From Heidi's website, here's a picture of a lot of black hair. The street was packed on Sunday. 
Butterfly people = art 
A man hammering away as he makes fresh rice cakes. 
Kimchi pots for sale. 
Random store along Insadong. 
Traditional Korean candy stall.
My Sunday afternoon should of been spent lounging, but instead I spent the day playing the role of Heidi's ignored conscience. We went shopping in Insadong where I asked her in each and every shop if she really did need the item she was looking at. Each answer was an annoyed "of course." She did collect a good bunch of items and influenced me in parting with my money on a beautiful scroll art hanging and a lantern that I'll really never have a use for. 
I've been wanting to snap some pictures of the riot police in Seoul for some time now and Heidi did her best to pose in front of one groups' backs. (I'm too scared of being beaten by their sticks to get them from the front). These riot police are made up of 20-23 year old guys conscripted into the army for two years and are all around downtown Seoul (especially in front of the American Embassy for some reason). They wouldn't frighten an angry mob one on one, but they do have the numbers so they are effective in fighting the unions and farmers.
Because Insadong is a high traffic area for foreigners, many Koreans studying English are sent there by their teachers to practice. Here Heidi was stopped so a girl could read out words and Heidi had to circle what she heard out of the two choices (15 vs 50). This girl did a good job until the end of the test when Heidi asked her what she was doing the test for. The girl answered back with a confused, "huh?"
The last couple of days I haven't seen the sun. Monday and Tuesday it hid behind thick sheets of yellow dust thanks to the export friendly Chinese. Today it has been covered up by dark clamorous clouds busy storming away. The weather has played a major reason why I'm three for three in making a kid cry each day this week. Monday it was a slow kindergartner, Tuesday it was an obnoxious fifth grader, while today a third grader burst out in tears for no reason at all. The weather better change soon or I'll be out of a job and labeled "scary".
Saturday night the usual gang met up in Itaewon to have dinner with Rachel Lynn and her visiting parents. We knew they would be good fun from all the stories she's told about them and her mom's first words soon added value to the legend, "Heidi's got a full beer? We can go up to have a beer before dinner too."
Halfway through the beer a TV crew for SBS came over to "interview" the girls at our table about their Itaewon habits. To end the interview they got the girls to say on cue, "I love Korea! I love Itaewon!" The Bairds also wanted a go at it but the TV crew we already off to find their next group of parrots.
From here we went to have Korean barbecue across the street. RL chose the place in favoring style over substance, as this restaurant you get to sit at tables as opposed to eating at mini tables on the floor. (It takes a few months to get used to sitting cross legged for a whole meal.) The food was decent here but we like other places much better because they give out more side dishes.
After dinner we headed to a new bar called Lux22 where I learnt a Guinness Draught is not a Guinness Draught instead it comes in one of those cans with the wiffle ball inside. Once the jet lagged adults left we had a kitty of over thirty dollars and no convenient way to divide it so we headed off to our final round of the night at Pulse. This is a relatively new bar that we like because it's convenient for those who want to dance and comfortable for those who don't. It did get a tad wild (Joel actually danced) so I'll post these pictures in a smaller size. 
Friday night was a quiet one as Saejin and I just went out for dinner around my place. These first two pictures are from the main downtown of Gwangmeong which is a two minute walk from my place. In all these buildings are a huge number of restaurants, bars, chicken hofs and Nore bangs (singing rooms). Within all these lights we finally chose a traditional Korean restaurant for dinner. 
The main dish was a spicy pork soup that came to a boil at the table. Above are two kimchi pancakes that need to be exported because I've yet to meet a foreigner here who hasn't liked them.
This week has been painful. On Monday right before my first class I stood up and suddenly my back aged 50 years. Ever since, the left side of the pelvic area of my back has been in a knot. When I complained to the new teacher about my back he said it was because, "You are not smooth." That's the nice way of calling someone fat.
He then took me to the music room where he showed me some stretched he does for Seonmudo. He gumbied his way through different stretches while I cried inside for being lumpy and stiff. The stretches did work a bit and I've been doing them at home. I also took to sleeping on the heated floor which help to melt away the pain. Now the pain is only hinted at if I sit too long but once I get moving again it's better.
