And Now it's Novemeber!

It is exactly 2 months since our last post, which makes us pretty much epic failures at blogging from Korea. In all fairness to us though, quite a bit has happened in the last two months. Quite frankly, we are exhausted!

Both sets of parentals (Stave and Lavender) flew in to visit on different trips. We studied for and took the GRE to get into graduate school. And we also celebrated our 1st anniversary by going to Malaysia during Chuseok (more on that trip in a later post).

Claytons parents came to visit at the end of August and mine came in October. We took both sets of parents to see some of the sights in Seoul : Insadong, Namdaemun Market, places we have written about already.  But we also went on different excursions outside of Seoul with them.

When Claytons parents visited, we went to Gyeongju. Gyeongju is sometimes referred to as the 'museum without walls.' It was the capital of an ancient kingdom in Korea and there are many grassy tombs throughout the city. The tombs were massive and the city was built around them. A love hotel or apartment building would sit right next to this incredibly old piece of history. There are also many temples and palaces. We visited for only a few days, so we could not see the entirety of the city. But we did get to see quite a bit. We also visited the beach nearby. And, as we have discovered several times, the bus ride through the countryside was just as beautiful as the destination.  Here are some photos from their trip:

An old astronomy tower.

Tombs. Dead kings inside.

Most amazing buns... ever.

Gotta love it when you go to the beach and make friends with a  bunch of Sri Lankan monks!

Ssambap. Not the best meal we have ever had, but it shows a Korean style dinner table.

Ajumma visors. You're just jealous you don't have one.



We also went to see Seoul Tower for the first time with Jeff and Yvonne. Perhaps my favorite part of Seoul Tower was the locks that lined the fence around the tower. They were covered in locks on which people had written their names, dedications, and inside jokes. It was a lovely day, so we had a great view of Seoul from atop the tower. 

It was really wonderful of Claytons parents to come visit. We definitely didn't expect that all four of our parents would be able to visit us in our year here in Korea. We  miss everyone and it was really good to get hugs from our family.

More on my parents visit to follow.

Ready... Set... COLOR!

A few weeks ago we took the kids of Grace School to an exhibit at the Seongnam Arts Center called the "Color Playground."

First, they took the kids on a tour of different kinds of art, including paintings of which they could be a part.

They are always so well behaved on field trips. At time we wonder if they are the same children we teach every day

They went through several exhibits, including one where they turned off the lights and turned on a bubble machine!

There was a shadow puppet exhibit.

 

The main attraction of the Color Playground was fingerpainting these cars! They poured some paint on the tables and let the kids have at it. No smocks or anything.

Fingerpainting...this way! 

Green hands!

Yellow hands!

 Multi-colored hands!

 Un-impressed hands.

 Monster hands!

 

Roy hands.

 Getting more paint for the cars.

 After painting the cars, they gave all the children rags and had them clean up!

 Clean-ish hands!

 Jump!

 After the painting adventure, we found a room filled with packing peanuts and dark blue lights. We took the kids inside and went nuts! Their favorite part was covering the teachers with them.

 Aaaahhhh!

Clearly they were not having any fun. 

 All in all, it was definitely one of our best field trips ever.

Rhinestone Shades or Cheap Sunglasses.

In July we had two days off work, so we made the most of the long weekend and took a train to Busan, the second largest city in Korea and home to many beaches. We played on the beach, ate some interesting new cuisine, saw a fish market and a few other sights, took way too many pictures and mainly just relaxed! It was a much needed, if somewhat short break.

Haeundae Beach. We went on a Thursday, so it wasn't too crowded.

Because heaven forbid you get sun on  your skin at the beach.

Happy Happy Happy!

Clayton lost his sunglasses in the ocean, so we found him these aweome cheap shades at a nearby market.

The view from our Love Motel.

We met some random teenage girls on the beach who forced us to kiss while they took a picture. Who are we to decline?

Digging a hole to... Oregon?

Ready... Set... Jump!

The neverending subway car!

Jagalchi Fish Market. It is the largest fish market in Korea.

"Don't eat me!"

This fish were so colorful. I couldn't imagine eating them!

Hey everyone!

Give me five!

Say...Kimchi!

The view from Busan Tower.

The top of a nearby building.

Busan Tower

Gwanggali Beach, where we stayed the last two nights.

The bridge continuously changed color.

On our way to dinner. Raw fish anyone?

On our walk down the beach to dinner, we encountered these two mimes fighting in slow motion. It was a grueling match that ended in a good old fashioned game of Rock. Paper. Scissors.

We were told that we had to eat raw fish in Busan. However, we both agree that we have had better sashimi elsewhere for much cheaper.

A plethora of side dishes.

Don't forget to eat your roasted silkworm larvae! Yum!

(We still haven't actually tried this. You see it frequently sold by street vendors, but we had never seen it in a restaurant before. ) 

Live, squirming sea-worm. It was impossible to chew and had virtually no taste. The ones we didn't eat stayed alive throughout our entire meal. This only made us think about the fact that the ones we did eat were probably doing the backstroke in our stomachs.

Beach loveliness before we left!

Busan Station.

In Korea, many young couples wear matching "couples shirts." Ours may not exactly count, because they aren't the same color... but we felt we looked adequately ridiculous to take a picture.

Goodby Busan!