exploring the boundaries of space and language

ok, so i've found a new internet network to pilfer so long as i sit this certain way near the window. this position though causing a slight crick in my neck, allowed me to upload some more photos of life here. we go on walks almost every sunday, weather permitting, to explore our area and find cool things. this weekend's endevor was in search of a new place to buy household goods instead of contributing to the department store feeding frenzy. Basically, shopping at the local 'homever' is like shopping at walmart the week before Christmas all the time.
so we wandered around and found Nambu market. a lucky strike in this upscale area!
this is one of those lovely places that goes from shoes to fish to brooms to toys in about 40 feet. i would say it extended narrowly like this for about 3 big city blocks.
we also found some signs of the emerging spring weather.



So far we've thoroughly explored about 8 or 9 square city blocks and we still keep finding new things. There's never ending construction and things seem to be created and demolished in the blink of an eye.

The rest of these pictures are pretty much other random sites we've encountered, but i couldn't fit them into any sort of logical or poetic sequence. enjoy!


wine corkers in hyundai department store


this is an etiquette bell in a bathroom stall.


this is patrick's favorite picture so far, ever


another picture of one of my classes --- too cute, little devils!

More news from korea

Hello all. Sorry we haven't been completely on with contacting people. The wireless network we were mooching off of in the apartment went away. We both still have internet at work, so we'll be in touch. Anyway, its the same stuff here really. We're starting to learn our way around our small area of Seoul. I hope you all had excellent St. Patricks day celebrations and even better Patrick's birthday celebrations a week later.

We have found a standard crew of Americans and Canadians that like to go out on the weekends with only minimal complaining about work. (Whining is a popular passtime here, by the way). The best thing I can show you, I guess is new pictures.

Here is picture of shannon's kids. I really like the sneaky look on their faces, its pretty standard for these young koreans.

I'm sorry, there should be more stuff here, but I don't have the patience to work these websites, I can't figure out how to add more than one picture to a post. You'll just have to wait for the more techno savy shannon. Drop us an email sometime.

here we are

We live in a pretty well off area of Seoul called MokDong. In this five mile radius there are tons of apartment buildings and private academies for various skills such as English, math, or science. There's also a giant hyundai department store as well as other places to by everything you could possibly need in a department store/walmart type setting (as opposed to bargaining with street vendors, though there are plenty of those as well).
this is our apartment.




and our view



Notably in this area there is the German Korean Institute of technology, a hospital and medical research center, and a really nice park.
The school franchise that we work for is called Poly School. They have an amazing reputation throughout Seoul because their mission was to help kids that had gained English skills by living in an English speaking country retain those skills here in Korea. Once Korean mother's caught on that this was the place where native English speakers were teaching high-level fluency children, the fire was lit and nothing could stop them from sending their own children to Poly (be it fee or proximity).
Korean mothers are apparently quite the force as far as schools are concerned. If children from my school have less than about an hour and a half of homework they will call to complain. But if they have more than two hours they'll call to complain as well. If Korean mothers become aware of anything that will give their child an edge they will launch a phone campaign to make it happen. They are relentless and very demanding. Luckily, i don't have to deal with Korean mothers unless its specifically requested, and even then i wouldn't take them on alone, i'd have a mediator such as the school director.
They keep us in check, and their dedication to the success of their children is pretty amazing.
However
even in this area they are not immune from the Korean fancy for funny signs





and my personal favorite



enjoy!

first post

Hello all,

As soon as we get this blog page fixed up and power converters for our primitive flat plugs so that we can charge the camera, we will make this a great site for you all to check in on us here in korea. The past few days have been kinda lazy, with just exploring and doing some teaching observation at other schools around seoul so that we know our way around the classroom. But, as soon as we get some pictures, this blog will be much more enjoyable, after that, we will probably send out the address, so that you'll actually have something to look at when you check the page out.

The only big news is that Shannon did better than 96% of LSAT takers and she is very pleased with that. And we are about to start teaching, although Patrick still has to go to Japan first to be a legal member of the workforce.