No internets? OH NOES!!!

If I had ever had any doubts about my dependence on technology, they were squashed when I found out my host family's internet was not working. I had been depending on internet access so strongly that I really had to reevaluate the free time I had Friday night. Luckily I was rather exhausted, and fell asleep pretty quickly. I'm was still not used to the 13 hour time difference, and woke up a bit to early, because it felt like I was napping in the middle of the day, something I usually don't do for 8 hours. While I waited for it to be a decent hour to wake up and shower, I read a bit on my Kindle, so at least I got to stare at a screen for a few hours, wouldn't want my eyes to forget what that feels like.My hosts are a lovely family. The father, Mr Kim is the President of the Gwanju Rotary Club. His wife is an excellent cook, and has a wonderful sense of design, as she decorated their beautiful apartment. They have two children, a son who is away at school studying to be a doctor, and a daughter who is studying to be a high school math teacher. Though the daughter goes to university in Seoul, we were very lucky that she is in Gwanju for the month to do her internship. She studied english in middle and high school, and speaks it really well, a wonderful thing since my Korean is still so terrible. The home we're in is lovely. It's a 4 bedroom apartment, with a room for each of the children, the parents, and one that had been for Mr ()'s mother, who was living with the family until she passed away last month at the age of 90. The kitchen is spacious and well laid out, and has a large pantry that is kept cooler than the rest of the house, the refrigeratior is stored there. There is a dining area that joins the kitchen with the spacious living room. On the outside wall, there are porches and balconies lining the apartment, the porch outside my room has the Kimchee refrigerator as well as a clothes line and some storage. Everything is very comfortable, simple and beautiful. We have been made to feel so welcome. The issue that seemed to concern the hosts families most was breakfast. Koreans generally eat soup and 'side dishes' for breakfast, the side dishes are generally kimchee and some other vegetables. Our hosts offered to make us something more 'american' for breakfast, and I am very glad we did not take them up on it. The rice cake soup we had yesterday was absolutely delicious. Their rice cakes aren't the crunchy kind, but end up with the texture of a rice dumpling, chewy but soft. The broth was chicken based, and the soup had pieces of chicken as well as vegetables in it. The homemade kimchee was delicious, if a little spicy for me so early in the day. Most of the food here is spicy, so a mild breakfast was a welcome thing. We finished breakfast with some fruit, beautifully cute up and laid out on a plate-not only was it good looking, it had some of the most delicious strawberries I've had in a while. After breakfast we went to the Gwanju Municipal Library. (yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Another post will follow with some of the many many pictures I took in the library. There were many similarities between this library and American public libraries, which was surprising, but made the differences seem more pronounced. After the library we took a ride through Chousun University, which has a large beautiful campus, and where one of our interperters studies. We also stopped at the government offices building where they've turned the outside of the building into a huge garden, which was in full bloom. Though I got a few great shots of the garden, I was very upset that my camera's batteries died on the way to lunch--since lunch was at an Italian restaurant. Not only that, but we went to the wrong one at first--there are more than one Italian restaurant in Gwanju! This may be the most surprising thing I've encountered in Korea yet. The food was good--mushroom soup with a little bread cap over the bowl, a salad with lettuce, bananas, peaches, apple and pineapple, and a sweet yogurt dressing that was delicious, spaghetti carbonara and spaghetti with a spicy red sauce and seafood, plus a pizza with sausage and peppers and another with sweet potato. If that sounds like too much food for 8 people, its because it was, but that is the Korean way. We have not finished everything on the table once, but always leave the table very full. And don't let your dish sit empty for too long, some one will fill it for you, and if you manage to eat that, they'll fill it again! We went to two museums after lunch. The first was a folk museum where we had tour by an English speaking guide, and learned a lot of the historical cultural traditions of Korea. The second was a municipal museum with a historical bent, but it was undergoing renovations so it was a bit truncated, but still a nice overview. There was dinner saturday, and it included rice and soup and kimchee, but 2 days later I can't remember the details of it. This is the reason I've been blogging this whole experience--by the time I come home, I'll likely forget most of the things we've done.