Back In Ulsan

To all you loyal followers out there (I know there are lots of you) I am sorry I haven't written in over a month! Things have been very busy around here. After our mom's left I was busy in planning and preparation for my trip back to Canada. This involved a lot of Christmas shopping for everyone back home. On November 28th Dennis dropped me off at the airport and I started my very long journey back home. I had to fly from Ulsan to Seoul, transfer airports, fly from Seoul to Vancouver, and then fly to Calgary. It was a very long day of traveling but it was all worth while when my friends (Alana, Ashley, and Dustin) picked me up from the airport in Calgary, they even had a banner welcoming me back to Canada. My mom made us a great lasagna dinner so that we could all catch up over at her place. The following 10 days in Calgary are a total blur of running errands, going to appointments, catching up with friends, wedding planning and of course seeing a Flames game! I was so happy to get to spend time with my close friends in Calgary and it really made me homesick! This is a picture with my great friends in Calgary that I went for dinner with!

On my trip home I also got to spend a lot of time with my mom. She was just visiting Korea but we didn't get much quality time together so it was great that every morning we had our oatmeal and coffee together. We also made sugar cookies, went to a movie, and watched hours of "Keeping up with the Kardashians".

I finished my trip with another great dinner with friends. It was hard to say good bye but I had to head to Vancouver to see the rest of the family and finish the shopping I had to do!

I was lucky enough in Vancouver that Allison (sister) was also visiting. We hadn't see each other in many months so it was a very joyful reunion. Ali and I got to spend lots of time together while in Vancouver, whether it was shopping or just going for coffee I had a great time with her. It was so nice to see her again! We both commiserated on the fact that we were in a new city with non of our friends and we had to make a whole new social life. It is a good thing that Ali is such an amazing person because people flock to her. She got a new puppy while in Vancouver and will be joining her in Ottawa in January. In Vancouver I had the chance to catch up with some great friends there too (Jenny H, Ellen,Matt). I even got to see D's sister for a quick visit and present exchange. We went out on Friday for my last night in Canada and it was a blast. First we went out as a family for Allison's birthday

Then the older kids met up with some of our friends for some drinks. I should have went home earlier and had one less drink as I flying back to Korea the following day but it was so much fun seeing my friends that I couldn't pull myself away.

The next day I got on a plane to head back to Korea. It was a long flight back to Seoul where I didn't sleep much, but it didn't matter as I was so excited to get back to Ulsan to see Dennis and Arnold. I missed them so much while I was away and wished that they could have been in Canada with me! Arnold has been glued to my side since I have been home, which is nice. As I type this he is curled up on my lap!

Now D and I are getting ready for Christmas. Our tree is set up and decorated and there are lots of presents under it! We can't wait for our first Christmas together.

Have a safe holiday season and I will write again soon,
J

DMZ Tour

Well as you can imagine it has been a busy couple of weeks for us here in Ulsan. It has been great having all of these visitors and will be strange when it is back to just Dennis, Arnold and I. Last Thursday my mom and Aunt Lorna arrived in Korea from Japan. They had flown to Japan from Calgary and Vermont and had made their way down to Fukuoka to take the hydro foil to Busan where I picked them up. After a nice reunion dinner in Ulsan we had to get some sleep as in the morning we were heading to Seoul for the weekend. D was going there for work that weekend so we thought it would be great for all of us to go as well so that our visitors could see Korea's biggest city.

The ladies and I arrived in Seoul early in the morning, which gave us plenty of time to ride the subway to our hotel. We unloaded our stuff and hit the city. Our first stop was in Insadong, which is where there are lots of art galleries, attique shops, and neat things to look at. After lunch we decided to split up as we all had different tasks to accomplish. Miriam and I wanted to walk and shop and Mom and Lorna wanted to just look around and take in the city. We met back at the hotel around 6 to meet Dennis. Our room was upgraded to the club floor which meant we had access to the club lounge. This meant free drinks and food. Miriam, Dennis and I went out for dinner while Mom and Lorna chowed down on the free food. We had the most amazing Japanese dinner of sushi and sashimi, the best all of us had ever had. The food just kept coming and by 11pm we were all throughly stuffed!

The next morning we all woke up nice and early as it was DMZ tour day! The shuttle picked us up at 7:30am and we headed out to pick up the remainder of the passengers. That morning the weather was really foggy and over cast. After a 45 minute drive we arrived at the last spot before the check point into the DMZ, called Imjingak. Here we were to get onto a new tour bus that would take us over into the DMZ. This area was really funny because it was a huge parking lot and then there was a really terrible amusement park. Here is a picture of the park and to give you an idea of how bad the weather was.

