Dining Out

On Sunday night, Jordan and I went out to eat at an Indian restaurant called Ali Baba's Treasure. We went with a couple we met from New Zealand. The food was delicious, and we had a lot of fun. This restaurant was my first experience with Indian food. I didn't take any pictures though.

But I did get some pictures of our night out last weekend. The Friday before our vacation was our co-worker's last day, so we all went out to Cin-Cin's, an Italian restaurant. It was a very classy place. Very "uppity" too: filet mignon costs the equivalent of $50. We got the pizza.

First Anniversary Present

The traditional present for the first wedding anniverary is paper. So, Jordan gave me something that is used on paper. It is a Korean stamp with my name on it written in hangul. It's very nice. I really like it.

I was able to use it to sign my tests this month. I felt very important.

When the kids saw it (at least those few who actually noticed), they were very surprised and impressed to read my name in hangul.

Big and Tall

Here is the largest church in the world. It has over 800,000 members, and 9 Sunday services translated into 16 languages.

I look very tiny on the steps of this large church.

And here is Building 63. It is creatively named for its 63 floors.

We went to the top. It wasn't quite worth the 14 bucks to get there, but it did provide a pretty cool view of the city. You can see Seoul Tower in the background of this picture.

Check out all that traffic. It's enough to make you sick. But from up there, it looked like a ribbon of Christmas lights.




We had supper at a Japanese restaurant on the first floor of the building. I like Japanese food.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

While in Seoul, we went to see this palace.

This was actually the location of a Pit Stop on Season Four of the Amazing Race.

They were filming a tv show while we were there. It was pretty cool to see that. Although, it is a very cheesy tv show.

This building reminded us of China.

Seoul

Here are some more pictures of our vacation in Seoul.

This is Dongdaemun, an all-night market. There were vendors all along the streets selling just about everything. It was pretty cool, especially at night with all the lights and music.

At the CO-EX, we met the Simpsons.

And just around the corner, we had supper at Jackie Chan's Kitchen.

We went to the War Museum.

Jordan was pretty excited to see all the tanks.

DMZ Tour

While in Seoul, we took a tour of the DMZ (de-militarization zone) next to the North Korean border. There is an approximately two kilometre "no-man's land" between the two borders.

This was on a bridge along the border.

We were able to go down into a tunnel that had been dug by the North Koreans. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take our cameras down into the tunnel.

This is a view of North Korea. For some reason, we weren't allowed to take pictures past the "yellow line," so it's not a very good picture. But if you look really hard, you can see both the South Korean and North Korean flags.

We went to a train station where they hope to eventually run a train up through North Korea.

I think Jordan would have been waiting a while to get picked up.

Back from Vacation

Well, it's been a busy month, so I'm rather behind in my updating. But now our extra morning intensive classes are over, and today we were back to a normal schedule.

The most significant event that I missed posting about was our first wedding anniversary! I can't believe we've been married for a whole year! It was on August 12th. We celebrated by going to Outback Steakhouse. Ribs aren't exactly the most romantic meal, but they certainly tasted good! Beef is very expensive here, so it was a nice treat.

In other news, we spent our five-day vacation in Seoul. We just got back yesterday. It was a busy few days, and we were able to visit some places we had never had time to see before. We walked so many kilometres and up so many flights of stairs that I think we need a vacation from our vacation!

I'll post pictures of our trip in my next post.

Lost in Translation

Several months ago, I started teaching myself hangul, the Korean alphabet. I often try to read the labels on things to see if I can recognize the name. However, many sounds in the English language don't exist in Korean, and they are replaced with other sounds. So it often makes for interesting translations. For example, my name can become Roose or Lusa.


Today while we were out, I picked up a bag of my favourite peanut M&Ms. I had never noticed the Korean writing on the bag before, so I tried reading it for the fun of it.

In translation, "t's" are often replaced with "s's." So, change the "t" to an "s" on the word peanut and see what you get...

How old are you?

I always get confused when I ask my students that question. That's because the aging system works differently here. If a child says he is 11, he is actually 9 or 10 according to western thinking. He is 9 if he hasn't had his birthday yet this year.

Here's how it works. When a baby is born, they are automatically one year old. A couple students told me, however, that sometimes they refer to the babies' ages in months in their first year.

Then, on what we would consider the child's first birthday, he is really 2 years old.

But that's not all. People don't actually "age" on their birthday. Instead, on January 1st, everyone gets a year older. Birthdays are celebrated in a similar fashion here, complete with parties, presents, cakes, and candles. But, they are the same age the day before their birthday as they are the day after.

I was born in April, 1983. So, for me, last fall I would have been 24 years old in Korea (if you can do math, I was only 23). As of January, I would have become 25 years old (2 years older than my actual age). And, on my birthday in April, nothing would have changed. I would still be 25 years old, but now only a year older than my Canadian age. And next January, I would become 26. You get the idea.

So, how old are you in Korea?

My guess is that most of you would prefer to stick with your Canadian age than make yourselves sound older!

It is especially confusing to me regarding my youngest (phonics) class. They are in their first year of school, and they all tell me they are 8 years old. So they are really 6 or 7, but some of them are so small that to me they look like they are only 4 or 5!

Happy Birthday

My niece's 6th birthday was last Sunday on July 29th. So this is for her!

Happy (belated) Birthday!

This picture was taken nearly a year ago. She was a perfect little flowergirl. I haven't seen her in several months, but from her recent pictures I can't believe how grown up she looks. I love you!