Anyang "안양" with Little Uncle "자근 삼촌"

So I just came back from spending a three day weekend with my fam in Anyang, more specifally, in Gunpo. It turned out to be really fun, although in the beginning being with my fam made me, for the first time, want to go back home. Let's elaborate. One- my kiddy cousins refused to talk to me, nor did they want to sit by me on the car ride back home; Two- it was uber uncomfortable with the awkward silences (considering my speaking ability is limited); and the most important reason, my favorite cousin is no longer the 'cool' cousin I remembered her as the last time I was here. Instead, she is a mom, just like all the other ajjuma's here (note** ajjuma is basically an old geezer. married, kids, in her thirties, so on and so forth). But I'm better now; I guess this was my first negative culture shock.

So we decided to go to a Korean folk village (민속천). As soon as we got there I realized that I had been there the week before with my CIEE program (totally my fault since I didn't even know the name of the place the first time I went). Even so, this time, visiting the village was fun.

Above: my youngest cousin making a wish on those paper things.

My grandma doing what the man on the right professionally does. She's like super grandma. (She's such a good sport. She acted like she didn't see me take this pic of her when it was obvious that I was,lol.)

One of the earlier birthing kits. I think I would've been happy barren.

I forgot to tell you!!! I have a phone now! Yayyyyyyy!!! Take a looksy. Anycall (Samsung's asian brand) slider equipped with a camera. It's basically the most awesomest phone ever; seriously. Not only can I change the default language to English, but I can text in Korean and English interchangeably (which might I add is wayyy fun to do). But I didn't tell you the best part.... it was only
2만원 or $20.00. I know, but there is one drawback; for every 15 seconds I call someone (all incoming calls and texts are free-- oh, how I miss the old AT&T days) I, or should I say my uncle, gets charged 50 cents. Not great. But that's what you get when you get when youre a foreigner.

Even though my family kept on pushing for one of my cousins to come with me on my way back to school on the subway, I insisted on going by myself. It turned out pretty well considering I didn't miss any stops but I had to get help from a couple of ajjumas just to be on the safe side. Well, by my last stop I was feeling quite confident in my subway riding abilities... well... until I seen this -----> (I had to take the pic for you guys to see, but I wonder if the other people on the subway thought I was some kind a perve. That wouldn't be cool.) Now I have no idea what he was doing but it couldn't have been anything good considering he was bunched up in a corner with his hands down there (ewwwwww!!!!).