Happy Halloween!

It's halloween week and Korea does not actively celebrate halloween. My friend, Matt, and I decided to go on a quest for pumpkins to have our own pumpkin carving party. It took all day to find them, but in the end, it was worth it. Our pumpkins look so cute.



Here I am carving my tiny, green pumpkin. We found the green ones first and thought it may be our only hope. Later, at our last stop of the day, we finally found (light) orange pumpkins! Yay!


Action shot.


Before the carving started.




He finally let me have a turn. I carved the nose.


This is my cute little pumpkin.


This is our big pumpkin. The nose looks good huh??


Group shot.



Good job.


Happy Halloween everyone!!

A trip to the Joo.... err... zoo

I had the pleasure of going to the zoo with my kids this week. 'Z' happens to be a very hard sound to pronounce for Koreans because they do not have a similar sound in their language. Because of this, my kids were so excited to go to the 'joo.' I was also very excited. At the zoo, I took many pictures. I also had my picture taken by a Korean as I walked with my children. He will go through his pictures and say "here is the lion, here is the giraffe, and here is the foreigner....." Nice.



This is Cindy and me on the bus on our way to Seoul Zoo.


Giraffes. Look at the baby one!!


Hyung joon and Cindy


Jenny and Wendy


Herding 13 five year olds, that are really 4 years old by American age, through the zoo is no easy task. Thankfully, I have Brianna, my awesome Korean teacher.


The leaves are changing here now and it's beautiful.


A quick stop for some juice and then we were back on our way.


Harry and Daniel


Chan sik, Wendy, Jenny, Heidi


Mickey, Lucy, Hyung joon


All 13 of them


Climbing a big hill


Yet another group shot.




And another group shot.
I was beginning to think our trip to the zoo was more about getting photos of the kids to show the parents than it was to see the animals.


My afternoon class also went to the zoo. The parents thought the weather was windy, so some children had to wear the face mask. I thought it was for swine flu (it is... supposedly...) but the parents said because of the weather, they should wear them. I guess it keeps out swine flu and keeps your nose warm at the same time.


This was at the zoo. Flugun??? Pure and safe?? I suppose you walk through and it blasts the flu germs off of you. I'm telling you, Korea has thought of everything!


My afternoon kids.




It was time to feed the bears!


A phone by the bear exhibit. Just in case you are looking at bears and decide you need to make that phone call that really can't wait... I don't want to say it again, but I'm telling you, they have thought of everything!


Here is a quick video of what it's like with two classes of 5 year olds at the zoo.

Pictures.

These are some pictures that I forgot to post previously.


Some friends posing by a stream.


One night in Busan, we all went to the store to buy alcohol. I bought a lotion gift set instead. What? I like to be moisturized.



Playing Jenga at my favorite hang out- a bar called Uncle Don's. Lots of foreigners hang out here. They have darts, jenga, pool, foosball, and a large screen on the wall to play music videos, sports, etc.

On my trip to Costco, I found these. I VERY reluctantly did not buy them. But one day I will. i did buy granola, oatmeal, cream cheese, bacon, and hash browns. YUM!

At Uncle Don's again.

Korea Korea.

I got a bulls eye! Throughout the game, I ended up with 5 bulls eyes, and eventually won the game. I have no idea how. I don't even play darts!!



In case you need an up close view to believe it.

This is what happens when you drink too much Soju. Notice the dark spot... poor guy. This happens to be at Uncle Don's- one of my favorite hangouts. Lots of foreigners hang out here, so it feels almost like being at home.

Sunset in Korea.
Last Sunday, a group of us went to Insadong. It's a neighborhood in the northern part of Seoul.

Posing in a garden in Insadong.

A nice palace in Insadong.

Here I am posing with a boar. This is my Chinese zodiac symbol. Apparently, being a boar means I am honest, gallant, sturdy, sociable, peace-loving, patient, loyal, hard-working, trusting, sincere, calm, understanding, thoughtful, scrupulous, passionate, intelligent. Can be naive, over-reliant, self-indulgent, gullible, fatalistic, materialistic.

Another big palace in Insadong. It was closed, so we couldn't go in.

This past weekend, I went out for Dalk galbi. Literally, it means spicy, marinated chicken. At this restaurant, we had it mixed with rice as seen above. It gets cooked at your table, which is fun. You can also have it mixed with noodles or just veggies.

After dinner, we went to Beer O'clock to celebrate someone's birthday. Another foreign friendly bar. There was even a foreigner playing live music. Other than the servers, I think everyone was a foreigner. It was almost weird.

We also found this Pooh bar. Winne the pooh everywhere.... very strange. This is a chain here though. It was not the first Winnie the Pooh bar I have seen.

Me and Pooh hanging out.

This is the entrance. I think in a previous post, I have a picture of me with a live Winnie the Pooh, it was advertising for this bar.

Cotton candy in a cup. Eat some now, save some for later. I'm telling you, Korea has thought of everything.

Forever 21- you got me. I love this store and I could not resist. This is the world's largest shopping bag though.

Chu'seok celebrations

Last week, my school celebrated Chu'seok. Our students wore the traditional Korean dress, called hanbok, and participated in some traditional Korean games and activities. They were so adorable.



Just a sample of the madness of our lobby in the morning. All the kids come in and line up until class starts. The noise is too much sometimes. In this video, it was the day we were celebrating Chu'seok, so they are dressed in hanboks, but the noise is always the same.


My morning class


Harry


Mickey


Amy


Ann


Jenny


Joanna


Cindy


Heidi


Hyung Joon


Chan-sik


Lucy


Min-ji


Wendy


Daniel


Ji yoon


The next pictures are my kids doing some of the Chu-seok activities. I do not know exactly what they are, just enjoy the pictures of my adorable kids.