Martina In America

Here is the link to a website our friends put together for their exchange student. I thought you might be interested. http://www.martinainamerica.com/index.html

Betcha didn't know...Part 2

In Korea, when you address the older brother or sister in your family, you do not call them by name. If you are a girl you call your older brother "oppa" and your older sister "on-ny." If you are a boy you call your older brother "hyung" and your older sister "nuna." The older siblings call the younger siblings by their first name.

When a student addresses a teacher, they never call them by their name. Instead of calling them "Mr. Smith" the just say "Mr." or teacher. If you address a teacher by their name you are being disrespectful.

Stay tuned for more Korean Culture 101.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Sojung has been getting a crash course on March Madness. Tonight Marcus' Jayhawks played Davidson and in a nail biting ending, KU won. Marcus isn't typically glued to the TV for a game unless it is during the mad, mad month of March. She will get her next dose of March Madness Saturday when KU plays UNC. Rock Chalk!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Saturday we went into Washington DC to see the cherry blossoms. They were in full bloom and beautiful! It was very crowded!

The Jefferson Monument behind the cherry blossoms.

Sojung and her friend Seal Ran.

I know this picture is dark, but if you click on it you can see it better. This was taken in the Rosslyn metro station.

Betcha didn't know...

When taking a picture in America we ask people to say "cheese." Ever wonder what word other languages use? Well, in Korea they say "kimchi." There...now you learned something both interesting and useless today.

Traditional Korean Funeral

Odd post, I know. However earlier last week Sojung's grandfather passed away. Tonight during dinner she started to share a little bit about Korean funeral customs as well as how things were done in the past. Here are a few links you may find interesting.

http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/korea/cel/funeral_rites.htm

http://bosp.kcc.hawaii.edu/Horizons/Horizons2002/Traditional_Korean.html

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter by going to church this morning. We came home for lunch and had an Easter Egg hung for Sojung, minus the eggs. Korea doesn't celebrate Easter with the Easter bunny so we wanted her to have a true American Easter experience. I found a few cute things I thought she would like, school supplies, lip gloss and these really cute slippers. I wrapped them up and hid them throughout the house and made her go looking for her gifts. She loved it! Later this evening we met friends for dinner at our favorite Japanese Korean restaurant. The dessert was delicious! We hope you and your family had a wonderful Easter!