Uneventful...Just the way I like it...

If I've learned one thing about living in Korea, it is this:  there will never be a shortage of things for me to look at, be inspired by or make me laugh, just by looking at them.  In the course of any given day (especially those spent in Seoul), I see sooo many things that are intriguing, hilarious, heartwarming and delightful that I couldn't begin to record them all.  A small sample of the things I remember from this weekend:

- Two grown men laughing like school girls, walking arm in arm through the subway station
- Countless adorable children.  Everywhere.
- Koreans with bleach blond hair.  You know that's not real.
- Korean couples.  They match their clothes, they share ipod ear buds and the men carry the women's purses.  So weird.  So awesome.
- Any and all ajumas (Korean middle aged women who have had children - they are frequently stereotyped here, and as much as I hate stereotypes, I have to admit that I have encountered more than a few who perpetuate the stereotype to a T.  Many of them are really pushy and they cover their short permed haircut with huge obnoxious sun visors to keep their skin nice and white.  They also often look they are about to hike to the top of a large peak, but they're mostly walking around town from what I gather...)  Here's the perfect stereotypical gaggle of ajumas thanks to Google images:

Now for a recap of Saturday's events:
Diane's and my plans were foiled by the weather this weekend.  We had planned to take a cruise on the Han River, which runs right through Seoul.  But, as I arrived at our meeting place and noticed it was too foggy to see across the river, let alone see anything of note from the boat I called Diane and suggested a change of plans.  We found ourselves in one of our old standbys:  Myeong Dong.  Our first order of business was to find something for lunch and when we saw this sign, we knew we were in business:

Reels you right in, eh?

 We wandered up to the second floor to find a delightful dok buki restaurant.  Though it was different than the fare to which I have become accustomed at E-Mart, it was certainly tasty!  We knew it had to be a legit restaurant when we found aprons to wear at our table.  Nice.  And, the food was served in Peter Rabbit bowls.  Even if the food had tasted like junk, I would have been impressed by these two discoveries.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering in and out of shops, eating almost foot long ice cream cones (yogurt and strawberry twist for me!) and watching two ajumas fight (literally) in the middle of the street over a folding card table.

Honestly, the day was pretty uneventful, which is the way I like it.  For dinner, we found a Japanese curry restaurant, and after a bit of a treasure hunt to find its entrance, we found ourselves seated in the window of the second floor building overlooking the bustling street below.  The owner of the restaurant was the sweetest woman.  She is from Silicone Valley, CA but comes back to Korea every couple of months to check on her restaurant, from what I understood.  She was really interested in Diane's and my teaching experience and wanted to make sure that we were enjoying our time in Korea.  She was a joy to talk to and you better believe we will be frequent visitors of her delightful restaurant.

After dinner, Diane and I made our way to the Seoul Lantern Festival.  There were thousands of lanterns on display, some homemade by visitors of the festival and some sent from around the world.  The lanterns were put out to symbolize hope and wishes for the future.  Diane and I arrived well after it had gotten dark outside and the lanterns lit up the area beautifully.  There were lots of people there but this crowd was much more manageable than the crazies at the Fireworks Festival.  Here's a couple of lantern pictures for your enjoyment:

Nothing too exciting happened today.  The semester is starting to wind down.  This week I give final exams to the Level 3 students, next week's schedule is bananas (Monday and Wednesday are only morning classes, no classes whatsoever on Tuesday, no school on Thursday because of the Korean SAT tests, and a normal day on Friday).  The week after that are my finals for Levels 1 and 2 and after that, it's a downhill slope toward Winter Break.  Hooray!