January is almost over

Well Don and I are now half way through our contract and we are continuing to explore and learn new things about Korea and its people. Last weekend we ventured out to a few places. The first place that we went was Hongdae. I have written about this before but we went back to see a little more and to go have some Mexican food. The food was delicious and I guess we were enjoying it so much that we all forgot to take any pictures. We also walked around the area a bit. We saw this bakery, and stopped to take a picture of the cakes. You can find these everywhere and we have no idea how anyone can eat cakes that are so pretty!

Something else that you can get in Hongdae is a ziplock bag of booze, we have never tried it but it looks interesting:

The next day Don and I went to do some shopping and stopped to have lunch on the way home. we saw this guy running with his rickshaw pretty fast and Don was quick and got a shot. You see people like this all the time walking around collecting cardboard. Usually it is little old ladies.
Notice the motorcycle abandoned in the snowbank. We have seen these all over the place lately too.

Last Sunday, Elizabeth, Don and I made our way to Seodaemun Prison. Here is what wikipedia says about the prison:

"Seodaemun Prison is a museum and former prison in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It was constructed beginning in 1907 while Korea was considered a protectorate of Japan. The prison was opened on October 21, 1908, under the name Gyeongseong Gamok. Its name was changed to Seodaemun Prison in 1923.

The prison was used during the Japanese rule of Korea to house anti-colonial activists, and could accommodate around 500 people. After the Japanese occupation ended in 1945, the prison was used by the South Korean government until 1987, when it was replaced by a facility in Uiwang City, Gyeonggi Province. In 1992, the site was dedicated as the Seodaemun Prison History Hall, part of Independence Park. Seven of the prison complex's original fifteen buildings are preserved as historical monuments."

We took many pictures while there, I must warn you that they are very graphic. The museum has many mannequins portraying the Koreans being tortured or beaten by their Japanese prison guards.

After leaving the prison we went to a little shop and I saw this 3D puzzle of the CN Tower and Sky Dome! It must be old because it still says Sky Dome on it instead of the Rogers Center.

These pictures were taken closer to home. We have never been to the With Up bar we love the name!

Don tried a new ice cream this week. It was corn, it even looked like corn on the cob. Don said that it tasted like cream corn and had pieces or corn inside.

I took some pictures of some of my students this week too, aren't they cute??

This is one of my students writing, this is what happens when you don't put a space between the word pen and is.

Some of the teachers working in the staff room, notice the electric heaters, it can get a little chilly in there.

This is the class list for one of my classes, notice all of the names. I named most of these kids because they were a brand new class and didn't speak any English. But I got one new student a couple months after everyone else started. After a whole class of me asking the boy if he already had an English name and trying to get him to choose one he finally told me that his name was G-Dragon... This is actually the name of a pop singer here.

The school subscribes to an English kids newspaper called The Junior Herald. We use it in some of the classes to help with reading comprehension. While reading through one of these papers, I came across some comics at the back, this is them:

I had a good laugh, but I don't think that was the intention of the writer. This was not written to be satirical, it just shows some of the cultural differences.

Finally, we want to say Thank You to Peter and Lee Young Sook, who sent us this beautiful card reminding us of home and the long walks up to the university from the pit (the parking lot). The snow looks so pretty. I keep this on my desk at work and look at it often, thanks again!