The temperature in Korea has fallen very sharply and is now in the 10's and occasionally single digits, which means something like 20 or 30 I suspect. So far I am managing to keep warm. Alas, I have not yet made a winter coat and the jacket Sam intended to bring to me was in the suitcase that was lost in transit, although early reports indicate that it has been located.

Sam has been traversing mountains and generally walking around while I am working and having parents in my class to see what exactly it is I'm doing to their children. I had about 7 parents on Friday to watch a class, I'll probably have seven to 15 on the upcoming Friday to watch a play, and I may have 12 to 15 on the following Friday to watch a different class. All very exciting and stressful.

For the most part I have been working and trying to show Sam the various sights of Korea. This morning we headed out for Seoumon Market where I bought a bunch of material, some for costumes, some for a coat, and some for a hat, and some other odd ends and things and was about to enjoy a drawn out wander with Sam when my phone began to ring.

Turns out it was Suzzette, a friend of mine, frantic and telling me that she was being held capitive by Mrs. Young the director of her old school and her husband. I called Suzzette back and told her to hang tight I was on the way, and in the meantime to hold out for the Police.

I arriaved on the scene about 30 minutes later to find Suzzette standing with what appeared to be two fairly innocous Koreans. I told Suzzette let's go, and we began to walk. At that point it got sticky. Mrs. Young grabbed Suzzette's bag and started to pull Mr. Young grabbed me, and we began to make quite a scene. We made several attempts to walk away, with no luck. At one point we tried to get into a passing cab, but Mrs. Young jumped in after us and wouldn't let us leave, we were back to a stale mate in the street. I called the police twice, but was unable to convey our exact location, knowing only where we were in realtion to our various apartments, so that was no good. We actually fought with the Young's for a good long while. I finally told Suzzette to put her passport and her wallet in her pocket, and forget the bag. Somehow I managed to be holding Mr. Young and Mrs. Young in just the right way that Suzzette was able to break free and start running while I held the two struggling Young's for as l! ong as I possible could.

Mr. Young broke off first and started running after Suzzette, but she had quite a lead and managed to elude him, I held Mrs. Young back for quite awhile, fearing that of the two she would probably have a better chance of catching up with Suzzette. After about 5 minutes I let her go and started walking in the general direction of the chase. Suzzette had managed to make it to saftey in a giant apartment buildling. I called her when I saw the Young's walking back towards me, and told her to head up, while I than started walking being pursued now by the Young's. I pulled a couple of tricky turns and managed to loose them and then hid in the park for a bit talking to Suzzette on her cell phone and generally trying to calm her down.

Eventually I managed to locate the general area she had run in and the apartment buildings she had climbed into, and we worked our way around to a cab and then to home. If I had not had the pleasure of living through all of this I never would have believed that it had actually happen. As a footnote Suzzette is legally in the country having gone to Japan, and Mrs. Young no longer has any saw over her. She kept insisting that Suzzette give her money, which made it almost more like a mugging than anything else. Hopefully all will be resolved eventually. Suzzette suffered some minor scraps and scratches on her hands from Mrs. Young and a nasty bruise on her throat from where she was choked by her bag when Mrs. Young was pulling her. I suffered a nasty hit in the face, but no bruises are forthcoming, so I figure I will probably be okay.

My current plans for the rest of the day are to eat pizza, watch a movie with Sam, and possible work on costumes for the play on Friday. Hopefully the coming week will prove to be slightly less exciting.

Yours,

Sara