This past Sunday rolled around and I've already caught another cold. What is it about Korea, that makes me get so damn many? Anyhow, I already had plans to do something with a couple of my old adult students and their families, so I decided to suck it up and hope for the best. After a few minutes in the car I asked Charlie to stop at a pharmacy. I got some meds and off we went again. We stopped off at Jane's house to pick up her family. Wow, that's the best looking Korean apartment I've seen. Huge living room, real hardwood floors and seating area in the balconies, not to mention a real set of furniture, none of that fake leather for them. Jane told me her husband is an art professor at a university and paints himself. Must pay well, to live where they do.

Back to the story.

We all loaded into 2 cars and were on our way once again. I hadn't really been told before that day, but apparently we were going to a folk village. Earlier that morning I had hoped this would be a short day. I forgot that usually when you do anything with Koreans, especially on a weekend, it usually is a day outing, not just a couple of hours. The downside is you can't make any other plans. The upside is that they do all the planning and you usually end up going somewhere out of the way and cool, as we did this day.
We got there only to find a huge parking lot slowly filling up. Not quite what you would expect at a "folk" village, but ah...who am I to judge? After a not so small entrance fee, we got in and were walking around. Traditional houses were all about, and older people were sitting about weaving this and spinning that. After a short picnic lunch of fruit and sushi, we started walking around for a while, family and kids in tow. I got some great pictures of a taikwando expedition, traditional activities and more. I'm hoping to add them here soon! I also bought a few Chinese wall hangings that were pretty cheap. The first, roughly translated.....3 times think, then speak. The second.....The benevolent hath no enemies. I thought they were pretty cool, cheap decorations for our apartment.
Conveniently attached to the folk village was an amusement park for kids. We went there for the last hour and a half or so. Jane and I sat on some benches while the dads took the kids on different rides; You know, the traditional "Viking Ship", and "Spinning Swings". I think she was as tired as I was, after walking around for a more than a little while. We sat there and just chatted for a while. She lives too far away from the hagwan now to attend and doesn't so much like her new teacher. She wants private lessons a couple times a month, for a hefty price. Hopefully it'll work out. Private lessons are always iffy, as they have this way of never quiet happening, for one reason or another. I'm hoping differently this time though, as Jane really knows me and I've heard so many times how she doesn't like this new teacher of hers.
I thought we were going home after the amusement park as we got in the car. Charlie called up his friend, whose kids we had for the day as well, and soon came to find out that dinner was also in order. Ah, okay, sure. Food couldn't hurt. We stopped off in Seoul at a traditional place and ate a bunch of stuff I can only hope one day to know the names of. It was actually quite good. I just didn't really appreciate it cuz I was so tired and at that point not really feeling tip top again.
On the way home we stopped and picked up Charlie's mother and she rode with us back to Uijeongbu. Thank god after a month home, my Korean didn't really drop, especially my understanding. Many younger Koreans, try (although usually fail) to at least say something in English. Older people, on the other hand, don't. The first two questions out of her mouth were to ask how old I am and if I'm married. Hehehe. Then she said I'm an "old miss". Cute, coming from a 70-plus year old.
Whew....finally I got home around 9:30 and was asleep almost immediately. A good day, but a long one.