Adjustment in pictures

It's been about 5 days since we arrived here and it's been a bit crazy and certainly with plenty of fun stories and adventures. A few days ago brought Jon and I into downtown Seoul, about 40 mins by subway from our house. Understand that even taking a subway is a production when you don't know how to buy a ticket or read a sign. Fortunately, our miming skills are bordering on professional and we were able to hop on board. Here are a few pictures from our day's excursion with some descriptions:


















This (above) was the old 'south gate' for the wall that used to surround Seoul. Our first taste of old-school architecture in the area, and we of course just stumbled onto it. That's me in the mid-ground.




















This is the painting on the ceiling of the gate. Soooo cool, I know.





















Here's the entrance to 'Nam Dae Moon' market, which is supposedly open day and night and is ridiculously big and crowded. Of course we ran right into the thick of it.




















A typical scene in the market. It was soaking wet all day and everyone was there anyway. On the right of this picture was the cutest little walk-in street stall where you can sit down and eat dumplings and traditional Korean dishes.





















Here's me in front of a cool subway ad and Jon in front of an interesting set of mannequins. The 'erotic undies' stores around here are particularly amazing. I'm totally that guy that is taking pics in random and incredibly awkward spots (or making Jon take them for me).



















This is a very old pagoda that was rebuilt and transferred to a park in Seoul. It's one of Korea's top 10 treasures (yes, they actually rate them in order). This pagoda has been encased in high-glare glass so as to make it really annoying to see or take pictures of.


Below are some apartment pictures, just to give you a sense of where we spend a lot of our time for now (as the Korean Thanksgiving/Chuseok begins today and we have 5 days off of work). The mountains are sooo close to our house and gorgeous! The bed is ridiculous and quite hard, and we finally have purchased sheets and blankets. The last picture is of the bakery and bar that are right outside of our house (along with a convenience store).





































Other highlights of the past few days include getting oriented at work and meeting some of the staff. There is one Korean dude who seems particularly friendly and excited to take us around. He has a car and hikes quite a bit, so hopefully we can do a bit of mountain exploring next week! Also you should check out Jon's description of our adventures in Korea's gay bar scene. It's a bit long but worth it as he is quite a descriptive writer and I did not have my camera on me, sadly. Needless to say, it was "ABBA-meets-Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell" craziness!

Hoping everything is going as interestingly wherever you are dear readers! Please keep me updated with emails or blog comments!