Autumn Wanderings

I LOVE AUTUMN! The best season to me. Cooler weather and gorgeous colors! I've been out and about to take it all in, because this is my last fall in Korea (sob!) and I don't want to miss it. I'm just going to share pictures of the foliage. These were taken at Olympic Park, Changdeok Palace, Changgyeong Palace, and Seoul Grand Park, all located within Seoul.

It's also persimmon time!

I like how the mountains always seem to pop up in
the background.

Olympic Park

The weather is getting cooler and cooler, and the leaves are turning redder and yellower! Autumn is here! I've been trying to get out of the house as much as possible before the weather turns too cold (it's shaping up to be a COLD winter) and to see the beauty of the leaves before they fall.

Peace Gate; the main entrance.

 The choice of the day was Olympic Park, site of the 1988 Olympics and located on the eastern side of Seoul. It is another large park, 370 square acres, or 1.5 million square meters for any non-Americans reading this.The brochure I picked up from the information center said you can "upgrade the quality of your life" by visiting the various areas of the park. I don't know about that, but you can certainly enjoy a lovely day outside! Within the park there are also three museums: the Olympic museum, the SOMA museum of art, and the Seoul Baekje museum. There is also an outdoor sculpture garden and several other things as well, including two playground areas, with snack stands scattered about. Always a good thing when you have kids in tow!

Inside the Olympic museum.

 The only museum we had time to visit this day was the Olympic museum. The first exhibit hall was an excellent history of the Olympic games, and the second hall was focused on the 1988 Olympics and mostly on Korean athletes. It was a very educational museum.

Flags of participating countries. I love a good flag display!
Also good for geography lessons!

 After the museum visit we walked around part of the park. (We certainly didn't attempt the whole park at once!) Some of the scenes:

A very popular sculpture, and of course the lovely roses
still in bloom!

SOMA museum with sculpture park in foreground.

You could walk through the field of flowers. So beautiful!
Notice the changing leaves in back.

Of course there were plenty of lovely leaves, which I will show in a separate post. The girls and I really enjoyed this park and can't wait to go back!

Dance at Seoul Tanz Station

I have been watching my girls dance ballet for over 3 years now, and I developed a desire to do it also. I stumbled upon a website while looking for English speaking art classes for my daughter that was about classes for adults. One of them was for dance. The location is in the Sinchon area, near Ewha Women's University, and the studio is Seoul Tanz Station. They offer a wide variety of classes from ballet to club dance, and yoga and pilates as well. Of course they are all in Korean, but I just watch closely and it's not hard to follow along. At times the language barrier can cause a problem on my part, simply because it would help if I could ask a question or understand some of the more complicated steps before we start, but overall it's not an issue. They do have English speaking staff at the desk, which is very helpful. Their set-up is quite convenient as well. You can either pay per class, or buy a pre-paid punch card for a set number of classes. The more pre-paid credits you buy, the cheaper. however, there is a time limit on redemption. The schedule is published and you can choose any class, show up, and dance! I was surprised at the number of older (non-college) students in my basic ballet class, but it was encouraging to know I did not enter this youthful vicariousness alone! I like what I read the other day, "Live life vivaciously, not vicariously!". Hopefully, that would be me!

Bulletin board with current & special classes and photos.