A Day Around Town

Yesterday was Korean Thanksgiving so our friend Thomas from Wonju came to spend the day with us. We were happy not to have grad school on such a nice fall day. We started off at 9am by climbing a small mountain, called "Im-wang-san." We were told there is a nice view of the city and the President's house from the top. It took us a little over an hour, but we reached the top and were treated with a nice view.

An old Buddha carved into the rocks on our way up the mountain.

One of the many views of the never-ending city that is Seoul.

B, H, & Thomas posing for a pic on top of Mt. Im-wang-san.

After climbing down, we continued walking until we reached the President's house. It's called the "blue house" due to the blue tiled-roof. We were surprised at how many people were out and about considering the big holiday; we figured more of them would be at home with family.

The President's house: Called the Blue House due to its blue-tiled roof.

Near the Blue House is the most famous palace, "Gyeong-bok-gung." With a normal entrance fee of about $3, it's one of the most expensive palaces to tour. But, due to the holiday, it was free to the public. There were hundreds of people in and around the palace. Some of the kids were dressed in the traditional Korean dress, "han-bok" so it was fun to see that.

Part of Gyeong-bok Palace; the most famous palace in Seoul.

A whole family sporting their "han-bok."

We even caught a changing of the guard ceremony.

After our walk around the palace, we headed to Insa-dong, which is the place for foreigners to find nice souvenirs. We were surprised when over half of the shops were open; the internet had said it would be almost completely shut down. We ran into an old friend from Wonju so we chatted with her for a bit and then it was off to find lunch. We had heard of this really good Mexican place about a mile from Insa-dong, so we walked down there only to realize it was one of the places that had shut down for the holiday. We settled on Indian food instead, and had a very tasty lunch indeed. After lunch we headed to City Hall, which we found to be completely under construction. They've been working on bits and pieces of it since we've been in Korea, but now they have the whole front facade hidden. It was still nice to see some green grass out on the lawn though.

City Hall covered up due to renovations.

After City Hall we continued walking to Nam-dae-mun market, since T had never been there. Some of the stalls were open, but since we had other places to go, we didn't stay long for any shopping. At 4pm we hopped on the subway and headed to the National Museum of Korea, which was showing the oldest known original painting found in Korea; it dates back to the 15th century. Surprisingly the museum was free, too, due to the holiday, and there were throngs of people taking advantage of that and the fact that this was one of only a few days to see the old and historic painting.

The line that we waited in to see the old painting.

After waiting for almost two hours, we were finally able to get up close to inspect the old, frail painting. It was a painting of a mythical horse/dragon and it looked really cool. We're happy we waited to see it.

Our day didn't end there. At about 6:30, we hailed a cab and drove to the financial district, home to Korea's tallest building, the 63 building. We were pleasantly surprised when the tickets to the observation floor were discounted 50%, we only had to pay $6 to ride the elevator to the top and have a look at the city all aglow!

Seoul by night.

Seoul by night.

A cool sculpture outside the 63 Building, with the nice full moon in the background.

Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving)

Today (Friday) we had the day off since it's the day before Korean Thanksgiving. This is our 4th one in a row, and this is the 1st time that we don't have "big" plans. Three years ago we were living in the south and did a 5-day trip around Korea. Two years ago we went to Taiwan, and last year we checked out the Mask Dance Festival. This year we're laying fairly low; tomorrow our friend from Wonju will come to Seoul and we plan to go hiking on a mountain that's near the president's house. We're also planning on showing our friend some of the palaces and temples around the city, since he's never been.

Chuseok is a holiday of giving so both B and I got gifts from our school. B got a pair of crystal wine glasses. Look below for a photo of my gift....

That's right: the staff at my school were all given boxes of soap. 11 soap-related products. This needs some explaining.... People in Korea are terrified of the Swine Flu. In years past, I would literally have to bring my own soap from home to my middle school as there wasn't always a bar provided. I saw female staff exit the bathroom without washing their hands every day. Washing hands was not important to all Koreans, until the Swine Flu came. So far, 9 Koreans have died from complications related to the flu (they were all elderly and had underlying health conditions) but nonetheless there's still wide-spread fear of it getting much worse. So, now all of sudden there are massive hand-washing demonstrations and hand-sanitizing stations popping up all over. I'm happy to report that even before the onset of the flu, all of the restrooms at my current university did have soap dispensers (although now all of the liquid soap has been upgraded to foam soap for some reason). On a related note, all of the fabulous fall festivals have been cancelled due to fears of the flu spreading...

We hope to take some cool photos tomorrow so we'll get those posted ASAP. To all of our Korean friends, Happy Chuseok!

First 3 weeks in Seoul

We've been busy since our last post. Our first visitor to our new apartment was my good friend Rox. She spent the night and then we hit the town: we ate lunch at an Indian restaurant, went downtown, and even hit up one of the shopping markets. It was a really good time.

Rox & I at the Cheon-gae Stream in Downtown Seoul.

Posing on the plaza in front of City Hall.

A few days after Rox came for a visit, we went back to Wonju for a farewell party for her and her Brandon, who were headed back to Canada. It was hard to say goodbye to them but we're grateful for the year that we were able to hang out with them.

Katie, Rox, H & Jamie saying goodbye to Rox & Brandon.