Also at this point was the bridge of freedom which was used by repatriated POWs/soldiers returning from the north after the war.

We then got onto our new bus and headed of for the first checkpoint. Once at the checkpoint you must pull out your passport and show it to the solider that comes on the bus. It is very serious and we are told to never take pictures of the soliders and to be aware that we need to respect certain areas and not take pictures of them. Our tour guide was really good at ensuring that we all knew when we could and when we couldn't take pictures. He even told us how to get away with taking pictures at certain points we weren't suppose to.

The next stop was Dorasan station, which is the last train station in the south. It is there should the country re-unite. The train station was installed to transport goods back and forth from the north and south but North Korea stopped that. It is now only used for tourists. It is the cleanest train station you will ever see!

The train tracks do head straight to Pyeongyang, which is the capital of North Korea.

The next stop was the Dora observatory. Keep in mind how terrible the weather was and this is the location where you are suppose to be able to actually look into the the north, which was impossible that day. They did show us a video of what you could see so that was nice, but I think I will have to go back to see for myself. This is a picture of the observatory.

Our next stop was the third tunnel. The third tunnel refers to the third tunnel that the US found that was going through the DMZ and into South Korea. So after a very long walk we were actually able to go into the tunnel

The tunnel is very small so hard hats are a must, especially for D and I! I was walking at pretty much a 90 degree angle the whole time we were down there. I was happy to see the tunnel but equally happy to get out!

After the tunnel our tour guide took us to the Freedom Village, named Daeseong Dong. The residents here are Republic of Korea citizens are exempt from paying taxes. The draw back is that there are very tight restrictions for living there including a 10pm curfew. The residents are war veterans and not just anybody can live there. Here they sold DMZ rice, soybean chocolates, North Korean beer and Soju, and many other products from North Korea and this freedom village. The products from here are some of the best you can get in Korea. The soju for instance was 23% alcohol while the soju in the south is only 18%, needless to say we picked up a lot of that!

After that we headed back into Seoul only to be met by of course a traffic jam! The remainder of the weekend was great. We all did a lot of walking and sight seeing. We all went out for a lovely black pork bbq together, where we all drank hite and soju.

I had a great weekend but I am very happy to back in Ulsan with Arnold and Dennis. We are looking forward my mom and aunt arriving later this week so that we can show them around Ulsan. We are equally sad to see D's mom go home on Friday. It has been so great having her here and touring around with her!

I am getting very excited about my trip back to Canada which is quickly approaching. Can't wait to see most of you when I am home!

J

Korean Wine Country

For the past week we have had the pleasure of D's mom Miriam staying with us. She flew in last Thursday after a long flight from Regina Saskatchewan. Miriam and I did some touring around Ulsan on Friday and then went and helped hand out candy to the foreigner kids on the compound. We brought Arnold over in his dragon costume and all the kids loved him! Saturday we went to Ganjeolgot, the first place the sun rises on the NE Asian continent and then went to the Seongnamsa temple. It was a busy day finished off with some Korean BBQ. On Sunday we decided it would be a good idea to head out to see the Paraeso waterfall and to take some pictures of the changing leaves. Unfortunately we weren't the only ones with this idea as traffic was backed up all the way up to the falls. We decided to abandon the car and walk up the mountain to get to the falls. The hike was about 5km uphill but we made it safe and sound and the view was worth it.

