So....much....food....today....

Wow, I feel like all I did was eat today!! I woke up at 6:30 to have breakfast with the host fam before they all left for school, and I went back to bed for an hour!! (tee hee). I did laundry, skyped with Mom & Ike, and lounged around all morning (and had a piece of PB&J toast!! YUM!). The family came back and we had lunch around 1:30, and then at 2 I was picked up by the VP's son and informed that we would be eating lunch. Didn't I know that when people decided to meet around 2pm that that implies they would have lunch together? Oh, no I didn't. My bad. "I already ate lunch, but I'll try to eat a little, ok?" -- me, "No, you have to eat a lot. My mother is preparing lunch for you right now!" -- VP's son. Ay yi yi, my poor tummy! It was delicious food though, and she sent me some Kimbap (aka, sushi) to take home!

You know it's going to be a little on the awkward side when you walk into the house and 1. It's full of alcohol bottles, all full of course, and in display cases, 2. your VP is wearing dress socks, some shorts that resemble red swim trunks, and a workout t-shirt, 3. the VP's son (who is an English teacher) lives in a teacher's dormitory at his school, teaches 7 days a week, his hobby is playing video games, he's 28 and his real home is still his parents' house, 4. the VP's wife stares at you constantly, and has her son tell me that she recently had eye-lid surgery, to which the son adds that right after the surgery her eyes were all swollen and he was terrified of her and told her not to come near him until she recouperated, and 5. in the very LARGE family portrait hanging predominately over the couch in the living room, the mens' packages are all bulging out of their suit pants crotches -- Korean men like to hike their pants up super high and let everything be, ahem, more visible.

Anyway, despite the slight awkwardness in the air, they were very kind, their apartment was gorgeous, and the food was good! I came home around 4 and then at 6 my host father's teacher friend who has been in Japan the past 3 years came over for dinner with his family. Of course I wasn't hungry, but it was one of my favorite meals -- samgyepsal -- or bacon!! So I ate some, and then of course had a ton of grapes! (See pic below) AND, they had the Discovery channel on (I love that they get this channel!) and it was about the construction of the stream in downtown Seoul, the one that I walked along several times that weekend I was there. I guess it used to be a raised free-way/sewer- -- and they disassembled the freeway and converted the sewer into the stream, which is now beautiful. One of the best parts of the show (which was Modern Marvels, btw) was when they showed the photographers at the opening of the stream. They were all standing in the stream taking pictures of the water starting to flow, and then they all got wet because of course the water was flowing down the stream, where they were standing. They all freaked out and tried to rush out of the stream....heehee!

After awhile I retreated to my room to watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy on my laptop, as the kids had gone off to play and the adults were all speaking rapidly in Korean about things I couldn't understand (except of course when they were talking about me -- "Poolbright" =Fulbright, "Iowa", "Gwangyang", etc). And now it's 10pm, I'm pooped, and I'm going to go to bed early!!

What happens when you eat too many grapes: