Short!

These guys are across from the art museum behind Deoksugung, a palace across from Seoul's City Hall.  They amuse me.

An interesting illusion.

This plaque sits next to them, telling about the little vertically challenged family.

Four Legs

Early last week the sun was shining and the air was warm.  Walking down the hill from work on my way to the subway train I rescued a pretty little butterfly from the road.

 "Spring!"  I thought.  It was an odd little butterfly.  I noticed it had a good grip on my finger.  Then I noticed it was gripping with only four legs.  I looked and sure enough that was all it had.  Not even stubs or scars where the other two legs should have been.  Odd.  A mutant butterfly.  

Maybe it's from all of the acid snow and pollution? It didn't form properly in its cocoon over the winter.

I walked a ways down with it clinging to my finger then put it into a small patch of plants off the road.

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.