Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

This is me waving to you across the ocean on Christmas Eve. It's also me waving good-bye to Korea and hello to Thailand, woohoo! Love you all so much, please take care and have a lovely, peaceful, and joyful Christmas. XOXO

Yay Christmas

I heart Christmas. I can't help it...yes, there's a LOT of tackiness, I agree, and I'm not a fan. But there's a lot of prettiness too, and I especially love the getting-togetherness of the season. Speaking of which, A and I are going to a nice Italian restaurant today, after which we are going to a bboy (breakdance) show as our Christmas presents to each other. Korean bboys are some of the best in the world...so...hopefully photos to follow! :) For now, here are some Christmas pics around town:

Outside a Starbucks:
Inside the Starbucks. The Korean script below the cup actually just spells out Toffee Nut Latte (To-pi-nut-la-tay):
Little house party at my place:
And my super-awesome kinders yesterday after their Christmas concert:
My 4 mischievous little Santas:
Happy Christmas weekend everyone! xoxo

Boys' Choirs

My new favourite music for classtime when my kids are doing seatwork is boys' choirs. Truly, I feel like crying sometimes, the music is so extraordinarily beautiful. Here are two of my favourites:

Santa & the Space-Time Continuum

A ha. This from the Globe & Mail ~ read about Santa's use of nanotechnology to get around the world in one night (or 6 Santa months).

Shoes Hurled at President Bush

From the BBC this morning. If you're looking for some entertainment, you can watch the video here.

7am in Seoul

The view from my window early this morning. Having been plagued with food poisoning for the duration of the weekend, I was unable to sleep this morning. It turned out to be a blessing, for when else do I take the time to truly enjoy the sunrise? Never-else. And despite my headache, it was truly a lovely couple of hours, just me, the sun, and my books.

Invasion of Christmas Crabs

Strange, entertaining, and a bit creepy.

heh heh

This is one of my kinders named Tirano. We visited a museum last week, and upon entering the dinosaur room, he exclaimed, "Teacher! It's a Tirano-saurus!"
In case you don't have enough sin in your life, you can now add it to your coffee in powder form:
When you just can't get those lips and eyes to come off:
And 'your way' I guess includes potato salad in Korea:

Driftwood Horse

Found this in my wanderings on the internet today.

Me in the 50s.

Gwanak Mountain

Oh how I heart Korean fall/winter! Yes, it's December 2, and yes, I walked around without a coat today. 11 degrees Celcius. :D

It's also perfect for hiking, which I haven't done nearly enough of this time around in Korea. Finally did get out to a nice little mountain the other day with a few friends. It's called Gwanak Mountain, and it's pretty close to the racetrack. About an hour by subway from where I live (everywhere is an hour away by subway it seems...good for reading).

C & J. J pointing out that he's pretty sure we're on the path less traveled (and we were), and we were actually meant to be over there:

J taking a moment.
Me & A, my soul sista:
All views from Seoul mountains look the same: more mountains, and lots of lego-like buildings:

A nice surprise near the top ~ a temple:


C enjoying one of Korea's ubiquitous instant coffee machines, even at a temple on top of a mountain:J & A goofing around:
Kimchi pots:Hopefully get out hiking again this weekend. Enjoy your week! xoox

The Sunny Road

One of my favourite songs, by Emiliana Torrini.

Seoul Racecourse

So, A and I decided to try our luck at the races, having never visited the course before. Here's a nifty statue outside the course:


As you can see, the statue is surrounded by...a road...

...but still, I insisted on getting a pic with it. This is me, encouraging the cars to continue on past, despite the photo shoot:

And here's the video I shot whilst there:

A surprisingly popular sport...I admit I didn't expect there to be so many people there. However, when you think about it; Koreans are not allowed to gamble at the casinos (only foreigners permitted there), so I suppose this is the only legal way to lose hundreds of dollars within a couple of seconds.

As for us, we spent a whopping 80 cents to enjoy the show. We couldn't gamble even if we wanted to; we have no idea how and we can't speak Korean to figure it out.

I'm in the Korea Times (online)

Check it out. hehehe

Autumn in Korea is truly lovely. It's mid-November and still our high during the day is 15C, lows at night around 7C. If there were a place where it was perpetually autumn, that's where you'd find me. It's clear, cool, refreshing. There's no effort, no sweating, no heaviness. Summer's a splash; autumn is a slow ripple. It's a content and thought-filled time for me. Everything is cooling, slowing, and dying...beautifully.

