Winter is coming.

Preparing for Winter: Gillian and my new couple set hoodies. Absolutely Turning Korean.

The temperatures are dropping at an alarming rate (well at least for me) and that for one means that I am going to have to start frequenting the shopping streets to get my winter wardrobe up and running. Having been in summer for the past 18 months has resulted in a cupboard overflowing with brightly coloured dresses, bikinis, skirts, shorts and t-shirts with absolutely no sign of the ever so necessary pants, jeans, jerseys, scarves, beanies or even closed shoes.  

Halloween was coming up and my friend Chelin and I (both being tropical people) decided that it would be a good idea to dress in a costume that was both warm and comfortable aaaaand that we would be able to wear again. Walking downtown one chilly autumn evening I noticed racks and racks of fluffy, fleecy pajama sets and somehow in my head began singing "Bananas in Pajamas are coming down the stairs...." whilst rubbing my face up against the soft fabrics. **Light Bulb** I immediately got Chelin on the phone and our costume was decided. We were going to bring B1 and B2 to life and get a pair of warm, fleece pajamas to get us through winter at the same time. We found ourselves some adorable matching Pajama sets and matching slippers that looked like sneakers which completed half of our outfit. The next step was creating banana heads and this was going to be far more challenging. The night before the Halloween Festivities downtown 4 of us gathered in my Damyang apartment to eat a feast of good food (lately it seems my obsession has been recipe searching and then bringing them to life) and costume making.

Sweet Potato/Peanut Bisque.

FEAST: Guacamole, homemade basil pesto, homemade salsa, french loaf, sweet potato/peanut soup and of course RED WINE.

Once we had enough wine and food in our systems, the construction began. We formed the base of the bananas by moulding wire coat hangers.

Then we covered the coathangers with yellow felt and glue gunned it together, topping it off with a folded brown tip. Put the head together with yellow face paint , our matching Pajamas, slippers and of course our banana personalities..it turned out quite sensationally...

Bananas in Pajamas!

B1 and B2 come to life.

Halloween out on the town was an absolute blast. Particularly funny becasue in Korea (much like at home) Halloween isn't really celebrated, only among the foreigner community. Speakeasy (the local foreigner bar) held a massive extravaganza and Feed the Boats were the star performers dressed as Pirates. As if being a foreigner in Korea isn't already enough of a spectacle..imagine now being dressed in outraegous outfits. And boy, does it get ridiculous. Among the many interesting characters - there was a Dead, Zombie Hitler, a caricatured Kim Jung Il (which my friend Jolean handmade and was by far the best costume of the evening), a robocop, a Mister Potato Head, a flood of Zombies, a Kung Fu Panda and Gillian even managed to create a 'Bermuda Triangle.' I was particularly impressed by how the Koreans took to the costume of Kim Jung Il. They were flocking to take pictures of the brilliantly created mockery version of the Korean Dictator. It was great to see their sense of humor and appreciating the costume for what it was. I can see how it would be very easy to look at that costume and many others in the wrong way and possibly take some of the more controversial costumes as being offensive and/or disrespectful but it was just Halloween. Nobody was out to antagonize or horrify anyone, it was just a night of fun and games and a fantastic one at that.

Gillian, being Jewish, thought it was great  to "Kill" Hitler.

Kim Jung Il.

Me, but with Glasses (and this sign.)

Hilarious array of characters.

 

Sometime on a Sunday in October a few friends and I also entered a team into a Scavenger Hunt that was put together by the Gwangju International Centre held at the annual Kimchi Festival. It was an awesome opportunity to have some fun and to explore the festival which is one of Gwangju's biggest events. We arrived to register around midday and hung around watching a beyond adorable and actually rather brilliant child rock band. Of course Chelin and I were dancing a little wildly and ended up having a camera being stationed right in front of us and every so often being paraded across the big screen. We began the 2 hour hunt around 3pm and tried to get going on the long list of clues ahead. The idea was to find things around the festival by following the clues on the list and taking pictures of them. We added one very important task to the end of our list and that was 'Have fun.' Well we didn't tick off too many of the actual clues (mainly because we got much too easily distracted by the many activities at the festival like getting glitter tattoos, face painting, amusement rides and getting to make our own kimchi) but the 'Have fun' task on our list was ticked off about 20 times by the time we had to go back to the meeting spot and have our pictures counted. We got some delicious food and some free Makgoli and of course a free tshirt. Absolutely happy with that. As a team, we decided after the hunt to head downtown to Speakeasy for some drinks to end off the weekend. This resulted in well, you can only imagine.An excellent way to spend a Sunday.

Here are some pictures from the glorious day courtesy of Dan Hendricson -

Number 62 - HAVE FUN!

Making our own Kimchi.

...and after draining the Jagermeister machine at Speaks.

 What I thought were shin splints has turned out to be a dislocated/shifted pelvis and that is being taken care of with daily Physical Therapy which will hopefully have me good as new in a week or two, just in time for a race in Seoul. I had to miss out on the Damyang 10k because of the injury. My friends Mara and Bryan and I are going up to Seoul for the Race on December 4th and are also going to use the trip as an opportunity to do some Winter Shopping and to eat some goooood food. School has been going well, the students have their exams next week and then they go on Vacation until March, lucky for me! My job really is the best job in the world.

We are going to Road Trip down to Daegu in a few weeks for a Feed the Boats show and then it will be time for Christmas. A few of us are going to have a giant sleepover/cookoff in my apartment in Damyang to celebrate the holiday no doubt with some silly drinking games and cuddle sessions.Soon we are going to see the white balls dropping from the sky which is always a rivetting experience for me being from a place where temperatures below 15 degrees are unheard of. It is the only part of Winter that I actually enjoy, it's impossible not too - it's just so pretty!

So I guess, that's it for now.

Sorry it has taken me so long to put this all in writing but I hope you enjoyed reading it anyhow...

See ya sooon

Lots of love,

Katie