Always building...

Living in Korea as a foreigner, is a little like living in an ants nest:

1. There seem to be millions of Koreans everywhere you look.
   
2. They are very hard workers.
   
3. They eat some food items that I wouldn't even consider as, well, food.
   
4. They are always building things.

When I came to Korea first, someone told me that Koreans love to tear things down and then build them again. Especially being a country that has experienced a relatively recent economic boom, I could understand how that would be the case. I also thought, that with the recession that's caused Koreans --as well as the rest of the world-- to tighten their belts a little, that it would stop for a little while, or at least slow down. Little did I know.

There is a popular joke that in Newfoundland we have four seasons:

1. Almost Winter
   
2. Winter
   
3. Still Winter
   
4. Construction

Although Koreans would argue that Korea has four distinct seasons, I would disagree. There is only one: Construction. It just keeps going and going.

Everywhere I go outside I see construction, or at the very least people tearing up and laying down new tile sidewalks. It's an epidemic.

SLP Paintball Extravaganza

On Saturday all the staff members at Gangseo SLP participated in a day of bonding, fun and adventure. We went around an hour outside of Seoul to play paintball. It was all fun and games until the fun and games were over for the day and we noticed the huge welts that paintball had created on our skin. We passed them off as casualties of war (paintball war that is) and carried on with the rest of our days. SLP treated us to some delicious Korean barbecue, the bus brought us back home and most of us were pretty tired from the days festivities, so we had early nights. On Sunday a few of us went to Costco and then to see a movie: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- which was pretty great by the way -- and then on Monday did our regular thing and went to school. I'll have you know that today is Tuesday, and those things that were welts on Saturday have blossomed into the most fabulous rainbow colour bruises!







This one in particular reminds me of a meteor!




Do you think its an omen?





The other bruises don't really have similarly interesting stories to tell, although they do hurt just as much. They are a virtual cornucopia of colours -- or like a rainbow if you are looking for a more mundane expression. Perhaps I could say that they are like skittles? Once when my sister, C, and I were both quite little, I told her that a bruise on her leg looked like a hot dog with ketchup, mustard and relish... and then proceeded to poke it. Another time I seem to recall telling her that bruises were actually called 'hurt-buttons' followed by .. .*gasp!*... more poking. Seems like I was perhaps not as benevolent a child as I would like to believe I was.

Although I like to believe that I was actually a sweet child, and very good to my little sister, she is a very meticulous person and has been keeping track of the mean things I have done to her over the years. The vast majority of which were between age 7 and age 12 or 13 I believe. Apparently, after that I mellowed out a little. For the record: I don't believe that I was ever intentionally mean to either of my sisters. I will admit however that I did sometimes play jokes that I thought C and I would both find funny, but which in the end left C crying and me in trouble.

The one I am most embarrassed about happened right at the edge of that upper age range, because I know it happened after we moved to Newfoundland from Nova Scotia. We moved when I was 11, although I'd like to say I was younger than that when I had such poor judgement, its just not true. On this particular occasion, as I was getting ready to go to bed at night, I noticed that C -- who was also getting ready for bed -- was not in her room, but in the bathroom brushing her teeth with the door closed. This meant that she could not see me as I stole into her room under the cover of darkness and situated myself hidden beneath her bed. Quiet as a mouse, I waited for the tooth-brushing to finish so I could hatch my devious plot. It really was devious -- here's why. I was very careful to make no noise as C walked into the room and got into her bed. I continued to wait quitely while my parents came in to say goodnight, and walked out closing the door behind them. I stayed quieter still as I listened while my sister's breathing slowed. Just as I knew that she was on the edge of sleep, I reached up and around, without even breathing so I could not be heard and tickled her in the small of the back!

Needless to say, my sister was screaming halfway down the stairs to the kitchen and the safety of my parents before I even really knew what had just happened. Having intended to startle her, but not really scare her, the minute she started to cry, I also burst into tears. I almost cried writing this story, I still feel so bad about it. My sister has never really quite forgiven me for it either. Not that I can say I would feel any different if the situation were reversed.

