"That's okay!"

Because of my "J" personality- something Jamie would say- I have spent an obscenely large amount of time updating my pictures. I even added a new link to the picture section on this page. I have added an album labeled "Around Korea" and updated the albums "Daegu" and "Kangwon dae Hakyo". It dawned on me that most of the pictures labeled "Daegu" were not actually pictures of Daegu itself. So, I moved them to the album "Around Korea". Here is a brief synopsis of the new pictures under the three albums:

"Around Korea"- the first group of pictures are of the 9/12 hour hike my host mother, father, and brother went on this weekend. We left at 7:00am and got back around 6:45 pm. Although we took a break for breakfast, lunch and some snacks. All said and done, I estimate that it as a 9 hour hike up Seoraksan, or Seorak Mountain. It was gorgeous- too green, in the fall it's supposed to be AMAZINGLY beautiful. I'm not sure why my host family decided to go this past weekend- except for the fact that I think my host father had some time. Either way it's beautiful and I am happy that I had the chance to go. Although, I was not so happy coming down from the mountain. I don't think I've ever been in so much pain- my feet killed me, my knees hurt, my back, shoulders, etc. Typically, I've heard to hike Seoraksan, to the highest peak, it usually takes two days. I guess we were originally supposed to spend the night at a Buddhist temple, but my host mother decided she didn't want to, so around 2pm or so, we started back down the mountain. I was glad to be going home, but it turns out that we stayed in a motel on Saturday night and to my horror, on Sunday morning, I was told we were going hiking again. At first I thought- what?! But it ended up being okay, because what was meant by hike, really meant ride up the small peak in a cable car and walk a little ways to the really pretty view. I also got to boulder some, which was neat. Seoraksan is about 4/5 hours away from Daegu.
Also in "Around Korea" are pictures from K/Gumo mountain in Gumi (about 45 minutes away from Daegu). I met up with Ray and we hiked/walked up the mountain (it wasn't too difficult) and got to see the pretty waterfall and the cave. Again- amazing views! Oooo- there are also two pictures of dinner, blowfish soup and blowfish tempura! It was surprisingly tasty! It's actually a white fish. I couldn't keep from thinking of seeing the mini-pufferfish with Quinn. "Puff up!, Puff UP!"
Lastly, there are some older pictures from Heinsa and Bulguksa Temple- they're pictures I got from my host father. There's even a picture of my youngest host sister and I.

I updated the album "Daegu", it has fewer pictures (I moved most of them to the "Around Korea" album, but it has some pictures of the World Cup Stadium at night for those of you who love football. There's also a picture of my cell phone, finally- it's not all that spiffy, but some of my friends have very spiffy phones and the cell phone technology in Korea is about 50xs better than in the states. Koreans also don't go anywhere without their phone- I'm not even joking. The fitness center (while working out), the bathroom (in the stall), at the jimjilbang (while naked)- you get the idea.
There are also two pictures of me helping with the cooking preparations for Chuseok! My host mother and her sisters (2 of them, shown in the pictures), along with my host grandma have been cooking since this morning. We have made so much food in preparation for all the relatives (about 20 or so) that will be coming to our house tomorrow for Chuseok (akin to Thanksgiving in the states- but not really like it). It is a huge three day holiday where families travel back to their father's homes. Some will visit graves and honor their ancestors in a ceremony (I'm pretty sure it's a Buddhist ceremony). It really is a big deal, comparable to Christmas in the states. People bring presents, there are gift sets galore at shops (very expensive) and everything is busy as people are traveling (especially roads). It's been really neat to see and experience, hopefully more pictures will follow. I'm not too comfortable taking a whole bunch of pictures as I don't want my family to feel like they're in a fishbowl. Here's the picture of me:



Lastly, I added about 4 pictures to the album "Kangwon dae Hakyo". They are pictures of friends and I from Yonsei Day, when we met our principals and co-teachers, effectively the last day of orientation.

One more interesting story before I have to get back to my host family: Friday night I lost my business card holder, which was a graduation gift and I felt really sad about it. However, I thought I knew where I dropped it (back at my high school). I was going to walk to the high school, it was nearly 10pm, it would have taken about 20 minutes, but my host mother insisted on driving me. That was really nice. I found the business card holder- yea!- but on the way back, my host mother clipped a teenager in the arm with her car! It was really scary- because I was sitting in the passenger's seat and the kid was hit with the passenger's side mirror. She stopped, got out and made sure he was okay- and then came back into the car (where I was waiting- what else could I have done?) and said "That's okay!"

By the way, if you missed the earlier post about teaching- it's pretty good. It also features two video clips of my teaching/student's learning. I'm going to end this blog with one more video clip of me teaching. My students have a fit whenever I speak in Korean- it's pretty fun!

-Jenna :)


P.S. I just showed my host family this video and my oldest host sister told me I looked fat! (I love Korea! Thankfully I have thick skin!!)