Well it’s been a stressful and hectic week but it’s the weekend now and time to do some more exploring. Today I took a trip to a place called Gyeongbokgung which is only a few subway stops from where I live.  I decided to visit Gyeongbokgung because that’s where Gyeongbok Palace is. The palace was built in 1395 three years after the Joseon Dynasty was founded. Its name means “Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven”.  In 1592 the Palace was burnt down by the Japanese.  For the next 273 years the grounds were left derelict until it was rebuilt in 1867 by Prince Regent Heungseon Daewongun. It was again demolished by the Japanese in 1911.  The images of the palace you see here are as a result of a restoration effort that has been ongoing since 1990. Enjoy!

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

You often here or read about the fact that Asian children are driven and hardworking and that nothing other than excellence will do. This is in fact the case from what I’ve seen so far.  After a long day at school most children attend additional classes or go to study rooms in the evenings and on weekends. But what I’ve also noticed is that despite all of the hard work and drive they still know how to be kids. They love to laugh and joke and have fun. They can be just as silly as they can be serious. I know I am really going to enjoy my time in the classroom. My kids are pretty amazing. They’re lots of fun and spending time with them makes me feel good about what I am doing with my life.

As I promised here are a few pictures of some of my kids:

Many of you may already know that it is customary to leave your shoes at the door when entering an Asian home.  Well as it turns out that’s the case at work too.  I have to change from my outdoor shoes to my flip flops when I get to school and then I have to take my flip flops off when I go into my office. I feel like I had this bit of information stored someplace deep in the back of my brain but it was still a bit of a mental adjustment.

I had the very good fortune of meeting Andrew Sachs while working at Camp Kodiak this past summer.  Andrew and I were co councillors for about 2 months and by shear coincidence we had both made the decision to work as teachers in Korea.  Andrew works south of Seoul at a private school in the city of Beomgye.  This past weekend I took the subway down to visit him.

As I’ve said before it’s is amazingly easy to get around using the subways system here.  My trip down to Beomgye took about one hour and forty five minutes but I only had to transfer subway lines once.  It was a synch.  Andrew met me at the subway station and showed me around the area.  Eventually we stopped to grab some food at a Mexican Restaurant called Bien.  I was pretty impressed by the food. it was a fair attempt at traditional Mexican cuisine and I would happily go back. 

After eating we went for drinks at a cool restaurant / pub called Garten Bier.  At this place, all the tables had a set of four frosty cold refrigerated cup holders!!  As I am easily impressed I raved about them the whole time we were there.  We also decided to brave the pizza and I was surprised at how good it tasted, mainly because it didn’t look all that wonderful.

Frosty giant beers, Andrew, me and the view from our booth!!

          

    

Now with our stomachs full we decided to wander around the area a bit more.  The nightlife is always great here even when it rains.  People are out and about at all hours and there is always something going on.  Eventually, we ended up at a pub that Andrew knew about called Happidus.  Happidus is a very popular ex patriot pub in the area that is famous for it’s home made peroggies of all things.  We quickly met some people and decided to stay there for the rest of the night.  A great way to spend a Friday night after a long week at work.

The next day came very quickly…probably because we didn’t get to bed until 4:00 o’clock or so in the AM.  I was planning to head back home pretty early on Saturday so Andrew and I decided to grab a quick breakfast at a local Korean restaurant and then make our way back to the subway.  Along the way we stopped at Central Park and then popped into a couple department stores.  I was looking to continue my never ending blanket search.  While we were there, Andrew told me about the Yongsan Electronics Market which is located in…you guessed it…Yongsan!!  As we weren’t really doing anything special the rest of the day we decided to jump on the Subway and check it out.  Boy am I ever glad we did.  This place was incredible!!!  Six floors of nothing but electronics being sold by a couple thousand or so eager to bargain vendors.  I came out of there with an awesome docking station for my iPod, shaving machine and a…wait for it…BLANKET!!!

Here are some pictures of Andrew and I in Beomgye.

     

Time for a montage!!  Central Park Beomgye.

   

Here they are, my new Sansui Chopin docking station and my blanket!

Next on our tour was dinner at Gecko's located in the adjacent town of Itaewon.  Itaewon is one of the more multicultural areas in greater Seoul.  In fact, at times I saw more non Korean people than Korean.  Itaewon has a wide array of ethnic restaurants and places to shop.  It’s also a very English friendly area.  Having said that, we decided on the western/pub style restaurant called Gecko’s.  One of the reasons for this selection was the cool second floor balcony/terrace seating.  This allowed us to people watch while we ate and drank.

Pictures form Gecko’s located in Itaewon

  

It was great to see Andrew again I am very glad we got a chance to check out some of the better know places in and around Seoul.  I am looking forward to visiting many more in the weekends to come.  I’ll keep you posted.

OH!!!  In case you care to know…here is where all those places are: