Roughly translated, the banner says "Hail the sun of the 21st century, General Kim Jong Il".
*shiver*
Monday, November 23, 2009
Kim Jong Il/Un
According to the Chosun Ilbo - one of the bigger South Korean newspapers, North Koreans are worried that Kim Jong Il's successor (Kim Jong Un) will be worse than his father. What worries me more is things like this picture:
Roughly translated, the banner says "Hail the sun of the 21st century, General Kim Jong Il".
*shiver*
Roughly translated, the banner says "Hail the sun of the 21st century, General Kim Jong Il".
*shiver*
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Fall Foliage
This Saturday was my friend Jess' birthday. She's a very adventurous and active person, so for her birthday she wanted to go down to Naejangsan to go hiking in the mountains and look at the fall leaves. This weekend was the peak weekend in Naejangsan, so it was rather busy and we were only able to get the slow train there and back because the fast train was booked. Half of the group went down there Friday night, and the rest of us followed on the first train out on Saturday morning. We made it to the train station around noon, and after a little debate on whether or not we should ask for directions, found the bus to the mountain and hopped on.
The bus was overly crowded with ajumas in hiking gear, younger couples in matching winter outfits, and Korean tourists, as well as our group of foreigners. We got to what seemed like the area we were supposed to get off at, and everyone got off the bus. The traffic was frustratingly slow, but it was still moving faster than you can walk. But because my Korean was the best out of the people there (and mine is severely limited at best), we got off as well when we should have just stayed on. So we ended up walking several kilometers to get to the area that we were supposed to stay.
We made it to a rather busy intersection full of hikers, tour buses, traffic cops, and some of the fittest people over 60 I've ever seen. After trying to have a phone conversation with the Korean man who owned the minbak we were staying in, we were picked up in a car and driven about two blocks to the place we had booked the week before.
Generally, minbak means a home stay. So you are essentially staying in someone's spare room in their home, and meals are often included. However in the case of Minbak Row in Naejangsan, the street of minbaks was simply a collection of supposedly low-cost, low luxury places to sleep at night. Our particular two rooms were supposed to sleep 15 people, but the 12 of us were in rather close quarters. When we first arrived, there was some confusion as to whether we were even in the right place, as there were no bags in the room and half our group had come in the night before. It turned out that they had stayed in town on Friday night and left their bags at the police station so they could go hiking in the morning. So we dropped our bags in the minbak and went off in search of lunch.
We got about 200 feet from the minbak before we ran into a restaurant. This turned out to be the closest place to get food, and probably one of the more expensive Korean restaurants I've been to. We did, however, get to see a whole pig on a spit right by our table.
After getting lunch, we decided to try and find the rest of our friends. They said they were heading back from one of the temples on the mountain, and we should just walk towards the main entrance of the park and hopefully we'd catch them in passing.
The walk was long and crowded, but we did manage to see lots of fall colors along the way, and beautiful scenery was captured by careful camera framing. :)
We didn't see the other members of our group so much as hear them. Jess is loud at the best of times, and we could hear her talking long before we saw the rest of our group. They had been waiting by a rather beautiful tree so we could get the whole group photographed together. Of course we couldn't get a Korean to take a picture for us, so Sean volunteered to take a group picture with everyone's camera.
After wishing Jess a happy birthday, the five of us that had come that afternoon headed up the mountain to see what we could find.
One person dropped out after we made it to a temple, so there were four of us that made it to the hermitage that was up some rather daunting stone stairs.
At the top at the hermitage was probably the ugliest Buddha statue I've ever seen. It's a shame, too, because it would have made a great picture. As it is, this picture just seems comical to me.
It was starting to get on towards early evening, so the two other girls decided to head back towards the minbak. James wanted to make it to the top before sundown, and I wanted to keep climbing, since we had long left the crowds behind us at the temple. So James, being the mountain goat that he is, loped off towards the summit, and I had a pleasant hour's walk by myself in the woods at dusk.
It started to get dark around 5:30, and the mosquitoes were starting to come out, so I turned around and headed back down the mountain. James eventually caught up with me, and by the time we had gotten back to the minbak 2 hours and about 5 kilometers later, it was pitch black. We met up with the rest of the group and sat around outside the 7/11 talking, drinking, and playing card games. I headed back to the room around 10:30 because we had decided that some of us were going to take the cable car at 6am the next morning to watch the sunrise. I was exhausted from climbing the mountain that evening, and I knew if I didn't go to bed at a reasonable hour I wasn't going to get up in time for the cable car, which was a good half hour walk from our rooms.
