Gwanghwamun

On Sunday afternoon Krista and I took a trip to Gwanghwamun 광화문 in Seoul to see the newly renovated plaza. We had read in the September issue of Seoul Magazine that this 3rd plaza had opened up August 1st and thought it would be nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather in downtown Seoul.

This is now one of three large plazas Seoul has to offer, after Seoul Plaza and Cheonggyecheon. It was named after the main gate of nearby Gyeongbokgung Palace and is located outside of Gwanghwamun Station, Line 5 and the gate (which is still currently under construction). It is also located in the middle of what was 16 lanes of traffic. The plaza is 30m wide by 550 meters long.

This plaza along with numerous other construction projects occurring in Seoul are part of a large marketing strategy to portray a new vibrant, but stylish image for Seoul and the country.

During the first week after construction approx 1 million people had visited the plaza. If you want a more detailed history, click here.

Aside from the plaza’s beauty, there is a bit of controversy surrounding the plaza. All of the plazas have space available for public demonstrations, but with all of the floral decorations, there is no room for such things, and many Seoulites are quite upset by this fact. Krista and I however really enjoyed our afternoon there.

“Haechi” – Symbol of Seoul

Haechi, the symbol of Seoul, is an animal of “justice and integrity” that discerns good and evil. Haechi is an imaginary animal with divine power that protects by repelling disaster and brining “fortune and luck.”

Haechi has a horn on its head and a bell on its neck. It’s body is covered in scales, and it has wing-like feathers under its arms. It is the gaurdian animal of Seoul and can fly in the sky. It lives close to water in the summer and in the pine forest in winter. It is known to live mainly around Gwanghamun and Gyeongbokgung palace in Seoul.

Currently, the logo and slogan of “Hi Seoul” has been used to promote the city. what do you think of the new branding?? You can post your comments at the bottom of this blog post!

Below is a statue of Yi Sun-sin 이순신 (April 28, 1545 – December 16, 1598) was a Korean naval commander noted for his victories against the Japanese navy during the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598) during the Joseon Dynasty.

Along each side of the plaza are flower benches with flower displays built in and even speakers playing classical music.

We snapped a picture of the plaza staff’s flower cart as well as them planting. A lot of work went in to planting the 200,000+ flowers!

There is a light stream on each side of the plaza with engravings of each year from about the 1400’s, and here you can see two men scrubbing the tiles clean.

Green Haechi lawn statue, you can see the US Embassy in the background.

A little bit of extra history for you: One of the major benefits of the new plaza is that it helps correct the damage done to the downtown area’s basic orientation under Japanese colonial rule. When Seoul was made the capital of the Joseon kingdom, the main axis of the city ran from Mt. Bugaksan to the Shinto shrine they built on Mt. Namsan. When the restoration work on Gwanghwamun is completed, the traditional axis will be restored. –Robert Koehler, Seoul Tour and Culture

The 2009 Seoul International Drama awards had a display at the plaza as well. SBS had a few TV sets there to promote the various dramas they have running.

One drama they have is a horror, we took this pic inside one of their sets.

We left Gwanghwamun and walked a few blocks towards city hall and came across some kind of H.O.T pepper festival. There were various different kinds of peppers in all shapes, sizes and colours.

Two arches covered designed with red peppers

Aren’t we HOT?

We wrote on a red pepper in Korean, it translates to Jon + Krista Forever. Yes, cheesy, but our Korean vocabulary is not that extensive!

iSponge Campus – Our School

After being in Seoul for a week and going for a medical check, we finally got to have a tour of the school we will be teaching at. We are working for a franchise called iSponge, the location we are at is brand new – students are just registering for the first time there now! We will be the first native English speakers to have worked at this school, so we get to help get the place started!

The school looks amazing! Lots of bright colours, it is designed to make the children feel that they can have a lot of fun while learning. The teaching style the school employs has a lot do with learning through activities as well as regular workbook learning.

The school staff consists off one owner/principal, vice principal, secretary, two Korean-English teachers and two Native English speakers (Krista and I), and the bus driver! As it turns out, I am the only male on staff, aside from the bus driver, but he is not around often.

These last two days we have been going through lessons and role playing – pretending to teach each other. On Friday and Saturday we will have two days of training at their head office.

On Monday we will be doing some other prep work and then Tuesday is the big day. September 1st we have our first day of teaching with brand new students!

We took some pictures of the school, check it out! (You can click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Front entrance

Front desk

Play room

Classroom

Classroom, same as above but different view

Sponge room, this is used for various activities and games

Classroom

Kids can wash their hands here before lunch and after activities

Activity / game room

Classroom

Classroom

Classroom

Teacher’s room – this is just a partial view

Until next time.. after we start teaching!

Our Apartment in Korea

After arriving at Incheon Intn’l in Seoul at 5am we were greeted by a driver who helped us load up our 300+ lbs of luggage into a van and drove us to meet our new director and our new apartment.

After an hour or so drive we made it to our apartment building, or officetel as it is called here and met our director. We had to wait an hour for the building manager to arrive so the three of us went for a coffee. We got to know the director a little bit, she lived in Minnesota for a few months while studying for a semester. We learned that our new school will consist of our director, an assistant, two Korean teachers and two foreign teachers (Krista and I). I also learned that I will be the only male employee there!

We were suppose to meet the parents of some new students on the 18th, but because of the swine flu outbreak we were told to ‘rest’ in our apartment for a week to make sure we're not sick. Well.. that didn’t last long we had to venture out to get groceries and explore the area a little bit. So far we like the area we live in, it is a lot busier than where we were before. There is a major street a few blocks away where many different bus routes will take us were we want to go. The subway station and E-Mart are nearby as well.

We start 2 or 3 days of training mid next week and then begin teaching September 1st. Until the weekend, we will ‘rest’ and then on Saturday we’re off to meet up with a friend of ours for a party!

Anyway, we decided to take pictures of the apartment right away before we add some decor. It is definitely a step up from our last apartment in Korea! This time we have a loft apartment with A/C!! Surprisingly enough our apartment stays pretty cool even without it on, we could have died of heat stroke in the previous one (30C / 86F degrees in the kitchen when cooking!

Loft area with bed and plenty of closet space.

We have a sink in our bathroom this time!

So far so good, we’ll post some more pictures after we make this place look less of a jail cell :)