Final Fieldtrip

No more fieldtrips for us :(. Nathan and I have enjoyed going on monthly fieldtrips with our students and the other teachers, but Tuesday marked the last one. By chance we went to a place that Nathan and I had been wanting to go for some time now AND they even happily allowed Leigh to come along :). Double wammy.

We loaded the bus for an hour bus ride to the infamous 63 Building. This is the tallest building in Korea. It's not just any ole building though. On the bottom level, we hit up the iMAX, aquarium, a seal show, and a superb bibimbap lunch. There's a wonderful bakery, wax museum, and other shops as well. It would have been nice to pop on up to the top for an art gallery visit and to see the terrifying view, but having 140 kids with us made that a little more complicated.

It was a great time and another hot spot of Seoul to cross of the list.

Caution!

Piling off the bus.

Teacher Nate's fans.

The building itself... darn clouds.

Juke teacher

The friendly walrus.

Ready for iMAX!

Double glasses is the way to go.

We may look alert here, but 10 minutes in to the show... we were conked!

Photo op... couldn't pass it up.

Changdeokgung Palace

Leigh, Nathan, and I spent our chilly Saturday in Seoul touring one of the "Five Grand Palaces". This palace "Changdeokgung" is translated to represent the "Palace of prospering virtue". Much of the palaces here have been rebuilt since after the Japanese invasion, but the architecture is phenomenal. This palace in particular was established in the 14th century and ruled by the Joseon dynasty. Behind the palace, there is a 78 acre secret garden that only was accessed by the royal family. We spent our time wandering around to the different quarters for the king, queen, concubines, servants, etc and also exploring a bit through the "secret" garden. Here's some pics to document...

Leigh's in Seoul!

Leigh Boyle makes the world a better place.

Goodbye Gage's

Over the last 9 months, we've had the pleasure of getting to know Tom and Christy Gage during our time in Korea. Nathan and I both feel blessed that we had the opportunity to live just across the street from the Gage's.  We'll never forget the dinners, jimjilbangs, games, shopping, thursday nights, their dog Sawyer, and much much more that we got to experience with them. The time has come for their 2.5 years to end here in Korea and we're excited for what's ahead of them, but saddened that they're gone. We will certainly miss them around these Nowon parts!

Celebrating/mourning the Gage's last night in Korea with some BBQ. (Sorry Christy!)