New Glasses!

First we got up "early" to go to lunch with Hyun-joo's family's friends. The parents live in Waikiki and their son lives in Philadelphia. Both families had lots to celebrate since their son has recently become engaged as well.



After that wonderful Japanese lunch, we took off to the jewelery store to get Hyun-joo's ring fixed. Unfortunately we had to wait 30 minutes for the jeweler to show up, but once he arrived the job only took him 2 minutes!



Then Hyun-joo and I took off to Namdaemun to look around for new glasses. I was interested in getting a second set because mine don't fit me that well. I love them, but I heard that you could find perscription lenses really inexpensively in Korea. And the rumors were right! I bought a new pair of Calvin Klein Titanium frames with lenses for only $200! Wassup?!!



Finally we swung by TGI Friday's for some chow and went to check out an old hang-out of Hyun-joo's: a sweet live Jazz club not far away. It was Funk night and the music was crankin'.

War Museum of Korea

After lunch with Na-young and Han-gyu, we all went over to the War Museum. It is located right next to Itaewon, not far from the Seoul Tower.



There are three distinct levels spread over a huge area. The lowest level covers neo-lithic until pre-Occupied Korean times. The second level covers recent history and the third level basically covers current deployment of the ROK.



We didn't really know how big the place was and ended up spending more time in the lowest level. Han-gyu and Na-young had to take off only a quarter of the way through the museum. Hyun-joo and I briskly walked through the rest of the exhibits.



Give yourselves at least three hours to go through the entire museum. The exhibits are pretty good with multimedia, replicas, and decommissioned samples from Korea's past conflicts.



The museum really gave the impression that out of 5000 years of successfully repelling foreign invaders, Japan's outrageous occupation of Korea is a very dark page in their history. Koizumi's gesturing at Yakusuni Shrine to appease the far right in Japan, not suprisingly offends the Korean sense of decency.



Click to view the slidehow for all the pictures from our trip so far

KONG

After hanging out with Ja-young in Insadong, Hyun-joo and I raced over two subway lines to get to the COEX Mall for our showtime. We picked up tickets earlier this week and we just barely made it to the start of the movie.



I though it was very entertaining, a little over the top (even for a movie like this), told the story well, and was casted very well. I can't wait to see what kind of project Peter Jackson takes on next!

Shopping at Insadong

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We went to Insadong today to buy some gifts and meet up with Ja-young. Insadong is a great market place for folks looking to buy traditional Korean gifts and handicrafts. There are good restaurants and street-side vendors as well. You won't be able to do much haggling, but I don't mind since I'm not a big fan of the whole process.

Lotte World

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Hyun-joo and I spent a FULL day at "Lotte World". It's an indoor/outdoor amusement park in downtown Seoul. I highly recommend the place. Here was our hitlist:

1. The Conquistador
2. Atlantis Rollercoaster
3. Gyro Drop
4. Gyro Spin
5. Drunken Teacups
6. The Flume Ride
7. The Pharos's Fury
8. Sinbad's (bad) Adventures
9. Bungie Drop (Hyun-joo only)
10. The Monorail

Kickn' it in Korea... Kristmas Style

I still can't believe it takes 12 hours to fly a few hundred miles. Seoul is so close to Kanazawa if you look at the map, but it seems that traveling anywhere from Kanazawa isn't easy. Well, the weather has been pretty crappy.



HJ and I left a little late. I drove HJ and the luggage to the local bus stop and planned to walk to the station since it's only a 10 min walk. The roads were horrible and I slid around on the street in my dress shoes. I was lucky not to fall in the slush.



The flight from Komatsu airport was delayed over an hour, but we were finally able to take off. It was great to be back in Seoul. I could smell the calbi, brugolgi, and other treats from around the city.



I practiced "anya-hasosa-yo" all the way home. I was determined to greet HJ's parents properly. You should have heard me. It was perfect Korean. Of course I blew it once I saw her parents. Man, I know how my students feel. My mouth totally froze. The pressure was too great. Talk about an affective filter. Thankfully her parents didn't seem to hold it against me. They're great.



We've been having a nice time. HJ's Dad already planned out a bunch of stuff for the week. Unfortunately the DMZ is off the schedule since we needed to apply 3 months in advance for permission to head up there. Oh well. Next time. There's a music concert planned. A day at the church for Christmas. Time with HJ's sisters and their significant others. I'm looking forward to the rest of my stay here.







I thought I would be a little more stressed out, but I feel very comfortable and they're making me feel right at home. I know my parents would kill to get a chance to eat like I've been eating. I even got to eat dolsot-bibimbap for lunch!



