City Hall, what a sweet place

So on Chuseok day in the afternoon I decided to check out what City Hall was like in the day time. Well since it was Chuseok, it was a happening day. I got to check out some good traditional music, dancing, and performance. And I got to go into a temple in the middle of City Hall for free. Here's some pics to show you how beautiful this place really is.
I just love how you can see these beautiful mountains right in the middle of the city.

This is the Cheonggyecheon, a creek that flows right through the middle of the city, and is supposedly amazing during Christmas time.

This is the grassy area (one of the few you'll see in Seoul, where all the performances took place. It was a a really beautiful day, but also really really hot.

The entrance to the temple.

No explanation needed for these next pictures. Just sit in amazement at the beauty, and also at the perplexing contrast between old temple structures and high rise skyscrapers in the background. I think it's pretty cool.

Happy Chuseok Everyone!

I've got a 5 day weekend now because of one of the biggest holidays in Korea, Chuseok. The American equivalent to Chuseok would be Thanksgivinng. Everyone travels to see their family and has huge meals. At school on Friday, every single kid, and I mean every single one of them dressed up in traditional Korean clothing called Hanbo. It is some of the most colorful clothing I've ever seen, and I got to take pictures with many of the kids in their traditional clothes. We played traditional Korean games, had a tea ceremony, and I got explain the history of traditional Korean masks. It was a lot of fun.

I just got back from a two day trip to Busan, which is aboutt 5 hours away from Seoul, on the opposite side of the country. I went with my good friend from New Zealand Ivan, and it was great to just see the country side of Korea and a different city as well.

This is in Seoul Station, where we caught the KTX trainn to go to Seoul. It was a very nice train, and the seating made me feel like I was back on an airplane. I read an entire book on the train their and bus back called "teusdays with Morrie." A very very good book, that I'd definitely recommend to anyone. That's also probably the fastest I've ever read a book (with maybe the exception of Jayber Crow).

This is a picture I took from the train. Most of South Korea is mainly mountains, but also a ton of farmland as well. It reminded me of my trips from Philly to Pittsburgh.

When we first got to Busan, we had pretty cool view of the mountains in the background. Unfortunately for the first half of the trip, I was having digestion troubles from some very spicy chicken from the night before. Eventually, the pain subsided though, and I had a great time.

We first went to a place in Busan called Haeundae, where we went to a beach that was pretty cool. Unfortunately it was so windy that it was like a sandstorm there.

Then we went down to city hall where we ate a Vietnamese place. It was really nice food, prolly the best I've had in Korea so far, but it was haha, a little more expensive than we thought.

So now I'm back in Seoul and we've got 3 more days of vacation woot!!

Where I live

Alright, I don't have much time to write stuff, but I just have so many pics I just gotta put some up. So heres some photos to get an idea of where I live in Guro!

My apartment!:

Outside my apartment and work:

Downtown Guro:

About a week and a half in

I'm lovin' it in Korea right now. I've been teaching for 4 days now and I really enjoy my classes. I'm teaching 7 classes total. 3 seven year old classes, two 8 year old classes, one 11 year old class, and a 6 year old class. The kids are all so nice and affectionate. The first day I got there they were already happy to see me calling me "Mark Teacher!!"

Seoul is incredible and massive. Coming from Philly where you can be in and out in 20 minutes makes Seoul seem like a giant. It can take up to 2 hours (subway) to get from one part to the other. The place is huge. I've live in a nice, somewhat busy area of Seoul called Guro, and it's not the flashiest place, but I live right next to the subway, and all the great places to go are only 20 minutes away at the most.

The food in Korea so far has been amazing. Half of the restaurants I've eaten at are called "galbi" restaurants. At these places you fry up your own meat right on the table. It's pretty sweet!

Public transportation in Seoul is also incredible. It's so cheeeep and soooo efficient. The subway and buses are always on time, and you'll never wait more than 5 minutes for another train to come by. The picture of the subway station here is at like 12:00 PM, right when the subway is about to close. We caught the last possible train. Usually the subway is JAMMED. People fight tooth and nail to get off at the right stop, but it's fun!

One night, after some galbi, we saw some street performers that were pretty cool. It was all interpretive dance. But it attracted a pretty big crowd!

I've already made a lot of great friends through my co-workers, and I've also reconnected with some old friends! It's been only a week and a half and I already feel like I've done so much. Oh, and I just got back from an ice show of the Nutcracker! Pretty fun.

And just for fun, here's a picture of me singing my heart out at a Norebang (kereoke room)