Our weekend with the family

This past weekend JM and I went to visit his family. I really enjoyed myself. We flew down Thursday night after JM got off of work. Friday morning JM, my FIL, and I went shopping for computer supplies. We stayed out a long time (poor MIL had to eat lunch all by herself...), but we finally got everything we needed. We went home to assemble the computer, and by the time it was done JM's sister had arrived. His parents went out for a Bible study that night, so us "kids" got to spend some good time together. My sister and JM's sister are a whole lot alike, so it's no wonder to me that my SIL and I get along really well. We also have a lot of the same interests, especially when it comes to babies.

The next day JM, his sister, mother, and I went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Some of my in-law's friends from church had given us tickets, for which we are very grateful. We had a great time there. We got in just after the park opened at 9am and didn't end up leaving until about 7:30 or 8 that night. I hadn't been to Universal since I was in high school in about 1998, and JM hadn't been since about 1993. I must admit that I'm kind of a scaredy cat when it comes to roller coasters. I will ride them, but in almost all of the pictures they take my eyes are firmly squeezed shut and there's a look of terror on my face. ;) Oh, and I flatly refuse to go on rides that are just a single drop, like Tower of Terror or Dr Doom's Death Drop, or whatever they're called. We also went to see a show called Fear Factor Live. It was really cool, except when they got to the part where people had to eat rotten food. I would have been perfectly happy never knowing about that.

Sunday we went to church with the family. It was their church's 23rd anniversary service, so they had brought in a guest speaker (Chaplain Yoo, who was back after a tour of duty in Iraq). Some of the ladies had also made food for a lunch afterwards. For some reason JM and I always seem to go to his parents' church when they're having food after service... just lucky, I guess. :) And then after everyone had eaten, we took a picture of everyone at the service. Many of the women wore 한복 ('han-bok"), which is traditional Korean clothing. A woman's hanbok looks something like this. Sunday night I learned how to address envelopes to Korea, because I was writing thank you notes to all of the wonderfully generous people who gave us wedding gifts. It's really kind of strange to see an envelope completely addressed in another language. You'll see a random number here or there and then SOUTH KOREA written at the very bottom, but everything else is in Hangeul.

On Monday my MIL cut Iris and my hair (yay for free haircuts!) and sent all of us home with a LOT of stuff. JM and I actually had a hard time fitting all of it in our luggage. We came home with food, lots of books (mostly from my SIL), jewelry, two calendars, a rice scooper for our rice maker, and a really cool tea maker.

The hardest part of visiting the in-laws for me is that the conversation at home is probably about 75% in Korean. I find that whenever I visit them, by the very end of my visit I'm beginning to get past the language barrier. However I still have problems in the beginning. :-/ But I did bring home a lot of kids books written in Korean this time, and it's going to be my new goal to get through 2 or 3 pages a day. And of course, I'll need to watch my Korean tv shows a lot more often. I really do want to be able to make my in-laws feel more comfortable around me, and I think if I became proficient in Korean it would help a lot in that respect.

But I think that overall this was a very good visit, and I definitely felt more comfortable around everyone than the last visit I made (which was before our wedding). And I'm definitely looking forward to seeing everyone again in May for graduation! :-D