FiFa WoRLd CuP 2010

Are you ready? The world cup starts in exactly 11 days!! The tournament kicks off on 11 June 2010 and continues for a whole month. Is South Africa ready for this? I've heard rumours that the Columbian team has already been robbed in their hotel room..pff!

Welcome to South Africa.

I'm dying to know what the vibe is back home! Being all the way in Korea kind of sucks at the moment, cause we are missing out on so much back home! I'm not even a fan, but would love to be apart of the crazy atmosphere in Cape Town during this month. Lemme know what you are up to back home!

We are kicking the World Cup off at Eva's, our regular awesome bar! It's just a block away from home, so it's very convenient and the safest, most responsible choice for the big event. They're planning a few really cool things, like free drinks and each time you come and support your team, your team will get a stamp! They will even be serving breakfast during the world cup. You gotta love 'em!

x

Guess who's got it all this morning!!

I love the fact that it is Wednesday and the best part is: This day couldn't have started off better.

The first thing I do every morning at school is log on to my gmail account. There it was just chilling in my inbox waiting to put a smile on my face! City of Joy update!

A while ago I blogged about the Vagina Monologues and this year the focus is on the women and girls of the DRC. At the beginning of May the Monologues were performed in the DRC and the response was phenominal!! Approximately 500 students pitched up to the second show, both show's were completely full!!

Click here to read the full article.

The V-day campaign has grown into an unstoppable force, driven by thousands of women spreading awareness and their stories with the rest of the world. Join this force and maybe your story can make a difference in someone's life.

Ready or not here we come!

Just to keep you in the loop - the year of the traveller is not over yet! We just got our passports back with a beautiful visa for China inside! YAY!



We depart on the 17th of July! Get packing bitches, cause we are going to take Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai by storm!

Guilty as charged..

So for my 11th last weekend I did absolutely nothing!!! It was a long weekend and I spent it in bed. I actually enjoyed every minute of it!

I'm not completely useless though, I went to the beach on Friday (it was a stunner!!) and got completely sun burnt playing beach bats, tanning and attempting to swim. Attempting, because I only went in half way, not because it was cold, but because it was dirty!! I wish people will stop living like pigs! (I don't know if that sentence makes any sense, but I think you know what I mean.) Koreans are constantly out and about with their little white gloves cause they are so afraid that their hands will get dirty - live cleaner and loose the gloves damnit!

Anyways had a great lunch at Breeze Burns on Friday and Friday night we started off at Eva's (no surprize..) and this time we even got free t-shirts! Afterwards I made my name 'gat' in Kino eye dancing my little heart out. It was so much fun! Check out the pictures!



Saturday and Sunday was like a monsoon in Korea. I couldn't even open my window without a waterfall coming down on my bed. I downloaded some classic movies and made jummy stirfry and pretty much stayed horizontal the rest of the weekend. (off course a good thing to sleep off a babelas!)

Buddha's birthday

21 May is Buddha's birthday as well as a public holiday! Yay! I love short weeks!

In Korea the birthday of Buddha is celebrated according to the Lunar calendar. This day is called 석가탄신일 (Seokga tansinil), meaning "the day of Buddha's birthday".

The streets are lined with Lotus lanterns and can be seen at every single temple in Korea. On the day of Buddha's birth, many temples provide free meals and tea to all visitors. The breakfast and lunch provided are often sanchae bibimbap.

We are planning to visit the Beomosa Temple tomorrow night for a lantern festival.

Happy Friday! x

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. - Buddha

Top ten places to go Skinny dipping

Lonely Planet gives it to you straight. These places you have to visit for a skinny dip or two before you die! I'm heading to the Paradise Beach, Mykonos, soon! Where are you going?

1. Formentera, Spain
2. Viti Lake, Askja Caldera, Iceland
3. Traditional onsen, Japan
4. Ice swimming, Finland
5. Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, Michigan, USA
6. Paradise Beach, Mykonos, Greece
7. Radha Nagar, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
8. Blackmoss Pot, Lake District, England
9. Englischer Garten, Munich, Germany
10. Turtle Island, Fiji

did you know?

According to 2Oceansvibe 400 million people log into their facebook accounts at least once a month. 50% There of log in every day.

