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Maria Ku, a prior student in my classes in the USA, and also one of my wonderful tutors for learning Korean, has returned with her family to Korea! (photos below)

She invited me to her home for a delightful lunch of "deok-guk" (traditional lunar New Year's soup) and scrumptious bulgogi, along with other fancy things!

She gave me delicious orange-family fruit (I've forgotten the Korean name -- reminds me of tangelos from Florida, but they are different). See the photo below -- along with the delicious fruit from Jeju Island, you'll see gifts I received from another friend -- deok treats -- yummmmmm!

Last week I enjoyed a long, busy day visiting with several students.

Nikita and Tracey met me in Insadong. We visited several art galleries and exhibitions (a photo exhibit was particularly impressive (Hyundai Gallery), ate lunch, had ice cream at Baskin Robbins, visited Seoul Selection Bookstore, window-shopped, and then met Mi-Yeon in Ssamziegil Mall.

Check out the gallery for more photos!

After I arrived back at Yeokgok, I met several other students! We chatted and enjoyed fresh fruit concoctions at the fruit cafe in Yeokgok, and then visited a local video store, where I was given the "scoop" on several DVDs they recommended I watch!

I have really enjoyed the wonderful array of fresh, fresh, fresh produce available here -- and so inexpensive!

Spinach (shi-geum-chi) is especially wonderful -- about 1/4 the price I was used to paying in the States.

Below is a photo of approximately $2.70 worth of assorted greens -- they come packaged this way -- organically grown -- from a coop service that delivers direct to my door.

Hello all! A delightful day spent last Friday in Jeonju -- a city quite a distance south of Seoul. O-Jin (my Korean language tutor) and I traveled by train -- O-Jin kept me busy practicing my Korean most of the way there and back (two hours+ each way)!

A student in one of my classes, In-Ju, lives in Jeonju. So she and her very kind Mom met us at the train station, treated us to a wonderful lunch -- delicious bi-bim-bap and soft tofu (sun-du-bu) and soups and so many side dishes! At the end of the meal, we were served one of my favorite Korean beverages -- Su-jeongwha -- a concoction of pomegranate juice and cinnamon and other ingredients, often served with pine nuts floating on top.

After this meal, we went to a large historical traditional Korean homes area -- Hanok Maeul -- and then on to the Pan Asia Paper Museum (this was my original destination/goal for this adventure -- this paper museum - Hanji (traditional Korean handmade paper) is so beautiful here, and I have been captivated by so many of the beautiful new-to-me crafts that are created with hanji.

Here is a web link to see some photos of beautiful Korean Hanji http://www.korean-arts.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/search.htm

There are more photos in the "Jeonju!" folder in my photo gallery.

A short story -- cultural differences, amazing service...

Last Saturday evening, I went shopping, late -- and spent nearly every last won I had with me. The ATMs closed down for the night at 10 p.m., and so when I tried to get more money, I couldn't! (MOST ATMs close early here, few are open 24 hours).

The next day, Sunday, I took the subway to meet some UU friends and when I scanned my subway card, it showed I had almost nothing left on my card -- not enough even for the return trip on the subway!

The ATMs don't open until noon on Sundays, so when I met my friends, I asked if they knew where an ATM was... and so we walked around the corner to an "all-bank-cards-served-here" machine --- I put in my card, punched the appropriate buttons, and got an error message -- in Hangeul (my mastery of the language is still in its infancy, so I could not decipher it) -- AND the machine gave me not only NO money, BUT it did NOT return my card!!!

So, now I am in Seoul, with not enough money for the ride home, with no Korean credit card, no cash, no ATM card, YIKES!

My friend's wife, who speaks fluent Korean, used the little "emergency" phone near the ATM, and in just under NINE MINUTES, a security guard drove up on his motorbike, unlocked the bank, opened the vault, and returned my card! (with a bow and a smile and NO FEE, NO CHARGE, NO TIP expected).

Not only that, he waited while I tried my card in another machine -- which also 'ate' my card and gave me no money! So, back into the vault he went, returned my card, made a phone call -- found out that on Sundays, this machine would not take my bank card (it would on Monday - Friday, and Saturday morning, though) -- and advised me (through my friend's kind wife/interpreter) that the nearest Woori Bank (my bank) was a few blocks away!

Now, for those of you from the states, tell me where you might get that kind of service, for FREE, with a bow and a smile, WITHIN NINE MINUTES, ON A SUNDAY???? !!!!!

I love you, Korea!

Look at the beautiful photos in my gallery -- folder named "Mark and Gina's wedding!"

They were married in CanCun -- wow!

I LOVE Gina's bridal bouquet -- what beautiful fresh flowers!

They look so happy; I wish for them to hold onto these beautiful memories and STAY happy!

Hope these photos help everyone stay smiling -- there are happy times in this not-always-so-pleasant world of ours... HOPE springs eternal, as they say...

A busy afternoon at the OBF (English Cafe) at CUK! A hard-working group of awesome IEP students visited the OBF today and challenged themselves with various activities set up at different tables. Activities ranged from sequencing picture squares and creating/telling stories, to fortune telling to practicing plurals to singing to drawing (how well can you follow and/or give directions?) to seeing how many details one could remember after only a brief glimpse at a photo album to trying a practice quiz... Here are a few photos -- more are in the gallery (or will be soon).