After a couple more days of sightseeing in Gyeongju, watching the Melbourne cup, and getting manicures Miriam has forgotten about work is truly relaxing and enjoying her holiday. Today we decided to be adventurous and attempt to find the only winery I think Korea has to offer, which is about 60km away. The wine is not made from grapes but from persimmons, a lovely little orange fruit that grows here.
After a quick stop at Starbucks we were on our way with the Garmin directing us towards the city of Cheongdo. The drive was beautiful as the leaves on the trees here are finally changing colours. After a short 60km drive we arrived in the city and decided to walk around to do some sightseeing. Cheongdo is famous for their persimmons and their bull fights. These are not the bull fights most people are used to but they are fights were two bulls enter a ring and only one leaves.
Please keep in mind that Miriam and I have no idea how to get to this particular wine tunnel so we drove around for quite awhile looking for it. I had a crappy map that I had drawn from the website and it was getting us nowhere fast. I was typing in different things into the GPS but nothing was working until Miriam suggested that we type in the Korean word for wine, which is pronounce wa-in and there is was "wa-in tunnel". We hit go and the GPS took us on a twisty and turvy direction through thin streets and construction zones. So after an adventurous trip we made it to the elusive wine tunnel!
Now Miriam and I had no expectations as to what this tunnel was going to be like. I thought that it would be some tiny little tunnel with a few bottles of wine in it and boy were we wrong! The tunnel was amazing! This tunnel used to be a train tunnel that was used to transport material for the Korean war but now it is just used as wine storage.
We had the opportunity to sample some of the wine, which was very sweet but still tasty, it might give you a nasty hangover if you drank too much of it though. There was also a section in the tunnel where you could buy cheese and crackers and enjoy a glass of wine. Like these fine people were doing.
So we walked around a bit more and of course bought some wine we decided to head back to Ulsan.

So needless to say we had another great day touring around.
Here is D and Miriam enjoying a glass of the wine we brought home


For more pictures go to our Picasa account: http://picasaweb.google.com/dennis.blackwell/17CheongdoWine#

Tomorrow afternoon my mom and Aunt Lorna arrive from Japan. All of us are heading to Seoul this weekend to tour around and then heading back on the train from Seoul to Ulsan. Should be a great time and I will update when we return next week!

Miss you all,
Love,
J

Fireworks in Busan

Ever since we moved to Korea we have heard people talking about the Busan Fireworks Festival and how we need to make sure we attend. The fireworks festival started in 2005 to celebrate the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting and has been going strong for 6 years now. Leading up to the weekend D was told about how busy Busan is during this time and how 80,000 people attend the final night, which is the night that I wanted to go, of course. So we got some tips about where we should park and that we should take the subway to the actual event so we packed up and headed out.

The fireworks were set to start until 8pm but we left Ulsan at about 2pm to factor in the Starbucks stop, the 1 hour drive and of course the time we would have to spend waiting for the event to start. With the thought of 80,000 people showing up I wanted us to get good seats and be able to see as much as possible. Once in Busan we hopped on the subway and rode to Gwangalli beach. We arrived at the beach at about 4pm and bought a mat to sit on and set up the tri-pod for D's camera. At that time the beach wasn't too busy but there were still a steady flow of people arriving.

By the time it was getting dark the beach had completely filled up and there wasn't a spot of sand to be seen.

This made it very difficult when I tried to make my way to get us some dinner. We dined on a bag of fried chicken, which Korean's call "Mexican Chicken", and of course some Hite Beer.

The fireworks finally started at 8pm and boy they were worth the wait!

I had never seen fireworks like this before! The whole beach was "ooing" and "ahhing" the whole time. My favorite was the "Niagara Falls" fireworks, where it looked like water was pouring off the bridge.

D and I both had a great time hanging out on the beach together and watching a great show

After the show we had to make our way back to the subway and ultimately to the car. This proved to be a difficult task as the streets were filled with people wantin to do the exact same thing! The subway station was a mad house, but they did have some people moderating how many people could go down the stairs at a time so that no one would fall down the stairs.

Once back at the car it proved even more difficult to get out of Busan, as it took us about 1.5hours to go 1.5km. We did finally make it home at 12:30am. It was a great day even though most of it was spent waiting around, but it was with good company so the time flew.

There are many more pictures in our Picasa album http://picasaweb.google.com/dennis.blackwell/15BusanFireworks#

Love,
J

Surprise in Ulsan

So I got the surprise of my life last week. I know that most of you knew about it, and I can't believe you were able to keep it a secret. For those of you who didn't know here is the story.

D asked me to go with him to pick up a co-worker from the airport who was coming in to check out Ulsan as he was going to be coming here to do some work. I wasn't all that interested in going but thought it would be nice to keep D company on the drive, he also insisted that I come. On the drive to the airport I was asking D a million questions about this co-worker coming in. Why was he coming? Are they really busy now? How long will he be here? What is he like? He isn't taking work away from you? What are his kids names? If you know me this is typical behaviour, I just want to know everything.

So at the airport while we waited for the plane to arrive we watched some Korean baseball and checked out all that Ulsan airport has to offer (it is nothing in case you were wondering). The plane finally arrives from Seoul and we line up with the other people waiting for people to get off the plane. The usual suspects come out of the arrival gate and then I see two young looking people who I think "oh great more english teachers". The one with the hood up looks a lot like Fiona but think to myself it is just my imagination. Then she takes off her hood and I notice that her boyfriend Taylor is filming me! IT IS FIONA!!! "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" I scream so that everyone in arrivals area is staring at me.