We had asked the owner of the minbak earlier that evening to turn the ondol (under-floor heating system) off, since the room was stifling hot, and with 12 people sleeping in the room it wasn't cold enough outside to warrant any heating at all. Unfortunately, the ondol was turned back on around 3am. So with sleeping on a burning hot floor, getting bit by mosquitoes and ants during the night, and being awakened several times by others drunkenly returning to the room at all hours, needless to say I didn't sleep very well.
I woke up at 5am the next morning, and guiltily roused the few people that wanted to catch the cable car at 5:15. I didn't mind as much as I would have if people hadn't confirmed the night before that they wanted to be woken up. I'm not a fast walker, even when I have gotten a good night's sleep, so I headed towards the cable car a little earlier than the other five people who had decided to get up. We made it to the cable car at around 6:15am, and even though we were late, we were the first ones to use the cable car that morning. It was still dark when we got to the top, and we found the observation deck to watch the sunrise.
It wasn't the most amazing sunrise I've ever seen, especially since the actual sun was blocked by one of the mountains, but it was a pleasant morning nonetheless.
After getting a minuscule cup of coffee from a restaurant located on the edge of the mountain and having a rather amusing chat with a group of Korean hikers who were still drunk from soju, we headed back down from the top. The trees below us reminded me of some sort of weird cauliflower garden.
By the time we got back down to the base of the mountain an hour or so later, the line to get on the cable car had about 200 people in it, and probably would have taken at least 45 minutes to get through. We looked around the bottom, and I was fascinated by the persimmon trees, which were prolific and looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book or a Tim Burton movie.
By the way, if you've never eaten a frozen persimmon, I highly recommend it. It's like a fruit slushy in a peel.
Then the six of us headed back to the minbak, because our train left around noon and we needed to pack up and catch the bus back to the train station. We took the scenic walk on the way back instead of the more crowded and open trail.
We did notice on the way back quite a few Koreans who all seemed to have the same super-expensive camera with giant zoom-lens and tripod who were all taking pictures of the same thing.
But the walk was nice, the colors were more vibrant that morning even though it was overcast, and we just barely made it onto the bus back to the station as it started to rain.
The bus was overly crowded with ajumas in hiking gear, younger couples in matching winter outfits, and Korean tourists, as well as our group of foreigners. We got to what seemed like the area we were supposed to get off at, and everyone got off the bus. The traffic was frustratingly slow, but it was still moving faster than you can walk. But because my Korean was the best out of the people there (and mine is severely limited at best), we got off as well when we should have just stayed on. So we ended up walking several kilometers to get to the area that we were supposed to stay.
We made it to a rather busy intersection full of hikers, tour buses, traffic cops, and some of the fittest people over 60 I've ever seen. After trying to have a phone conversation with the Korean man who owned the minbak we were staying in, we were picked up in a car and driven about two blocks to the place we had booked the week before.
Generally, minbak means a home stay. So you are essentially staying in someone's spare room in their home, and meals are often included. However in the case of Minbak Row in Naejangsan, the street of minbaks was simply a collection of supposedly low-cost, low luxury places to sleep at night. Our particular two rooms were supposed to sleep 15 people, but the 12 of us were in rather close quarters. When we first arrived, there was some confusion as to whether we were even in the right place, as there were no bags in the room and half our group had come in the night before. It turned out that they had stayed in town on Friday night and left their bags at the police station so they could go hiking in the morning. So we dropped our bags in the minbak and went off in search of lunch.
We got about 200 feet from the minbak before we ran into a restaurant. This turned out to be the closest place to get food, and probably one of the more expensive Korean restaurants I've been to. We did, however, get to see a whole pig on a spit right by our table.
After getting lunch, we decided to try and find the rest of our friends. They said they were heading back from one of the temples on the mountain, and we should just walk towards the main entrance of the park and hopefully we'd catch them in passing.
The walk was long and crowded, but we did manage to see lots of fall colors along the way, and beautiful scenery was captured by careful camera framing. :)
We didn't see the other members of our group so much as hear them. Jess is loud at the best of times, and we could hear her talking long before we saw the rest of our group. They had been waiting by a rather beautiful tree so we could get the whole group photographed together. Of course we couldn't get a Korean to take a picture for us, so Sean volunteered to take a group picture with everyone's camera.
