rain, food, grandmas dancing

It's the rainy season, so it's been raining more lately. The current rainy spell started Thursday night when I went over to my co-workers house for dinner with her family. She invited me as a last minute thing and made some excellent food - 된장찌개(fermented bean soup-one of my favorites-kinda like miso soup from japan), 오징거볶음(stir fried squid with veggies in hot pepper paste), 오댕 (flavored fish patties, so yummy!), and Korean omelets as a side dish, plus many other side dishes and rice. It was tasty. It was such a nice rainy night. We ate and I learned how to play a Korean game -오목-played with black and white flat marbles on a grid. Five in a row wins. I played Lucy's son, Luke. He almost beat me, but I won the best of 7 games.

After a brief reprieve from rain this morning, it started again after life group. We walked to lunch in the rain and the Korean guys were worried. We didn't have umbrellas and the Koreans say that since the rain isn't clean here, it'll make your hair fall out.

Treavor and Alina, new friends from Waco who came to work with homeschooling and have joined our church community, came to life group and lunch. They're a lot of fun. They went on a date afterwards, and the rest of the guys went to play Korean pool. I decided to skip out on that. I don't get too excited about pool with the guys. So, I came home to get my bike and shopping bag, then went grocery shopping. I made my shopping list in Korean -된장, 오댕, 우유, 버터, 빵, 닭거기, 당군, 감자, 두부 (bean soup base, fish cakes, milk, butter, bread, chicken, carrots, potatoes, and tofu)and felt satisfied with myself about that, also that half of my list I wouldn't have had on my list at home, because they are ingredients for Korean cooking. Some Koreans kid me that I am turning Korean because I like almost all Korean food and can speak a little Korean.

I rode my bike to the store. On the way, I pass a park where I heard an old woman singing in the traditional Korean style. I looked over to see a group of about five grandmas dancing to the singing under a little pavilion. I stopped to watch for a bit, and thought about going back to get my video camera, but didn't. It was so excellent. These grandmas were just getting down there together in the park!

So, I pulled myself away from the little performance and made my way to the store. It was packed. I didn't stop to think what time of day it was (afternoons on weekends aren't good times to go shopping unless you want a taste of the push and shove culture experience). I made it out without too many bruises and loaded my stuff onto my bike to ride home in the rain. The grandma dance team was heading home from their dancing pavilion under the cover of umbrellas. I'm gonna smile about getting to watch their dance for a good while.