Teach English in Korea

For those of you who are either interested in what I'm up to in my free time when I wake up so early in the morning, or who are interested in travelling to Korea, this post is for you. For the past week or so I have been spending large chunks of my mornings getting a little bit of a name made for myself at a website called hubpages.com where I've been writing about teaching English in Korea under an alias, Laura Berwick. 'Berwick' came about because I didn't want to use my real name, and when I did a serch for unusal last names it was on the top of the list.


Most of the articles I've been writing for that site aren't really appropriate for this blog which is more of a friends and family sort of thing, so although I won't post each article here in its fully length and influence you to pull out your hair, I will post a few links for you to look at so you can take a gander if you're interested. Any and all criticism or opinions are highly appreciated!

• Teach English in Korea: Things to Know Before You Go



• Teach English in Korea: Is it for me?



• Teach English in Korea: What you Should Bring



• Teach English in Korea: Financial Considerations



• Teach English in Korea: Korean Kiddos

I know that there are still some occasional grammatical/spelling errors here and there, so if you see any when you are browsing through, please feel free to point them out to me. I would also love for you send me ideas or request an article you think I should write. I've found since I started this blog that I am really enjoying writing. I figure, the more I write, the better I'll get, and the more interesting this will be for all of you loyal (or even not-so-loyal) readers!

Seven months ago tomorrow, I was about to leave Newfoundland for Korea, and was freaking out. Thank you to everyone for doing your best to calm me down and build me up during that time, and for thus making it possible for me to be here. Also, thanks to everyone who's been so amazing since I got here, I look forward to my last five months and I plan to keep you up to date, and in the know. =)

Korean Dentists

So, as you know if you have been following my blog, or my facebook, I have been spending a significant amount of time at the dentist recently, and so I thought it fitting to make a post about my excursions -- a little more whimsical than the first.

A quick recap : filling fell out, is now replaced and crowned, dentist visits in Korea = almost over!

The dentist that both Meghan and I have been going to actually has a nice little office on one of the busier streets near our house. Meghan and I usually cab it there in the morning because its usually quite early and neither of us are really up for the walking.

When we arrived on this particular day -- for some reason our appointments seem to always happen together. Its never by design (on our parts at any rate) but it is very convenient -- I started snapping photos for this post, and Meghan just shook her head and accepted her fate as the subject. She thought I was being weird, but didn't say it -- it was all in the look on her face.

Walking into a dentist's office in Korea is surprisingly like walking into a dentist's office anywhere else that I've been in the world. Its pretty simple and quiet, with nondescript music trying to mask the drilling sounds that are coming from the non-reception areas.

The waiting area really is pretty nice, as I described in my last post. There are computers on one side for people to use as they wait, and a sitting area on the other side with a huge fish tank that I really enjoy.

After Meghan went in for her appointment, I got a little bored and decided to play with my camera by taking pictures of my new phone charm that I got from a little girl for Teacher's Day.

But the phone charm is so cute, almost as cute as the little cupcake who gave it to me. It was easy to pass my time until the receptionist called my name taking her picture.

I went inside, the crown got its final cement, and my visit to the dentist was over in no time.

A tale of woe for Roh...

On our way to Busan on Friday, we came across large groups of people gathering at large memorials outside Seoul station where we were to catch the express train south. Previously having been shushed on the bus, and having used our limited access to the media here in Korea, we had known that something was up, but we didn't realize what a big deal it was. Koreans everywhere were in mourning, and its a story worth mentioning, so here it is. In a nutshell...

South Korea's most recent former president, Roh Moo-Hyun threw himself off the side of a cliff near his home while hiking a week and a half ago, and Koreans aren't happy about it. At the time of his death he was being investigated for corruption, especially accepting bribes -- $6 million during his time in office -- and was being hounded by the media and the current government day and night, to the point where his health had deteriorated and he could no longer lead a normal life.



During his time in office Roh Moo-Hyun was an advocate of South Korea's 'sunshine policy' of reconciliation towards the North and also was responsible for a free trade agreement with the United States.

He was elected on the promise to change Korean politics for the better, and rid the government of scandal and corruption, but it followed him until the day he died. Roh left a suicide note on his computer saying:

I am in debt to so many people. I have caused too great a burden to be placed upon them. I can't begin to fathom the countless agonies down the road. The rest of my life would only be a burden for others. I am unable to do anything because of poor health. I can't read books, nor can I write. Do not be too sad. Isn't life and death all a part of nature? Do not be sorry. Do not feel resentment toward anyone. It is fate. Cremate me. And leave only a small tombstone near home. I've thought on this for a long time.