After wishing Jess a happy birthday, the five of us that had come that afternoon headed up the mountain to see what we could find.
One person dropped out after we made it to a temple, so there were four of us that made it to the hermitage that was up some rather daunting stone stairs.
At the top at the hermitage was probably the ugliest Buddha statue I've ever seen. It's a shame, too, because it would have made a great picture. As it is, this picture just seems comical to me.
It was starting to get on towards early evening, so the two other girls decided to head back towards the minbak. James wanted to make it to the top before sundown, and I wanted to keep climbing, since we had long left the crowds behind us at the temple. So James, being the mountain goat that he is, loped off towards the summit, and I had a pleasant hour's walk by myself in the woods at dusk.
It started to get dark around 5:30, and the mosquitoes were starting to come out, so I turned around and headed back down the mountain. James eventually caught up with me, and by the time we had gotten back to the minbak 2 hours and about 5 kilometers later, it was pitch black. We met up with the rest of the group and sat around outside the 7/11 talking, drinking, and playing card games. I headed back to the room around 10:30 because we had decided that some of us were going to take the cable car at 6am the next morning to watch the sunrise. I was exhausted from climbing the mountain that evening, and I knew if I didn't go to bed at a reasonable hour I wasn't going to get up in time for the cable car, which was a good half hour walk from our rooms.
We had asked the owner of the minbak earlier that evening to turn the ondol (under-floor heating system) off, since the room was stifling hot, and with 12 people sleeping in the room it wasn't cold enough outside to warrant any heating at all. Unfortunately, the ondol was turned back on around 3am. So with sleeping on a burning hot floor, getting bit by mosquitoes and ants during the night, and being awakened several times by others drunkenly returning to the room at all hours, needless to say I didn't sleep very well.
I woke up at 5am the next morning, and guiltily roused the few people that wanted to catch the cable car at 5:15. I didn't mind as much as I would have if people hadn't confirmed the night before that they wanted to be woken up. I'm not a fast walker, even when I have gotten a good night's sleep, so I headed towards the cable car a little earlier than the other five people who had decided to get up. We made it to the cable car at around 6:15am, and even though we were late, we were the first ones to use the cable car that morning. It was still dark when we got to the top, and we found the observation deck to watch the sunrise.
It wasn't the most amazing sunrise I've ever seen, especially since the actual sun was blocked by one of the mountains, but it was a pleasant morning nonetheless.
After getting a minuscule cup of coffee from a restaurant located on the edge of the mountain and having a rather amusing chat with a group of Korean hikers who were still drunk from soju, we headed back down from the top. The trees below us reminded me of some sort of weird cauliflower garden.
By the time we got back down to the base of the mountain an hour or so later, the line to get on the cable car had about 200 people in it, and probably would have taken at least 45 minutes to get through. We looked around the bottom, and I was fascinated by the persimmon trees, which were prolific and looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book or a Tim Burton movie.
By the way, if you've never eaten a frozen persimmon, I highly recommend it. It's like a fruit slushy in a peel.
Then the six of us headed back to the minbak, because our train left around noon and we needed to pack up and catch the bus back to the train station. We took the scenic walk on the way back instead of the more crowded and open trail.
We did notice on the way back quite a few Koreans who all seemed to have the same super-expensive camera with giant zoom-lens and tripod who were all taking pictures of the same thing.
But the walk was nice, the colors were more vibrant that morning even though it was overcast, and we just barely made it onto the bus back to the station as it started to rain.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Aigo....
I'm headed off to Naejangsan tomorrow to go hiking with some friends and look at the fall leaves. Can't wait to take pictures!
Spent about three hours today going back and forth to the immigration office to replace my lost alien card. It's a pain to get down there, stand in line, and come back, but it might be worth another trip if it means I get to keep my alien card the next time I leave the country (they confiscated mine when I left last year. It's been annoying trying to slowly replace everything in my wallet. I had my Florida driver's license, social security card, my American bank card, not to mention about 6 different cafe point cards. My Bank of America card is on its' way - free of charge- to Korea, I've gotten a new card for my account here, and I got a new subway card this afternoon. I keep calling the club, but my expectations and hopes are low that my wallet will ever be found again.
