Seoul Tower

Saturday was probably the nicest day since we have been in Korea. I went to the Seoul Tower with my friend Nick, from Portland. Seoul is massive. This is what it looked like in every direction. Its not the most beautiful skyline, but I love it.

The coolest child. Ever.

Korean culture is very into love and romance. They had a big deck at the tower with railings covered in locks and hearts with love notes.

The Han River.

The bathroom!

The Korean Royal Guard performed before we went up the tower.

Last Weekend, Part 2: Gyeongbokgung Palace

Last Sunday, we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace, first built in 1394 by the Joseon Dynasty. Gyeongbokgung translates in English as "Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven." It was magical.

It was a beautiful day, after a week of rain.

Artsy.

Interior

I am getting very good at taking candid pictures of Koreans. They are just too sweet.

Last Weekend, Part 1

On Saturday, I went to a street market in Seoul. It was pretty unimpressive, but I did score these glasses, which I think go really well with my red hat.

That night, I met up with Heather, Jason, and Hannah (she's dating one of our co-teachers who is home in Ireland until May) at a vegan restaurant in Insadong. Did you know Jesus was a vegan? Yup.

Delicious

On the floor

After dinner, we happened upon this band playing in the street. I think they are called Four Brothers, but we're not sure. I have a giant crush on the one to the far left playing guitar.

My Birthday at School

My co-teachers got me a coffee cake (a literal interpretation, in a mug) from Paris Baguette. Delicious.

This is another one of my favorite classes. Yesterday I chased them around like a zombie and then they taught me Taekwondo moves.

Hard at work.

My Kids!

These are my youngest kids. I think they are all about 5 or 6 years old. They are absolutely nuts and this photo is a total fluke. It must have been taken during a 3 second span where they were not punching each other, screaming, stealing marbles, or just generally living in another world where I do not exist.

This is Alex. I want to steal him. He's like a little person.

This is Aron. He is pretty much a wild banshee all the time. This is his drawing of the sun and a cloud.

My favorite class. They are a little bit older. Its all girls and two boys, Chris and Gene. I still don't know which is which, so I always address them both at the same time.

Clockwise from purple jacket: Debbie, Jodie, Lucy, Belle, Sandy

Miley, Kate, Carrie

St. - Pat - Rick's - Day

Last weekend, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day, and me and Tommy's birthdays. He is a day older than me. There was a parade, but we watched it from a restaurant while we ate. We then headed down to enjoy the music, dancing, and other randomness that is St. Paddy's in Korea.

They were giving out free shirts, but you had to put it on right there. We obliged and sported those amazing shirts the rest of the day.

The Gang

Getting Hip

Getting mysterious

Getting Adorable

Getting Serious

Getting Smart

Getting Real

Getting Dancey

Getting Irish

This ahjumma (old Korean lady) was not supposed to be inside the ropes, but then she started doing push-ups, and you just can't touch that.

Apartment Chronicles, Part 1: Trash Criminals

This is maybe 1/4 of the trash we accumulated while cleaning out our apartment. We didn't have any problems just taking it down like this and leaving it by all the other trash downstairs. But, apparently, Korea does have a problem. About 20 minutes after taking down this last load, we received an ominous knock on our door. Its like when everyone you know is all together in a house, and the doorbell rings, and everyone just kinda looks around, like "What the...?" I looked through the peephole and saw what looked to be a security guard, but it could have been a police officer for all I know. He yelled at me in Korean, and then to make things fair, he yelled at Heather in Korean. Its always hilarious when people here try to talk to Heather because she will just completely engage in the conversation in full-blown English, to which the Korean always meets with more nonsense, assuming if they talk long enough they might both understand what the heck is going on. I, on the other hand, just shake my head and shrug my shoulders until they leave me alone.

Anyway, this man was clearly very angry with us, and we were still at a loss as to why this might be. The very angry man was insisting we leave our apartment and come with him. UH, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? NO WAY! I'VE SEEN BROKEDOWN PALACE. The very angry man finally leaves and by this point we somewhat understand he is mad about the trash. We contact our co-teacher online to find out the deal, and she explained they have strict trash rules in Korea, rules they take extremely seriously. Oh, that would have been nice of someone to tell us about as we hauled out other people's trash from our apartment for three days.

Lesson Learned.

Almost.

20 minutes after that run-in, the very angry man is knocking on our door again. I look through the peephole and tell Heather I am not opening the door. "Elisse, you have to!" "But, he has someone with him!" "And...I'm pretty sure he has all of our trash." I am not kidding. This security guard and his buddy hauled back up all of our trash, to the 7th floor.

Square One.

Update: Two weeks later, we have finally figured out the trash system in Korea. Its ridiculous, but at least we are in on the absurdity now.