The Sky is Falling

As we were walking along the sidewalk the other day, we noticed that they were trimming the trees for Spring (even though it's still -15C out). A team of men were slicing good-sized branches off the trees and dropping them onto the sidewalk. Now, if this were happening in the States or Canada, there would be an area roped off for the safety of pedestrians. Here however, there were 3 men standing under the tree with brooms. They would watch for the falling branches and deflect them with the brooms before they could hit anyone. It was frightening and funny all at the same time. But hey, it seemed to work for them!

The DaVinci Exhibit

We went to a traveling exhibit on Leonardo DaVinci. It was incredibly interesting as it talked about his art as well as his inventions and interest in anatomy. If it comes to your town (which I think it is coming to Portland) I'd recommend it as a fun way to get out of the house this winter. :)

Leonardo's Flying Machine

DaVinci's other flying apperatus

Leo's Tank

War Memorial

This weekend we went to the War Memorial of Korea. It was a massive place with an outdoor and an indoor area of exhibition. Most of the monuments and pieces on display were of the Korean war in which fighting occurred from 1950-1953 when an armistice was signed. To this day however, the two countries are still technically at war. Inside the museum there were displays of Korean military encounters from the past 300 years. Here are some pictures from the museum.

Joshua

Every weekend I have my students write a weekend diary. They write about all kinds of things. One student brought me his homework this week and it was by far my favorite submission. He wrote about how he went to church that weekend and learned about Joshua who was the leader of Israel. And he thinks that Joshua was brave and cool. It was awesome :)

Korean BBQ in the middle of a snowstorm

Jordan and I decided the other night that we wanted some Korean BBQ. We haven't had it in a while so we decided to go to a place we frequented in the Summer. This place has mostly outdoor seating but they usually put up plastic walls and heaters for Winter. It also happened that a snow storm had just moved in that evening and it was dumping snow around the city. We decided to go out anyway and brave the cold weather. We were surprised by what we found....the restaurant (which is owned by the parents of some of our students) was totally re-done for Winter. They had made benches and put a heating mat on each one. They also had several heavy duty heaters around for warmth. When I looked cold the owner grabbed a blanket, put it on my lap and tucked it around my legs! hahaha what service! The result was a cozy cabin feel while we grilled our meat on the table. I love that even though Seoul is HUGE they still have tons of "mom & pop" places.

And We're Back....

We had an amazing two weeks at home and we have just finished our first week back at school...it's kind of like we never left....haha. It was SO good to be home and be refreshed by seeing family, friends and all things American.

We skipped New Year's Day entirely as we were on the plane crossing the International Dateline....but our students filled us in on what they did. One of my students told me he chugged a soda through the New Year countdown so it took "two years to take a sip", while another student ran into the bathroom so that he could ring in the new year sitting on the toilet. hahaha...our students are such goofballs sometimes. The biggest celebration in Korea comes on Lunar New Year which is in the beginning of February but Korea still likes to celebrate the solar calendar as well. Except that in Korea they countdown to the sunrise on New Years Day instead of midnight.

We hope that you all enjoyed the holidays as much as we did and that this new year is even better than the last!

Here are some pictures from our trip:
**edit: we've added a few more :)**