Sunday 27 September 2015

Shabu-Shabu Lunch

This restaurant in Pyeongchon is good, but we ate too much:



(partly due to the help-yourself side dish area)



Still, it was nice to find an enjoyable place open on Chuseok (Korea's Thanksgiving Day).

Museum

The museum is in Seoul:


Actually, the museum building occupies only a relatively small part of the grounds.  There is a very large courtyard where you can, for instance, see a changing of the guards ceremony; also, there are lots of places to walk around, but not very much to see aside from the outsides of buildings.  

The museum was a bit disappointing (boring), though the exhibits were nicely presented.







Saturday 26 September 2015

Student Diary

From the 4th grade until middle school my students write in their diary once a week.  I find diaries to be an educational and entertaining source of information about Korean life.

Normally students write about what they do on weekends, such as going to a birthday party or visiting grandparents or having a boring period at home.

Last week one of my students wrote about her school taking pictures for the yearbook.

She said (wrote) that in one picture she looked very ugly. (She isn't.)

In another picture, she said, she looked like she was "chewing shit".

I was startled to read that, though I found the language use funny.  I asked a Korean co-teacher about it, and the teacher said that it was a direct translation.

Later, I told the student (a 6th grade girl) that it was ok to write such things in her diary, but that "shit" in English was a bad word and should not be used in public.

Lunch

This boribap (barley rice) restaurant is cheap ($7 a person), tasty, and healthy.  It also has a nice informal atmosphere:



It is essentially a make-your-own bibimbap type of place; you mix some of the fresh, prepared vegetables (on the platter in the middle of the table) in with the rice, add some sesame oil and hot pepper paste, stir it up, and eat.

Friday 18 September 2015

Book Festival

Last weekend, Sanbon had a book festival--many tents with books, things to do for kids, a sound stage, etc.







Sunday 6 September 2015

Short Film

A well-made, 8-minute short film:

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2015/08/31/wire-cutters/

Teens & K-pop

This is the place in the Sanbon Culture and Arts Center where teens go to practice their K-pop dancing.

Personally, I'm not into the whole K-pop thing, but I find it kind of cute when I see these teens getting together to dance.  (Plus, it's a whole lot better than other things they could be doing.)



Lunch

I had lunch with a friend at the "Boiled Broccoli" restaurant that I posted about last month--I like eating there: