So, it's been a while....

Yup, it's been quite a while since I've put a blog post together. Life's been busier than usual, with the end of the school term fast approaching. This week is the last full week of classes for the first and second graders, who will start writing exams next week. A lot has happened since I posted last, and I hope to share some of that with you here. I've got three videos to share this time, so hopefully that will make it an interesting post! Again this will be very much photo-driven rather than story driven.

Starting with the most boring, there's a coffee shop opening up right near my place. It will be the closest place for me to get half-decent coffee, and will have sitting space. I'm keen to visit once it opens this month.

This is a random and quite tight alley in the area across the main street from my apartment. I was wandering over there at some point.

Delicious fried Mung-bean cake things (녹두전). They were awesomely tasty, and I ate them with great company. I went to Gwangjang Market with some friends, and we ate these and drank makgoli.

The makgoli we drank along with the jeon pictured above. Twas a very good time. I hope to see these friends again soon!

Many people had written on the walls of the little dive place we ate in. I decided to also write. I followed the trend on the wall, and wrote a message of love for my little nephew Lealand! His name will forever adorn the walls of this little shop!

This is a photo of the market itself. I didn't have a lot of time to wander, but it was very cool. Lots of different things were available for sale. I will have to return and wander about sometime.

Many of our students were lined up to cheer on our third graders. This was the day before the third graders wrote the extremely important Korean SAT. Many students cheered their older peers as they came out of the gym. It was quite a sight to see, and really emphasized the importance of the test. I'm not sure it reduced the stress level for the writers, but it was a nice gesture.

Some friends and I went out in Hyehwa to celebrate our friend's birthday. One of the things we did was grabbed cocktails from this very convenient cocktail-in-a-bag stand. The long island iced teas were very good (worlds better than the super-crappy ones my friends got at the Comfort Zone a week or so later).



Another thing we did was spend some time in a place called The Flair. They had some very cool bartender tricks going on, and I took a video of some. Sorry about the horrible shooting. :( Hopefully you can enjoy the show as much as we did though!

We quite naturally ended up at a karaoke place (karaoke here is called noraebang) as the night was getting on. You can see that noraebang and neon go quite well together.

Singing and light show in the singing room. Was good times.

In other news, our school competed against the nearby science high school in a football game. You can see the science high school just on the other side of that green fence. The plan is to have this game every year, and a nice championship trophy goes to the winner. This is the first year, but it's intended to be a tradition. Of course, our school won! Also, I hope you like our tiny football pitch. :)

The same day, a few of us walked to the nearby Palace. On the way back we spotted this sign at a hair salon. I'm not 100% sure what the message is here, but it makes me want to get my hair cut here (I actually understand now, but at the time it was a confusing sign).

Also for birthday celebration, I went with a couple of friends to a waffle place near work. We ate food, then this waffle-iced cream combination. It was killer. Delicious vanilla cookie iced cream and waffle and fruit and stuff. You can see for yourself how epic it is.

With the same people as just above, but a different day and place. We visited Beer O'Clock in Hyehwa. This is the view from the window in our little booth. It was early Friday night. You can see a lot of people eating across the street.


Beer O'Clock advertises "Touch and Self,"curiosity about which was part of the reason we first checked it out. I'll let you figure out what they mean from the video here and from the photo below. We had a good time messing with the ordering system seen in the video.

Beer, fried potatoes, and friends at Beer O'Clock.

I ended up walking along the Cheongyecheon again that weekend too. I was moving from place to place buying Christmas gifts to send home. The stream was nice, with green plants still sticking around despite the cold.

Some of the shopping I did was in Insadong, and so I stopped into Tapgol Park. I hadn't been here since my first trip to Korea, so it was good to get back. I sat for a while and watched the people coming and going. The pagoda was still there, and just as tall as I remembered.

Another weekend night in Hyehwa. A couple friends and I visited the Comfort Zone. I had only been once before. It was alright. I'm not sure why, but I feel this place has potential. It was much calmer and less annoying this time than last. My friends ordered some long island iced teas, and they were pretty awful. I'm thinking I might return here sometime in the near future.

It also snowed recently. I got this photo from just outside my office. There was a decent amount of snow cover, but it's all gone now. You can see a bit of the mountain behind the school, and the cool windows.

I've been meaning to get a photo of these leaves for a while. They're giant metal leaves hung at different heights from the ceiling just outside my office. They very much remind me of fall. In short, I'm a big fan of these fake leaves.

Yesterday was my last day of After-school Book Club. I've really enjoyed the club, and I'm sad that we won't be meeting anymore. I hope to do some kind of after-school class next term too. We had a little party because it was our last day. We ordered pizza, and here you can see the students nom-ing. Nom nom nom.

I was involved in the assessment of our students' Subject Research reports, and was rewarded with a free dinner as a result (It always pays to help out and do stuff for the school, in dinners, snacks, or immaterial things like increased respect in the school, better relationships with coworkers). Four of us went to a nice Japanese place quite near work (across the street from the waffle place mentioned above, actually). It was really good, and there were a couple things that were picture worthy. One was this boat of sushi. It had a big ol' fish head on it, which was awesome. There was sushi and wasabi about the boat, and in the front there was sannakji (freshly sliced octopus, that still wiggles about). It was not very alive, but moved a little bit. It was interesting to eat, since the little suckers suck onto your tongue and teeth and stuff. I'm now even more excited to go out and try really fresh stuff that is actually moving about with gusto.

So there's a few things that have been going on. I've got a busy weekend ahead of me, as I'll be proctoring SATs again Saturday morning, attending friends' going away party, and hopefully visiting this National Geographic Photo exhibit. I am also working on getting my vacation plans all set. I got the signatures of my head-teacher and vice principal on my proposed vacation days today, and I should be getting my visa to visit China tomorrow after work. I am planning to fly to Beijing and spend a few days there, then train down to Shanghai, and after a bit there, fly back to Seoul. I may also hit Japan for 2 or 3 days if I'm feeling like a rich man after the China stuff.

Yup, I think that's all I've got for now. I hope you're all doing really well, and that the cold hasn't set in too deeply wherever you are.

Love from Korea!

P.S. I realize I said I'd post 3 videos with this. I decided that since I hate the shooting in the third one more than I hate most things, I would not embed it here. If you're desperate to see snow falling outside my apartment window, you can click the blue letters and watch. Feel free not to if you don't want to; I promise I won't be offended.