Happy New Year!

12/31/06

Here's a sweet dragon car (that totes sightseers around) I took a picture of today while walking around the Suwon Fortress. It's an enormous guard wall that stretches around a portion of Suwon, a suburb to the south of Seoul. I don't really know why the wall was constructed, nor do i really care. I do know i had enough time left in the day to walk half of it and i plan to go back and take more pictures soon. The area, about an hour+ sub ride from Suyu (my suburb), has a lot of neat things and i even saw a mexican restaurant i plan on trying out.

On the way home I stopped in Jonggak to get a book and there were firework vendors on the streets shooting their products up in the air. Apparently everyone likes colorful explosions. Not feeling great and had a few drinks last night with my high school friend, Jeff Potter, so I probably wont be going out. A calm night in for the New Years. I know i've been dissapointed since high school about how new year's parties go. It always feels like it's a big build up to a big let down. Perhaps i'm hoping for something that doesn't exist. Wish i knew what that was. Hasta

kc

First Sticky Snow

12.19.06

This is what it looked like a few days ago when i woke up. Now most of it is gone or slinking around in those parts of the city that are shadowed all day. It's encouraging for a white christmas, though. Haven't seen one of those in the last several trips around the sun.

kc

12.14.06

Tried to post this once then accidentally deleted it. Here it is again with less text, which is probably better for all involved...

kc

Andy Warhol

12/10/06

Today we went to Insadong. It's a touristy strip of shops that is fun to walk through. It's mildly humorous that a lot of the stuff in Korea says "made in China", too. There was an Andy Warhol tribute thing there where people who had made similar art posted in the little area. These odd looking blokes are a few of the pieces. Sitting next to them is my new roommate, David (aka So Cal). Behind him you can see blue umbrellas hanging from wires that were painted to look like a lightly cloudy sky. Not a big Warhol fan, but some of the stuff was kind of neat. Got some chicken on a stick (roughly shishkabob) which was really good.

This coming weekend we have the school's New Years Eve party. Two weeks early. Not really sure why we can't have it closer to the actual new year, but whatever. Free food and drinks are not something i scoff at. Not too much else new. Learning the language slowly, but with progress here and there. Or 'yogi' and 'chogi', to speak in Hangul (Korean). Figuring out the names of all the foods i like. The dumplings are great. Fried. Boiled. Whatever. Christmas is coming soon, obviously, and i've got all the gifts for the folks. Gotta put them in the mail tomorrow. That's it for now,

kc

First Snow

11.30.06

The first snow flakes of winter fell this morning in seoul. Shop keepers swept the trees' leftover leaves into yellow piles on the street so sidewalks would retain their muted colors - shades that don't steal attention from bright, new winter coat window displays and shiny sale signs....