It's a little bit strange to be on the outside and the inside of an event like this. On the one hand I'm completely on the outside. Until I really started researching the only information I really heard about this was from this article on cbc.ca that I happened across last weekend when I was catching up on news from home. It say basically that he committed suicide, that he was a crook, that the suicide and the corruption were related and that current President Lee Myung-bak payed lip service. It's pretty emotionless and to the point, a blip on the radar that goes relatively un-noticed by 99% of the Canadian population.



Meanwhile, I currently am in Korea, on the inside, when people are crying in the streets in front of makeshift memorials and my children are telling me that:

"Teacher, a great South Korean man died on the weekend."

It's anything but emotionless, and the facts and theories are so confused that it seems that no one really knows up from down. A week and a half ago, I was unmoved by the article I read on cbc.ca. So some guy accepts bribes, kills himself to avoid the consequences... and? And, what?

And now, I feel compassion for that man. I feel for his family, and for the Koreans that saw the chance for a brighter future in him, even if they did only see him that way due to the tragic way his life came to an end. I feel compassion for anyone who feels that their lives are no longer worth living. Its so easy to forget that corrupt politicians on the other side of the world really are people to, and that even in their corruption they still have redeeming qualities and people who care about them. I would do myself well to keep that in mind more often.

Not a princess...

I had an incident this morning which reminded me very much of that children's story about the princess and the pea. Just in case you don't remember, the quick and dirty version is that the mother of the prince only wanted the best for his son, and said that if his bride to be was a true princess then she should not be able to sleep if there was a pea under her mattress. They piled up ten mattresses with a single pea beneath them and despite the initial skepticism of the mother-in-law to be, the princess wasn't able to sleep a wink.

Poor girl...

This morning I had a similar experience, although to my knowledge it was under the influence of no prospective mother-in-laws. When I woke up this morning, I noticed that there was not a pea, but a pea sized pebble between me and my mattress. I had slept all night, none-the-wiser, even though there was nothing between myself and my pea the the pyjamas I was wearing. If a true princess loses a night of sleep because of a pea under ten mattresses... what does that make me?

The gaping hole...

The gaping hole in my tooth is now gone!

As some of you know, the filling that once had a place in one of my rear molars departed some months ago, and it has been a little while that I've been dealing with quite a large hole in the back of my mouth! Since coming to Korea I had either been unable to, or too busy to find a dentist but I went on Monday and everything is all fixed up!

The dentist's office is really nice, and the people there all seem to speak a little bit of English, which is great. I'm really lucky to have found such a good dentist.

Going to the dentist in Korea, or to any doctor for that matter can be quiet interesting though... more information to come...

UPDATE: (May29) Directly from the dentist's office. I feel like I must be an important person, giving vital information about an important event, seeing as I am live-blogging my trip to the dentist's office! Alas, it is still only a dentist visit. Today I am getting a porcelain crown on the tooth where the gaping hole once was. They have to tweak something which should take 1/2 hour or so, and I'm cooling my heals in the waiting room until the crown is ready. I'm pretty excited to have a fully functioning tooth in my mouth, seeing as it's been so long.

The waiting room here is pretty snazzy for a waiting room, but I'm not surprised. Korea is very big on outward appearances, and the waiting room/reception area is the first impression you get of any doctor or dentist, so I can see how that would be especially important in Korea. It's a pretty big room with a really nice couch and elaborate fish tank on one side, then the desk area in the middle and on the other side of the room there are some chairs and even three courtesy computers so you can do what you have to do while you wait. I guess that's no surprise either seeing as Korean always seem to be working, but its awfully convenient. And of course it's the reason that I'm able to live blog to you right now! Whoo hoo!

In other dental news I have two more cavities! Yikes! One I knew that I had, and its pretty little, but the other one was hiding itself very well, and I had no idea it was there until I came to the dentist for the first time last week. Fortunately its tiny, and barely a cavity at all, but I'm still glad to know about it now so I can nip it in the bud.

