Fun in Seoul

I have been having fun here in Seoul.

I went to see the Musical RENT.  It was in Korean so I couldn't understand what they where saying but I really enjoyed the show.

I also have been able to meet up with some of my friends I met at orientation. 

 I am amazed at all the lights they have at night here.  It is amazing how bright it is even at night. 

 Me, Kenny, Kyle and Amanda.

 The chicken place we went to.  We ordered the spicy chicken, it was really good at first, then it started to burn.  I couldn't believe how at first everything is fine and then how it turns to fire so fast.  It took 10-15 minutes for our mouths to cool down.

Costco

I was so excited because I found a Costco here in Korea.  I took a trip there and found some food I was missing from the States there.  Here is a pic of what I brought home.

 They even have holiday decorations at the store.  This is something my mom would buy for her house. 

 Thanks to my sister-in-law Janina I am addicted to these.

 Here is everything I bough on my trip there. 

 I bought so much stuff that my cart broke as I was bringing it home.  I guess I need to make sure not to overload it next time. 

My Talented Students

My students are so talented!  My school is a technical high school so the students don't concentrated on academics they choose a major and focus on that so they can find a job after they graduate from high school.

Here is a traditional Korean meal.  

 I thought this was so beautiful.

 Lamb.

 I wanted to try these, they looked amazing!

 These looked amazing too!

 Here are some of my students.  They are so cute! 

 I couldn't believe that they carved this out on a watermelon.  They carved the name of the school on the watermelon.

I hope that soon I can see what some of the other majors in my school can do!

Food

I wanted to post some pictures of the food and drinks I have tried since I got here.

The first one is a Fanta Shaker.  So before you drink the soda you have to shake it a lot.  It isn't a fizzy soda, it has little globs in it.  It is weird to drink it because I'm not use to having globs in my soda.  I wasn't a fan of the drink.

 I went to a bakery and they have these "hot dogs" to eat.  They aren't warm  and they sit out all day so I was a little worried to try it.  I actually really liked this, I was surprised I liked it. 

 This came from the same bakery it is bread with cheese inside of it.  I really liked this!

 Here is something I thought I would really like Cheetos!  Although I was disappointed because they didn't taste as good as the ones at home.   

 Next I tried brownies.  I didn't have very high hopes for these but I was surprised because they where actually really good.  They are pretty close to what brownies taste like at home.

 Here is a picture of me enjoying pizza!  I love pizza and was excited to try this pizza.  This pizza was interesting because it has sweet potatoes on it.  I really like sweet potatoes on my pizza it is something we should use in the USA. 

 These are really good, they sell them on the streets.  It is sweet to eat and the inside has something I'm guessing with nuts in it.  I couldn't tell because it was mashed into the batter.

 Here is a dinner I got at Home Plus.  It is a store kind of like Wal-Mart but it has a better selection of food.  I got this dinner for about $6.  It was so yummy!  It is rice with fried pork, fries and a cabbage salad.

The good news is I am trying new things and liking them.  I still haven't got to like the taste of seafood, but I have tried some so maybe if I try more I'll find something I like.

Dangsung by the Han

I know it has been over a month since I posted so I have a lot to add.
I went up to the Han River one Sunday after church.  It was so beautiful by the river. 

Cheousok

On Sept. 12 it was Korea's Thanksgiving holiday, it is called Cheousok.  It is a day to give thanks to their ancestors for helping them grow good crops.  Families gather together they give thanks, and then have a big meal together.  Since most people go to the country Seoul is pretty deserted.

On Monday I went with my friend to have lunch with his family.  They live in Suwon, I had take the subway down there myself.  I'm really glad I have an app for it on my iPad or I would have got lost. 

 Here is a picture of Suwon in the afternoon, I was surprised how few people where there.  As I was walking around I found this tank.  I couldn't believe how many crabs they fit in it.

 My friends family worried about me being able to eat Korean food so we had lunch at a buffet that served Western food.  It was a really good restaurant and I was excited because they had strawberry lemonade.   Here is a picture of me with my friends mom and sister.

 After lunch my friend and I went to a no ray bang (it's what the Koreans call karaoke).  It was a lot of fun and I was excited because it had a lot of English songs that I could sing.

Overall it was a fun holiday.

School Day by the Han River

I was excited to find out that on Friday Sept. 9th my school had a "field trip" to the Han River.  It was suppose to be a day for each of the classes to take their class picture and to write poems.  When we got to the meeting place all the girls were excited to take their pictures, I think they were excited because they had permission to wear make-up.  It is against school rules to wear make-up to school.  It was raining when we got there and we where all trying to stay dry.

 The girls are so cute as they pose for their pictures.

 Since it was raining so much and the girls wouldn't be able to write their poems so we were able to leave and have an early start to our long weekend.  Sept. 12 is the Korean Thanksgiving, it is called Cheousok (I'll write more about that in the next post).  The girls where told the theme for the day and told to write their poems over the holiday weekend.  Everyone was so excited because we got to leave around 10 o'clock.  Even in the rain the Han River is still so beautiful.

Since I had some free time I decided to go and do something fun.  I went shopping in a local department store.  It was funny because some of the girls from my school where there too and they followed me around saying hi to me.  It was a great start to my holiday weekend.

My Birthday!

 My birthday was on Sept. 3rd so I didn't have a lot of time to make friends before my birthday so I was expecting to just have it go by quietly here.  On Friday the day before my birthday I was so surprised when I was at work and had a cake and flowers delivered to me.  It made all the teachers around me come and look and ask who sent it.  I was so excited when I saw the note and found out one of my awesome Korean pen pals sent it to me.  She wanted to make sure that I didn't have a lonely birthday.  Both the cake and flowers where so beautiful and they made my day!

 Then on Saturday my actual birthday another one of my Korean pen pals brought me another cake.  It was such a cute cake too!  If you know me then you know that I love to make my birthdays last as long as I can.  It was a fun day, I spent the morning studying Korean and that night I went with my friend and had some really yummy food. 

Then on Sunday I was able to talk to my family using my iPad and some free wifi that I found on the street.  It wasn't a great signal but I got to see my family and they sang Happy Birthday to me.  They where all together because it was the same weekend that my new nephew was getting blessed so they where all in Arizona together.  

Between all the fun I had here and all the birthday wishes I got on Facebook it made turning another year older easier.  I'm grateful for all my friends that I have!

The Park

One thing that I have loved about living in Seoul are all parks they have here.  I love going to the park and walking around and watching the people in the park.  Here are some pictures from a park close to my house.

 I'm not sure what this is, but it is really cool at night because it lights up.

 I loved the purple color of these flowers

 Everything is so cute here!

  I didn't get a very good picture but there is exercise equipment in the park that anyone can use.  It is great you can see people using them a lot.  

This park is by the SBS building.  SBS is one of the broadcasting companies in Korea.  I love to watch a lot of their shows, so I was really excited to find this building.

 
I hope to find more parks to visit.