it has been an eternity. i sincerely apologize. :/
there has been a lot going on...yet at the same time, nothing happening. does that even make sense? don't feel too bad about it...there hasn't been a lot to blog about. since moving into my new place and off of KNU campus, i've been taking much more down time to rest, relax, read, and study korean!

the biggest event of the last month or so was my parents coming to visit! last week, korea celebrated chuseok. the closest equivalent is american thanksgiving. families get together, eat a lot of food, and (unlike american thanksgiving) visit their ancestors' graves to offer sacrifices.

we covered 2 out of 3 (family + food), so...not bad!

chuseok runs for 3 days. this year, it happened to be tuesday through thursday. and praise God from whom all blessings flow - i got the entire week off of work. so there couldn't have been more perfect timing for a visit.

mom & dad were troopers, considering the short visit, jetlag, a 14 hour time difference, culture shock, and (can i say this?) their age. we covered a lot of ground in 5-6 days, and i know that i was EXHAUSTED by the time they headed back to the states. we visited a traditional folk village, saw a little of seoul, attended korean church, met a lot of my korean friends, checked out a few museums...among plenty of other things! besides their 20+ hour (one-way) plane trip, they also experienced korean public transportation via city bus, subway, and taxi. and did a lot of walking. recapping all of this makes me tired all over again...

they could better tell you about their experience here, but probably MY favorite part was taking them to their first traditional korean dinner. hahahaha. i laugh out loud every time i think about it.

we met my friend guemin to go out for a traditional galbi dinner, complete with all of the korean side dishes. the ordeal began as soon as we walked into the restaurant. guemin & i stepped in, took off our shoes, and walked right over to the table. i didn't think a thing about it. then i looked back and saw mom & dad still at the door. hahaha. i forgot that it's not normal in america to take off your shoes when you enter a restaurant.

once we got to the table, we encountered challenge #2. seating. again, i obviously have no foresight. in korea, we sit on the floor, cross-legged. this is terribly uncomfortable for non-koreans the first several times that you experience it. i even have short legs and remember the awful dead legs i suffered through the first month or so that i lived in korea. of course, now, i don't think anything of it and could sit on the floor all day. mom & dad started feeling it about...oh...maybe 4 minutes into the meal.

challenge #3. chopsticks. mom did well. dad didn't heed my advice to practice before arriving here. i'm honestly not sure that i've seen anyone struggle more. HAHAHA. it was hilarious. in the meantime, the restaurant manager is asking all kinds of questions of us. 2 young koreans with 2 older americans...the curiosity was just killing her. guemin & i explained the situation to her and she was amazed that my parents had traveled all the way from america to visit me. she treated us like royalty - giving us a bajillion free drinks & sides, and giving dad personal chopstick lessons. (which, by the way, didn't help. she finally gave up and brought out the sympathy forks).

mom & dad found some things they liked & some things they definitely didn't. (thank the Lord that guemin was there to answer their questions about the food. i was too busy stuffing my face the entire time. did i mention that i really, REALLY love korean food??) then came the next challenge - getting up from the table. as i mentioned, mom and dad made it a few short minutes into the meal before the dead legs reared their ugly heads. so after an hour & a half long meal, they could not physically stand up. i (and the entire restaurant) laughed awkwardly as we watched guemin physically pull each of my parents to their feet. i thought i was going to die.

the final challenge came when we were leaving the restaurant. again, i just slipped my shoes on & waltzed out the door. in korea, we don't really tie and untie shoes because we are constantly taking them on and off. when i got outside, i looked back and saw mom & dad struggling to bend over on their dead legs to tie their shoes. mom was a mess - tripping all over the place. finally she hollered for me to "be a good daughter" and tie her shoes for her. so guemin grabbed one and i manned the other. HAHAHAHA.

here are a few pictures from the week:(above) note mom w/the chopsticks and dad with the spoon...and an extremely dissatisfied look on his face. hahahaha. this was taken during the aforementioned galbi experience.(above) ahjumma giving dad chopstick lessons. note the korean ahjussi in the background...clearly not amused by the foreigners. ha!(above) yay! they had only been in korea for 24 hours.(above) mom & dad got to see my new 20th floor apartment & (below) new neighborhood. (above) mom & dad got to come experience korean church with me & meet my awesome church family.(above) enjoying the sights on a beautiful day at independence hall.(above) on a walk around my neighborhood.(above) at a traditional korean folk village.

