This is Little G and Little J doing taekwondo here. It's a big class, with probably 30 kids, but there's 3 or 4 teachers and they break the class up into smaller groups, like in the photos. Little J and Little G's group is working on the routine to pass the yellow belt test.
Our car isn't here yet (I should be studying for my driving test tomorrow, but I haven't studied at all) so going anywhere on the post bus takes an extra 30minutes to an hour. And because we don't have a car, I'm carrying groceries back on the bus. I'm limited to how much I can carry (about two bags) so I go almost everyday. The walk TO the store is nice, a paved footpath with no traffic allowed and trees growing along it.
And the monsoon rain has stopped, and we're used to the heat, so it's not too bad. We usually go to the playground near our house after supper, and that's 15-30 minutes I can read or knit while the kiddos scamper about..
I've taken a couple of trips out into Seoul now. The first, Big J went with us all, and we went to the Korean Immigration Bureau to get our visas in our passports (us civilians, that is). We took the subway, and the office itself wasn't too exciting. Lots of people waiting in a big room. But the kids were excited by the vending machines in the subway...me too! There's almost anything in them, and the kids liked the ones with juice and cookes, but I would swear I saw one that had books in it. Korean books in hangul, but still an awesome idea.
The second trip, I went with the kids to get Little G ballet clothes. That was a bit more of an adventure, because I got off on the wrong subway stop...but I knew where we were, all the subway stops are labeled in english letters, and, I Have A Map! We wandered around a bit to find lunch (I'm firmly of the belief that the street food the locals eat is safe, and we found a lovely, REALLY nice, dumpling place down an alley), and eventually found the store we needed. The buildings may have numbers for mailing addresses, but I haven't seen any posted on the buildings themselves. makes it hard to find a specific place.
She's smiling, but i seem to have taken the picture with her eyes closed. Little G did really well for her first time, but she told me after that she wasn't sure she liked it, and she thinks she likes soccer better. I said we'll try it for a couple times before we quit, maybe she'll like it better after she is used to it. I can't wait until we need to go find soccer shoes!
People on the subway have been really nice. The trains are usually full, and I've been carrying Little V in the
baby backpack, so I would be happy to stand. People (especially old ladies) would give up their seat so Little G could have a seat, or people would move so that the kids and I could sit together. And then, people would come up beside me so they can pet Little V who doesn't want anything to do with them...so I smile at the people, because they're usually quite nice people who think the littlest Girl is cute.
It turns out we don't get a new address. All our mail goes through Big J's office. It only seems to take about two weeks to get from the states to here, but Big J is soon going to be gone until the end of the month, so I'm happily not getting any bills...
