It is a 24 hour convenience store similar to a 7-11. There are many stores like that around Korea: IGA Mart, 7-11, Orange Mart, Family Mart, GS Mart, etc.
[this photo by Janine]
some of the group
King Yiannis 
Tom and David
King Jason
King Richard's Christmas cigar
most of the group [this photo by Janine]South Korea Encourages Prostitute-Free Holidays
Why Party With Prostitutes When You Can See a Movie?
What's New Year's Eve without drunken co-workers and hookers? Well, in South Korea, where office parties often devolve into bachelor parties, it would be like Halloween without the candy (almost). Nevertheless, in an effort to stomp out Auld Lang Syne debauchery, Seoul's Ministry of Gender Equality is giving away free movie tickets to workers who pledge not to hire prostitutes this December 31st. [...]
[washingtonpost.com]
Prostitution is illegal here, yes... but...South Korea combats prostitution with cash offer to businesses
SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea has launched a campaign offering cash to men if they promise not to buy sex from prostitutes after year-end office parties, government officials said Tuesday.
The move is aimed at changing the party culture in this male-dominated society by winning commitments from male employees to abstain from hiring prostitutes after the parties finish, said an official at the Gender Equality and Family Ministry,
who asked not to be identified because of policy.
A total of $5,000 will be paid to companies based on the largest number of volunteers who sign a written pledge, the official said. Some 1,300 companies so far have participated in the campaign.
South Korea has stepped up its crackdown on prostitution since 2004 when the legislature passed new anti-prostitution laws targeting human traffickers, pimps and prostitutes. The practice remains widespread, however.
[BostonHerald.com]
Clockwise from bottom left: rice with purple rice in it; kimchi; Korean pancake (normally I love it) with squid in it (which makes me NOT love it); little whole fish; radish soup (yummy!!).
The little fish are nasty. The kids love them, though. They also eat them dried. Sometimes the teachers give the kids little fish as treats. If a student does something well, he/she might get a sticker, or they might get a little fish to munch on. The kids are often trying to give me little fish to eat. Shudder... no thanks.
SOME of the alcohol that was there (taken from across the room with my handy camera... this is only at 7 times zoom :P). I'm not even sure if this bunch was touched much, as everyone brought a lot more. A lot of people were just drinking beer.
In the kitchen.
Lovebirds on the living room floor.
In the living room... a little later.
Jason, me, Dairin, Cookie Monster, Kieran (Cookie Monster goes everywhere!!! He was even there when we went to Beijing the other year. :P Dairin loves Cookie.)
Raphael (Australian, friend/co-worker from my last job in Korea), and I. I went to Raph's wedding here in 2004 (to Ja-young/Miss Moon (Korean)).
Jason entertaining the Irish.
Jason D. I wonder if he made his flight!! He was supposed to be on a flight home at 9 in the morning. I think he left the party (stumbled out the door) at around 3 am or so.
The first floor hall and main entrance. On the left are the main office, the first floor teacher's bathroom and the first floor kids bathroom. On the right are the (3-4/Korean 5 year old) Roe Deer classroom (closest to the doors) and the (4-5/Korean 6 year old) Deer (Sa-sum) class.
The back door. To the right is the hall to the main doors. On the left are the (4-5/Korean 6 year old) Squirrel class (da-ram-jui) and the (3-4/Korean 5 year old) Hippo class (Ha-ma). 
The main stairs. Going down (behind the Santa) you get to a big room that is used as an activity room/sports room/ballet room, and a swimming pool beyond that.
At the top of the stairs. To the left is the piano room and then the entrance to the (5-6/Korean 7 year old) Mu-gung-hwa class and the other little classroom (Chinese? Math?). Straight ahead is the English classroom. It only seats about half of a class in there. The two Korean English teachers each get one half of each class, one half goes to the English room, the other half stays in their classroom.
The second floor hall. On the left is the kitchen. After that is the second floor student bathroom and then the teachers' bathroom. On the right furthest away is the (4-5/Korean 6 year old) Elephant (Ko-ki-ri) classroom, then the (5-6/Korean 7 year old) Giraffe (ki-rin) classroom. Straight ahead there is some sort of little office room (entrance from the other stairwell) that I have never seen used.
Piano Classroom. The 5 rooms on the right each have one piano. The 4 rooms on the left each have 4 pianos.
