Catching up

I've pretty much lost hope in trying to keep up with this blog in a timely manner!  Our days have been long and time and availability of Internet access has been short.  Our days typically start around 7 a.m., breakfast at 8:00, meet with the group at 9:00 and first tour at 10:00.  Lunch starts at 11:30, another two tours in the afternoon and dinner at 6:00.  We meet up with our homestay families and we're off for a second dinner at 9:00!  By the time I get home, I'm usually so full and tired and probably have a bit of soju (Korean rice wine) or moccoli (another fermented rice drink) in my system that I'm ready to crash!

But, we're having a blast.  This weekend is being spent in a ski resort located in the city of Muju.  It is beautiful!  It's modeled after an Austrian resort.  Here's a view from our balcony.  The girls have a condo together (Ruth, Sophiya our translator and me), and the boys are a few doors down.  It has been so relaxing, which is just what we needed.  No tours!  We even ordered Dominos pizza last night.  Not quite the same as in the States, but it was sure nice to have pizza for a change.

Here is Ruth relaxing in the condo, reading her book.

We have a few hours in a coffee shop this afternoon, and are meeting up with the Muju rotary club for dinner tonight.  I have no idea how many rotary clubs there are in Jeollabuk-do (the province we're in) but there are a ton!  It seems like everyone we're introduced to is a president, past president, president elect, secretary, etc.  After two weeks, it's getting a little difficult to keep everyone straight...especially when people talk about Mr. Lee, Mr. Park or Mr. Kim.  We've met about 30 of each...they're very common last names!

It takes the computer connection awhile to upload photos on blogger from here, so maybe the best way to update everyone is through a Picasa album.  I'll go through and start writing captions for the photos and hopefully they'll stay somewhat in order.  Let's see if this works:



If you want to see the images larger or click through at your own pace, just click on one of the photos and it will take you to the Picasa site.

I'll leave off with a little video from our new bus (the pink bus started falling apart this week).  We miss our pink bus and our driver, Mr. Lee.  He was really awesome.  Poor Ruth doesn't have anyone to help her pick out clams from their shells anymore (Mr. Lee would always help her with his mad chopstick skills)...  So now, Mr. Song is our driver in a yellow bus.  It's a bit over the top.... (click on the small photo to load the video)

From korea