The Halfway Point

It’s been kind of a sleepy week. I’ve just been settled in, working, and taking some alone time when I can. I’ve been more of a social butterfly lately than I have been in a long while. Sarah and I have been so fortunate to get such great “instant friends”. The six-day work week with kids has been tiring me out to, so most of the going out lately has been for dinner or shopping or something.

Earlier in the week Ellie had us foreign teachers over and made us a fabulous dinner. We brought the wine. She even put balloons up in her apartment and post-it notes with “welcome” written on them. We just ate, drank wine, and had a nice mellow evening. It was lovely.

On Friday, “Mommy” and two of the other family members picked Sarah and I up to go to the movies. We went to the IMAX and saw ‘Sweeney Todd’. Ummmm… I had heard it was gory, but give me a break, I don’t think I have seen so many close-ups of slit throats in my life, spurting blood everywhere. I can’t even remember the last time I covered my eyes during a movie but I did for this one on several occasions. Johnny Depp rocked as usual and the gothic style visuals were great, but the blood was a little too overflowing for my taste. Going to the theater, however, was great and I definitely plan on going there again before I leave. I love going to the movies.

This weekend, a few of us went out for dinner, barbecue (yum) pork. It’s basically the same cut of pork that bacon comes from, just not cured like bacon. It was good, but I think I prefer the lean beef better. After that, I just spent the evening in and got some rest.

Today, Sunday, the family picked us up and took us to the Korean Folk Village just outside of Seoul http://www.koreanfolk.co.kr/. It was very quaint, informative, and historic. Sarah and I got stopped twice by students to have English conversations, we saw a man walk a tightrope, we saw horses and horse acrobatics, we ate a lot of food (of course), went to a museum or two, saw lots of traditional housing, swung on foot swings, and were cold. I think my toes were completely numb at one point. I did get a lot of really great pictures though and now I feel a little more educated on Korea’s cultural history. The family was generous as usual and took care of us very well the whole time.


That's me in front of the "Dutiful Wife's Monument" Ha! I just thought it was funny that the one woman monument that I could find was for the dutiful wife and for her pious devotion to her husband's family.

Here are the horses... and the people.


I have also been taking pictures of interesting Korean English.



Half way done with the camp and in some ways it feels like it flew by and in others, it feels like I’ve been here for forever. I wonder what the second half will hold?