Seoul Lantern Festival

Every year Seoul holds a lantern festival on the Cheonggyecheon in late Autumn.  We went on a Friday night, and the line was like a Disney line except a lot more efficient.  We got in after about a half hour and got to test out our new tripod.  It worked pretty well, and we ended up with some very nice pictures.

Look at all those people...

Emily with her students' favorite cartoon character Pororo

Marriage ceremony

This is where you enter the Cheongyecheon, but you can't take a picture until you're on your way out

Night at the Palace

Once or twice a year, the Seoul city government decides to open two of the palaces for extended hours at night.  We made a last-second decision to make the trip to 창경궁 (Chang-Kyeong Palace) to check it out.  We didn't have a tripod with us, and the lighting was tough to deal with in some places, so not all the pictures turned out well.

You can see how crowded it was from these pictures.  Funny enough, it's not the most crowded I've ever seen the palaces.  During the summer months, with all the tourists coming in from China and Japan (mostly), there isn't room to move in some parts.

Us at the end of the night. :)

태풍 (Typhoon)

We've been hearing all week about how a huge typhoon (the biggest in over a decade apparently) was supposed to rip through Seoul.  Needless to say, this didn't happen.  Instead of landing with a roar, it kind of landed with a whistle.  We got some high winds that knocked over a few signs, and a billboard or two, but nothing too serious.  It was more serious out on the coast.  There were some deaths, as well as a lot of damage.

All in all, it was nothing compared to the snow storm two years ago (most snow in 100 years) or the flooding that happened last year (the waterlevel in the Han River rose so high that it was within meters of touching the bottom of the bridge).  Last year the flooding got so bad that I was stuck on a bus for 45 minutes, and in that 45 minutes the water went from being at the top of the wheel wells of cars to completely covering them.  That was storm!

Just the Two of Us

As most people already know, we celebrated our first year as a married couple on Monday!  It's been a great first year.  We have travelled all around the world, settled back into Korea, and I've started my master's degree.  We had dinner at the same restaurant we went to the night I proposed and then followed up with cupcakes at Good Ovening, which we also went to the night I proposed.

It was our paper anniversary, I guess the cupcake wrappers count.  Right?

The happy couple.

Chinatown

Emily and I decided to take a day trip to Incheon's Chinatown.  This isn't like Chinatown in New York.  There are pretty much zero Chinese people there these days, but it was historically the place where Chinese immigrants would settle.  South Korea's main port was (and still is) Incheon, so they would live there and work on the docks.  It's also the birthplace of what all Korean people consider the quintessential Chinese dish: jajangmyeon (noodles in a black bean sauce).

The entrance to Chinatown.  I think every single Chinatown I've been to has had one.  New York's is on the bridge, Boston's is right there the second you get in.

This is the entrance to a very nice park.

This sculpture is supposed to represent US-Korean co-operation...

it kind of looks like a big piece of poop.

That is General Douglas MacArthur.

At my insistence we had to seek out the giant statue of General MacArthur.  He was the mastermind behind the Incheon amphibious landing after all.  That's about the only good thing he did during the Korean War, but that's a lot of history stuff that would just bore everyone.

Songs About Rain

At the beginning of July we went to Jeju Island with Emily's parents.  It rained a lot, but we still had a lot of fun and got to see most of the east side of the island.  Jeju Island is often times called Korea's Hawaii.  In some ways it is, in most ways it isn't.  Jeju has its own unique culture and parts of the language are massively different from what's spoken on the mainland.  The island is volcanic, just like Hawaii, so agriculture is difficult to sustain.  They also rely heavily on tourism, and are known for their beaches.  The big difference is that Jeju gets all four seasons.  Apparently, it snows a lot in the winter.  Way more than on the mainland.  At least that's what I was told by a friend of mine that grew up on Jeju.

We got into Jeju on Friday night, so we just ate at the hotel and relaxed.  The next day, we lucked out.  There wasn't a lot of rain, it was more of a sustained mist.  So, we decided to take a taxi tour of the island.

This is a 돌하루방 (tol harubang), or stone grandfather, we encountered at our first stop (these guys are everywhere).  We found out that these always come in sets of two.  One has his left hand over his right hand, the other has his right hand over his left.  The one with his left hand on top represents the warrior, the one with the right hand on top represents the scholar.  Every man was supposed to be a little bit of both.

The real appeal of a trip to Jeju is definitely the island's natural beauty.  They have three large waterfalls.  The one below is apparently one of the only waterfalls, if not the only waterfall, that goes directly into the Pacific Ocean.

Emily and dad Pryzlucki!

This is at the edge of a volcanic crater.  It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site just a few years ago.  Usually, you can see all the way to the bottom, but as you can see the fog was a little thick when we were there.

The last thing we saw were these naturally occurring pilars that were formed out of volcanic rock.  They were pretty cool, but the tide was starting to come in, so you couldn't quite see the entire thing.

And of course, no Jeju vacation would be complete without a trip to the beach.

Dale is camera-phobic

Spring Has Sprung

Hello all!

We've been back for two months already!  Hard to imagine.  In these past two months we've been busy with work and study.  Emily loves her new job at Pre-School Academy Apgujeong, teaching 5-year old students.  Unlike her previous school, she has one classroom of 9 kids she teaches every day with a bilingual Korean teacher.  The kids are fantastic and pick up English very quickly!

Richard has midterms next week, so is busy studying and preparing for those.  He is also working as a docent at historical sights and palaces around Seoul, educating kindergarten and elementary school children about Korean history in English.

The past few weeks has seen the arrival of spring!  Cherry blossoms are out in force, and the weather has been sunny and in the 60s during the day.  We finally put away our heavy winter coats and sweaters.  However, knowing Korea, this lovely spring will last only a few more weeks and the heavy humid summer will set in.  Happy Spring!

And We're Back...

I haven't been here in a while, because I am studying my ass off.  I couldn't help but post this though:
http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20120318000381

I do not support this law, but I am glad that people are starting to take a serious look at the rights of adopted children or children to be adopted. What's missing from the article is the fact that these changes were at least proposed by adoptee organizations (I knew about their involvement) and the Korean Unwed Mothers' Families' Association (missed theirs somehow).

Homeward Bound

We are finally back in Korea.  After nearly six months of traveling and living out of suitcases, we have a new (to us) apartment in Cheongdam.  We can get back to a regular schedule, and settle back into work and school.  We'll have pictures up soon enough.