Not much has been happening lately in Seoul. I'm in a basic school routine... Class, sleep, procrastinate, eat, sleep, homework, TV, homework, sleep, class... Not very interesting. But some small things to report on.

First, I visited a large Catholic church nearby. It was pretty much your basic cathedral with high arched ceilings and pretty stained glass. But the main door startled me. Usually, there's nothing to remind me that I'm in Korea as opposed to a Korean neighborhood in the US but then something jumps out. Look closely at the door and you'll see traditional Korean noble dress. I was surprised.



Also, I visited a board game room the other day. Korea has a whole room culture. It's starts with basic PC room(internet cafe/ arcade) or Singing Room (Karaoke) and then onto weirder things like sitting rooms (you pay for a nice place to sit) or board game rooms (you pay an hourly rate to play some of hundreds of board games. To work there you have to be able to explain the rules to all the game) Below we're playing a simple children's game that we all were terrible at.

And the last big change. I've started a volunteer position. (Couldn't stay away from kids for long) I now go each week to a poorer elementary school and with three others teach basic English to 1st through 3rd graders by playing traditional Korean games with them.
There are 35 students and this week we learned shapes. They now know the word triangle. (circle, square and parallelogram were lost to them) Aren't they cute?And of course I'm having fun too.

School Begins!

Right, so this week I started class. And because Dad requested pictures of campus so I'm taking you on a tour of my daily life.

So, for some reason this semester I decided to try my hand at morning classes. (It's been a week and I'm already regretting that) But I wake up every morning at 8am and walk to school. In front of campus if a huge intersection (and the only place on earth where I always obey traffic laws, sorry mom) But at every hour hundreds of students wait and crosse on en masse weaving between backed up traffic.

The walk from the main gate up to campus. The mountain in the background is part of campus. K, First stop. The theology building (it even looks like a church, not the rose window). Where I have Psychology of Happiness (my professor actually was one of the first to start this field) and History of Christian Education (a feminist critique on the Bible and Christianity in Korea) This class seems interesting but unfortunately may be taught partially in Korean. So, it could be tough.



K, my favorite statue on campus. I don't know what it actually is but it looks like the Death Star.
The building in the middle is the Law School where I'm taking International Law. Yay! It looks to be my favorite class but also promises to be really tough.
And finally one of Yonsei's most famous buildings and a film site for many Korean movies. The school was founded by American missionaires which explains why parts of campus highly resemble somewhere like Georgetown or Harvard. (Ivy covered brick buildings)
And before coming home I'm also taking Modern Korean History, Taekwondo and Swimming. This is my little alley way. It starts between the 7eleven and the Krispy Kreme and ends in a very big church.
My room is the first set of four windows on the left. I love my room, especially now that spring is coming and I can leave the windows open.
When I first was looking for rooms I found this place because of the plants in front. Seoul doesn't have much greenery. So, I came but the woman who runs this place wasn't home for two days. But I held out and from what I've gathered I've got one of the best places in the area.
So, yup, that's my life.

Young In University

On Wednesday and Thursday I went to visit a place I'd heard about since I started Taekwondo nearly 7 years ago. Young In University is a school well known for it's skills in teaching Korean martial arts as well as is where all of my Taekwondo instructors and interns studied. So it's pretty much a pilgrimage site for anyone from White Tiger visiting Korea. I luckily know several students in Korea who are either studying now or graduated from Young In, so I got a personal tour and several lessons from people who do martial arts professionally. (In Korea you're able to major in Taekwondo, Judo...) Anyway, it was amazing.

This is the main building. About five stories tall with two gyms to each floor that were bigger than any I've ever seen before.

The taekwondo gym. Isn't it beautiful?
One of the people I know at the school is on the demonstration team that travels internationally showing off highly trained skills. They practice for about 5-7 hours a few times a week. I got to join the morning part of one of the practices and learned alot. (In real life he jumps off a persons folded arms to do a back flip to hit the two paddles and lands. It's actually a boardbreaking skill) And finally a short clip of a short demonstration they did. This is called Taekwondo Areobics. The music is current Korean pop songs and the moves that are obviously not fighting moves are dance motions that go along with the songs. OK!