Spent about three hours today going back and forth to the immigration office to replace my lost alien card. It's a pain to get down there, stand in line, and come back, but it might be worth another trip if it means I get to keep my alien card the next time I leave the country (they confiscated mine when I left last year. It's been annoying trying to slowly replace everything in my wallet. I had my Florida driver's license, social security card, my American bank card, not to mention about 6 different cafe point cards. My Bank of America card is on its' way - free of charge- to Korea, I've gotten a new card for my account here, and I got a new subway card this afternoon. I keep calling the club, but my expectations and hopes are low that my wallet will ever be found again.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
This is Halloween, this is Halloween
I feel like I had two Halloweens this year - one with my kids, and one with my friends.
At school on Friday, we had activities planned for the afternoon, and the morning was standard lessons. As I only get two breaks per day, and on Friday they're the last two periods, I wasn't happy about the scheduling (which meant I was to teach all day with no break), but I figured for one day I could grin and bear it.
I enjoy decorating my classroom, and I may have gone a little overboard with the Halloween decorations. I had the Korean teachers from other rooms asking me to stop, because they felt they had to decorate as much as I was and they wanted to go home. I did end up slowing down a bit, but I still carved the best pumpkin in the school. :)
All of my kids dressed up, and though I had two Optimus Primes, I was still highly impressed with how they all turned out.
I wasn't the only teacher that dressed up, either. Some of the Korean teachers did small things (like my co-teacher wore an orange Casper shirt that my mom sent me), but for the most part the foreign teachers went all out. My personal favorite was the ajuma in the front center.
In the afternoon, the kids rotated to other 7-year-old classes to do different activities, similar to what we did for International Costume Day. My activities were making popcorn monster hands and marshmallow ghosts. Now, this would be a simple thing to do in America. But wondering why you can't find candy corn or jumbo white marshmallows in Korea in the fall is like wondering why you can't find Pepero in America in November.
Thankfully I have a forward-thinking mother who shipped me a bag of candy corn that arrived before the 30th, so the monster hands were saved (though I did have to tell the materials person that no, three individual bags of popcorn would not be enough for 35 kids to fill a plastic glove and could I please have some more before 1pm? Thanks so much...). I was not so lucky when it came to the marshmallows, however. I was given my materials on Thursday (after submitting my list two weeks earlier with specific instructions on EXACTLY what I needed, and how many per child I would need, and the number of children that would be participating). So instead of using these for ghostie heads:
(which btw makes for minutes of fun ages 8-80), my kids were stuck with rather strange ghostie faces made from this:
But, we made do with what we had, and the kids - after convincing them that the food dye was, in fact, food dye and not poisonous coloring that would make them sick and die- made some rather interesting ghosts. And then promptly ate them, since they don't travel well.
Clean, rinse, repeat. I then proceeded to do the same two activities with the other two seven-year-old classes, until the day was over. I have no qualms about making kids clean up after themselves (Rule number three out of three in Sapphire Class?: "Leave things better than the way you found them."), so before moving on to the next activity, kids had to make sure that all remnants of the previous activity had been spirited away into the garbage.
I then got about half an hour after the kids left to chill out from the day before our weekly meeting at 4pm. This was the first meeting where our new Vice Principal ran the meeting (the old one wasn't that great at the job, didn't know how to work with foreigners, and only lasted about 2 months). It was blessedly short, sweet, informative, and to-the-point. After which we got the go-ahead to go home early! So after removing all vestiges of the holiday from my room (I wasn't going to do it Monday morning), I headed home to change.
A friend of mine had a birthday party in Itaewon at a lovely Moroccan restaurant. The company and the food was good, but at $20 a plate for buffet (of which I only partook in two small plates), it was a bit pricey. Afterwards, I went out dancing with some friends, and then headed back home to get some sleep to prepare for Saturday.
Once I had ordered my zombie contacts, and knew I would get them in time for Halloween, I told James what I was going to dress up as. He's not the most competent when it comes to what he calls fancy dress (we Americans call it dressing up or costumes), so he asked me if I would make him a zombie as well and of course I agreed. About three days before Halloween, he told me that his girlfriend and her friend's plans had fallen through for ABBA themed costumes, and would I mind terribly doing their makeup as well? I thought it would be fun, though I had JUST managed to find enough makeup for myself and James. I told him that if they bought more makeup, I'd be happy to help. So on Saturday I woke up, ripped up some already dubious clothes of mine, and proceeded to apply my own zombie makeup. This was partly to reduce the time it would take to do everyone else's makeup, and partly to practice in private, since I hadn't done it in two years.
