A picture of one of the overpasses heading to Yongsan. There's something about it that just feels dreamy, so I had to take a picture. Oooooooh. Twilight Zone! 

Disclaimer: Michelle is the sweetest, most wonderful student that I have. In addition to that, I, in no way, have been teaching her bad habits or bad words. Having said that, isn't this photo **GOLD**? 

Glorious Snow! Click on the picture for a closer view of the fabulous flakes falling freely! 

Snow!

I was going to write about how it was finally starting to get warm again and how I was practically expecting springtime here in Korea in the middle of January, but then almost as my neurons finished firing, I looked out the window and it was snowing. Yay! :-)

You know, as much as I hate the snow when I'm in Canada, I really love it here - even the wimpy, 2mm layer that melts on impact and then turns into life threatening ice. Why? Well, I've come to appreciate the snow because winter without it is really rather abyssmal. Winter is a time when everything dies and looks really awful. Snow is a wonderful way to add a blissful and serenly euphemistic facade to all the death. It's nice not having to walk through coldness and wetness here in Korea, but the psychological impact of having to walk to school every day through dead plants everywhere makes you prefer the coldness and wetness.

Here's a picture I was able to snap at school on my break. The snow falling isn't that apparent until you click on the picture to enlarge it. Even then, it's tough to see, but it was a glorious sight for sore eyes - albeit (like I said) wimpy.

*THIS* is probably my favorite picture taken in Korea yet... and so I had to put it first so nobody missed it. Welcome to Korea! Yes, Welcome! Nothing says "Korea" like a cartoon raccoon dressed in a tuxedo, cane, and top-hat, brandishing a newly polished HANDGUN...  

Loralee, being bestowed with the powers of eternal youthfulness (apparently, as explained in a previous post, I think), passing through this archway makes the passer never grow old. Who knew that it was that easy! 

Loralee and I went to Lotte World... I forget what the station was. Anyway, there was this INCREDIBLE reproduction of the Trevy Fountain in the shopping center. Made us both feel like we were back in Europe again! Cool stuff. 

Seohyeon station at night. 

Loralee and Cupid class. Missing is Nikie, who was too camera shy to take part. Amazingly, I was able to capture all the kids looking in the same direction at once. An amazing feat, if you know my class! 

Here is the infamous gayageum that my previous post laments. It's blurry, but in the dark, my camera doesn't want to take a normal length exposure, so it waits until my hand shakes just enough to give my pictures some significant blur. Note the dramatic lighting for the playing of "My Heart Will Go On"... awesome. 

The Final Countdown

The week is almost over. Thankfully. As I previously mentioned, I live for "the Friday"!

There's a bit of a funny story I wanted to mention about my past few weeks. When Loralee and I went to Gyeongbokgung palace and grounds, we briefly visited the Korean Folk Museum. Inside, we found a sign announcing that there would be a traditional Korean instrumental performance in (lucky us) 5 minutes!

We entered the warm, dark, auditorium. I eagerly awaited this performance which was bound to be fascinating and surely beautiful! It was meant to by played by a 11th-grade student at a local high school, but he was only able to play a single piece due to an injured hand. The instruments were a variety of stringed harp-like instruments that lay prone and on stands to let the sound escape from the bottom side of the long, deep fretboard. If my internet "research" is correct (and we all know the internet is ALWAYS RIGHT), they are called gayageums and guhmoongos. They have a really distinctive and beautiful sound.

Having said that, the performance was... er... unique. The very first piece was a traditional Korean song, completely and utterly suitable for the instrument and very beautiful. After those first glorious moments (which the student with the injured hand produced), his father (supposedly a renouned gayageum player in a local orchestra) came out and replaced him (due to his bandaged up and injured hand). This is where the "performance" took a steep downward spiral...

The student's father began to play the gayageum to the accompanyment of a host of prerecorded CD tracks. Ok, fine. No problem...

The first song lined up to back up the stringed glory was Beethoven. At first, I thought "That's somewhat odd - east meets the west." Admittedly, it wasn't all *that* bad... but I was a little put-off by the needless canned accompanyment. "Oh well... moving on - let's hope that's the only CD song he'll play", I mistakenly thought to myself.

Next up: Carmina Burana, by Carl Orff. Yikes... not exactly the most "appropriate" piece for a light, airy stringed instrument. I really enjoy this song, and now whenever I hear it, I will be forced to think of the comical plucking away of the Korean musician in the auditorium that day... think of deep, sonorous, chanting singers singing a song in a minor key, full of pathos and woe, accompanied by the sound of a plucking made annoyingly shrill by its inappropriateness.

Follow this up with "It's the Final Countdown" by Europe, a nameless random techno song, and a happy-go-lucky 60's tune (which I can hum, but can't quite name)...

