Gwanghwamun Update

I've just updated THIS POST with additional pictures. I visited the site again, today, and I read the sign again, and so I was able to update the information also. Finally, Wyatt, a fellow English teacher and blogger here in South Korea, supplied some information in the comments section, which I took into account as I corrected my post.

Two Things

My favorite boy student in my morning Middle School class (the one I mentioned a few posts ago as a sleepwalker), told me today that he dreamed I turned into a werewolf and hit him! He said this with a smile, so I half wonder if he's just being mischevious! Whatever the case, I'll try not to treat him differently than the others. I don't want to curse him with the distinction of being "special," a quality I had in my school days that made me very lonely. But I have to say that this boy is special, although I have a great deal of difficulty trying to explain why this is so. In any case, I don't want to make him uncomfortable.
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I received some very distressing news yesterday night, which has had an unquieting effect on my stomach. During this time, I feel, as I've felt in other similiar situations, particularly grateful for the opportunity to blog. Blogging is like little else I know to lift my spirits when I'm upset. There's something really nice about bringing some order to my own little corner of the universe, here, and I really enjoy the thought that my "work" may help some people, besides updating, and hopefully entertaining, my friends and family at home.

LTRC New Year's Party at the Grand Hilton

 

Now that my girlfriend, adult students, and lovely office ladies are on my blog, you, the reader, should feel very happy to see some of the most beautiful women in the world! These are "my office ladies," as I think of them. All of them are very kind, and I'm grateful for all the ways in which they've assisted me, and continue to assist me. These pictures were taken at my school's annual New Year's Party, held a few days ago in the Paris Grand Hilton. Unfortunately, I didn't think to bring my camera. My thanks to Sun for these pictures!


Me and My Beautiful Office Ladies 


David, a favorite colleague of mine, right, and I, in front of an ice sculpture! 

The Gwanghwamun Intersection Area

 

Straight ahead, in the distance, this road we're looking along forms a T with a large, broad road. Behind that lies Gyungbokgung, and behind that is the Blue House, South Korea's equivalent of the White House.


Memorial in front of the Kyobo Building 


Memorial with the Kyobo Building on the Right 

Two views of a small memorial near the Kyobo Building, which houses a truly massive bookstore, with a foreign books section with a better classics section than most bookshops in pre-Chapters Canada could boast. The Kyobo Bookstore also sells CD's, computer equipment, and souvenirs. This monument is actually an inscribed vertical slab sitting on the back of a stone turtle, inside the enclosure. According to the multilingual sign on the site, the memorial of 1902 commemorates three things: Emperor Gojung's 40th regnal anniversary, his 50th birthday, and his changing of the name of the country to "Great Korean Empire." The monument has been designated as "Historic Site #171."

Just up the road, a little more than a stone's throw from the Kyobo Building, is the US Embassy, which is (from our view), on Gyungbokgung's right. To that palace's left is an impressive building housing the Museum of Fine Arts, although I'm not sure if that is the only use of the building.


The Museum of Fine Arts 

The next picture, which made use of my camera's zoom feature, shows a sort of Korean gargoyle. They are all over the gates of Seoul's palaces, and they are on some temples as well, if I remember correctly. Their function, according to Sook, one of my adult students, is to "ward off evil."


"Warding off evil"--detail of the memorial 

General/Admiral Ee Soon Shin stands guard over the boulevard in this next photograph. This man, a hero from a war with Japan around half a millennium ago, invented a type of armored ship that was instrumental in defeating the Japanese. (For a post specifically on Ee Soon Shin and his armored ships, click Here.) All these pictures were taken from a large intersection that is only three minutes away by walking from my school. It's a dream of mine to one day be able to know the history of all the smaller monuments in my part of Seoul, in addition to a basic history of the palaces.


Korea's Famous Son 

At the foot of the statue sits a representation of Ee Soon Shin's earliest armored ship, something I only noticed today. It would appear to resemble a turtle.


Armored Ship 

This mountain is apparently named "북악산" ("Buk-ak-san"). There was some disagreement about this. Mr. Song, the finance guy, thought it had a different name, as did some of my adult students. However, David F, my boss and an avid hiker, says this mountain is off limits to hiking (the ones beside it, however, are not) because of the proximity to Chung-wa-Dae, and that he is sure of its name. Gookheon, my adult student who is most interested in Korean history, agrees with him, as did one or two other students (Sook was away today). So, Buk-ak-san it is, assuming I've transcribed the Korean correctly. The initial sound is somewhere between a "p" and a "b"; it's probably more like a "p," but I'll move on.


The Mountain 

Note: this post was updated with several pictures, and additional information from a second trip to the area today, and from the information kindly supplied by Wyatt in the comments section. NRB, 10:43pm Jan. 11th, 2004.