My little women and me

Yesterday was stake conference for the Daegu Stake. I was actually considering taking a trip to the temple in Seoul to avoid 2 hours of nonstop Korean with the kids.  (Still a nice way to spend the weekend and we would just attend church there!) Autumn convinced us to stay because the sisters promised English translation headsets but it turns out they are a bunch of liars. Very nice liars. Maybe just misinformed.  It made for a long meeting for the girls but we did get a short talk in English from the mission president's son who is about to go on his mission.  AND the mission president spoke Korean slowly enough that I understood a story he told.  I don't get where he was going with the story but I'm proud of my baby steps.

Chris' uncle and cousin came over in the afternoon to take us to an urban agricultural festival that was put on by a magnet school that specializes in agriculture.  I was a little surprised that it exists here simply because Koreans love their typical high achieving careers.  Doctors.  Scientists. Lawyers. $$.  It was interesting.  And oh so humid.  It was definitely our hottest day yet.  We then went to Chris' uncle and aunts' house for a yummy dinner, where they gave me and the girls these gigantic servings of noodley soup.  Calories? They don't exist here. Hopefully.   After dinner I got to listen in on the adult talk.  I understood enough of it to want to be part of the conversation but I don't have the vocabulary to say the things I wanted to say. So frustrating!  They were discussing our big homes in America and the land we have.  I SO wanted to tell them some of the benefits that I've seen to their "smaller" living.  But I couldn't.  I love that their families live so close together with different generations crossing paths so frequently.  They live a lighter lifestyle because they are in smaller spaces. Less stuff.  I love that the girls can run to grab me some groceries while I cook dinner. They can play at the playground right out the window or ride the bus to church without me.  Although I love the quiet of our neighborhood back home, I am kind of enjoying this city stuff.

Funny story.  At dinner, Halmoni is pointing to Aunt's rice cooker and told me it is so much nicer than cooking in the pressure cooker (which I've mastered since the time the lid exploded off!) and that we can cook more rice in it. It would be easier, she said.  I kept saying that it was ok and that I can make rice in the pressure cooker. Finally, she said "yes, it's ok". I thought I was successful in convincing her not to buy a rice cooker on our account. (Did I tell you that she bought a new fridge for our visit??) We get home and I turn on the light. There on the table is a shiny new rice cooker. I go back over our conversation and realize that yes, she was using the past tense for buy.  She had already bought the darn thing. Funny story though.  I couldn't cook rice in it this morning because the buttons are all in Korean. And Halmoni wasn't there to teach me. I guess I'll use the pressure cooker a little longer.