A little bit of daily life

My neighborhood in Mokdong

Went ice skating with a couple students

Some boys I work with at their home

Those first set of pictures are a couple shots in my neighborhood.  The top one is some apartments and office buildings.  Those tall buildings really funnel the wind, making Mokdong one of the colder areas of Seoul during winter.  The bottom one is on my walk home from the institute; they've left the lights up from christmas time.

Korea just celebrated the Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year you may know it as.  I got a long weekend, but stayed around Seoul as it is one of the busiest travel times in the country.  One day I went ice skating with a couple of my students, there's an indoor rink within a 10 minute walk from my home.  I skated pretty well (never falling being my standard of a good skater).  I was the only white guy there, so I didn't draw too much attention.  It's tough to convey sarcasm through written word, so I'll elaborate.  Foreigners are still a novelty here, so when I, or other foreigners go places it draws attention.

The bottom set of pictures are of two boys I work with.  The other two pictures are of his bedroom; those are just some of the books in the house for him. I go there Fridays, and another teacher goes Mondays and Wednesdays.  He also has an art teacher visit on Saturdays, and I'm sure his Tuesdays and Thursdays are booked too.  NO he's not home schooled, this is in addition to school.  This isn't an exception either, this is typically the norm.  Especially in the area of Seoul I live, and one other area; they go to extremes for education.  They work harder on English alone than I probably worked on all my subjects combined.

Something about your face...

This gym I've joined has been generating a lot of buzz here.  So I thought I'd share a quick anecdote about my motivation to lift once I get to the gym.  There's a guy that usually comes around the same time as me, and I don't know what it is, but something about his face really irks me.  He's a Korean guy, and I'm sure he's nice, and he's there lifting and making himself healthier.  It's not like this is the Catalina Wine Mixer, but if you're coming to my gym to lift during my time....
Well anyway, if I could say it better myself I would, but the link to this video pretty much sums up how I feel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3lGKMXYOG8

New Year's Resolution...blog more

"I'm Buff, and I'm the stuff"-Buff Bagwell

Seoul Lantern Festival 

Quick pose to show proper form to the kids

Christmas and New Years 

I joined a gym about two months ago.  I'm really trying to gain that weight back, but it's coming along really slowly.  My students, especially the females, are getting tired of me complaining about how I can't gain weight.  Notice in the top left picture all the Korean gym members are on the treadmills.  Muscles are not considered attractive here, so you rarely see people working with heavy weights.

The second set of pictures is from the Seoul Lantern Festival.  It was held during late fall.  They have themes each year, and this year was Korea.  They are paper lanterns constructed with fine detail, representing people or places, etc. from Korea's past and present.

Right before the new years I had a long weekend and a Korean ajumma (lady or housewife), Nira, invited me to go skiing with her and her son.  She has also volunteered to help teach me some Korean language on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  She has become like my "Korean mom" or older sister if she asks.  I hadn't skied in over 10 years, but picked it up like it had only been 10 days.  I guess it's that natural Murphy athleticism, though I think I'm the only family member to possess this gift.  Next time I go out I'll try to snowboard, but Nira and her son talked me out of it this time.

The last set of pictures is just some quick shots of Christmas and New Years.  Neither are very big holidays in Korea, so the season passed by rather uneventfully.  Christmas here is a time to celebrate with friends, and New Years eve and day are usually spent with family.  I went to a New Years Eve celebration in the Seoul equivalent of Times Square.  There were lots of people, but not worth going back to.  There are also two videos from New Years Eve: the first is of the crowd right after the countdown, and the second is of a group of traditional Korean drummers.