The next few minutes I am in total shock and can't believe my eyes! After lots of hugging and introductions (D has never met Taylor) we headed off to the car. We got home and had a few drinks because after traveling for 26 hours you need a couple gin and tonics. Fiona and Taylor came bearing gifts of magazine, candy and of course vodka in a glass skull (best hostess gift ever!) Both Fiona and Taylor were very tired understandably so they went off to bed but I couldn't sleep so I laid in bed trying to fall asleep but just couldn't!

The next day we woke up caught up, at some breakfast, cleaned up and were on our way. Since they were only going to be in Ulsan for a few days we had a lot of accomplish! We started by walking around where I live. We walked to the foreigners compound, then to Shiller (sp) road, Hyundai department store, Home Plus (grocery store) and Ilsan beach(y). After that we went for Shabu Shabu, a great Korean dish where you cook raw meat and veggies in boiling broth.

After lunch we headed to "new" downtown to look at the sights there. We walked around the Lotte and Hyundai department stores to check out the high end merchandise. Turns out most things are about twice as much as they are back home as we found out when we tried on some LV sunglasses. I also can't not mention the cab driver that took us back to the apartment. He spoke no english and we had such a hard time telling him where to take us that I had to call one of D's coworkers to tell the taxi driver where to go. After that it was Korean ballads at 20 decibles and some pretty fierce hand clapping and dancing in the cab (this was mostly done by the driver himself).

That night we went back downtown to take Fiona and Taylor out for a traditional Korean night out, which basically means eating and drinking a lot and ending the night with Karaoke. We started out at BBQ and were joined by two of Dennis' coworkers and a friend of theirs.
The night progressed when Sejin took us to a seafood restaurant, I know we just ate dinner but it was time for dinner #2. The first course was giant clams cooked on the hot plate at our table and then cooked with cheese, garlic, and jalepeno peppers. Then came the seafood platter...

After devouring all of that (Dennis ate the head) and many more bottles of Hite beer and soju we were off for some Karaoke!

I don't need to go into great detail here as I know you all know what happened at the karaoke bar: we all sang like angels and went home to bed at a reasonable hour...

The next day when we woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed...we all drove out to Busan together to do some more sightseeing. We went to Shinsigae for lunch and some shopping. Then we went to the fish market so that Fiona could hold an octopus.

Back in Ulsan we decided to stay close to home for dinner and went to a Japanese sashimi restaurant down the street from us. After dinner we played with the claw machine (vending machine where you use the claw to pick up toys), which is a total scam! There was a sweet Baretta gun in there and none of us could get it, not even after feeding the machine about $20! To calm our nerves we went and had some "bekju", I don't really know how to describe this drink better than it is a milky looking cold beverage that tastes sort of like the candy bottle caps (I know Fiona will disagree with me on that), that is served in a gold tea pot! After adding some Cilsing Cider the beverage is drinkable! For stop number three of the night we went to D and my favorite bar by us "The Polaroid Bar"! This tiny bar is covered in polaroids of each person that comes to the bar.

This picture is currently on display in the bar right now!

The next day we decided to do some real Korean sightseeing and not just looking at unaffordable handbags. We drove to Gyeongju to look at the grotto and Bulguksa temple. After getting our fill of sightseeing we headed back into town to make a very special dinner for a special lady.

I had totally forgot that it was Canadian Thanksgiving last weekend until Taylor and Fiona reminded me. So to celebrate that and Fiona's birthday we made "Mapley/ Bacony chicken with potato and mushroom gratin, as well as some zucchini and salad. Of course we had some champagne to celebrate Fiona's birthday.

Of course we had surprise cake too! We were trying to keep the cake a surprise but Fiona kept asking us to buy her a cake and we had to keep changing the subject so she would stop talking about it the whole weekend. She was very relieved to have a cake.

The next day Fiona and Taylor had to go to Busan to catch a plane to Jeju island. I was so sad to see them go because it was so nice having them here. Both D and I loved having a "normal" weekend with friends. We all had such a great time together and lucky for us it gets to continue this weekend as we are all meeting up in Seoul!!!

To be continued....

JAPAN!

