My 엄마 and 아빠 Come To Seoul!

My parents have come and gone, and I think it is safe to say that they both enjoyed their time in Korea. It was fun to be able to show them around the city that I have come to call home and let them get a glimpse into my daily life here in Seoul. My parents arrived on Monday, August 31 and spent the week sightseeing on their own and meeting me for dinner most nights at various places in the city. My parents came into CIS to meet all my kids (and I am pleased to report that none of them cried). And brought lots of goodies for them from America, like crayons, candy, and coloring books. One of my Nemos, Jessica, apparently went home and told her mom "Ms. Gaard's parents are so beautiful. I want to be American like them."

The night before my birthday we went to a show called Nanta, which is a famous non-verbal show that involves Korean drumming, audience participation and lots of cabbage. The cast is very small, only 5 people, and they drum on various kitchen appliances using various utensils such as knifes, brooms, and chopsticks. The premise of the show is that three cooks need to prepare food for a wedding banquet in a very short amount of time while dealing with a ill-tempered manager and his nephew who they are supposed to be teaching how to cook (hence the cabbage). We all had a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed the show!

My parents were also able to spend my 24th birthday in Korea with me. My birthday started out at work with a staff meeting, during which Sae Hee (my principal) presented me and my Korean supervisor Jenny with a birthday cake because we share a birthday (nothing better than cake for breakfast!) After work that night, my parents, me and Meg went out to a Shabu Shabu restaurant in our area and celebrated with presents/cards brought from America (thank you!!) and a delicious cake that Meg picked up for me. Meg also gave me a cute little lunch box (I think she was embarrassed for me that I packed my daily PB and J in plastic bags that we have collected from various subway stores) and a box of rice tards (a great name for a product we had always seen at the store but could never really justify buying. They actually aren't half bad, just have a very unfortunate name). Jenny had also given me a beautiful cake so we were able to feast on that as well. As a birthday present to myself, I called in "sick" on Friday the week of my birthday and went sightseeing with my parents. We went to two palaces, Gyeongbokgung and Changeokgung. I had been to Gyeongbokgung earlier in the year, but it was nice to see it again in the warmer weather with green surroundings. Changeokgung looked very similar but has a secret garden which is completely hidden. Although the palace was in the middle of the city, when in the secret garden you can't hear or see any signs of the city which was very cool.

On Saturday, we went on a trip to the DMZ. We visited a part of the DMZ closer to Seoul, which was interesting for me to see. This portion of the DMZ was much more heavily guarded and there were stricter rules about foreign visitors. We were able to see the freedom bridge, walk through the third tunnel, visit the northern most train station in South Korea (where you can catch a train to North Korea if you so desire) and got to look into the DMZ area from the Dora Observatory. In the DMZ area we were able to see the South Korean village that exists within the zone and also the North Korean propaganda village, home to the world's tallest flagpole. We also visited a village where we were able to purchase such goods as North Korean soju, which is stronger than South Korean soju and has honey added to make it sweeter. Both my parents and I purchased a bottle, and I was pretty impressed that they drank theirs and actually said it wasn't half bad! Meg and I have yet to try it, we are saving ours for a special occasion (perhaps one of our anniversaries!) Upon our return to the city we met up with Meg and headed over to the baseball stadium for the LG Twins game (a must on the trip for my dad!) My parents enjoyed getting a chance to experience the atmosphere of a Korean baseball game and my mom even got herself some thunder sticks so she could join in the cheering!

On Sunday we headed down south of Seoul to Suwon where we visited a traditional folk village. The village was huge and has more than 260 houses from different regions of South Korea from the late Joseon Dynasty period. We spent way longer than expected wandering the village but ending up seeing most of it. We returned to Seoul for a dinner of tak galbi (something I had been wanting my parents to try since it is one of my favorite foods), exhausted but happy with the weekend. My parents headed home on September 8, and while I was happy to not have to play tour guide anymore (it is exhausting!), I was sad to see them go. I am really happy that they were able to make the trip and hope they enjoyed Korea as much as I do!

In more recent news, Meg and I have both had our September field trips canceled due to...swine flu. Of course. In the most recent bought of Korean logic, it has been decided that going on field trips increases your chance of getting swine flu because you are outside (but going outside to come to school and go other places is not a problem at all). Apparently the government issued a statement to all the schools in Korea telling them that they should cancel field trips this month, but at least at CIS, our field trip was canceled before this announcement came out. I am pretty bummed as we were supposed to go to the zoo, but some of the parents at CIS were worried that the kids would have a better chance of catching the flu given that they would be by animals (yes, I kid you not. Parents brought this issue up to my principal). In other swine flu mania news, they are now posting signs in the bathroom saying things like "Hand washing decreases your chance of SI" (this was seen in the bathroom at the World Cup Stadium) and putting hand sanitizer everywhere. All my Nemo kids were required to bring in a bottle of hand sanitizer for the classroom, there are dispensers right by the door and stairs at CIS which we are supposed to be using as soon as we enter the building and when we went to the amusement park last week there was hand sanitizer on every food counter.

Meg and I went to another baseball game last Tuesday, as it was the last Twins game we will be able to get to. The game itself was not particularly exciting in any way, but we did experience some between inning entertainment that led us both to turn to each other with wide eyes and say "what was that?!" Seeing as we don't understand enough Korean, we can only speculate to what was actually going on with this activity, but here is our take. Some people get called up on stage. Then they go into the audience and pick one girl and one guy each. These people that they picked are brought up on stage and stand on a scale. Yes, they are being weighed on the stage, which is being broadcast on thejumbotron (and yes, they zoomed in so that the whole stadium could read the numbers). We think the point was to find the lightest girl and the heaviest guy you could (we say this, because one of the people picked was a white guy). Needless to say, Meg and I both have new motivation to work out at the gym - so we are ready just in case we ever get weighed at the baseball game in front of everyone!

Last Thursday CIS had the September birthday party. I had two girls with birthdays and the moms coordinated it beautifully. Both girls where in ridiculously fancy white dresses (Katherine even got a perm for the occasion) and the moms came in 45 minutes before the party to put signs and balloons all over my classroom. The photographer was also there taking pictures of all the kids who had birthdays between March and September for the end of the year photo album. This meant that all these kids were also dressed up and had to pose for various shots. There was the each kid individually shot, the all the kids from each month shot, the each kid with me shot, and then the whole class shot. Insanity.

Tomorrow is officially seven months of being in Asia! Hard to believe this amazing experience is over half done. We both still feel like there is some much left to see in 5 months!

Coming soon, an entry about the AMAZING experience we had this weekend! I will keep you in suspense and say no more, however, we both were able to cross something off our 'Things to do in Korea' list that we weren't sure we would be able to accomplish!