Out with the old, in with the new.

Mark's farewell at Pelicana (Mark is second from left)
Babbie and Ara at AJB (Korean barbeque restaurant)
The gang out on Friday night to celebrate Babbie's arrival

Almost a week ago, we gathered at Pelicana (a chicken restaurant) to hang out with Mark, an English teacher at Dari (where Helen and Kelsey used to work), for one last time. Mark has spent almost 3 years in Korea now, and has definitely put in his time teaching kids. (He also taught adults at the Sokcho library, in addition to studying Korean furiously). This guy was busy! Among us, he was the best Korean speaker ever. In fact, he was the one we started to take lessons from when we came (until he got too busy).
It was fun to sit out last Thursday night over fried chicken and beer, discussing Mark's time in Korea and his plans for the future. He's been accepted to grad school in Seattle, where he will pursue an MA in Asian Studies. We know he'll do well. And, since he's an avid cyclist, he will be happy to be back on the west coast, where he can get some great time in on the road. The only difficulty (besides probably missing Korea) will be leaving behind Nam Soon, his Korean girlfriend.
Farewell Mark! We'll miss seeing you around Sokcho!

* * * * *

Some of you may remember that 2 months ago now we said good-bye to two other teachers, Helen and Kirsty, who were bound for a spate of international traveling. Well, after waiting out July and August, Kirsty's replacement has come to Korea. Her name is Babbie, and she is American (she's from Norfolk, VA). She arrived last Friday, and we spent part of the weekend showing her around Sokcho. On Friday we took her to AJB for galbi (only to find out that she's a vegetarian!). Saturday the gang went out to the Western for beers, soju, and a chat. Afterwards, with the help of Aroha's Korean friend, we found an empty noraebar, where we stayed out to sing karaoke until 4:00. I don't know if Babbie enjoyed the singing, but the regulars were in rare form! Even I got up to sing a Madonna number (Like a Prayer).
We promised to take Babbie to mass on Sunday, but we overslept! And she was waiting for us at AP! We felt pretty bad when we found out about that on Monday, but she was gracious and let us off the hook.
So far she's doing fine at AP. The kids especially are really excited about her, and are full of curiosity. It's good to have a new pal! Welcome, Babbie!