It's My Life!: 2008

Monday, November 24, 2008

Halloween: Alive in Korea!

Thanks to us crazy waygooks (means "foreigner" in Korean), Halloween was an awesome holiday with a FABULOUS party! I was a Facebook Wall. Please see the pictures that have been posted in no paticular order! (I'll post some pics from school also when I can steal them from the school's computer :) )

Slash signed my wall!!!!

The pre-party crew - Waldo, World Chamption Ping-Pong players and Luis/Luisa - half man, half woman

Vampire!

My friend Mandy with a Blue Man Group member (my friend who I've nicknamed Johnny Boy & Johnny B. Goode)

Trying on Waldo's Glasses

Haha - Gladiators!

Chevy decided that Elvis is actually alive

SNL skit

My friend David as David Beckham....signing autographs

DMZ

So I have been to North Korea...well ok I stepped like a foot into North Korea but that counts for something right???

So here's the lowdown: Every one who comes to Korea HAS to visit the Demilitarized Zone. (It might be written in the lawbooks.) It is basically a chance to get a peek into the north while surrounded by more guns, bombs and weaponry than you can imagine. It was a bit unnerving at times but everyone was so relaxed about the whole situation that I forgot I was even visiting a high-tension danger zone. Both governments are pretty strict about where you are allowed to take pictures so nothing extremely exciting BUT enjoyable still. If you know very little to nothing about the DMZ, please google it....fascinating stuff! I was lucky on my visit - it was a BEAUTIFUL October day!

A South Korean soldier stands guard

These guys are trained heavily in martial arts (mostly in tae kwando). We were told not to stand too close to them or they would use physical force (or worse) to remove us from their guard space.

This would be THE table where the presidents have sat and done their "negotiations"

Our group....standing in North Korea!!!!

The North Korean soldiers keep watch. If you look very carefully (though the picture is quite blurry), you can see a guy with binoculars in the second window

Oh just me with a little North Korean background :)

The Bridge of No Return

Photo Zone

The Tunnel Tour...was killer. Walking down into the tunnel was difficult but walking back up was a cardio workout! What tunnel you might wonder....this is one of a few tunnels discovered after the Korean War that would facilitate a North Korean attack on Seoul. Glad they found it before I got here!

Yeah this was a really fun sculpture to play around with. It's a world split in half with the people trying to push it back together.....

OR it's a giant peanut that I should crack open :)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Hanbok Day & Chuseok

Chuseok is like the Korean traditional holiday, celebrated in September. We had a Hanbok Day at School. The kids were so cute in their traditional garb and I got to wear one too!

Nicole, one of the other foreign teachers, with Ian from Teddy Bear Class

Teddy Bear Class

Me with Puppy Class

Me in full hanbok attire!

So for the short weekend holiday, I decided to stick around the city. Didn't let it go to waste however.... no I visited the local Korean Folk Village. It's almost like an amusement park the way it is set up, and there is actually a very run-down attempt of a modern amusement park with lots of county-fair style rides and game rooms and such. Even as commercial as it seems, it still offers an interesting look into the historical, traditional Korean life.

I had quite a bit of fun with this.....

As you can see :)

a "tight rope dancer" was his label...

Some sort of bean being roasted/smoked. I tasted one....and it tasted like a roasted/smoked bean. Luckily it was free to taste....

View of some of the traditional Korean houses

I find it interesting how the temples and palaces use this colorful design for the underpart of the roof.

These strange creatures sat in the ran-down amusement park. Not sure exactly why...you could put money in them and they rode .000000001 miles per hour and took you about 10 feet. Amusing for the kiddies, but also a bit creepy!

Traditional Korean version of see-saw

Here, you can see one of many traditional farming techniques

A "bridge" connecting various part of the village....these are the things that make Korea look like a third-world country.

Chuseok dancing to honor the gods for the harvest

Monday, September 15, 2008

Sokcho - Summer Edition

Mid-August brought a 3 day weekend, which meant I took advantage to get out of the city to see more of Korea. For this, my friend Stefanie and I visited Sokcho, an east-coast town very close to Mt. Seoraksan - one of the most beautiful places in Korea. Being summer, we spent most of the time at the beach and checking out the city, but did see some of the mtn on the trip there and back. I plan to spend some time on the mountain come October, when all the leaves are changing and the humidity is lower. The pictures tell the best stories :)

On the walk to Sokcho Beach

The ridiculously crowded conditions

The "intense" tents situation - they tried to make us rent one, we didn't want to, the guy got mad when we moved one of the tents out of the way even though they don't own the beach....yeah not a fan of the tents or this beach all that much...