This was an ancient river that ran through the heart of Seoul and had been buried for about 50 years. It was a few days after our weekend in Seoul that we learned that it had been covered by an elevated highway, until a few years ago. After our visit we saw a program on the Discovery Channel that covered its incredible transformation. The six kilometer river was uncovered without disturbing any traffic around the site or the ancient history underneath. We stumbled upon this area while trying to find Dongdaemun Market. We went on Sunday and most of the shops in the area seemed to be closed. If we had know the significance of the area we may have explored further.

We walked to the bus station on Saturday morning and were surprised to find a wait of 45 minutes until there was a bus with any room going to Seoul. We ran into one the teachers we work with and found she was headed to Seoul as well on the same bus. We were happy to have the company while we waited. By the time we arrived in Seoul i had started feeling ill. My stomach felt awful and i could feel another cold coming on. After we checked in to our hotel we searched the area for a travel agent's office we had seen on the internet. There are no street addresses, so we had to go by my memory of a map i had seen on their outdated website. It took a few passes up and down the street, but we finally found the place a half hour before it closed. We booked tickets for Tokyo, and we'll be spending eight days during Christmas week in the Land of the Rising Sun. All we have to do now is figure out a decent hotel. After that we headed to the electronics market Yongsan to find a few PSP games for my birthday and an MP3 player for C for Christmas. We never had any lucky finding English games, but we found a nice Sony MP3 for C. Heading back toward the hotel for supper we decided to get Subs from Subway instead of the steaks we were craving for weeks, because of the way i was feeling. Overall the trip was a kind of disappointing. We didn't get to do as much as we had planned and we both slept badly. Hopefully this next weekend will be better when we head back to pick our plane tickets.

The last week has been very busy at work. Test time coinciding with the end of the month keeps me perpetually busy. Always something to do for me, and i'm pretty sure i have way more students than any of the other teachers. Just before my birthday i got a great present from C's parents. They know of my obsession with those lovable(?) losers, the Edmonton Oilers. I don't know why i, but i scream at the TV like a insane man whenever i watch them play. They're number two on the list of the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked that i cheer for. Number one are the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Anyway, C's parents bought me an Oilers t-shirt and hoodie that i'll wear until C pries it's threadbare, holey, faded mess from my cold dead body. Wow, i really rambled incoherently tonight. I think i need to update more often.
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You Don't Belong

Hey, you!
Is there something worth aspiring to?
And can it be found in a record store?
Well it's not there anymore
Just think of all the things we did
We were different
Just like all the other kids

Missy was a teen blue video star
Tom took his life in his mother's car
Milo went to college but you knew about that
Rodney played our record
Gg started riots
Laurie was always quiet
She was battling depression

Hey, you!
Is there something worth belonging to?
And can I pick it up for a song?
Or a diploma or a worthy cause?
Well let me tell you that there's something wrong
It's just that ones like us will never belong

Jack wore a skirt but he knew how to scrap
Billy went to county on a class one possession
Wendy went to school while her daddy shot smack
Eugene kept a list
Mugger was security
Mary she kept her purity
We were all in it together

Yellowed postcards on the wall
Serve to cover up a blankness after all
So I will carry them along
Like a song when I'm gone yeah

Hey, you!
Is there something worth belonging to?
You know we've been here all along
Like a confederacy of the wrong
And I confess it could be prejudice
But to you I dedicate this song
Yeah to you

-Greg Graffin and Brett Gurewitz
Bad Religion

The pic is from the free bus tour we took during the Hanji Festival a few weekends ago. This 1000 year old pagoda and one other are all that remain of a Buddhist temple. The turtle on the bottom has a dragon's head and above it are two dragons fighting over a magic stone that bestows omnipotence on the one who acquires it. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

During the festival one of the teachers from our hagwon was helping out by providing English to foreigners at the festival. Everytime we went to talk to her a woman would pop out of nowhere and try to take a candid picture of us with her. She was the one who recommended the tour to us. Even though it was only in Korean it sounded interesting to us. The tour had a still and movie camera men recording it. During the first part of the trip we caught them trying to take pictures of us. Finally the still camera guy asked for a photo and we obliged with hopes that it would stop, and the rest of the tour we weren't bothered. We were pretty lucky that most of the stops at least had an English sign or two to let us know the significance of the site.

It looks like we should get nine days in a row off for Christmas vacation. At first C was really set on Austalia for Christmas, but i think we want to try to see it on the way home. After checking it out we decided there just won't be enough time to really see as much as we want. I talked C into looking at Japan even though she had no interest and she's starting to get enthusiastic. Once she saw they have a Disneyland in Tokyo she started to perk up.

We should be going to Seoul this coming weekend, in part to celebrate the passing of yet another year in my life. It should be fun getting away from here for a bit and doing some shopping. I usually get pretty down this time of year, but so far so good. We'll see what happen in the next week or so...
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On Thursday night everyone from the academy went out for supper to say goodbye to one of the teachers who's leaving to have a baby. We went to one of the restaurants we had gone to the first week we were here. We had a good meal and tried a few new things. Afterwards a few of the teachers and the directors wife went to a "norae bang". It's basically a bunch of private rooms with big screen TV's, karaoke machines, and a couple of microphones. I thought i would need way more soju to get into it, but after a butchering a few songs i loosened up. C started me off by forcing me to sing a version of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" that would put William Hung to shame. After a few more C and i ended up doing a little duet to Aqua's "Barbie Girl". Even though the secretary speaks almost zero English, her and the other teachers would laugh hysterically every time i said, "Come on Barbie let's go party." They said that had to be our song. I ended up with the last song of the night. The big finish was a rousing personal rendition of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline". I even added some "Bump, Bump, Baaa's" in the chorus that everyone seemed to love (laugh at). It was a really fun night that i actually look forward to doing again some time.

Not much happened this weekend. C's been pretty down lately, especially today. My sister called in the middle of the day, which seemed to lift her spirits quite a bit. We went for a walk downtown and after buying some blankets stopped in at Baskin Robbins for a treat. As we sat in the window right on the corner feeling like animals in the zoo, some old crazy looking guy banged on the window trying to get our attention. When he finally got mine he shouted something at me through the glass and made some motion with his hand towards the sky. I pretended like i understood and he left. To me, it looked like he was telling us to get the hell out of the country or something. Ignorance really is bliss. Because of my extremely limited understanding of the language i don't know when someone's telling me to fuck off. From what i've read on other blogs there are a lot of Koreans who don't like foreigners and aren't afraid to tell them. My limited knowledge limits those bad experiences. I don't plan on learning much more than i need to get by.
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I'm still alive if anyone is wondering. I've been sleeping even stranger hours than usual. In the last two weeks i've had two nights of 12+ hours of sleep followed by nights with less than four. An addiction to a new game hasn't helped my blogging.

The picture is from Wonju's 7th annual Hanji (Paper) Festival. Thousands of hand-made paper lanterns were shown off near the stadium. The stadium grounds were covered with tents for demonstrations, craft making, and even a stage for live music. We were the only foreigners on a free bus tour (in Korean) of some historic sights around Wonju. I'll try and write more about the festival and bus tour and post more pictures soon.

We're going out with everyone from work tomorrow tonight to say goodbye to one of the Korean teachers from work. She's leaving to have a baby. C and i only learned today that she won't be coming back. I'll try to take some pictures and not get too drunk on Soju.
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