We live in Korea. Read about it.

This weekend was Chuseok, a national holiday here, one of their biggest holidays of the whole year. We had Monday off of school for the holiday, and the three day weekend was wonderful. Unfortunately, like I have mentioned before, Koreans don't believe in days off, so we will be making up our school day from last Monday this Saturday.

If we had known in advance about the holiday, we would've made plans to go away for the weekend. By the time we knew about it, everything was already booked all over the country, from trains to hotels. Also, as we talked more about it, anything that we would really want to go see would most likely be closed. The whole city shut down on Sunday, with the exception of McDonalds, which we saw on our walk home from church. (Some things are the same no matter what country you're in.)

Sunday afternoon, we went hiking on a trail that is only about 2 miles from our apartment. It was really nice. It is definitely an escape from the busy city and I didn't even notice the sounds of traffic up on the hill. Along the trail, there is random exercise equipment for people to use if they want to. It's actually really common. Not far from our apartment is a small jungle gym playground area that is not just for children. There is weather resistant exercise equipment for the public to use while their kids play. It's really cool.

At the top of this hiking trail on the hill, there is a bungalow.

Here are a few pictures from our hike...





After our hike on Sunday, we were again left with some nice vacation time, without having to get ready for work on Monday. We did something that I have been wanting to do for two years now. Kim and I kept saying that we were going to learn and try this together sometime, but in the reality of the "college lifestyle", both going to school full-time, both working, both in serious relationships, both studying...we never got around to it. (I promise Kim, we will still do this together.) So, finally, Keith and I sat down with almost all of the necessary supplies and some online directions with pictures, and we made SUSHI!












The desire and inspiration to do this after so long was once again rekindled on Saturday when we went to the mall to try the "Japanese Sushi Restaurant". It was unfortunately mostly Korean food with a speck of Japanese influence. (Koreans have their own version of sushi called Gimpab, which we do like, but it is different. Sometime soon, we will go check out "Little Tokyo" in Seoul, which I'm sure will have amazing Japanese food. Then eventually, we hope to go to Tokyo, the actual city...we are pretty close after all.

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Thank you to all who gave suggestions on my cheating students. There have been no more incidents to report. Also, Keith and I are both over our colds, which makes life definitely more enjoyable.

I'm off to work.

P.S. Here's one more picture of Keith with portion of a very large person, in downtown Cheonan.