Saturday night was the Irish-Korean Societies St. Patrick's Day dinner held at the Westin-Chosun Hotel. For 60 dollars you got an all you could eat buffet and unlimited amounts of beer (the pricey Guinness beer included). O'Kim's (a true Irish/Korean family name) was packed with people plastered in green with many of them coming up with their own unique holiday get ups.
Three of these people were my friends. Saejin didn't even recognize Heidi and Rachel Lynn when he arrived and was too shy to even stand near them. They chased him around the lobby until he finally relented and admitted to knowing them. When we first entered the place the line up for food was snaked around the bar and took us an hour and a half to reach the prize. The reason the lineup was so long was that with all the tables taken this was the only place to eat. This is the first buffet where I've actually eaten while in line but for a classy hotel the food wasn't impressive at all. 
Yesterday my afternoon of blogging and reading was interrupted by a meeting between the parents and the school's staff. It was held in the school's lunchroom (there are no gymnasiums in Korean schools) and we sat for close to an hour listening to the principal ramble on. Unfortunately for me I sat facing the only clock in the room and made a mental note of each and every movements the three hands made. Halfway through I started playing a game in my head.
Because the Principal was talking to the parents he had to use formal Korean, this leads to many of the words ending in "da" or "yo". The game I played was to count how many formal endings he could use in a one minute time frame then try to predict how many he could get through in the next minute. His personal best was 20 and my guessing skills were improving nicely as the speech slowly trickled on. The only problem with vacantly sitting there counting in my head is that I nearly missed him calling my name to stand and bow. Luckily for me he calls me "Mr. Cameron" which instinctively gets a bow from me whenever I hear it.
I am glad spring has decided to return and it looks as if it will be around until summer sweats it out. Hopefully this means Monday was the last time I hear 추워 (Choowa) for a long, long time. 추워 means "I'm cold" and Koreans instantly share this feeling with you seconds after exiting a building. Fifty percent of these cries for help are blurted out to nobody at all.
Monday after my jog I got into the elevator and my riding companion was a dolled up Korean lady who mumbled, "추워" the whole ride up to her floor. Walking down the streets on frigid days it becomes difficult to walk because of all the people crying out in pain. I'll admit some days it is cold and I too am feeling it. I just choose not to walk around like an unhinged man talking to the cold gods.
Canada is far colder than Korea but my memory doesn't have vivid images of people muttering about the coldness. This is because we either heroically grin and bear it or more likely because I could never hear others swearing under all their layers of clothes. Koreans heat their interiors (including modes of transportation)to sauna like conditions and wear nothing more than skimpy winter coats. I don't feel sorry for the people who are cold here (except the homeless) because most times it's a girl in a skirt or a man wearing only a business suit who take on winters wrath and then complain about it.
These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago when Saejin and I had some time to kill before watching "Music and Lyrics". It was a rainy day but we decided to head over to a Namsangol Traditional Village to wander about anyway. This park isn't the best traditional village in Korea but seeing as it boarders downtown it's convenient. Saejin and I had both been there a few times before so we did a fast forwarded lap of the place posing and peaking into a few of the buildings. Here are some of the pictures: 
Tonight after teaching I went to Juno Hair to get my hair done. The lady who usually cuts my fine hair was off tonight so I got a new guy to chop away. He started off by roughing me up while shampooing/massaging my head and I tried not to show the discomfort. Between death grips down my neck and circular tugs at the hair on my head I answered the usual slate of questions Koreans need to know. (Where are you from? What are you doing here? How old are you? Are you married? You're over thirty why aren't you married?) Once he knew enough about me we made our way to the cut.
It was here that our language barrier was brought down with a mixture of English, Korean, a look through the "Man Cuts #2" book and a sketch with numbers and lines that made no sense to me at all. I have very low expectations when it comes to getting a hair cut. (When you dad has been you barber for half your life you quickly learn to accept bad hair dos.) All I requested was to not have a line in my hair separating the top and the sides and I also wanted absolutely no hockey hair ; two styles that are very popular among kids and men who get their hair cut at the cheap barbers here.
