Crowded streets

I've been taking the opportunity to visit my favorite places before I ship out of Korea. One of my favorite places is Myeong-dong; a highly overcrowded shopping area. But the shops and outdoor tables are fun, even if you get pushed and shoved along the way. And now there are Christmas decorations up.

Christmas decorations - and of course the ever present "missionaries." They just have a loud speaker and yell at people and sing.

Crowded streets and bright lights.

And crowded stores.

Hanging out with friends - Brandon and Jessica #2.

And no Korean shopping area would be complete without cutouts of famous Korean Boys.

Yum...dog!

As part of one of my last cultural experiences, I told my Korean co-worker Tae-Hoon that I wanted to eat dog. It's not super common here, but they do serve it so he said he'd find a place. The other foreign coworkers came along for the experience. My verdict on dog - it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. So I got to cross it off my cultural list, but I'm not planning on eating it again any time soon.

Tae-Hoon and Sonja, enjoying some dog soup.

Robert, Christine, and me - holding some dog.

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I have to work - darn you Korea! - but I still have lots to be grateful for. Like today Hyeok Soo took me to meet his brother Seung Ha who works at the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS). Unfortunately there was no filming going on, but I did get to see some sets, which was pretty cool and then we went out for a yummy lunch that I didn't have to pay for and had some great conversation.

And I have another story too. On Saturday morning I got a call from a temple worker. He said that some Russian sisters were coming to the temple on Tuesday and they needed a translator. He asked if I would do it - I agreed but was really worried because my Russian is rusty. I woke up early on Tuesday morning and went to the temple to help. It was ... interesting. At one point the translation went from Korean to English to Russian. There was some lost words and a bit of misunderstanding, and it made my brain muddled. In the end I think it all worked out. But even though it was confusing and I felt frustrated with my lack of ability to explain perfectly in Russian, I walked out of there awed. Because there we were - women from three different cultures who speak three different languages but we were all inside the temple because we shared the same faith. That was pretty awesome and something to be thankful for.

So I hope you can all find something to be grateful for this year. Enjoy it, soak it in, bask in it, and then share it :)

Pure Talent

I had a lovely time at our singles break the fast today, and one of the guys showed me this video on his smart phone. I was really impressed by this girl - she does something I'll call sand drawing. In the video she depicts when Germany conquered Ukraine during WWII. Truly interesting and in my opinion, amazing. Enjoy!

Birthday Bash

My birthday consisted of meeting up with Hae Jin for lunch and a perfect autumn stroll around his old college campus, Korea University, meeting up with Chris for dinner and a stroll around a crammed packed shopping area, then meeting up with a group of my American and Korean friends for awesome bowling (I got a 157 and then a 126, but Roby schooled us all with a 207), all followed by noraebang of course. And cake eating too. It was pretty much the best :)

Pretty fall colors on Korea University's campus - with Hae Jin.

Lovely ladies at the bowling alley - me, Robyn, Katelyn, Jessica

With Hyeok Soo

With Alice - she is so short it's cute.

With Sang Hoon - he's kind of crazy.

Rain is coming down

Ever wonder what a Korean pop concert looks like? Here's some Rain for you :)

Painting #3

Painting #3: Hope you like it.

The painting

The picture

A little lame poetry

Sometimes I get the urge to write a poem, and then I realize why I'm not a famous poet. But I'd thought I'd share my sad attempt.

The Coming of Fall

Fall is coming.
I feel it in the way
the trees bend ever so slightly
in the breeze and how the
leaves yearn to be tinged
with another color other than
green.

I see it in the faces of the
students as they walk home
knowing they have to study for
midterms, and wishing beyond
wish they could be doing anything
else.

I smell it in the crisp air
that blows past my face
and drifts up the mountains
cooling the evening sky
and calming the nerves of small
creatures.

And on a day like today I
want to be out there, soaking
up the late summer rays,
reveling in the perfect weather,
enjoying anywhere but where I
am.

Just some reasons...

... why I love Korea.

Because I get to go to K-pop concerts with really awesome people like this:

And I get to go to baseball games with really fun people like this - and also the fact that Korean baseball fans are insane and I love them for it. Think super loud. And having a cheer for everything imaginable.

I get to go to the wedding of amazing people like this:

After church I get to walk along the river and hang out with people like this:

And like this - don't ask me what they are doing but it sure is entertaining.

