A Visit to a Korean Shrine

Today, the same elder who took us out to see the dam, took us to another great place...
This is called Suwoongyo Cheondan or (Shrine). It's not very old, but it is traditional, authentic Korean design and construction. It was constructed in 1923, and it a symbolic building established by Choe Je-u, the founder of Donghak (religion), for the worship of heaven. This was a little information board with English and Korean writing, so we knew what we were going to see. :)

It was raining really hard and the skies were pretty dark, so the pictures are pretty dark. We were walking around with umbrellas, and there was thunder and lighting all around. I thought it was pretty exciting, and didn't mind getting wet. But some others weren't so happy about the rain or the lightning. One bolt flashed not too far behind us as we were leaving. We saw the lightning and immediately heard the thunder. It was right there!

Anyway...here are the pictures! :)
(If you click on the photos, you can get a bigger view and see more of the details.)


These little figures sit on the tops of the buildings. They are supposed to give protection from fire. So if you don't want your house to catch on fire, go buy some little monkey figurines and perch them on your roof! :) This building is the entrance gate to the area. This view is from the inside of the gate.
This is also the inside of the gate. That is Peyton and me standing there.
This is the underneath of the entrance, looking up. There is alot of writing and amazing amounts of artwork and carving. It was really beautiful. Oh, I just noticed, that green is the same color as all of our furniture. hmmm.
This is the view of the gate from the outside. Those paintings in the center are actually two traditional 'solder'-type men.
Once you get in the gate, this is the view. This building is still used for people who come to worship. Apparently there are all different kinds of idols inside and people go in and worship them. We didn't go in, so I don't know what it looked like. This building also had amazing artwork-carvings, paintings and other stuff. It also had the little figurines sitting on the rooflines to protect from fire. Not that there was any chance of that in the downpour today.

Looking out and away from the buildings. Some of the scenery around the area. It was absolutely beautiful-even in the rain! Especially after being in the city all the time!
Here we are with the temple building behind us.
An up-close shot of some of the artwork around the building. Ok, so they are dragons and that's a little creepy, but I was so excited about seeing something in real-life that I had only ever seen in photos and documentaries.

Photos of our apartment

Some people have been asking what the rest of our apartment looks like after seeing the photos of our crazy bathroom. So after things were tidied up a bit the other night, I took some photos. Here it is...

This is a shot looking into Gracie's room. It was supposed to come later in the order of photos, but I didn't get it there. This is another angle looking into our room.
This picture is when you first walk in the door. To the right is the shoe rack, as it is the custom to remove your shoes at the door and put on some slippers. Straight ahead is the kitchen table (which will be replaced soon, as one leg falls off). Our cooking area is pretty small, not much counter space, so I do alot of preparations on the table. As you walk in the door, if you look directly to your left, you will see this. It is our living room. The shelves are very nice, and the chairs aren't so bad either. But the couch is an eye-sore, which is why it has a blanket on it. But even with the blanket, it's still an eyesore.
If you walk toward the kitchen, there are two doors on the right. The first one goes into Gracie's room. This is looking straight into her room. She has the nicest bedspread of everyone. It was here when we got here. We are still looking for some for the rest of us.
I had another angle of her room, but I didn't get it on. oops.
The next photo is looking straight into our room. Our door is at the edge of the couch, if you look back at the living room.

A little bedside table. I had to buy a table lamp so that I had something to read with. There are no other lamps in the whole place. I would go out and buy more, but don't want to spend the money. But it would be nice to have one in the kids rooms, and on the desk...

This is looking into Peyton's room. He also doesn't have a bedspread yet. It is really hard to find bedding like what we are used to here. Most bedding is very feminine, and it's very hard to find real sheet sets and plain blankets. Don't know why???
This is another view of his room. The green thing is felt. Someone was using it as a "blind" to make the room darker. It works I guess. The tall thing is a wardrobe. We each have one and all are that same color of green. Popular color here. :) At least in this apartment.

The floors all look like hardwood, but they are really linoleum type of stuff. The floor underneath is concrete. It looks nice.

Address

One more thing...

I posted our address in an earlier post, but I had the zip code wrong. It is on the institute's website that way, but it isn't correct. Things will get here with the address I had posted, but it is better to have the right zip.

Daejeon-Dunsan SDA Language Institute
289-1 Worlpung 2-dong
Suh-gu; Taejeon 302-282
Korea

Trip to the zoo!

Yesterday we went on a "big adventure". We had decided we wanted to go to the zoo, but we didn't want to tell the kids because we weren't sure we would be able to get there. The bus system doesn't seem too hard, but when you can't read the language on the maps and the bus schedules, it is a lot more challenging. So first, we set out to ride the bus, but we couldn't find a bus that left from our area and went to the zoo. We also weren't sure about where to get off to catch another bus. So we ended up riding the subway to the end of the subway station. This dropped us at a main terminal for the KTX, the bus system and seemingly endless routes.
We walked around for awhile, before finding a bus stop that we knew took us to the zoo because we had one book that at least told bus number with destinations. So we hesitantly got on a bus that we were pretty sure would at least take us to the zoo at some point on its route. We made it there and we were able to talk to a young couple who spoke very little english, but they told us they were also going to the zoo, so we would know when our stop was. (Just in case it wasn't obvious). All this time, the kids still didn't know where we were going. When we got off the bus and Peyton saw the sign, he figured it out and he got that excited little giggle. We had fun. While we were there, it seemed like we were part of the exhibit. People were paying less attention to the animals, and lots of attention to the kids. They kept touching both kids hair and the old grannies would pat Gracie on the bottom and giggle. It was really pretty funny! But Grace was getting tired of all the attention by the end of the day. (Imagine that!) Gracie with the bear statue. These bears were probably one of the most entertaining of the animals at the zoo. I put a video clip of them at the end of the blog.

