The view from Wooil's stairwell

My kindy school (Wooil Yu-Chi-Won) is right beside a long park way. There is a walking path on the other side of the way. Along the edge of the parkway, there are little gardens. I am assuming that various families that live in the area rent the little plots. It is usually little grandmothers that I see working in them, though.
My kindy has a little garden area along the back of the building, with many different kinds of plants, including eggplant plants, which are growing HUGE eggplants. I had never actually seen an eggplant plant before. They are quite nice looking. The leaves are a purplish green.
Beyong the park strip, the buildings you see are all apartment buildings. As I mentioned before, Seoul is almost all apartment villages, made up of any number of apartment buildings, all of which are built at the same time.

Interesting.

Bush 'singing' Bloody Sunday (on YouTube)

The Dong Jip...

Dong is Korean for dung, or poo, or what ever else you want to call it. If you haven't heard before, Koreans seem to be obsessed with bodily functions. They have dong stickers and dong cartoon characters. They have dong/dong pot/barrel shaped ash trays/trinket boxes. They even have a Dong Jip. Jip means house. The Dong Jip is a Hof/Soju bar in Seoul (Gangnam area? Samsung area?). They serve soju in kettles, and some kinds of food that Koreans normally eat while drinking. I like how the Korean "Dong" (in the circle... it is actually backwards) is an upside down little man.This picture is from my last year in Korea. I haven't yet been back to the Dong Jip, but if I can find it (and if it is still there), I will go again. For some reason, (well, because of the Korean obsession with dong, I assume) I am often reminded of the place.

ordering out in Korea

Tonight I finally decided to order food. I'm a bit sick and didn't want to make anything. I wanted Tang-bok-bap. I have the numbers for two 'Chinese' restaurants. Ordering was a bit of a hassle. The first place I phoned, there was a recorded message saying sorry (in Korean, of course) and a bunch of stuff that I didn't understand. The other place hung up on me. My co-worker Kelly phoned me to see if I was okay, and she offered to order for me. She called me back when she was finished. My meal would arrive in about 10 minutes. I guess the first place I tried was closed just for the day.
Anyway, I got my Tang-bok-bap: tangsu-yuk (sweet and sour pork) in one side and (jjajjang)bokum bap (fried rice with fried egg and jjajjang sauce - yummy black bean sauce) in the other. It comes with the standard side dishes of soup (unfortunately it is yucky fishy soup), kimchi (of course), Korean pickles, and raw onions. Korea is great for ordering food. Delivery is free, even if you only order one dish, even if you only spend 3500won. My meal was 6000, and it was enough for two people. Also, the food arrives in dishes. After you eat, you put the dishes outside your door and they come and pick them up later. I guess in a country this small with this size population, you need to find some way to reduce the waste.

planning...

I have decided that I want to go to Shanghai for my 7 day vacation (I don't have a full week/two weekend vacation, I have two half weeks around one weekend... unfortunately). I have been looking at prices and such. I will probably go on a Korean tour. The tours are advertised in the newspapers here. The trips include flights, hotels, tours and such, and cost less, or the same as the flight tickets alone. Not sure how that works, but that is the way it is. I am working out a way to do a 3 or 4 day tour and then extend the flight home to a few days later, in order to have some time to explore either more of Shanghai, or to the surrounding towns/what ever. Some tour companies will not extend the flights, as they have small private flights. Another (a 399000 won, 4 night tour) says I have to pay an extra 150000 won to change the flights from the set tour dates. Even then, it is around the cost of the flights alone. Of course, I will also have to pay my own way for the hotels for the extra nights. My boss has been looking, and phoning around for me, trying to find the best deals. I have such a great boss.

Harisu (and others)

My first year in Korea, Harisu was always on TV, hosting programs, or singing. Her first album, Temptation, was released in 2001.

a photo of Harisu from an article about...
Transgender Singer to Do Menstrual Pad Ads

Harisu was born male, but underwent sex change surgery at 23.
Harisu is officially female: she had her ID changed to indicate that she was female.

She's a Lady
You have to admit... she's gorgeous!!

I remember during my first year in Korea,
I was told "there are no homosexualists in Korea."

Also in Korea:

Manufactured Transgender Pop Group 'Lady' Set to Debut

Hines Ward (Pittsburgh Steelers), Korean born

Interesting.
Korean-born US football star sheds tears at ceremony

Korea's last game in the 2006 FIFA World Cup

Well, Korea lost to Switzerland. One of the goals, however, was questionable. The Korean team stopped after seeing an offside call made by the linesman, but not aknowledged by the Ref. During the confusion, the Swiss team got their first goal. Terrible.
This was what I missed, due to a pounding headache, Friday night. I think half of my friends made it into the Seoul World Cup Stadium, as they went earlier. Then the gates were closed due to too many people. So, the rest of the group went downtown.
Chosun Ilbo:

Soccer fans gather to watch a live TV broadcast of the 2006 World Cup Group G soccer match between Korea and Switzerland on a giant video screen installed at Gwanghwamun, downtown Seoul, on Saturday. /Yonhap

BBC News (UK):

A sea of red gathers to watch the match on a giant video screen outside Seoul City Hall in South Korea.

Be The Reds... today at kindy

Some of the Squirrel Class (Korean 6 year olds): My first class this morning was FULL of red. (This isn't all of them.) I think only 2 students in the class were not wearing red.Navigating the hallways between the classes and during my lunch break is often a bit of a chore... with numerous students clinging to my legs or my clothes, or just crowding around me. Some of the Korean teachers say it is as if I am somebody famous.Taking photos is not always easy, when students are continuously trying to get into the photo. It is almost impossible to take a photo of just one student, as other students try to jump in or stick their hands or things infront of the camera. Or, there are still kids attached to my legs and clothes, so it is difficult to have a steady hand. Today I actually had to pick up some of the kids in one arm, and take the photo with the other in order to actually get a picture. But then other students were still pushing or pulling or trying to grab my arm. This is one of the students from the Roe Deer class (Korean 5 year olds). She is sooooooooooo cute!!! (and tiny)

a lucky year for weddings

from CNN's 'Year of Widow' spurs wedding rush

The anomaly in this lunar year is that it includes two first days of spring, one at the very start last January and the other at the very end early next February. Korean fortune tellers say that, in years this rare, water will flow along dry river-beds. Having two springs in a year creates prosperous energy and means it is a good time to get married," said Kang Pan-seok, vice-director of the Korean Fortune Tellers' Association. Kang said the double-spring phenomenon had only occurred 12 times since 221 B.C.

And the rush is on to get hitched this year because fortune tellers call the 2007-08 lunar period the year of the widow.