And as we walk along the river we just happen to see Koreans learning to swing dance, and then we run into an international marching band competition. Sweet. And after the competition we get to see views like this:

And this - sigh, so pretty:

My Family in Korea

My family came to visit and it was fun!

Cute Korean high school students stopped us to ask questions for their homework. They were super impressed with my knowledge of Korea.

Alesha was super excited to be in Korea!

And it rained...

We finally got a picture all together.

And of course a little family torture.

We went to the show Nanta together. It's a kitchen, chopping, drumming, comedy show. Trust me, it's much cooler than it sounds.

And no visit to Korea would be complete without the karaoke room!

Mud Fest

I've obviously lost steam on this blog thing and I'm way behind. But I'd thought I'd post some fun pics of Mud Fest. Basically a fun weekend of playing in mud, followed by a painful sunburn. I never learn... but I even put on sunscreen!

Squeaky clean before the mud application.

And after...

And of course we had to go to mud prison - because why wouldn't we?

And my mom and sister are coming to Korea today!!! So excited to see them and ready to be the tour guide.

Just life

I've keeping busy with work and play. Nothing too special but life is good. I did have one of my boy students ask me why I don't get my freckles removed. That led to a conversation about how freckles are not a skin disease or blemish, they're not bad - it's just some people, even a lot of people in the west, have freckles. He didn't believe me - he told me they were bad. I explained they couldn't be removed. He suggested laser removal. I said I'd be skinless and asked if he wanted a skinless teacher. To which he of course replied, "YEAH!" I love Korea, but sometimes they're lack of understanding and acceptance of other cultures is astounding. Anyway, it was kind of humorous.

I also went hiking recently. We may have gone up the wrong way because we ended up scrambling up some rock faces. But it was all good in the end - we made it to the top safe and it was fun. Here are some pics.

At the start of the hike is the largest man made waterfall in Asia. It was pretty...

Me and Robyn in front of the waterfall

View from the hike. It's pretty cool that you can go hiking in the middle of a huge city.

Painting #2

I finished painting #2 yesterday. What do you think?

My painting.

The picture I painted from.

My life in pictures

In Wonju, visiting Jessica. This is us walking around the college campus.

Jess was afraid of the bees so Katelyn is protecting her.

Spring in Korea. Walking around Children's Grand Park.

Cherry blossoms in Children's Grand Park.

Singles Pinewood Derby. This is my not so awesome car I made. But it was due to the fact that none of the saws they supplied worked... It was still fun.

The Pinewood Derby group.

I very interesting weekend

I literally had the most interesting weekend in as long as I can remember. Saturday I decided to go makeup shopping - I really needed brown mascara. I went to this place with about five different cosmetic stores thinking one of them has to have brown mascara. I went to the first one and I have a half Korean half English conversation with the worker there - she said she liked my voice I finally figured out. Then she tells me they don't have any brown mascara. But she takes my hand, interlocks her fingers with mine, and starts pulling me along. I ask where we are going and she just replies, "brown mascara." She takes me to one of the other cosmetic stores and announces to the girls working there "this is my girlfriend!" and they all look at us like we're crazy. But they didn't have any brown mascara either. So one of those girls takes me to a different place and they didn't have any, so I finally said that's okay, thanks, and left.

I went to a subway shopping area and went to another cosmetic store (if you haven't noticed yet, there are about 30 different cosmetic stores in Korea). Anyway, they finally had some there and the sales girl tells me that "this mascara is very famous in Korea." I asked why and she said, "because the color is charming and you will look so charming in it." Nice.

After that I went to meet my friends for dinner - which I ended up meeting them at a dog cafe because they were running late. I'm not a huge dog person and it was a little weird. Basically it's a place with about 15 dogs wandering around and you can pet them and give them treats and you have to order a drink to be there. I guess people who like dogs but don't have the time to own one enjoy it. I kept thinking how it would never pass health codes in America... Afterward we went to a Greek restaurant, then noraebang (aka singing room), so that was fun.

On Sunday I met my Korean friend, Chris. We went to the movies and he brought his friend Hyun Chul (aka Luther, or Luter as he said). We saw My Name is Khan – it was really good. But also funny because the movie was like a third in English and the rest in Hindi with Korean subtitles. But I still enjoyed it. Then we went to dinner. Hyun Chul did not speak English very well but he tried and he was cute. He said that I look young and when he told me he was 26 I told him I was his noona (Korean for older sister), he didn’t want to believe me. Then he told me I look like Audrey Hepburn – totally not true, but sweet nonetheless. Then I see him sitting there for like 5 minutes moving his lips and concentrating really hard until he finally turns to me and says, “can I have your phone number?” Chris and I both laughed because he was just so earnest about it and he tried so hard. I said yes… Hyun Chul by the way, is like 5’7”.

