Good friends make a huge difference.

Before coming here, Angela met a girl in Ottawa named Ruby. She went to the University of Carleton as part of an overseas program to live in Canada and learn English. Well, Ruby is orginally from Seoul and she's been SOOOO great to take as in as her "children" haha.

For our first weekend in Seoul, Ruby and Mack, her husband with baby Becki in tow, took us out for bulgogi (Korean BBQ). Keep in mind that this restaurant was up in the mountains somewhere filled with trees and ONE HOUR AWAY. They drove to Anyang for one hour and then drove us an hour to the restaurant just to have us see the sites...SHE'S AWESOME!

Her hospitality was extended tonight as she had Angela and I over for dinner. She made pork with lots of side dishes for us. She had us watch "The Mist" and had some time to talk and get to know each other. She went as far as to walk us back down to the bus stop and had Angela call her as soon as we got in haha. She is so loving and kind...good friends make such a huge difference.

Below are some photos of us eating Korean BBQ. Becki is so cute and smiles at all the right times :)

Heidi gets cultural...

...with Angela's help!

This is a wedding hall.
Couple's can get married here...at least that's what I infer from the gigantic sized poster.

This is where we wanted to go, but the English tours stopped at 3:15pm....We left the apartment at 4pm...
All my fault: I wouldn't get up. Angela patiently waited for an hour...eeikes...

Intricate designs are used to decorate the bottom part of the roof tops.

First cultural spot: forgot the name of it...
A nice man greeted us and told us English-speaking tours had to be pre-arranged via the Internet. The best way to tour the sites is to sign up for day tours. We said thanks but no thanks to the tours. They are long and we never listen...

I'm looking at a pot filled with lily pads.
This was also the first time I've tried that aloe juice in the green bottle. To my surprise, I liked it! Good for you, Heidi for trying new things! (even though it's probably not good for me!)

Here I was thinking about lifting the lid. I wanted to see if they had kimchi inside.

This is where you can paint something. Something later turned out to be either a saucer, a fan, a poster, a Chinese character and something else...

...we chose to paint saucers a.k.a. cup holders.

One thing we have yet to get used to is the sitting on the floor.
My knees get sore and they fall asleep. When I'm eating, I have to be particularly careful not to spill on my lap. Otherwise, it's quite nice.

This bug came from out of nowhere!
It scared Angela hahaha
We still don't know what it was...before leaving, there was a girl that stopped and played with it. I think she said, "BOO!" to us and tried to scare us. As usual, we didn't get it.

This is what I painted. The final product has my "Yi" character painted in blue-green on the right-hand corner.

I really liked this house. I pretended to be the owner who is collecting her main.

Right next door to me, this guy chose to redecorate his house to look ultra modern.
I still don't know if I like him or not...but you have to agree that the modern/traditional contract makes for a cool urban geography discussion.

The alley or street in "my neighbourhood".

The view from nearly the top

Tree-lined streets are part of the tourism look. Most of the sites we've traveled to have this distinct welcoming feel to it...I wonder if the locals like this street. One thing is for sure, the prices were geared towards super rich people. The average cost of decent looking leather bags cost $300 to $400.

This distance sign made Angela and I miss home. Jason calculated that it would take approximately four and a half days at 120 km/hr to travel back to Toronto, Canada. No stops.

In my opinion, traffic in Seoul is made worse by the heat--just like any major city. I am empathetic to people who suffer from asthema...it's hard to do anything outside...but no worries, it's predicted to rain for the rest of the week--just when we got set to visit the beaches near the Incheon Airport. We will save that for another sunny day.

Eating: cherry tomatoes I bought at the local grocery store....more pictures of that excursion later this week.

News: Hannah has yet to arrive. We yelled for her outside her window...she did not answer :(

Teachers are famous!

When I first saw these huge cardboard sized posters, I thought it was for some local political campaign BUT in fact, they are posters of private school teacher portraits and their teaching qualifications! I thought this was hilarious!

