a holiday weekend

Well, I'm back! It's been a fun couple of weeks. A couple of random things first: I got some new shoes (much needed black sandals) and of course, they gave me blisters on the first day. I refused to be triumphed over, however, and so I proceeded to wear them with my motto "Keep Calm and carry on"...

Remember my awesome students who pamper me? Well, over the weekend I tried out one of the masks. It was super relaxing but I looked pretty scary :) 

We finally got the bathroom shelf! I am so happy!!! Now all that is left in that room is a new toilet seat (I swear this country has a thing against plain white toilet seats) and a small curtain for the window. 

We finally got real curtains in our bedroom! The windows are odd sizes and I couldn't find any pre-made curtains that I liked, so we stopped by a little shop on our way home from work and the lady came to measure the window and then in a couple of days she brought her husband and in like 5 minutes they had them installed. Now we can keep the bright light and heat out or have the windows open when we feel like it. Im really happy with them!  

Now, on to the holiday! For Korea, Memorial day is June 6 and our school had the day off which gave us a really nice long weekend. On Saturday we just slept in, straightened up the house a bit and then went shopping. We were going to go see Kung Fu panda 2 but didn't get the tickets in time. The movies are a bit different here. You have to pre-order the tickets and you actually purchase a particular seat (its more like a concert or something). This can be annoying for last minute people. :) So anyways, we didn't see it and just enjoyed the time off. On Sunday we had our usual skype calls with the family and then got ready for church. We were visiting a different co-workers church and it started earlier than our usual service but the church is much closer.. it only took us 5 minutes by taxi. We were also accompanying a group from her church on an over night outing. We pulled out of the church lot around 4:45 pm and headed Northeast outside of Seoul. The drive there took about 3 1/2 hours. 

Entertaining Noah 

And Leah :) 

Love this kid! 

We work with Mira and this couple, John and Emily, works with Mira's husband Razer at his school. 

It was nice getting to know them! 

After a time of getting to know each other, a few of us enjoyed a time of singing and guitar playing. It was a wonderful time of relaxation and fellowship. The next morning we got up and headed out for breakfast where I enjoyed a wonderful dish of bibimbap. It's rice, vegetables, meat, egg and red pepper paste. 

Half of the group went to a Korean army base to have a church service and the rest of us hit the beach for some fun in the sun and sand :)

After the beach, our group went to the Korean army camp to have lunch and to watch the church's soccer team play against the army team. We watched for a little while but then some of us left to do some  sightseeing in the area. 

We picked up the soccer team (who lost against the army team~go figure) and headed home. As we left the army gave us all little goodie bags with juice and "hard tack" which is basically a manly version of animal crackers :) They were most enjoyable. Because the entire country of Korea was on vacation, the traffic home was horrendous. Our 3 hour trip was stretched into 6 hours. Noah continued to be as joyful as ever! This kid never stopped and was happy the entire time :) 

We got back home and had time to unpack, relax and get ready for school the next day. It was such an enjoyable time spent with new friends. 

Ta-Ta for Now...