After that we headed to this shopping street but they were cold so we went into a coffee shop, but we didn’t order anything. We just sat there kind of talking until I finally asked what we were doing. Turns out we were waiting for Hyun Chul’s friend. I asked what his friend was like and he told me he was a giant. Well, his friend turns up and he’s like 5’5” and super skinny. Nice joke. His name was Cha Yoon I think, or Van. Van’s English was better than Hyun Chul's but he was shy. We talked for a while longer – they decided I needed a Korean name, which is Hyun In-Na (Hyun is the family name). I'm pretty sure I was there to give a free English lesson - but I actually hadn't paid for anything so I guess that was my compensation. They then asked if I wanted to go to noraebang and I said sure, I love noraebang. But then Chris gets a phone call and says he has to go to his brother’s house. So he puts me in a cab with these two boys I just met, who only kind of speak English to go sing with them. It’s a good thing I’m not really shy. The noraebang was fun – I sang in English they sang in Korean. And I even helped sing a Korean song , that I kind of know. At the end of it they said “Noona Jjang!” – which pretty much means “Older sister is awesome.” And then Hyun Chul tells me he’s so happy because of me. And then I went home, but not before Hyun Chul told me that he will text me.

So yeah, pretty much a very entertaining and interesting weekend.

Coffee Prince!!!!

I'm pretty sure that everyone that reads this blog is aware that I am a big dork. That being said, I shall admit my love of Korean drama. One of the first Korean dramas I ever watched was called Coffee Prince, and it also my favorite drama. I fell in love with it and the lead actor, Gong Yoo. I mean, behold the pretty:

Plus the fact that he's also a good actor and totally charming. Well, the coffee shop where they filmed this gem of a drama is in Seoul, so as part of Jessica's birthday celebration we found it. It was way over priced and slightly disappointing. But I really didn't care - I was in the same room the Gong Yoo had been in! Yeah, I'm that much of a dork. Soon he will realize is love for me and we'll get married. In the meantime, I have to content myself with the pictures we took of Coffee Prince.

This is me being really excited inside the cafe. In front of this wall is where the lovely kissing scene took place.

This is Katelyn and Jessica being really excited outside the cafe. After this we went and ate some yummy Indian food, sang our guts out at noraebang, and went to the book store to buy k-pop CDs. Happy birthday Jess!

Also exciting this weekend, I played basketball with four of my middle school students - all boys. They are adorable. We played 2 on 3, and the boys kept complaining that I was too tall and too strong. But surprisingly they were pretty good and fast. It was a workout!

I do stuff

...sometimes. I haven't blogged in awhile, obviously. I told my friend it was because I am lazy, but also because I feel like I have nothing to say. But then I thought that was sad. I have stuff to say, it's just that sometimes it's hard putting it into written word.

I like art. A couple of weeks ago Katelyn and I went to an exhibit of Marc Chagall. I knew a little bit about him, but going to the exhibit was really interesting. The exhibit was called "Master of Color," and looking at his paintings it's obvious why it was titled that. He uses lots of vibrant paint; reds, greens, purples, yellows. It was pretty to look at. When we were walking around I noticed that some of the Koreans looked at the painting for a lot longer than I did and were discussing them; I'm more of an enjoy the pretty or strange of it and move on. Or if I do interpret them they are usually silly and way off base.

Take this painting for instance. I thought, "Hmmm, this is interesting. She must be full of hot air and is flying away." And then I laughed to myself. But then Katelyn and I talked and we thought, they're having a picnic, that's what the red blanket in the corner is for, and she is really happy about so she is flying away. But he doesn't want to lose her so he's holding onto her. We're probably way off base here. What do you think?

Lunar New Year

Yay for Korea and giving us a five day weekend for Lunar New Year. Jessica, Katelyn and I ventured out of Seoul to Gyeongju, the former capital of Korea during the Shilla Dynasty. That means there was lots of historical stuff and lots of dead guys... i.e. kings' tombs. We walked a lot, looked at the historical stuff, and goofed off. As Katelyn said about a gazillion times, the weather was beautiful. It was a good three days.

Jess and Katelyn in front of some tombs

The oldest astronomical observatory in Asia

Bulguksa - an old temple

Me and Jess in front of the Anapji Pond

Walking through the park