Goodbye, South Korea.

We have been back in the US for a little over a week now. It's becoming less weird. I'm a little less overwhelmed every time I enter a Target or Smith's. We went to the mall yesterday, and although it was still very strange, I was really proud of myself because I managed to make it through every single encounter without saying "kamsamnida" one single time. I still bow CONSTANTLY though. Seriously. Literally everyone gets bowed to. It's kind of ridiculous. And I still support my right arm when handing money. And I say "ney" a lot. And use the big giant X of denial instead of just shaking my head or saying no. Korea, you got under my skin.

I decided to use this final blog post to show pictures of some of our favorite people. There are even more fantastic people that we met that we don't have photos of, and that makes me sad.  I won't be updating this blog anymore, but I'll probably start a new one when we get down to Arizona. I'll try to remember to update my homeschooling blog more often, too!

Oh, Mr. Hwang! "Our" taxi driver. He gave the kids gifts. As in actually went shopping for them and had wrapped presents waiting for them in the back of his cab. He was amazing.

Our awesome Korean tutor and friend Yunjeong! Here we are being adorable and showing our aegyo while eating noodles.

I attempted numerous times to enjoy kimchi. It never worked.

Here are two of my best Korean friends, Sue and Eunsoon. I miss them so so much! 

Me, Eunsoon, and Eunsoon's silly son Juho making ridiculous faces. I love that goofy boy.

This is Young Woong. His English name is Peter. I only tutored him for the month of December, but he was so much fun! I wish I could have spent more time with him.

My kids would take turns spending the night at Sue's house every week. Lillie and Reagan snuggled up to her husband before he left for work in the morning. The picture above is Aiden playing on a dragon at a playground near their apartment.

The Stevens'! Oh my gosh, I can't say enough about how much we adore them. They spent so much time at our place that they had their own room. They're in the states now too, and hopefully we'll get to see them again soon.

Jason and his wife MiKyung - how did Aiden avoid photos with you guys?

The kids all made wonderful friends in Daegu. Here's Lillie and Aiden "meditating" in a pagoda with some friends on a trip to Seoul.

I met Anne of Green Gables. She is as amazing in real life as she is in the books.

And everyone should have a friend they can geek out with. 

Yun introduced us to so much of Daegu. Food, music, art, everything. We will miss her so much!

And finally, our church home away from home. This group of people made us feel like we had family right there with us. They were there with a meal or shoulder to cry on even before we knew we needed it. Thank you for everything, Daegu Military Branch.

Lovely Daegu

Here is my almost-last-post. My next-to-final. My penultimate post. I thought I'd gather together some of our favorite places in one beautiful post.

Daegu from the Children's Hall observatory

The inside and outside of Olive Mart, the market down the street from Camp George. We bought fruit, veggies, and TONS of candy here. Also cheese bokki, which is like Korean mac and cheese. It's terrible and wonderful at the same time.

Buddha at Palgon Mountain, with tiny little stone towers and gifts in rock crevices.

Herb Hillz. I wish I had more photos of the green here!

Lotte Young Plaza. This department store always had some fun display in front, and it changed with every season.

Random Totoro in random alley!

The lawn at the art museum Yun took us to.

Whatever the heck this is, it's under a bridge by the river. 

This is a lovely place near the Stevens' home. We were lucky enough to visit them before we all came back to the US.

Thanks Giving

This Thanksgiving I've been thinking specifically about how grateful I am for my family. We lost David's mother last week, and although the phone call telling us that she had passed wasn't unexpected it still somehow felt very sudden.

Mom Talbot was so loved. She had a big family, and so many friends who loved and supported her. However, she was also very human. She was a lot like me, in fact. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we had the same birthday. She could hold a grudge just like me. Her self esteem could plummet in moments, the same as mine. She sometimes needed to be reminded that people loved and cared about her - and I'm sure she and I are not alone feeling like that. She was so much better than me in a lot of ways, too. More loving, more patient, more forgiving.

