Winter Weather

Many people have been asking me about the winter weather here in Korea. I'd say it's pretty much like what I'm used to in Missouri and Kansas. Some frigid temperatures, a little snow, blistering wind, etc. We haven't had any ice at all...but, maybe that's still to come. The 10 minute walk to work hasn't been too bad - I have a new down filled coat, the biggest scarf imaginable and a pair of warm boots. According to the Korean teachers, January is the coldest month so we're almost past the worst.

A view of the landscape from our balcony. This was one of the first snows of the winter. Some days I feel about like this picture...very gray. We joke about having the winter SAD sickness, but sometimes it feels that way. I think it would be very nice just to hole up in the apartment and wait it out until spring comes! We haven't made a very effective use of our weekends in January for this very reason.

Here is photo taken on the walk home from work a couple weeks ago. You probably can't see it, but there were huge snowflakes falling slowly. So beautiful!

a few improvements

As you can see, I've been busy switching up the look of my blog. I never thought it could be so complicated to make it happen, but after scrolling through the lines of html code for several hours desperately trying to edit the blog title, I've changed my mind.

There are still a few things to fix/add so keep checking back! I believe the new design will keep me motivated to write entries more often. I must admit, it's so cute that I keep clicking over just to admire it...I feel inspired already.

Surviving Seoul

From our first weeks in Ansan, weekend trips into Seoul have been the norm. We are approximately an hour away by subway on Line 4. Using public transportation took some adjustment. There is foul rotten smell of the subway tunnels, the mass amounts of people crammed so hard into one train car that a person can barely breathe, and deciphering the complicated subway map in order to learn where to transfer to arrive in the most interesting parts of town. Luckily, I am great at reading maps and remembering important details.

The subway map of the Seoul metro area. Most of the exciting parts of the city are just north of the Han River that runs right through the middle of it.

We live on the light blue line - Line 4 - and get off at the Hanyang University stop. Our school is literally right across the street from the station and our apartment is only a 5 minute walk from there.

Our home station - Hanyang University. You sure have to have strong legs to live here. Just climbling the stairs to get up to the platform feels like hiking a small mountatin. But, the Koreans really do love to hike so they probably did it on purpose. You've got to counteract all that sitting in the train somehow.

View of the train on one particularly crazy night. The subway stops running around 11pm so this was one of the last trains of the night. Seems like everyone who spent the day in Seoul was anxious to get back home all at once. Seriously though, this was our first weekend in Korea and I really felt like I was going to pass out. Too many people were breathing on me.

By now we've visited most of popular areas of the city. We've been guided by our coworkers and have even managed to fly solo a few times. We now know our way to some decent western restaurants and the best areas for street shopping.

Last weekend we went to the Gangnam area (photo above) and had brunch at a restaurant called Butterfinger's. It's a western style breakfast food restaurant with some soups and salads thrown in. Everything on the menu looked mouth watering good, but I settled on some traditional bacon, eggs and pancakes. Holly and I intended to walk around and explore the neighborhood but it was so very cold outside that we figured we would be better off doing some people watching at one of the 4 local Starbucks. Unfortunately, one of the biggest draws of the city has been the chance to go to familiar restaurants. In addition to Starbucks, Seoul is full of places like Dunkin' Donuts, Outback Steakhouse, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King and the occasional Subway sandwich shop. We've also discovered an On the Border mexican restaurant and have visited twice already. Everything is really expensive so it's a good thing we only go on the weekends or else we'd be out of money by now!

Gangnam at night - the neon is really overwhelming. It's always nice to go back to our sleepy little town after a long day spent in the city.

This is an area of town near the US Military base called Itaewon. It is where you can see the most foreigners of any area of town. Familiar restaurants abound and all the shopping is geared to the foreigners. We were excited to visit an English language bookstore and a small grocery store of imported foods. Along with all those benefits, it's location near the base also means there are many other shady things going on. Itaewon is one of the major prostitution areas in Seoul and even has a street nicknamed "Hooker Hill". Coincidentally, it's the same street that the bookstore is on, but we only visited during the day so it was quite safe.

Pictured above is one of the many open air street markets - Namdaemun Market. We went once for the experience and were bombarded by the yelling vendors and sheer amount of things they were selling. Anything you could ever want to buy and some you never thought of can be found in these type of markets. Strange and unusual street food also abounds. Namdaemun occupies a huge area where it is easy to get turned around walking the maze of streets or end up going down an alley to look at a purse and ending up completely lost. We've heard rumors of one market like this that stays open all night and offers special deals for those willing to lose a little sleep. We may have to check that out once the weather warms up. Any excuse to stay up late is always appealing to me!

Another of the more interesting parts of town is Insadong. This is where you can go to buy traditional Korean gifts of ceramics, handmade paper, artwork and quite a few Korea themed souvenirs. We went twice this fall and were able to buy many Christmas gifts there. There is one large main walking street where most of the shops are located but if you walk down any of the small side streets you feel transported back several hundred years. All of the buildings are in the traditional Korean style and are filled with restaurants and small tea shops.

