Cora wears her hanbok!

This past Thursday, during elementary spirit week, Cora donned a traditional Korean dress (called a hanbok - pronounced han-bo) for the day. Many elementary girls were decked out in these colourful dresses, which are ornately embroidered and feature bright and beautiful fabrics.

More from Village of Peace...

Last weekend we spent the afternoon back at Village of Peace Orphanage. In these photos Hannah and her friend Becca (from Idaho) are pictured with one of our favourite little girls, Ka-Un. What an incredible smile she has! She brightens up our day whenever we are blessed to be able to go to Village of Peace, and last weekend was no exception.

Humorous tidbits...

We have to laugh sometimes at the English versions of signs in our neighbourhood. Here are two examples, one from the sign at an eyeglass store just down the street, and another from a bag of bread puchased from a neighbourhood store. The third photo is of a marketing ploy by a local pork restaurant. We find the giant pig to be quite humorous!

Neighbourhood street food...

Here are some shots of street food in our neighbourhood... fish waffles filled with a sweet red bean paste, deep-fried shrimp and vegetable patties, kim bab (rice, egg, ham and radish rolled in seaweed wrappers, kind of like California rolls). Very yummy.

Krispy Kreme has arrived...

Yes, we have succumbed to the marketing of Krispy Kreme doughnuts! A big new franchise just opened in Taejon (the first of its kind here in our city) and many TCIS staff members and students have been spotted carrying the white and green boxes around campus. Last Friday my newspaper crew decided to use their investigative abilities as journalists to visit the outlet and ensure the doughnuts were worthy of the Krispy Kreme name. We think it's safe to report to the rest of the community that, yes, these are legit doughnuts in the Krispy Kreme style!

Almost the CN Tower...

The Seoul Tower looks a lot like the CN Tower but is a bit shorter. In fact, the CN Tower is celebrated on a glass wall at the base of the Seoul Tower that shows all of the major freestanding structures like this in the world. We felt quite proud! From the top of the tower the views of Seoul were amazing. It really helps you understand how enormous the city is. Brian couldn't help taking a photo of the urinal in the mens' bathroom - there was quite a view!! I'm also including a night shot of a busy street in Insadong, a wonderful shopping area where you can buy all kinds of traditional Korean arts and crafts.

Suwon fortress...

In Suwon (a city that borders Seoul), there is a large 6-km. fortress wall that encircles the downtown area of town. Built in the late 1700s it is beautifully intact, complete with observation posts, archery platforms, signal fire/furnace turrets and training facilities. It took an entire afternoon to walk the entire fortress wall, and it was great!

Military history comes to life...

While in Seoul we spent time with our friends, the Covingtons, and toured the Korea Military Museum. It was extensive and there were many planes and tanks to climb into, such as the enormous B-52 bomber that Brian is standing beneath in one of these photos. The second and third floors of the museum chronicled the horrors of the Korean War. We decided to end our rather heavy and tough (although very educational) museum visit with a Thai dinner in Itaewon, one of Seoul's neighbourhoods.

Sojourn in Seoul...

This week we spent 4 days in Seoul (one of which was spent exploring a neighbouring small city called Suwon - kind of like Oshawa in relation to Toronto). What a HUGE city! There are 11 million people who live in Seoul, and 19 million if you count the surrounding suburbs. Wow. Here are some photos of the famous Namdaemun Gate and market in Seoul (the gate is the largest one of its kind in Korea and used to be the main gate in the Seoul fortress). It was a very crowded market on the street level and below, with tiny little shops and one-person alleyways between. There were lots of interesting things to see there! We've also included a shot of the 300-km/hour bullet train we took into Seoul. It was a very smooth ride.

Confucian retreat...

