Han River Boat Tour + Kindergarten Randomness

There are a lot of park areas along the river which are great places to spend warm weather days. You can rent tandem bikes (still need to do that), rent kites to fly, take a paddle boat out into the river (the swan shaped boats look pretty dope), rollerblade/skateboard/walk along the boardwalk, or just set up a blanket on the grass to people watch, read a book, have a picnic, or just relax.  These are photos from the Han River boat tour I took with some of the girls from work.

That's 63 Building (sixty three is for the number of floors it has). It was the tallest building in Korea till 2002.  The observation deck is supposed to be a nice place to get a good city view.  It also houses some good restaurants, an IMAX theater, and an aquarium. 

If you can't tell, those are kites in the sky. I think those are the LG twin towers, but they look a bit distorted in this photo.

Koreans love photo ops. The second it took me to take this photo was the only second of our entire 90 minute trip that the neon lights heart structure was not occupied by small Korean children or couples. (The peace sign made many appearances in that heart).

National Parliament Building. 

Completely unrelated to the tour, I asked my kindergarten students to describe a picture (underwater photo with fish [and some bubbles]) and William bursts out laughing, holds his nose and says "Fish is BRRREAKING wind!" It was adorable. I have no clue where he learned that from, I definitely have never said that before.  Also, when I showed them a photo of a butterfly, Aileen yelled, enthusiastically and with confidence, "BUTTERFLOWER!!" I love my kindergarten students, I will miss them. 

Hi Seoul Friendship Fair

Hi Seoul puts on weeklong festivals, with various events, four times a year (winter, spring, summer, and fall). The Friendship Fair was part of the spring festival. It was held at Seoul Plaza. There was an art exhibit featuring drawings of sites/places in Korea that were drawn/painted by children from all over the world. There was also a mask-making booth and a display of different cultural masks that people could take photos with. The main events were the performances that were put on by international singers/dancers/bands.

This little girl was so cute, she was dancing to the music. And the monkey on her back reminded me of the movie Juno (if you don't know why, figure it out, it will impress me).

These performers were from Taiwan. The older man was grabbing his belly because he was making a joke about it being full of kimchi (yeah, i love hyperlinks). He really cracked himself up. Then he started singing and he blew me away. He had this incredible deep voice and sang with such sincerity and passion. I couldn't understand what he was singing about, but it was beautiful. 

This guy had to have gotten tired of making that face all day. I wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes.

Picture Frame guy!

These were performers from Turkey. They reminded me alot of Greek dancers (they danced in a circle, which was led by a guy with a handkerchief [I felt like I was at a Greek wedding when they did that]). The music was great, I loved their colorful costumes and their dance was fun to watch. They were definitely one of the crowds' favorites. I could tell people were digging them.

This woman was watching the Taiwanese performers. The music seemed to deeply resonate with her, she looked so content and peaceful.  I understood, completely.  I love those moments, witnessing them and experiencing them. I didn't quite capture her how I wanted, there were too many people between us, but this shot still makes me smile.

New Favorite Hood: Samchung-dong

Today was perfect, maybe even the best Sunday I've had here. The weather was beautiful, I discovered a new favorite place, and I saw Indiana Jones (I still want to know how the Russians got past the tribe without the skull).

The definite highlight of my day was the afternoon, which I spent shooting in Samchungdong. It's a great neighborhood just north of Insadong, next to Gyeongbuk Palace. The streets are littered with cute funky shops, colorful coffee shops and restaurants, jazz cafes, and art galleries. It definitely has it's own personality compared to a lot of other Seoul neighborhoods, which all look the same and lack character. There is also a lovely park which I plan to return to with a good novel or sketch book and quirky museums (Owl Museum, Museum of Chicken Art, and Eros Museum) that I plan on checking out. What I liked most was the diversity in the architectural styles of the buildings.

Here is a little photo tour:

Everything was colorful: the signs, gates, doors, windows.

And there were hidden treasures in the alleys.

And a charming peaceful pond in the park.

With lily pads.

 And fish too, but the water was too murky to capture them.

