Seoul! (Lots of potential puns that I will resist from writing)

So Seoul was amazing, pretty much sensory overload, except that unlike Busan it does not smell horrible everywhere. We arrived Friday night and walked around Hongdae and went out for a bit. Saturday we visited Changdeok Palace which was pretty awesome. We went on what turned out to be a 1 hour and 45 min hiking tour of the grounds in Korean but it was nice to see some nature and get a little culture in. We then had the most amazing lunch in Insadong. Dumpling soup from this family owned restaurant and it was by far the best Korean food that I have had. In addition to our dumpling soup we had an awesome Kimchi pancake and some Malki, rice wine. After getting completely stuff we briefly walked around Insadong which is a pretty arty area, lots of galleries with traditional Korean art and shops to buy ceramics and whatnot. Dinner was Spanish tapas, another great meal before going out. We didn't make it out very long as we were pretty exhausted from all our culture that day. Sunday morning/noon we had lunch at a Turkish restaurant that was surprisingly busy for a Sunday morning, must have been the church crowd. Then we spent the rest of the day doing some shopping and walking around. Once we couldn't walk any more and just wanted to lie down in the street from exhaustion we headed back to Seoul station and got on a train for Busan. Quite a successful trip, I can't wait to go back!

Yum

Almost forgot to capture out amazing meal

Turkish amazingness

Perfect footwear for a hike

Some Cuties

One of the cutest little girls ever. She is in second grade and insanely smart.

Twins! They did not want to have their photo taken

Another one of my favorite students. His name is Miles and he has the most severe case of ADD I have ever witnessed. He is hysterical.

The two Jenny's who have only now become friends. They are both super young, brilliant and adorable and they hold hands everywhere they go. I have to really resist squeezing them whenever I see them.

Another Inspirational Article About Korea

New York Times article on marines in Korea
Shit like this really bothers me about Korea. I think it is an continuation of the abuse that all of our student face at school from their teachers and at home from their fathers. When discussing what kids in elementary school didn't like about their parents one little girl that barely speaks, always looks terrified and apparently wet herself from nerves in one class said that she doesn't like it when her dad hits her. I can only imagine that if this poor girl wasn't beaten by her father she might be a little more inclined to make friends and be outgoing in class. As it is she perpetually looks terrified. I once hit the desk of a student that kept falling asleep in class and the look of fear in his eyes when he jumped awake totally caught me off guard. It would never occur to me that a teacher would ever hit me, and I could never hit a student, but to him it seemed natural that I would be planning on hitting him for sleeping rather than just trying to wake him up.
Also, every student tells me how summer is the worst time of year because rather than getting time off to relax their schedules become even harder. One of my middle school students spends Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at academies or traveling between them from 9 in the morning until 10 at night. I can't even imagine how much that would suck. When I told them that the most homework I ever had over the summer was summer reading in high school I'm pretty sure they wanted to punch me. But they seem so used to it that they never really complain or anything. Needless to say, every day that I spend teaching Korean kids makes me even more thankful that I grew up in America. Our education may a shadow of what they receive but unlike them I was able to have a childhood and a few life experiences under my belt by the time I was 18, something that I would not say of a single one of my students.
In other news we had one day of sun on Saturday so I finally got to go to the beach! It was a great day/night of hanging out, swimming, eating and drinking (so all of my favorite activities). Back to working 10 hour days but at least I got one day of fun in. It poured rain today but hopefully the weekend will be nice.