More Impressions

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Almost Friday!
It is 5:30 PM here and I just finished up. Jen has another 2 hours to go. I have a headache! The kids were wild today. Like the gym, there is no sense of personal space. We are poked and prodded all day long. Little girls cling to our legs as we try to walk. But they are sweet. Usually.....At any rate, the temple yesterday was amazing. It was truly a place of peace and beauty. A stream trickled down from the top of the mountain through what looked like the world's largest rock garden. We weren't wearing hiking clothes and we had no water but we decided to go up the mountain (about 2 km, but over crazy terrain). We were pretty tired at the top and as Jen said, we got ice cream and I got a Pepsi. There was something somehow wrong about getting a Pepsi atop a mountain (probably technically a big hill, but still), but it tasted good. Jen surprised and delighted me by giving me a ring! She also wrote me a beautiful note and gave me some poems. It was a magical moment that I will never forget. I love that woman!


Children's Day
Well, we have definitely had a very eventful couple days. The gym was quite the experience. We seriously are sometimes treated like the pandas at the zoo. People point and stare very often and the occasional few will try to talk to us (usually the school girls which Jeremy enjoys). At the gym is was like that exactly. From the second we walked into the gym we were instant celebrities. Everyone watching our every move and very willing to help us with our workout. Our workout started with a mandatory 10 minutes of stretching. The guy next to me was from New Zealand and was trying to talk to me which out "stretching coach" did not appreciate in the least. From there it was off for our mandatory 20 minutes on the bicycle. About every 3 minutes or so one of the staff would come and check up on us. One of the girls was very nice and asked me what we were doing here, where we were teaching and how long we would be here. (The usual) Then out of no where she grabbed my thigh, looked at me and left. (Bizarre). Perhaps she was wondering is I was using the correct leg muscles to cycle? Then Jeremy got a taste of the same. As we worked our biceps another one of our trainers got behind him and started poking him in the stomach and arms. Again, we were given no explanation like it was completely normal. Yet, we were the only two in the entire gym being man handled.

Yesterday we spent the day at the largest temple in Busan because we had no class for Children's Day. It was really amazing. We had no idea that it involved quite so much hiking, but when we finally reached the top (him in his Diesels and me in my flip flops) it was amazing. We hung out there for a little while and had ice cream and relaxed. We plan on going back again soon, in proper attire. Also, we'll post some pictures from it soon.

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