Saturday I went to my favorite place in Korea - Busan - with Garrett, Kyla, and Katie to make a Costco run...we were all out of meat and cheese. We spent a little time at the beach before we went shopping. I'm not sure why, but none of us brought our swimming suits. So we walked in the water, but didn't get to swim. Too bad, because it was almost 100 degrees.
This is the beach. Those are all umbrellas. Everybody who goes to the beach rents an umbrella and stays under it unless they are in the water. Almost one million people go to this beach on the weekends, and they all hide from the sun. The picture doesn't do it justice. There are at least 15 rows and they take up the whole beach like a giant grid. It's crazy.
Wading in the water
Another fun fact: most Koreans can't swim. It's becoming more popular for parents to put their kids in swimming lessons, but most older Koreans who know how to swim are men who have been in the navy. So there' s a line of buoys in the ocean about 4 feet deep that you absolutely cannot cross. There are police boats driving up and down that line making sure everybody stays on the safe side. There are also lifeguards. And most of the people in the water - including adults - are wearing a life jacket and using an inner tube. It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen.
Sunday Katie and I spent the afternoon with a family from church. Honestly, I wasn't excited about it, but it ended up being a lot of fun. This family has 2 daughters, one in 6th grade and one in 3rd. The older daughter lived in Nebraska for a year so she could get really good at English. It worked. The rest of her family doesn't really speak English so she played translator all day, but I think that's what her parents wanted. Katie and I thought we were going out to lunch right after church, but instead we went back to the family's apartment for a few hours. We played Wii with the girls and talked to the parents for a while, then we all went out to eat and they brought us home. It was nice to spend time with a family, in an apartment with more than one room. The parents were very sweet and said they want to do this more often, and this girl speaks English like a native speaker. It was good.
Monday and Tuesday I was at school without Yuri. She took the 6th graders on an overnight camping trip. It was really quiet and lonely without her. Most of the teachers can't speak English or think they can't speak well enough to talk to me - they'd rather translate through Yuri. Tomorrow I go to Jang Saeng Po. The vice principal thinks nobody is working hard enough, so Jenny and I each have to teach some English classes in the morning and work on an English play in the afternoon. I hope its fun!
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