Confucious Say...

This is the white board in the kitchen where we're staying. Someone keeps putting up Confucious Say statements...I wonder who that could be????

Cheongbukgong Palace

Here we are at the front gate of the Cheongbukgong Palace in downtown Seoul. We just saw the changing of the guards ceremony...quite spectacular! This place was enormous and every time we turned the corner, there was another stunning building.

Um...

What did we buy? This is actually the receipt for one of the tables for Mark's B-day. 72,500 Won, which equals $55.00.

Happy Birthday Mark!

Surprise, Surprise. Mark made friends with the owner and chef of the local Sum Gyup Sai place where we've eaten at twice this week. We had a crew of 20 people out for his birthday tonight. We ate like kings for 3 bucks a piece! This is a bottle of sweet raspberry wine that the owner gave Mark as a present.

Hot Chocolate Machine

So this is the Coffee/Hot Chocolate machine that has been so blessedly placed in the hallway of our school. For about 20 cents I can get a shot of Hot Chocolate in between classes. The cup that comes out (below) of the little black door on the bottom is about the size of a dixie cup you would use in your bathroom and is half full. I so look forward to my two ounces of Hot Chocolate every hour or so.

Snowballs

I am fully addicted to these snowballs. They are 70 cents at the convenience store across the street from us. The white part is Tapioca flour and inside is a sweet red bean paste. The whole thing is the size of your balled up fist.

Happy New Year!

We went to another Korean BBQ with all the teachers for our New Year's Eve dinner...it was sooooo good! Can you say Sum Gyup Sire? That's the name of this specific dish.

Check us out in our zebra striped bar...are we north cackilacky bumpkins or what? No one in the bar celebrated New Year's...Koreans do it all on the Lunar New Year. So here we all are, a bunch of Americans, the only ones screaming at midnight. Quite odd!

Our house mother (the nice Korean lady in charge of our dorm) cooked this for us...it's called Dak Kune and is the traditional meal for New Year's Day...for those that do celebrate! The white thingy's are rice noodle patties and there's also beef, egg, and seaweed in there too. It tastes a lot like chicken noodle soup...very comforting!