The second floor kids bathroom. Everything is child size.Medic | 81% | ||
Artillery/Armor | 63% | ||
Officer | 63% | ||
Combat Infantry | 63% | ||
Special Ops | 56% | ||
Support Gunner | 56% | ||
Engineer | 44% | ||
Civilian | 38% |
me in the snow
snow on the trees
trying to catch a taxi
April in the snow
SNOW
a friendly game of twister
pictures with Santa (Kat and I)
the crowd
the host: Chris
Stacey and I
South Korea wants teens to hang up mobile phonesI remember when I did teach middle school aged kids, I sometimes caught them using their phones in class (hidden under the tables). They would be sending text messages to their friends. Sometimes their phones would ring and they would actually answer them! I put a stop to that pretty quickly. If it is their parents phoning, well, maybe I would let them answer (although, their parents should know where they are to begin with, since THEY are paying for the lessons). Some Korean rack up huge phone bills. My friend/co-worker, Kelly, is one of them. She said the phone company is actually sending her a gift for Christmas because her phone bill has been so high.
Parents go crazy over the phone bill while the kid just keeps on talking. Preset limits on calling time don't always work.
South Korea is trying to stop teenagers from ringing up massive mobile phone bills with new rules that let parents control just how long the handsets are used.
Phone bill angst is rife in South Korea, where data from mobile service operators show that four out of five people own a handset and at least six out of ten school-age children have one.
A Telecommunications Ministry official said on Friday that from January, children will need parental permission to go above a preset limit, which can be up to 30,000 won ($32.57) a month.
Parents will also receive detailed information about the types of services their children subscribe to.
At present, parents can set a limit on how long children can talk on their mobiles, but all the kids have to do is ask the mobile provider to increase the limit.
In February, a teenaged South Korean boy killed himself after tallying a phone bill of 3.7 million won ($4,017).
"The ministry hopes these regulations will prevent teenagers from making a lot of mistakes about how they use their mobile phones, which can lead to mounting bills," the telecommunications ministry said in a press release.
Cho Jin-kyung said she hoped the new regulations would mean her teenaged daughter spends less time on the phone and more with her books.
"My daughter's phone bill always causes me stress," Cho said. "I scold her all the
time over it and threaten to cut her allowance, but it never works."
[Reuters]
YUMMY!!!!The students go abroad to study/learn English, of course, but also for the experience of living in a foreign country. They want to experience another culture, and make friends from those countries. There is no way they could replace or fully re-create the experience.S. Korea plans to build English-only town
South Korea plans to set up an island town where students can immerse themselves in English without leaving the Asian country.
The town, where English would be the only language spoken, would include educational facilities from primary schools to college as well as learning centers for short-term students. It would be on Cheju Island, about 50 miles off South Korea's southern coast, which was once housed exiled scholars with dissident political views and is now a popular tourist destination.
While creating an entire town would be expensive, officials believe it would save money in the long run.
"According to the Bank of Korea, Korean students spent over $3.3 billion to study abroad last year. We think that if we create a superior educational and residential environment on Cheju as planned, there will be fewer students going to foreign countries to learn English,'' a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Finance and Economy said.
Some municipal governments have set up English-immersion camps, but they offer only short-term programs. Many are now being closed down.
[United Press International]
N. Korea May Have Anti-Bird Flu Vaccine
North Korea has claimed it developed a poultry vaccine against the deadly H5N1 type of bird flu and is inoculating chickens as part of stepped-up efforts to prevent the disease following outbreaks in South Korea.
"The production of H5N1 vaccine locally developed recently in our country is increased and the compulsory vaccination of it to whole poultry flocks is being done," said Ri Kyong Gun, director of the North's Veterinary and Anti-Epidemic Department, in an interview with AP Television News in Pyongyang.
Ri did not say when the vaccine was developed or how effective it is.
[Forbes.Com]
[Tally, Delphy and I]
[D (Irish, arrived in Korea around the same time I did this year) and I]
[Sophie (Irish?) and I]
[Darryl (American, friend from last year in Korea) and I]
[Dairin (Irish, friend from last year in Korea) and I]
[Aaron (Australian giant, friend/co-worker from last year in Korea, soon to be a father) and I]
[Jason D(American, co-worker from last year in Korea, looks drunk in every photo I have of him... maybe because he is???) and I]