Along the walls of the US Army base:
And looking up:
Glass art in the underground tunnels of the subway stations:
And a walk to meet a friend for coffee on a cloudy day:
The solitary life agrees with me. I am not alone; I spend time with so many beautiful little humans every day, and I have lovely friends here. But my time alone at night in my apartment is quite agreeable. It's only then that I have time to read properly, though even then I really don't do it as much as I'd like, simply because here is also my computer, and cyberspace often sucks me in.

Anyway, the author I love the best right now is Krishnamurti. I feel like quoting his entire book to you. I suggest borrowing, "Think on These Things," or "The Awakening of Intelligence," from your local library. He's very readable and thorough and the most clear thinker I've ever read.

Everywhere around you there is birth and death, the struggle for money, position, power, the unending process of what we call life; and don't you sometimes wonder, even while you are very young, what it is all about? You see, most of us want an answer, we want to be told what it is all about, so we pick up a political or religious book, or we ask somebody to tell us; but no one can tell us, because life is not something which can be understood from a book, nor can its significance be gathered by following another, or through some form of prayer. You and I must understand it for ourselves--which we can do only when we are fully alive, very alert, watchful, observant, taking interest in everything around us; and then we shall discover what it is to be really happy.

Most people are unhappy; and they are unhappy because there is no love in their hearts. Love will arise in your heart when you have no barrier between yourself and another, when you meet and observe people without judging them, when you just see the sailboat on the river and enjoy the beauty of it. Don't let your prejudices cloud your observation of things as they are; just observe, and you will discover that out of this simple observation, out of this awareness of trees, of birds, of people walking, working, smiling, something happens to you inside. Without this extraordinary thing happening to you, without the arising of love in your heart, life has very little meaning; and that is why it is so important that the educator should be educated to help you understand the significance of all these things.

Keith Olbermann on Gay Marriage

Pretty Autumn

Sometimes I think I'm so lucky, it's impossible...there's so much beauty around me. Here is what I've seen so far this week:

Green shield bug. Super cool and chilled out...he even walked around on my hand for awhile, but I couldn't get a decent shot until he flew away:
The leaves are SO pretty...and the light coming from the bright sun in the clear sky is really breathtaking these days:
Today I rode along a path lined with these cool feather-plants:
And here are some of my kids yesterday for 빼 빼 로 Day (Peppero Day):


Pepperos are those chocolate-covered wafer sticks. On November 11, because the date can be written 11 11, it happens to look like 4 Pepperos in a row. What better reason to invent a holiday? It's not really a holiday, but a very clever marketing scheme...everyone in the country gives Pepperos to their friends, girlfriends, co-workers, etc on this day. All the convenience stores have special displays and sell special (read: giant and overpriced) Pepperos on this day. Bakeries even make their own Pepperos by dipping baguettes or those crouton-stick things in chocolate. Yes, it's ridiculous, but yes, still kind of fun in a campy, capitalist sort of way.

The Tritano Show

This is me on Saturday with one of my oldest and best friends from here in Korea, Tritano (middle), and one of my newer, and very good friends, N.

Tritano likes to make little documentaries of his comings and goings, and invited us along on the most recent escapade. Check out the video as we mosey around tasting street food and whatnot on the streets of Seoul. It was so much fun!!!

PS I'm sorry that I can't upload the video directly here...for some reason the embedding code on Youtube videos is not posting properly these days on my blog. Any suggestions??)

Here are a couple of pictures from the evening:

My best friend A, about to get a cocktail baggie (looks like an IV hahaha) from a sidewalk vendor! Korea does not have the same liquor regulations as Canada, at ALL. Alcoholic beverages are sold in convenience stores (that are open all night), grocery stores, and bars stay open til around 6am on weekends. Crazy eh!

Here's us at a great little restaurant, and those cups are made of oranges!
And here's the whole lot saying good-bye to me on the subway:

Be sure to check out the video I linked to above! :)

:o)

Viva Obama!

~~~CONGRATULATIONS~~~

to any Americans reading this. It's a happy day!!

Watch a Mariachi video about Obama here! heehee

Photos of His Holiness

Time/CNN has some really great photos of the Dalai Lama at home, and of his 6 decades of service. Check 'em out!

Halloween

Halloween is not celebrated by Koreans; it's a purely North American invention. But, it is gaining in popularity due to the massive amount of English teachers they have in the country. At English academies (such as the one I teach at), it's a big deal, and the kids LOVE it. They can buy costumes from the big chain department stores. Our hundreds of kinder and preschool kids ALL dressed up (along with the teachers), and we had a ball. Here are some of the cutest kids (well, they were all pretty cute).

Me and my kinders:
John Lennon bee:




Representing their national sport: Taekwondo

Fun times! Happy November everyone!