Site-seeing in Seoul

This is the main palace building/throne room. My shots of the inside didn't really turn out, but it's set like it was hundreds of years ago.



These totems were on display in the palace grounds.



This is a pagoda on a little island in one of the ponds on the palace grounds.



A view of the nearby mountains from the palace grounds.



This shot is from an older/smaller palace.



This gigantic bell is located at the smaller palace.



This is an old water clock invented by a Korean leader. It used to keep official time for the king.



The cherry blossoms were in full bloom while we were out. They were all over the palace grounds.

Eastern English Academy

Yup, that's the name of the school I teach at. It's a private after-school tutorial school. We don't really have an equivilent for it in the states. Basically kids all over Asia go to public school from about 8/9am-2/3/4pm depending on their ages. Then they go from there to a "Hogwan" (the Korean word for this type of school. At the Hogwan they study math, english, social studies, Korean grammer, and science. Some older kids stay at the hogwans until 9 or 10 at night studying/hanging out with their friends. I wish the kids didn't have so much pressure to study and do so well academically, but they do have a lot of fun with their friends at the Hogwans. I bet the parts they'll remember most in the future will be hanging out with their friends between classes, and playing outside while they wait for the bus!



This is the entrance into the building.



The window sporting the franchise's logo.



The main room (lobby.) Students hang out here, and work on homework or whatever. There's also a TV used for crowd control between classes or while the littler kids are waiting for their next class or the bus.



Damon's classroom.



These students have a really high level of English. They understand almost everything I say. They're so young that there's only three of them in their age group at this level! They were hilarious, I broke out the camera and they started to "moe-dell" as they say with their accents.



Don't be decieved by this child.



She is completely nuts! You can see it in her wild eyes. Everyday she makes us laugh!

Gardening in the rain

Our apartment looks out over our neighbor's yard. They have chickens, a dog, and a large garden. (People plant food anywhere there's a plot of land.) This man was out planting seeds for hours one morning in the rain. This garden is growing like mad now! The plants look amazing, and I swear I'll look at it, and then a few hours later, look again and the plants are bigger!

Our apartment

The long and narrow porch that's used for so much...




Kind of obvious, the bedroom. We have yet to find curtains, so for now it's a blanket. The sun comes blaring in at 5:00am. Damon loves it, I have the opposite opinion of it. There are also the chickens, rooster, and contruction to cheer my morning wake-up!



This is our little kitchen. We don't have an oven - they aren't typical here. The main room of the apartment is basically one long room - the living room is at one end (see the picture of me talking on the phone on the couch), and the kitchen is at the other.



We have a little bedroom that I use for my desk and stuff. Damon likes to run into "my room" and jump up and down and say, "I'm in your room! I'm in your room!" I LOVE having my own little office/room. Everything is exactly where I left it...

More photos from around Yeoju

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A recycling truck! People just go around collecting various recyclable goods from designated collection spots. We just put all of our recycling in a bag on the street corner! The people who collect it sort through it!



This is main street in Yeoju. If you look at the top near the pole on the right, you'll see the sun faintly. It was extremely dusty that day due to sands that blow in every spring from Mongolia and northern China. (Those regions are sandy and rocky.)



This is a view of the town from the pavilion park.



A view in the other direction (towards the river) from pavilion park.



I frequently walk up to this park. It's very beautiful and peaceful (and close!)

Me, Me, Me!

Thought you might miss my gorgeous face, so here I am!

Top photo: I have no idea what I was doing when Damon snapped this shot (we were trying to set up the timer to take a shot of the two of us), but I'm at Jogyesa, the main buddhist temple in Seoul. The temple grounds were decorated with lanterns for the Buddha's birthday.

Next: I was repotting an orchid at the little work bench Damon constructed on our back porch (the porch is apx. 3ft wide, and 25ft long!)

Next: Here I'm lounging on the couch talking with my dear youngest sister in France!

Next: I'm correcting workbooks in one of my favorite classes. This is a high level elementary school class, and the kids are awesome. That peace sign that the boy in the baseball cap is making is a popular greeting around Asia (very popular in Taiwan.) It's kind of like a wave is for us Americans, though people are most likely bow slightly when greeting each other.

Bottom photo: I'm sitting and enjoying my favorite view in Yeoju. I often walk up to this park, which looks over the city.