The not so mysterious happenings of Jenna and Matt Martinich

Well it has been a while, but there has not been too much of interest to report until recently. Matt and I are working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day for a total of 40 hours a week. That's pretty good if you ask me. It is our first official full time jobs and I think we have acclimated well. It really is much better than being in school and working. I have so much free time now I hardly know what to do with myself. I have been reading, writing in my journal, playing video games, and working on my cross-stitch. Matt has been researching church growth statistics as usual and he never gets bored or tired of it, so this he does every day in the evening when we get off work. The days go by without anything devastating going on. We are still alive and in one piece. North Korea has not attacked and we have not been run down by a crazy motorcyclist driving on the side walk, although there have been many close calls as to the latter. We go out to eat every evening, as our kitchen isn't much good for cooking as we have two burners, but only one pot will fit on our stove at a time, so we can't make much besides soup, or whatever we can fit in one pot. Doesn't matter anyway, the only things I know how to cook with over here are the eggs and the ramen.

We were able to go out and about a little bit about a week ago. We went to a large park nearby that consisted of several steep hills that Matt was trying to convince me were mountains. (I think he just really wanted to hike a mountain, but I refused to go back to the one we went to earlier as there were just too many people for comfort.) Here are a few pictures of our adventures there:

This last picture I like to call: "Well, you hiked to the top of the mountain and your reward is a lovely view of an apartment complex!"

We didn't do much else on the day we went to this park as Matt had to go to Inchon to teach English to a Korean family he knew in America.

Matt and I have been figuring out new challenges with how to deal with the children when they are not paying attention. I am trying to incorporate more games and physical activities into my lessons as they do not do very well sitting in one place for any length of time. They are more interested in the games anyway, but the activities can be difficult. Having them stand up is always a gamble. Sometimes they will really be into the activity, and sometimes having them stand up makes them go crazy and they begin running around the classroom. It's days like those that makes you feel like going crazy yourself because nothing gets done.

This last Saturday, we were able to visit Changdeokgung palace. It has been around for a few centuries and about 35% of it is the original buildings. The Japanese destroyed most of it during the Japanese colonization period. It begins with a bridge that separates the "outside" from the "inside" and is complete with a moat.

Once inside the palace there are three walkways. The middle one is slightly elevated and only the King and Queen can walk down the middle pathway, everyone else had to walk down the two sides.

After traveling a little ways we came to the audience hall where the King would have audiences with the people. There were also what I call "tombstone looking things" that are actually rank place markers. They alternated military, politician, military, politician. The highest ranking military officer was closest to the King followed by the highest ranking politician, and then went on down the line.

Inside the building you see above is the throne room. Interestingly enough there are large round light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Matt and I thought that they were installed recently but surprisingly enough, the last King of Korea had them installed about 1908 and it is an interesting mixture of Westernization/modernization and the old traditional Korean life.

Along the way we saw several different buildings that were all extravagantly painted and decorated. They include the church, the King's quarters and the Queen's quarters.

This is a picture of where the King would cross over from his quarters into the Queen's quarters.

This is the Queen's bed frame, it extends further off to the left as I didn't get a good picture of it. The mattress is currently being "refurbished" and will be added to the display once it is finished.

Lastly we went to the Secret Garden where only a select few were allowed to go. Anyone wishing to go there had to ask the King's permission. It was my favorite place in the whole tour. It is a large place as we only were able to see 30% of the garden on our tour and there is a special "secret garden" tour that you can schedule and you will be able to see another 50% of the garden. Matt and I are thinking of doing that some day before we leave. There are some rather muddy ponds where the king would go fishing and boating. But mostly it is peaceful, beautiful, and smells really good. It makes you forget you are smack dab in the middle of the second most populated city in the world!

By the way, the middle picture of the tree, that tree is the oldest tree in the garden and it is 1,000 years old. The only branch still alive is the middle one.

Well, that is all the news. We will update again when some more exciting things happen!