She used to make cards to send her grandkids, since she wasn't near most of them, and my munchkins LOVED seeing those envelopes in the mail. We just got her last card yesterday, and I could not help but cry as I thought, "I did not write to you enough, Mom. I didn't call you enough. I didn't tell you enough how much I loved you and how special you were to me."

If you love someone, tell them. They need to hear it, and you need the peace of knowing you've said it.

Our visit to CEV

Our friends Nick and Lauren live and work at an English immersion camp in Changnyeong. It's in the countryside, with trees and rice fields and glorious nature everywhere. When we went to visit them I took some pictures of the school. Kids come to this school for a week or so at a time and basically are surrounded by English and examples of what it's like to live an English-speaking life.

 This is their "duty-free shop". My girls basically just wanted to buy everything in it.

 Art class - there were some really cool Picasso-style drawings on the wall.

The post office! Where they can practice standing in a single line for an hour till the only clerk goes on lunch break. Or learn how to mail a package correctly - that's probably more like it.

 Here's their bank, with an ATM and everything, so they can learn about money.

Teacher Lauren's room!

 This is their doctor's office. In the front half there are a ton of medicine bottles, as well as a skeleton which I didn't take a picture of. In the back it's set up as an exam room.

This is a train/subway/bus stop, as well as the entrance to...

 The restaurant/hotel/airport! Teacher Lauren is ready to take our orders with her menu. :)

Their hotel is pretty fancy, I must say.

 And at the airport, kids can put their luggage on the conveyor belt and go through a security check.

Here's the science room - I love the way this is decorated.

And a handy little phone on the wall with some English phrases to practice.

Talbot girls and CEV kids - I wish we could have stayed longer!

Stepping Outside of Daegu

Today we got to visit our friends Nick and Lauren. They always come to visit us - we've never, ever been to see them in the countryside where they live, and I really really regret not going sooner! We had such an amazing experience. I got fantastic photos of the area around their town, as well as a lot of pictures of the English immersion camp where they work.

We started by taking a walk around a beautiful lake with lovely bridges and pagodas.

There's always something calming about a pagoda.

 The kids running to explore both shores.

Pretty bridge!

 This is a shot of an onion field next to the lake. Each onion is poking through a little hole in a plastic sheet. The area where Nick and Lauren live is well known for their onions and garlic - must smell great at harvest time!

Later we went to the school where Nick and Lauren work. This was a practice sheet on a pretend phone. Helpful phrases in English. LOL

 The superintendent of the school asked us to stay a little while longer so we could meet the students. I wish I'd taken some video so you could see the reaction! My kids were mobbed. You can see some girls running up towards Lillie and Reagan. Aiden is shaking hands, because the boys in the front row ran up to him and shook his, so he just kept going. :DSorry this shot is fuzzy, but everyone was moving so much!

 I love, love, love this photo. Lillie was absolutely in her element. She loves people and would have stayed there forever.

 Just another view of the mass of people surrounding the kids. Poor Aiden was not loving it so much. Most of the time he was trying to sort of get out of the mob, but people kept pulling him back in. I did get one or two shots of him smiling, just because kids asked him to.

 Forced smile. He's trying, bless his little heart. Lillie and Reagan are eating it all up.

So not loving it. After this we pretty much started clearing this up. My kids ended by bowing and saying thank you and goodbye in Korean, which of course got massive happy reactions.

 Us with Nick, Lauren, Christina, and Suzi (one of the directors of the school). They gave us all headbands that have the Korean flag on the front.

Me and the kids with Suzi and Sohee.

 Sohee and the monkeys.

 We had such a great time! I just wish we had more time to spend there. It was so kind of the directors to let us stay longer and meet the students. The school was absolutely adorable - I'll put up pictures of it later. There are classrooms, an art room, a science room, and then separate areas representing different experiences like an airport, restaurant, post office, and hotel. It's really cool! Further photos of our awesome time to follow. :)