What the Picture Post??

Holy cow I've finally done it. I did touristy stuff! And it was pretty great, if I do say so myself. I set out on my journey bright and early at 11am (lol) and met my homegirl Jasmine and our friend Baseer at Sinchon Station at noon. On the bus on the way to the subway I met this really nice old man named Hyun. He was around 70 years old, I believe and we talked for a while and he helped me make it to my subway destination quite well. We exchanged numbers and he was kind enough to invite me to his house to cook me dinner sometime. I hope he calls, it was great meeting him.

So after we get to z trainstation, Jaz and Baseer and myself head off to Yongson. I love it there, its a huge huge huge mall and there is tons of food and good stuff and also I am going back there Wed. to get some electronics but I digress! The point of this is that we were meeting one of Jasmine's friends, Fiona, there. Anyways, I can tell I am getting a little long-winded with this but there is a lot to tell! While waiting for her, we went to an airsoft shooting range and shot at some targets. I hit the most of them! I guess all that gaming paid off! They also had a most glorious wall of xboxes and tvs to play on!

Check it:

So anyways, that was a pretty nice treat to behold. After we met Fiona, we decided that being hungry wasn't even close to the best thing we could be, so we ate! And we ate Thai, at that! It was good good good. I love all this asian food more than should be allowed. So after eating and meeting up with Mike and Sarah, we headed out for our first spot - Changyeonggung Temple. On our walk there, however, we passed a women's university who had been arting it up and changed the outside of their building intoooo.....

A gigantic wall of doors!

I know, I know, makes you dream of a real-life Monsters, Inc., doesn't it! Well, thats what I was thinking, at least. It was really a pretty cool sight to behold though. Going anywhere in Korea always has its interesting things to view along the way. Its like getting there is as exciting as being there. But now for the grand finale of the afternoon portion of the posting!

temple time!

I'm fairly certain that my tiny little camera isn't going to be able to convey the true size and awesomeness of this place, but trust me when I say it was huge, and awesome. Especially the fact that its in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. You are sitting there in these massive fields or centuries-old buildings, but you can see skyscrapers looming in the background. I'm not sure if its a good or bad thing, but it really makes you forget where you are for a while.

Baseer and yours truly in front of the throne room

Throne!

Heres the ladies glamin it up in front of the pond

GQ

more temple

So after our templing experience, we decided to hit the track again and take the subway into the heart of Seoul to check out Tower 63, which is the tallest building in Seoul and one of the tallest in all of Asia. Guess what. Its tall. Huge, even. 63 stories and the observation deck was quite amazing. It also has an imax and a sea world inside it! We didn't go to imax but did hit up sea world and I'll spare you all but the best of the aquarium pics.

First up is this little guy, who greeted us as soon as we walked in:

Next up is a cute little bugger who I think stayed up playing a bit to late past his bedtime!

And this would be a big fat frog

After the aquarium we went upstairs to the SkyArt Gallery/Observation Deck to see what Seoul looks like from the heavens. The elevator was pretty cool, you could look outside as you were going up and see the entire city. It would probably be so unpleasant for that elevator to fall down while you're in it. I have some videos of it at night but they are on my camcorder but I they are hd and it would take a year and a day for them to upload, so you can just live with seeing the daytime versions!

So those are all pretty neat! There was lots of art too, but I didn't feel like posting any of the pictures for them. So sorry.

And that has been my life outside of teaching! I finally get a real paycheck on Tuesday which has me buzzing with excitement and the money is already starting to burn a hole in my pocket. I'm gonna get some much-needed items on Wed and we'll see what else is going on next weekend too. Oh! How silly of me to forget such an important acquisition! I got a couch that was being thrown out and I found in a huge dumpster full of many other couches. My apartment is starting to become home, I think. I spent a while cleaning tonight, too, which wasn't fun but definitely needed. I'm going to go do some prepping now and then probably watch a little bit of the Braves Sox game if I'm still up.

ps. I nearly forgot one more extremely important thing!!

I ATE BUGS

They didn't taste awful. Kinda nutty I guess. Definitely wasn't the best tasting thing and I definitely won't eat it again. The worst part was the texture. If you can imagine smushy yes still somehow crunchy, and then add warm and wet to it, you'll start to get an idea. Mike and I were the only ones who tried them. We make it rain.

Finally, the best picture of me in Korea yet:

I was mad because David took 4 tries to take the picture, and I think I was about to yell at him when he finally figured out how to do it. Oh well.

edit: wow! another ps. that makes this pss, right? pps? I can't remember. But thats beside the point. I forgot to show you THIS:

Thats right. Giant Gandalf in the house. Don't even mess with him. Possibly the greatest thing I have ever randomly stumbled upon.