Sorry for the long delay in getting this latest post out. I feel as though I have been quite busy since we got home on Sunday night. We had a great time in Tokyo. I measured with my new I-pod nano how many steps we were taking each day and we were averaging about 15,000 step which is about 15km per day, and this doesn't cover all the ground we covered on the subway. So needless to say we covered a lot of ground in 5 days. There was only one day of bad weather but that didn't stop us from having a good time. Below is a quick breakdown of our trip.

Day 1: Arrived at 1:30 with no jet-lag which is rare for travelers to Japan. After a hour and a half train ride to Asakusa and a wander around looking for our hotel, we arrived! Our hotel was nice, and we got a cute traditional style room. We cleaned up and went out to walk around as there is a great market and temple close to our hotel. Asakusa is Tokyo's oldest geisha district and has a very traditional Japanese atmosphere.

D and I decided to try to find a tempura restaurant that was recommended to us. It is known to have the best tempura in all of Tokyo. Well the food was great but the tables were very small and we had to sit about 2 feet from the table! After dinner we went out for some beers at a local bar. We decided that it should be an early night as we had a full 4 days ahead of us.

Day 2: The next morning we decided to head to Shibuya (we always said "Shibooooya!") which is one of the busiest districts in Tokyo. This is the area that is always shown in movies that take place in Tokyo. There are lots of people and even more neon lights! We had read there was plenty of good shopping there so we looked around at some of the shops.

After we headed to Omotesando Hills to check out the high end shops. D and I had a great time popping into the different stores there. We also went to Harijuku Street and checked out the interesting people there and clothing stores that sell costume wear.

We headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and then got on the subway again to meet my Uncle Kyle and Aunt Yoshiko for dinner. They took us to "Gopanchi" which is the restaurant that inspired the fight scene in "Kill Bill" (movie). The food was amazing and the company was even better. Kyle introduced us to drinking sake out of a cedar box. The sake is poured into a glass that is inside the cedar box and the waiter will pour the sake till it over flows into the cedar box, you have to the waiter "when" to stop pouring. I am not a big sake fan but this was really good!


Day 3: So after a night of drinking champagne and sake D and I decided to wake up at 4am to go to the Tsukiji Fish market to go to the Tuna auction. They only allow 140 people in to watch the auction and we got there shortly after they gave the last ticket away. It was disappointing to have woken up that early and to miss it but stayed and walked around the market anyway. After walking around and trying to not get in the way of too many people we went out for a sushi breakfast. We walked around for a bit but after realizing that nothing would be open until 10am we decided to head back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

So after a nice nap we headed to the Ginza district. This is a very upscale district so we mostly just popped into stores and wandered around. After Ginza we went to Ueno, or as we call it now "Jean Mecca". Now most of your probably know about Ds obsession with salvage dry denim jeans and this is where it started. Each store it filled with many different brands and D was like a kid in a candy store. He bought a couple pairs and says that he is set for years, I will believe it when I see it. ;)
That night we met up with Uncle Kyle again and his gang of ne'er-do-wells for some drinks.

Day 4: The next morning Uncle Kyle played tour guide for us and took us to Odaiba which is an artificial island in Tokyo bay. From here you get to see the bay and a great view of the city.

Now you can't go to Tokyo without checking out the electronic districts so Kyle took us to a place that was full of camera stores. D showed great restraint by not buying anything. I did help by telling him that we had a wedding to plan for! He did end up buying a new camera bag which was on his list of things to get.
That night we got back on the subway and headed to Kyle and Yoshiko's apartment for dinner.
I had to include one picture of us on the subway since we spent so much time on it!

Kyle and Yoshiko really outdid themselves and made us a delicious home cooked meal. We also had a great time getting to know their 3 cats, who kept trying to get handouts while Kyle was cooking.

Day 5: On our last day we headed back to Harajuku as we were told it was the best time to go down and check out the ladies in their costumes. It was really fun to walk around there as well as the park connected to the Meiji Shrine.


After that we headed back to the hotel and then off to the airport. Getting to the Narita airport was the most stressful experience of my life so far, both of us couldn't believe we actually made it on the plane that night.

So that is our trip in a nutshell. If you would like to see all of our pictures click on http://picasaweb.google.com/dennis.blackwell/110TokyoTrip2010#

We don't have much planned over the next few weeks in anticipation for our visitors at the end of October! The weather is still very nice here so we are going on lots of walks and runs. Some of the women here are going to be running a half marathon in February and they have asked me to be their trainer, which of course I am more than happy to do.

