On Saturday Aaron and I went into Seoul again. We had lunch at a fun little rice place - they bring you a skillet with a mound of rice of various meats or vegetables which cook right there on the plate and then you add different sauces to the whole mixture. After that we wandered into this fantastic shoe store that carried Prada and Gucci and $1500 purses. They had some beautiful shoes, but unfortunately the biggest shoes on the first floor were 8 and 1/2's. So I had to go to the fat foot floor upstairs - I think my feet need to go on a diet, darn these Asian women and their tiny feet. Its really sad because they have such pretty shoes. We went to an American Apparel like store and tried some clothes on there - Koreans like the urban grunge. Cute stuff but everything is so small! I had to try a large jacket and couldn't even fit into their jeans.
After shopping we jumped on the Metro and headed to Changdeokgung Palace, home to Korean royalty since the 15th century. It was a beautiful place. The Koreans believe that emptiness is beauty so there were alot of open spaces that gave the palace an elegant simplicity. The buildings are intricately painted with simple colors like green, black, white, and blue. The inside of the throne room was striking, with a high ceiling, elaborate light fixtures, a raised throne in front of painted wood scene, and lots of lovely wood carvings. Oh, they also had a building for, as our guide said, making babies. Over the building they painted chinese characters that say, "For the making of something great" Towards the end of the tour we saw the gardens, a lilly pond, the library, and lots of little Eastern pagodas. At the pond we learned lots about the "pish"- Koreans have trouble making the "F" sound which leads to some funny guffaws like "pish" and "oppicial" for official. Its pretty funny :)
For dinner we went to a pizza parlor with a salad buffet; salad is a rare thing in a traditional Korean meal so I was pretty excited. They had strange fruit that looked like some underwater amoeba, but tasted like an almost flavorless melon. On the way back we saw an Outback and a TGI Fridays. Sometimes its almost like being home.
The next day we went to our Korean church and listened to an almost incomprehensible translation of a sermon about slavery, Korean television, and the blessing of having God with us. As a new believer I am having a hard time finding nourishment through these sermons :) After church we had lunch at a Korean restaurant where you sit on the floor and mandoo, dumplings, and soup full of thick noodles and clams. That night Aaron and I walked down our Central Park and saw a 30 minute water show complete with music and changing colors. Very impressive.
It was a fun weeekend, but now I am back in the grind trying to prevent small children from killing each other. Life is never boring!

Well I have now been in South Korea for almost two weeks and haven't written a single post. Life is not terribly busy, so I really don't have a good excuse besides the confusion that arises from living in a new culture and adjusting to a completely new schedule. (and the really strange food that Koreans eat, like bracken and ginseng) Because I am so behind I will share a few, brief highlights from our adventure in the East.

1. Walking to the plane, Aaron and I met a girl from Vietnam who was taking the same flight. During our discussion she asked if Aaron and I were brother and sister. Of course I couldn't understand what she said until after I answered yes. She must have thought we were unusually affectionate siblings.

2. Korean Air is very classy - the stewardesses wear well-tailored pants and teal cardigans. They give you metal silverware and little packages with socks, sleeping masks, and toothbrushes. I watched three different movies, slept a little, and ate authentic Korean food.

3. We landed in Seoul and were met by Jin, a fellow teacher, and Mrs. Park, the director of our school. They took us to a Korean / Japanese restaurant where we sat on the floor and ate food cooked in a huge bowl of boiling water. Then they dragged us, jet-lagged as we were to a giant Korean version of Sam's Club, complete with about a million floors. It was slightly overwhelming.

4. On Monday Aaron and I became Christians. I know that many of you will be glad to hear that we have repented of our heathen ways. We went to the director's house for Chusok, the Korean Thanksgiving and the pastor of the church we visited on Sunday was there. We ate bracken, Korean pumpkin, lots of rice, and delicious apples and pears (apparently this year was very good for Korean agriculture because they keep offering us gigantic apples and pears that look like sumptuous fruit Lewis always talks about in Narnia) After dinner the pastor wanted to explain the mission of the church to us, at least that is what the translator told us. It turned out to be the gospel message and he had us pray a prayer of acceptance. So now everyone in Korea thinks we just became Christians and they are continually astonished by our prior knowledge of Biblical truths. Its pretty ironic.

5. The first week of classes was fairly exciting - I broke up my first classroom fight. One little boy, Alex, who is the most emo kindergartner I have ever met threw chalk at another boy, James. Naturally, James was highly offended and threw the chalk back. This infuriated Alex and he lept up and grabbed James by the shoulder. I managed to wrench the two apart and both boys were sent out of the classroom.

6. On Saturday Aaron and I went to Seoul and I finally saw the Koreans I had imagined- incredibly beautiful, slim, and fashionable. As I walked down the street admiring everyone's clothes I was seized with an almost overwhelming desire to replace my entire wardrobe right then. I have so many clothes, that are so two years ago.
We went to a huge mall attached to the aquarium. The aquarium was impressive - we saw a beaver, eels, seals, penguins, and adorable otters. I kind of wanted to take one home. I also got my haircut at the mall; earlier in the week I was flipping through a Korean fashion magazine, saw a style I liked, and snapped a picture. I showed the picture to the man at the salon and he did a great job. I look very Asian now :) On the way out we stopped at Cold Stone to buy good, old American icecream. Seoul has basically everything American- MacDonalds, 7-11, American Apparel, Outback, Burger King, Uno's. I love Seoul.

Hope that gives you all some idea of what Korea is like :)