Science Fair and New Realization

Nothing really has gone on the past couple days.... just meetings and hanging out. On Thursday, we went exploring downtown and found some pretty cool shops. We got our first taste of KFC here in Korea and it was actually pretty good. After we came home and kind of cleaned up, Danny (who is friends with my host mom and teaches English here but is from Canada) took the 6 of us out to a foreigner bar. It was pretty laid back and fun. All of the bartenders spoke really good English so it will probably be the place to go for us so we don't have to figure out the menu and such. We met two of his friends and made a couple more connections here! It's nice to know we can go out with more people other than just the six of us.

Today was the Science Festival. We had to work a booth for the City of Henderson. When they told us how big it was, they definitely underestimated. At our booth, we were helping the kids make "flubber", yes... just like the movie! So needless to say we were busy from the moment we got there to the moment we left. We tried to work in shifts so that we would all get a chance to go walk around. It was actually really cool! There were a ton of robots. One of them looked like Dino from the Flinstones only the size of a chihuahua. He had sensors on his nose, neck, and belly and when you rubbed those areas, he stretched out and smiled like a dog does when you find just the right spot. He was soooo cute. We also saw a 3D movie but it definitely was not the best of quality. They had a row of student inventions set up and we were all surprised to see how smart some of these kids were (one girl made an origami bowl out of plastic and magnets that you could unfold until it was flat to store it easier... it was amazing!!) The cutest thing of the day definitely went to the Pre-school children that came by our booth. They were in their little line with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. They could not have been any more excited to help us make this flubber. It made Judy and I both want to adopt Asian babies later in life.

I got two pieces of big news today - one amazing piece of news and one not so good piece of news. The good side of it is that one of the main newspapers in Korea (considered the New York Times of the East) is going to interview us next week on a second trip to the Silver Center. They heard about what we are doing and really wanted to meet us. I will post the link when the story gets up and I will also try to bring home as many copies as I can of the real paper. On the not-so-good side, my host mom called the district office this morning and asked for me to switch families tomorrow. I thought I had done something wrong but it turns out she is really stressed about the baby crying all the time (like day and night, non-stop) that she doesn't want the baby to keep me up and me not be able to sleep. So I will be moving tomorrow after the Science Fair to the house of one of our translators that has been with us for the week. She seems super cool and sweet so hopefully I won't have curfew or anything like that and things will go smoothly!

My realization of the day is the type of parent I know I do not want to be!!! I know I'm not having kids any time soon but some of the things I saw today definitely made me take mental notes of what I do not want to do. After I got back from the Science Fair, my host mom took us our for dinner for my last night with them. As we are eating, she let the little girl climb onto the table, barefeet and all, and proceed to walk around on top of the table! I was sooo grossed out that her dirty wet feet (it rained like no other today) were on the table I was eating from that I stopped eating all together. My host mom invited one of her friends and her two kids with us. The kids are 12 and 10. The girl decided to take like 20 paper towels, cover them in water, and make a hard ball with it. She then chucked it directly at her brother's face. The two threw this ball with all their might at each other for a good 10 minutes without either parent saying anything. All of the other people in the restaurant were staring at us like we were crazy. I was ready to just get home at this point. We get in the car, drop her friends off at their house, and then the most ridiculous thing of the night happened! My host mom took the little girl and set her in her lap and let her sit there while she drove. Mind you, they don't wear seatbelts in Korea ever! I don't know why they even put them in the car. So my host mom is driving crazy through the streets of Dobong while its POURING rain with a baby on her lap. So all of these things helped me make a list of things I will not do as a parent!
1) My child will not go to a restaurant without shoes on.
2) I will never in a million years let my child climb on the table where I am eat, shoes or no shoes.
3) If my children start throwing stuff at each other, whether in a hard manner or joking manner, they will both get their butts hit and they will stay in the car for the rest of the meal.
4) I will never ever drive with my child in my seat with me. They are in a car seat until the law says they can sit in a seat on their own!

Now that I have ranted on... its probably time for me to get ready for bed. I will try to post tomorrow after I move into my new house and let everyone know how things go...