The Sentence Has Been Passed

Tonight, Aug. 30, I have finally been told where I shall be shipped off to: SeoCheonan. It's within 100km south-southeast from Seoul. I don't know much about it yet, but I'll find out soon enough: I'm leaving for there tomorrow morning (it's 22:45 right now as I'm typing this).

I'll let you know more later, as I'm waiting for clothes to wash and dry and have been suffering from lack of sleep for a while.

Oh, and from now on, don't be surprised if I show up with something very sporadically 'cause things will begin to pick up and I'll have a lot on my hands with trying to be prepared to teach 6 classes everyday.

Don't stop praying for me, please!

Church

Here is the institute's church (or at least the one we've attended the 2 weekends we've been here). It's on the 4th floor of the institute.

Not bad at all.

The choir (If I knew I were staying here, I would beg to join it).

The orchestra; mostly strings, but sounds really well.

Well, now I'm caught up. . . for now. I believe there's an outing tonight (I heard "chicken") and will probably follow along. Ok I need to get off now. 'Til later.

Reunited with Rhee

On Aug. 27, I was happy to be reunited with a friend of mine named Rhee (family name). We were roommates on my last dig in Khirbeth Qeiyafa, Israel in Summer '09. I tried to make sure that I could see her before she leaves on Sept. 4 for the States for college. Praise God we had a 4hr. block of free time--and I used it all up, and then some.

In order to meet her, I had to walk about 5 min. to the train station, ride for about 20-25 min. and then had about 5 min. in the station to find the exit we were supposed to meet. It really wasn't difficult, once I got the hang of it. We met and rejoiced and decided to take care of a very important issue we shared: hunger.

Behold, our lunch. We ordered Bi-bim-bap, which is a mixture of several vetables, rice, and fried egg, and whatever else you can recognize on this picture. It was a bit spicy, which I appreciated. Rhee gave me a few pointers on how to eat it, since apparently I was eating it wrong or using the wrong utensils or what-have-you.

I appreciate the lesson.

Where we got our Bi-bim-bap. I believe I was the only foreigner in the room . . . It was an interesting feeling . . .

Where we ate (this was a very densely populated food court).

It was an experience.

The directory. The food court is on the 5th floor. We took escalators for about 3 floors, then steps for the remaining 2.

I wonder if this shopping complex has its own zip code: it's sure big enough!

We were looking for a nice cafe for dessert. This sign caught our eyes.

The actual cafe.

On the 2nd floor. It was really full and we really wanted to stay. We were even willing to sit at the smoking room; thankfully that wasn't necessary. As soon as 1 table was available, we were there and Rhee ordered. Thank God for friends who can speak the local language!

What we ordered. I expexcted larger waffles. Oh well, it was still delicious.

The red/pink is strawberry and the green is green tea (not bad).

After we were done. We killed'em!

So, Rhee wanted to take me to a kareoke, but the only ones we could find were bars and looked sketchy. It also started to rain heavily (again). I mentioned that there was an underground mall somewhere and we started to look for it. Well, we didn't exactly find it, but we went to Namdaemun market instead.

At a train station (I believe Jongno 5(o)-ga), waiting to get on the train to Dongdaemun, to transfer to Line 4 to get to Hoehyeon (close to Namdaemun market).

I love the trains in Seoul.

Let's try this again, from Rhee's angle . . .

I appreciate these maps on the road.

As we leave. This reminded me of the shops in the Arab section of the Old City (Jerusalem). If you like to haggle/bargain, this is your place. We found just about everything here: including shoes my size and even bigger! (that was a challenge, but I don't need any so I'll leave that alone).

We had to part ways as we were in the train: she to the dentist, me to kitchen duty. Time went by quickly but I did enjoy that time. I hope we can meet up again when she visits Korea again during summer break or whenever . . .

Just Random Pictures

Sorry, I've got a bunch of pictures that I wasn't sure in which order to place them and just started to upload them. I haven't had much free time to put them in their respective order, yet here they are anyway.

For those of you who need order, please accept my apologies, as the next 3 or 4 posts are somewhat random--just like it's order (or lack thereof).

From the Samyook Adventist hospital, facing the nearby mountains. It's close to the end of summer, which is also the wet/rainy season. It's been raining here a lot, but I prefer rainy days to humid, sweltering heat any day.

Another building that's part of the hospital/funeral home.

The view beside the previous building.

An interpretation of a tree.

Another interpretation of the same tree.

I guess I have had a fit of free time . . .

On Thursday morning (Aug. 26), some of us decided to get some sandwiches here (same street as the institute) 'cause we were kinda tired of the same cereal we've been having everyday.
I had a "vegtable" sandwich. It comprised of egg, cabbage, and pickles on slices of butter-toasted bread. For 1,400 won (about $1.40) it was pretty good and filling.

