First post on Gyongju

I took lots of photos, but I'm off to Korean class right now. Just though I'd throw this photo from Namsan up here for your enjoyment....

Squirrel drinking yogurt drink... this is why all the signs say take your trash off the mountain!

Going to Gyongju

This weekend I'm taking a trip to Gyeongju to take in some new sites. I'm leaving directly after work today and I won't be back until Sunday evening. Gyeongju is a small city in Southern Korea about 4 hours by car from Seoul (sure is nice to know people with cars...). It's a rather special city because it was the capital of Korea during the Shilla Dynasty (1st Century BCE -9th Century AD). The city is often referred to as the museum without walls because of the numerous historical places that can be seen just by walking around the downtown area. We'll be staying at a min-bak wich is a traditional style guesthouse of sorts. Generally you need to sleep on the floor, and it looks like this one has a kitchen too. I hope to have lots of photos for you next week when I'm back, so stay tuned!

Thunderstorms...

A thunderstorm rolled through Seoul today... it's the first time I've seen one since I've been in the country. I was starting to wonder if they even had thunder and lighting here. My co-workers said they are common in the summer, but I'm quite sure I've never seen one...

Anyway, just thought I'd share that tid-bit with you today. I love thunder and lighting, so it made me happy! Even better, it was done raining by the time I finished work and I was able to walk home!

Metro Korean Academy

Starting in the beginning of May, I started taking a Korean class at a private language school (hagwon) here in Seoul. I originally came to Korea to learn Korean, and I'd been doing a poor job of studying really... I hadn't made nearly the progress I thought I'd make by the 10 month point. So, I started shopping around for a Hagwon. A friend of mine was attending classes at a school in Gangnam, but her class almost got canceled because of small class sizes. Another co-worker had signed up for a class in Hongdae but his class too was canceled because of lack of students to fill the class (there was a 3 person minimum to run the class). I found Metro Korean Academy in 10 Magazine (a magazine for foreigners here). I went there and they leveled me that day with a written and oral placement exam. I placed into the second lowest level.. just above hangul. It was really depressing to me, because I knew present tense, past tense and future tense! But, that is just a sample of how limited my vocabulary is I guess. Not to mention that the test was conducted in the highest formality level which I never use (imnida, imnikka...). But, I signed up anyway, especially when they told me that there was only one other person in the class... and they were running the class anyway!

Friday I just signed up for another month with the class. I love it. I go Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7-9pm. The small class size is amazing because you can't hide and let someone else answer. I have two teachers, one on Mon. and Wed. that teaches from the book, then another teacher on Fri. to teach conversation. Also, starting at such a low level is great because I understand everything very easily and it lets me focus on picking up the vocabulary and not be stumbling over grammar while trying to do that too. It's really reinforcing the vocabulary that I know I've learned, but never gotten a chance to use. I feel so smart too, because the other student in the class only just came to Korea 2 months ago and had no experience whatsoever with Korean before he came here. But... he is an exchange student and he needs Korean in his daily life much more than me.... he is picking it up at an unbelievable rate... and starting to make me look slow.... hmmmmm....

Anyway, I highly recommend Metro Korean Academy if you're looking for a good Korean hagwon in Seoul. It's located right near Gwanghwamun Station, and is a 10 min walk from City Hall station, so you can reach it easily from line 1, 2 or 5. All classes look very small, and they may even create a class if there is none at your level of Korean. They also offer intensive courses and Saturday courses too. I highly recommend them! Please check out their website: http://mka.kr/

The ACTUAL reason behind the North's recent missile launches

Kim Jong Il Announces Plan To Bring Moon To North Korea

Everland

Saturday I went to Everland for the first time as a "going away party" for two of my friends that are leaving tomorrow morning *sniff sniff* to go back to Canada. As it turns out most people couldn't make it, so only three of us, including only one of the girls leaving wound up going. But, it's ok, we still had fun. Everland is the biggest amusement park in Korea. There are some smaller ones like Seoul Land at Seoul Grand Park and Children's Grand Park has a lame amusement park, and then, of course there's Lotte World which is an indoor/ outdoor amusement park in Jamsil, but Everland is the closest you can come to a large style amusement park like what we're used to back in the states. I'd put it on the same level as a Six Flags.

