Spring arrives in Korea

Spring officially arrived today in Korea with a cool (as opposed to "cold") day.  The cherry trees are in bud and promise to explode into glorious blossoms in a few weeks.  They have a saying in Korea that Winter is jealous of the Spring and often brings a cold spell before surrendering to the warmer temperatures.

 

Here at HILS (Handong International Law School) we had a retreat to celebrate the new school year with an outing to the historical city of Gyeoungju - about an hour drive away.  I took our kids along as Susan stayed home to enjoy some peace and quiet as she continued her recovery from a recent bout with the flu.  We had a wonderful time visiting a fully restored ancient complex of Buddhist temples and a national museum filled with relics dating back to around 700 A.D. 

 

A primary goal of the retreat last Friday was to initiate family groups for the upcoming school year.  Each law professor has about 14 law students assigned to their family group.  I met my group and we spent the day together visiting the historical sites and getting acquanted.  It is a wonderful group of students and I am very excited about our weekly times together.  We will get together for chapel on Tuesdays with a lunch afterwards, followed by attending a Christianity and the Law class on Fridays with a meeting thereafter to dig deeper into the course material.  Today was our 2nd Tuesday chapel and Susan prepared a taco lunch for my family group afterwards at our apartment.  We've discovered that the Korean students really enjoy western food as a break from the standard Korean fare offered at the campus cafeteria.

 

Daniel is auditing a beginner Korean class at the University.  He is not excited about the class, but admitted that it was better than he expected after his first class session.  Last semester each of the kids had a Korean tutor.  Our goal is that each of the kids is fluent in Korean by the time we move back to the states.  To my surprise, all of them are making nice progress.  I, on the other hand, have only accomplished a rather poor Korean version of "Thank You" which often brings a puzzled look from the Korean listener.