Of Towers and Swords

Hello all!

The last couple of weeks have been largely uneventful as far as my standards. I was sick but my school holiday on Wednesday helped. Then I taught 9 of the same lesson on Halloween, which was fun but exhausting.

My 4th graders. Min Ji borrowed my bat ears.

Part of chillin includes setting our mouths ablaze with the ddeokbokki from right outside my apartment. 

  Last weekend we just chilled. We don't spend too much time at my apartment since it's a bit out of the way, but it's much warmer than Tina's so it seems like a good place for the winter months. We ran some errands and got ddeokbokki, which is spicy rice cakes and fish cakes. It is a bit spicy for me, but it is quickly becoming one of my favorite Korean foods.

Sunday we went shopping. I got a lot of good deals.

AND WE HAD PANDA EXPRESS

Winter is coming: I needed a lot of stuff.

I only spent about $230 and got a winter coat, 3 dresses, and so many sweaters and shirts.

 On Tuesday I fiiiiiiiiiiinally started my Korean class! We just went over the alphabet, but it's good since i still get confused by it and it helps with my reading, pronunciation, listening, writing, and speaking skills. You know, everything you need to learn a language.

My coteacher tells me that I will be speaking like a Korean after I finish one book.

Anywho, then I had another week of teaching, which just blurs together a lot. I'm sad because as of now my 3/4 coteacher is gone for some training so I am working with a sub. It's hard to get used to teaching with someone else and I miss Su Hyeon. I have no one to walk home with now. She'll be back in like a month, but I don't know if she'll still be teaching English with me. So it goes.

Now on to the titular event. Tina had her teacher trip this weekend, so I went out for margaritas with Lauren and Sarah on Friday, and did nothing outside of clean my apartment on Saturday. Tina has been wanting to take me to Namsan to see the Seoul Tower, but it's quite a steep incline and it's crowded, so we decided to wait til it was cooler. We also wanted to see the view when the leaves were pretty, so we decided that this weekend was our best shot.

IT. WAS. AWESOME.

(other than seeing a guy literally throw up in front of us at the subway station and have a crazy/drunk old man profess his love to me very closely and continually beckon for me to get on the bus with him, and how the bus system is totally whack and it took us forever to get down from the top of the hill)

We got there around 2 something, which was perfect since there was a cultural show (surprise for us!) at 3. We weren't sure if we were gonna stay, but they had all these weapons out so it looked cool, plus we had time. So we sat down and were treated to one of the most delightful shows I've seen in Korea. 

There was more Janggu playing, and a weapons demonstration. They showed the traditional sword techniques, longswords, some Half-moon spear, and a long spear. It was so cool! 

Janggu! Spinny hats return!

The weapon guys look on.

Spinning a top on a stick. With his mouth, at one point.

Weapons and outfits on point.

Yahhhhhhh

By far my favorite thing was the traditional sword dance. It's only ceremonial and for training, but man is it cool. Please watch this video:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153424044864968&l=7093518517384236443

We saw the guy change into a different outfit, and we were like "Damn that's a fancy outfit." But it was seriously incredible. Here is a barrage of pictures of the awesome ninja assassin sword dance guy.

Look at that oufit. And the swords. He's the prettiest princess.

He's also the most badass.

I would literally kill people do get to wear his awesome outfit. It's so awesome.

I got some cool action shots of the dance. Tina got a lot too.

Twirly swirly swordy wordy

Don't mess.

I think this is my favorite action shot.

Finished!

After, they did more weapon demo stuff, then people could take pictures. We almost lost sight of this sneaky ninja assassin sword master when he went to change, but we found him sweeping up the courtyard after the group demoed how to fuck shit up and kill things.

He was very tiny. I know he looks bigger with the swords and the outfit and the dancing. But look at how cute and little he is! He doesn't look like he could hurt a fly. But there he was, Darth-Mauling two swords and jumping around and dancing and being awesome.

You are a true warrior, sir.

After we were done gawking at the madd skillz before us, we decided to finally head up to the tower. It has a really stunning view of Seoul. I know that Seoul is a big city that has a lot of mountains, but it really gets you when you can actually see that from above and not just feel it when you hike up hills in Hongdae or are being struck by the absurd number of people who reside here.

We kept joking that we looked photoshopped onto the background. That's really Seoul behind really us.

We finally got a good picture with the tower in the evening when it was first lit up.

Sprawling Seoul as far as the eye can see.

Art down below!

If only New York wasn't so far away
I promise this city won't get in our way
When you're scared and alone
Just know that I'm already home (aka this song will make you cry if you miss home)

Look at how pretty all the leaves are! So much natural beauty in the lovely city.

Shout out to London town

Got to remember some of our other homes. Hi Italy!

We had a lot of fun. After we were up in the tower, we decided to get a love lock to add to the collection. You're supposed to lock it on the fences so your love is forever. Obviously Tina and I need help keeping our love going.

Glad to be on this crazy adventure with you, bella.

I heard you like locks so I put a lock on your lock.

Me with our lock. It's the green one a bit to the right of my hand.

We wandered around a bit and took some more pictures before heading down. 

On a sloped bench in front of current Korean heartthrob Kim Soo-Hyun.

Lots of love at the tower.

While we waited for the bus the tower was more lit up. Beautiful!

I had a really rough Monday, but it's okay when adventures like this get to happen. Tina and I both expressed our disbelief at our lives when we were up in the tower. Like, I moved to Seoul. I live over 11,000 km (almost 7000 miles for my American readers) away from the place I grew up. What? What is my life?

Sometimes I miss home terribly. And sometimes Seoul reminds me how much beauty is in the world that I still have to see.

This weekend promises to be exciting again, so long as I don't freeze to death in school. Seriously. It's a possibility. 

Anyway, I hope everyone is happy and healthy wherever they are! May your days be as bright as Seoul Tower!

"To this and many more adventures."