On the flight back to the States I woke up around the time we were flying near Juneau and Ketchikan, Alaska…at least that’s what the plane’s on flight “flight map” said…and I noticed some weird blueish green lights in the sky. I immediately shot up in my chair and stared, mouth agape and wide eyed. No way that couldn’t have been the Northern Lights. Well, it was awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, none of the other pictures were any better…I need DSLR camer or something.
Next picture might be better.
So I went home for three weeks and for a few days I went to Las Vegas. Here are some pictures of the Venetian Hotel.
Amazing costumes.
Gondola rides.
This coming weekend is Lunar new Year, Seollal. The biggest holiday is Korea. T school we had an all day event for our kinder program. The kids played Yut, Taho, and had a market in which they could buy toys with fake American money. Yut is a game where each player takes a turn tossing the sticks in the air. The player then moves a game piece according to how the sticks land. Taho is a game were the children throw foam arrows into a container.Β I wore a Hanbok, traditional Korean clothes, for the bowing ceremony. The children bowed for the Director of the school, two male teachers, and me and were presented with money. The boys and girls have different bows. It was so cute because all the kids are in hanboks!
Lavender class in hanboks.
Waiting for the market to open.
Waiting to play Tuho!
Our Korean teachers playing Taho.
Me in a hanbok.
I was given some gifts. The one on the left is canola oil and spam…The middle is a box of Sea Weed. The box in the back is apples. I was given a gift card and some chopsticks with rests. I am happy and blessed for these gifts.
This past week I visited Japan. I have a video of the Japanese bullet train a.k.a the Shinkansen. The Shinkansen runs up toΒ 300 km/h or about 186 m/h. I live in Korea and the Korean high speed train, the KTX, runs at about the same. In Korea, there is never any warning when a train passes by. In Japan, however, an announcement is aired whenever one is passing by. The video below shows a short Shinkansen.
A tradition in Japan, for New Years Eve, is to eat a noodle soup. The soup is buckwheat noodles with different types of vegetables, raw egg, some tempura type patties, and pieces of pork in the soup. Some onigiri is also served. The soup was delicious!
Loving Life 