Well, the rain finally stopped but now it's become much too hot to go outside during the day. And Sophia has a really early curfew, so we can't really go out at night either. So I've been watching a lot of TV and YouTube (and studying of course.) :-) My plane back to Seoul leaves tomorrow and then I'm spending the weekend with another friend from high school, Haemin. And then on Monday I'm flying back to the states!
Some exciting events from the past week include a traditional ancestor ceremony dinner at Sophia's uncle's house. I spoke a lot of Korean with her relatives, ate a lot of good food, and learned how to do the traditional bow. I didn't take a picture because I thought it would be rude, but I've attached an online picture of what the ancestor table looked like. It's covered with partially cut or emptied food, and at the end sits the pictures of a great grandfather and grandmother. Everyone has to bow to the pictures before and after the dinner. At the end of the night, the men of the family take a little bit of food from all of the offerings on the table and mix them together in a bowl. Then they throw the bowl outside. Later they throw out the rest of the food too. To me it seemed like a waste of a lot of good food, but that's tradition I guess. I also found it interesting that one of the offerings was orange Fanta. Maybe they thought the ancestors would like it now even if they didn't have it during their lifetimes.
Earlier that day I'd gone sightseeing with Sophia's family again. This was the last day of the rainy season, so there were still thunderstorms, but we were able to see a giant lava tunnel cave (made my molten lava flowing underground.) We also went to a giant waterfall, did some rock climbing on an old volcanic rock, and other such sightseeing. I have a lot of pictures on Facebook if you're curious. (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001425&l=df4e6&id=1606470007) That link should be available to everyone.
On Tuesday I finally got to go to the beach! I'd gotten another straight perm the day before so I couldn't go swimming at get my hair wet, but I splashed around in the shallows and found a few seashells. Hopefully Sophia and I can go again today and do some swimming! On Tuesday we hung out with Sophia's older cousin and his friend. He took us to this place called "Mystery Road." Even though the road goes uphill, your car will still roll uphill if you put it in neutral. Bottles also rolled uphill, and water drained uphill too. It was pretty cool. We also went and saw some old dynasty government buildings, but it was really hot outside so we didn't stay too long. That night we went to a lit-up suspension bridge and saw another dragonhead volcanic rock formation (they seem to have a lot of them here, but I thought this one looked more like a chicken.) We also went to Love Land, a sculpture park of lovers from around the world.
Today I'll have to pack and write my thank you note. Sophia and I are planning to go out tonight to celebrate my last night here, if her parents let us. I can't wait to be back in the states and not have curfew again!
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