Adventures With My New Lens

I bought a new lens for my camera a couple of weeks ago and have been shooting every weekend. It's a great upgrade from the lens kit my camera came with, although I'm already itching to upgrade again, maybe before I go to Tokyo. I have a lot of photos from weeks ago that I'm still going through and playing with on photoshop. Even though lenses are expensive, I justify their cost by the amount of money I'm saving by spending my weekends shooting around Seoul instead of burning cash partying like so many foreigners here do. 

Here are the photos I've been working on.  I have a lot from the Friendship Fair and a Han River boat tour that I haven't really gone through yet. I'll post those later. 

The Yellow Sand Blues

Yellow Sand season starts in the beginning of spring and lasts till summer (then, it gets replaced by monsoon season). I didn't notice it too much before, except for a handful of days where the skies were hazy and slightly yellow and I got headaches just from walking outside for ten minutes. This week was pretty bad. I usually have a nice view of Surak mountain from my desk at work, but all I saw yesterday was yellow. There's a site I go to check the concentration of yellow sand in the air, and the levels had gone from "moderate health concern" to "hazardous to your health". I've basically had a sore throat for what seems like forever and I barely had a voice this week (teaching all day doesn't help). The yellow sand definitely won't help.

I didn't take a photo yesterday, but it wasn't as bad as the above photo (i really hope I never have to witness that) but it was a little worse than the one below.

Lantern Festival's Eve Celebration Pt.2

This is one of the giant gold buddhas at Jogyesa Temple.

There was a group of little monks. Here is one of them walking around before the parade. They were too cute. 

Lantern Festival's Eve Celebration

Yesterday, I spent the day around Insadong and Jogyesa Temple. I watched the performers get ready for the parade.  There were performances and everything was decorated so beautifully. Next Monday, the 12th, it is Buddha's Birthday, so these events are part of the celebration. 

I think she is supposed to be a clown. She had a great energy and was dancing all over the place and grinning.

Lanterns in the park.

I wanted a picture of this guy so bad, and he kept turning away, but I finally got him!

Everyone was really nice and kept offering to take my picture with the performers. 

Birthday

At school, we have a birthday party about every couple of months for the kindergarten students (it depends on how many kids have a birthday that month). 

The birthday girls and boy are getting ready for their entrance.

After their entrance, they sit behind a bunch of food while we sing them some songs (the oh so catchy "Congrulations" song) and clap for them. 

Then, the birthday boy/girl puts on a short performance with their class. This is my class singing "Sing a Rainbow." They were confused, but they're only 5 and they're new to this. 

Then, the birthday girl/boy gets presents!

And more presents. This is usually the point where the presents start slipping out of the boy/girl's hands and all the Korean teachers rush to stop the presents from crashing to the floor. 

Finally, we sing them "Happy Birthday" and they cut the cake.

Field Trip

We took the kids on a field trip to the palace. It was kind of boring actually. The gardens weren't in bloom yet, but I think if I go back now it should look really nice. 

This is Daniel and Sophie. They are my little kindy students. Daniel is my favorite. Sophie is sweet but she's a little troublemaker. 

Taking off our shoes to go into the temple.

William, Ann, and Sophie. Ann used to be painfully shy and would cry everyday because she was so nervous in class. Now, she participates the most in class and is a little smarty pants. She's awesome. William loves to run at full speed and hug me, I swear one day that kid is going to knock me over.

Henry, Aileen, and David.

Vicky and Philip. Vicky is hilarious. She makes the best faces. She was pissed here cause she didn't want to hold Philip's hand. This is the best "smile" that I could get from her. 

Taking Politics Seriously

For the past couple of weeks there's been some heavy political campaigning in my neighborhood. Every weekend there's been a truck with a huge video screen on it parked at the intersection by my place. First, some guy yells on a megaphone, then they play a video of the politician with some hip music, and then people with sashes, that have the politicians face on them, do a little song and dance. Then they repeat it all. The people with the sashes are also at a lot of the subway stations handing out fliers and flashing peace signs to everyone. Oh, and when one of those trucks isn't parked at an intersection, it's driving around my neighborhood blaring music/speeches/propaganda.

These were the dancers/chanters. They were posted at all four corners. Their dance was a little weak compared to the performance I saw on Friday by another politician's group. Those guys were in some fly suits and their choreography was pretty tight. These guys are going to have to step it up if they want to win.