This  is going to be just pictures this time around.   

   this is christmas.  shana curling her hair on the subway before dinner.  The wall of Santa is for mom.  and that is me by the weird lady statue. there are more photos but i have to wait for people to put them on facebook.com. 

This is the winter festival down by the river.  they do one for each season.  

 

This is Shana and her friend Shaun.  

He visited for about 2 weeks. This is Shaun tying my shoes cause my skirt is too short to do it myself.  this is the Korean way men do everything women just look cute!

   This is Hyun Su, isn't he cute? I think he is he is very kind. 

Snowing in Seoul.

Here are some Waygooks.  shana and i are sooooo Korean.  They give the Peace sign but they put it off their eyes.

   This is Hyun Su's friend.  We all had lunch one day.

 this is a video of the winter festival.  its one of the light shows. This one is over the river.  the lasers are going through a generated mist.  

Seoul is very safe. It is bigger than NYC, size and population. It has 10% of the crime. That still means don't be stupid but I feel very safe. I am getting around the city well. I take the subway almost every where I need to go. If I can't take the subway I will take a cab or the occasional bus. I am glad I don't have a car here they are crazy drivers. Their drivers are crazier than Uncle Gary. If I were to drive I would get a moped or motorcycle. Then I could ride on the sidewalks with the rest of the bikers. Yes that is right, walkers beware!

Not only do I have a nice group of Way-gook (American) and other foreigner friends, we also have a very cool group of Korans that hangout with us. Shana, I would say is my best friend here. Her and I met at orientation and are different enough that we complement each other well. Then there is Tony, Lavonne, Annie and Jordan, Stacey, Kenneth, Christie and several others. It's a very nice network we have. We use Facebook.com to communicate and network through. You can put in my name to find me.

Shana, Tony, and I have our coffee shop, 17번가(17th st.). However I would like to point out that it was I that found the shop. There we have met several Koreans. they are not only helpful but a great group of people. They are all learning English and love that we frequent the shop. Young Suk is the owner of the shop.

The first day we showed up, ten days after they opened, I almost gave him a heart attack. Let me tell you he is healthy and in shape. He is a black belt in Teakwondo. He called his girlfriend Kyoung Rok, she is studding English but is not fluent, especially not on the phone. She is great and we will miss her greatly. She will be moving to Victoria, Canada in February. Hyon Su opened the shop with Young Suk and calls himself the CEO. He is also a private computer consultant. We are dating if you can call it that. He works all the time, that is the Korean way. I sit at the shop and we talk. He is not fluent in English but he is learning. He has picked up so much just by talking with us.

I am teaching middle school. they are 14, 15, and 16 years old in Korean age. they would be 13, 14, and 15 years old in America. They are well, it depends on the day. It is getting closer and closer to Winter break. So they are getting less and less focused. I have 23 classes a week. I have three days of five classes and two days of four classes. they are 45 minute classes.

Yes, Korean has a thanks giving. It is called 추석 (Chu-sak). It is way earlier. Chusak for Korea is in September.

Dude, I am eating Korean food. Also, I eat Indian, Mexican, Italian, and tonight I had an American hamburger.

So that is just a quick update. Sorry if you see this before I can get pictures up. I have pictures of most of the people I mentioned. Unless you have forgotten what I look like you can figure out who is Shana in the photo.