It has quite a bit of variety and you can add other ingredients as well.

Hooray for flexibility!

Frying the eggs (top) and toasting the bread.

In the cafeteria with my prize.

In the institute, there's an ATM of the bank in which we've set up our accounts. It is lovely. You can even update your bankbook on it (the machine balances your checkbook for you).

A view of the screen.

I think I'm gonna get spoiled with KEB's banking system.

A part of the institute's lobby. Isn't it inviting?

Small excursion with All-Day Club

On Friday, Aug. 20th, some of us went out with the All-Day club. This club is a group of Korean students who spend all day (about 8am til 6pm) in English classes. I don't remember exactly where we went, but here are some pictures of the treck.

This just looked cool.

This was inside a Redmango cafe. Here are some of the new teachers with the All-Day students.

A peek of the inside.
I had a pineapple yogurt smoothie. Problem was, the glass spilled. Fortunately, we were able to clean it up and get it cleaned up, and I got another glass free of charge. Nice service, but I still felt bad about the accident.

Another peek.

This building really caught my eye.

A Few More Trinkets

A little more of what I see everyday. . . in orientation, at least.

The water fountain. That's my hand holding a paper envelope, which is the cup. Took a little getting used to, but it's not bad.

The box above the trash bin is where you can get an envelope/cup.
That's my foot at the bottom of the picture. Step on the pedal, and the trash bin opens as so.

This is the name of the room in which we've been having orientation.

Inside said room.

Inside the restroom. See anything different?

Yip, the soap dispensers are an actual bar of soap on a bar attached to the wall, that can be swung to either sink.

Just grap the soap, get some on your hands, work it up and rinse. Slightly different.

One Major Excursion

On Sunday, Aug. 22, we "orientees" were taken on a small cultural excursion. Let me guide you through by using the pictures I took . . .

Where our excursion began, the closest subway station.

Can you figure out the times?

1 really cool-looking temple we passed by. I couldn't hear what it was for or the history behind it . . . blast.

A really cool-looking modern building.

Along the Cheonggyecheon Stream again.

At one end, where I understand a waterfall starts the stream . . .

. . . good place to cool off on a hot day.

Like I've mentioned before (maybe not necessarily on this blog), I like architecture.

But I also love water.

So inviting on a hot day . . .

I'd love to go behind.

Something about the G20 Seoul Summit.

Same plaza, only a bunch of people playing (what I understood) something similar to Chess. Sounds intelligent.

These people really do know how to cool off!

A random building made up of pictures of individuals, side-by-side.

I'm assuming a gate.

Who wants to hit the drum?

The patient guards and tourists.

If only I could read Chinese (trust me, this isn't Korean).

I may be bigger, but he's armed!

At least the ceiling is pretty.

(Thank you Hetani, for taking the picture!)

This sculpture is exactly how you see it. The only editing feature I did was to apply the spotlight--that's it. This sculpture of a family, honestly, hurt my eyes . . . but it's still highly interesting!

Just thought this was a good picture.

Our main destination: A traditional Korean theater showing a popular, classic Korean story.

Let's go down the steps and enter, shall we?

Well, we have to wait a bit, so in the meantime . . . we get to play dress-up! I was one of the 1st to try a costume on, and 1 of the last to take it off (we just wore the costume over our clothes)! It was soooo much fun!

I even got a crown! Although, I did the bow wrong . . . oh well.

A group of ladies.

Check out the length/size! Although, I think the dress was supposed to touch the ground . . .

Three ladies of royalty.

A queen with country aristocracy (?)

The golden emperor and I

(shew, one of the few men in this country who's taller than me! Then again, he is Australian . . . )

One side of the closet of costumes. A large Korean group entered, so picture-taking became a bit more difficult.

The experience was worth every single won of it!

(that's about $5)

Walking back to the gate where we took pictures with the guards. This was at the other side of the street.

Back to the Cheonggyecheon Stream on our way back.

People still chillin'.

Afterwards, we went out to Subway for supper. We sat on the 2nd floor. I had a window-seat/booth. Check out the view. A group of us ate at the Redmango just across the street on Friday (the 20th).

Afterwards, we went to an underground bookstore, right at the subway station in front of the Subway in which we ate. I bought a Korean phrasebook. Hopefully I'll learn some Korean. I need to get serious about that.

That's pretty much it. It was a lot of walking but it was great and absolutely worth it.

Oh, by the way, just want to thank everyone who took pictures of me with my camera (honestly can't remember who took what, but I know some who did were Hetani, Bryan, Arron, and James). If I forgot you, I'm really sorry and please tell me so I can update this and give credit to whom credit is due. Thanks.