Exploring the ROK (rep. of korea)

almost one month down everyone! can you believe it?

well this week was a very taxing one... lots of kids, lack of available facilities, and a field trip that was less than captivating for our target audience- we made topiaries and picture frames which took all of 30 minutes and then spent the remainder of the time wandering around a very vertical "Herb Hills", saw an animal show that had everything from a line of hamsters (at least 20, not even kidding) to a sea lion that looked like he had suffered from a stroke, but was amazing regardless. if the whole thing hadn't been narrated by a very upbeat young korean lady speaking KOREAN, for an audience made up entirely of english speaking children i may very well have been bummed out all day :).

Friday brought about an end to a very long week, let me tell you! although there was some good to come from all of it. one of my kids, jordo, was just outstanding, so much so that he earned himself 2 cream the counselor dollars (i'll fill you in on this in just a minute), always holds the door for everyone, and was just amazing. i was so impressed it compelled me to write his mom a letter so she might know as well! anyway, cream the counselor... are "dollars" given to deserving kids who demonstrate great behavior, that are then cashed in at the end of the week for a plate of shaving cream to cream the counselor of their choice in the face!!! and on a hot day, that shaving cream heats up real quick... and doesn't taste too great either :) but it was a lot of fun. pictures to follow.

we also made a point to do water aerobics on thursday with Mrs. K, who works with us... we were completely humbled by these ladies who were just coasting along as we grunted and groaned throughout the whole thing. OUCH (our prides). i am physically still sore today! we're gonna stick with it though, or we plan on it. but yes, it was extremely tough.

as for this weekend, we relaxed, just kinda hung out on friday, kicked back and chilled on base- didn't quite make it off post as we planned... then took off early saturday morning for Osan to meet up with Jara, Jenneca's sister (also in camp) and her friends Matt and Cameron. 4 hours, a fish cake on a stick and a deep fried covered hot dog later we found ourselves at camp humphreys just outside a major shopping district... which we hit soon after. we all played tourist for a bit, girls getting purses, matt and i measured up for some hand-made suits from the Kim brothers who were just hilarious and completely caught us off guard (didn't get to put our bartering to use). there were so many streets and alleys all lined with stores, although nothing too distinctly korean... i'm currently looking for a cycling hat, but picked up a korean flag this weekend. we also went to an amazing bulgogi house and made friends with the very friendly lady in charge. we all took turns taking "prom" pictures with her before we left. AND THE FOOD WAS AMAZING!!! it was a fun, simple day of wandering around korea. then a night out on the town, which included a popeyes dinner (pope yes- look at it again everyone:) some drinks and some karaoke to top it all off!

sunday we lounged out by their water park, got some movies (the girls picked some out, probably 4 for 11 bucks or something like that) then headed back to Osan from camp Humphrey's- which is probably about a 40 minute, 3 dollar bus- in order to catch our 4 hour free shuttle back to base, which we ended up missing because we are a group of 5 and only 4 seats were open at the time. our timing has been off all weekend, seriously, we have not been lucky with the transportation schedule at all, except for this one taxi that was crazy ridiculous and drove waaaaay too fast for it not to be fun! so now, we're at the library waiting 3 hours for the next bus which will get us back to base at 11 instead of 8... AAAAAHHHH and camp starts again tomorrow! but all in all, a good weekend, relaxing and just what we needed. although i do think i'm coming down with some sort of cold. but hey, who cares, it was bound to happen some time or other (thank goodness we bought out the pharmacy before we left- mer).

oh, on the way back home, another truck stop left me roughly 20 dollars down, and a big bag of snacks and drinks heavier; plus another "foreign delight", this time a bulgogi hot dog... kinda disappointing, but food is food ya know:)

also, lt. dan (the one from forest gump)'s band played up here- which we missed of course due to our bad luck timing this week, but fyi thought you should know.

bigs- there are micro vans everywhere!!!

-the adventure's in the journey, not the destination