My dentist is pretty great. His name is Dr. Kim and he really seems to know what he's up to. The funny this is, that there are five dentists here and they all have the last name Kim.

"So Laura, did you see Dr. Kim today, or did you see Dr. Kim?"

Hahaha... I'm soooo hilarious. Kim is such a common name in Korea that none of the doctors here are even related, they just all have the same name. It is easily one of the most common names in Korea along with Lee and Park. More common than any name I can think of at home even comes close to. In each of my classes of 10 students I have at least one Kim, often two or more. It's amazing.

Mandu

Mandu are a Korean dish that I have really fallen in love with since I arrived in Korea. They are a filled dumpling which are delicious, healthful (depending on how you cook them) and have I mentioned... delicious? Common fillings include meat, veggies, kimchi and noodles.

Mandu are very difficult to make by hand so I buy frozen ones at the local grocery store, but once they are made they are quite easy to prepare. There are one of two ways that you can do this. The first, and healthiest way is by steaming them, in which case they look like this:

The second, and most delicious, although much less healthy way is to fry them in a pan with oil, this makes them a little more crispy, which I really enjoy. They look like this:

Both types are usually served with a dipping sauce made of soy sauce and vinegar.

There are also different shapes of mandu, and of course different possible delicious fillings that can go inside the shell. My favourite type of filling is kimchi, which is a sure sign that I've already been living in Korea a little too long! haha

On a side note, you will be happy to know that the turtle is no longer nameless. This post is dedicated to him, as this delicious Korean dish is his namesake. I am proud to announce the turtle's new name: Mandu

Two weeks: Update!

It has been two weeks since I posted anything, and I know, much longer since I have posted anything of significance, but I'm back again, and here to stay for a little while at least!

The problem is, that even in Korea you can set into a daily routine where nothing really seems blog worthy anymore. The last two weeks have been pretty much consumed with end of the term activities (aka: report cards) and recovering (aka: moping) from the departure of my best friend on May 6th. I have recovered for the most part though from both the departure and the report cards and hope to resume blogging on a semi-regular basis if I can think of anything to tell you about.

This is where you come in!

I know that you have read posts where something is only mentioned in passing, or maybe you've heard things about Korea or Korean culture from other people and you want to know about them. Please comment on this post, or on any other, about what you would like to hear about next. Naturally there are still many topics left untouched, but once your every day life has become every-day, things don't stand out as much as they used to and you stop considering them interesting.

Your challenge if you choose to accept it...

Hate Math?

Then Korea has the toothpaste for you!

At my local department store, HomePlus:
Free tube of toothpaste when you purchase 6 bottles of soju!

The Cabbage that we Ravage with the Chili Paste Taste

You guessed it, its Kimchi!

Making kimchi is the traditional Korean way of preserving vegetables to last over the winter. It can be made from any vegetable, or combination there of, but the most common and popular variety is made in the fall, from whole salted cabbage, with chili paste and other ingredients stuffed between the layers. It is considered by Koreans to be both nutritious and delicious. It really didn't appeal to me when I arrived in Korea, so I disputed the 'delicious' part, but I have discovered that the 'nutritious' part indeed has much truth to it.

According to this article on Asianinfo.com kimchi is rich in vitamin A, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), calcium, and iron, and is also an excellent source of vitamin C. Although some kimchi varieties are high in salt and therefor associated with the health problems that come from high-sodium diets, the low sodium varieties may possibly reduce cancer growth and were listed on one health magazine's website as one of the 5 healthiest foods in the world. Wow!

Inspite of my initial skepticism, kimchi is quickly becoming one of my favourite Korean foods. I love to eat it with the majority of my meals. I agree with Koreans that it is delicious by itself, in soup or in fried rice. It is many delicious. Having always been a picky eater, that's saying a lot about kimchi and how it can grow on you.


The title of this post actually came from a music video made by some teachers in another part of Korea very close to Seoul. There are many jokes that you might have to live in Korea (or at least visit) to understand, but I'll post it anyway, because I thinks its pretty hilarious, and I'll add some pointers at the end to help you understand. Enjoy!

