Mom and Brent take on Korea.

Hey everyone!

I was busy all day every day last week due to the arrival of Mom and Brent, who came to Gwangju on Monday afternoon. I rushed to their hotel after school to meet up with them, and each day after that - woke up, went to work, then played tour guide until it was time to go to sleep again. Busy but fun.

I don't know how apparent spring is back home, but in Korea it's in full bloom - literally. This past week we've been treated to the famous pink and white Asian cherry blossom trees - my first time seeing them. They're beautiful and fun to spot - they make everyday, typical parts of the city into an extra special experience. But it's not just cherry blossoms - all over the city the trees, bushes, and other flowers are starting to bloom and blossom. Also, the temperature is at that wonderful, cool but not quite hot yet in between feeling, which makes walking around and everyday errands much more pleasant. All in all, spring in Korea is wonderful.

As for me, I'm still K-Popping away - I've found it makes pleasant company while I make my PowerPoints at work (listening through headphones, of course) and now for my extra class (read: no co-teacher) my kids know they can convince me to let them watch a music video or two at the end of class, provided that I include some sort of English reference or lyrics discussion after. I'm having more and more fun with each passing class, and my friend Sokhom and I are already lamenting over how sad it will be to have to say goodbye to our third graders (ninth graders) at the end of this year. Can't think about that yet.

This past week I introduced Mom and my stepfather Brent to Gwangju - they basically got to see most of the highlights of my Korea life in one week: we walked around the city to some of my favorite places, we ate delicious Korean food each night, they came to my school and met my co-workers and my students, they got to meet some of my friends, and on the weekend we took a short bus trip to do some sightseeing. Just before he left, Brent said to me "I can see why you love it here so much, and I think you made a really good decision to stay another year." (That may have been misquoted a bit...but you get the general idea.) As I headed home after saying goodbye, I thought about what he had said, and realized how much I really do love it here. I know you've heard all of this before, but now I can honestly say that I have a full, complete, wholehearted love of Korea, boy bands and all. I was proud to be able to show off some of what Korea has to offer, though I know living here for two years still won't really scratch the surface.

So, what did my visitors do to introduce themselves to Korea? Well. Monday after school I raced over to their hotel and we commenced with our reunion hugs and 'I can't believe you're here's!' After that we hopped on the bus to head back to my apartment and drop off a shopping spree's worth of clothes, books, and random items that my mother lovingly picked up for me back home. (Thanks again Mom!) Their introduction to Korean cuisine began with pork barbecue, where my friend and I taught them the proper technique of grilling the meat at your table, then wrapping it up in lettuce leaves, adding the extras, and popping it in your mouth. They got the hang of it pretty quickly.

The next day we were all very grateful to my school for giving me the afternoon off, as I had no classes. This enabled Mom and Brent to actually come out to the little town I teach in, where we first went to lunch with my lovely co-teachers, then headed back to school so they could tour the building and meet my students. Well, I'd say 'meet my students' is an understatement. 'Got mobbed by my students' is more accurate. In case you don't know, my stepfather is nearly 2 meters tall, which is synonymous with 'giant' by Korean standards. The excitement of seeing three foreigners at once, two of them being over six feet tall, was almost too much for my kids to handle. It was so cute to see them come up to us and try to speak - we got a lot of 'how are you's and 'HI!'s. We had a small crowd all around the school as my co-teacher gave us a tour, where I got a kick out of watching some of my smaller students dare to come stand next to Brent - some were literally half his size.

At school, we also had tea with my principal, vice principal, and co-teachers, where we discussed my plans for the rest of their visit. At hearing this, my vice principal decided to personally take us to one of the areas we had been planning on visiting. She took us out to a beautiful natural garden and pavilion, which we learned was built in the sixteenth century for the yangban (rich and elite) scholars to study and write while enjoying the beautiful natural scenery. A good time was had by all, and we lucked out with having a personal tour guide, sporting high heels the entire time.

The rest of the week passed by quickly, and mostly consisted of me rushing over to the hotel after school, then the three of us trooping out to walk around and explore, and of course, try another delicious traditional Korean meal. I was proud of them for adapting to kimchi so quickly. However, we were all pretty wiped by the end of the week - I kept them busy each day by sending them to museums, (which I actually haven't been to yet) visiting a traditional spa, (couldn't wear them out too much) and on Friday they successfully 'conquered' all 1187 meters of Mudeung Mountain. Friday night we had a wonderful dinner at First Nepal, the necessary visit every foreigner to Gwangju must make, with three of my friends from out of town who came in to meet them.

