Sunday in Itaewon

This is the view from our back balcony. That big tower on the hill is one of Seoul's most famous landmarks--called the North Seoul Tower. Our school is nestled up against that hill, but it's out of view in this picture. The Eiffel Tower looking structure to the left of the N. Seoul Tower has something to do with the Korean department of defence.

A family across the street enjoying the summer evening on their rooftop.

We awoke at 3:30 AM and started busying ourselves around the apartment. We learned to work our gas stove and oven and had a bagel and eggs.

A note on Korean coffee . . . We were told that we might have some trouble finding coffee in the same manifestation as what we enjoyed in the States. Actually, as far as grabbing a cup on the go goes, we discovered a pretty good coffee shop on our street. We've had a little more trouble finding stuff to make at home. Most coffee is instant and comes pre-mixed with a lot of sugar and creamer. It's convenient because we have a nice water dispensing unit (pictured above) which has a boiling hot water tap in addition to a cold one.

This afternoon, the Parrishes (Ryan's principal and family) showed us around our neighborhood and helped us identify items in the grocery store. It's been funny to read all the funny Engrish on t-shirts and notebooks. Remember, "punctuality is the most important virtue among the professionals. Don't hesitate to push yourself. The bitterness becomes your strong energy."

After walking around the neighborhood for a while, we were pretty hungry. We picked up a pizza from Pizza School. We were happy to learn that, in addition to academics, Koreans are very serious about their pizza. We ordered a cheese pizza, which also had a mandatory corn topping.

Later in the afternoon, we attended our first Korean church, which has 55,000 members and services all day long. We went to the English service on the 3rd floor. When the bus pulled up, we saw a giant sea of people leaving a previous service.