1. This song goes out to all the weguks. Weguk = foreigner
2. Kamsahamnida = Thank you
   Anyonghaseyo = Hello
3. T-money = Transportation money, for buses, subway, cabs etc.
   Yoke= (subway) station
4. Koreans cannot swim in a public pool without a swim cap
5. Drinkin Cass-euh, Drinking Hite-euh, feeling alright-euh: In the Korean language there are no words that end with a consonant sound, and so although Koreans use many English words quite frequently they add a vowel to the end of every word that doesn't already have one, almost exactly like this guy is doing in the video. Cass and Hite are the two popular brands of beer in Korea.
6. Noraebang : A karaoke room.

Yatta

Watch -- Laugh -- Enjoy

That is all... have a great weekend!

Pizza Maru

Pizza in Korea really is a wonderful thing... depending on where you buy it and what you get on it. Just like everywhere else I supposed.

Korea has a few different major chains in two varieties:

1. Western Style Pizza
   
2. Korean Style Pizza
   

The two are not actually as different as you might imagine. Korea has most of the major pizza chains -- Pizza Hut, Domino's, Papa John's -- and many of their pizzas are not so unlike home. You must be careful though when you visit as some of the pizza toppings are very much so not what you would expect. In a nutshell there's a lot of fish and Asian sweet potato on pizza here. The western style pizza is also priced in the same price range as at home, which when you are used to shopping and eating in Korea is a ridiculous price to pay for anything... other foods here are so cheap that it makes pizza seem like a luxury.

This is where the Korean style pizza comes in. If you are a fan of a medium sized thin crust pizza for $5 with delicious toppings, then these are the kind of places for you. Most of them have English names, as pizza is considered a western dish, but they have become very Koreanized in some cases. Places like Pizza Maru, Pizza School etc. sell delicious and cheap pizza that I routinely take advantage of, perhaps a little more often than I should. :)

My favourite pizza chain that I have found so far is Pizza Maru which luckily (unluckily?) for me is approximately 3 mins away from my apartment, and I go there at least once a week with the girls from work. They have this really neat green crust, which sounds a little strange until you taste it and discover that it's delicious!

It's run by this kind man below and his family:

He's always soo busy when we are there, and seems to work really hard but always has a warm smile for us when we stop by, and the pizzas are delicious. Sometimes when we drop by after work, his kids -- two boys-- are there hanging out. He has an older boy (9-10 years?) and a younger boy (maybe 3). One day, when I got here first, the littlest boy had lots of boogies all over his face so I took a tissue and handed it to him -- or so I thought. Instead of taking the tissue I offered, he just leaned into my hand... and blew! As I guess it is perfectly natural for a three-year-old boy to do.

Where the heck is Matt?

This video is worth waiting an extra few minutes for to load in HD if your computer is fast enough to handle it.

Introducing.... Matt!

An American video game designer from Connecticut, he got tired of making shoot-em-up games for a living, quit is job and this is the result! Without further ado I give you a video simply entitled:

Dancing.

To learn more you can check out Matt's website.

Summer (oops! Spring!) in Seoul

The weather today in Seoul was absolutely fabulous, and I would be happy if it didn't get any warmer here... ever! I walked to school in a t-shirt and wished that I had worn shorts. (I didn't even bring shorts with me, what was I thinking?) The best (worst) part of all of this is that it's only the beginning of April, and that means that I am going to be truly uncomfortable during the months of May, June, July, August and September. Newfoundland barely has 5 weeks of semi-summer. What was I thinking of coming to a place where real summer lasts full-blown for 5 months?!? Yikes! Hopefully my body will adapt quickly. On the plus side though summer at the beginning of April means that we have some beautiful flowers blossoming right now.

Virtually over the past few days, trees have gone from barren to green in some cases, and to just filled to the brim with blooms in others. It really is absolutely breath taking. Especially for a city where the air quality is so poor! I was amazed to find today on my way to school that in spite of the general poor air quality and omnipresent large-city-odour that the fragrance of flowers hung heavy in the air, quite literally. Like it was warning me of just how hot and sticky this summer is going to be :) There is a chance I may melt before I make it home. Aagghhh! I did take some pretty fabulous pictures though which I will post tomorrow when I get home from school.

