Star Wars: Episode III

star wars coming soon!
Originally uploaded by Frayed.

Star Wars came out today in Korea - so Brett, Laura, Craig and I went to go see the late show on the 10th floor at Grand Department Store. When the movie ended, we attempted to use the elevator, but it wasn't working. We just figured that they shut down the elevator for the night, so we took the stairwell. We were greeted by 30 other people from the movie on the 1st floor all trying to find a way out of the Department Store. Turns out the store was locked up and they must have 'forgotten' that there was a late show going on on the 10th floor. We were literally walking around the equivalent of a Bay department store floor, trapped; no employees, no movie theatre workers... Just us and a thousand watches, perfume bottles and belts. We were finally found by the shipment workers in the back and they led us through a maze of boxes before letting us out the fire escape doors. I just can't believe it. Ten floors full of merchandise and no one figured that at least one worker should hang around for when the late show go-ers come out of the movie. That's Korea for you.

Playground Fun!

They tore down the rickety old playground next to our apartment last week and replaced it with a much more fun and safe set. So today, I took Mary and Brett's classes out for gym and snapped a few pictures of the kids on the new equipment. Here they are, hopefully having fun :)

Ilsan at Night

Check it out

Crowded

This is for my parents - to show how crowded Numdaemun Market in Seoul can get on a Saturday afternoon. Quite a bit different than:

Stevensville's one and lonely stoplight - and with the Tavern recently torn down - it looks even more bare that what I remember.

Seoul Tower

Yesterday, Craig and I went into Seoul - we wanted to go up Seoul Tower, which is in Namsan Park and overlooks the city. We took the cable car up and was greeted by a sign saying that the tower is closed for renovation until October 31. Hmm. It was a good ride up though. Photos.

Nanta

Craig and I were fortunate enough to get tickets to see Nanta, a non-verbal Korean musical performance with a cooking theme. Kind of like Stomp with knives. We quickly found out that they pulled people from the audience to help out with the show. I was pulled up on stage to compete in a Mandu (dumpling) making contest. Lacking Mandu-making skills, I was unable to make it fast enough to beat the red team. But I got to keep the Chef's hat. Aside from making Mandu, Nanta was the most entertaining show I've seen in a long time.

Children's Day

Since May 5th was Children's Day (holiday), we had a party for the kindergarten kids on Wednesday.

(Craig & Sally/Me & Daniel)

Russian

We are starting to prepare for our Trans-Siberian trek in September and part of that is learning some of the language of these countries. Russian seemed like a good language to start with. A few times a week Craig and I have been trying to learn necessary phrases that could help us. The Cyrillic alphabet is just one obstacle to conquer when learning the language - but the double, triple, quadruple consonant sounds that are strung together seem to be the biggest challenge so far. Try and wrap your tongue around these phrases:

"Zdravstvooeetye. Myenya zavoot Mary."
(Hello. I am called Mary.)

"Mi yedyem v Maskvoo."
(We are going to Moscow.)

"Dobriiy dyen. Oo vas yest nomyer na dvaeekh, na adnoo noch? Stoeet nye sleeshkam doroga?"
(Good day. Do you have room for two, for one night? Cost not too expensive?)

Bukhansan - Volume 2

Yesterday, Mary and I had our second excursion to Bukan Mountain (here's Volume 1). We headed out at 9 and returned at 6; a looong hike. On our way, we met a Korean man who lived in California for 15 years, named Charles Sohn. He was a senior and stressed multiple times the advantages of being one (free transit, free park entrance, etc). He was very helpful and got us to our starting point in record time; he even shared his tomatos :) The first time, we walked at least an extra hour before the actual hiking began.

We hiked with Sohn for a while, but with us being in our 20s, he couldn't quite keep the pace (taking 5 minute breaks after every hill), so he said to go on without him. It's amazing that he does the climb every weekend!

Mary and Sohn during one of our breaks

This time 'round we took a different route, as started by Sohn, towards the east gate. This way had a gradual incline that was less rocky. We eventually reached a 715m peak (second highest). Here's the full route we followed:

Trail route

Our last point on the route (far east side) before looping back was Daenammun Gate seen from a distance below.

Here are more pictures in a set and as a slideshow.

Kindergarten Train Trip

On Thursday, we had a kindy field trip to Imjingang, which is the last station before the start of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea). When we were told that we were going on a train trip with the kids, I thought that we would be on a tourist train or a slow train made for field trips, but we took all the kindergartens on a actual train. The other passengers looked at us in horror as we boarded yelling kindergartens onto the train. We walked to the Freedom Bridge and had lunch before returning back home, exhausted. (my pictures/Craig pictures - soon)

If you have the time to download it, Craig took a clip of Tommy falling asleep on the train. It's good for a laugh.