They actually looked like people in bear suits the way they moved and interacted.

Here is at the entrance.

Oops, this is out of order. At the end of the day we found the right bus back to the area where we live. We didn't have to go back to the subway station, and catch it back. We got off at this restaurant where the school took us out earlier this week, called VIPs. It had Western style foods, and it was an all-you-can-eat buffet. We thought since it was Korean Thanksgiving, maybe we should celebrate too. Little did we know until we sat down and started eating, that the price also seemed to jump about double what it was when we went out earlier in the week. Well, too late, we just did our best to enjoy it and not think about the cost. It was good food. This picture of the kids was taken in the waiting area.
This was a pretty fountain in the central area around the entrance to the zoo.
This camel was really quite impressive. He was very large.
This jaguar just kept looking at us like this. We were thankful for the fence. Don't know if he was just checking us out like we were checking him out, or if he was thinking we looked like a good meal! :)
There were also some tigers, like this one the kids posed on. There were lots of monkeys, some wolves, grizzlies, polar bear, deer and goats, and elk family, little asian "raccoons", meerkats, penguins, a coyote, hyenas, walaroos, birds, owls, and lots of other creatures. There were rides at the park, but we only paid for the animals. That was a little tough for the kids to take, because they had to watch other kids on rides in that area, but they did enjoy the animals. We were all tired at the end of the day and ready for a nice rest.

New Photos!

Well, where do I start? As you can see, my first photo is of a bathroom. Our bathroom to be exact. I thought I would take a photo so that people could see what we are talking about when we try to explain what our shower is like...as you can see, there is a shower-head on the right hand side of the photo. That is our shower. In the very back of the bathroom is our washing machine. No dryer-everything dries on a drying rack. But there isn't much to the shower. Our bathroom is very interesting. There are a few more photos to follow this one and you can see what the rest of the room looks like.

I would like to say, that Shane and I spent quite a bit of time cleaning the bathroom today, and it does look quite a bit better than it did when this photo was taken. The tiles on the walls are cleaner, the floor is cleaner, and that hose that runs through the shower to the washer is much, much cleaner. Those floor "mats" are what we went out and bought just so that it wasn't one big slippery floor every time someone took a shower. Fun eh?

Last weekend after church, one of the church elders, Shawn, took us out to see a dam in the area. The photo above is inside the interpretive center. We are with our new friend Edgar. He is teaching over at a satellite school across town. He is also a new teacher. He spends Sabbaths with all of us.
This is up on a lookout overlooking the dam.
Another lookout spot. This area was really beautiful and out of the city. When they built the dam, there was a village that had been in the valley for ages that had to move and it is now covered with water. There were lots and lots of people at the center, and they really like their dams because they believe that hydropower is a great thing! We agree...
This is a photo looking down the valley from the dam.
This is the front side of the dam.

Before we left Seoul, we went out to a place called Chongdong Theater. There we saw a cultural performance. It was really interesting, and the performers were amazing, but the content was definitely questionable. This photo was taken before the performance. They let all of us dress in the traditional clothing and have our photos taken. Here are Peyton and Grace getting special attention from the workers.
These are two of the performers who couldn't wait to get their hands on Gracie. Grace had no complaints.
Peyton wasn't complaining either!

Here is our family in traditional garb.

Peyton wasn't really fond of his pink pants, but we had to remind him that pink is a popular color for men here in Korea.

This was right in downtown Seoul. I don't know if it is original or not, but it was really neat.
These decorations are left over from the Seoul Olympics. It was a really pretty part of town.
This is the entrance to the palace. I was told that this really was original.
Another photo of Grace getting the special treatment~
And another. This is pretty typical here. They like her light-colored hair and her bright blue eyes. They also like to squeeze her cheeks and pat her on the bottom. I guess she is just so different from the little Korean girls that they want to feel her. Then when they do, most of them like to give her a little squeeze like we to. She is awfully huggable.

Anyway, I guess that is it for now.

We have arrived at our school!

Hello all,
We have been at our school since Tuesday. We have not had time to do much emailing or any kind of communication until today. Classes have been going since Wednesday, and we are busy. Since it is all new to us, it sometimes seems like we are going to forget everything.
I am teaching Level 2 adult classes, as well as one hour of Junior class. The city here is really nice. It's clean and it seems spacious after being in Seoul. The one thing we have found is that some things here are really expensive and other things are really inexpensive. The food is the most expensive. The more healthy you want to eat, the more expensive it is. But I am thankful...We went to a Costco today. We bought some things like Peanut Butter and Cheerios.
The peanut butter was twice as much as it is in a Costco at home, but it was still significantly cheaper than the other stores we have been to. Same with the Cheerios.
The kids are enjoying themselves and meeting lots of new people and learning bits and pieces of Korean.

Our apartment is nice. We actually have three bedrooms and a fairly spacious kitchen and living area-by Korean standards :) We are just really glad that the kids get to be in separate rooms. They seem to be enjoying it as well.

I will try to post some more photos soon. I have to get to bed!

Oh, I almost forgot...our new address:

Shane and Nikki Struthers
Daejeon-dunson SDA Language Institute
289-1 Worlpung 2-dong
Suh-gu; Taejeon 302-282
Korea