Ayako's going away party

Since Ayako will be finishing work at Four Seasons school at the end of March (but is taking her paid holiday time now) the other teachers decided to hold a going away party for her. It was decided to try visiting Round 1, which is a sports and games centre. We tried a number of the sports and games there as you'll see.

Here's Mike doing his father proud by staying on for the eight seconds:

Here's Ayako and Sarah playing badminton:

and Tomoe and Taren playing volleyball:

Daniel, Eric, Mike and Nathan playing basketball:

Hiro showing off his fine archery skills:

Nathan playing a tennis target game:

Here's me showing off my poor technique while golfing:

Here Eric teeing off at mini-golf:

Here we are playing some volleyball:

and some soccer:
And then we all went to the games area:

There was even a bowling area and a pachinko area but we never got there:
Near the end of the three-hour limit, we decided to do more relaxed activities like playing pool:
or relaxing in the massage chairs:
Afterwards, we went back to Nathan and Taren's apartment where we played Pictionary. Ayako was quite amazing at how fast she could draw the pictures. Overall, we both had a fun time and slept well after all the exercise.

Trip to Korea

Ayako and I were lucky that at the end of February, our schedules matched up with friends in Korea (as well as friends traveling to Korea), which meant that we were able to take a short trip there and visit the places I used to teach. Of course for Ayako, eating lots of Korean food was high on the list of things to be done.

We started in Seoul visiting my friend Ryan. We met his wife Aekyung and their son, Jayden, who is 13 months old:

He was doing pretty well at walking with his push-car toy. We had him doing 30 or so laps with it:

We spent some time with Ryan, Aekyung and Jayden at the beginning and end of our trip. On one of the days, Ryan was able to get 4 bicycles together for all of us to go on a bicycle ride together (Jayden's very cool stroller could be attached to Ryan's bicycle for the ride). Here's Aekyung and Ayako working their way up a hill:

We rode alongside the Han River (which divides Seoul into northern and southern halves) for about 30 minutes:

We stopped off in a park for a snack:

Like father like son:

During our time in Seoul, Ayako enjoyed looking around the markets:

There were lots of good food to look at and buy:

Here is Ayako at a small folk village. The old man had one tune that he could play pretty well on the harmonica:

We also stopped off at a small zoo:
Ryan and Jayden enjoyed checking out the birds:
The next baby to meet was Maya who was 9 months old along with her parents, Craig and Ji-hyeon:
We went with them down to Cheonan, where Craig used to work and Ji-hyeon's sister lives. We stayed with Ji-hyeon's friend, Hae-gyeon, and her husband, In-hyung. Their house was out in the countryside and had a cafe feeling about it. It even had a wood-burning stove in it (a first for me to see in Korea):
Hae-gyeon made us some delicious food:
and we enjoyed spending time relaxing with everyone:
Maya had lots of energy as you can see in this video:

Maybe it was from what she was drinking:

One day, we went with Craig for a drive in the countryside. One change in Korea we noticed was how many cameras (both speed cameras and CCTVs) are on the roads. Of course, Koreans love their technology and so they all have gadgets in their cars telling them when a speed camera is coming up. On our drive, we went to a nearby temple at the foot of a mountain:

We had a good hike up the mountain (part way at least) and came down with some makgeolli (milky rice wine):
Ayako was surprised by how big the container of kimchi and that scissors were used to cut it up:
In the house were four dogs (1 doberman and 3 miniature pinschers). They were lucky to be living outside of the cities since they had a large yard to run around in:
Here are a couple of groups shots we took before we left Cheonan:
We then traveled to Jincheon, which is the first place I worked and Ji-hyeon's hometown. We stayed at Ji-hyeon's parents' new house, which replaced their old house on the same lot:

Here's Ayako admiring their collection of kimchi pots (where the kimchi ferments over winter) in the front yard:

Another thing I noticed in Korea was how every household has a large kimchi refrigerator that can supposedly keep the kimchi from going bad forever. In Ji-hyeon's parents house, there was a kimchi fridge, a freezer and a refrigerator all in their small kitchen:

In Jincheon, we went for a walk around to look at how the town has changed since Craig and I taught there 13 years ago. Ayako once again enjoyed the market and we stopped off at a hoduk (sugar & cinnamon fried cakes) stand:

Our last stop on our tour was in Cheongju to visit the second school that I worked at in Korea. Here I am with my former bosses, Benedita and Sam:

Here I am with Benedita in her school:

The next day we went for a walk with Sam to get some fresh spring water:
On the way back, we past by a pond that on the edge of the city. From this photo, you can see that the city is getting closer and closer to these ducks' home:
We also visited with my friend Young-min and his wife Jin-hee and we met their son, Min-kun:
After dinner, we went to Young-min's cousins house. His mother is an expert at making Chinese tea and so we enjoyed drinking some tea and chatting:
At the end of our trip, we returned to Seoul and stayed at Ryan's house. We were also able to visit with a friend, Hyo-eun, who showed us some great places in Seoul that I had never been to. Here she is with Ayako:

She also took us to some a nice restaurant and a couple of cafes along the way. Here is a dessert and some special teas we enjoyed at one of the cafes:
Another friend that we were able to visit was Edward. He took us out for lunch to enjoy some beef ribs:
It was a good tour of Korea and both Ayako and I enjoyed visiting many friends and enjoying lots of Korean food.