Namsan Guest House Seoul

... Japanese, and English, and that for people who don't speak the other languages, the English tour becomes a bit of a catch-all. So we ended up on a tour with about 250 people, most of them belonging with a Thai vacation tour, spending a long weekend in Seoul.

Changdeokgung is expansive. It is the second biggest palace around here - originally supposed to be the "backup" palace, it became the primary one after the first one was ...

Back to the grind (for Heather). Back to the TEFL for me. Monday I just kind of hung out and did some work I needed to do. Heather and I went for a morning run down by the river and I looked around Hanam-si while she taught her kiddies Engrish. For those of you that think I just misspelled English I refer you the the entry in my Thailand blog entitled "The Engrish Competition." OK, now we are all on the same ...

... got on the green in few enough shots to be allowed to putt and put the ball in the hole.
The next day Justin went into Seoul to see a palace and that evening we went to the gym and then went to Lenny's flat to play some wii bowling. We had to get ready for the real thing, which we did the next day!
Wednesday morning we went into Seoul to the Olympic park from the 1988 Summer Olypics held in Seoul. The park was a blast from ...

... been caught up in this horrific nightmare. And foreigners do boast about what is happening. Hopefully, by speaking out, I can be a voice for change.



Last night, I dreamt this really odd dream. I usually don't remember my dreams. Or just remember only snatches of it so that I can't really describe what the dream was about. But this dream affected me enough that I woke up remembering it. I think it ...

... to Korea. Ironically, since many Japanese historical sites have religious significance the Japanese cannot excavate in their own country.

Professor Kim advised us that as we study Korea then v today to be careful to note that Korea of the earlier periods was very different and full of controversy. Additionally, he recommended being careful of nationalization of history and ethnic groups.

He continued his overview through the centuries. During ...

... his time spent with certain subcultures...a writers dream so to speak.

July 11th a large group of us will be heading to Mud Fest a massive festival on the beach. Sally has done wonders in securing a big condo where we'll stay and she has also hired one of our CIS bus drivers to drive us to the beach for 500,000 WON. We'll be 25-30 people on the bus so should be a riot. I went into Jordan's class a few days ago as bus driver number one, as he's known as, was ...

... japan airspace and. Soon will be over the sea of japan. Only 90 minutes for this leg of the trip. Not that I actually get to see the country, but this will be my first time in Korea. Once we arrived at the airport everyone was screened for Swine Flu. I passed, so everyone out there that calls me a pig, the Korean government says you're wrong. It's a nice airport, and free internet, so I can do my blog and get it started. Next stop, in 8 hours, Manila!!

The model teaching issue had been on my mind over the weekend, and being honest, I felt like I'd unnecessarily backed myself into a corner over it. However, I wasn't surprised as I often find myself rebelling against authority, particularly when I feel like there is inequality in the air. It's a fine line between standing up for yourself and creating unnecessary friction, so I'm thankful that everything worked out well in the end... Despite rants like in my previous entry, I definitely ...

... old favourite.. Pizza Hut! Yeah in Korea they have everything you'd have back home.. eg. Pizza hut, McDonalds, starbucks etc. After my lunch I watched this performance on the main stage.. there was heaps of young people there watching and enjoying it! Next was time for a bit of Ice skating.. yes they have an ice skating rink right down the bottom in the middle! After that I felt like a game of ten pin bowling.

I was really excited about going to Korea and had very high expectations of the place (brought on by an addiction to Korean food and soap operas). But just before I left, I had several friends tell me there was nothing to see, the food was neither here nor their and the people were rude, which made me start to wonder if I might be setting myself up for a big disappointment.

Shouldn't have worried. Almost from the moment I arrived at the airport, I loved the ...