La douleur passe, la beauté reste

This was written on the wall in the Seoul Museum of Art, along with the translation into Korean, and attributed to Renoir. It means something like "the pain goes away, beauty stays."

I finally made it to the Renoir exhibit today. Unlike last time, there was no line at all when I got there (although there was one later in the day when I left). I didn't take my camera because photography wasn't allowed in the museum, so unfortunately there aren't any pretty pictures to show. The paintings, however, were really beautiful. It was a big exhibit with lots of paintings on loan from museums and private collections all over the world. It was pretty neat to be able to see all of that together at once, knowing that in a couple weeks everything is going to be returned to it's original home. Unfortunately I couldn't read any of the literature or the descriptions since it was only in Korean, as were the audio sets. The names of all of the paintings were only displayed in the original French and in Korean, so I got to pull my couple years of French from the closet and dust it off to read the labels. :)

Some of my favorite paintings that I saw were ones I had never heard of before, I guess they're a little more obscure, but they were absolutely breathtaking. I love impressionism because of the way the artists painted light, and there were some outdoor paintings that look like they're just bathed in sunlight. Since I took an hour subway ride there and paid $10 to get in, I decided to wander through twice- once to see everything, and a second time to go back and look at my favorite ones again.

Afterwards I walked to the Paris Baguette (chain bakery here in Korea) on the corner and bought some food for a late lunch, which I took back to the museum and ate on a bench in the outdoor courtyard. I ended up getting a pastry that was filled with chicken curry. Sounds kind of weird, but it was really yummy- wonderful soft bread, crispy crust, and shredded chicken in curry sauce.

Today was a great day to unwind after this week from hell and kind of regain my bearings before I have to go back to work. I'm feeling better physically, and have a slightly sunnier outlook again. I think all of those beautiful paintings worked like Prozac at curing my bad mood.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with some foreigners at Starbucks for a Korean study session. I'm not sure how successful it will be, but maybe it will be some motivation for me to get back to studying at home.

Month 2, Day 1

I've made it a month at my job. Every month our schedule changes, so it was a rush this morning to find new books, figure out new times for a lot of my classes, and meet a new kindergarten class that I will be teaching 40 minutes a day, plus meet random new students in a couple classes. And we had a field trip in the morning, so I experienced my first kindergarten field trip. It was a neat idea: "we're taking the kids to the farm to plant cabbage." In practice, it was the better part of 2 hours spent keeping kids corralled and entertained, and then about 5 minutes per class actually with the farmer planting the baby cabbage plants. I did enjoy the break from "No speaking Korean!" to see my kids actually interacting on their age level with their peers- you forget how well 4 year olds actually speak their native language when you only interact with them in a language they've been learning for 6 months.

The job is hard. The kids try my patience. Mostly what's been bugging me, though, has been my supervisor, because she somehow expects me to remember 1. what I'm supposed to do and 2. how to do it, when last month she did 90% of it (and the other 10% I did once, a month ago). But it was kind of funny when she got mad at me for asking her to help me find a teacher's edition for one of our books...she got all huffy and asked the desklady, who promptly informed her that she never ordered it. Hah!

So that's my life. I've been sick and culture shock is setting in, so I haven't been in the best mood lately, but hopefully that will change soon.

In other more exciting news, Charlie's in China! (Hopefully. He should have got to Hangzhou an hour or so ago if all went well.) If I get lucky I can maybe go visit at the beginning of October, when I have time off for Chuseok (Korean Thanskgiving).

Lake Park Part Deux

Sorry this is so late coming, but here's the rest of the lake park pictures I promised you:

Big paved area, complete with benches and big low table things, perfect for laying on

Some pretty views of the lake

My house is back there somewhere...

Not many trees have started changing, but this one has

Part of the running/biking trail...normally when I go in the evening you can't even see the green

There are a million statues in the park... here's the first

People bowing to a TV. Odd, but cool.

It looks like a pigeon to me.

Pretty flowers

Mural underneath a bridge

RawrYou are here

This pagoda thingy was not very photogenic, until I noticed that it's completely blocked by the tree from this angle

The city's motto: Let's Goyang (Goyang being the city that Ilsan is located within). I think it's cute.

Catching Up

I've been bad and haven't updated anything this week, so i just figured I'd post a couple quick comments... I finally got my cable and internet hooked up this week, so I have reliable internet, plus over 60 channels (mostly in Korean). I do have Discovery Channel in English, which means I can feed my Deadliest Catch addiction :)

In other news, I went out for Mexican food Friday night with one of my coworkers, at a place just a couple blocks from our building. The food was pretty good, not Mexican, but pretty much like you'd expect Mexican food at home to be. They also had American food like burgers and wraps and stuff, and apparently they do a huge brunch buffet on Sundays- kinda pricey though, so my cheap self probably won't ever try it out. On Saturday I met up with a couple English guys I met through a facebook group, and we went and had a few beers at the Frog and Toad, which is the local expat bar. The weather's been really nice this week, so it was great to sit out on the deck and talk. Both of the guys are new to Ilsan and they're trying to start up some social group of foreigners, kind of get together and go to dinner regularly, that sort of thing. I liked meeting people besides my coworkers that I see everyday, and I hope this pans out and I can make more new friends.

Other than that, it's been an uneventful weekend. I've got a sore throat which I probably caught from one of the kids at school, so I've been resting and eating oranges and trying to keep from getting really sick. Laundry and cleaning were the order of the day today. Once I get a paycheck I will probably get out and adventure more, but right now I don't even really have money to top up my subway card, so I'm just going to enjoy my cozy apartment and my neighborhood for a couple more weeks.

Picture of the Weekend

KGB Vodka with Lemon. Found this on the sidewalk and had to take a picture. Little internet research shows it's a New Zealand brand, not Russian. Either way, it's hilarious.

Home Sweet Home

My dollarstore lemon balm seeds sprouted this week, so I feel the need to show them off like a proud momma.

In other news, a lot of you haven't seen my digs yet, so here are some pictures of my apartment for you to ponder. It seems most English teachers here have apartments like mine: modern high-rise, one room, completely not charming places. Mine came furnished, so all I've added has been the color. Without further ado, I give you pictures:

So this is basically it- bed, desk, TV, nice big window

Saturday in Seoul

After my semi-walk in the park this morning, I hopped on the subway into Seoul to hang out with my friend Brian that I met at orientation. The plan had been to meet up and go to the Seoul Museum of Art to see the Renior exhibit that they have until next month...unfortunately I think everyone else in Seoul had the same idea. The line was about a mile long. So, that plan was scrapped. We ended up just walking around downtown. We stopped in a mall and Brian bought the camera he had been wanting, and then went like crazy tourists through the plaza and down to the Cheonggyecheon stream, stopping only for Smoothie King. ;) All in all it was a pretty fun day, and I took lots more pictures for you all to enjoy.

Some statue near the mall

A police bus. Apparently there's so many police they need buses to transport them.

Kids playing in the fountain while their parents look on from a nice (dry) distance

Brian in the front left corner, and some swirly ice cream cone-esque statue thingy

A pretty rainbow appeared in one of the many fountains in the stream

Lots of people playing in the water

Can you find me?

The Cheonggyecheon is a stream that had been buried under concrete in the 60's to make way for a road, and was uncovered in 2005, making a pretty park and green space for people to enjoy. It's a little below street level, so you don't see the cars going by and instead see lots of plants and lots of people enjoying themselves.