Today I awoke to a gray sky and I figured it was just a matter of time before the rain started falling. Thankfully, God granted a miracle and we ended up with a sunny day in Seoul!
No rain, no rain, lalalalalala!
I couldn't miss out on a chance to get outside into the sunshine so I decided to take a trip down the back side of the hill into Sinchon after school to do a bit of exploring and make a fun splurge (more on that in a minute). Passing through the back gate of SFS and onto the campus of Yonsei University gives you the impression of leaving a secret garden.
The mysterious back gate:)
I absolutely love being on a university campus and as I walked through Yonsei I passed students conversing, professors moving hastily, and heard singing and cheering echoing from some unknown area. Mmmmmm, to be a college student again! Yonsei is one of the most prestigious universities in Korea and was started with the support of the head of Seoul Foreign School many years ago. In our general vicinity you can also find Hongik University and Ewha Women's University. Basically I am living in a mecca of teaching and learning--how perfect. To give you a sense of what I saw, here are a few photos of the Yonsei campus...
Billingsley Hall is the landmark that tells us we're almost back to the SFS campus!
Just outside of the campus gates you pass under a railway bridge and enter Sinchon, a vibrant and fun part of town. My mission took me a few blocks down the main street to my new favorite store Barunson. Essentially this is an absolutely adorable stationary store and I LOVE it! The store is filled with fun stationary (of course), cute photo albums, cards, and other miscellaneous items. Today I went to purchase a polaroid camera that spits out credit card sized prints that I'll use to commemorate my travels in Korea and beyond. Some of the students have these handy little cameras and they are fun!! The camera and film were a bit spendy, but I figured I could afford the splurge since I'm getting paid a double salary this month:). I can't wait to take this little baby out and see what she can do--I plan to add snapshots of where I've been to the map of Korea and world map (also from the fun stationary store) that will soon be hanging in my study.
I am well supplied with a camera, two boxes of film, and a handy album for my snapshots!
While in Sinchon I also came across an Italian restaurant that I'm hoping to try soon and I finally found nail polish remover (this is much more difficult that I expected because I had to buy a bottle of polish in order to get the remover for free--go figure).
Yum-o!
It's taken nearly a month, but I found it! Notice the bottle says "Nail Remover"...I hope not!
On my way back toward school I passed the hospital and thought I would detour to the Starbucks we had gone to on our first full day in Korea after our medical checkups. Come to find out, the hospital grounds are HUGE and I never found the elusive coffee shop. I did have the opportunity to help a sweet little Korean nurse wheel a patient down a very steep hill. When I came upon her she was walking backward down the hill and pushing on the front of the wheel chair, which looked like it was about to plow her over thus sending the patient on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Thankfully we made it safely to the bottom without causing any further injury to the frightened patient. Overall, I got a great two hour workout and had the chance to go exploring on my own. Now off to eat dinner and finish up my plans for tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this weather holds out and I'll be able to get out to one of the palaces on Saturday--stay tuned!
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