Twins game!

This weekend I went to Seoul, big shocker I know. When I got in on Saturday morning I headed towards Insa-dong, which is an area of Seoul that has a lot of palaces and shopping. I met up with Clayton and Hadley there. Hadley missed my text and was running late so Clayton and I decided to go check out a palace while we waited for Hadley. It was cool to just wonder around. The buildings are so cool. After Hads arrived we headed towards Insa-dong street which is known for it’s shopping. The street is closed for cars on the weekends because it is swarmed with people. It’s fun to just walk around and look at all the different things that people are selling. 

Changdeok Palace!

Clayton hanging out by the palace. 

Had to get a picture with Starbuck!

Insa-dong street.

Next stop of the day was the Twins game! So for those of you who don’t know, Korea has a baseball team named the LG Twins. Coming from Minnesota, home to the MN Twins, I think it’s a pretty big deal. They have the same logo and everything here. Hadley and I are curious to know if there’s some sort of copyright violation there… Anyways, all the baseball team names here copied names of teams from the US. There are the Tigers, Bears, Lions, Giants, and the Eagles. There is one American on the Twins team who is a left-handed pitcher. The twins ended up winning the game. Baseball games here in Korea are a big deal and super fun to attend. The fans never stop cheering and are always excited up until the last minute.

The field. You can't tell but the field between the bases is turf but the bases are surrounded by sand, so bazaar! 

Hads and I at the Twins game. This is the only picture I had of us. Hadley was a maniac at taking pictures at the game so there are a lot more on her camera! Haha

The next day Hadley bought some weights and a yoga mat off from some foreigner so we had to go to Seoul to pick it up… The only issue we had was Hadley didn’t do the conversion to figure out how heavy the weights actually were. When we got the weights we could barley lift them. They were 9kg, which converts to 20lbs! Hadley thought that they were going to be wimpy weights because they came with a yoga mat… little did she know it was the boyfriends weights. So funny! We had planned on going to some markets in Seoul after picking up her mat and weights but had to go back to Guri, where she lives, instead. It was quite comical; I enjoyed watching Hadley carry the weights through the subway which people looked at her strange wondering what was in her bag. Haha. After we got back to Guri we decided to just hang out there. I got some tennis shoes and we headed to the river to play around with a soccer ball. It was yet another successful weekend in Seoul. This weekend I’m heading to Daegu, Korea’s third largest city 3.5 hours south of Hongcheon, to hang out with Kalie. We have Monday off for Memorial Day so it will be a nice long weekend!

Little kids playing some traditional drums along the river... had to take a picture of it! 

Hadley's little river (to the right) meets the Han River! 

My new shoes! Got a 20% discount on them too... 

Children's Park

Last week we went on a field trip to Children’s Park in Seoul. It was really fun. The park was huge. It had a zoo, playground area, theater, lots of grass space and probably more. We were there from about 11:30am till 2:30pm. We didn’t walk around the whole park but we did get to see a lot. When we arrived the first thing we did was went to a show. Everyone kept telling me it was a dolphin show but then again I’m in Korea and I had no idea what to expect. The show ended up having no dolphins in it… Haha. There were however seals and my favorite, penguins!  The show was in Korean so I didn’t understand a lot of it but Sharon sat next to me to interpret and it ended up being about Aladdin. It was about pretty entertaining because they had so many animals. They had all different kinds of birds, monkeys, raccoons, rats, seals, and penguins.

 Our Picnic area

Jessica Teacher and Maya 

One of our students Maya raised her hand when they asked for a volunteer in the audience and she was picked! She got to go down and give basketballs to the seals. It was pretty cool. 

 After the show we had our picnic. The kids parents packed a ton of food so the teachers just ate whatever the kids had. The meals that they brought were mainly a lot of kimbap and fruit. (The girl in the striped shirt is Sally teacher)

 Scott! (My favorite... He's super naughty)

Aaron

 Dylan

 Joseph (Amy's son)

The 7 years old class: Solomon, Kyle, Jason, Maya, Ellen, Julie Teacher

When we finished lunch we went to walk around the zoo and see the animals. They kids loved it and so did I. It was kind of like being at the como zoo back home. 

Lucy admiring the sleeping fox. 

 Checking out the otters.

Elizabeth teacher looking at the otters with the kids. (There's an otter on the right side of the picture jumping on the rocks)

Sharon teacher and I with the 6 years old class. Top: Connor, Joseph, Scott, Aaron. Bottom: Julie, Lucy, Annie, Dylan. 

 Jessica teacher and I with the 7 years old class. Solomon, Kyle, Jason, Maya, and Ellen.

 The kids passed out on the bus ride home. This is Julie, haha!

Elizabeth teacher with Lucy and Connor. 

Scott and Annie

about time!

Last weekend Kalie and Clayton came to visit me in Hongcheon. Kalie is my best friend from home that I’ve known since we were 5 years old. Clayton is my friend I met in college who went to school at Wheaton College with Micah (Kalie’s brother). Kalie is now teaching in Daegu, which is the third largest city in Korea in the south. Her trip to Hongcheon was a little over 3.5 hours long. Clayton is now teaching in Gimpo, which is west of Seoul. It takes him 20 minutes to get into Seoul. They both got into Hongcheon around 1pm on Saturday afternoon. It was super good to hang out with them. We just bummed around all day exploring town and eating lots of food. Both of them were super impressed with the snack stock I had waiting for them. My mother taught me well; always have snacks! Kalie was telling me how she’s never worried about having an empty stomach when she is with me… Haha. When I took them to see the park that I play soccer at we passed by both of the soccer fields and all the guys playing stopped on both fields and waved at me saying “Hi Julie!” Both of them looked at me and laughed… they loved it. 

Hanging out on a bench overlooking Hongcheon.  

Kalie was wearing her Hopkins Dynamo Cleat Camp shirt... I almost wore the same shirt. Good thing I didn't! Keith you should be proud!

Kalie and Clay were trying to be Korean making a heart... wierdos

This guy is the Dad. He was hiking up the mountain with his daughter... she was very cute. The Dad was trying to talk to us in Korean... Kalie totally bs'd with him. After he left (20 minutes later) Kalie reminded me the only subject she was good at in High School was language! Haha. Somehow she was able to talk to him, it was very impressive. 

In my apartment about to head out to the park 

Badminton! 

The sports park... in the distance there is a basketball court, a tennis court, a soccer tennis court, and two soccer courts (where I practice).