Seoul Museum of Chicken Art

I'll admit that I'm not a big fan of most forms of art, but come on, a whole museum dedicated to "chicken art" - you've got to be kidding me. Unfortunately, it was closed when I passed it. I would've gone inside just for a laugh.

English Diaries

Every week we give the kids a topic to write a short diary entry about. Because I'm the only native speaker at the school, I check most of them. I know I'm easily amused, but for some reason this one cracked me up when I read it. I haven't done any editing:

I like Field Trip.
Because Field Trip is exciting.
But Field Trip is dangerous.
Because teachers forgot student.
So I some hate Field Trip.

Fine Dining in Seoul

Seoul

I had a long weekend this weekend so I made my first trip up to Seoul for 2 nights. I had a really good time up there. The weather was fantastic - sunny, mid 20s and the humidity is just starting to kick in so it was okay.
My first stop was the COEX Mall which is just a huge underground mall, but it has one of the few bookstores in Korea with a good section of English language books.
Afterwards, I crossed the street to check out Bongeunsa Temple. It was nice enough, and they had a special traditional Korean lantern exhibition going on. This one is obviously some kind of soldier.

Gyeryongsan National Park

Gyeryongsan is located in the mountains to the northwest of Daejeon, only about 15km from my place. It took me an hour to get there, via 2 city buses. I went up there yesterday to go for a short hike and to get some fresh air. As it was Sunday and it's the closest national park to Daejeon, it was quite busy, and there were thousands of over-accessorized (is that even a word?) Koreans on the trails. I'm pretty sure you don't need ski pole-like hiking sticks on cement, which is what the trail was for the first section (and the only section the majority of the visitors use). A lot of them looked like they were stocked for a week in the middle of nowhere, cut off from all of humanity, rather than only a half hour walk from several restaurants. It was also great to see that even on a hike in a national park, many of them still need to yap on their cell phones. But I digress.
Although I saw literally thousands of people in the park, big surprise, I was the only foreigner. Anyways, the park was quite nice, and being in the mountains, was a bit cooler than in the city, so I'm sure I'll be up there again when the heat and humidity really kick in in the summer.

The Sweet Girl Bar

About 1 minute from my apartment, I think the picture says it all. And no, I haven't gone inside.

The Mover's Best Friend

As most Koreans live in apartments, they've found an easier way to move their junk. Rather than killing themselves going up the stairs or trying to cram it into elevators and through tight turns in the hallways, they use one of these lifts. They load it up and then send it up directly to the apartment, then go straight in through the balcony.

Inflatable Ads

I've been here 2 weeks now, and I've noticed a lot of these things around. Usually during the night they are deflated, and then they plug them in in the morning and they fill with air. However, this particular one seems to be inflated all the time. I don't know if it's for a massage parlour or just a regular bar, or what the place is, but I'm sure it's a very classy place, and it's only 30 seconds from my front door.
On an unrelated side note, I was hit by my first Korean car the other day. I go for a jog every morning and I was running across a well-marked crosswalk at the junction of a side street and a main one. Apparently the idiot coming out of the side street either didn't bother to look or just decided that the rules of the road didn't apply to him. Fortunately he decided it would be a good idea to stop rather than have me go completely over his car, and so he only hit me hard enough to go half-way onto his hood. I was able to get my hand down onto the hood to stop my fall, and I cut it on the hood ornament. He then stopped and I continued running to get out from in front of the car. I was furious so I then turned to face the car, and started screaming profanities at him in English. I'm sure he didn't understand the words, but I'll bet he could figure out the tone. The driver, a middle-aged geek with glasses, then got out of the car wearing a stupid smile. I think he was scared and was trying to placate me. I then realized that I had no real injuries and that there was no way we could communicate, so I turned and started my run again.
After having watched how Koreans drive for the last couple of weeks, I'm quite certain that I'll be hit again. Stay tuned.