Songs About Rain

At the beginning of July we went to Jeju Island with Emily's parents.  It rained a lot, but we still had a lot of fun and got to see most of the east side of the island.  Jeju Island is often times called Korea's Hawaii.  In some ways it is, in most ways it isn't.  Jeju has its own unique culture and parts of the language are massively different from what's spoken on the mainland.  The island is volcanic, just like Hawaii, so agriculture is difficult to sustain.  They also rely heavily on tourism, and are known for their beaches.  The big difference is that Jeju gets all four seasons.  Apparently, it snows a lot in the winter.  Way more than on the mainland.  At least that's what I was told by a friend of mine that grew up on Jeju.

We got into Jeju on Friday night, so we just ate at the hotel and relaxed.  The next day, we lucked out.  There wasn't a lot of rain, it was more of a sustained mist.  So, we decided to take a taxi tour of the island.

This is a 돌하루방 (tol harubang), or stone grandfather, we encountered at our first stop (these guys are everywhere).  We found out that these always come in sets of two.  One has his left hand over his right hand, the other has his right hand over his left.  The one with his left hand on top represents the warrior, the one with the right hand on top represents the scholar.  Every man was supposed to be a little bit of both.

The real appeal of a trip to Jeju is definitely the island's natural beauty.  They have three large waterfalls.  The one below is apparently one of the only waterfalls, if not the only waterfall, that goes directly into the Pacific Ocean.

Emily and dad Pryzlucki!

This is at the edge of a volcanic crater.  It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site just a few years ago.  Usually, you can see all the way to the bottom, but as you can see the fog was a little thick when we were there.

The last thing we saw were these naturally occurring pilars that were formed out of volcanic rock.  They were pretty cool, but the tide was starting to come in, so you couldn't quite see the entire thing.

And of course, no Jeju vacation would be complete without a trip to the beach.

Dale is camera-phobic

Pete the Cat Comes to Korea

At the end of June until the beginning of July, Emily's parents came to Korea for a visit!  They had a nice side trip to Taiwan for a week, where they went to Taipei, Taroko Gorge, and the northern shore.  Upon their return, we went to Jeju Island, and then spent a few days with them in Seoul.

On Tuesday, July 3rd, Emily's parents went to Emily's school, Pre-School Academy (PSA) to see where she works and to hang out with the kids for a little while.  After a short tour of the school, we sang the 'snack song' together with the kids, asked everyone, "How are you?", and then read a story together.

Mom Przylucki brought some books with her to read to the 4 year old students.  She brought, "Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes".  The students sat on the mat, entranced with these new visitors and the book.  We read about the adventures of Pete and how he keeps turning his white shoes all new colors.  The students played along, danced along, and sang along with the story.  They loved having Emily's parents there!

The next day, one of the students told Emily a story.  She told her mom that Emily Teacher's mommy and daddy visited the school, and her mother didn't believe her.  She asked Emily's co-teacher Heidi if it was true, and Heidi said yes!  The parent was happy that her daughter was able to meet Emily Teacher's parents, and that they read a story to the class!  The students enjoyed it and talked about it for days afterwards :)

For My Father

This is my first post in a long time, and it comes at a difficult time in my life.  My father passed away two weeks ago.  I haven't posted about it, because it's all still sinking in.  I try not to think about the things he'll never see me do, get my masters degree and have children, because he was able to see me do so many other things.  He got to see me graduate from New York University, move to Korea, get married, and live what is to this point a full and happy life.

I don't think I've ever seen my father happier than when he was at my wedding.  Part of the ceremony is pictured above.  It's how I'll always remember him.

I love you dad.  You'll be missed by us all.

Spring Has Sprung

Hello all!

We've been back for two months already!  Hard to imagine.  In these past two months we've been busy with work and study.  Emily loves her new job at Pre-School Academy Apgujeong, teaching 5-year old students.  Unlike her previous school, she has one classroom of 9 kids she teaches every day with a bilingual Korean teacher.  The kids are fantastic and pick up English very quickly!

Richard has midterms next week, so is busy studying and preparing for those.  He is also working as a docent at historical sights and palaces around Seoul, educating kindergarten and elementary school children about Korean history in English.

The past few weeks has seen the arrival of spring!  Cherry blossoms are out in force, and the weather has been sunny and in the 60s during the day.  We finally put away our heavy winter coats and sweaters.  However, knowing Korea, this lovely spring will last only a few more weeks and the heavy humid summer will set in.  Happy Spring!

And We're Back...

I haven't been here in a while, because I am studying my ass off.  I couldn't help but post this though:
http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20120318000381

I do not support this law, but I am glad that people are starting to take a serious look at the rights of adopted children or children to be adopted. What's missing from the article is the fact that these changes were at least proposed by adoptee organizations (I knew about their involvement) and the Korean Unwed Mothers' Families' Association (missed theirs somehow).

Homeward Bound

We are finally back in Korea.  After nearly six months of traveling and living out of suitcases, we have a new (to us) apartment in Cheongdam.  We can get back to a regular schedule, and settle back into work and school.  We'll have pictures up soon enough.

Wild Rovers

We took another short trip, this time to Sedona.  We didn't get pictures of the drive down, but it was awesome.  You lose elevation extremely quickly coming from the north through a series of switchbacks on 89A.  We got into Sedona before noon and did a little shopping.  We didn't go into the museum, but they had a Sedona film museum detailing all the westerns that were shot in and around Sedona.  We saved the hiking for the next day.  These pictures were taken around our hotel.

Sunset from just outside the hotel.

The view from the hotel room.

We did two big hikes for the day.  The first one was at Red Rock State Park.  It's a nature reserve, so it was more of a long walk than a real hike.  The second hike was to see Cathedral Rock.  This was more of a true hike with more gains in elevation over a shorter distance.

After the two larger hikes, we drove back via scenic Highway 179 where we did another short hike.  It's one of the shortest scenic highways in Arizona, but the views are great.  Sedona was definitely worth the trip and we would like to go back in the future.