I hope you are all happy and healthy. Miss you lots!

Jennifer

Happy Chuseok!!

The Chuseok holiday is upon us here in Korea, where for 3 days it will near impossible to get anything done. Chuseok or Hangawi is the major harvest festival which celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. This year it falls on Wednesday, September 22. Over the past couple weeks the people of south Korea have been planning for this holiday by purchasing gift packs like the one below which we received from the shipyard that D works at

These gift packs can be filled with anything from fresh fruit to SPAM to oils (olive/ grape seed) to beauty products to alcohol, and they are not cheap! We saw one at the local grocery store that had 6 asian pears and it cost about $110!! Shoppers have been going nuts buying these packs as they are about to head out to visit their family members around Korea. Traditionally Koreans return to their hometowns to pay respects to the spirits of one's ancestors by visiting and cleaning their tombs. They also offer food, drink and crops to their ancestors. We have been warned to stay away from the roadways this week as they are going to be jammed with travelers. D and I purchased extra groceries this week as there will be 3 days where everything will be closed down. D will have Wednesday off so we are planning on climbing Munsu mountain which is located in Ulsan, it will give us a great view of Ulsan so hopefully we will be able to take some great pictures.

This past weekend we participated in a festival for foreigners that was put on by the city hall. The festival was held in Ulsan grand park which is an 11 acre park located in the city. The festival was a lot of fun and included tents dedicated to the culture and crafts of Korea. There were tea ceremonies, traditional marriage wear photo zone, calligraphy corner, rice cake making, weaving, pottery making, as well as traditional games. They also had several performances of traditional music and dance, and a fashion show of traditional costumes. Here are a couple pictures from the event:
-This is the tea ceremony

-D and I in traditional wedding clothes

-Here I am making the rice cakes, which is soft sticky rice. You have to mash it with a hammer in order to kneed it.


D and I are also busy planning our Tokyo trip. We leave next Wednesday and will be there for about 5 days. I am looking forward to seeing my Uncle Kyle and Aunt Yoshiko as well as seeing some great sights and of course shopping!

I hope everyone has a great week.
Love,
J

September means back to school!

I used to get so nervous as a child/ teenager with the thought of summer coming to a close and September on the horizon and of course that meant school would be starting. Well I have that similar feeling this year and I am almost in my 28th year! I have decided to go back to school here in Ulsan to keep myself occupied on a new level. While I have enjoyed the past three months of sleeping in, sitting by the pool, going for coffee, and traveling I need more to keep my mind busy!

I have enrolled in the University of Calgary's continuing education certificate for Professional Management with a specialization in Strategic Management. I am excited to dive into my studies as the subject matter has become of a big interest for me prior to me leaving for Korea due to an amazing mentor in Calgary (you know who you are). Before I can start my actual classes I must take a "Learning to Lean Online" course, it is all about how to use the tools the university offers for online learners. I can communicate with my fellow students through email (obviously), discussion boards, and we can even meet in an online meeting room and talk to each other in real time. My plan is to take one course this semester, "Human Behavior in Organizations" and then I will take a couple next semester. It will be strange not to be in a class room environment but I am looking forward to the challenge. If you have any tips please send them my way!

The second schooling I am taking is a Korean Language and Culture class. I started this class today and I wasn't even sure if I would be able to make it there due to the tropical storm passing over Ulsan. I braved the wind (felt like 120km) and the rain and went to the Global Centre downtown. There were 15 other students, mostly english teachers and me. Since this was a free class offered by the City Hall's new Global Centre the news crews were there filming the class and taking pictures for the news paper. The classroom was over crowded with these film crews and they made our teacher very nervous! The class was great but a little overwhelming as we moved along very quickly and our teacher breezed through how to speak and write Hangeul. I came home later and practiced so that next week I will be on top of everything.

So that is the update, I am getting learned here in Korea! I learned something a while back that if you want to make something stick that you are just learning you should teach someone else so maybe I will send you all some of what I am learning. For those of you coming to visit I will give Korean lessons via Skype :)

Miss you all.

Love,

J

p.s.: I wanted to share an experience I had in Seoul recently. Patti and I went to Dr. Fish. This is a foot treatment where you put your feet into a bath filled with little grey fish. The fish are Garra rufa and they eat the dead skin off your feet! It was very tickelish and we were screeching the whole time. If you can find a salon in your area that does this sort of treatment I highly recommend it