I then headed to Itaewon, to infect three other people. It was raining, so my umbrella effectively hid my costume and makeup on my walk to the subway. I was enjoying startling the random person by lifting the umbrella from time to time. Once inside the subway, I got the random sideways glance, or semi-aborted scream from passers-by, but for the most part people didn't pay me any mind. I did get some opened-eyes and smiles from people as I was waiting for the train to open its' doors and looking through the window at the people waiting to get out. I stepped onto the train, and stood behind someone who was holding on to the handle hanging from the ceiling and facing away from me, towards the windows and the row of seats. My transfer was about 5 stops away, and nothing of note happened until about the fourth stop. The girl in front of me, who apparently had been blissfully unaware of my presence happened to turn around. She promptly screamed, let go of the handle, and ran off into the crowded subway car to get away from me. I spent the next two stops trying desperately not to laugh, smile, or look around.
I made it to the apartment without much more ado, where James, Juliet, Rob (Juliet's best friend and roommate), and Nonkuli (another friend of Juliet's) were already there. We waited until Claire arrived, and then I started doing makeup for Juliet, James, and Claire.
After about the third layer of makeup, Nonkuli and Rob decided that it looked like too much fun, so I made three zombies, and then two more. The result was an awesome family of zombies.
Nonkuli, Juliet and I all headed down the street to catch a cab, and Juliet was enjoying herself by scaring passing ajumas and random strangers. One of them, a Korean, stopped and asked if she could take our picture. She then called her friends over and had our picture taken with them. We started talking to them, and they asked who did our makeup, at which point Juliet said that I had done it. The Koreans were all impressed, which wouldn't have been as cool if we hadn't found out that they do professional body painting, and were heading to a body art convention in Austria. I got the card of the girl who took the picture and e-mailed her later in the week. I'm still waiting for the pictures (apparently they're too big to email), but I'm looking forward to seeing them, and to possibly working with them in the future!
The rest of the night was spent wandering around Seoul with friends and scaring people. We gained semi-celebrity status in Haebangcheon, when we actually got a round of applause when we walked in the door of a bar.
I left partway through the night to go to a gothic party with Nonkuli, where I lost my wallet and never got it back. Made for a rather annoying, and cashless, rest of the evening, but I managed. I've been slowly working at getting all my cards back, though the 6 coffee cards I had from different cafes with stamps and points on them are rather irreplaceable....
At school on Friday, we had activities planned for the afternoon, and the morning was standard lessons. As I only get two breaks per day, and on Friday they're the last two periods, I wasn't happy about the scheduling (which meant I was to teach all day with no break), but I figured for one day I could grin and bear it.
I enjoy decorating my classroom, and I may have gone a little overboard with the Halloween decorations. I had the Korean teachers from other rooms asking me to stop, because they felt they had to decorate as much as I was and they wanted to go home. I did end up slowing down a bit, but I still carved the best pumpkin in the school. :)
All of my kids dressed up, and though I had two Optimus Primes, I was still highly impressed with how they all turned out.
I wasn't the only teacher that dressed up, either. Some of the Korean teachers did small things (like my co-teacher wore an orange Casper shirt that my mom sent me), but for the most part the foreign teachers went all out. My personal favorite was the ajuma in the front center.
In the afternoon, the kids rotated to other 7-year-old classes to do different activities, similar to what we did for International Costume Day. My activities were making popcorn monster hands and marshmallow ghosts. Now, this would be a simple thing to do in America. But wondering why you can't find candy corn or jumbo white marshmallows in Korea in the fall is like wondering why you can't find Pepero in America in November.
Thankfully I have a forward-thinking mother who shipped me a bag of candy corn that arrived before the 30th, so the monster hands were saved (though I did have to tell the materials person that no, three individual bags of popcorn would not be enough for 35 kids to fill a plastic glove and could I please have some more before 1pm? Thanks so much...). I was not so lucky when it came to the marshmallows, however. I was given my materials on Thursday (after submitting my list two weeks earlier with specific instructions on EXACTLY what I needed, and how many per child I would need, and the number of children that would be participating). So instead of using these for ghostie heads:
(which btw makes for minutes of fun ages 8-80), my kids were stuck with rather strange ghostie faces made from this:
But, we made do with what we had, and the kids - after convincing them that the food dye was, in fact, food dye and not poisonous coloring that would make them sick and die- made some rather interesting ghosts. And then promptly ate them, since they don't travel well.
