After Nanta, we went out to eat, and I had my first traditional Korean meal.  Did you know in Korea, they eat while sitting on the floor?  I had no idea. In the picture below I am having my first bite of kimchi.  Kimchi is a type of salad they eat here in Korea. There are many different types of kimchi, with the most popular type being cabbage kimchi, which I tried.  I must tell you, I am not a big fan of the cabbage Kimchi.  They say you have to eat it several times before you "develop" a taste for it.  I don't know I will ever develop a taste for it.  Give me some water please!!! 

Now, the rest of the food was pretty good. When eating a meal here, they serve lot of little side dishes for you to share with each other.  They also like their food spicy.  In the picture below, you can see several different types of kimchi, including radish kimchi, and an octopus kimchi, which was really good! There are mint leaves, and a couple of different types of soup in the picture also.  Don't I look happy?  I really like experiencing new things. 

And this was my main course, a type of Bibimbop.  A very popular dish here in Korea.  It is served in a VERY HOT dish, so you need to make sure you don't burn yourself.  The dish is very hot because they put a raw egg in your dish, so once you get your meal, you mix it up and that cooks your egg.  This picture was taken before I mixed it all up.

OH MY GOODNESS, I am having SO much fun here!  I went on a field trip with the Seoul American Middle School to see the show Nanta, which means "cooking" in English. I had so much fun. You get to sing, and dance around in your chair while the actors jump around on stage using pots, pans, knives and trash cans as instruments.  They actors are all very energetic!  I laughed so hard I thought I might tear in half.  Thank goodness I have an extra coating of plastic over me.  See the picture below?  That is me in front of the stage.  Don't I look happy? 

I LOVE the Flower Market at the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul!  It smells SO much better than the fish market I went to!  This place was HUGE, I'm starting to see a trend here, every thing is BIG!  I thought Texas was known for BIG things, but I think Seoul might even beat Texas out on that!  Just look at the pictures below, you can't even see where the flower market ends!  If I had to guess, I would say there are at least 200 vendors selling fresh flowers here!

The family I am staying with have fresh flowers in their house all the time! 

Not only is this place a fresh flower market, they also have an area that reminds me of Hobby Lobby back in the states, just BIGGER!  Girl and I are standing in front of a Christmas decoration stall!

Here is something else you might find interesting, we got up at 5:00AM, yes, in the morning while it was still dark outside, to go to the flower market!  I told them we needed to go later, but NO, they would not let me sleep!  They told me the flower market is open from 1:30AM to 1:30PM, and you get the best deals early in the morning.  Plus Girl needed to get dressed and go to school still.  I don't know how she went to school after getting up so early.  I went back to bed when we got home!

The next stop on my trip here in Seoul, South Korea was the Noryangjin Wholesale Fishery Market.  I have NEVER seen anything like this.  There were fish EVERYWHERE, and I mean that, there were fish on the tables, fish in tanks, fish in bowls, and some fish had even escaped their bowls and were flopping around on the floor. There were big fish, little fish and every size in between.   Most of the fish here were bigger than I am!  And, did I mention how much this place STINKS?!  All the kids and I were holding our noses.  

When we left the fish market we went down this alley where a bunch of local farmers had stands and were selling all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Dinner that night was amazing!  We ate muscles, oysters and salmon.  I might not ever want to leave this place. 

It took me a little while to get over the jet lag once I got here.  I wish I could have come by airplane, but NO, I had to travel by mail.  The family I am visiting is a military family, so their mail has to travel to California first, then once I arrived in California, I was put on a ship and sent all the way across the world!  I don't remember how long I was on that ship, but it was a LONG time.  The family I am visiting is GREAT!  They love having me.  The first stop on my journey was to the Seoul American Elementary School.  I went to first grade.  I've included a picture of the class.  I am on the front row, sitting with the little girl in the orange pants.  See the teacher in the back?  She is holding the Korean flag. School was fun, but first graders are BUSY! They work so hard,  did you know these American children are learning the Korean language and Spanish?  I learn how to say hello in Korean - aun-yan!  Try it, aun-yan!

Flat Stanley arrived in the mail about a week ago. He came from our little friend EZ, who is in third grade in Texas.  For those of you who don't know about Flat Stanley, this is the letter that arrived with him:

Dear Friend,

Our 3rd grade class is involved in a very fun and exciting Social Studies project based on the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown.  In the book Stanley Lambchop is flattened by a falling bulletin board.  One of the advantages to being flat is that his parents can put him in a large envelope and mail him for a visit to his friends in California. 

In this project, the students made their own Flat Stanleys and mailed them to friends, relatives, or famous people.  You have been chosen to be a very special part of our project.  Please write back and tell us about the community you live in and whether it is rural, suburban or urban.  Then mail this letter along with Flat Stanley to another community.  Each student will map where Stanley visits and keep a journal about the different communities he visits.  Although it is not necessary, the students love getting picture, books, postcards, etc. from the communities Stanley visits.

We hope that you will help us with this project by mailing us back and letting us know about your community, and then sending Stanley along with this letter to someone else in another community.  Our goal is to learn about many different communities around the world before the end of the school year. If you are in possession of Stanley on May 1, 2009, we ask that you send him back to our school so that he can be reunited with the student who made him.  Than you for your participation in this class project! 

Sincerely,

Mrs. M's Third Grade Class