...cont.

After the doctors we went off with some people that had some kind of relation to J's co-teacher. A man and woman in their 30's or 40's and their daughter who was about 8y/o I guess. They asked if we like pizza and we went to Pizza Hut of all places. This was in Ilsan. This city is newer and more suburban with trees and Korean yuppies.



The cheese for the nachos at the salad bar was served cold and the stuffed-crust pizza had mashed potatoes and cheese. There J's co-teacher met with us and it became us and her husband, her son, and two other boys plus the girl. So 10 of us altoghter. They were worried that we felt uncomfortable with so many of the family, but we assured them that we like it. They paid for our meal, which made me feel bad, but I didn't argue out of politeness. We did offer, though. I've read that they don't usually go dutch in this culture. J and I plan to buy her a treat today. Afterwords we walked back through the city to their cars and picked up a niece - 11 or 12y/o who wanted to practice her English with us (or Jessica, rather) though we ended up barely speaking. I'm assuming she was nervous. The girls were very shy. We drove to this town (that I need to get the name of) that was built by artists, so the buildings were really interesting. .Inside there was a little... playground I guess. It was kind of an outdoor mall and then big characters were all around and tings that read 'I like Dalki,' which turns out to mean strawberries. We took pictures. I bought a little keychain type souvenir for Rachel and Nick

In the car ride, after we picked up Sun Jung's (J's co-teacher) son and dropped off the English speaking girl, Sun Jung's son sat in her lap (which I don't think is illegal here) and she held him while they both fell asleep. The families here, at least the one's I've seen, seem very close. Kids don't start school until 8y/o, which could have a little to do with it. Mothers and daughters hold hands. But also, girls that are friends will hold hands, and I even saw one teenage boy grab the hand of another teenage boy to hurry him across the street. And the boys don't seem to be so homophobic, but there's also not a lot of homosexuality here either. So I wonder if me and Rachel and Nick will be able to walk around holding hands. If they ever come here, that is.

Before they dropped us at home they took us by the school I'll be working at. I didn't see my apartment (I didn't have the address with me) and I'm not sure how I feel about the neighborhood. I'll have to wait until I move there. Plus, J just brought home a transformer, so I'll be able to check my email for any news of my school (I should be hearing from them next week or so when the principal gets back from a business trip). It was a 10m car ride from J's house to mine, which they said would be about 2000w cab fare.