Reflections of the Day

Today was a busy day...considering that it's a Saturday and I don't have to teach. This afternoon Mack (the father of a third grade student at my high school and member of the Korean Lion's Club) called me and asked me if I wanted to go out to lunch with him. Having no reason to say no, I agreed....and that's where the adventure begin! Following is a list of what we did:

1. Went to Osan AirBase. It was weird, first air base I've ever been too. I saw more Americans there than I have seen since I left the US. Apparently the airbase has one of the cheapest golf courses in Korea. So Mack and I went and ate lunch at the golf course bar. Had a chef's salad with CHEESE!!! (I miss cheese)
2. Drove through Songtan... a city near Osan. Mack showed me where all the military people hang out. Looked like an interesting little city.
3. Drove around Osan. I got to find out where a good grocery store is! Mack also showed me the bar where all the foreigners hang out. It's called "Wa Bar" but I don't know if I remember how to get back to it.
4. Crashed a wedding. Yeah, it was kinda weird. 2 of my students were there (I have around 575 students, so I run into them everywhere). Mack knew the father of the bride. He gave a gift of money then we went down into the church basement and ate. While eating I met one of the pastors of the church... he's from the US and wants me to come to mass on Sundays because he holds a foreign service. Don't worry Rachel, attending mass isn't in my plans.
5. Sat at a Family Mart (like a 7-11) and drank orange juice. A mother of my students owns the store. It was weird... 5 Korean people staring at me and speaking in Korean. Every once and a while I heard my name, but who knows what they said.
6. Went to the UN Monument which is on the outskirts of Osan.
7. Finally... made it home.

Mack invited me to have dinner with his wife and daughter sometime next week. I get to go see a Korean household and eat homecooked food. It should be interesting. He also invited me to go "mountain climbing" with one of his mountain climbing groups (he's in 2) sometime next month. He told me that Korean mountain climbing is half climbing and the other half drinking and singing songs. I hope by climbing he means hiking but it sounds like it will be fun. By then I'll have a digital camera, so I'll make sure to take pictures.

Got home and received a phone call from another teacher. I'm meeting her at 8:30 tomorrow morning. We are going into Seoul to see the Chagall Exhibit at the Museum of Art (yes, this is the same exhibit that I saw last weekend). Then we are going to meditate at a buddhist temple in the afternoon. I'll have to let you know how that goes. I'm going to Hwagyesa Temple in Seoul. Here's the website: http://www.hwagyesa.org, it's in Korean, but you can look at the pictures :-)

I think that was all the excitement for the day.

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