(By this point, I was spellbound by the ridiculousness of the whole affair and was desperately wondering what would be next)... "Stand by your man" by Tammy Wynette was next on the menu in this gigantic smorgasbord of musical tastes.

The *GRAND FINALE* came when he pulled out a bow to play the last song (which I don't think I could have done a better job of picking, in keeping with the chaos of it all): "My Heart Will Go On", by Celine Dion. I almost cried.... from laughing.

I think what I found so amusing was the impression I got from the whole performance - it was as if the songs were chosen to "demonstrate the versatility and dynamic nature of the gayageum", but in the end, resulted in the exact opposite effect... I *love* the sound of the gayageum, but I think if I ever have to hear it played again with modern pop, country, and techno pieces, I will be forced to take up a crusade against it.

I could be incredibly short-sighted and don't fully appreciate the complexity and intricacy of such a musical fusion, but I think it's like my dad says: "It's better to have them think you're a fool by keeping quiet, than to open your mouth (or play gayageum to techno music) and prove them right"...

Having said all that, I'm now looking for some *traditional* gayageum music on CD... let me know if you find any!

Been a while...

Heya everyone. It's been a LONG time since I've updated. I apologize. The past few weeks have been spent entertaining and having a good time with Loralee. She came over from Canada to spend Christmas and New Years with me to see Korea. We had a good time. Check out the pictures below.

While she was here, I basically showed her many of the things that I have done since I've been here in Korea (aside from travelling outside the Seoul area). So, although some of the pictures below may seem familiar, you may now experience them in dynamic winter-o-vision! That's right, speckled with the crispness of wintery goodness!

We saw many things while she was here. We went to Insa-dong, saw Itaewon, went to the royal palace Gyeongbokgung, climbed Namhansansong and checked out the Great Wall of Korea, ate a myriad of Korean food (as long as it wasn't too spicy for Loralee), sampled soju, hung out in PC-bangs, chilled out at the Korean spas, and tons of other things.

Christmas had a bit of a strange feeling to it - definitely not all wintery and white and pristine like back home. Instead, Christmas here is kind of an afterthought. Well, then again, maybe it just felt that way because there wasn't the raging materialism and nostalgic propaganda that plagues North America......... *sniff* I miss my raging materialism and propaganda.

Christmas dinner was... lets see.... cheese don-kass? Yup. We missed out on the Christmas buffet at the Rocky Mountain Pub (a Canadian pub in Itaewon) because we didn't get tickets early enough. Oh well... nothing says Christmas like cheese don-kass.

New Years was a house party at Sarah's place. She was very kind to host a great party. I enjoyed. Perhaps too much. Yes, indeed. Too much. Loralee's friend Chelsea was there. Surprised to see her, since she was only planning on seeing her later in the week, they caught up and had a good time.

Well, now I'm back at school. It's good to be back, but I miss vacations. Vacations are goooood. Sweeeet sweeeeet vacations. I think I'm coming down with a cold too... *sigh* whine whine whine, complain complain complain, eh?

Anyway, that's an ultra-brief summary of the past two or three weeks. Merry Christmas, everyone! Don't forget to check out the 100-odd photos from the past two weeks below. If you want a larger, more detailed look at any of the photos, click on it, and use the back button on your browser to return to this page.

Cheerio!

Here is Michelle. She is *SUCH* a sweetheart. Definitely one of my favorite students. On this particular day, I asked all my youngest students to make silly faces in class! 

Funny face #2! 

Ally's got the best hair around town. This picture of course doesn't do it justice. When she first got it, one of the teachers at our school said she had Ramyen-hair. Ramyen is the squiggly, Ichiban/Mr. Noodles -style noodles that is so yummy to eat at lunch. 

Isn't Soo Bin cute? 

Sherry and Michelle. 

Ally! Aaaaaalllllllyyyy! 

Soo Bin's funny face. 

Sherry on the left and Michelle on the right. Doesn't Sherry look proud? 

Here are some of Brighton's students at the Christmas concert. This isn't all of them. 

Here is Loralee on her second day here. We went to Itaewon. Off in the distance you can see Seoul tower.  

Here's a picture of Seoul's subway system. It may look complicated but... no wait, it is complicated. Getting from where I live to the center of it all takes about an hour or an hour and a half. 

Ribbit. 

A street down Insa-dong. 

One of my favorite pictures of the last two weeks. This area of Insa-dong was lit up and very beautiful. Click on the picture to enlarge it and get a better view. 

Yuldong Park. 

Here are some graves in Yuldong park. The same pictures are featured earlier in my blog. This is just to show them in the winter. Exciting.