I gotta remember to take more pictures. It'll be relatively easy to get them on the web I think. I hope they have a USB cable here for me to use. I should have brought one myself. Speaking of which, I gotta remember to bring some Korean plug adapters as well. I forget that they use the round plugs here!



Merry Christmas... where ever you are!

New snow tires for everyone!

I tried out my new "snow tires" today: a brand new pair of rubber boots to keep my legs warm and dry as I march to school each morning. The slushy snow is a bitch, but much more tolerable now that I have my boots. I just throw on a pair of slippers when I get to my classes and all's well.



When I got home, I shoveled out in front of my car - out into the street. I didn't bother as much with the stuff around the car since my back has been bothering me a bit. It was slow going. I've been using this small plastic thing that Hannah and Tyson gave us when the left us with the car. When I finished with the shoveling, I went around back and grabbed my snow tires and chucked them into the back of the car. It was time to get them on the car. Unfortunately, I got stuck not more than six feet out of the driveway. I knew the worst snow would be there. Our road, like many in these parts, doesn't get plowed and no one dares to shovel the roads in front of our apartment. So the guy next door was nice enough to give me a hand and we got my car out after a few minutes. Then, I drove to Yellow Hat, a service center. They said they wouldn't change my tires since they were closing in 30 minutes. So, I ended up chaning my front tires right in their parking lot. It was a pain in the ass, but I finally finished. The new tires make all the difference. I hope to get chains too, but they're freaking expensive here. I'm looking at least a hundred dollars! That's like a third of the price I paid for the car! Oh, well.



We've been getting snow every day now for the past week. It's incredible. This is a totally different season than last year. I can't wait to go snowboarding!



Well, only a few more days of classes left and then off to the icebox of Korea. Boy, I'll be missing the chance to go diving this year. I guess there's next summer.

First Snow of the Season!

We got a bit of the white stuff yesterday afternoon. It kept falling all day today, mixed with rain of course. When I left school, there was a beautiful slushy whiteness covering the ground. Adam has been skiing and I'm seriously considering a season pass to Seymour Ski Area myself. Not too expensive from what I hear.

Lotta homework this weekend

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Man, seems like we did a lot of homework this weekend. Whew. We were at Hyun-joo's office until 9:30 on Friday night doing grading and preparation for the next week. HJ's been doing a killer job, but I worry about her sometimes.



Got the X-mas shopping done! Yahoo. Now I just gotta try to send it out before the holidays...



Great news! Casey and Chieko BOTH got hired at KIT! Gonna party soon! It'll be great to have them around to go hang with. Looks like the crew is coming back together.

TGIF

Made it to Friday. Whew. It was a longer day than usual. On top of six straight periods of classes, we had a 1.5 hour assembly right after school for the "Speech Contests". If we teachers didn't have a task - judge the speeches - I would have been asleep in 15 minutes.



I might be doing a lot of complaining today. We've been getting some butt-ugly weather recently. It's been hovering just a couple of degrees over the freezing point, so it's all been rain. Cold, windy, and rainy. It makes going out a real chore. Especially since I don't want to drive everywhere. Ah speaking of which... it's about time for the snow tires. They're kinda essential around here since there isn't any plowing to speak of in these parts. It can be a real problem with the amount of snow that's common to this area.



Whoa, negativity warning! Well now for some positive news. We have the weekend to ourselves and even though it won't be a vacation, we'll have time to do everything we need to and get some time to kick back and watch some movies that we're trying to catch up on.



Not much else to report on. Hopefully we'll hear good news from Chieko and Casey about their interviews from KIT. Until next time... Merry Christmas.

KTC Dinner

Went out after work tonight with the school. Kocho-sensei (our principal) threw a party to thank everyone for the hard work. Assumingly that's for everything folks did during the accreditation process and Robocon events. It was a nice gesture.

Casey's coming in tonight

HJ and I head to the station this evening to pick him up. He's got his interview with Lewis and Mamoru tomorrow at 11:30 am. We'll go grab a nice meal downtown and then head back for a good night's rest.



It's dumping today. Lots of hail and slushy rain. Cold too. Strange thing is we're getting thunder and lightning as well. I was told that these atmospheric conditions are rather rare. Whatever. We're just getting wet.

Chieko in town

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Our old friend, Chieko, came into Kanazawa for the day to interview at KIT. After the interview we took her out for a yakitori dinner. We weren't that suprised when she took us for a second dinner to CoCo Curry. Man, that girl can eat. We ended up crashing at Starbucks around 10:30 pm. It was great to see her. It's been about a year now. And her boyfriend, another good friend of ours - Casey, will be coming in on Monday night!