It's Wednesday and it's the national holiday, Childrens' Day. Children used to not be counted for the census, and at some point, one of the legislators decided that children should be counted and declared May 5 as a national holiday. There is also a Parents' Day on May 8...no day off though. There used to be a Mothers' Day, but no Fathers' Day...and the dads didn't like that, thus, the declaration of Parents' Day. My homestay folks were surprised to hear that we actually celebrate both a Mothers' and a Fathers' Day. Later in the month, May 21 is Buddah's birthday, another national holiday, which people love because they will get a three-day weekend. I'm not sure what kind of flowers these are (above)...very large blossoms. I think they are a different variety of peony...not sure.
Today, I met a family from San Diego (arranged through Courtney from Holt). The woman was adopted in 1960, and her documents say that she was found at City Hall. No doubt the City Hall she saw this week is far different from the city hall where she was left as an infant. She was visiting here with her son, 24, and husband. I took them to Insadong, one of the fun shopping areas near where they are staying, and to Jogeysa Temple. We stopped for lunch and had a nice visit. They were really intrigued by the people, the streets, the shopping, the food and everything they saw. We walked past an art institute...these straw things were on display out front...pretty cool!
Yesterday was Angela and Mathias' son's birthday...he is now 32. A large meal was prepared and he and his wife came over for dinner. We started with cucumber, radish and shrimp salad (delicious), japchae with pork (delicious), and fried vegetables, oysters and abalone (veggies and abalone were ok). I tried one oyster (bleah) and one abalone. I was surprised that the abalone didn't taste fishy at all. It was pretty good.
After that we had galbi (beef short ribs) with roasted carrots, radishes and black mushrooms, which is a Korean favorite. Angela chose the beef from America at Costco, because I'm from America. It's crazy how expensive beef is. Korean beef is about 80,000 won per kilo. American beef is about 32,000 won per kilo, and they also get a lot of Australian beef, about 40,000 won per kilo. So, needless to say, Koreans don't each much beef. Pork is much more affordable. She also served a baked red snapper (that's what I think it was)...whole on the plate. They were able to, with their chopsticks, take off the meat, and completely remove the skeleton in one piece, before finishing the meat on the other side. Such great dexterity! (Yes, she made me have a no-thank you helping of fish--I didn't care for it.) We finished with a yummy strawberry cream cake and a fruit salad. We even sang to him in Korean. I learned the Happy Birthday Song in Korean in January and actually sang it to Courtney for her birthday (much to her chagrin). I commented that it was a lot of food, and Angela said they usually have more. Their son is just beginning his residency at a nearby hospital and works 12-hour days. After dinner, he sat down with his dad to watch TV and quickly fell asleep. His wife says the only time she sees her husband is when he's asleep. It's sad but funny.
Below are pictures of plants from Angela's garden. The picture of mostly leaves is what she has been picking and serving as salad, with a red chili dressing. We eat the leaves and stems. They taste a little floral, but are pretty good and because they are a little bitter, are good with meat. She said once they get too big, they get too bitter, so I think we're onto the next left or twig. LOL The purple flowers are peonies and smell really wonderful. The other flowers are azaleas...tis the season. And finally, a picture of Suhyuhn (the girl I tutor in English) and her brother SooJoon...they're so cute.
Tomorrow is language exchange and then tutoring in the afternoon. I'm falling into a rhythm here...a busy rhythm, but a good one. Happy Childrens' Day. I'm thankful for my children and was missing them today.
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