Jung&Co.

I met Jung to go to Seoul Tower (Namsan), and we met for dinner first. We had samgyeopsal (like thick bacon) and took a bus with 2 other friends to Namsan. It was the first time I've felt car-sick in a really long time, but they were all really understanding. Namsan was beautiful. I've been there in the day, but not at night. The base of the tower was lit up, and when the music started on the hour, the lights shone dancing on the tower. Along with the lights and music, there was a mist spraying into the air from holes in the ground. It was so hot, so we decided to run through it. I didn't catch their glances, so when they counted to 3, I was the only one who ran through! After laughing, soaking on the other side, I convinced them how good the cool water was, so they ran through also. Laughing, we walked down the mountain. It was a good 1.5 hour walk down to the subway, and 1.5 hour ride home, but it was all worth it. What a beautiful night.

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.

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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...

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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"...

Videos (from the zoo and my street)

Prarie Dog Lullaby


3 Little Monkeys


Night Political Calls


Day Political Call

Dad's trip pictures

Pretty Subway Exit
Children's Grand Park (with zoo)
His idea, not mine :) haha
Doosan vs. Kia Baseball Game
With WanSeok down by the Han River
Foggy Sunday morning

Kyungbokgung Palace

This day was so wonderful. They are my new friends. Well, one girl is my friend Grace, and her friend Hyungshin (the guy from the soccer game), and the other girl is Hyungshin's friend from Arizona. Great people to hang out with!!

Last Day Pictures

Playing football for the first time in their lives
It was sooo hot!!
Contemplating the football...how does this thing work??


Girls Class

Bongsunghwa

My flowers have gotten so big!! They started out as seeds pots, and grew slowly, slowly...until about a month ago. Then they shot up! The stalks are so tall that I thought the roots wouldn't be able to hold them in such shallow pots. BUT, I was so sad because they didn't have flowers.

A week and a half ago, my first flower opened. And every day there are one or two new ones. They die and fall off the stalk quickly, but they are still very beautiful and able to maintain at least one or two flowers per pot at a time.

Last night I left my room at 9pm, and this is what they looked like. There were 4 flowers.
This morning I came into my classroom, and my students were gathered around the windowsill. I came over to find the most flowers I've seen blossomed at one time (7)! They're beautiful colors: pink, purple, red, white...and what a beautiful sky while walking home to compliment the day.

Seafood

(Picture from the internet, but this is exactly what it looked like)

Today I was invited by a professor out to lunch. We drove for a ways, and ended up at a Korean-Japanese fusion restaurant. They picked the set menu, that turned out to be a 5 course meal. It was fun talking...until the food arrived...(cue the scary music)...

The first course was octopus and squid along with another few food items I don't know what were. But, the food was REALLY expensive, so I had to be grateful and at least appear to enjoy the meal! A few squid and octopus legs later came course number 2.

This was 회 (pronounced hwae), a Korean version of the Japanese sashimi--similar to sushi. Someone basically takes a fish, slices it up, and puts it on top of dried radish noodles. Sounds appetizing, huh? ^^ Course 3 was just another variety of hoe.

Course 4 was deep fried sea animals.

Course 5 was...fish soup!

I can honestly say that if you put all the seafood I've eaten in my life onto a scale of quantity, today's meal would by far win. By far. And you know what? It wasn't the end of the world. I've proven to myself that I can eat fish (raw or cooked) and other seafoods without being sick. It was a little hard to swallow, but I did it with a smile on my face. I only hope I never have to do that again.

Italy with Jamie

Jamie and her family asked me to lunch yesterday. So I hopped in their car during my lunch break and we headed north. After driving for 30 minutes, we arrived at Pinnacole (an Italian Restaurant). It was a beautiful glass-walled structure in the middle of the mountains. What a wonderful break from city life!

The food was good, but more delightful was walking in the flower gardens and spending time with Jamie and her family. On the way home, we stopped by a farmer selling fresh tomatoes. It was so relaxing! I'm blessed to know and have good relationships with Koreans here.

Soccer Game #1

Last Saturday was the first Korean soccer game in the World Cup, and it's been pumped up here!! Everyone's so excited and energized by the media as well as by commercials and word of mouth. I was privileged to spend the first game with my friend Grace. She invited her other 3 friends, so it made for a nice group party.

We met at her house, went shopping for food, and cooked and talked while waiting 2 hours for the game to start. We made chicken/potato/kimchi stir-fry, kimchi/tuna fried rice, kimchi pancakes, and what else could we need but more kimchi ^^ I LOVE kimchi!!!

Whenever Korea made a score or had a good play, people all around would yell out their windows: "Dae-han-minguk" to which people would echo: clap, clap - clap, clap - clap. It is amazing how so many people can be united together through a simple soccer game.

It was a good time meeting and getting to know new people. I really enjoyed that. It was a good chance for me, and I'll never forget it!