Spring in Seoul

Wow.... practically had to blow the dust off the keys and claw away the spiderwebs before posting this entry here. It's really been a while since i last posted here. Well, here's my update about what things have been like here. I don't want a long rambling post, and most of you already know this stuff if we are close... so i'll keep it short.

-finished my old contract at my previous job. Ended well, but was ready to move on to bigger things.

-started my new job, working at a private elementary school. I love it.

- moved into the central foreigner area here in Seoul rather than the south area. House rather than apartement. It's great, we love it.

-CATS! Meet our kittens, Necro and Thulu.

So, winter is finaly over here in Seoul. I went rollerblading the weekend before last. The air was warm, and even if it was cloudy it felt so good to be out again. I hadn't been rollerblading in over a year, and god, it felt good. I stopped and rested a bit beside the Han river, and saw sailboats. Thought of you, Dad. Maybe we'll go sailing when you come visit? I don't know if you can rent them.

The cherry tree is in my neighborhood, near the busstop. The river picture is a view of part of downtown Seoul and the Han river.

Pagodas!

A couple of days ago, Ryan and I went to the Insadong area, to do some shopping and some touring around.It really was quite a nice area. We arrived, and wandered through the park surrounding Jogysa temple. As excited as i was to see it, we could not go into the temple because it was closed on tuesdays! We were disappointed, but knew we could simply save it for another trip to the area. However we still enjoyed walking around the park, which gave such sites as my first urban park in seoul, a group of people doing tai chi together in the park and... this bowl/calender thing?



I found myself fascinated by this odd thing. It had a sign with information about it, but it was all in korean (hangul even). No hope understanding that... But from what we could figure out it seemed to be a calender of some kind. We were intrigued.






After the park, we walked around the streets a bit. There were the most fabulous jewelry fabrication stores... all way out of my price range. You know that you cannot afford the gems that they are calling 'beads' at a store when they bring out a miniature scale to weigh the 'bead' for which you are asking the price. The gem shops were plentiful, and gorgeous, but i was afraid to even enter them with so many tempting, beautiful, expensive things.



We finally found a map that showed us the way to get to the shopping street of Insadong... and what do we find right on our path but Tapgol Park! Tapgol is (i think) the korean name for a pagoda. So, essentially, this is Pagoda Park. Here is me standing very excitedly at the gates, looking forward to going inside.


As we enter the park. Note the closest pagoda (same as in next pictures), and the glass behind it encasing another pagoda (shown after).




This is an example of what a pagoda can look like. These pictures show their outside, and their beautiful detailed rooves inside. Ryan 'took one for the team' and layed on his back in the pagoda to get that last picture's angle right.

Finally, this is the oldest pagoda still standing. It is made entirely from stone, and is encased in glass to protect it. This pagoda is said to be over 600 years old.













After having our fun in the two parks, we found the Insadong area. We shopped around and found christmas presents for people, some beautiful handmade paper i bought for myself and ryan oogled the scroll paintings. We both agreed that we would pick up some scroll paintings for our apartment once we have both been paid.