We had a really nice day on Saturday, when we took a trip about an hour and a half south to Boseong, home of Korea's famed green tea fields. The weather was perfect, the scenery was beautiful, and the walking was pleasant. The green tea fields are a top tourist destination in southern South Korea, and rightly so. There are steps and walking trails leading up to the top of the rolling hills, from which you can see the nearby coast (see picture) and scenery. As it was a Saturday, the area was busy with couples and families - Mom and Brent got to marvel firsthand at the Korean women's ability to trek up hiking trails in killer high heels - I still don't know how they do it. For their last dinner in Gwangju, we treated ourselves to galbi ribs, which is marinated pork rib that you grill at your table, then employ the lettuce wrapping techniques that Mom and Brent had perfected by the end of the week. They even helped me grill the meat and kimchi.

Sunday was our sad goodbye, but not after we had finished our comprehensive tour of Gwangju by heading across town to Sangmu, one of the newly developed areas of town - they could tell the difference between Sagmu's widely paved, modern streets and the older, more traditional parts of town that they had seen the past week. We visited the May 18th memorial museum, which commemorates the 1980 democracy uprising that happened in downtown Gwangju as a protest against the increasingly oppressive military dictatorship. More on that later, as the anniversary is coming up soon, but anyways, the museum and surrounding area is the actual site where the police held hundreds of protesters from the uprising in containment for many months. Though a grim part of Gwangju's history, it's the city's claim to fame as a proponent for democracy. It was very interesting, despite some issues with our impromptu tour guide. The most significant one being...he didn't speak English. That didn't stop him though, did it? Oh, no. He kept dragging us around, speaking in a random mix of Korean and Japanese ("hana, dul...san" - 1, 2 in Korean, 3 in Japanese) as we politely followed him, nodded as if we understood, and read the English signs for translation and interpretation. It was a great time. However, the weather was beautiful, it was interesting to learn about, and fun to explore a new part of town, so we enjoyed it. We decided to take a break from Korean and enjoy a nice Western restaurant for lunch, before taking Gwangju's one and only subway line across town back to their hotel. When I said goodbye I said I wasn't sure what country I'd be seeing them in again, but we decided we'd figure that out eventually. Again, it was sad to see them leave, but we were all so grateful for the time we had together.

This week I'm recovering a little bit from playing tour guide, and hoping to head out to Mokpo on the weekend to see some friends and hopefully more beautiful spring landscapes. My next upcoming trip will be the first week in May, when I have to head up to Seoul to take the GRE test, but then I'll have the rest of the week off due to Children's Day, a national holiday where apparently amusement parks and all things 'kid' are jam packed. I'll be headed out to the northeast coast with Sara, since it's a pretty far distance to cover in a weekend trip - this way we'll have a few extra days to do some exploring. We were considering leaving the country to go to a nearby country, but since there is so much of Korea to cover, why would we leave?

One last thing I must mention: though spring is in all it's glory right now, it's a bit strange for me because I feel like my internal seasonal clock is off a bit. In Korea the school year starts in March and officially ends in December, with a break from the middle of July to the middle of August. The past four years I've been finished with school by the middle of May. Needless to say, I'm not feeling the typical end of school spring anticipation that I'm used to...it's quite the opposite. I still have three months of school...and thirty degrees in temperature and humidity rise ahead of me. I'm not sure how I'm going to react to that yet, but I can assure you it already feels weird. Feel free to think of me slaving away while you're outside enjoying your barbecues and weeks up at the cabin this summer. (Yeah, I know...I don't really 'slave away' ...but still.) I realize this is all a part of being a 'grown up' now, since work doesn't end for summer vacation like school does, but still - I sense a rough transition ahead of me.

I wish you all a wonderful spring - congratulations for surviving yet another midwestern winter - as you begin to emerge from hibernation, and I hope you have some time to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather! Goodbye until next time, a date of which I can't really guarantee - it all adds to the suspense. Love you and miss you all.