Happy Merry Christmas

I was dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know. Unfortunately, anytime we get snow in Ilsan, it is gone within a few hours. We did however, have a good Christmas celebration. On Christmas Eve, Sun took Christine and I out to lunch before work. He had asked us the day before if we would join him for lunch and not to tell anyone else that we were meeting. We spent the night wondering what this was about. Turns out, he just wanted to treat us to a nice lunch on Christmas Eve. We bought him a bottle of wine for Christmas from the grocery store across the street from L*Bridge. When I told him I didn't know if it was good or not, he simply stated, "It doesn't matter, it is alcohol. It will be good."

I had brought tangerines into work to give to all of the other teachers and quickly found out that I had been outdone by a long shot. We had three different cakes during our initial prep time. Later in the day, we all got pastries (something we used to get on a weekly basis until this last month). At the end of the day, someone else came in with a platter of cookies, kimbab, and sweet potatoes. I think most people forgot about the tangerines.

We came home Christmas Eve to find that the package from home had arrived. We tried to hold out and not open presents until Christmas, but midnight couldn't come soon enough. Our stockings were both stuffed with goodies and the presents were sitting under them just waiting to be opened. We opened presents at 11:00 PM on Christmas Eve. We got tons of goodies from each other and from home.




























On Christmas Day, we had decided to eat at an International Buffet that we had seen earlier in the week. When we arrived at 6:30, we found out the wait was over 2 hours. I had planned to take full advantage of this buffet and hadn't eaten all day, so we decided to go somewhere else. We went to Wazzle to eat Chinese food instead. It was an incredibly nice restaurant with a great view of Western Dom.

While walking home, we bought a cake from one of the bakeries. Apparently, this is the thing to do on Christmas as almost everyone we saw was carrying a cake. We went home and indulged in a white cream cake before grading some papers for class tomorrow.

Back by popular demand!

We have been informed numerous times that the blog has not been updated in a while and it is time for me to stop celebrating my 24^th birthday. Life must move on after 24 I suppose…

Truth be told, Christine and I have been kept extremely busy both in work and leisure. Our first semester ended last week and we both got new schedules for the new semester. After one day of the new schedule, we both can tell this semester might be tougher than the previous. I have two more classes this semester (8 classes in a row on Wednesday) and Christine has been moved from a speaking teacher to a reading teacher. What was fun today was seeing some of the kids I had last semester in lower classes moving up to the next level. Some of my favorite students are in my class again making it that much more fun. I’ll talk more about L*Bridge and the students in a near future post. We have realized that after 3 months of being in Korea, we haven’t posted once about work.

Christine and I saw Jens Lekman in Hongdae this past weekend. I had only heard his music from Christine’s iTunes collection a few times but had a lot of fun at the concert. We got to the bar early enough that we were able to get pretty close to the stage. One of the opening bands was a cover band playing a lot of western rock music. I wished I had gotten a picture of these guys because they rocked! The small bar was packed (mostly foreigners) from front to back by the start of his show. It made me realize how many people in Korea teach English.

I have been bouldering at Bukhansan National Park almost on a weekly basis. The weather has stayed warm enough that I can still climb mid morning to evening without getting too cold. Unfortunately, this means I cannot climb before work anymore without climbing in 30 degree temperatures. I have met a group of people that have been developing the area for over a year now and have started climbing with them regularly. This past Sunday, I finally climbed a problem (Red Chili V3) that I had unsuccessfully attempted earlier this month. It is now the highlight of my climbing at Bukhansan.

One of the smaller boulders at the base of the River Beds at Bukhansan National Park.

Happy Happy Birthday

We had an eventful past seven days last week. It was our anniversary last Tuesday, so we got up early and took the subway to Hongdae (college district of Seoul) to have lunch and browse around. Ilsan has tons of restaurants, but we were craving middle eastern and something new, so we ventured out.

We settled down at a restaurant called Silk Road. We had felafels and french fries - as good, if not better than what we could have gotten in Bloomington.



That's Joe smoking a apple flavored hookah.



Me too.



Vintage, urban hipster shops, just like Cactus Flower!

Hongdae is pretty popular with foreigners because it has plenty of ethnic food - Mexican (which is where we went for Joe's birthday), Middle Eastern, Italian, etc - and also a great night life, with tons of live music.

