Maturity Switch?

Skip and I love to live life to the fullest and we don't always take things too seriously, but we do know when we need to turn on the 'maturity switch' when circumstances call for it. But, you combine us with Jeff, Amy, Debbie, and Brian...sometimes that maturity switch doesn't get flipped on. We all love being together and we laugh a lot together.

The other night, we were hosted by the Mayor of Jungjo District for a palace tour and then to dinner. The entire time was filmed on camera and pictures were taken left and right of all of us and the Mayor. It truly did feel like they were papparazzi. Even while we were in the shopping areas, the cameras were there right in our faces. We couldn't take a step without a video camera or camera in our faces. Now if we could just get our hands on a newspaper around here! The footage was also going to be on the local news, which one translator told Erika, local means the entire country.

Dinner came and the formailities were taken care of, even I was asked to make the toast at the very last minute, which of course, that is one instance where I can turn on the maturity switch and become formal.

We were hosted to a very formal traditional Korean meal. Seemed tho the food kept coming and coming, think someone counted about 19 dishes. So, the maturity switch, kinda got lost at our table, even tho we were sitting with the Mayor. Leave it to us to do that! But we can't take all the blame, the Mayor did contribute to our behavior. He would feed Beth next to me and it is customary to eat whatever is given to you by someone. Poor Beth, I was just glad I wasn't sitting next to him. I wasn't hungry and if I was being fed, I am not sure what I would have done.

Skip was brave, he did try every dish that was placed in front of us. And when I was in the restroom, the Mayor had grabbed a piece of sushi, added the wasabi and fed it to Skip. Now that caused some laughter. Then there were these sesame rice things that looked like black popsicle sticks. The Mayor fed one to Jeff and continued to say, "Man Power! It will give you vitality". Mind you, these were somewhat interesting to eat, as I was told, and it was funny watching people eat them. Then Jeff adds to our laughter and eats another one and the Mayor gives the thumbs up sign to him. Needless to say, our table was laughing thro/out the entire dinner. But the laughter was what we call, church laughter, where you laugh silently and your shoulders are bobbing up and down because you are trying desperately to contain yourself. We were laughing so hard tho that we were in tears. I can't wait until Amy catches up on her blog as she was writing everything down as the night went on.

We asked Brian and Debbie to come to our table towards the end of the meal and we then gestered to the Mayor and said, "Man Power" and pointed to Brian. Sure enough, the Mayor got up and gave one to Brian and then another Brian in our group. So it wasn't all that bad that we didn't have our maturity switch on the entire dinner, the Mayor was laughing also. Good sport. It was a memorable dinner and it's always great sharing good times with good friends.