well, that's the long & short of it. if you know my parents, ask them about their korean experience the next time you see them!

as you were ultimately relentless in your demand for india pictures, i nabbed a few shots from john's canon this week. there are millions more awaiting editing, but here's what we have for now: (above) note how excited we are to begin our trip to india! NOT. 5am was not good to us. between lack of sleep & severe uncertainty about health issues, we were not exactly a barrel of laughs in the beginning. hahahaha. this picture cracks me up because it is a perfect portrayal of how we were feeling at this point. (above) a typical sight in india. oh don't mind the random wildlife roaming the streets aimlessly. they're mostly harmless. (above) agra fort. an amazing example of indian architecture. seriously beautiful. we spent hours here.(above & below) agra fort. (above) agra fort. beautiful center of worship for the indian people. this guy had just finished his midday prayers and decided to take a rest in the 3 million degree weather.(above) qutub minar. awesome.(above) the motherload. breathtaking. the taj boggled our minds. this picture was taken specifically with our parents in mind. i think the exact quote was "our moms will murder us if we don't get a shot here."(above) then these guys showed up and wanted to have their picture taken with me. but that's another story for another time...(above) my tribute to mother korea. (above) my dear friends who helped us out so much. sweet, sweet people. i am blessed to have crossed paths with them.

...to be continued...
...again...

alright. i'm going to attempt to give you a small look into my 10-day journey to india. know that this will by no means do the experience justice. india is one of those places you have to experience to understand. i apologize for the lack of pictures besides the few google images - they will come once john gets everything uploaded and edited.

we arrived in bangalore, india around midnight local time (3:30am to our bodies on korean time) after 22 hours of travel, including a long layover in kuala lumpur, malaysia. we were both dead tired and john had contracted some flu-like symptoms somewhere along the way - never a good way to start out! my dear friends picked us up at the airport and took us to their home to rest. you might remember them from earlier blogs. they are korean missionaries to india who i met earlier in the year when they spoke at my church during a month-long visit home in korea. her english is amazing and they are the sweetest, most helpful couple. we clicked right away and have kept in touch ever since, even when they moved back to india. they extended an invitation to me for a visit, and that's how this whole thing started.

(monday) after some much-needed rest, my friends took us out to an authentic indian lunch, similar but not exactly like this google image: of course, i could only eat bread and rice due to my crazy stomach condition, then in its 4th week. what a crying shame to be in india, unable to enjoy indian cuisine! anyways, i got to watch everyone else enjoy the experience. they started out with giant leaves - your plate. hahaha. you take water and rinse it off and you're ready to roll. then the server brought out rice for everyone along with some tandoori chicken and delicious looking curry. john claims it was the most delicious thing ever. i trust that word. i should note here that the traditional indian way is to eat with your hands. rice and curry and curd with plenty of exotic spices - with your hands. i must admit, it kind of grosses me out. but that's the way it's done. afterwards, we rented a car to drive us to the local botanical gardens - seriously beautiful. called the "garden city" for a reason, bangalore was as green of a place as i've ever seen. it was SO pretty. again, pictures to come. monday also saw my first ever motor rickshaw experience. hahahaha. crazy! india has no road rules. in fact, very few traffic lights. it's sort of every man for himself. i'm talking - major intersections with crossroads of 4 lanes each way. you sort of just close your eyes, lay on your horn, and pray that you make it across. here is a link to a youtube video i found. the traffic is quite light compared to what i experienced, but you can get an idea of the "no rules" philosophy. it's absolutely terrifying. i should also note that while a road may be technically 4 lanes, that means nothing. it was not uncommon for us to be sitting 11 cars/rickshaws wide on a 4 lane road. NOT american! some roads are paved, some are not. and there are danged cows EVERYWHERE. literally. you cannot turn around without having some cow or pig all up in your space. they're napping in the middle of the road, stopping traffic and doing their business wherever they feel like. i felt like i was an alien in another world.

