Bally-Bally

We started a new term this week at school. Each term lasts one month. We finished several lesson books and started some new ones. Many of my kids are sick. On Thursday half my class was missing. One stayed home sick. Another was laying down because he wasn’t feeling well and a third one started crying half way through my lesson for no reason and then went home sick. So my class went from 6 students to 3. The next day the original girl who stayed home came back and another one went home sick. So now I have 4 sick students. One of the little boys is pretty bad. He had high enough of a fever to be placed in the hospital on Friday. Hopefully he is home and doing better. I will find out tomorrow.

That same day we had a birthday party for all the kids that had a birthday in March or April. They sit at a long table and one at a time the director introduces the birthday child and then everyone from their class comes up and gives them a gift. If they don’t have a gift they are encouraged to give them a hug. It was really cute. Then everyone sings happy birthday. After that it was lunch time and we got Kimbop, fresh fruit, a bunch of snacks, and birthday cake.

I felt a bit of freedom this weekend. On Saturday I ventured out on my own for the first time. I took the subway to another part of town and walked around. It was a really neat area. There were a lot of street vendors down a one lane road. It was cool. At the top of the hill I found a large public library. I went in and read a Korean news paper that was printed in English. On my way home I stopped at the Costco and successfully acquired a Costco card and bought a few items that we needed. I made it home without getting lost. This is a good thing since we don’t have cell phones yet.

Today (Sunday), after church another couple invited us to go to Seoul with them. We visited several very large book stores and bought some English books. I picked up a Korean cook book. I am looking forward to trying some of the recipes. None of them require an oven so I can cook them in a frying pan. It is also nice to find out the names of several traditional Korean dishes. This will make it easier to order items in restaurants and to know what is in them.

After going to several book stores we had dinner at an Italian restaurant. All four of us had Lasagna. It was really, really good. Hopefully we will go back there soon.

Our pastor informed us today that we can start taking Korean lessons next Sunday. We are looking forward to this so that we can read basic words hear. This week the word I learned was “Bally-Bally.” It means hurry-hurry. After I learned the word I noticed that my students use it a lot.

Next week we will tell you about the Korean-American wedding that we are going to next Saturday.

Jenn