Clean, rinse, repeat. I then proceeded to do the same two activities with the other two seven-year-old classes, until the day was over. I have no qualms about making kids clean up after themselves (Rule number three out of three in Sapphire Class?: "Leave things better than the way you found them."), so before moving on to the next activity, kids had to make sure that all remnants of the previous activity had been spirited away into the garbage.
I then got about half an hour after the kids left to chill out from the day before our weekly meeting at 4pm. This was the first meeting where our new Vice Principal ran the meeting (the old one wasn't that great at the job, didn't know how to work with foreigners, and only lasted about 2 months). It was blessedly short, sweet, informative, and to-the-point. After which we got the go-ahead to go home early! So after removing all vestiges of the holiday from my room (I wasn't going to do it Monday morning), I headed home to change.
A friend of mine had a birthday party in Itaewon at a lovely Moroccan restaurant. The company and the food was good, but at $20 a plate for buffet (of which I only partook in two small plates), it was a bit pricey. Afterwards, I went out dancing with some friends, and then headed back home to get some sleep to prepare for Saturday.
Once I had ordered my zombie contacts, and knew I would get them in time for Halloween, I told James what I was going to dress up as. He's not the most competent when it comes to what he calls fancy dress (we Americans call it dressing up or costumes), so he asked me if I would make him a zombie as well and of course I agreed. About three days before Halloween, he told me that his girlfriend and her friend's plans had fallen through for ABBA themed costumes, and would I mind terribly doing their makeup as well? I thought it would be fun, though I had JUST managed to find enough makeup for myself and James. I told him that if they bought more makeup, I'd be happy to help. So on Saturday I woke up, ripped up some already dubious clothes of mine, and proceeded to apply my own zombie makeup. This was partly to reduce the time it would take to do everyone else's makeup, and partly to practice in private, since I hadn't done it in two years.
I then headed to Itaewon, to infect three other people. It was raining, so my umbrella effectively hid my costume and makeup on my walk to the subway. I was enjoying startling the random person by lifting the umbrella from time to time. Once inside the subway, I got the random sideways glance, or semi-aborted scream from passers-by, but for the most part people didn't pay me any mind. I did get some opened-eyes and smiles from people as I was waiting for the train to open its' doors and looking through the window at the people waiting to get out. I stepped onto the train, and stood behind someone who was holding on to the handle hanging from the ceiling and facing away from me, towards the windows and the row of seats. My transfer was about 5 stops away, and nothing of note happened until about the fourth stop. The girl in front of me, who apparently had been blissfully unaware of my presence happened to turn around. She promptly screamed, let go of the handle, and ran off into the crowded subway car to get away from me. I spent the next two stops trying desperately not to laugh, smile, or look around.
I made it to the apartment without much more ado, where James, Juliet, Rob (Juliet's best friend and roommate), and Nonkuli (another friend of Juliet's) were already there. We waited until Claire arrived, and then I started doing makeup for Juliet, James, and Claire.
After about the third layer of makeup, Nonkuli and Rob decided that it looked like too much fun, so I made three zombies, and then two more. The result was an awesome family of zombies.
Nonkuli, Juliet and I all headed down the street to catch a cab, and Juliet was enjoying herself by scaring passing ajumas and random strangers. One of them, a Korean, stopped and asked if she could take our picture. She then called her friends over and had our picture taken with them. We started talking to them, and they asked who did our makeup, at which point Juliet said that I had done it. The Koreans were all impressed, which wouldn't have been as cool if we hadn't found out that they do professional body painting, and were heading to a body art convention in Austria. I got the card of the girl who took the picture and e-mailed her later in the week. I'm still waiting for the pictures (apparently they're too big to email), but I'm looking forward to seeing them, and to possibly working with them in the future!
The rest of the night was spent wandering around Seoul with friends and scaring people. We gained semi-celebrity status in Haebangcheon, when we actually got a round of applause when we walked in the door of a bar.
I left partway through the night to go to a gothic party with Nonkuli, where I lost my wallet and never got it back. Made for a rather annoying, and cashless, rest of the evening, but I managed. I've been slowly working at getting all my cards back, though the 6 coffee cards I had from different cafes with stamps and points on them are rather irreplaceable....
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