Well I’m going home in December. My current job is discontinuing it’s native teaching system and switching over to some sort of video English system. So I’ve had a busy few weeks looking for things to do next year and prepare what needs preparing. It’s never fun losing your job.

On the weekend we decided to get away and head to Seorak mountain (설악산). It took about 4 hours by car to get there due to some heavy traffic but it was well worth the wait. The scenery was really beautiful but a week or two ago might have been even better. Most of the autumnal tints had already passed leaving more bland brown tints. We hiked for about 5 hours in all.

The view from the top of the mountain was pretty nice but hindered by a sudden rush of rain clouds. The weather was beautiful at first but progressively got worse. The rain made the trek down the other side of the mountain a little tougher. It was quite slippery at times.

In the evening before heading to our condo we ate raw fish. It was quite a disappointing meal but nevertheless it satisfied out hungry stomachs. Before sleeping we drank some strong Korean liquor which helped us quickly pass out.

Hiking is always fun, especially if it’s through a heavily forested area. On the Sunday I hit the hills with the girly and her father. The climb was very steep in parts but for the most part not so challenging. We were out for about 3 hours. It was such a beautiful trek - the log bridges, the roots of trees forcing their way out of the banks of mud, the sunlight seeping through the branches, the small streams carving a path through the forest and the strange rock formations.

This week I managed to get a lot of reading done and organised a bunch of photos and music I had lying around. I also typed up an article for a national newspaper that’ll be published tomorrow! Recently writing has been pretty difficult. Time to expand my English skills I think. Since me and my roommate are English teachers by day we have a wealth of materials here. It’d be for the good of myself if I dive right into them!

Usually I study alone but a couple of days ago me and the girly decided to make an effort to study together to improve our respective languages since having a native to study with is a huge advantage when studying languages. We both forgot to bring the materials we prepared so we studied an article in a fashion magazine I have. The paragraph we studied was just an introduction to a certain brand’s philosophy but it brought up so many points for discussion. We both realized that to explain complex grammar to a learner of your own language you really need to be hot on your native language too.

Anyway the girly eventually got through to me and I learnt about some unfamiliar grammar patterns and a few new words. So now I plan to not only refresh my Korean grammar but my English grammar too. I should learn the terminology at least!

I always wanted to try and make this - seasoned rice in a fried bean curd wrap (유부초밥 - pic). When I worked part-time teaching, one of the employees used to bring some as part of his packed lunch. He always gave me a couple. He said his girlfriend worked hard to prepare them for him. Now I know how to make them I can have them whenever I want!

I’ve been trying MelOn for the past week or so. It’s a Korean subscription based music service. There are various plans available depending on what your needs are. I wanted to be able to stream full songs and download MP3’s that I can transfer to my iPod. The MP3 Plus package offered just that for a reasonable 6000 won a month (roughly £3, $6) for 40 MP3s or 10,000 won for 150 MP3’s. I got the MP3 40 package to try it out.

Firstly the Melon website is typically Korean so you need to view it in Internet Explorer and install anything it asks you too. So Mac users, like myself, have to boot up in Windows (assuming you have installed it) or use virtualization software. You have to download the MelOn player too, which again is only available for Windows.

Anyway once you are up and running it’s easy to search for artists and songs. There is a huge selection to choose to dig through from both major and indie labels. You can simply click a song’s name to stream it and hit download to get the MP3 (most songs are available in 128kps, 192kps and 320kbs formats). The MP3’s are DRM free too and so even if your subscription ends you can still keep the files. I transferred the MP3s out of Windows onto Mac OSX and synced them with my iPod. They played back as expected.

If you have a phone in Korea, MelOn is accessible on there too (your account is linked to your phone number). Through your phone you can download and listen to songs but have to pay any data charges. The PC MelOn player also lets you convert your downloaded MP3s to a phone friendly format and syncs them for you.

Overall I’m pretty pleased with the service. It’s annoying have to use Windows to access it but then again nearly every big Korean website or web service is the same - you have to follow their Windows / Internet Explorer standard. Being able to stream any song and download a few albums worth of songs for the price of a CD is quite a bargain.

Seriously, why would you steal someone’s bike seat? Not only did they steal it but they replaced it with some secondhand ghetto seat. It wasn’t just my bike either, it was all the other one’s in the bike lock-up area. Seriously.

This weekend I headed down to Choong-chu (충추) again for a weekend of work. On Saturday we headed to a mountain near the girly’s grandparent’s house. The mountain is covered in overgrowth, is incredibly steep but thriving with chestnut bearing trees. We spent the afternoon collecting as many as we could. Their spiky shells we tricky to open on such a steep incline, particularly with the ground sliding away beneath my feet. I soon got into a good flow and collected a hell of a lot of chestnuts much to everyone’s surprise. It was quite a challenge moving around the mountain face. I was tripping on vines, sliding on earth, swinging from trees - you name it, I was doing it. The biggest challenge was the decent down the mountain. Since the ground was prone to sliding, you sometimes had to ride the flow of the earth while keeping your balance. Quite a day.

On Sunday we did something a little less dangerous but just as laborious. The girly’s family run an apple farm near their house. We spent the morning picking apples from the trees. There is actually an art to doing so. Once we mastered the various techniques for a clean pick we were soon filling baskets at a good pace. After lunch we were amongst the trees again but instead of picking apples we were assigned the task of pruning the apples stems and preparing them for sale. We had to decide which apples were sellable and put aside the ones that were no good. Most of the sellable apples had to be pruned. Armed with mini shears we got to work and made the apples presentable before neatly stacking them into boxes. We worked until there wasn’t enough light to continue.

In the evening to relax after our efforts, the girly’s family and myself went to a natural hot spring and soaked our weary bodies in the hot water. As my skin turned pink the smell of the water was quite overwhelming. However, as fast as I accustomed to the hot water the smell didn’t bother me at all and I was soon drifting into a world of deep relaxation.

It was an interesting weekend. Working on a farm is as laborious as it sounds but oddly satisfying. There is something quite special about working on a farm surrounded with yellow rice-fields, a dark green mountainous backdrop and an intense autumn sun beating down on you.

Photos on flickr.

I had quite a scare. The contents of my external hard drive were erased. My pictures, music, graphics back-ups etc. all gone. I searched the internet for tips on recovery and found various programs. I opted to try Data Rescue II because their demo version let’s you scan a drive and see the results before you shell out any money. After a 4 hour scan of my drive it was successful - it found every missing file I had lost and even some files I had intentionally deleted in the past. I dropped the $99 and recovered everything after about a day’s wait. Recommended.

This morning I had my bicycle fixed! They did a full service so now my gears work correctly, my brakes don’t rub on the rims of the wheels, and my ride is a lot smoother. It was a tad expensive though (at least it cost more than I thought it would) but at least I have a functional bike again.

After eating noodles with the girly we spent the afternoon lazing around and being silly. She told me that she had a dream last night. She dreamt that she used the toilet and didn’t flush her dropped load away. She said that’s a sign that she could come into money. Korean culture! Anyway the dream drove her to buy a lottery ticket. Maybe on Saturday I’ll have a rich girlfriend but I won’t hold my breath.