I renewed my contract

Today is November 1st, my birthday month and the start of my 11th month in Seoul. About a week ago I signed a 7 month renewal contract so I'm employed through August 3, 2011. I was a little worried that they weren't going to offer me an extention so I'm very happy and relieved right now.
It's getting colder but the weather hasn't fully committed to winter cold yet, we'll have a couple days of freezing cold (by California standards) and then a couple days of sun and warmth. This past weekend was Halloween and I had a really nice time. Since Halloween fell on a Sunday I had three days worth of cosutme options and I've always been kean on making my own costume and this year was no exception.
On Thursday night I went to a Halloween party in Gangnam and it was really fun. I made a Guiness bottle costume, I worked on the label for over an hour and I was pretty proud of the result. It got a bit crushed after a night of dancing but I did get some pictures of my masterpiece beforehand!
On Friday my company encouraged the employees to dress up because in Korea people don't really celebrate Halloween. I was a soju bottle (the National drink) and it was really easy to make (green shirt + handmade soju label) much less detail than the Guiness label. My students all laughed and were really curious about the Halloween mumbo jumbo. "What do adults do on Halloween??" "Well... they dress up in costumes and drink alcohol."
Saturday I went on a solo hike up the nearest mountain Ansan, it's behind the University Yonsei which is a hop, skip and a jump away from my house. I downloaded a couple podcasts and went on a three hour hike/walk and it was really nice. The weather was perfect and the mountain wasn't very crowded, which can be a problem on the mountains here. I took a couple pictures, but my camera has the unique talent of taking ANY picturesque sight and making it look lame, so I probably wont post any of them.
Saturday night my friend Julia and I went as ninja turtles along with a Waldo, a Woody and a lumberjack. We went to Itaewon and stayed most of the night at a westerner bar called Dillingers. My favorite costume was a guy dressed as Sailor Venus from Sailor Moon. His skirt was so short and I'm chuckling right now just thinking about it.
High light of the night: Julia and I were talking to the bar tender/ DJ and he told us to come behind the bar to show us something and as soon as we walked behind it, the bar owner announced (with a microphone!) that they were having a costume contest and th ninja turtles were in it! Um... I'm not a big spot light person and we both froze for a second. There were a lot of people there! Some how Julia and I didn't run away and we actually won second place. Unfortunately Brave Heart's costume was too good. I'm glad we did it, even if we did get tricked into participating.
I hope everyone else had a good Halloween too!