we woke up early on tuesday to catch a flight up north to new delhi.india is a ginormous country, so flights are the way to go when you're in a time crunch. i should note, too, that bangalore is very south - where the weather was absolutely beautiful and sometimes even required a jacket in the evenings. such a nice break from this blazing summer we have seen in korea. unfortunately, delhi is way north and i started sweating my butt off as soon as we got off the plane. i literally thought the skin was going to melt off of my bones. i spent more money on bottled water than anything else. fortunately, they also have mosquitoes that are out for the kill. haha. i was getting attacked left and right. anyways, back to tuesday. we had to hire a rickshaw to take us to our hostel. that was an experience and a half. delhi is a tourist trap if i've ever seen one and they are out to gouge you for everything you're worth...which can be really confusing for a tourist who isn't used to dealing in rupees. fortunately i'd studied up a little on exchange rates between korean won, indian rupees, and us dollars (a lot to keep track of!) and could mostly tell a ridiculous price from a reasonable one. our hostel ended up being straight out of a scene from slumdog millionaire. definitely not a place you wanted to walk around at nighttime. shady and dirty as it was, the workers (who spoke no english) were nice enough and helped us out a lot. we visited some national monuments like qutub minar and took lots of pictures this day. indian architecture is so different from anything i've seen before - really beautiful!

on wednesday we got up crazy early (noticing a trend yet?) to catch a train to agra where the taj mahal is located. WOW. the train ride was an experience, but i would recommend it to a traveler wanting to see true indian culture. it's also a great way to see the landscape.there are about a million different cars you can ride in - sleepers, a/c, etc. financially minded, we chose the non-a/c seated car. HA! we were crammed into this tiny space with 3 on a bench, facing each other awkwardly. i should mention that we had people staring at us the entire trip. a korean and a white, white boy make quite the couple in a place like india and we stuck out like a sore thumb. i constantly had people staring at me and unabashedly pointing and laughing and taking pictures of me on their cell phones. i think it was partially because i was a female, partially because i'm asian (as i've been told - very chinese-looking) and india sees few asian tourists. at first, it was a little amusing. but over time i started to realize that many of the men were more than curious and they became pretty forward in their advances. it's one thing to read about the treatment of women as objects in other cultures. it's another thing to experience that treatment first-hand. i learned quickly to keep my guard up constantly and john was like an overprotective dad, sometimes having to get right up an indian man's face and telling him to put his camera away, stop staring, and keep moving. i must admit - more than once, i pretended not to understand english so i wouldn't have to respond to the mostly awkward, sometimes crude, statements. on the train, we met an american girl about our age who was traveling india alone. this is NOT something i would recommend to anyone. i saw enough hassle WITH a male presence next to me...i can't imagine what it would have been like if i were alone. i don't know what that girl's parents were thinking letting her do india on her own, but she is a straight-up survivor in my book. while that entire part of the experience was less than enjoyable, i firmly believe that you can take something away from every situation. so while i wasn't necessarily prepared for that aspect of the trip, it was definitely a learning experience.

(wed cont.) back to the train. sorry for the digressions. i have so much to say & my thoughts are everywhere - organization is almost impossible. the train cars were cramped, slightly smelly, but moderately clean to the naked eye. men and children were constantly trying to sell you chai tea (an indian favorite!) or water or soft drinks or fried, delicious-smelling foods. at every stop, they were even at your windows trying to shove stuff in your face. american sporting event vendors have NOTHING on the indians. after we finally arrived in agra, we had to hire another rickshaw (always an experience) and make it to our hostel. this one was really nice and on the same street as the taj mahal. in fact, it had a rooftop restaurant with a perfect view of the taj. one of my favorite moments of the trip was having a relaxing dinner on the roof with the taj mahal in the background after a grueling, blazing hot day. after check-in, we braved the monsoons and headed out to some other really beautiful national monuments, like the agra fort. (in india, monsoon season mainly involves a heavy afternoon downpour that lasts for only about 30 minutes.) we ended the afternoon with the taj mahal - my favorite part of the trip. none of the pictures that you've seen in national geographic touch it. you've got to get there and see it for yourself. it was absolutely stunning. i don't really know what else to say about it except it's called one of the world's wonders for a reason.

...to be continued...