Recent Happenings

June has been a fairly inactive month for us for a few reasons.  The first of which is finances.  We spent a lot of money in May going to Tokyo, and we are now financially preparing for our summer vacation to China.  This vacation (which will be expanded on later) includes 3 days in Shangahi and 4 days in Hong Kong.  We will then return to China late August for a weekend in Beijing.  There are a lot of expenses going into this trip. One of which is the dreaded visa fees.  Americans need to really open their wallets if they want to go to China, having to fork over 190,000 Won per person.  So just for us to enter the country, the two of us forked over 380,000 Won last Thursday for this upcoming adventure.  Which we will say is roughly $300.00 (give or take).  While June has been inactive, there have been several fun things to report on.  Here it goes.

World Cup

The World Cup has obviously began and there has been a lot of excitement over here.  I have never seen such excitement for a sporting event than here in Korea.  Last Saturday, during SoKo's opener vs Greece we went down to City Hall to watch the game on very very large screens outside. 

A word that gives this experience the best (yet still undermines the night) is pure pandemonium.  I am not exaggerating when I say this, but there were about a trillion people packed in the streets of Seoul that night (as well as the next Thursday, in which we decided to go back).  We stayed in the crowd for the first half of the game and there were moments of actual claustrophobia.  There were so many people it was overwhelming, and this was only to watch the game on TV.  Korea won that Saturday vs Greece (2-0) but lost the next Thursday to Argentina (4-1). 

Photography

Recently, I have been trying to expand my horizons in the photography world.  There are a few steps that I have taken.  The first of which was done a year ago, which was to buy a DSLR.  In May, I decided to buy two extra lenses (I will not get into detail about those, as they will not make any sense to a non photographer).  I have also joined two photography groups here in Seoul.  The first group meets about once a month and we get together and learn more about our cameras and take pictures.  We actually had a meeting yesterday at the fish market here in Seoul.  It was great meeting like-minded people and utter geniuses of photography.  There is so much to learn about photography that it is so overwhelming it makes me just want to forget about making good pictures and to just take pictures.  Fear not my friends, I will not give up (too much of an investment!)  I have created a flickr page to upload some of my better shots (as opposed to my Picasa Web Albums), which can be accessed through my Facebook page.  I have also joined the Seoul Photo Club, which consists of about 500 members.  Every week the group admininstrator picks the best photo and it is published in the Korean Herald (fingers crossed here, guys).  This is one reason why living in Seoul is so great.  There are many groups that cater to the foreign population (as well as Korean) which offers great opportunities to meet people and do some amazing things.

My Green Thumb

I have always wanted to plant flowers and vegetables.  If you ask my brother Dave, he will tell you how I tried to grow an avocado tree from an avocado pit in his backyard.  I gave up after a week and he makes fun of me for it.  In May I had similar ambitions.  We bought tomato seeds (with no idea on how to grow them) as well as seeds to other eye appealing flowers.  I've learned some things about growing flowers.  Flowers, among other things, represent the beautiful and intricate life cycle.

 

The first stage starts at the seed.  Life is beginning for the seed to make the journey into full bloom.

The flower is now into the world, soaking in all the elements have to offer.

I had another picture of the life cycle of a raging, beautiful pot of flowers.  Things were looking good for my plants.  They then decided to take a turn for the worse, and went straight too...

Death.  I don't know what happened, but they suddenly started to die.  Some flowers just can't hack it in the real world.

Aunt and Uncle

On a more positive side of life...  Kelly and I are now an Aunt and Uncle to a beautiful baby boy.  Finley Nathan Freeburg.  He was born on June 14th.  There were no health problems or pregnancy complications (at least what we know of) and he is residing at home with a happy mother and father.  It is situations like these where it makes living in Korea difficult.

*photo courtesy of David and Elizabeth Freeburg*