update

Hi friends,

Well time to update - lots of activity here this last 2 weeks. I will try to fit it all in before I crash and fall into bed. We have had two late nights in a row as the crew from UCSC has been visiting and we have been joining in on the festivities.

On Friday John's friend Maayan arrived from UCSC and she came one day early so she needed a place to stay. It was really fun to have a guest and show her around the neighborhood. Both the kids really liked her and had fun talking to her.

We went swimming on Sat with the family of John's friend. It was confusing but fun. Olive could not swim and that was a bit of a bummer but she wasn't really too bugged and seemed happy enough hanging out with the mamas while the kids swam. Netta seemed to have fun until the end when she needed the key to her locker and had a hard time finding me. The place was kind of a maze with stairs and dressing rooms and pools and waiting rooms. In the end she found me but she was hungry and mad by that time. Then we went for food and tried to get Netta some pasta but it came with seafood and spice even though I asked the host if we could have it plain. He said we couldn't get it plain so we gave it a try but she didn't like it. This was with a group who are constantly going on about Netta and food. How is she eating - does she like Korean food? It kind of stressed me out because she was so hungry and wouldn't eat. If they had not been there I would have just said ok don't eat - you can eat when we get home but instead she ate a muffin. I feel bad when people treat us to food and she doesn't enjoy it. I know it is kind of weird but I feel bad. Oh well. Her food did not go to waste at least - the others ate it.

On Monday John's music was performed at Seoul University of the Arts. It was a concert of student composers with music written for western instruments and traditional Korean instruments together. John's piece was lovely and it was nice to get to visit with old and new friends from UCSC. It was great for me because I thought I would miss the whole thing as Olive is not yet of the concert going age, but outside the theatre there was a waiting area with a video of the stage showing the performance. It was great to be there but not need to worry about Olive's behavior. Netta sat with John and had quite a lot to say about which pieces she liked and why - John reports that Netta is his new favorite concert companion.

After the concert we went out for Chicken and Hof - or chicken and beer. There are about a million chicken and beer places here but we had not been to one yet so it was fun to go. Netta had a great time entertaining the crowd. She was so happy to have people to converse with in English and all the guests paid her lots of attention. She was lit up! Olive fell asleep on John's back about half way through the night and then we all caught the bus home. It was a late night.

It made me glad that Netta had decided to give up school. So here I will insert the school story - or maybe just some of it. Netta made it through one week of school. Our initial idea had been to have her try it for 2 weeks but it became clear very quickly that it was not working. One of the reasons we had enrolled her was to allow her the opportunity to make some local friends. However, on the second day she called me from her cell phone to tell me that she felt cooped up because they never left the classroom. It is hard to make friends at school if there is no time for play. The day is short but there is no recess. It was of course also hard because Netta does not speak Korean. This was another reason we had thought school would be a good place for her. But we decided that she can take a Tae Kwon Do class in the neighborhood here and have some immersion time and maybe also make some friends. It is not free- as school was- but it is pretty reasonably priced and will better suit her needs. I am kind of bummed because the school offers a Korean Class for parents with their children and we can't take this unless Netta is enrolled. But really I feel like we can study Korean at home. We have committed to spending one hour a day studying Korean together and we are looking for another class to take together. So that is the school story.

I am excited to be homeschooling again and we have been trying to set aside some regular time everyday to focus on projects.

OK back to the NONG Festival ( the festival that the UCSC crew were here for). Last night was the professor's pieces and that was also a great concert. Afterwards we got to go for meat and soju and that was fun too. It was another late night.

It has been fun but busy and I am happy to have a night at home with the kids in bed. We have all caught our first Korean cold which is a bummer and kind of bad timing with all of the running around but we are muddling through it and no one seems too bad off.

We are looking forward to visitors again in 2 weeks. My parents are coming and we are all excited about it. We just need to plan and clean in the next 2 weeks!