Fongs

My friends Thomas and Marshall, and the guy who cuts Marshall's hair. Not sure I would have visited him the next day.

Pyun Sung, the owner of Fongs (favorite local bar), who went with us on the DeokJeokDo trip pictured in the previous post.

His wife Hyo Joo and my friends Heather and Liz. The fact that we don't speak more than a dozen words of the other's language doesn't seem to matter much.

My friend Peter and about half of the other teachers I work with on a recent Friday night at Fongs.

Liz, Marshall, and the owners of the local hair place.

A great Japanese style bar, called Fongs, opened up in town about six weeks ago. The owners are a young married couple who both love art and traveling. My friends and I go about once a week and are becoming great friends with them both. The husband is a chef and has started asking about our favorite foods so he can add them to the menu. Spaghetti bolognese is the most recent addition.

DeokJeokDo Island

My attempt at trying to catch a seagull in the act of grabbing cheetos out of the hand of an 8 year old. I think she understood what I was doing but that didn't seem to alleviate her confusion about who the westerner taking pictures of her forearm was.

Most of my friends, and the rest of the boat, trying to catch up on sleep missed the night before.

My good friend Liz and the dog she hoped was a stray, named Ralph, and tried to take back to Seoul with us (it was not a stray).

My friends Liz, Thomas, HJ, and Jake after playing some frisbee on the very foggy beach.

Heading back to Seoul after an exhausting 36 hours.

My first trip out of Seoul was to a small island off the western coast of South Korea, called DeokJeokDo. Sadly we were rained on almost the entire time, which meant we spent a little more time drinking soju under umbrellas than we would have otherwise. We found a hotel room big enough for the ten of us.....really just a big room with tons of blankets and a heated floor. We ate well, got in a great hike to the island's peak during a lull in the rain, and joined a big nighttime bonfire on the beach. The best part about the trip was the company of our favorite bar owners, who closed up shop and came with us for the weekend. They brought the drinks, we paid for everything else.

Badminton

I brought my squash racket with me to Korea hoping to play but have long since abandoned it for the fierce sport of badminton. There are three courts close to my apartment and my friends and I usually play every week. A few weeks ago one of my students came out to play before school. He was more interested in hanging out with his teachers outside of class than playing. I often tell my students how good I'm getting......they rarely seem impressed. They're more curious about my favorite Korean pop stars, and not my new red Power Blade 3.0. Trust me, its awesome.

Ponies

Our view of the track from the foreigners box (where the programs are printed in English).

After all the races are over people pour out of the park and walk straight into restaurants that have been set up on the curb. Folding tables, stools, gas stoves. It didn't seem to matter if people had lost or won big....they felt like some seafood stew and plenty of soju.

Truck bed seating....the epitome of sidewalk fine dinning.

Some beautiful cherry trees lined the promenade leading to the park.

Recently went to Seoul Horse Park and watched several races. My first time watching the ponies. I made sure to loose plenty of money so I wouldn't be tempted to make visits a regular thing. The place was packed with people, maybe 10000. There are 3 big tracks in Korea which all run their races 15 minutes apart. While you're waiting for the next race wherever you are you can also bet on the races taking place at the other two locations (Busan and someplace else).

BBQ (and Peace Signs)

Post-baseball at a place in Seoul.


Peter, Sam, Anne, and HJ at another BBQ place in Gangnum.

Most Koreans, especially younger ones, will throw up a peace sign when they're getting their picture taken. Sam has perfected the move....Pete is still working on it.

Brian, Sam, and Peter post BBQ.

One of my favorite things about Korea, or at least about eating here, is BBQ. Every third restaurant here is a BBQ restaurant. In the middle of each table (see pictures above) is a gas or charcoal fired grill. You order some marinated meat or seafood, along with some vegetables, and grill it all up right in front of you. Some places help you cook it if you look lost, others leave you to your own devices. When everything is grilled to perfection, or crispy, depending on the cook, you take a piece or two of meet, along with some garlic, onions, and delicious mystery sauces, and wrap everything in a piece of lettuce. It's hard to shove the whole wrap into your mouth without looking like an animal but we tend to try anyway. The best thing about BBQ, other than the taste of the food, is the leisurely pace it encourages. The portions are small enough, and it takes long enough to cook, that you can easily spend 2 hours grilling/eating/grilling/eating (while drinking). Neither of the places pictured here is our local place. Between work and my apartment there is an "all you can eat" BBQ place where, for 8 won, you can eat as much BBQ as you'd like. Its a great deal even if you're not that hungry. We usually are.

Cherry Blossoms

Friends Heather, Thomas, Peter, Liz, and Marshall on the way to view the annual cherry blossom festival.

People "picnicking" in what used to be a park near the cherry trees. The whole park, dozens of acres along Seoul's largest river (the Han) is being re-landscaped. These people were actually pretty lucky.....those little green shoots they're sitting on were better than the dirt most people found.

Part of the landscaping project. Cherry trees in the distance, along with, by chance, Korea's largest Christian church (the Yoido Full Gospel Church - about 800,000 members). The guy on his cell phone might not be working hard but most construction workers here never seem to stop. I've seen guys working on buildings at 10 pm on a Sunday night.

The crowds were incredible. Made appreciating the trees a little difficult.

Too many blossoms, or maybe soju bottles (soju is the Korean spirit of choice and seems to be appropriate at all hours of the day).

Every spring cherry blossoms arrive in Asia. In Seoul there are not nearly enough trees to go around. On a recent Saturday we went to the prime cherry blossom boulevard in all of Seoul. The whole street was closed off, maybe 5 lanes wide, and it was still hard to walk. Groups of people were camped out on any piece of ground they could find...eating lunch and taking pictures of their friends in front of the trees. The blossoms were great but the people watching was much better. This last picture was not the only person we found passed out, just the best.

More Baseball

Most of the baseball crew.


Lighting a sparkler (passed out to everyone in the stadium).

My friend Marshall with a mini Heroes fan. The stadium is separated into home and away sections....we were surround by Heroes fans. Sadly we chose wrong....the Heroes got crushed by LG (the team, not big TVs).

After the game my friends Liz and Thomas hopped over the fence and ran from 3rd base into home. An act that probably would have resulted in hefty fines in the US but just got them escorted out of the stadium.

The cheerleaders were great but I took so many pictures at the game I couldn't limit those I uploaded to 5. These are the best of the remaining.