Hello Everyone - Long time no chat - Sorry. Andrew and I have decided to post once a week - maybe we got off to a little too ambitious start! Life has been crazy for us this past week. We started school last Monday, Aug. 9th. With all the kids starting and finding school supplies in Korea, along with trying to learn new curriculum and many other things - we have been busy. So highlights and some pictures. We didn't have our camera until this week as we left it on the kitchen counter back in Watertown. My parents sent it to us and this weekend when we were trying to be adventurous and take the city busses to climb a mountain - we took out the camera and no battery. If this one sentence doesn't sums up our experience so far - I don't know what does. It has been a rocky start. Anja - Lonne - Lukas and Ailsa have been on top of each other here at the apartment. We can't figure out how to be quiet. Go figure! It has been quite rainy - so the kids can't get outside much - we fight about who carries umbrellas daily.... They only have one day of gym a week, so we have taken them to the track at Hannam University (located right by our school) and run them...much like that one commercial where the guy takes the kids and runs them up the hill so he can have some peace and quiet. This is where Andrew and I are at! We have been stressed trying to get daily lesson plans done, help kids with homework and haven't had a lot of success in cooking! Our first cooking experience was with rice that was mushy - then pancakes that were burnt - no syrup - grape jelly - meal number three was spaghetti korean style - VERY tomato based!!!! Let's see. The people are very nice - and cultural elements/differences quite funny. We have been trying out restaurants and foods galore to see what we like and what the kids can - or should I say "will" eat. Most of the food is quite spicy...Yesterday, we went to a restaurant for lunch and there wasn't a lick of English on the menu. We pulled out a menu from our lunch experience after church the week before where we had written the English translation for some of the items. Needless to say, none of these items were on this particular menu. So, I asked if there was beef bulgogi (sp?) their national dish...and the waitress said something, I said OK and then she brought out an extremely spicy dish of meet with vegetables. This was served with Kimchi (this will take a long time for me and everyone else in our family to aquire the taste, but my goal is to try it in every resaurant we go in.) They bring a ton of side dishes in addition to the main meal - it is always the same side dishes,...pickled radishes, kimchi, onion, peppers, soup, some other pickled stuff...ha/ha interesting. Anyway - the main dish was way hot...then the soup needed salt - I thought she told us to take a pinch of some salt and put it in..so we did with our hands as did Lonne :) Well, after getting yelled at, we realized that this wasn't the way to add salt...The waitress went on to taste our soup with a spoon, dump one bowl into another to mix the soup and put it back on the table - CRAZY, but funny. Anyway, after this, we met another couple...took the busses for the first time to the main train/bus station and then got some English maps and went on a journey to a mountain - can't remember the name...(Andrew just looked it up - Bomunsan MT.)we hiked straight up a trecherous mountain side (my gut said this wasn't the only way - ultimately, at the top we found there was a road) dripping of sweat in like %100 humidity = made it to the observation deck to oversee the city - quite cool, but we were so hot - we could hardly stand it....then we attempted to hike more to see a temple - this didn't happen - for fear of one the kids sliding off the hill and becoming seriously injured....all in all it was a great day - we ended up having ice cream down the MT. and then taking the bus back and eating at Pizza Hut - Lukas was in heaven! Anyway - I will try to post some pictures. Today consisted of church - lunch - meeting with some colleagues - Lukas' first Rugby practice (there are quite a few teachers from New Zealand and Australia here) - Ailsa tried, but complained that no one passed her the ball - so her Rugby career was very short lived. Andrew is playing basketball on Tuesdays- the guys are quite competitive. I attempted Volleyball this past Wed. I couldn't walk for 2 days - but it's all good. Anyway - we miss you all terribly - we are fine and definitely having an experience of a lifetime. Will write soon.