Quick post

Hello!!  Here's a quick post before I finish up packing...for the Philippines!!  I am sooooo excited and really in need of this break.  Maybe I'll update about December sometime.  Let's just say I have another new girl in my kindergarten class, and she acts like a two year old throwing temper tantrums.  Fun times.

I am headed for Bohol in the Philippines, which wasn't hit by the recent typhoon.  It will be in the 80's there and I am looking forward to staying in little huts on the beach, eating mangoes, seeing the chocolate hills...who knows what else.  Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

November in Korea

November was surprisingly warm for the most part.  There was about a week where it actually got cold, but other than that it hasn't been bad at all.  

Here's a picture from November 5th, when I went for a walk in shorts and a t-shirt because it was in the mid 70's.  All the Koreans were bundled up in their winter coats.

There was a lantern festival in Seoul going on for about three weeks in November.  It was over a kilometer of huge lanterns lit up on the river.  The first time I went to it we ended up walking along it during the day on our way to a main shopping area.  It didn't look as cool during the day, but at least it wasn't crowded at all.  

Then we attempted to walk back the same way along the river that evening, but there were so many people everywhere we could barely move much less walk around and see the lanterns.  We found an escape route and decided to just look at the lanterns from up on the street.  

It was still very beautiful!

Masses of people.  Notice the people lining the railing above as well, which is where we ended up.

The next weekend, Sam and Tyler ended up coming up to Seoul, so I went with them to the festival again.  It was a lot less crowded, so we actually walked along the river.  

This was probably my favorite lantern-a peacock that breathed fire!

Really pretty lanterns on interesting trees

Sam and I in front of a lotus lantern

We also got to paint our own lanterns!  I'm glad I went back for a second time!

On Thanksgiving I skyped with my family.  It was such a surreal feeling to see my relatives at my house and then walk outside to go to work...in South Korea.  Sometimes I forget how far away I actually am from home.  My coworkers and I ended up having a Thanksgiving potluck.  We didn't get to have any turkey though, since nobody has an oven in their apartment.  We did have some lentil dishes, potatoes, and plenty of pumpkin pie from Costco.  

Other than that, I have been going shopping in Seoul quite a bit.  I bought a winter coat (from Forever 21) and my favorite place lately seems to be Insadong, which is a souvenir shopping area.  One time when I went to Insadong there was a traditional drum and dance going on.  There were guys with twirly hats too!  Sam told me about seeing those kinds of hats and I really wanted to see them sometime.

Drum and dance in Insadong

Here's a couple of random pics from Suji, where I live.

This is the park on our way to school.  I jog through this park every morning on my way to work.

Here's the "river" (I think it's technically a stream) that runs through Suji.  It's also on the way to school.

This past weekend I went shopping (again) and started off at a huge flea market.  Christine ended up buying a really nice used coat for $5!  Meghan bought some orange candy slices that we all enjoyed immensely, since that type of candy is hard to find.  After that we ended up walking by a bunch of pet stores all in a row.  The animals were all crammed together in little cages, like about 15 baby bunnies in a little cage.  It was really sad.  Also, there were some strange animals in the cages that I would have never thought of as being a pet.  They had pigeons, chipmunks, and some sort of gopher-type animal.  Christine and I are planning on going there on our last day and letting the pigeons go.  But not really.  

Would you like a boom box?  This was at the flea market.

 

So many baby turtles!  They were cute.

Shoes-Dongdaemun

It's time to start planning for the Phillipines!  I can't believe Christmas break is coming up in three short weeks!  I am ready to relax on the beach:)