There are plans in the works to take in a cherry blossom festival this weekend on an island in Seoul called Yeouido that I'm pretty pumped about. The city has really been coming to life over the past few days and even my walk to school has some breathtaking moments. Suffice to say, there will be many pictures. There must be millions of flowers in bloom in Seoul right now if you include all the cherry blossoms, the tulips, azaleas, forsythia, pansies... you name it, it seems to be beautiful in Seoul right now. (Including me of course! But as you know... I'm always beautiful. :P )

On a completely unrelated note, I've been doing a fair bit of research over the past few days to see if I can't make my classes a little more interesting for the kids, and I was wondering if any of you out there happened to have any ideas, especially those that don't involve game that are only for the sake of entertainment. I like to play games with my kids, but I run less of a risk of getting in trouble with the higher-ups if they are actually clever learning activities disguised as games, which is what I'm really hankering for. Also, suggestions on how to help the kids really feel accountable for the work that they do, so that their sense of pride over a job well done kicks in. I've found a few ideas of my own, and online, but any and all help is always appreciated!

HomePlus! HomePlus!

I have this song stuck in my head today, because I need to get some groceries. I hear it multiple times every time I go into the store that's next to my house : HomePlus. (No, I haven't seen any polygamists Catherine.)

Hopefully it will get stuck in your head too! Enjoy!

Kickin' It Old Skool!

The past few weeks here in Seoul have been pretty fun and interesting in a lot of ways, so I thought I'd write a quick note to tell you a little about it.

In my last post about my daily events I ending off with telling you about upcoming White Day. I most recently posted saying what White Day is and now I'll take you a minute to tell you about my White Day! As you know Randy and I decided to reverse traditional Korean Valentine's and White Day rules so he planned Valentine's Day and I planned White Day. As luck would have it, Randy completely forgot about White Day's existence, and I could have gotten off Scott-free if I had wanted! Instead I used it to his advantage. He probably won't appreciate me putting this on the Internet, but while he didn't know that it was White Day I convinced him clean his apartment until it was spic and span. Heehee, I'm so clever. Then, when I announced the occasion his first gift was a nice clean apartment! The rest of the day's festivities included Mexican food, some time at the driving range and a little scrabble to finish it all off. Wonderbar.



White Day was closely followed by St. Patrick's Day which I of course had to celebrate, having Irish blood running through my veins. My friends and I all went to an Irish pub not too far away from where we live called Maddigan's where we had a pleasant but quiet evening having a little celebration of our Irish heritage. Not everyone there was of Irish descent mind you, those who weren't were just a little jealous and decided to tag along.

The weekend was fairly uneventful with the exception of what inspired the title of this post, Kickin' It Old Skool! On Sunday we went to see the Korean Folk Village in Suwon. It was pretty neat! There were a lot of traditional Korean houses and people wearing traditional Korean clothing and making traditional Korean food. I had heard people say that there wasn't much to see there and that you could do the whole thing in 1/2 an hour, so I was surprised when I arrived to find a $13 entrance fee. At this point we had travelled around 2 hours to get there and had a two hour train ride to get back home though, so there was no way we weren't going inside. I was pleasantly surprised to find that (perhaps in part due to my geeky nature) I could have stayed there all day and not really gotten my fill. There were so many things to read and explore! There were different houses and structures used by everyone from the lowest pesant to the richest nobleman, shows, old style markets, livestock, traditional games to play and food to eat... wow! We didn't get to see it that day because we were a little late but they even hold traditional Korean weddings for tourists to see! You could make pottery, ride horses and pretty much waste an entire day, I thought. There was also an amusement park for kids next door, which I thought was pretty neat.

Perhaps one of my favourite things that I saw in the Folk Village that I think that you'd enjoy was a sort of "Magic Show", or so it was called by the people preforming it. They were making Dragon Beard Candy, which is a really neat thing to watch. I've uploaded two videos for you to watch and see how neat it is, although neither is as cool as seeing it in person. The first one is the exact one I saw at the folk village in Suwon, but the second one I think is a better video for seeing exactly what is happening. Hope you enjoy!

My Apartment and a Walk to School

A little upgrading has been happening from time to time in my apartment, and I thought I would show you some of the latest improvements.

The one I am happiest about is the new bed that I inherited from one of the departing teachers at the end of February. Let me show you!

