Guess How Old??

Koreans tend to look 10-20 years younger than most Americans... No joke!

This is my neighbor who is in her mid 90's and who is always either gardening, climbing the stairs to her home, or sweeping the alleyway in front of her door when I walk by in the morning to work.   

I saw this man sitting outside of the train station this weekend, relaxing and smoking a cigarette.  If I were to guess how old this man is, I would guess mid to late 90's!  Yes, 90's! 

So, for all of you who are feeling like time is catching up to you, just move here!  It'll make you look younger, and not only that, we could be neighbors!!! 

Now That's Resourceful!

I took this picture a while ago, when the weather was really warm! This is the minibus I take from my school to Nampodong when I go shopping after work. This day, there were fans tied to strings, which were then attached to the seats, so you could fan yourself! Now that's what I call being resourceful!

My Korean Josie!

For those of you who had the pleasure of meeting or knowing Kevin's grandmother, Josephine Miller, you would know how significant this blog title is. I had never, in a million years, thought I would meet someone like Josephine, much less in Korea... but there is no doubt in my mind that these two ladies would have been the best of friends (If they spoke the same language of course!)

This is my Vice Principal's mother. (80 years old)

She has lived through the dissapearance of a husband and raised a child, alone, working as a housewife for a wealthy family. In 1951, during the Korean War, she and her husband fled Andong, S Korea with my Vice Principal (6 months old) on her back, and set out on a 100km walk to safety in Yanehong, S Korea. During the journey, my VP developed a stomach sickness. As young parents, they were both very worried about their only son, so my VP's dad left the group in search for a pharmacy, never to come back again. His wife has never remarried.

Despite all of her hardship, she is spunky, energetic, healthy, welcoming, loving, funny, strong, etc... While we were eating dinner, she would raise her arms above her head in the shape of a heart and say, "Sarongheyo" (I love you!) and when I would say it back to her, she would laugh and say, "Thank you very muchie!" It was amazing! She reminded me of Josie... how I miss her!

Better Late Than Never

I was just looking through my pictures, and found this picture that I completely forgot to post during the Chuseok holiday.  It's a boxed gift set of SPAM!    Eeeehhhh, NO THANK  YOU!

JUMP!

Last weekend, I went with my friend Aaron to see the world famous performance, JUMP! at the Lotte Hotel in Seomyeon!  The Koreans all rave about it, so we went to check it out.

WIKIPEDIA: "JUMP tells the story of an idiosyncratic Korean family under the rule of a strict grandfather who insists on keeping up the physical fitness of all family members through vigorous martial arts training. While the daily drills alone leave the audience awestruck, the performance comes to a climax when two stupid thieves break into the house and confront three generations of kung-fu masters, inspiring a series of farcical scenes..."

Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures in the theatre... It was especially unfortunate because Aaron was pulled up on stage to be part of the show!  They made him do all kinds of gymnastics, kicks, and weird martial arts stuff.   It was hilarious!  These are a few pictures that I pulled off the internet to give you an idea of what it's like.

Fountain Show with Carlos's Uncle

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of meeting Carlos's Uncle from Orlando who's visting for the week.  Jess and Carlos invited me to meet them all for dinner and the fountain show on my side of town.  I recommended a samgyupsal (pork) restaurant that overlooks the ocean, so we met there for dinner and then walked over to the show. :)  It was a great show, as always!