Yesterday, one of my co-teachers, Yoona, and her friend Ivan took me on a trip to Seoul. We visited a famous court palace from the Joseon dynasty. We were going to leave at 9, but it was absolutely pouring in the morning, so we ended up leaving around 12. It ended up being a beautiful day. It's really cooled off here and the days have been very nice. We got to Seoul around 2:30 cause the traffic was horrible (I see know why riding the subway is the preferred mode of transportation). We got to the palace just as the temple guard was being changed, which I guess only happens once a week. It was pretty neat to see. The palace was very large, and the architecture and designs very intricate and colorful. We walked around for over an hour and took lots of pictures. After that we drove up a hill that has an observatory tower on it where you can see most of the city (on a clear day, which is rare). There was a really cool, and expensive, cafe on the side of the mountain (called "cafe on the side of the mountain") that we hit up on the way down. Got a glass of lemonade for 7 bucks. Actually there was more ice than lemonade. But you pay for the view, which was amazing. We sat on the top balcony and looked over the city. It was getting later by this time, so we drove down into the Insadong area of Seoul and they took me out to a really neat Korean restaurant. We got some Korean pizza thing and some bulgogi, which is thin slices of beef. Amazingly, this meal didn't come with Kimchee.

Today is Sunday, and I'm about to head to church. My friend Melanie is leaving next week, so we are going out to lunch with some people after church for her. Tomorrow starts my third week of classes. Last week ended up being great, after a rough Monday. I'm learning how to control a class, yet have fun with them. It's a good challenge for me. I had a student in one of my classes on Friday that was taller than me. It was crazy. He walked in and I just stared at him for like a minute. Every class I had been having them guess my height and they would all be in shock and applause when they found out it was 188 centimeters. This guy was 191. 15 years old. Dang!

Well, I would like to write more, but got to get to church. Here are some pics. BTW-new switchfoot single up on youtube. Also, Tobin posted a couple of my songs from the "Living Room Concert" up on youtube, also. here's the link-http://www.youtube.com/user/DerekFekkesMusic