Isn't it all kinds of awesome! Having a regular sized bed really helps me feel more at home in this place. For some reason, although the twin bed was fine, it really felt so temporary. Also, now that I have a queen sized bed, and a mattress for the floor I can entertain guests! **hint**hint** Don't miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Asia! As an added bonus the dollar is really strong here, so you'll find everything soo cheap! Whoo hoo! Book your spaces now, they're filling up quick! :) hehehe...


Aside from the bed other noteworthy (but not quite as big) changes include the plants that I bought from HomePlus and potted myself, and a wall hanging that Andrew Bown brought me back from Australia, that is currently my only decoration that is not Christmas themed. My mother says that I must be related to Aunt Shelia. Hopefully she reads this!

Although the route I take to get to school everyday seems a little mundane to me these days, I remember finding it fascinating when I got here first, but was too shy to take pictures, already standing out as much as I do. I thought I might put up a few for you so you can get an idea of the area of Seoul that I live in. Gangseo-gu is the name of the district of Seoul that I live in, and although it is pretty much the suburbs you will see that there's not much that you and I would consider suburban about it. I'm not sure how far outside of Seoul you would have to go to see single family homes like we are so used to, but I haven't seen it yet.

Ricki has been asking for months to see the view outside the window in my apartment, so I am going to start with that. Here are a few pictures that I took for her the other day.

That's the view out the left and right sides of the window respectively and then a view of the street below. Even though the street is a dead end just past the left side of this picture, it is always sooo busy!



Next, here's what my apartment looks like from the hallway. Followed by a thrilling view of the elevator! Hooray!

Living in a house my whole life I was pretty amused to find myself living in a place where not only did I take an elevator to get to and from my apartment, but I was also living on the 7th floor! There aren't even that many buildings at home with that many floors, but here tall buildings are much more common than short ones. I guess they have so many people to cram into such a small space one can hardly blame them.



The rest of my walk to school can actually be quite interesting at times. Selling things on the side of the road is very common here, and I walk past soo many street vendors on my ten minute walk to school. That is pretty neat in and of itself, but amazing considering I live in one of the slower and more boring parts of Seoul. There are people here selling anything you can imagine on the side of the road. Food, to electronics, to household supplies and even a mobile dollar store with everything lined up in baskets on the side of the road.



The first thing I see when I walk out of my building and head towards school is HomePlus, a huge department store right next to my apartment building. You can get almost everything there, although you'll pay a little more than if you shop around. It's pretty much gigantic, a lot bigger than any single store in St. John's I would think. Perhaps not bigger than department stores in other place.

I guess with everything said and done, it makes sense that the department stores here would be so big, with such a high concentration of people in such a small place. There are so many apartment buildings here, and where they are they are very concentrated. If I hadn't been so dazed on my way into the city from the airport I would have taken more pictures, because the horizon here is very interesting. It looks like a normal city for the most part with average sized buildings, but then all along the horizon there are pockets of a dozen or more high-rise apartment buildings. I'll take a picture when I see a good example for you some time soon. I have a few good pictures of apartment buildings, but none that really show the horizon the way that I would like to.

The next thing I saw on the particular day that I went out to take pictures was convenient, because it was the bus I take on rainy days, or when I'm feeling lazy. I take this bus pretty often, so I thought it deserved a picture and a spot on my blog. Here it is.

Isn't she a beaut!

As you can see there's a little bit of construction going on around where I live. They're putting in a new subway line right next to my house which I am finding pretty exciting. It is due to open in May, and will take us from where we live, pretty much right into the centre of the city. That will make doing summer time touristy things all the more easy!

Here are a few intersections and a few apartment buildings, so you can see this concrete city that I'm up against here! There are some parts of the city that aren't so bad and also, nothing living is turning green quite yet, so the whole thing is looking pretty bleak. I'll have to take a few more pictures once summer is here!

Everywhere you look in this place there are people, buildings, cars, apartments... its amazing!

The last part of the journey is of course the destination, which for me is school! Aside from the classrooms and the kids that I have already showed you the school also has a staffroom which is my first destination of the day. Its pretty crowded, and here's what it looks like!

That concludes another fascinating insight into the life of Laura in Korea! Stay tuned for more fabulous updates to come! :)