My stylist knew what I wanted and then went to work. The end result was my hair came out pretty much the same as it was. It barely looked like he did any work at all except for the removal of my annoying tail that sprouts every two months. It was a minor production but in the end I'm happy with the results.
This past weekend I did absolutely nothing. I locked myself into the apartment on Friday night and emerged from it's comforts only once on Saturday and again for dinner with Heidi on Sunday. It was a much needed weekend. Here are some older pictures of the view from my place:
This one is what I see when I look directly out of my place. If you're up for a game try finding the temple among the concrete and brick buildings. 
Looking out to the left, huge apartments are being built. This part of the city is one huge construction site. It's an enormous area and the apartments you see here are only one fifth of the number of apartments that will be going up. Exciting times in Gwangmyeong.
Work wise, it's been a boring week. Most of my classes have been canceled. This has me desperately searching the web for distractions and this is the best from the week. Like the video game this too is mildly addictive.
I now know what a cow party is. It's held out in the countryside on the side of a hill in an overgrown tent attached to a butcher shop with grazing cows running parallel to this. The floor is an uneven slab of concrete scattered with flimsy tin tables and humble plastic stools. There are no servers in this "restaurant" so you collect your own utensils, side dishes and booze (lots and lots of booze). You order the beef in the butcher's shop and he brings it out to the table for you to cook. The place was constantly packed which surprised me seeing as it's a long way out of town. We stayed out quite late with the new teacher turning out to be trouble as he was the one running to the fridge every twenty minutes for reinforcements.
The blowing snow outside that whips by and stings like a family of bitter wasps has been a huge discomfort this week. Worse still, is that the older kids who are decent at English ask me with puzzled disbelief if it is actually spring outside. I played the, "...uh, this is what spring is like in Canada" card.
This morning, Mr. Oh came up to me while I was photocopying. He grabbed me around the shoulder and squeezed with his Kumdo (Korean sword fighting) trained arm and said "Tonight, cow party." I'm not sure what this means but in referring to my bad English to good English dictionary I've come up with a dinner for the new teachers at our school. I'll let you know.
Still from last week, on the eve of Korea's Independence Movement Day; Heidi, Jes, Saejin and Chung Sun met to have dinner in Kangnam. We went to Kogi, Kogi and ate piles of seasoned pork and oiled up beef. Because it was warm last week we got to eat outside in the tent and were able to leave without smelling like piles of seasoned pork and oiled up beef. 
Saejin and Chung Sun eating away in front of the slanted grill so that all the grease from the meat slides down and fries up the kimchi. If you hate the taste of kimchi, frying it up transforms it into a magical moment. 
Heidi and Jes eating seductively. 
Heidi not eating seductively. 
After dinner we met up with the rest of the gang. Joel and I were trying to come up with themes for his upcoming birthday. One idea was to dress as your favorite TV star and Joel automatically labeled Jes as Justin from the American version of Queer as Folk.
Last week for the holiday Saejin and I went down to the Cheonggyecheon stream in downtown Seoul. Once upon a time it was a fetid stream that people used to bathe and wash in. Each summer it flooded out many houses and businesses. The government finally filled it in and built a huge express way over it. This huge ugly road really darkened the downtown core (but admittedly it was fun to drive on as you shot past and looked down on a ton of lights and people busily buzzing about). This expressway is now gone and a new Cheonggyecheon stream has been built up to make Seoul green. These pictures were up under a bridge along the new Cheonggyecheon stream that showed what the place looked like in 1903, 1930 and 1960. 
It's a world away from what the place was like. Seajin kept pointing out how closely many of the older pictures resembled areas of The Philippines or Thailand. He then went into his usual stories of a hard life growing up in poverty. (He never keeps a straight face when telling these tales). The last picture is of a tacky spiral that some European "artist" was paid too much for designing and acts as the source of the stream. A trickle of water starts out there and then runs into a huge water fall. It's a cool idea but the obnoxious "art" on top of it is distracting.
