Having never lived in a city before, I spent the first week or so just taking photos of the skyscrapers. I like the perspective on this one, taken in Suyu just after we arrived- on our first outing alone.
A fruit vendor asleep on the job in Myeongdong. Koreans often put in 12 hours+ at work everyday, so you can't really blame the guy for snoozing- though it's probably not helping business.
A legless man begging for change in the middle of the market. The box he's pushing around plays music and makes it less likely that he'll be stepped on. There's a lot of these guys, and the first time I saw one it was pretty shocking.
Octopus on sale at Homever in Suyu- only 2580/each. You can have octopus cooked in many ways in korea, but the most interesting I've seen is the skewered octopus- 4 or 5 whole baby octopuses on a skewer. For refined tastes.
The shopping area called Dongdaemun market was built around this historic gate. It makes shopping for $10 shoes into a cultural experience.
The 63 building is the tallest in Korea, and isn't very hard to find even for lost tourists like us. It's mainly full of offices, but there was a Sea World, IMAX and skydeck inside. Nice view of the city!
Mel and I were made to pose with these bright dogs at the pet expo we visited. Came for the cats, stayed for the dogs.
Mel poses with some traditional Korean clothing at the National Museum.
When Mel and I visited Suwon in October, we didn't know where our school would be built. We took a lot of pictures, including this building, the old KBS TV building. It's now the English Village after getting a bad green paint job the following month.
Happy to have survived the hike up Buckhansan Mountain.
Suyu station was surrounded by yummy food vendors, and Mel and I often stopped for some spicy chicken on a stick. It was a good snack for only a dollar. This picture was taken on our last night in Suyu, when we ceremoniously devoured our beloved chicken for the last time.
Our apartment building in Suwon. There's a lovely clothing store, "Ruby", and a convenience store on the ground floor. We are conveniently located beside two parking lots and a fish restaraunt.
We were in Suwon for a month before our school had it's first students because construction was delayed. I snapped this footage of our diligant construction workers asleep in the grass a few weeks before we opened. You can see the bad green paint job in the background.
Friendly faces at Emma's going away party in Hongdae.
Interesting brick formations on a building inside Hwaseong Fortress.
On Mondays the new students at our school are given passports and they go through mock 'immigration' desks. That's Mel asking such difficult questions as "what is your favorite color" and "where are you from".
Random funny pig costume in Myeongdong.
Korean gas stations have long hoses. Just an observation, not that either of us would ever dare to drive around here.
If you're on the subway long enough, chances are someone will stop by your car to try and sell you something. It's great. A guy will wheel in a basket of flashlights and command the attention of the passengers, talking at great length. I can only imagine what he's saying, but it works- lots of people fork out their money. I think this is technically illegal, but there is no security on the subway and the vendors are super common. The guy in the above picture would like to sell you some CDs.
Melodie in action in Airplane class. The best part about the class is that the airplane crashes at the end.
Cool straw covered tree at a park near our apartment.
A statue at the same park. There must have been a sale on statues, because there's awesome statues on every street corner in Korea. I'm going to make a post about their overabundance one of these days, so look out for that.
Some of the washrooms in Korea are unisex, this is common especially in bars. Look- Mel, Dayna and I went to the bathroom at the same time.