Mar. 14 - Mar. 18: Seoul Tower

Well, no fires this week, thank God. But I did hear a very disheartening bit of information from a guy that works on the third floor of my building. I was telling him about our having to go to the roof, and when I mentioned that we found out about the fire at noon, he looked at me in wide-eyed dismay. Apparently, the fire started at 11:30 AM, and he and his students got out of the building shortly thereafter. So, we were just teaching and having a lovely time up on the sixth floor while the firefighters were probably already putting out the fire two floors below us. It really just makes me laugh at this point!

So compared to last week, this week was very uneventful. Tuesday night I went into downtown Seoul with a couple guys to check out Namsam mountain and the base of Seoul Tower. We wanted to go up into the tower, but unfortunately it is closed off for repairs. However, the views of the city from the top of the mountain were incredible. For miles and miles and miles you could see nothing but the ubiquitous flashing neon signs and strings of headlights from the compact cars winding their ways through the narrow streets. For such a huge city (the population is 12 million here...larger than NYC), there really is not much of a skyline. The tallest building here is something like 64 floors. But knowing that the city was pretty much flattened during the war and completely rebuilt in the last fifty years, it's quite impressive.

A view of the city from Seoul Tower. 

Wednesday night my newest buddy Amanda and I went to the local teacher hangout to finally meet some of our neighbors...and we did! Thursday night was St. Patrick's Day of course, and I think I was the only person in my school intentionally wearing green. I was going around pinching my students, but before they could try to reciprocate with a good dongchi, I would explain the whole customary wear green, good luck, shamrocks and blarney stones, yada yada yada. Really, it's just pointless to even bother trying to celebrate these holidays here.

Well, believe it or not, I have to work Saturday to MAKE UP FOR THE CLASSES WE MISSED THE AFTERNOON OF THE FIRE. Yes, that is correct. We actually have to come in for a couple hours on Saturday because our building was on fire and we had to go to the hospital last Thursday. Deep breaths.......