Joe's birthday was Saturday, so we went to the flee market. Flee market is kind of the literal translation, but not entirely correct - the place we went to had 9 - 10 stories high department stores filled entirely with people selling clothes. It's where most clothing stores in Korea get their supplies from, so it's probably the best place to go shopping, as you're eliminating the middle man and presenting yourself with the most options possible. We both got nice winter coats - Joe's was a hard find, as he has unusually broad shoulders. We also encountered a bunch of young hipsters who wanted to talk to Joe (in decent English) how street tough they were, and how their shirts (with a bunch of obscenities) was straight from the streets of New York. Hilarious. We'll both post pictures. Between the two of us, six rabbits gave their lives for the lining of our coats. This made me a bit upset.

We went back to Hongdae to get Mexican. We got tacos and qusedilla, both a bit pricey but really good.



This is Joe with his birthday ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Baskin Robbins is the take over every block chain store in Korea, kind of what Starbucks was to New York not too long ago.



Finally, Joe at the WA bar. It has a variety of beers from all around the world. Joe's choice was a hoegarten. He's probably looking depressed because we went to a board game cafe prior to this picture, and I kicked his butt.

This week is important for several reasons:

1. Tuesday is our 2 year anniversary!
2. Joe's birthday is Saturday, a very many 24 years. He has white hair to prove it.
3. Last full week of campaigns! We both have our absentee ballot for Obama sent to the states. BBC news had an interesting front page story - Indiana: History in the Making

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/7687940.stm

It's whether Indiana can overcome its racist history and vote for a black man. Of course, to highlight most countries' image of Americans as fat, ridiculous people, they selected small town grandmas who pray, play bingo in huge American flag hats, and still say the word 'negro.' Either way, Indiana is now a 'moderate blue state' in some polls, and we have our fingers crossed!

Obama for change

My desktop image.

We both have been feverishly following the campaign, watching the debates on TV or online and constantly refreshing the NY Times homepage at work. It's hard not to be excited about the campaign Obama has been running, the prospect of Indiana going Blue and our votes actually counting! We both have our absentee ballots and will scan and e-mail them asap.

We're going to Lotte World tomorrow - the largest indoor amusement park in the world. It's the Disney World of South Korea.

The dog that spoke English

Sawyer is here! After a long flight from Indy, he has safely and legally arrived in South Korea. He enjoys walking around in the city and taking in all of the sights and new smells. He has become an instant celebrity here as there are no other Boston Terriers in this area. Some great lines Christine has overheard while walking the dog:

• That dog speaks English!
• [Girl #1] I like dogs like this. [Girl#2] What? Ugly dogs?
• He looks foreign because he eats hamburgers. [After Christine explained to a man he was from America]

Island of Jeju

We went on a tropical excursion this past weekend to Jeju Island, the largest Island in Korea and also a really cool place. It isn't high tourist season, but we still rode a flight full of older tourist ready to get their gear on. Friday was Foundation Day in Korea, a national holiday, so more the reason for people escape the city.



I was really excited about seeing palm trees. Joe also had a crazy Saturday where he fell asleep at every opportunity possible.



Many of the beaches we visited had dark, black rocks that smeared the ocean dark as well.



A well visited, well known waterfall. What this picture doesn't tell you is that this waterfall is so easily accessible that I felt cheated out of the experience.

Saturday was pretty cool, but the climax of our trip was hiking Halla Mountain Sunday morning. I complained almost the entire way up while simultaneously enjoying it. In retrospect, it's one of the coolest things I've done in recent memory. This should probably be its own entry for the sheer amount of photos it entails.

Halla Mountain is the tallest mountain in Korea. Originally a volcano, it has a crater lake on the top called Baegnokdam, which I think in translations means 'white deer lake,' because legends have it that otherworldly men descended from heaven to play with deer.


View from around 1500m above sea level.







You can see people hiking in above photo. You can, if looked closely, also see a staircase leading to the top. Kind of defines hiking in Korea.



A nice view with cloudy weather.



You can see the peak of the mountain in the background - the gray silhouette. It was raining pretty hard at this point; this is around 1800m above sea level.



Joe claims vegetation here is similar to a desert climate; there's also an abundance of pine trees, vicious black crows the size of two hands combined, and deer.







We were soaking wet by the time we approached the base of the mountain again.



View of the mountain from the parking lot and rest area.

We found a cozy tea house on the drive out of the mountains that grew its own green leaf. It was quite beautiful and they offered us free samples of green tea.





Outside the tea house - left signifies god of heaven, right signifies goddess of earth.



And the last photo is the view we had of the beach before boarding the plane back to Seoul Monday morning.