Snow Day

This morning we awoke to more snow on the ground. This snow was a bit more significant than any snow we have gotten this year. We had some breakfast and Q and I headed down to play around a bit. Here are some pics from our adventures:







Today we are just lounging around taking advantage of the time to work on getting the house in order. We don't have much planned for the next few days. Yesterday was down in the teens, brutally cold with a nice wind to really let you know whose boss.

We leave for our ski trip on Wednesday morning bright and early. We catch a 7:30 train at Seoul Station downtown so we will probably leave our house about 5:30am. I'm excited to get out of the city for a bit and see the countryside even though it will be covered in snow.

We have been enjoying our Wii more than I would like to admit. We have had friends over to play various games. Julia is actually playing Guitar Hero right now. She destroys me every time we play. Some other really fun games are tennis and darts. The whole concept behind the Wii a really cool. If you've never played it I recommend doing so.

Adios,

Electronics Wonderland

This weekend we hopped in the car and headed to an area called Yongsan to visit the famed Yongsan electronics market. On our way we swung buy and picked up our friend Ben who would be our trusty navigator. After Ben joined us we steered our trusty Hyundai onto the toll-road and pointed her north. We made it a couple kilometers before we hit traffic which slowed us to a crawl. We spent the next almost two hours creeping northward before being freed from the grips of traffic.

Once we approached the Han river we exited national road 1 and headed west on national road 88, or Olympic Expressway. (Seoul hosted the 88 Olympics) We kept missing bridge exits. One exit would be on the left side of the highway and then the next bridge exit would be on the right side of the highway. In then end it worked out for the best as we found a bridge that dropped us right where we wanted to be.

We found a parking garage, parked and started to explore the area. Our friend Ben took us to his “Game Guy” so we could look at a gaming consol. We looked around and decided to on a Nintendo Wii. After this we went over the main electronics mall to look around. It was insane!! Floor after floor, shop after shop of everything electronic. It was all super clean and well organized. Many camera shops had the added bonus of selling used stuff as well. Most of the time you couldn’t tell what was new and what was used because it was in such good condition.

All this shopping made us hungry so we found a nice Italian restaurant to have some dinner. It was very tasty and the bill was only 20 bucks for all four of us. The picture of J, Ben and Q is at said Italian joint.

 

After dinner we snooped around a bit more before heading home. Upon returning home we immediately hooked up the Wii and played games for a couple hours. I have to say, (and am a bit ashamed) the Wii is really fun. The games are quite interactive, short, and fun. It’s a very social instrument.

I can’t speak for J, but I will definitely be heading back to the electronics market.

1979 KZ650D

Some pics of my new motorycle

 

 

 

 

Back in Seoul

I am sitting at school killing time before I walk down to the subway to meet some friends for an evening of informal Korean language class. I could wait for the 5:20 staff bus to take me to the subway station, but I want to get a little fresh air so I'll walk. A fellow teacher usually walks home to his apartment from school which also happens to be very near to the subway stop I am meeting friends at so I will probably stroll down with him. It usually takes only about 15 minutes or so depending if you catch the light or not.

Korean class basically is a couple teachers going to a fellow teachers house and trying to speak some Korean. One teacher in attendance is an American born Korean who helps us try to expand our Korean vocabulary. As you can imagine she has an amazing amount of patients when it comes to helping us. She helps us try to pronounce things correctly and answers all of our questions no matter how irrelevant or silly they may be.

Gotta boogie. I'll leave you with a picture taken from the front porch of a buddies ranch.

Christmas Quimages

Here is Q opening some presents:




A pic from Christmas Eve:


Here is Q playing with his trains:




Here is Q visiting the horses who live up the street from Grandma.


Here are some pics from a hike in Pima Canyon we took with our buddy BP:

Beer School Santa

Today we went to a nice Christmas party for kids. Our friends hosted a gift exchange at their house. I have never been with so many kids in such a small space before. Overall it was a big success. Santa even made an appearance to hand out gifts.

The party started at the same time Q's nap was supposed to start. He was falling asleep as we pulled up. We gathered our stuff and headed in at which time Q immediately lost it. I think he was still a bit groggy from his 5 minute nap or something. It took him a bit but he got it together and ended up having a good time. Most of the kids took turns losing their shit and then coming back around to enjoying themselves.



Of course when Santa arrived a couple kids freaked out. Q was ok with Santa until he sat on his lap. Then he was not ok with Santa. Here is a pic for you amusement.




Here are some pics of the kids in present mode:


You can see Q in the back enjoying his present on the couch. He got some sort of drawing device that is back lit and requires batteries. We have yet to use it to its fullest potential as we still need to put batteries in it. I figure if we don' use batteries for awhile when we do put them in it will be like getting a whole new gift again.

Tonight we are heading to our staff Christmas party for grown ups. On The Boarder Mexican restaurant is catering so it should be tasty.

Last night a couple friends and I hopped on the subway and ventured back to the homebrewig shop called Beer School. Luckily this time it was open.(This time I called ahead to make sure) In Seoul it is OK to drink in public so we got a couple Heinekens for the trip. The owner of Beer School loves beer so he teaches anyone who is interested how to make home brew. He has a descent selection of supplies and ingredients. For 20 bucks he'll walk you through the process, feed you some tasty grub, and give you a liter of home brew he's made. We each chose a different style of brew to try and all shared with each other. Tasty!!

Here are some pics from our session:


Here Ben is crying tears of joy.


Notice the intense concentration and focus.


Here we are awaiting our tasting session.


Notice the smiles.


Mmmmmm.

Picture Parade

Some of the folks we work with like to play practical jokes. A fourth grade teacher who works a couple doors down from me likes to photoshop people into pictures for a humorous effect. Here is an example:


I retaliated with this one:


Then he came out with this one which was funny because it includes our principal and some other staff members who share a good sense of humor.



Then I pulled out the clincher. He new he was up against a superior and promptly retired after this one. The other person in this is another 5th grade teacher. The original picture was actually some friends of ours in Cambodia.


I think the text on the picture makes this one super sweet. It was already there, I couldn't write anything that beautiful.

Adios,