Which way??!!!

Went to the DMZ on Sunday.  Will post more picture later, but thought I'd start with this one.  The one where the US President and the Korean President's of the time celebrated the re-opening of a train station in South Korea.  Some day, this train station will run directly to Pyeongyang, but until then it will be most famous as the place where there are many, many copies of the picture where George W is holding a marker upside down. 

Musings

Lost another phone last night. Right after I had put money on it. Fall is coming and the weather is lovely. My hair is growing, finally. Encountered the grossest food I have ever seen. Fried Mac-n-Cheese from TGI Fridays. Finally came around to liking the drinks with solid particles floating around in them. Shark Week has come to Korea. Been watching lots of Discovery Channel and BBC. Went out singing Wednesday night. Had a power ballad night with lots of Heart. It was cheesy. And fantastic. A coworker has gotten fired and our boss has vowed to never hire any more men. 14 women in one office is too much estrogen. If I ever come back, I need a hagwon with less foreign teachers. Been thinking a lot about Mexican food. Going to the DMZ tomorrow. Will hopefully be more interesting then.

Chuseok

Chuseok is a 3 day holiday in Korea, a harvest festival that is sort of like their Thanksgiving. The kids came to school dressed in traditional clothing, hanbok. They've never looked so freaking adorable.

Bunnies...

in the subway? Sure. Why not.

Korean Grapes Are Weird

One of my students must live on a vineyard because she brings me grapes at least once a week. And while I love getting presents, Korean grapes are weird. The skin is really tough so you squeeze the fruit into your mouth and toss out the skin. And there are always 2-3 big seeds in the middle. An appreciated- albeit always messy gift.

Saw "Rent" on Saturday with 2 of the original cast members. They are about 15 years too old to be playing 20 somethings but it was still sweet to watch people on stage whom I had first heard in high school on cd. Sara made a video of it that you can watch here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPcDRcpV0NI). Made airplanes today as our "science" experiment. That was also pretty sweet.

Teacher!!!!!!!!!

Every Monday morning twelve noodles are always bouncing and bubbling over with excitement to tell me what they did this weekend. Playing Nintendo. Eating BBQ. Going to grandma's house. Rollerblading at Olympic Park. After six months my kids are pretty predictable. Except this morning I was thrown for a loop when my twins Eric and Brian told me they bought pets this weekend. Ok, that's cool. Brian tells me he got a hamster. And Eric tells me he got a squirrel. A squirrel? I turn to Brian-who speaks English exponentially better than his brother- and double check. A squirrel?! Brian nods matter of factly. I show the kids a picture of a squirrel from a children's dictionary and Eric nods eagerly. It was the same picture of his new pet at home. Except his is in a cage.
I suppose a rodent is a rodent is a rodent. But... IT'S A SQUIRREL!!!

I just didn't think Korea still had the capacity to surprise me.