help you feel a little bit less of a tiny fish in a huge ocean, and is actually one of the things that really drew me to Korvia over other recruitment agencies when I first started my research.

I actually met a lot of my really good friends over here via last year's (and our first) barbecue. My idea was that if I volunteered to man the grill, I'd HAVE to crawl out of my comfort zone and actually talk to new people. And hey, it worked! Since then, it's always been fun to help out with setting up the venues, because it's basically an easy excuse to doss about with my friends before everyone else arrives. ;p

One of our main tasks was to set up the photo wall in the picture at the top, which was surprisingly difficult considering there were so many people trying to set it up. (And it all ended in disaster, RIP photo wall. I say that, I think we fixed it, but it DID fall on me, and I valiantly tried to leap out of the way like an action hero. Expectations vs Reality, I probably looked more like a kid faceplanting than Indy with the giant rock, but don't crush my dreams, okay?)

Ignore my sweaty mess and focus on Kiegan's dazzlingly adorable smile.

Our other task was to set up the food tables ready for the masses, and get the coals burning and ready for meat, glorious meat. Also: ASPARAGUS!!