the hat

We're wondering how long he'll get away with having a moustache.

happy Thanksgiving

William technically had the day off, but he had to go on base to serve lunch to his men while wearing his dress blues. Then he had a Company gathering, so it wasn't really a day off for him. This picture is from July at Fort Gordon because I don't have a recent one in his dress blues. I need to get one when he's wearing the hat...it's great! He thinks he looks like a train conductor or a pilot with the hat on.

Even if I'd wanted to go to the Thanksgiving meal on base, I couldn't because I didn't have the day off school. So, when I got home William and I made his mother's vegetarian stuffing.

That was the extent of our Thanksgiving celebrations. I hope everyone enjoys their family gatherings! I wish we could be there.

Happy Birthday Mom and Uncle Brian!

food

Today during school lunch I tried one of the worst things they have made the whole time I've been here. Just as I was going to try stealthily spitting it back out (yes, it was that bad), my coteacher looked over and asked if I liked the fish. I'm sure she could probably tell from my face that the answer was a resounding NO, at least for this particular fish, whatever it was. The thing was, I didn't even eat a piece of the fish. It was a stew of sorts and I was trying one of the vegetables in the stew, but the fishy flavor was so overwhelmingly strong that it had permeated everything in the stew. I do like some fish but this was awful! I kept it in my mouth though and quickly swallowed to get rid of it as I shook my head "no" to my coteacher as politely as possible.

snow

We had our first snow flurry in Korea this afternoon. We went from 60 degree weather last week to snowflakes today. I already miss the warmer weather :(

not much new here

I've been too lazy to post anything lately. Other than going to school and then coming home to relax in the evenings, I didn't do much last week. This weekend William and I stayed in and watched movies we'd downloaded to our computers. I know we should be going out but it was nice to stay in, especially since it was a rainy weekend. We did go to Itaewon a couple of days after I went to Dongdaemun. Itaewon is an area within Seoul. This is a view of the N Seoul Tower from the train.We walked around the main shopping street for awhile then ate dinner at a Thai restaurant. The Itaewon area had quite a few western stores interspersed with Korean shops. There were several men's tailors so if William wants to get a nice suit while we're here, this will be the place to go. I liked these because the uncut fabrics are out and neatly arranged for men to browse and pick what they want for a suit. The shops looked very professional and had really nice fabrics.

The main shopping street was lined with big Sycamore trees interspersed with bright yellow gingko's (fan-shaped leaves). The fall colors in Seoul arrived sooner than they have in Pyeongtaek. We finally have some fall colors now, but mostly the yellow gingkos.

On the train on the way home I snapped this picture of the Han River and Seoul skyline.
And here's a photo for Lana, who was sad that there had not been any photos of William yet :) Sorry, I tried to get him to smile.

dongdaemun market

I spent yesterday with three other English teachers in Seoul at Dongdaemun Market. This first picture is the Great East Gate, or Dongdaemun, and was one of the first things we saw after coming up from the subway. It was first built in 1397 and rebuilt in 1869 in its present form. It was once the main eastern gate in the wall surrounding Seoul and is one of only two main gates that have survived. There were three until February of this year when the South Gate, Namdaemun, was set on fire by an arsonist. That made news in the States because I remember reading about it when it happened.
Dangdaemun is one of the largest shopping centers in South Korea, so we spent the walking around and shopping. I'll definitely go back again by myself or with William because the area is huge. We probably didn't even see a quarter of the market. Both sides of this canal are lined with hundreds of shops in both directions from where I was standing and it fans out from the canal. There are also large shopping centers that run underneath the roads and buildings.

This colorful street is probably heaven for Korean tailors. There's fabric, thread, buttons, zippers galore...in shop after shop after shop.

bus drivers

There are some really bad bus drivers here. They constantly run red lights and move into the opposing lane of traffic whenever it suits them. And I think some bus drivers try to see how many passengers they can knock over when the bus is packed with people standing. Either that or they don't know the meaning of gradually slowing down and speeding up. Today's bus driver was especially bad! I'm surprised a few gray-haired men and women didn't fall and break their hips.

weekend stuff

On Friday I celebrated Halloween for the first time in years, which is a little odd since I'm in a country that doesn't actually celebrate Halloween. My coteacher told me that until a few years ago Halloween was a foreign concept to most Koreans, but as more and more foreigners come to teach English it is becoming more well-known. The event I went to was on base and American and Korean kids from the nearby community were invited to come trick-or-treating for a few hours. There was a costume contest, a band, and some other things going on in addition to the trick-or-treating, but for the kids it was all about the candy.

I went straight from school so I wasn't dressed up, but some of the kids had very original costumes. I'm still bummed that I didn't think to get my camera out. The best costume was this one little Korean girl who dressed up as a present. She had a small box around her middle (her arms were free and the box stayed up on its own) that was wrapped in birthday paper, then she had a big curled ribbon in her hair right on top of her head that really was wrapping ribbon, not a hair ribbon. It was a great costume, plus she was an adorable little kid.

After not doing much yesterday I went out for a nice lunch in Pyeongtaek today with some of the South Africans I met at the teacher orientation recently. We ate at a Pacific Northwest Canadian-style bistro. I'm not sure what made it "Canadian-style", but that's what the sign said. They had a wide variety of foods, from pork ribs and other meat dishes, to pasta, seafood, pizza, and fajitas, so maybe someone else can tell me what's Canadian (or Pacific Northwest) about any of those. I had chicken fajitas and even tried a couple pieces of chicken until I bit down on something unnaturally crunchy and that was the end of that. I finished off all the veggies and the others ate most of my chicken.

It was a fun time and nice to just sit and talk. We sat at the restaurant for quite awhile then went to a Dunkin' Donuts nearby for some coffee/tea and dessert. I had a muscat black tea that was very nice. There were several tea choices I've never had before. I'll have to go back soon to try the chrysanthemum tea. I almost tried it but changed my mind at the last minute. I wonder if it's like eating dandelions :)

In case you're wondering, William has been out in the field again for the past week (with another week to go), so that's why he didn't join me for anything in this post. This will be a recurring theme for at least a couple more months, or so the Army says.