At/around home lately

We had a couple of weeks of small but fun things. We celebrated a birthday with a friend who is also one of Michael's teacher, Corleen. She and Ros have had a regular Friday dinner plan for a long time, and I have gone with them several times. Michael joined us for the "party" at the Moroccan restaurant. He likes that Corleen jokes around a lot, and she was more than willing to wear the little crown I bought. All 4 of us blew the paper horns. The next FRI night outing was to a Turkish restaurant. I was so happy to eat some hummus, and the rest of the meal was very good too. We were at the foreigner grocery store recently and saw a can of jack fruit. Ros masde the connection for us to the very large brown spikey-bumped item sometimes seen at markets. It's pretty good. We checked online; it actually grows form the trunk of the tree.

Soon after, we were at the foreigner compound for Croatian night. Several families prepared what turned out to be a delicious feast, and the room was decorated with posters. They had a contest to pronounce Croatian idioms and sent us home with a bag of tourist information. There were appetizers and dinner had a seafood table, meat table, and later dessert table. There were 10 or so items at each table. I didn't know exactly where Croatia is, but I do now!

I had lunch with some of the English language practice students. They took me to a guk bap place (soup with rice). They know I am a regular at another place. So we went to "my" place next. I prepared a rating sheet and we had a lot of laughs. Prof. Kim took me out recently for octopus - luckily, cooked vs. alive. It is a very spicy dish, but I liked it. They bring scissors to the table for us to cut the especially large pieces. I haven't been able to talk Michael into it.

Michael and I took a whale watching excursion ... 3 hour boat ride but no whales. It was a lovely day, but we both thought the singer on board was a bit too much in the morning. It was very loud too. So, at this point in our trip the top 3 bad/funny things are: whale watching, fishing trip in Jejudo, and overnight boat ride to Japan. Even though all three have water and boats involved, we actually usually like boat rides.

Michael played in the school talent show. It was in the evening and very well attended by families. He did well. I didn't even know he had been practicing diligently. One of the teachers told me. He chose "Drops of Jupiter." The audience was very enthusiastic, which made for encouraged kids. Michael said he was glad he did it (I had pressured him :) ). He could tell it was more fun to participate than just to watch.

On a recent Saturday, a Korean woman at church invited a group of us (mostly foreigners) for lunch. It was very kind of her, and her two sons seemed very pleased to have us there. Someone observed later that it would not be unusual for the boys to disappear to play computer games or study in their rooms. Michael didn't go because he had school work to finish because he was about to miss a week of school for our trip to Hong Kong. We are getting to know some other people at church. At a recent lunch afterwards (at the usual Indian restaurant), Grace (from Phillipines and recently married to a teacher at Michael's school)and Tim (Hungarian exchange student at university), and Barbara (Korean) joined Michael and me and the Bakers (South African teachers and friends). Have I mentioned how blessed we have been with relationships??!!