This blog will be brief, I just have a lot of pictures and videos I took this past week of my kids, and I wanted to show them. Thursday we went to an Arboretum, where the kids walked around, learned nothing, and hoped to see a snake. But I did get some cute pictures and videos. Today (Friday) we had the monthly singing performance, so I have some videos of my class as well as some others. Enjoy :) ... read more

This weekend I had one of the best times since I have been in country, despite Dan still being away. (Only one more week, woo hoo!) I had a three day weekend because it was Korea's Memorial Day, so no work on Friday. I more or less wasted the day away sleeping, snacking, reading, and beginning a now full-blown addiction to Grey's Anatomy. (I swear I have never seen an episode before, but now I watch all sorts of full season TV shows online- www.watchtvsitcoms.com) Friday night I went to dinner with Kelly and Patricia. We took the train to Uijungbu, where Patricia lives, and had an awesome Kalbi (Galbi) dinner. Kalbi is the name of the meat (pork, I believe?) and at this restaurant it is marinated in a really great sweet sauce I can ... read more

Hi All! Unlike my last blog entry I have quite a bit to report. Dan and I flew to Tokyo this past weekend since I had a three day (Monday was Children's Day, which rings funny in my head, because as I child I would ask my parents, "If there is Mother's Day and Father's Day, how comes there's no kid's day?" and my Mother would quickly reply, "Because every day is kid's day.") Friday night we headed an hour south to Itaewon to hang out with a couple we know, then stayed in a hotel there so as to be closer to the airport. We took a nauseating taxi ride (my body can't handle Korean liquor, and after only three drinks I can get pretty hungover) to the aiport, left on the 10am flight and ... read more

Last Sunday Daniel and I took a train to the Changdeokgung Palace (about 100 mins.) which was the home of King Taejong of the Joseon Dynasty. It was built in 1405 and was destroyed by the Japanese during the Imjin Invasion (1592-1598). Unlike the neighboring palace of Gyeongbokgung which was constructed on flat land and had a perfectly North and South axis layout, the Changdeokgung was built in the mountainside and thus the design considered the geographical landscape and looked more natural. The Palace does not allow people to wander the grounds anymore, for they found that the traffic was destroying the grounds. Therefore, you have to take one of the scheduled tours, and they occur less frequently for English-speaking tourists, just three times a day. A few interesting things we learned; -There are large pots ... read more

I started off this blog with this "lovely" (ha) quote to show you how funny some of the slogans/quotes/advertisements I see here are. This particular sentence is written all over the mat my students sit on during story time. During Daniel's introduction classes with the Army regarding Korean culture he was presented with a gift from the Korean government. It is a set of tea spoons with masks that were created for the Yangju byeolsandae nori; a Mask Dance which is a drama that depicts the joys and sorrows of common people and social concerns. "The drama unfolds as various people including a ruined aristocrat, a deprived monk, a shaman and servants come onstage and disclose the social ironies through unique dance and gestures and both comical and provacative dialogue which are extremely entertaining." The drama ... read more