Seodaemun Prison

I went with some friends this weekend to visit Seodaemun Prison, noted mainly for being used by the Japanese to hold and torture Koreans during the occupation period (early to mid-1900's).

It's basically what you'd expect: a thing to forget. Except that such a bleak time in Korea's history is important to remember . . .

Dinner Pics

I ate dinner at the home of some friends last weekend. They have a much larger place than I do, and more of a "real" kitchen. We set up the table next to the stove/burners and had a grilling session with some veggies, a lot of Korean beef, and some shrimp (cooked the Korean way with the shells on, though we peeled them before eating; most Koreans don't bother).

We also went to the market to do some food shopping and to snack on some potato pancakes.

Whiteboard Pics

These pics are from a small class with young, advanced (fluent) kids who like to draw on the whiteboard (at least the girls do). We were working on making some vocabulary sentences, and I thought I'd take some pics of the side illustrations . . .

Government Efficiency

Last week on Thursday I had a delivery service pick up my old passport (along with a pic, a completed form, and a money order payment) and deliver it to the American Embassy in Seoul. Today, Tuesday, I received my new passport, returned to me at work by the same delivery service. Wow! 4-5 days, though two of those were Sat/Sun.

I am very impressed and already sent them a "thank you" email.

Now I'm set for another 10 years:)

The Stone Balls

Interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8593717.stm

If the link doesn't work, go to the BBC website and search for "the stone spheres of Costa Rica".

Health Care

Republican or Democrat . . . doesn't matter a lot to me at the moment (aside from the fact that we're essentially limited to two political parties).

What does matter is extending health care to all of the people who live in the U.S. The Democratic plan doesn't go far enough, but it's better than the Republicans', which doesn't seem to exist.

You would think that after 200+ years we could manage to get a basic necessity like this done right.

And cost? Give me a break. If we were not so busy fighting wars we could pay for health care several times over.

I live in a country--South Korea--that, in some ways, is much less progressed than the U.S. Yet I have affordable health insurance.

America's politicians seem to be so caught up in other issues that they cannot address the ones that are most important. That's a shame.

As if to Emphasize My Last Post . . .

. . . Mother nature decided that we were due for yet another round of snow today. It's wet and mushy, but it is white and cold.