By far, our favorite neighborhood of Seoul is the largely student populated area around Hongik University. We've made several trips for the abundance of cheap street fashions - scarves, hats, bags, jewelry and even shoes. Most things are very reasonably priced so we have to be careful not to go too crazy! There is a small park that hosts impromptu concerts at night and by day transforms into an outdoor art fair. We happily discovered the art fair one Saturday morning and were excited to learn it's a weekly occurrence. I took this graffiti picture of the restrooms located next to the park on that Saturday. Everything about the area is very arty, so we feel at home there.

I've always imagined the excitement of living in a large city, but never pictured myself in one that has a population of at least 10 million. I've grown accustomed to the faster pace of city life, but I'm glad at the end of the day to return to the slower pace of Ansan. If only we could ever get a seat on the subway ride home then everything would be perfect!

things that make me say "SICK!" - volume one

I have a tendency to use the phrase "That's sick!" for just about anything I find disgusting, nasty or strange. I often get made fun of for it, but that's ok, because sometimes things really can be totally sick! I've decided to keep a record of the random gross things I encounter during my travels and post pictures so that people won't miss me quite as much. :) This will be the first installment and I'm sure many more will follow as Asia is full of interesting, I mean sick, things.

My first sight of the beloved Kimchi. This was from a traditional Korean restaurant we visited our first week here. I did taste it and it was...umm...not delicious.

Just another trip to the grocery store - chicken, fish, beef...and octopus tentacles.

Most public restrooms have a special trash can next to the toilet for toilet paper disposal. I guess they believe that flushing it will clog the pipes. On scale of really nasty things this is near the top. Definitely sick...and stinky, too!

Take a look at the little image of a dog in the window of this butcher shop we came across one day. We knew this about Korea but seeing it confirmed like this was a little disturbing.

On a trip to the Seoul Zoo we came across this poor little guy. He must have fallen out of a tree and died right there next to the bear enclosure. All the zookeepers just walked right on by him.

This is the Korean interpretation of the Native American Indian. They've had a lot of practice making artificial food look good but really need to work on producing life-like mannequins for their museums.

China is also sick! We made a trip to a Chinese Walmart Supercenter while visiting Beijing. A lot of items were familiar but I was a little startled to see these frozen pig's feet in the meat section. I guess you just scoop some into a bag and take home to make a yummy soup. I think I see some poo still on a couple of them.

Also from the Chinese Walmart - some kind of animal carcass just hanging out in the main aisle. I guess their customers demand the freshest possible meat, but this really made me think twice about ever going to Walmart again!

All of Beijing in one Blog

Many of you are aware that we recently took a trip to Beijing over the Christmas holiday. Now, obviously I'm not the most consistent blogger but we had a great time and I wanted to share some experiences and photos.

We started out on Christmas Eve with a morning flight from Seoul. When you live in such a large city and have a 9:30am flight you have to begin your morning at around 4:45. There is the hauling of the large shared suitcase (we made the decision not to purchase smaller ones to save money) to the elevator and down 13 floors, then the walk to the corner to catch a taxi, which took us to the express bus station to catch our 5:40 ride to the airport. The airport is one of the largest I've been to (although smaller than Beijing's new monstrous terminal) so it took us a while to figure out where to check in...good thing we arrived the recommended 2 hours before the flight. After a morning snack at Dunkin' Donuts we were off!

We were picked up in Beijing by our tour guide, David, and a driver whose name I never learned. Even though we were already tired from traveling we hit the ground running and started our sightseeing right away. We made a short stop at our 4-star hotel (as we were assured by our travel agent), the Days Inn, to drop off our luggage. I know what you're thinking, "Day's Inn? But that's not a 4-star hotel." You would be correct. I won't waste time complaining about all the reasons this hotel was not what we were expecting and just say that we will be getting a small refund from the travel agency for this matter.

We began by walking around Tiananmen Square (very famous for some riots back in the 80's), before moving on to the huge complex of palaces and temples known as the Forbidden City. We were able to snap a few quick photos of the square before David moved on...it was quite cold and I'm sure he's lead this tour hundreds of times before.

This is a photo of the first really old thing we saw. I was excited so I took several pictures, but don't really know what it is.

Standing in the middle of Tiananmen Square. The large building is the Chinese National Museum. Too bad it was closed for renovations...I do love a good museum.

Entrance to the Forbidden City taken from Tiananmen Square. Notice the huge portrait of Chairman Mao - they really love that guy.

Me standing in front of one of the many indistinguishable looking buildings inside.

After this trip I am officially in love with traditional Chinese architecture...the colors, shapes and attention to detail really blew me away. Sometimes I guess you have to see something in person to really appreciate it.

Day one ended with a visit to a traditional Chinese tea house where we learned about the many health benefits of drinking tea, and then a Chinese acrobatic performance. You know those Chinese Olympic gymnasts that everyone claimed were too young to compete? Well, I think some of these performers were their younger siblings. So sad...yet pretty entertaining. The crowd was sparse but they were still very enthusiastic.

Day two of the trip was exciting for several reasons: first, it was Christmas Day, and second, we finally got to see the Great Wall! After all my years of art history classes and obsession with this world's most ancient wonders, this was a very exciting experience. Now, it wasn't quite as green and lush as I'd pictured, and there were a lot more stairs than I'd anticipated, but even so it was pretty amazing.

At the bottom looking up at what was in store for us.

The view from halfway up - you can see the wall winding along the mountaintops in the distance.


The view from as high we had the energy to go. Our lungs were begging us to stop.

After the Great Wall we moved on to lunch at a cloisonne factory which just happened to have a tourist trap restaurant and a larger than life gift shop. Then...the Ming Tombs! I'd heard about these before but wasn't sure what to expect. Apparently, only one of the actual 13 tombs is open to the public, and most of the others haven't even been opened in order to protect the treasures of Chinese culture buried inside. Luckily, the opened tomb complex is the largest and grandest of them all.

A statue dedicated to the emperor buried there. I'm not sure what he's going to do with all that money since he's been dead for several hundred years.

Inside of the temple...such beautiful woodwork. They have added some museum display cases so as you walk around you can view random artifacts recovered from some of the other tombs.

I was surprised to learn that after walking through several shrine-type buildings looking for the tomb that it wasn't actually a tomb at all (in the ancient Egyptian sense), but a very large grassy mound (maybe the length of a football field, maybe more) which you can not even walk on. It was very anti-climactic. I asked David and he said that the emperor was buried somewhere beneath the mound, but they weren't really sure exactly where. I asked if they'd even tried to look for the actual tomb and he sounded unsure...I guess they are even more concerned with preserving the past than I'd originally thought. Good thing I didn't know how much my entrance ticket cost, because I probably would have wanted a refund.

After a semi-delicious Peking duck dinner that night we went walking around a shopping district and found the infamous "snack street". I'm sure many of you got those emails going around before the Olympics with pictures of the interesting things people find delicious in Asia. I think this was the inspiration for that email. Bugs, scorpions, snakes, silk worm larvae, and lots more! Totally gross, but fascinating.

Christmas in Beijing! We were surprised by the amount of holiday decorations around the city, but were told that they do it for the foreigners. How welcoming and nice of them!

On the morning of day three we had a delicious McDonald's breakfast - a huge improvement over the cold and stale food available at the hotel buffet - before heading to the Temple of Heaven. This turned out to be one of the most fun and exciting places we visited the whole trip.

The unique, circular temple is newly restored (courtesy of the Beijing Games) and the colors are so vibrant.

Inside view of the temple. It's amazing that all these old structures are constructed without using any nails.

Unique details were everywhere.

The Temple grounds were really large and picturesque. There were mass groups of people doing group exercises, dancing, having sing-a-longs, and playing games. We tried to walk through the place slowly, but David didn't let us linger for long.

From there we went to an old residential area of Beijing, called a hutong, to tour a traditional Chinese courtyard house. David arranged for us to take a rickshaw ride around the hutong. It was amazingly very comfortable.

This is the owner of the house we toured - standing in his doorway along with his cute, but very dirty, white dog.

Next, it was off to the Summer Palace - the complex of houses and gardens that emperors would use as a retreat from the Forbidden City during the hot summer months.

It was incredibly beautiful and we were surprised to learn that the whole thing was man made, including the giant lake.

This picture does not do it justice.

This is the entrance to the world's longest corridor - it's an incredible 728 meters long.

Day four was our Olympic day. We managed to tour both the Bird's Nest and Watercube and take an insane number of photos despite the cloudy/smoggy weather.

It was awesome to see such impressive and cutting edge architecture, although I pity the CAD monkeys who had to do all of the construction drawings for the Bird's Nest project. Wow!

Inside it just looked like a regular stadium except it wasn't as big as I'd anticipated from seeing it on TV.


Beijing is changing very quickly and the amount of new construction taking place is unbelievable. Another structure completed recently is "The Egg" - home to the National Theater. The ultra-modern looking building is covered by more than 20,000 individual titanium panels.

We ended our day with a shopping trip to a major tourist souvenir market. In the past all the vendors sold their wares outdoors, but at some point they built a large, 5-story building to house them all and no doubt clean up the streets. We spent a couple hours being bombarded with things like "Hey lady, you wanna scarf?" and "Silk pajamas, come and look!" It definitely didn't make me want to purchase their goods, but we managed to spend a few hundred yuan anyway. After that I had to visit the Starbucks next door (of course they had one...it's all about the tourists!).

Day five of our trip we slept in and took our time packing up. We spent most of the day just walking around the downtown area and enjoying the sights. We came upon a less touristy shopping area and it made us feel like we were experiencing the real Beijing. The shopping area quickly turned into a residential area with local markets and restaurants mixed in with the traditional Chinese houses.



This is our hotel. If you ever go to Beijing think twice before staying here...unless you want to sleep on box springs, walk on dirty carpet and deal with a leaky faucet.

We were so happy to get back to our "home" in Korea that night after being away for almost a week. Traveling can be very exhausting and it was great to have a familiar place to come back to. All in all, we enjoyed the sights in China and the food (an improvement over Korean food), but concluded that we much prefer the hospitable nature of the Korean people.