There were a few worthwhile rides at the park. By far the best ride was the T Express wooden roller coaster. The roller coaster at Everland is supposedly the steepest wooden roller coaster in the world. I'm not sure if that's just Korean pride talking, but the 77˚ drop was pretty darn impressive to me. Sure we had to wait an hour in line, but it was worth it.We went on a few other rides while we were here, like the Ferris wheel. Ferris wheels in Korea are a little different from the ones at home. They only do one, very slow rotation. Once you get to the bottom, then you get out again. But, it's always fun.

We also waited for an hour to go on this ride called Let's Twist. It was fun but probably not worth an hour wait...
We went on a Amazon water rafting ride. Now, I feel as though the most exciting part about going on water rides at home is seeing how wet you get. There's always the mystery about whether or not you'll get soaked or you'll come out dry. Here, some Korean mastermind developed a tarp to keep you dry in the water ride:

Let me not forget the It's a Small World remake... Korea style. Just think of It's A Small World from Disney world... then just think of Koreans doing it.... Korea style:

Obviously every German boy has a brimming stein of beer. Of course, I've never been to Germany, that could be accurate for all I know...

The Spaniards dance in the streets...

The Kenyans are ready for battle in the jungle with their spears.

We probably had the most fun in the Animal Wonder World which is actually the best zoo I've seen in Korea. Most zoos in Korea have terrible habitats for the animals. This one wasn't perfect, but it was a vast improvement on the zoo at Children's Grand Park, that's for sure.

There was a bug and bird house where butterflies flew around your head, giant bugs were in boxes to touch and you could feed birds right from your hand (and when I say you, I mean not me).
There was a giant monkey area where they had primates from all over the world. They also had some chimpanzees who were trained to do tricks for food from a trainer.


The bird area was also quite fun to see, but I wonder if the birds have had their wings clipped so that they can't fly... otherwise, why wouldn't they just fly away?


Getting to Everland is quite simple. You can pick up the bus from Gangpyeon Station (where the Dong Seoul bus terminal and the Technomart is). The bus is actually not in the bus terminal, but you can catch it on the opposite side of Gangpyeon station across the street from the TechnoMart. There are actually two buses that go to Everland, but I highly recommend taking the 5800 bus. This bus has about 5 other stops in Seoul before it gets on the highway and goes straight to Everland. The 1113 bus also goes to Everland, but it goes back streets the entire way and the trip is about double the time... more if there's a lot of traffic. The fare is cheap too, only 1,800 won, and you can use your T-money card. So, check out Everland if you have time, it's a fun day out of Seoul.

The whole world on edge and yet no one is even talking about it....

I've gotten so many messages from friends and family this past week worried about the current situation on the Korean peninsula. The North has said it is no longer bound by the armistice and is threatening war. The whole world is scared except for South Korea. Headlines in the JoongAng Daily and the Korean Herald (two of the three major English newspapers here) tell about the funeral of ex-president Roh Moo Hyun. Only in the secondary headlines do you see anything about North Korea. South Koreans are so blasé about the entire situation, it's not even conversation worthy. I don't think anyone is stockpiling food and money in case of an emergency or anything that you would expect of a country that the rest of the world thinks is on the brink of war. Life just goes on as normal here. I used to get so frightened every time North Korea would start it's rhetoric, but I'm starting to understand the South Korean mentality towards the North. This sort of talk is so normal that it's really not even worth talking about. Nothing has happened in 50 years, so why should we think something will happen tomorrow? Anyway, I hope the South Korean mentality is the right idea to have right now... because the way everyone at home is talking, this could be more serious than before....