Happy Seollal (Lunar New Year)

On Friday, we all wore Hanbok (Traditional korean clothing, as seen in the picture) to celebrate Lunar New Year with the kids and take a staff picture together. Here you can see me and one of my coworkers all dolled up.  We played traiditional korean games and took pictures together.

The children were also wearing their Hanbok!  They all looked so cute.

The preschool and kindergarten children all performed an elaborate bow in front of their teachers in order to receive money and blessings for the new year. I don't have my own preschool or kindergarten class yet, but I've been team-teaching a class so I attended all of the festivities anyway.

The school also gave all of its teachers this gift set for the new year. It's one of the two biggest holidays in Korea, so companies will thank their employees with a gift set. This one includes canola oil, tuna, and Spam.  It may seem strange but Spam is super popular (and a bit expensive) in Korea, so, this is a very nice gift set.  The packaging is also nice and came with its own carrying bag.

Anyway, Lunar New Year happened to fall on Valentine's Day this year. It doesn't usually fall on the same day-- it's a bit late compared to most years. I didn't do anything in particular to celebrate, though I did have today (Monday) off.  It was nice to sit back and relax on a Monday, and it's going to be awesome to have a 4-day work week!

In bad news, my washing machine suddenly broke.  It's not a big deal in that I can easily do my laundry at a coworker's place, but it's just going to be a hassle to get it taken care of. Gonna talk to the school about it tomorrow.

A wander around Seoul

So, I went into Seoul yesterday for a work-related function. I wasn't thrilled about the work part, but we got treated to a great lunch afterwards. I ate soo much!  Then, I went out for a loooong walk around Seoul with two of my coworkers.  We bumped into this big parade thing happening right after we popped out of the subway station near City Hall.  Is there a temple through that gate?  Comment and let me know if you know the name of this place.

We saw this building. My coworkers swear this building was a different color the last time they saw it. Huh?

A weird thing! I dunno what this is.

Two random street views. Nothing special to see, just nice views.

A strange art display-- a Turtleship made out of old electronic appliances-- mostly TVs and stuff like that. I didn't know what a turtleship was, so I thought it had a pretty funny name.

What's this called?

This is a new statue that just got unveiled in October of 2009. I didn't get a chance to read the whole plaque, but I believe he was a guy who helped with the development of Hangul? (The korean writing system). I dunno, leave me comment if you know more about this guy.

Tapgol Park

I went to a rather severely-paved park in the middle of Seoul. It's called Tapgol park-- a park dedicated to an important movement for Korean Independence. This is the pavilion in the middle of the park.

Wongaksa Pagoda

The paved park also had this thing in it. It's a stone pagoda from the mid 1400s. It was originally part of a nice temple, but everything was destroyed except for this, and then it was moved here for display. Unfortunately it's housed in that very hideous glass/metal cage, so.. it's not really the kind of thing that you can gaze at in wonder. Anyway, this is designated as Korea's #2 National Treasure.

Heunginjimun, or Dongdaemun Gate

I'm a little confused by these gates that are all over the place, but I BELIEVE this is the Dongdaemun Gate.  It's the eastern gate that used to be a part of a wall around Seoul. The wall no longer exists, of course, but the gates do.

Basically, I don't really know what anything is, so, these posts are kinda ridiculous. But, I had a lot of fun walking around and seeing things.

Korean cell phone ; The tiniest tangerine

So, I got my Korean cellphone late last week.  It's a Samsung phone which is incredibly confusing and difficult to use. But, every phone that I've used seems to be about equally confusing. It's got some music-playing capability built in, though I haven't put it to use yet. Soon, I shall!

Pictures!

The phone and all of the packaging. The grey box houses an extra battery for the phone. Pretty convenient!

Side view of the phone. It's slim!

Phone's open. The keyboard buttons are kinda hard to push.

Closer view of the phone. (You can see my reflection, haha.) The bottom part has controls for the music playing. 

A kid gave me this tiny, tiny tangerine. SO LITTLE! And also so delicious.

A new month means all new classes for me. Well, not ALL new. I'm still doing 2 of the same classes I was doing last month, but I'm doing new essay writing classes and one-on-one classes with individual students. Most of these extra classes are being offered for free- the school wants to ensure that the families enroll their kids for another year of classes, so they're having me give lots of "extra services."  I don't mind-- I'd rather stay busy than sit around doing nothing.

One of the Kindergarten teachers is very, very pregnant, so I'm going to be gradually taking over her class (starting tomorrow) so that I'll be ready to replace her completely if she should give birth before the end of the month.  I've already taught her class before, they're pretty good kids, so, I'm not too worried about it.

Well, I don't really have much to say. I'm so sleepy lately!