The site is available in more than 70 languages and has more traffic than Youtube. Google, of course is first on the list.Today facebook is valued between $7 - $11 billion.

Wow..

11 weekends left in the country

I just came to the shocking realization that I only have 11 days left in Korea! How time flies. I think I'd have to come back in the near future. So much left to do. It's so easy and SO cheap to travel from here and there are so many wonderful and beautiful things to see.

For the 12th last weekend in Korea we celebrated the return of a good friend, my brothers birthday and a trip to Songdo beach and we searched for a parade of monks with lanterns.

Friday the fourteenth my baby brother turned 21! Super bummed that I wasn't home to celebrate with him, but from what I hear the night was BIG and unforgettable! Here in Asia we started the night of at our local hang out Eva's waiting for Captain Awesome, Jared to arrive. Shortly after his arrival we jumped in a cab and made our way to Club Womb in Gwangali.






We quickly learned that we will probably be the only people in the club that night - but had fun nevertheless. We got started off with a good few vodka redbull's at Eva's, so by the time we got to Womb we really didn't care wether or not it was full or empty. We had the bar and the dance floor to ourselves, as well as the awesome lasers!! :)

At about 3/3:30 we had quite enough of Womb and headed off to a Noraebang in Kyuangsang where we sang the morning away until just past 6. It was a good mixture of korean and english classic songs. We had some nachos, beer and chips and lovely comfy leather couches to end the night off perfectly. On our way home we made a quick pitstop at Salome's flat we we had some good chow to lessen the hangover the next day. Nothing works like mince on toast, potato salad, boerewors and coke! Loved it!

Saturday Marie and I had a movie marathon at my house and on Sunday we went to Songdo beach to get the tan on and then for a late afternoon walk around Amnan Park with the locals. The latern festival was scheduled for the night at 6:30 but Marie and I never managed to find the damn monks. pfff




I am going to try to make every weekend as awesome as possible and go on at least one sick adventure mission each weekend. I'll keep you posted!

Have a rad week!

x

Legal at Last!

My beautiful baby brother turns 21 today!! Big up for Frank! I wish I could be home to celebrate with him and to make sure he gets a 'strafdop' or two. I hope he paints the town red tonight. If you bump in to him, be sure to give him a high five!

Love you Frank x

TGIF!!!!

Hi guys! Thank goodness it's Friday right!?

What have you got planned for this coming weekend? Here in Korea we have a massive party at Club Womb tonight, chilled Saturday and a wedding on Sunday. Should be fun!

An interesting read to start your day off: Top 10 countries destroying the planet. Not predictable at all - SPOILER ALERT - but USA is not number one. WTF? I thought they would be for sure! Anyways check out the link and see for your self!!

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/top-10-countries-ruining-the-planet.html

Have a fab weekend! x

Bugs, butterflies and beetles

Our school's president said that he will 'treat' the students if they select him as president. He treated the whole school by organising an insect exhibition. I'm not really interested in insects, but it was pretty impressive. I never knew such beautiful, big and scary stuff existed..





Creobroter-gemmatus or the Jeweled Flower Mantis
Goliathus Goliatus - Among the largest insects on Earth. Found in many of Africa's tropical forests.




I tried to do some research on some of the above insects, and came across a very interesting yet disturbing website. Did you know that you can actually buy insects. Some of them go up to $80. Ridiculous! I don't know if you buy them alive or dead though.. Either way there are so many beautiful creatures that roam this planet, don't buy and destroy them!

Same goes to everything else out there with breath and a heart beat.

Dinner with Jackey and Olivia

Since Marnix introduced me to Mr. Kim and Miss Jin, I've had so many nice dinners. Last night I went out with Jackey and Olivia. Both of them work with Mr. Kim and invited me to have dinner with them and two other colleagues. They took me to a popular Korean restaurant in Seomyeon. I'm not sure what kind of restaurant it was, but it was delicious. When I got there, they already ordered a kind of sour pork salad, sounds dodgy but was machita! (delicious in korean) We also had some pig leg - which I only found out about later. They ate the pig feet - EEU! It was so funny because the one girl was teasing Jackey that he looks like a dog eating one of the pig bones. That opened a whole can of 'name-calling'.

