typhoon

I so wish I had my camera right now. I am feeling so lost without a working camera. Especially when things like this happen.
Last night we were visited by Typhoon Kompasu. I've been in Korea for a long time but have never felt a typhoon quite like this. Being in a little rooftop house is a bit of a different experience from living in a sheltered little studio suite. The windows were shaking and rattling all night and something was making a very loud groaning noise. Then the little storage room door flew open and started banging (only held closed by a little brick leaning against it). Then the bookshelf type shelves I had outside were ripped apart and the shelves were flying around bouncing off the railings. The chair outside is on wheels and was rolling around. Crash. Bang. Groan. Rattle. Someone must have come up at one point because when I went out to pick up the pieces of shelf to stop them they were already gone. To where, I'm not sure. And the chair was on its side. I knew someone had been up there because there were two more bricks holding the little storage room door. More banging and crashing. A window somewhere breaking (the home right across). And THEN a bigger noise. Opened the door to go out to see what had happened and couldn't open the door. Part of the roof was blocking the door. Half of the front room roof top had come off and some of the tile had come crashing down. The landlord's daughter-in-law was then up with another woman trying to tie thick ribbon-like string to hold the rest of the roof down. Oh. The 3 large kimchi pot lids are gone. As is the large mirror that was out there. Hmmm. Don't see any little pieces of mirror anywhere but did hear something that sounded like it broke.
Schools were postponed two hours so I finally got to try to go to sleep for a little bit once the wind slowly started to die down.
I'm tired.

Eeek!

One night, I woke up in the middle of the night and felt something tickling my chest. I put my hand on my chest and then jumped up with a bit of an 'eek'. In the process I killed what had tickled me. After that, I couldn't get back to sleep as I kept imagining more as soon as I closed my eyes. Needless to say, the next day I bought a gift of a bunch of raid baits for them. THIS is the (not so little) little bugger that fell out of my shirt when I jumped.

Nice cockroach, eh?

Mud.

Once again I went to the Boryeong Mud Festival. What could be more fun than lots of mud to play with, a nice sea to wash off in and a beautiful beach to relax on?! We played in mud during the day. Mud gets EVERYWHERE! Sometimes you even find more mud in your ears a week later! The stores (HERE's an example at the Family Mart that is next to the festival ground) and restaurants around are used to the couple of weeks of mud and don't mind being filled with drippy and muddy people. The money is all soggy and dirty but no one seems to mind.Then in the evening sat and enjoyed some drinks as well as the festival music. The last night of the festival there was a special rock concert: Kim KyungHo band, who I've known of since I first came to Korea. I've had one of his songs in my Ipod since I got it. After the concert they had the festival closing fireworks. Beautiful. Then we sat on the beach and enjoyed the rest of the evening. The lights shining on the beach are bluish. I love it!

random signs

Some random signs near Sinchon. A live music bar called Be Full. A billiards club called Cock's Blue? Under a little pay by the hour room hotel called Barbie House?And then there's Sexy Bar (or Sexy Ba if you refer to the vertical sign).

clouds

Cool cloud line taken from behind Yongsan Station, Seoul.

a wig from the brest bakery?

I bought a lovely red wig at a little street vendor in Myungdong a while back to wear when ever another wig party happens. This is the bag that the guy put my wig in. Reusing bags, I see. Interesting bakery name. "BREST BAKERY"?? The Korean says "Beureiseuteu kwaja jeom" Basically breast snack (kwaja) shop.

Back on...

I've been so busy the past couple of months I've neglected a lot of things. I'll be back on track soon. Just getting some things figured out and organized. Getting some posts updated is on my list of to do things for this weekend. :)

strawberries!!!

Friday was field trip day at my kindy. We went to a strawberry farm.It took more than an hour to get there. Apparently there was an accident between a small bus and a car on the way but I didn't see it. Turns out that the accident was one of the buses from another branch. The front was smashed in and the car was very damaged. The bus driver was a little bit hurt but is okay. The kids are all okay (they all wear seatbelts), but were quite shaken up.Once at the farm we went into a large building full of picnic tables to wait for the little tour.Along one wall was a long table of strawberry, lettuce and other plants grown by hydroponics.The kids got a little antsy, of course, but were quite well behaved. The tour began with a little introduction. I can't tell you what was said since it was all in Korean. After the introduction we went into one of the very long greenhouses.It was a bit of a pick and eat tour. Yum! Fresh strawberries! They were so sweet and juicy.[Another picture here]
Some of the kids ended up covered in strawberry from head to toe. Too funny. Then it was back to the other building where the kids got to take turns mashing strawberries to make jam.After they each got their turn, it was lunch time. The kids all brought lunches and the school provided the teachers' lunches - kimbap. It would have been okay but it was fancy kimbap with sesame leaves in them and half of them had fish or fish eggs or little dried shrimp in them. Yuck! I had plenty to eat, though, as the kids had lots off great food to mooch. :D I even got a fruit by the foot!! (Can't easily get things like that here.)After lunch the kids had play time with bubbles and balls to kick around in a little yard. There were a few Jindo puppies in a cage to the side. I went over and ended up getting a lot of the kids interested in having their hands licked. At one point the adult Jindo at the other end of the yard ended up with one of the balls. It's the dog's ball now. A few puncture holes rendered it quite useless. There was a snack of bread with fresh warm strawberry jam. It was so delicious! The kids each got to take home one jar of freshly made jam and I will get a couple that I ordered on Monday. The teachers all got to take a container of strawberries for free. :) Then it was time to head back to Seoul where the parents would pick the kids up at pre-chosen spots. I got to go home a little early. What a great way to end a nice field trip day.

stretch!

After the LOKO game on Sunday I saw this near the pitch.Hmmm. STRETCHING FOR HEIGHT. Do they think that stretching will make them much taller? I suppose it does give the apperance of making you a little taller by possibly getting rid of a slouch, but is that really making you taller? IF that is even what the sign is supposed to mean.

Not the typical doctor's office...

This might look like just an ordinary building, unless you notice what one of the signs actually says.I remember seeing this sometime during my second year here in Korea, but didn't take a picture. After that I tried to find it again but for some reason, couldn't. I saw it once again last year, but my camera batteries were dead, so again, no picture. And again I looked for it along that same strip but again couldn't find it. Until today. I was walking to Starbucks and looked up and there it was. This time my camera was handy and fully charged. :) Just in case you can't read the sign, underneath the Korean it says,

"www.ANALSURGERY.co.kr"

Now, don't ask me what kind of doctor's office THAT's supposed to be, or why the heck they'd pick a website address like that. Makes you wonder. Apgujeong is full of plastic surgery clinics and dermatologist clinics. This is something a little different.