My Second Korean Thanksgiving

My school had a great Thanksgiving party this year.  Since we worked Thanksgiving day, we planned a big dinner Friday evening.

Lots of great food, drinks and good company.  What more could you ask for?

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Seoul Lantern Festival

Tonight was the last night of the 2010 Seoul Lantern Festival.

It's a little difficult to explain in words a "Lantern Festival". (Fortunately, there are pictures!)  This one was located at Cheongyecheon (which is a stream that starts at City Hall in Seoul and continues for several kilometers.

While most people think of lanterns as small lights you hang, these come in all sizes and shapes. There are hundreds of them, some 15 feet tall (or taller), made in the images of people, animals, landmarks, mythological creatures, etc.  Some depict entire scenes or legends.  It's really amazing considering these are made from paper.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Anglican Cathedral, Seoul

This morning I visited the Anglican Cathedral here in Seoul.

It was a little difficult to pull up information since the website is in Korean, so I thought I'd list info here to help anyone else looking for it.

English services are held every Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m.  in the Crypt Chapel located under the main church.

The Rt. Reverend Mark Trollope is buried in the Crypt Chapel and his remains lie under a copperplate engraving of him by Francis Cooper which can be seen in the top photo above and the one below.

 Between 50 and 60 worshipers were present.  The vicar is a likable Irish gentleman with gray hair and a beard who has obviously enjoyed quite a few church potluck dinners, exactly what you would expect from an Anglican vicar.  The liturgy used was Rite I from the BCP and was fairly straightforward.  There was brief "children's lesson" added in immediately before the reading of the Gospel.

The Cathedral is located across the street from City Hall.  To get there, simply take subway line 1 to the City Hall station.  Exit via exit 3 and walk straight forward.  The church is only 50 meters or so from the subway stop and set about 50 meters back from the main road.  You'll see signs pointing the way.

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Upcoming G-20 Summit

Well, the G-20 Summit is this week.  I think this video probably does the best job of showing what's really going here right now as we lead up to it:

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Danyang

Since it's Fall, I went with a group of Korean friends to Danyang, a small town about 2 hours via bus from Seoul, this weekend to do some sightseeing.  We had a really nice, relaxing weekend enjoying the beautiful mountains and the autumn foliage.

After we arrived on Saturday, we visited a cave to see some pretty amazing rock formations.

 

 

We spent the night at a pension, which is kind of the Korean equivalent of a rental cabin.  Pensions usually are more like a hotel or condo, except without furniture so everyone sleeps on the floor... kind of a big slumber party. 

 

 We grilled out and played some kind of traditional Korean game.  Honestly, I have no idea the name of the game or the rules of the game.  All I know is you throw 4 wooden pieces and they way they land decides how many spaces you move around the board.

 

On Sunday, the weather was beautiful. I took a few pictures of the area around the pension. 

 

 

That afternoon, we went on a  scenic boat tour to see the mountains.

 

We followed that with a little skeet shooting.

 

And wrapped up the day with a visit to Dodam Sambong, also known as "The Three Peaks".

 

According to Korean legend, the three rock peaks here tell the story of a man, his wife, and his mistress.  The larger peak in the middle is the man.  Since his wife (on the left) was unable to bear him any children, he took a mistress.  However, the mistress became closer to the man than his wife which is why she is turned away from him.

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Wow, Time Flies!!

I can't believe it's been 2 months since I've posted here... meaning, it's also been 2 months since I moved to Seoul.

Well, a brief recap... my mom came to visit me for a week during Chuseok (kind of a Korean Thanksgiving).  We traveled around much of the country together and had a great time.  First, we went to Busan (beach in the far south) then Gyeung-ju (one of the most historic cities in Korea) and finally to the DMZ in the far north.

As to work... it's been going great.  I love my new position.  The kids are good.  The coworkers are great.

AND I just booked my tickets for 22 days in Thailand starting the Monday after Christmas!!!

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Moving to Seoul

It's hard to believe I've already been in Korea for a year already! 

Tomorrow, I finish my contract at CDI in Daejeon.  I've enjoyed it here this year and made some great friends. Monday, I'll be starting a position at Uchon Elementary in northeastern central Seoul.

Uchon is a private immersion school, so I'll be a 3rd grade homeroom teacher, teaching various academic subjects in English.  I've met several of the teachers from the school and they all seem to really enjoy working there.

I made a run up to Seoul yesterday to get access to my apartment.  While it's not as large as the one I've had here in Daejeon, it's nice and I think I'll be happy there. 

I'll be losing the balcony and the loft I have in my current apartment, but I think it's a pretty good trade since I'll be gaining 10-12 weeks of paid vacation each year.  One of my reasons for coming to Korea was to have the opportunity to travel and see different countries in this part of the world.  With the new position, I'll have plenty of opportunity to do that and I'm already planning a trip to Thailand in January.

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Busan

After almost a year here, I finally made it to Busan.  For anyone who may not know, Busan is on the southern coast of Korea and is known as THE beach town.

Since this was the last weekend of "high season", it was really packed.

I had a lot of fun, although after the first day relaxing out in the sun (in other words, getting sunburned) it was best to spend the rest of the weekend doing different tours including spending some time out on boats seeing some of the really beautiful islands off the coast.

These islands are called Oryuk-do, literally "Five Six Island" because one of the islands has a low point that is hidden when the tide comes in.  So, depending on the tide, you either see 5 or 6 islands.

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Mud Fest

This week is one of Korea's most sacred traditional events: Mud Fest.

Mud Fest is actually a genius of Korean marketing.  Boryeong is a small beach town with really no resources other than the kind of mud that is used in mud masks.  So... what do you do when you're in Korea and have nothing but mud?  You celebrate it!  How?  By inviting all the foreigners you can to come play in your mud. 

So.. what does that look like? Well, for 9 days every year, it looks something like this:

Needless to say... it's a time to just have a lot of crazy fun getting dirty, then jump in the ocean to get the mud off.

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Photo Shoot

Well, I was lucky to to learn about a great photographer from Los Angeles who is a friend of a friend. Although he's headed back to the States, he squeezed me in for a photo shoot before he left.

I had an absolute blast!

Here's just a few of the shots he took:

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