After dinner two of the colleagues left and Jackey and Olivia took me to a mini theme park in Gwangali. Frankie and I always see the park because we jog past it, but it always looks closed and abandoned. Apparently not. At first it was a little weird, especially in the middle of the week after dinner, but it turned out to be a lot of fun! At first we watched all the rides (ok there was only 3 - but 3 scary ones) so that we could decide on which to go. We picked the big ship - it's called The Viking. Ratanga also has one of those, but I can't remember the name. After the ship we played some baseball in the batting cages, shot some hoops and some targets.


It's awesome to constantly go out with new people and to dig out new stuff to do.

[Stay tuned for the next post - bugs, butterflies and beetles.] - I like to pretend I'm on TV :)

Songjong beach

This past weekend was pretty chilled as I'm trying to save some money. However, I found some jummy food at the Paris Baguette just around the corner.

Chicken and cranberry wraps

cinnabun!!

Sunday we discovered Song Jong beach with Marie and a few other South Africans and had some burgers on the beach for lunch. After lunch we took a little nap on the beach.


I love it that summer is coming closer. No more socks, no more jerseys and scarfs!!! I am smiling!!!! :)

Magical May

Another week has just flown by! My remaining time in Korea is seriously flying and I'm starting to panic!! SO.MUCH.LEFT.TO.DO!!

This weekend was another stunner all round! Thursday we went out for some cup cakes to celebrate Marie's birthday. We discovered the cutest little cup cake shop just around the corner. All About Cupcake. The cakes were delicious! Take a look at the pictures and judge for yourself.







Friday after school, Salome and I went for a manicure and once again I got caught up with Asia and got some nail art done. So nice to relax on a Friday after school...

Friday night we had a girls dinner - Marie, Salome and Moi at Thursday Party and then we headed off to Club Womb. I know dodgy name, but as it turns out - the place is amazing! It was the club's reopening in Gwangali and they had great drink specials. Unfortunately we were a little eager and arrived to early, but atleast we got to see what the place looked like and what to expect. The club even had lockers were you can lock up your personals while busting it out on the dance floor. Brilliant idea, don't you think?





Saturday morning I had to get up early to meet with the Kim family. I met with Jason (Mr. Kim's son) at ten at Starbucks. So early for a Saturday morning... It was great fun though. The meeting went well and we spent most of the morning chatting and then we went to the CGV building for a sticker photo shoot. Welcome to Korea. :) In the CGV you can go into photo booths were you can dress up and take crazy photo's. At the end they print them out for you after you've edited and decorated it. It was soooo funny!





At twelve mister Kim picked us up just out side Pukyeong University and we were chauffeured (in the grand merc) to one of the Lotte Hotels, were we had an amazing lunch with the rest of the family. It was great seeing all of them again. After lunch we went to Shinsegae for some Smoothy King goodness!

At 5 I ran home to pour some Amarula in my Starbucks flask and met up with Frankie and Dave at an Organic/peace market slash mini festival. It was great, cause we got to sit outside in the afternoon sun on the GRASS (yes my first experience with grass in this country). We spent the afternoon enjoying Amarula and listening to some really cool bands. After the 'festival' we went to Pasta Factory for dinner to end of the wonderful day.



Sunday morning was an early start as well. (pff I need another weekend) We had to get up really early to catch the subway to Centum City to meet up with Charles. Charles is an awesome, sweet Korean guy who always organises trips for foreigners. Waygooks. On May 2, the Gwangan Bridge was closed for traffic and opened for walking. Approximately 12 000 people gathered and got ready for the 10 km walk over the bridge. It was really cool! The weather was amazing and the atmosphere was great. As you got to the middle of the bridge there was an orchestra playing and some Korean folks singing opera. The view from the Diamond Bridge was magnificent! After the great walk everyone gathered at Pukyeong university for the lucky draw. Each participant got a number for the walk and you could win some really cool prizes if you stuck around afterwards. Some of the prizes includes: 5 flight tickets, a vacuum cleaner, tea, etc. Unfortunately luck wasn't on our side. To celebrate us walking over the bridge we went to Thursday Party for some yummy burgers and something cold to drink.







The rest of the beautiful day I spent at home, writing this and just chilling. Nap time after all the excitement and food!