This weekend one of the Korean teachers at my school, Joanna, got married so I got to go to my first Korean wedding. It wasn't really all that different from a wedding in the US. Actually there were two ceremonies. The one I saw was the western style one. The traditional ceremony was just for the family. The wedding was at a big wedding hall. We got there early so we could take pictures with Joanna. She just sits in this room and people go in to get their picture taken. She looked really pretty.

The wedding was nice, but there were some things I didn't like. The doors were open so there was a lot of noise from the lobby area where people were waiting for other weddings. The photographers were everywhere too. I mean like 2 of them were right up there with the bride and groom in their faces. After the wedding was over they were taking pictures. They did a picture with all the single people and then the photographer asks who wants to catch the bouquet. So instead of tossing the bouquet to see who would catch it, they have Joanna throw it to this girl who is standing out to the side so the photographer could get a good picture. Anyway, after the wedding there was a big buffet. The food wasn't bad. They had their traditional ceremony while we were eating and after they finished, they came around dressed in their hanbok.

It was fun. I'm glad I went.
Sunday I went to church and then Abby, Katie (one of Kristina's coworkers), and I met some other people to go to a lantern festival for buddha's birthday, which isn't actually til next week i think. There was a big parade with lots of lanterns. It was good, but really long. We left before it was over and went to Itaewon for dinner at this really cute place called the Flying Pan (i think). They had really good soups and sandwiches. It was fun, but I didn't get home til close to 11:00. I was soooo tired.
Today we got our new teacher at school. I didn't really talk to him much, but he seems nice. All I know is his name is Michael too and he's half korean. We're supposed to be getting a guy from England soon too so that should be interesting.
K, that's all for now!

Happy Birthday Mamaw!

Today is my Mamaw Faye's birthday! I wish I could be there to tell you happy birthday myself and give you a big hug! I love you very much and I hope you had a really great day! Miss you lots!!!
Love,
Jenny

k, i've got a few minutes before my next class so time for a quick blog.
Haven't been feeling great these past few days. I've had a cold, but I'm about over it now. I'm just really tired cause not being able to breathe through my nose makes it hard to sleep:(
Anyway, nothing too exciting this weekend. I was exhausted Friday so I pretty much just went home, studied my Korean a little and tried to get some rest. Saturday I felt a lot better even though I still didn't sleep very well. I went to Korean class then lunch with Kristina and Abby. We found this really good pizza place. The pizza was really cheap too. It was only 6,000 won ($6ish) for a pizza that was big enough for 2 people to share. Later that night we went out for Sam Gyup Sal then Rhythm and Booze, so that was fun. Sunday I went to church, then to the park with church people for a while. The weather was really nice and there were lots of people there with their little dogs. That reminds me, we saw this HUGE fluffy white dog saturday. I wanted to take it home with me soooo bad! Big dogs are very rare here. I got a picture of it, but its on Abby's camera. Anyway, after the park we went to a really cheap, but good Korean place for dinner. I had mandu guk (soup with dumplings) plus all the free side dishes for only 3,000 won. After that, it was time to go home and go to bed. I actually slept pretty well last night. Today's been a pretty good day, but it's been raining all day. Its supposed to be a lot cooler this week too:( K, time for class. Be proud of me for posting again so soon!

Today one of my classes was writing journals and one girl wrote about her birthday. She wrote that she had cake and octopus. I asked her if she liked octopus and she told me yeah it was yummy. What kid in the US would eat octopus and want it for their birthday dinner? Anyway, we started talking about the foods they eat so I asked about eating dog. They both (only 2 in this class) seemed pretty appalled by the idea of eating dog. I know they eat dog here, but I don't know how common it is especially with people who have money.

Random observation of the day:
I don't know why, but a lot of the boy students I teach have been coming to school with painted fingernails lately. I asked one boy with blue fingernails about it, but he wouldn't answer me...

I love the spring! This weather makes me happy:) It was so nice walking around outside this weekend.
So I had my first Korean bowling experience friday. Wasn't all that different really. I went with Michael and Natalia. The bowling alley was 2 floors. There were only a few lanes on each floor. The first floor was full so they took us up to the 2nd floor, so we had the whole thing to ourselves for several games. It was really cheap to bowl. It was like 30,000 won ($30ish) for the 3 of us to play 4 games. We were all pretty bad...no one broke 100, but it was fun.
Saturday was the start of Korean class again. We have a new teacher. She seems like she's gonna be a little tougher, but she's nice and seems like a good teacher. After class we went to a cherry blossom festival thing. I kind of expected there to be more to it than there was, but it was pretty and we got some good pictures out of it.

That night we went to Itaewon to do some shopping. We decided to attempt to find our ice cream fondue again. Third times the charm! We were sooooo excited!
Doesn't it look yummy? That's probably because it was! It came with fruit, pieces of cake, little balls of ice cream, and of course the chocolate.
Sunday was obviously Easter. I went to church, then there was a dinner after the service. Everything was good:)
School wasn't bad today, at least for a monday. Seems like half the kids have chicken pox...well like 3 or 4 of them do anyway.
hmmm ok well i think that's all i've got...
hope you all had a very Happy Easter!

I can't believe its almost Easter! It seems like it was Christmas just a few weeks ago. I've been in Korea a little over 6 months now, which seems really crazy. Anyway, even though its been a little while, I dont think I've let you guys miss much. Weather's been slightly on the warmer side lately so thats good:) Natalia is coming to the end of her contract in just a few weeks so the 3 of us went out for dinner and then met up with some Korean friends Friday, so that was fun. Saturday I was supposed to go with Abby, Kristina, and a few other people to see the cherry blossoms, but after changing our minds a few times and going to the wrong subway stop we ended up in Namdaemun. First we got to see the changing of the guard ceremony at a palace. We saw this really big drum (pictures later) so of course we wanted to hit it. We were very disappointed when we saw the Please Do Not Touch Drum Please sign:( Then all these people start gathering around and we can tell something's about to happen so we stayed to watch. This person comes up to Abby and asks her if she wants to hit the drum for the ceremony and being the good friend she is, she asked if me and Kristina could hit the drum too. They said that we could each hit the drum one time. They told us to use most powerful force. It was a little scary with all the people watching, but it was fun:) So then there was a big parade and a little ceremony thing. They also had a little table set up where they were letting people try on hanbok for free, so of course we did that too. Then we went shopping. In Namdaemun a lot of the shopping is just digging through piles of clothes. You can get stuff for really cheap. We also went to Forever 21:) then Bennigans for dinner. It was a fun day:) Sunday, I went to church then sam gyup sal for dinner. We made a second attempt at getting the ice cream fondue for dessert, but they said they didn't have it again:( ...and then the weekend was over. They go by too fast. ok, time for class! Miss you guys! Wish I could be home for Easter!