so i'm getting into the habit of abusing my blog. bad natalie. well i can make it up by giving some big news: I'M ENGAGED!!!! some guy actually managed to sweep me off my feet. so if you haven't guess yet it's Seamus O'Ryan from victoria. we've set the date for January 31, 2009 in victoria. should be fun. he proposed 2 weeks ago in sokcho (the city he lives in here in korea). it was very sweet. he brought me breakfast complete with a ring. very suave. hehehe

then the weekend after that we hide from the world. we realized that we hadn't had a weekend to ourselves so we didn't tell anyone where we were going and hide. we stayed in sokcho (so we could actually get some rest) and did nothing. it was wonderful. we read, watched some movies, and basically just relaxed. seamus even surprised me by taking me horseback riding.

this week was pretty good. on thursday it was teacher's day. there was a ceremony where each teacher got flowers and then the students sang us the "teacher's song". didn't know there was one.

this weekend is the KOTESOL meeting in sokcho so back up there i go. there is also a beach party that could be fun. well that's about all for now.

so last weekend was the King's festival here in Yeongwol. one of the kings was held captive and eventually murdered by his uncle and the festival is a reminder of that. the friday i had the day off of school so i could see the sights. in the morning i went with kate to the king's tomb to see all the kids having an art competition. then in the afternoon we headed to the riverside to look at the booths. there was an interesting variety of events there. there was a soju booth (korea vodka) complete with dancing soju bottles (why not), tons of food booth, booths selling various different things and craft booths for kids. we came across some guys dressed as tortured victim and before i knew it i was in a wooden cage with a yoke around my neck for all the see. i then got to flail a man and he did it back to me (this got filmed at put on the news later...got many comments on that). i also got to ride a donkey for free (sometimes it's great being a foreigner).

in the evening there was a concert and fireworks. seamus surprised me by coming that night (he told me he wouldn't be there till the next day). then there was more dancing with the soju bottles and more eating.

the next morning was the king's funeral procession (they recreate it every year). that was really cool. they had a coffin and his wives in morning and most of the town in costumes for his subjects. we took lots of pictures and the reporters even decided that we were more interesting than the parade for a while. so again we got put on the news for watching the parade.

then we headed back to the riverside where seamus joined me again in being a torture victim. there was a marching band and more looking around.

we all headed back then for some food and settlers of cattan (which i won).

the sunday was pretty uneventful. saw a tipe rope walker and said goodbye to everyone. still it was the best festival i've been to in korea and it was in yeongwol. nothing happens in yeongwol.