patrickandshannoninkorea

2007-10-08T09:38:00.001+09:00

2007-09-23T12:11:00.001+09:00

This picture is for mimmy... These are all from a recent hiking trip.

2007-09-23T12:03:00.001+09:00

2007-09-23T11:59:00.000+09:00

Sorry its been a while, things have been really up in the air, but I did get a camera, and facebook... I'm slowly entering the digital age.

Posting from Patrick

2007-06-14T15:25:00.000+09:00

Well, you know what it means when I make a post. No pictures. In academic news, I am now the main writing teacher at my school as well as science. Don't ask how, I think it involved a dartboard. I also teach one grammar class, so I actually have to learn stuff for this now. I hear things are good back home. Mom's on a cruise, Mimmy's getting real internet, and the Tinn Brother's have the manliest grill ever. Shan got a letter from Granny Tripp, the first piece of mail we've gotten so far. It was great to hear about the kids growing up.

Same old stuff here. Shan is looking into taking a vacation to Thailand with some coworkers. We don't work for the same school so our schedules are different. And we're looking into coming back via the Trans-siberian railroad. We were thinking about going through India that way, but its one or the other, and I think I'll be ready to head straight in the homeward direction. Plus I'll really be ready to see western stuff like Europe and home. Anyway, we found out you can get on a train in China, so I think we're going to start looking for that.

I think the rainy season is supposed to start here pretty soon. It should be interesting, because I've never lived in a place that has a monsoon season. Not that I'll like it, but it will be different.

By the way, last weekend, we had some Canadian friends visit North Korea. I didn't know you could do that, but they took a bus up, hiked around and saw a circus, now they're back and they're ok.

Sorry its been so long since we've written, there really hasn't been much going on. Every couple of weeks my school decides to revamp its curriculum, so I'm trying to adjust constantly. Anyway, I'll write more later.

Daegu Trip and Buddha festival

2007-05-24T17:11:00.001+09:00

hey everyone!
hope things are good at home. everything here is good. we haven't hit the rainy season yet (rainy season= about a month of rain beginning in late June) and things have finally warmed up to a truly comfortable temperature. What's more is that its Buddha's Birthday!
So since the last update we've been to Daegu and back and celebrated the birth of the enlightened one.
Eunjin and her family are doing well for those of you who had the pleasure to meet her last year. We visited my old campus and hiked around for awhile on sunday, then eunjin's family took us to a mountain on the edge of the district for a cable car ride and a lovely dinner of well- being food (pronounced welbing).
The next weekend:
We celebrated Buddha's birthday with a few other teachers from a near by area and stayed downtown enjoying the festivities all day on sunday. And since Buddha's actual birthday wasn't until today (the 24th) we had an opportunity to celebrate again last night at our favorite oasis just down the street.
Its been an eventful couple of weeks - patrick and i are looking forward to resting up this weekend and enjoying a lack of preplanned activities.

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Beautiful Eunjin!!

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These are the guardians of Daegu. They scare away evil spirits.

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Buddha Festival

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the shared zen of creating pottery

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"look ferocious patrick"

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buddha loves lanterns

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doors on the temple

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buddha blesses the tourists and devout alike

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guard dog

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lantern parade

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temple by night

finally!! new pictures

2007-04-30T10:39:00.000+09:00

hey everyone,
so.... we finally got our own internet in our room. no more crouching by the window just to get a signal. we had our second round of monthly tests for the little kids this month. Overall their scantron skills are the most marked improvement I've seen since last month. Everything else seemed about the same. The first graders forgot how to apply almost everything they learned, and the older kids for the most part had a cakewalk of a day.
Patrick has been on vacation all week due to middle school mid term exams. I'm not sure if this is going to develop into a quarterly thing or not - but it would be kinda cool.
we don't have much new to report except for updating pictures because its been so long.
i think since our last update we've been to a cherry blossom festival, a live music festival, and a new park near our neck of the woods. we stay fairly busy.
in other news, my friend Ted from Tullahoma is visiting his family here in Seoul this week. We hung out last night and we'll probably make that our game plan for the week. Its so strange to still know someone so far from home. It really is a small world.
enjoy the pictures. keep in touch.

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this is whats for dinner

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Omokyo park. As you can see, everything is getting really green now.

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He was singing "wild horses."

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full bloom

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cool fountain downtown

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these are our friends - the big headed underwear models. they live in our subway station.

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mountains of king crab

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fun times in the Co-Ex shopping mall.

2007-04-19T14:24:00.000+09:00

Hey, I hope everyone is doing well. To all you east tennesseans, I hope no one was up around virginia tech a few days ago. The shooting is in the news here, because the guy was korean. I would like it if things like this didn't cue the racism, but as I've been explaining to some people around here, it always does.
In other news, last week was the first time I've ever been seriously lost here. (Or really anywhere for that matter, because I can usually ask directions or call someone and tell them where I think I am) neither of these things applied at the far north end of Seoul where I was supposed to be finding another school to help them for the day. Things are fine now though, and all I have to show for it is the biggest blisters on my feet ever.
This weekend, we should be going to EVERLAND, some kind of themepark somwhere is Seoul. I don't know much about it, but we're always up for a trip. And of course in a few weeks, we are going to visit Eunjin in Daegu, a few hours south of here. Some of you remember Eunjin, I'm sure.
Sorry no pictures, we should get the internet in our room tomorrow actually, then shan can do the voodoo picture uploading that I haven't learned yet. See you all later. Greenwell, if you see this, Happy birthday, sorry I'm not there to watch movies with you.
Patrick

exploring the boundaries of space and language

2007-03-30T11:14:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-26T11:58:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-10T12:01:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-04T18:58:00.000+09:00

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.