Tired Tuesday

Sunday: I spent most of the day with my host family. They took me to the Pusan Horse Park. There is a racetrack there, but it is also a family park with a lot of different activities for children. We stayed at the park almost the whole day. We had kimbap for a picnic lunch (they made it with imitation crab meat and I didn't even poke out the crab!). After being at the park for awhile, we came back to the area around campus and had dinner at a BBQ restaurant. When I returned, I lesson planned and then caught up with Jenny and Maren. Jenny was the interpreter for Ben and his birthparents for the day. Emily returned from her day with one of our teachers, Hannah. Ben, Emily and I went for a run on campus. We thought it would be nice to have a talk with Ben about his feelings and experiences, so some of us went to a Twosome Place to talk for a little.

Lunch!

Biking around the park

Some horses coming down the stretch!

Blue Moon Rose!!

Monday: We made plans to throw a "Western style picnic" for Jihye and Professor Jongman. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate; it was rainy and cool. I had to buy some last minute ingredients for our busy chefs at Tanya's place (Tanya is the adoptee from the Netherlands we met a few weeks ago; she married an Inje University student and has a 2 year old son). I had a few extra minutes before my decorating committee departed, so I was able to give my Grandpa a call and have a short conversation with him. :)

We made it to Tanya's by taxi and helped set up for our picnic in her living room. Our menu was: sangria, apple chicken honey mustard sandwiches, breakfast crepes and pineapple crepes, tuna pasta salad, and tadziki with bread. Maren also had brought a cake mix and frosting from the US, so she baked a cake as well. Everything was so delicious!! We shared best and worst moments of the program and laughed a lot. After our picnic, it was on to cooking class. Today we made 김치 찌개 (kimchi jjigae- kimchi stew/soup), which is Emily's all time favorite dish. I am starting favor it as well. In the evening, Emily and I went for a run. On our run, we encountered a HUGE toad in the middle of the road! I was yelling at it to get out of the road, but it didn't move. Jokingly I said to Jenny, "you try, it doesn't understand English!" Jenny said "빨리 가!" (bballi ga=go away!) and it started hopping!! It was so funny!  After our run, Emily, Jenny, and I went to HomePlus to buy a few groceries.

We had a special "checking time" for the "Festival Week" here at Inje. First of all, they let Ki do the announcement for our curfew time! We also had the guy RA's come and check us in, so that was kind of fun. Apparently by the time the guys were finished, they ended up with makeup all over because all the girls added stuff to their faces.

This kitchen is a disaster area!

Some of the food prepared and our flower memory decorations

Today: Our conversation class was pretty relaxed. We went over a few expressions and dialogues. The rest of the class time was spent making cards with traditional paper. We went to taekwondo and were put into groups to create a "dance" routine with the kicks we know. However, partway through I think our instructor was unsatisfied with our ability to actively participate with our Korean group members, so he pulled us aside and had us do some kicking drills with him. After lunch it was on to our language class. My speaking class was this afternoon. There were only 4 guys today and they had to leave a little early to play a soccer game. When Emily, Jenny and I were returning from dinner, we ran into our friend Hans. He invited me to get ice cream with him and Jeong Kwan...so of course I couldn't turn that down! Then we went to ET. It was the last ET, but I didn't know that until that class. I am sad that ET is all over now. :( Our group went to get chicken and just hung out for most of the evening.