My mom came to visit us at the beginning of the month. We had so much fun! I wish she could have stayed longer, but unfortunately we only had a week. Still, we did manage to do a lot in the 7 days she was here. We went to the Korean Folk Village in Suwon, visited the aquarium in COEX, went to Insadong to shop souveniers, and ate a LOT of Korean food! Mom tried gogigui, dak galbi, bulgogi, bibimbap, and lots of other only-in-Korea foods. At school, she brought gifts for the kindergartners, who were (for the most part) very polite and introduced themselves. The only disappointment at school was that my one girl student, Michelle, refused to say hello to my mom. Incidentally, she did not get her present. Boo-ya.
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| An idea of what most of the shops are like at Insadong. |
Also, I lost my Nook (the Barnes & Noble e-reader) on the bus to Incheon Airport when we were going to pick up Mom. When my friend, Sunny, called the lost/found number, no one had reported it found. I thought I'd never see it again! I had resigned myself to reading my books on my phone for a while... when I got a message saying they might have my e-reader at a subway station lost/found. IT WAS MY NOOK! My very sweet Korean co-worker, Grace, went to talk to the people at the station, and she brought it to me this past Monday. Three weeks after losing my Nook, it comes back to me unharmed. One of the many reasons why Korea is awesome!
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| Mom and I on the way to a Buddhist temple in the folk village. |
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| Eating some delicious galbi (beef) at the gogigui restaurant. Note the bloody plate by Ben's hand. We cook the meat ourselves. |
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| Hey there, Buddha. |
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| Us girls! |
After Mom left, school started again for reals. We're doing an advertising push at the beginning of next month, so we're really hoping to get some more students into the kindergarten and afternoon programs. I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago due to some strange symptoms-- headaches, dizziness, ringing in ears, nausea, and fatigue. The doctor looked at me sternly after taking some quick tests and told me I had very high blood pressure. Bum bum bummmmm. In his words, I need to diet, exercise, and "lose my weight". *facepalm* Having lost over 10lbs. since coming to Korea, this was just a reminder that I have more to go.
He prescribed me an 8-day pill which I recently finished to help take the edge off. (I can only assume it was a beta blocker, having found nothing close to the brand on the internet). Since then, I have put myself on a low-sodium diet, started walking early in the mornings, and cut caffeine. It stinks. I miss salt! But I've already started feeling better since making those small changes, so I know it's all for the good. Besides, I know I can have those things occasionally. Just no more microwaved popcorn for dinner. (I am that person.)
Yesterday I attended my first (in Korea) Korean wedding. (Alycia, trying to explain to my Korean friends that I had attended a sort-of Korean wedding in America was a little hard!) It was at a co-worker's church, and I was the only waygook there. Therefore, I was an oddity which everyone seemed to want to say "hello" to and practice their English on. The wedding was a mixture of traditional, contemporary, and theatrical. The bride and groom wore modern wedding clothes, but the mothers of the couple wore hanboks. There was... a fog machine. And a song and dance number. And trumpet-shaped guns that shot out ribbon confetti. It was... an experience.
That's about all I have time to write about for now! Thanks to all of you who keep up with this blog. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the updates.
