안년하세요!
And there you go, my first actual exercise in typing in korean. I feel as cool as a cucumber doing it, although if we're going to be entirely truthful, it took me over a minute to type that phrase. Most of it was trying to find which keys were for which korean character though.

I have to say, I absolutely love the korean alphabet. It's incredibly logical and clear, and fewer letters than our alphabet, so it's actually possible to learn in an afternoon. Unfortunately, the way quite a few consonants are pronounced are totally incomprehensible to me - as in I can't even hear what consonant someone is saying as they say it. FML.

Okay, so let's attempt to do a recap of this weekend, since I've been slacking on the updates. I came down with a Not Quite Cold on friday, which mostly seems to mean that I'm constantly congested, and if I talk too much I'll start coughing and my voice will go. Great. At least my head doesn't feel foggy. So even though I have this glorious four day weekend, I haven't been doing much exploring of the city at all.

On the one hand, I feel bad that I'm not taking advantage of my free time and acting like an independent adult and just Going Somewhere; on the other hand, I really hate being sick and I should spend as much time as possible resting and drinking liquids.

Alas! Both logical thoughts!

I was invited to an overnight workshop this weekend, from Saturday to Sunday, at some oceanside hotel thingie. Apparently some teachers from another school owned by the owner of our Maplebear (he owns roughly 20 schools) were getting married, and that meant a workshop??
Well what the hey, I thought, I don't have anything else to do and this will give me a good opportunity to meet some other teachers and administrators, and I don't know, learn more about teaching.


Turns out workshops mean drinking and eating barbequed meat. I AM QUITE OKAY WITH THIS. It was a really fun time, but I wanted to kill myself for forgetting my camera, because even though the car ride there on Saturday took EIGHT HOURS (thanks, holiday traffic, it only took 3 hours coming back the next day) I was getting to see the korean countryside for the first time, and it was really neat. Seoul really is surrounded by absolutely beautiful mountains, closer to hills really, and as we got further out - rice paddies! It really started to hit me that I am in a Foreign Land. Sometimes Seoul doesn't feel that way because it is so metropolitan. I could imagine I am in a fantasy version of Flushing, where somehow everything is clean.

Okay, things to talk about.
Motorbikes! Fuck those fuckers, ffffffffffffffffff. They ride on the fucking sidewalk, and don't give a flying DICK whether they're about to run you over or not. They, and regular bicycles, are not nearly as predominant as I was expecting, but they're still fucking everywhere. It's just not as bad as say.....a city in China. But still. Fuck them. And cars. Korean drivers are fucking aggressive. Tina, you would have an absolute blast trying to outmaneuver some of these shitheads.

Right, that's enough of a wall of text. You guys want pictures!
Sorry in advance for the bird pictures, I normally don't give a dick about birds, but they look so cool!

What the hell is this bird? They're everywhere, and they're so pretty.


Oh, speaking of which, guess what other kind of bird is everywhere?
HAHA, PIGEONS. UGH.

I need to take more pictures of the local park; it's huge and gorgeous. This picture is of another park, but these exercise machines are rather ubiquitous -


Here is the absolutely stunning temple a couple of blocks away from the apartment, and on my way to work every day -

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to take pictures, so I sort of tried to snipe the shot. I also really want to go inside, but I totally don't have the balls to barge right in, especially when I'm completely incapable of speaking the language. Ugh, the language barrier is so frustrating. I need to man up and really study the language more. Back to the temple, this is the only temple I've seen so far. Churches are waaaaaay more prominent, with their neon crosses, haha, but I see those far more often. It makes me a little sad, it feels like all the churches are pushing the temples out of the way. :C

Here's a shot of one of the blocks I walk through to get to the park, or work, or pretty much anywhere -

I didn't take as many pictures of the city itself, because hey, it's a city, you can google that stuff and it looks just like you think a modern, bustling asian city might. I need to remember to bring my camera with me and take more pictures of food though. FOOD.

So in conclusion, this is quite the interesting adventure so far, despite my exceeding laziness and general malady. I miss you all terribly, and I can't wait to come home perhaps a little bit more than I should.