Last Week

Last week I went out with 2 girls from my Children Center. They're so fun to be around, and very close to me. Outside of people directly students or teachers at KBU, I probably have 5-6 friends. So them being 2 of those friends means a lot to me. We went shopping around Nowon, and then sat in an ice cream store eating together and enjoying one of our last times out.

In the shop, we talked about if I'll ever come back to Korea. I and one of the girls don't have boyfriends, so we linked pinkies and promised each other that once I finished school and had a boyfriend/husband, that I would come back to Korea, find the girls, and us and our boyfriends/husbands would take a trip together to the beach. What an exciting thing to talk about! I hope that once I'm married that I would have the opportunity to take my husband back to Korea, a place that has changed my life and impacted me in a way that I can't explain.

-----------------------------

I also met WanSeok last weekend. I took a bus 2 hours south to Bundang, where I used to live. It was like being in a dream...While in the bus, I could look out and see my old apartment, the same old shoe store on the corner, the same vacant piece of land that has development signs on it, the memories flooded back. It was incredible. I also realized how good that I had it that first year here...Being in Nowon is great, and being downtown Seoul is great, but they're all so different. Downtown is like any other dirty, crowded, big city. Nowon is like living in a poor countryside. Bundang is like being in Hollywood! It has enormous buildings that are gated and have 24 hour security. The people dress very posh. There are TONS of parks and free, open grass areas (a luxury in Korea). I still love living in Nowon, but I didn't realize how nice Bundang was...

WanSeok's mom made bulgogi (marinated, stir-fried beef), kimchi cheon (fried, battered kimchi), kimchi (that she'd made herself), and other delicious foods. Yum!! It was like she knew all of my favorite things! Hmm...WanSeok must have tipped her off ^^ After dinner, we just talked and looked at picture albums. It's funny, in Korea I always feel very aware of myself and how I act and talk--especially in front of older Korean people. Yet, with WanSeok's parents, in his house, I don't feel that way at all. It's one of very few places that I feel really comfortable and not pressured or awkward at all. It makes me so happy to be around him and his family. There's something about them...

-----------------------------

In class, we were talking about things that you would buy as a gift for a girl, and things that you might buy for a guy. One of those things we mentioned were cuff links. Nothing special, but I had to take a long time explaining what exactly cuff links were. After 2 minutes or so of talking and drawing pictures, we finally were all on the same page. Nothing special, but sometimes these things take time...and in a 3 hour class, 2 minutes of explaining cuff links is no big deal ^^ 30 seconds after I stopped talking about cuff links, one of the students who'd been quiet that whole time raised her hand and asked, "Why were we talking about 'couple rings'? And who wears them on their sleeves?!" Everyone started laughing. Couple rings are popular in Korea--they're rings that couples where to show they're going out. I guess it would be easy to mix up "cuff links" with "couple rings"...