Typhoonicity

Hey everyone,

Hope you enjoy the cycling polar bear on the right, he can be found at Gwanghwamun (광화문), in old downtown Seoul, at the Green Growth Korea building.  I don't know how he hasn't melted and withered away in the heat and humidity here, but apparently he has some sort of miraculous cooling system.  Anyways, time to recap the last week for all you beautiful people.  The Friday before last (not this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113118/ )  or this,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195945/, or this,  
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293815/, but two Fridays ago, we had a going away dinner for our old vice-principal and principal; both of them were moving on to new schools (my old VP got promoted to principal).  The dinner was great!  We went to a tofu restaurant (sundubu: 순두부) and had some delicious bean curd.  This past Friday, we had a welcoming dinner for the new VP and principal at a sushi house, which was also pretty amazing.  I find myself getting really comfortable with these weekly dinners and I hope they keep happening (unfortunately I don't think they will).  But, before I get too far ahead in last week's timeline, let me back things up to last Wednesday.  I got to leave school early in the afternoon to head into a travel agency in Seoul, trying to find a way to China for Chuseok.  Unfortunately, I waited too long and flights were full and expensive, not to mention the 200,000 won visa (Thanks U.S. citizenship!).  Thankfully the afternoon was not a total lost cause; I finally got to take some pictures of the awesome animal display outside the Sejong Center in Gwanghwamun.  Check these guys out:

Glass horse? or maybe Dark Horse?

Clifford the Big Green and Red-Spotted Dog?

 

 

Babar!

Straw Alfalfa

and of course, an animal exhibit wouldn't be complete without the namesake:

A Wolffish, perhaps?

The trip to Gwanghwamun was made complete and fulfilling with a choice dinner spot at Tomatillo Grill, the closest to Chipotle that you can get in Korea and totally worth every won spent there.  Here's the menu:  
http://www.tomatillo.co.kr/sub02_01.html.  MMMmm...burrrrrrrrrito!

Some of you may have heard or seen on the news that a typhoon swept through Korea last Thursday.  Typhoon Kompasu hit Suwon early Thursday morning around 2 am and knocked out the power in my apartment.  Thankfully I had unplugged pretty much everything so nothing important got knocked out.  At school the next day the power was out, which meant no A/C, no computer or Internet, and no lights.  No school lunch either, so I only had to teach one class.  In the afternoon the power came back on, but my Internet was still out.  Seeing that I didn't really have anything to do and I had already napped earlier in the morning, I snuck into the music room and tucked in at the piano.  I was heard by one of the assistant caretakers/librarian? who is a few years younger than me and because he is ineligible for the army (poor eyesight), he is placed at our school to work instead.  Anyways, he plays the guitar and he came in to jam, which we did for a little while.  Needless to say it was a lot of fun. 

This past weekend flew by.  Saturday night there was a kickoff party for Fall Ultimate Frisbee League in Itaewon, which was great, a really good time and a great turnout.  Unfortunately, league play got rained out on Sunday, but I'm really excited to get back into ultimate.  I'm also excited for football season to begin, big game for the Vikes right out of the gate this Thursday against Dem Saints.  Nice win by the Badgers in Vegas on Saturday and big playoff push time for Los Twinkies.  That's all from this end.

What I'm listening to: "Love the One You're With" by Stephen Stills (I'm pretty sure this was a solo single...wow, that sounds redundant) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_0a10_1BZk

Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqZhM75aGMg
Does Stu Cook know Robbie Robertson? (probably...)

http://thirdstringgoalie.blogspot.com/

Book Review:
Just finished reading this book roughly a week ago and it was a very good read.  Easy enough to get through pretty quickly if you have the time and the dialogue and action keep the book going at a good pace.  Definitely a page turner and I'd say not a boring moment.  Worth checking out if you have a longer plane ride or enough spare time and short book stack on the night stand.








Two last pictures:

Sejong the Great, inventor of Hangul (한글), the Korean Language, and many other things.

They finally finished restoration work on this gate of Gyeongbokgung (경복궁), the main palace in Seoul at Gwanghwamun.