1. it is fall in Korea. The weather is beautiful, and the leaves on the trees look just like they do during fall in Wisconsin... bright red, yellow and orange colors! The only problem with this is that EVERYONE wants to be outside to enjoy the nice weather while it lasts, meaning that even MORE than the usual thousands of Koreans head to the mountains every weekend to hiking... the trails get so crowded in some places that you can actually get caught waiting in line!! At least your're looking at beautiful scenery. The picture below is of the trees near my apartment.
2. Swine flu
It's as bad here as it is everywhere else! except i'm pretty sure the people here worry about it a lot more than everyone else. There are tons of kids out sick from school and people are constantly using hand sanitizer, wearing masks, and getting their temperatures taken. And -surprise, surprise- guess who else got swine flu?! I had a rough day at a Korean hospital yesterday (alone, no one spoke english, and i didn't understand what kind of drugs they wanted to give me) and am now home sick with more medicine than i know what to do with. On the up-side, it's actually not a bad flu (the last 2 i had were WAYYYYY worse) and i get to miss school for a couple days. I couldn't go in even if i wanted to, they are so paranoid I will get them sick.
3. Gyeongbok Palace
A couple of weekends ago, Ben and I met a Korean friend in Seoul to do some touring around. We first went to see Gyeongbok Palace (one of the most famous in Seoul- i have a whole bunch of pictures of it one facebook), then went to a few small museums, had lunch, walked around downtown Seoul for a bit, and saw another (smaller) palace.... our Korean friend (we met him at a hostel we stayed at in Seoul the 1st weekend we were in Korea) was SO happy to be able to meet up with us and take us around, and we all had a fantastic time!
4. Rock climbing
Ben and i found an indoor gym in a city called Anyang (about a 50 min. subway ride away from us) that we have been going to about twice a week. The owner is an EXCELLENT climber and loves to give us pointers everytime we're there, there's a really cool Korean guy who speaks English really well and is there almost every night, and there are also a few Westerners who usually go the same nights we do. On Sundays, the owner (Mr. Oh) travels to go climbing outside at Suri-mountain (nearby the gym)! We've gotten to go with him once and will probably go again this upcoming weekend. The routes there start at 5.10a, so I was a little worried about being able to do them, but I was just fine, and Ben and I both had an excellent time. I got him a new climbing rope for his birthday, so we can start to venture off and do some outdoor stuff on our own too!
5. Learning Korean
Learning the language here is proving to be a bit challenging since our job is to speak in English for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and we are too far from Seoul to get in to take Korean lessons on week nights; but we have been going to a language exchange every Tuesday night in Anyang and getting random bits of info from our co-teachers. Next month we are going to start Saturday classes at a Korean Language hagwon (school) in Seoul, however, so hopefully we will be able to pick up the pace on this a bit. We would like to think we are doing pretty well compared to other English teachers, however, as we have mastered the Korean alphabet and can read and say and understand quite a few simple phrases... and Ben met an American today who has been here for a year and still did not know how to read the Korean alphabet.
....we'll get there!
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