Week XII and XIII: That's a wrap :)

Well here it is, my last entry from my three month sebatical from "real" life. The past two weeks have been relaxing, frustrating, wonderful and overall pretty good. The first thing that I did that was really cool was volunteer to make kimchi for poor people. My Austrailian friend and I were told about it from Pak Sa Bom Nim and so we went and were the only forgeiners there. They do this every year, just spend three days straight making kim chi in bulk. There were mountains of onions, rivers of cabage being washed and tables 300 feet long with old women just making kimchi. It felt good to do something a little more realfor a change. Later in the week I visited a temple right next to one of the biggest malls in the city. It was an interesting contrast and the buddah was like 50 feet tall carved out of white granite. The weekend was awesome, just spending time with the good friends I have made, seeing sights and living the crazy night life. My American friend and I went to a brewery with such good beer but the alchohol content was dangerous. The next week I spent studying the language and stretching a lot. I visited Lee Dong Gyu Sa Bom Nim and stayed one night with him and his family. It was great, and I taught the older adult class. The students were between the ages of 60 and 80+! In the morning I lead a group of middle school students in Moo Pahl Dan Kum before they went to school. So not a lot of training, but still teaching. Upon my return to Seoul it was time to prepare for the big International Thanksgiving party my friends and I were throwing. Friday night we started cooking at around 10pm and cooked, drank and played poker all night. We went to sleep between 7am and 1pm and then got back up to start cooking again. All the food was finally done around 6:30 just in time for everyone to arive. The party was a blast and there were around 35 people from all over the world there. Everyone was very impressed with my moms apple pie recipe. Today I went hiking with Pak Sa Bom Nim, Kim KS and my Australian friend. It was a good last hiking trip with my extended Soo Bahk family. I will spend the remaining couple days of my trip buying a few things I still want to get and trying to see all the great people that I have met here one last time. I guess this is the entry where I am supposed to give closure and try to sum up my thoughts about my adventures. Let me just say that this has been and experience beyond words and the few things that I have managed to post in this blog are only a scratch on the surface of everything that has happened to me in the past three months. I can't wait to see you all soon!:) Anyoung