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.