Monday Mission

Today the babysitter was coming and I had a list of things to try to accomplish. So the morning started with Kay doing her school work and Diane having a clarinet lesson. Then we were off! Our first stop was the temple called Jogyesa.

I wanted to go in but a service was going on so I’ll have to go back another day. I got a brochure and decided that being Buddhist is probably not for me. You have to be too quiet and get up way too early! The cool thing about this temple is that it is right in the middle of the city. Most temples are in remote, quiet places. Next stop was to price lanterns. I didn’t want to carry it all around so I’ll be back for my purchase. Then we walked to a book store looking for a 3-D puzzle and photo album. We didn’t find either but it was still a cool store. Since we were so close to Myeongdong we walked. The walk was lovely as we crossed over a river, Cheonggye, that was once covered up for more development but has been uncovered to help bring green back to Seoul. The babysitter said at Christmas time it is extra beautiful. I hope to walk it at night. It is here where the girls just had to have a Dr. Fish treatment.
We found it right away and all decided to do it since it was reasonably cheap $10 for 20 minutes. It tickled a bit but really took the dead skin off. It took off so much dead skin that I got a hot spot on my foot. After that the girls had Cold Stone and we walked to the Catholic Cathedral. It was the only brick building of its time. It was built between 1894 and 1898 .
The nuns here where gray as do the monks. It was a beautiful church that reminded me of Italy.
After that it was time for Taekwondo. We had to rush as we were running a bit behind schedule but the girls got there on time with no punishment. Yunjin the babysitter and I had Baskin Robbins while waiting for them. Watching Taekwondo was fun as the girls don’t understand a word but are master copycats. There was a kid goofing off so he got whacked in the head by the teacher. I can see why Korean students are much more physical than American students. After Taekwondo we stopped at a fruit stand and bought plums then went to a gift shop to buy Korean jacks. We were hot and sweaty so we took a dip in the roof top pool which is quite small. The girls were dumbfounded as they saw a professor they knew well in a g-string Speedo swimsuit. It was the talk of the table at dinner as we had dumplings and rice. The same professor in the Speedo has kids here who are not favorites of Diane and Kay. They call the boy PB for piano boy. Apparently he is a great pianist and his parents insist a piano be put in their room for him to practice. His sister is Charlotte so in the future you may hear me refer to them as PB & J (Piano Boy and Jelly).