For having such long work days (9 a.m.-7:30 p.m.) the weeks seem to go by very fast. I have been here for 5 weeks now and time hasn't slowed down yet! Weekends here are very relaxing, although it seems most people do anything but relax. It's a nice time to go out and explore more parts of Seoul and to find new things. Not a lot happend last week besides work. This week however, I did a little more. Emily's dad is on a business trip throughout Asia. He was in Seoul for most of the week before leaving to go to China and Japan. On Thursday, Emily, myself and a few of her co-workers took Steve (emily's dad) out to dinner at a Thai restaurant. It was my first time having Thai food and I thought it was very delicious. I had a chicken dish with some veggies top with a ginger sauce, and of course, rice. The food was very good but I felt the portion was a little small. Definately a place I will return to in the future.
Saturday was Steve's last full day in Seoul so Emily took him around to some cool things in the city. I met up with them in the afternoon and we went to the Korean War Memorial. It was an awesome place to go. Outside of the memorial, there were airplanes, tanks, trucks, huge machine guns, and helicopters that were used in war. A few of them you could actually go inside of. This picture below is of a tanker that can be used on land as well as in the water. The back door was open were soldiers would come out of. I went inside and attempted to get into either the driver or gunner seat. It was a very very tight squeeze but I managed to get in.
Another cool part thing outside was a monument/statue of two korean soldiers hugging each other. The bigger man with the gun on his back was a South Korean soldier, while the the smaller man was a North Korean soldier. The cool thing about it is that these men are brothers. The statue shows the willingness for these two men to forgive each other for the violence, tradegy, and problems that have gone on. There is also a split up the side of the monument between the men showing the division that still exists between South and North Korea.
Peace clock tower. There was another clock on the ground behind where I was standing that will be turned on at the time when peace is ever restored between N and S Korea. If this happens, that clock will be added to the peace clock tower.
A monument right when you enter the main gate. Apparently many people stand underneath this hand and get their picture taken.
View of the War Memorial from the front. For the picture on the left I sat my camera down on the stone near the edge of the water. It turned out much better than the same picture I took holding my camera. Once inside the museum/memorial there was a ton of stuff to see. We started off by going to the "war experience" room. Everyone went in this room that was made out to look like a battle during the Korean War. All the lights turned off and it took us through a 5 minute experience of what a battle might have looked like and sounded like during this war using nearly life-size men as soldiers. Next, we went through a few room that showed what life was like during the war. There were little villages, schools, and towns set up. It was kind of creepy because the people looked very real.
Creepy girl that was part of the korean life exhibit during the war
Another room we went to was an exhibit of each country that either sent medical/food support or that fought in the Korean War. Each country had a life like soldier/nurse along with information about how long they served, number of people that came over, number of deaths and injuries. There was also medals, weapons, and other gear that each country used. Below is the American soldier and some medals that soldiers could have gotten.
My favorite part of this room was an exhibit called "The Drop". It consisted of 1300 dog tags in the shape of a tear. It represented those who served and died in the war. The bottom was sand that had a ripple effect in it, as if the tear dropped.
We also went through an exhibit that depicted each war Korea has been involved in. There were weapons, many pictures, information of the war and the result. There was also a section of the terrorist attacks North Korea has been involved in with Koreans, Americans, and others. Finally, with just a few minutes left before the museum closed we walked around to see some other planes, tanks, and cars that were used in the war that were inside. I liked this museum a lot because there was a major focus on the Korean War, but there was also information from every war in Korean history. Ancient and modern wars were all represented inside the museum. There were some big fighter planes and tanks outside that we did not see because they were closing. I would like to return to the memorial again sometime. It would be very easy to spend 4-5 hours there and not get the least bit bored.
After leaving the memorial, we took Emily's dad to a Korean barbeque restaurant that she lives by. She goes there so often that the manager gives her coupons once in awhile. And we even got one last night too! Korean barbeque is definately my favorited food here, I will have to take a picture of the setup sometime an put it on here. Lastly, we went to a noribang. At these places you rent out a room and get to sing karoke. There are million songs to choose from. It was really fun. It would be easy to drop alot of money and spend hours in there. That was another first for me since I have been in Korea! I don't have any pictures of that on my camera, I will have to get those from Emily sometime and put them on here. So things have been going very well here so far. I can't believe its been over a month. Time has gone by very quick! Everything at school is going well too. We have monthly testing this week, which is what teachers look forward too. Watching kids take tests for hours. Then, next week we have some Halloween things to do with the kindergarteners so I have to find a costume. I'm not too sure how well that is going to work. Halloween is not really celebrated here so only a few places even sell costumes, and I hear they are expensive and you HAVE to rent them, which makes it worse. But who knows, I'll see what I can do! I saw the Hawks won again yesterday! I listened to a little bit of it on my computer, but it started at 1 a.m. here so I was too tired to listen to it all. Hopefully they will have a little jump up when the standings come out on Monday since 1 or 2 teams above them both lost this weekend. 7-0!!
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