Apparently, private schools in Seoul are run like businesses and must stay "competitive". To do so, they advertise teacher qualifications during enrollment season, which we are currently in. I can't read Korean, but I can infer that it talks about where they went to school...blah blah blah...the way they pose and gesture also alludes to their personality and perhaps even their teaching strategies. For the most part, I infer that they are serious and strict...not a sense of humour in the bunch except for the one guy that is doing the "gun" gesture haha Angela said she wanted to learn with that guy I think haha

As for me, I would not want to go to school ANYWHERE IN ASIA! I thank God that my parents moved our family to Canada where learning is completely different...If I stayed, I would have died. So as you can see...there was a great plan in placed!

But yeah, can you imagine my face on one of these things?!

If you examine closer, they are doing awesome poses with their fingers pointing all non-chalantingly haha...some are funny because you want to study there JUST BECAUSE OF THE WAY THEY POSE! I wonder how effective these posters are and why there are so few qualified women teachers?

We half-jokingly asked our liason when our posters would arrive near our sidewalk haha...But seriously, I would not want my face blown up to that size...

This also reminds me of an errand that I had to do when I first arrived. It's stupid that I'm writing to you about this because I can't scan it on here to show you...but the passport photos here are photoshopped by the photo guy. He is very pick about the shots he takes and makes you take four or five to get the "best" one. For the last shot, he makes you pose with your arms crossed on a table and you get this modelled photo of yourself. What I ended up with was this perfect looking Heidi without blemishes and freckles. He changed and added a sparkle in my eyes that made me look....alien. At least that's what Angela calls it...no one should look like that....NO ONE!

If I manage to find someone with a scanner, I will definitely show you.


MORE TO COME: pictures of the school when classes resume

TRAVEL PLANS: a beach trip to Mokpok or something if it doesn't rain; if it does rain, we will do a run through of the museums.

Touring the town on our own...

...was much easier because the Korail operates much like the subway in Hong Kong. You pay based on distance traveled and scan the card before and after you board your bus and/or subway train. It costs 700 won or 70 cents to ride on the bus and cost us 1900 won or $1.90 to get to Itaewon Station. Above ground, there is a strip of quaint shops and services that can be interesting to North Americans...for Angela and I, Itaewon was a tad boring. The two Starbucks helped us feel more like home but we already felt settled or whatever given our apartment and things so yeah, it was sort of a waste of time so we headed back to MyeongDong where the shopping was SUPER AWESOME!


Here are some photos of us getting ready to leave, in transition from Itaewon to MyeongDong and the views:















Angela eats what I made: miso soup with seaweed...and grape juice















Mom: I made that!!!




















First real day with sunshine: we are squinting with pleasure















We did not dress alike on purpose but we did receive some compliments for being so pretty about our outfits



















GS25: A convenient store where Angela bought her bus card




















The view up our hill















We rely on pictures and sign for our understanding of EVERYTHING
















One of the two Korean churches in our neighbourhood















Inside the bus...















Our neighbourhood is lined with beautiful trees. They are only around 6 to 7 years old.
It's nice to see our neighbourhood for the first time without rain.




















Different use of space in Korea...they build upwards not outwards like we love in Canada.















The intersection before our stop at Boemgye Station






















Home group? HOME STATION!















I made her stand there to take a wider view of the subway car

















Sometimes we don't understand...so we do without...
















...and then there are those "aha" moments...
















...and they keep us going for HOURS!























Itaewon shops spill into the streets


















We took a road less traveled...even "real" Korean people turned back haha

















This is where Angela was grabbed by one of our Korean teachers. I think they thought we were smart to take the subway all by ourselves without supervision haha






















Angela is SMRT! She ordered her food!























The soft tofu soup was better at the "Cockroach Motel". I like how we are getting picky with the type of Korean foods we like.























Better shopping: MyeongDong




















The other side of what I was looking at...






















Screaming for my life: I was kidnapped by this crazy looking pelican






Stay tuned...that was only the first day of our holiday.




Adios!