This is Korea

As our first post we'd like to introduce you to Korea. To begin, Korea is a peninsula in between China and Japan. As most people know it is a nation that was split in two during the Korean war(1950-1953). Although, in 1953 both sides agreed to a cease-fire the two countries are still technically at war. The DMZ(Demilitarized Zone)was created at that time and is a strip of land that divides North and South Korea and is about 2.5miles wide. It is heavily guarded on both sides. South Korea has flourished into a country of about 50million people. 10million of which live in it's capital, Seoul.

Koreans are inherently proud of their country and the things their ancestors have created. Among them are Taekwondo and Hangul (the Korean language). Hangul was created for the Korean people in the mid-1400s by King Sejong. Before Hangul was created the Korean people used the Chinese characters to write. This proved to be too challenging for the "commoners" so King Sejong had the Korean alphabet created so all people could learn to read and write. When I asked my students last fall to write a paragraph about what they think is the greatest invention in history, 70% of them said "Hangul". They even have a national holiday to celebrate the creation of Hangul.

We live on the Northeast edge of Seoul in a neighborhood called Nowon. It's what is considered the "education district," so when someone wants to learn how to drive, or learn English, or taekwondo, they usually come here. It is also considered a "family suburb" type area and so there are MANY apartment buildings spanning for miles. One of my favorite things about Nowon is that we are almost surrounded by mountains. We live on the 15th floor of our building, which also happens to be the top floor and so we are afforded a nice view of the mountains from our patio. This view has saved me many times from feeling lost in the sea of concrete.

So here's our little introduction to Korea. We hope these pictures will also help give you a sense of where we are living.