Making Friends

Now that we've been here for awhile we are beginning to see the same people in our neighborhood more frequently and starting to recognize those we've chatted with outside before. It's nice to start feeling somewhat familiar with the neighbors and having them greet us as friends. We're all becoming more comfortable as the weeks and months pass by. The kids have made friends with a couple of the Korean children who speak English very well and look forward to seeing them regularly.
Here is Joy with her friend "Joy"...I'm not sure how she spells it but it sounds the same as our 'Joy'.  :)

The girls think its fun that they have the same name and you can hear them using 'their' name often in conversation and it always gets them giggling!
Behind the girls, Faith and Joshua are playing with a little boy named Daniel who lives in the building across from us. He has an American dad and a Korean mother so he speaks both languages quite well. He prefers English but sometimes mixes both of them together and it makes Joshua crack up because he can't quite keep up with what Daniel is saying. Joshua has been trying though and he comfortably uses more Korean words than the rest of us.

Daniel's mother speaks English quite well and I've had several visits with her now while the kids have played together. She is standing in the picture above...in the gold high heels and silk pants, carrying a couple of fancy purses.....I have been so surprised by how elegant many of the women here look when they are in very casual places. Several times I've seen mom's just hanging out at the playground most of the day and they are all dressed up like they are going somewhere fancy, but they are just chasing kids. They are beautiful, but they certainly don't look very comfortable while they are doing it! There are some women who dress more casually, but I have seen more stilettos on the playgrounds here than I ever saw anywhere near a playground in the States!  :)  Sometimes I feel very underdressed at the sandbox...But at least I'm comfortable right?!