Fall Changes

Autumn

I already miss autumn in Korea.  It came and was gone as quickly as it came, with winter jumping right in to take over.

A much slowed down cave cricket looking for some warmth.

I absolutely love the persimmon trees in the fall.  Seeing them makes me happy.  :)

Halloween treat bag.

This is my example for Halloween treat bags that I will make with my first grade class.  I figured since we will make pumpkin lanterns later it would be good to have them decorate their bags with something else, like a cute ghost.  :)

It's very simple: a paper lunch bag, white and black construction paper, crayons, and glue. 

 

I got the idea for the face from a craft I did with kindergarten students a couple of years ago.  

The site that I originally got that craft from, I cannot find.  I did find the same one here.

Cafe Bene

After work today I went with a friend to Cafe Bene near Sungshin University subway station to chat while she killed time before making an appointment.  

It's not a bad coffee shop but they don't have low fat or mom fat milk and they don't have as many options as some of the other chain coffee shops.  And, they aren't really any cheaper, either.  I do really like the painted wall at the one end.  

Their outside balcony is a nice size but its on a really busy street right in front of a very noisy bus stop complete with wafts of exhaust from the multitude of buses and cars.

Seoul

I love the Seoul skyline at night.  This is from a friend's rooftop in Gyunglidan in Yongsan.My apartment is just this side of the church thats poking up 

just right of center in the skyline.

I love living so close to Namsan.

Kettle bell yoga?

I'm curious as to what exactly hard style kettle bell yoga would be.  And full tension deep relaxation?  

Aren't both of these things kind of contradictory?

Mini Salamander

Tiny salamander. There isn't much info out there in English on the kinds of salamanders in Korea. A site I found said that Korean salamanders take up to one or two years to mature to the point that they lose their external gills and leave the water. Ones in the exotic pet shops here that I have seen are much bigger and still have their feathery gills. This one has already lost them and has sort of molted a layer. Interesting. It now looks a bit different in both color and shape- it is darker and the head seems much more angular than before.

Lake Park.

Went to Lake Park in Ilsan last weekend for a birthday party picnic.  It really is a lovely park.  I had only been there once before (I remember only once for sure) but didn't realize it was that big.  

I quite enjoyed the hot sunny weather on Saturday sitting in the shade of a tree munching on all sorts of snacks that people brought.  

It is a the largest man-made lake in the East, I seem to remember hearing a long time ago.  No swimming allowed there, though.

Coffee

I've been staying at work later because I had time to waste.  Today I left a bit earlier than normal because I decided I wanted some coffee.  Angel-in-us Coffee by Oksu station.  Much fancier than the ones I've been to in other places,though they could have all been renovated since I went.  

Casts

I had a bit of a problem a few weeks ago.  I had gone to Krav Maga class on a Thursday night.  We were doing kicks and kick defenses as well as rolls.  After the class I felt great and even ran up the hill to my home.  Did some laundry and cleaning and then went to bed.  At about 4 am, I woke up in extreme pain.  Both my feet hurt so much, on the tops of my feet. There was no swelling or bruising, they just hurt so much.  I couldn't even stand up.  I managed to get to my fridge to get some ice.  I tried to ice them to see if it would help but it made no difference.  Heat made no difference, either.  I took some painkillers and just laid there waiting, hoping the pain would ease.  When it was time to get ready for work, I still couldn't walk.  I could kind of stand on my heels so hobbled around on my heels to get ready.  My school was going to send someone to take me to the hospital, but then decided everyone was too busy.  So they called to get an ambulance to take me.  The ambulance driver piggy-backed me down the stairs (my home is on the 3rd floor) and to the ambulance.  The attendant in the back of the ambulance with me checked blood pressure and such.  Said, "Very good!"  Neither the driver nor the attendant spoke any English.  When we arrived at the Soonchunhyang Hospital, the back doors were opened and the staff literally stopped dead, with shocked looks on their face.  OMG!  A waegook!  Ha.  Inside, they had me fill in a form then took me to get x-rays.  The x-rays showed nothing wrong. The doctors had no idea what was causing the pain so they just put casts on both my feet to immobilize them. 

Since I couldn't walk a friend sent her husband to pick me up and take me to their place so she could take care of me.  I spent the weekend hanging out with the dog, and watching/playing with the baby from the comfort of their sofa.