This is the sun peaking above the mountain, taken from Junrae and Ilson's back yard, and a picture of their house, which are definitely rarities here in Korea.
Yesterday was the Lunar New Year. I ended up going to a Korean couple (Junrae and Ilson) from my churchs house. We got there a few hours before they got home from visiting other family. Travis had the code to their door and instructions to let ourselves in. We ended up hanging out and working on getting the grill going for quite a while before they got there. One tradition that they have on the Lunar New Year is that everyone takes turns bowing to the people one generation higher than them and giving them New Year blessings. In return, kids always receive money. This is about the only thing that my students were able to tell me about the holiday when I asked them to explain it to me. We got the opportunity to observe this tradition as Junrae and Ilson's family did it, and then we participated by bowing to them. Much to our surprise, Junrae actually gave us money, which is considered rude to not accept. Later on they made an amazing dinner, and continued to offer food for the next three hours as we sat around the table and chatted. We then went for a long walk through the mountain roads and played in the snow. It was an amazing cultural experience that many people here won't get.
I have been trying to watch the Olympics, but they really don't have very much stuff on. There is one channel that it is on, and it's not on very often. So far I have seen some speed skating and long distance ski jumping. The opening ceremonies I missed completely. :-(
Kindergartner quote of the week: (from a student explaining what a mammal is to one of her classmates) "Other animals lay eggs, mammals lay babies."
