Grev takes to the (shallow) slopes.

Brrr. I've just checked tomorrow's weather forecast. It's getting down to -15C tonight, and won't get above -6C for the entirety of tomorrow. That's getting pretty cold, even compared to England's new status as an Arctic outpost. Still, I'm not too cold as long as I'm inside. Korean people seem to feel the cold worse than most. They've been complaining and banging the heating on since the temperature dropped out of the 20s this autumn, so the school is equipped with fierce sounding gas stoves in every classroom, and the teachers' room is kept at a sub-tropical temperature. The snow, however, is yet to become a regular feature.

This doesn't deter the Korean ski resorts around me, who have fired up their snow guns and been open for several weeks now. It's this can-do spirit that will hopefully see them land the 2018 Winter Olympics. It always amuses me to see Pyeongchang described as a candidate city, when it is in fact a tiny town of around 7,000 inhabitants. Anyhow, it seems a bit of a waste to live in the best winter sports area in Korea and not at least give it a try, so when fellow-teacher Tom announced he'd be out of town one Sunday I borrowed his boots, board, lift pass and goggles and headed for Yongpyeong to try some snowboarding.

I had my doubts about snowboarding. I tend to enjoy sports where I can make up for a complete lack of grace and finesse with physical effort. Snowboarding is definitely not one of these sports, seemingly requiring only balance, and the adjustment of downward pressure on your toes and heels to keep you pointing where you want to go. However, largely thanks to the Rudy's patient efforts to teach me, I was able to tackle a biggish beginners slope by the end of the day, turning both ways and being able to stop more or less where and when I wanted. Of course, I still managed to hit the ground spectacularly a few times, for which I am still paying now, but overall the fun I had was worth the pain, and I'll definitely be going again soon.

Here's the indisputable evidence that I was, at one point at least, on a snowboard:

Getting ready

Headshot!

Up...

Up...

And away!

Rudy's training methods get a bit ahead of themselves.

I didn't go up there. It looked terrifying.

This took a little while while they worked out what Yongpyeongs initials were.

On the lift. Proof that we at least went up high.

Smiles mixed with a hint of terror.

We went down here. As with the cycling photos, it's steeper than it looks. Promise.

Caitlyn in action.

After a hard day on the slopes, what better than some delicious Korean fare to warm the chill from your bones and the pain from your buttocks? We ended up in a restaurant in Jinbu that I'd never tried before. The menu didn't reveal much about each dish, and so I managed to persuade everyone to just pick something, in an attempt to expand my knowledge of Korean food. The restaurateur assured us that Do-ru-mok-jiggae was really delicious, so we rolled the dice. It turned out to be a spicy concoction of pieces of pregnant fish, with radish and onion. Interesting to say the least. In actual fact it wasn't too bad, but the eggs were a little chewy and didn't really taste of too much. My big complaint with Korean fish recipes is that the fish skin, bones, tail, eyes and everything else is simply chucked into the soup, meaning you spend as much time picking bits out as you do eating. Still, at least I know what Do-ru-mok-jiggae is now, and so do you.

Timing!

Friends

At the end of summer vacation I resolved to study Korean a lot harder. The time I spent schlepping around Korea brought home just how much I didn't know, and so I set myself a target of 6 hours study a week. I've kept to it, and my Korean has now jumped up a level from "serviceable in a restaurant" to "basic conversational". I still only understand about 20% of what anyone says to me, but I am at least able to say quite a lot these days.

The fact that I can now hold up one end of a basic conversation means that I've made the odd non-English speaking friend, as well as surprising old ladies in shops occasionally. By far the best of these is Jae-yeong, one of the Jinbu footballers. I say Jae-yeong, but when I remember I call him "Hyeong", which is Korean for older brother. In Korea names are rarely used for people older than you. Familial or professional titles are used instead, so all my colleagues at school are "Seon-saeng-nim" (teacher) rather than their names. It does have the advantage of meaning I never have to remember anyone's name.

Jae-yeong and his wife have a daughter, Se-ah who may be the cutest child I have ever met. Stacy and I have become her uncle and aunt (she has many of these) and now spend as much time as possible spoiling her and making her wink for us. The child is a born flirt and favours dancing and pretending things are telephones. She doesn't speak English yet, though I'm working on it.

Here are some of the photos of everyone.

The above are from the Sol Beach Hotel, a swanky resort on the coast near Yangyang. Apparently it's a favourite Korean celebrity hang out. Jaeyeong and I are thinking of hiring the whole place out for our shared birthday, though it seems like it might be a little expensive.

Like I said, Se-ah enjoys pretending that things are telephones. In the case of the above photo, it's my camera case.

These were taken at my apartment after we'd been out for dinner. I think that Se-ah is going to be a K-pop star when she grows up. As proof, there's a video below of her dancing. Sadly, some halfwit is drunkenly singing My Way in the background, so you'd best watch it with the sound turned down.

I think that more or less covers it for this post. More adventures coming soon.

A