I woke up yesterday and it was raining. It rained all day and throughout the night. It rained for half the day today. When I say raining I mean torrential rain! I've not seen rain like it before! Jaron made me go out to get dinner with him and even though we had umbrella's I still got wet.

It must have been bad because it was featured on the news and seemingly it caused a lot of road accidents (no surprise there then!) In fact it was reported that Daesung from Big Bang was in a car accident that caused him to break his nose and his coordie that was in the car with him is in a bad way. I hope they recover soon.

The rain stopped mid afternoon today so I clamberd to get out. I was going stir crazy!!

i decided that as my plans to explore Lake Park were ruined I'd visit the mall on my doorstep, then if the rain started again I would be close to home.

Last night I was introduced to the delights of Korean Toast. this is a sandwich made from 2 pieces of bread toasted with butter on a hotplate then stuffed with tasty things. I had egg (i think that's standard) ham, cheese, and veggies. There is a thin layer of syrupy stuff to add sweetness. OMG delish!!! I promised myself that if I completed my missin to find a DVD shop I could have one of these for dinner. I looked around for ages, just browsing the amazing shops selling anything from Hello Kitty socks to giant teddy bears! Then I found Synnara Records. Not a record in sight but lots of CD's and DVD's. Lots of Korean stuff but quite abit of western stuff too. Then BINGO!!! There on the shelf in front of me was Tohoshinki's 1st Asian tour DVD. This is the one that yesasia won't ship to Europe so it has eluded me! It was soon nestled in my grubby little mits as it was the last one! And it only cost 12 quid!!!n i also bought their latest single. i was looking for MC Mong and FT Isalnd's singles but couldn't find them. I must say that the artist with the biggest range of merchandise was the boys (of course!)

I walked out of the shop with the biggest smile and made my way to the Toast stall. The kind Ajumma remembered me from the night before and helped me with my selection. One of these sandwiches costs about 90p. I popped in the shop on the way back for a bag of crisps (yes I am officially addicted to these particular crisps) and an ice cream. I'm eating a lot of ice cream as it is one way to keep cool.

All of a sudden people around here are being very friendly. Everytime I go out someone is interested in speaking to me. Either to ask where I'm from or to remark on my tattoo. A lot of people still ignore, but that's the Korean way. I went out ot look at the rain at about 3am because I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. People were still outside the small food places eating and drinking. People were still walking around. It could have been evening if I didn't know better. I had a little walk aroung to see if I could tire myself out and some funny man came up and started talking to me in English. He was interested in where I was from, how long was I here for and did I like it. I think he was a bit drunk but he was friendly and polite. if someone at home approached you in the street at 3am, a bit drunk and asking you questions you'd run a mile but it so different here. Even at that time people are still coming and going and some shops are still open. I don't suppose it's like that everywhere in Korea but it's certainly been like it wherever I've been.

Just a couple of observations: Our front door is metal, I think this is common here. Feels much safer. The doors can be opened by key or by a code - such a good idea!

The apartment block is so clean! there is doorman/caretaker 24 hrs and there are public toilets on the ground floor. Oh, there is no ground floor - what we call ground floor is 1st floor here. Also 4th floor is called F not 4 because the word for 4 (sa) sounds like the word for death.

The lifts don't smell of pee!!! there is 2 floors of underground parking and a large recycling area in the outside car park.

packaging: So many things are over packaged! I bought some biscuits in a packet inside a box. A cup noodle in it's sealed cup and then wrapped in a clear film. Kit Kats come in a packet like at home but then inside a box. Other chocolate comes like that too etc etc....

Thank goodness they're hot on recycling!!!

Looking forward to the weekend. Seeing Sang Kyun, Christophe and Sooyoung and then Itaewan on Satrday - here I come Homo hill!!!!