Working with children is hazardous for your wardrobe. I have learned this the hard way. This morning, to beat the Monday blues, I decided to dress up for work: cute brown boots, my organza skirt from J. Crew and some very fall colored tops. It worked and I loved it. Trouble came in the afternoon when my international kindergarten class was writing on the board with dry erase markers. Since they’re very careless with them I decided to stay on the far side of the room and watch from a safe distance of their swiping markers. But one of the boys decided to write “Poopoo Sue” on the board (Sue is a poor girl the entire class picks on). I had to go erase it and that’s when the wild marker struck! Curses! I was quite upset. There’s a large blue streak across my organza skirt. I took it to the dry cleaners with my fingers crossed, we’ll see if it works.
But let’s talk about the weekend. It was a pretty decent time, although after that wonderful four day break we had last week it was uncomfortably short. Friday night we went out to dinner with our new Korean friend Gyeong Hee. She took us to a traditional restaurant, where you sit on a heated floor and eat family style. The food was amazing! It was definitely the best meal we’ve had yet. There was a spread of kimchi and dolsot bibimbop (which is like a really hot salad), but the main course was the best. It was chicken and ginseng soup. The meat was so tender that you could just strip it off, dip it in salt and enjoy. As a welcoming gesture Gyeong Hee also bought us some ceramic mugs that the restaurant owner made in the kiln behind her restaurant. They’re beautiful mugs, with flowers etched into the sides. I’m really happy we got to take a few home with us.
David and I decided to stay relatively close to home. Both Saturday and Sunday we took the subway to Suwon, which is actually the city we were originally supposed to teach in. The city’s two main attractions are the Korean Folk Village and the Hwaseong Fortress wall which circles the original city. We spent our Saturday wandering through the Folk Village. It was a pretty amazing experience. The entire place was more than 243 acres and had 250 traditional houses from the different regions of Korea. We caught a performance by a traditional farmer’s band. They had these really cool white ribbons on the tops of their heads which they twirled with every drum beat. There were also some pretty intense acrobatics during the performance.
We wandered through the village, exploring every hut we came to. They were inhabited by actual villagers who raise animals and do different handicrafts. There was a papermaker, an ironsmith, a bamboo sandal maker, a lacquerbox artisan and candy makers. I bought some traditional rice candy. It was incredibly chewy and covered in flour, which made for rather messy eating. Koreans are very innovative with rice. You can get a rice anything: rice cracker, rice cake, rice tea, rice candy, rice soup… you name it and there’s a rice version. I’ve learned to distinguish the specific tastes which signal that there’s rice in the food.
David took tons of pictures in the folk village. Here’s a few to give you a taste of what it was like. It was so refreshing to get into a different setting for a few hours. This outing definitely makes the list of a place to show any visitors of ours (so come on over!!).
Sunday we walked the 5.7 km wall which surrounds Suwon. The hike wasn’t too terrible and it helped us envision what the city/fortress must have looked like back in the 18th century when it was built. We actually saw some unique wildlife during our walk: a quail burst out of the underbrush and David caught a picture of it.
When we got to the end of the wall walk we found a huge open air market filled with food and clothes. It was fun to walk through, Suwon is definitely a thriving city at night. David caught a great picture of what most of Korea looks like at night: a neon lover’s bliss!!
I had an interesting discussion with one of my older kids today. I asked him if he believed in ghosts and he said no. I asked him if he believed in God and he answered no as well. I asked him why and this was his explanation: people cannot walk on clouds. It’s science. God would fall out of the sky. It seemed logical enough to me, although I thought it was rather funny. How do you argue that with a ten year old whose second language is English? I guess you don’t.
I’ve been getting homesick a bit more often lately. This is now officially the longest time I’ve been away from Charleston, and while it doesn’t really feel like it most of the time, I can still tell. It’s the little things: craving for sharp cheddar, a memory of a street I drove on often, being unable to communicate the simplest things to store merchants, being the only person with brown hair in an entire block. I’ve definitely been enjoying Korea and all it has to offer, but that doesn’t come without a price.
One thing you can be praying for us (if you’re a praying person) is that God will give us guidance with what to do after our stint here. Will we go home or perhaps even teach more in a different part of the world? David is really getting interested in photography, and he definitely has a gift, yet it’s a hard profession to succeed/be financially viable in. I’m working hard and writing every day, but who know when that career will really take off. I’ve been toying with the idea of grad school, but I don’t want to go just to go, I want to be certain that it’s something that will really benefit me and our future.
Much love from the far side of the sea!