Today is Lunar New Year, and it is like a beautiful May day. In fact, we saw a gorgeous meadow fritillary (butterfly, or nabe in Korean) today, so spring must be on its way here! We can't believe that, in mid-February, we are wearing light jackets and soaking in the sunshine. Ahhh... (sorry to all of our Canadian friends and family for gloating!!) While the girls lounged at home this afternoon, reading and relaxing, we took advantage of the beautiful weather to tour a historical spot in Taejon where a famous Confucian scholar established a school back in the 1600s. It was a very peaceful spot and seemed like a perfect place to ponder the arrival of spring.

Neighbourhood hot spots...

We figured it was time to post some photographs of some of the places in our neighbourhood that we frequently visit. The local coffee shops (such as Kaldi's) are very popular with the girls! And, lest you think we have gone completely to the dogs, so to speak, we should make it clear that we haven't eaten at the restaurant with the little piggy on its sign. It is a pretty entertaining sign, though, and we couldn't help but include it.

Ancient Tombs...

The small city of Gongju is located about one hour east of Taejon and, about 1500 years ago, was the capital of one of the kingdoms of Korea. Brian and I explored the city on Thursday (we played hookie and used a personal day to get away, just the two of us!). The tombs were fascinating and were built on a mountainside using methods that surfaced in several other ancient kingdoms in the world (isn't it amazing how there were so many similarities between the customs of ancient peoples who had no contact with each other? It speaks to God's grand design, I think!). They were domed chambers built of stone and brick, covered with earth and grass. So, from the outside, they look like big bumps on the mountainside. All of the tombs but one were plundered in days gone by, and all of the artifacts were carried off. One, however, wasn't discovered until 1971 and it was fully intact, giving archaeologists great insight into the wealth and lifestyle of the Baekje kingdom. We learned so much from our day of exploring. Perhaps we - and our students - should get out of the classroom more often!!

Drumming & Dancing!

For about 8 weeks I have been taking a Korean dance class, held here at TCIS after school on Thursdays. Five staff (all women) have been learning the art of Korean dance, and it's a lot harder than it looks! It is very controlled and involves a lot of subtle and graceful movements (hence, I am struggling!). Just yesterday our drums arrived (we've been learning some drumming patterns as well); you tie these drums in front of you and drum while you dance (it's sort of like an advanced version of rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time). It's a lot of fun and these pictures are of our instructor (in the fuschia sweater) and four of us students (my dance skirt arrives next week). We will actually perform a dance in front of the school next October for Korean Culture Week, and I'm nervous already!

Our First Week Back

Our return to Korea (aside from the flooding in our house) was overwhelmingly positive. One of our first outings included a whimsical evening event called "Luminarie" at Daejeon's Expo Park. We enjoyed the modern dance variety show while enjoying the warmth of two enormous open bonfires fed with entire logs and scrap wood. Now that's something you just don't see in Canada. In addition, we ascended the tower for a view of the lighted walkway just in time to see a fireworks display. What a great time! On the way home we stopped to photograph the sign on a restaurant that serves lobster from Nova Scotia, Canada. The favourable temperatures (0 degrees to +5) drew us out on Sunday afternoon for a hike up a local mountain called "Chickenfoot." It was wonderfully peaceful even though there were hundreds of people hiking on the same trail. Koreans sure are fit!

Water, Water Everywhere...

If it seems like we've been goofing off on our blog lately, we have an excuse. When we returned to our home late last week we found our floors newly shined and our computer missing. Further inspection revealed a drawer full of water and a soggy pile of DVDs. Then we found the high water mark on the wall...
Anyway, all of these clues added up to the obvious truth: we've had a flood. It turns out that a pipe burst sometime between December 20th and January 4th. A maintenance person came by to check the oil level in our tank and he happened to notice water "coming from the house." Our MacBook Pro isn't waterproof (apparently), and LeeAnne lost a couple of special books including her favourite Bible.
We are very thankful for the efforts of the "General Affairs" office here at our school because they had most of the mess cleaned up by the time we arrived in Korea. The computer is another story...
More updates soon.