Greetings everyone! I realize it has been a little while since my last post, as my life has been consumed with work and the show. We had our last performance today. I would say overall it went really well, and especially impressive since we put on a show with only 10 rehearsals. I can't say I have ever done that before, and I think we all did a good job.
Next weekend I am going on a trip with Adventure Korea to go rafting and bungee jumping. Yes, bungee jumping. It is something I have always wanted to do, and now that this opportunity is here, I am eager to take it. I'm pretty excited for it!
Last week I started learning Korean symbols and am starting to be able to read a little bit now. It's kind of fun walking around and being able to know what signs say rather than having them be a mystery all the time.
This weekend, I feel like I ate like an American. What does that mean? (You might wonder to yourself.) I ate out at a Western restaurant every day this weekend. It was today that I realized exactly how much what I eat has changed since I have been here. Most meals, I make for myself, and generally if I'm not making meals for myself, I am eating Korean food. One of my favorite things in Korea to eat is 김밥 (kimbap). It is basically sushi, but doesn't always have meat or fish in it. It's usually vegetables inside, though you can have meat or fish in it as well. It is also really cheap and convenient here. You can go to a convenience store and pick up some for $1. My other favorite Korean food that I have eaten is 닭갈비 (dakgalbi.) This is Korean barbeque chicken essentially, made right on your table with spices and vegetables. There are many barbeque restaurants in Korea that have the grill right on your table. There is some Korean food I haven't found to be particularly appealing, but I do enjoy some of it.
World Cup fever has been abound here as well. I have never seen so much national pride in America as there has been here over the Korean soccer team. Every store has been blasting the team's theme song, and on the days of the games, you could know what was going on in the game just by sitting in your apartment and listening to the varying degrees of cheers coming from outside.
That is all for now. Happy Father's Day to my dad and all dad's and Happy Sunday, Western World!
During playtime the other day in my kindergarten, one of the kids in my class came up to me and said, "John and Kelly is English." What they meant by this (and I understood completely what they meant) was that John and Kelly were speaking English during playtime-one of the times in the day that they are allowed to speak Korean. It's kind of fitting with how much all of them have grown. Now, sometimes even when they are allowed to speak Korean, they don't. The librarian will speak to them in Korean (who doesn't speak much English) and they will only answer her in English. It's quite amazing how much they are able to do in my class with English being their second language, and especially with someone like Kelly, who does not speak English at home. (I write home comment books every week, and the only times I have gotten responses, they have been in Korean.) Next week we are having an "open class" where all the parents come and watch a rehearsed lesson. It will be nice to meet all the parents, as I have only met half of them so far.
Our first performance of Pirates is on Saturday, and we will be having a new Pirate King. Our Pirate King/Director for the show got into a motorcycle accident, and so someone is filling in last minute to take his part. Hopefully that person will be able to fit into the role well and keep the show going!
July is going to be an exciting month. My friend Morgan is coming to visit, I'm going to the Korean mud festival, and then Nate is coming to visit. Nate and I finalized our trip plans for our vacation too! We're flying to Bangkok, staying there for two nights with my cousin Katie, then headed off to Phuket for a few days, then coming back to Bangkok, then back to Seoul. I'm so excited!
That's about all from me for now. Happy Thursday, Western World!