Brandon, B, Phil, & Andy chatting one last time.

Our second and last year of grad school has started. I'm taking Managerial Acct. and Marketing Research. B is taking the Acct. class and Mgmt. Info systems. The classes are tougher this semester as we move into the electives. We both have class Tuesday nights and all day on Saturday; B also goes on Wednesdays and I go on Thursdays.

Our jobs are going well, too. B had one of his classes cancelled due to low enrollment, so he's down to 12 teaching hours and 3 working days a week. I'm up to 16 hours and 3 teaching days a week. We both have Tuesdays off so we try to do something fun if we can.

The nameplate on my door.

My office; I share it with my co-worker Rose.

My Marketing class was canceled on Thursday so we went to the Broadway Musical, "Rent." Two of the original characters were still on the cast list, so it was a great experience.

Getting ready to watch Rent.

Our New Address

This is our new address in Seoul; we know it works as our new visas arrived in the mail yesterday!

Magnuson

Si Yeong Apt. 28-103

Go Deok Dong 494

Gang Dong Gu

Seoul, Korea 134-080

The Big Move

Thursday the 27th was moving day. The moving man arrived at 8am on the nose and we were surprised when he said he had come alone. He only had a one ton, uncovered truck and we had been stressing the night before that all of our stuff wouldn't fit. This man was so amazing; he not only got all of it to fit, he did it in an hour and even covered it in time when it started to downpour.

B left at 8:30 so that he could be in Seoul to sign the new apt. papers by 11. Chomps and I followed on a different bus and arrived in Seoul at the new apt. at noon. The moving man had already been there and dropped all of our stuff off. Immediately after arriving, our realtor took us to some 2nd-hand shops in order for us to find appliances & furniture. (Three shops and three days later, our place is fully furnished).

We call this the bowling alley; our long, thin "living room" that is now our comp. room. the door with the windows is the entrance to our place.

This is when you enter. To the left is the study, the right is the kitchen, bath and spare room, thru the door on your left is the living room, and thru the door on your right is our bedroom.

Our kitchen (the fridge is aptly named "Tank")

Our study that should be the living room...

Chomps posing for the cam. The door frame in the right hand corner is our living room.

The living room.

Our bedroom.

3rd bedroom/our storage room. The people b4 us left that nice hanging curtain!

The room that gave us the most trouble...what a mess it was.

Today was B's 1st day of classes at his new job. He left at 10:45am and is teaching 2 classes today. He got all dressed up for the big occasion and I snapped a photo. My classes start on Wednesday.

B all ready for his 1st day at his new uni gig!

So far we're satisfied with our choice to be in this quiet area; it doesn't even seem like we're living in Seoul. As soon as we hop on a bus and ride for 5 mins, though, we're quickly reminded of where we're living. We're hoping that we find some fellow ex-pats in this area to help pass the evenings and such with. For now, though, we're just getting to know our surroundings.

Workshop

Today I (H) went into my new workplace for a day-long workshop with my new colleagues. I met most of the ex-pat staff, which includes a total of about 15 of us. Everyone was eager to be there and I got a lot out of the day. In the afternoon I went to immigration and went through the hassle of changing my address, getting a new visa for a new job, and getting a multiple entry stamp. Luckily I made a reservation or I would still be there...B goes into his school tomorrow to pick up his contract and head to immigration (since our visas are up soon).

Thursday is the big moving day! The movers are supposed to be in Wonju at 8am and hopefully we'll be in our new place by early afternoon. B will go first, armed with cleaning supplies and our bank book (to pay the rest of the deposit) and Chomps and I will hopefully follow with the moving truck. We won't have any appliances so our main goal will be to buy the basics as soon as we're in. We've found a 2nd hand appliance shop near our new place, so hopefully they'll have good deals on Thursday. It's exciting to be moving but tough to say goodbye to our nice friends in Wonju. We had a going away party a few nights ago and we were happy that everyone came out to help us say goodbye to Wonju.

Goodbye dinner.

The Women of Wonju: Adele, H, Rox and Tiff.

The guys trying to pull off a decent pose.

Korea: Round 4

We've arrived back to Korea after a nice vacation back home in the States. We were able to meet up with lots of family and friends and had a really enjoyable time. Here are a few pics from our time at home:

We flew over Mt. Fuji on our way home.

With Mom & Emma b4 she got her braces off.

With long-time friends Jvonne & Tanya.

Meeting up with high school friends Anna, Amanda, & their families.

Visiting Em's house and playing with her adorable family.

Camping in Somerset

Tubing the Apple River (beer cooler not shown)

On Hardy Lake with the neighbor kids.

The Heads!

Now that we're back in Wonju, we're on a time-crunch to get everything organized for our big move to Seoul. We move on the 27th of August, so we've got a week left. We've been trying to hang out with friends as much as possible, since we won't really be seeing them once we move to the big city. We're also busy trying to arrange for appliances and furniture so that our move will be as easy as possible (since we're leaving this school, they get to keep their furniture and appliances). Finally, we're attempting to make syllabi for our upcoming start at university. It's a bit daunting planning whole classes out, but we're on the right track! Thanks again for those of you who took time out to meet us. We really appreciate a strong base back home!!