Joel: Luckily, my folks didn't bring the weather with them - quite the opposite - for the ten days they were here it was like mid-summer all over again. Temperatures were up to 27 degrees and I didn't see a single cloud until yesterday when Rakhi and I travelled with them to the airport through a haze of fog. Perfect timing! I'm pretty sure they enjoyed thier time here, although after over a week of exploring the fourth biggest city in the world they seemed pretty exhausted, as was I.

We managed to do so much. Rakhi and I enthusiastically took on the roles of tour guides and set out to ensure my mum and dad got to experience some of the best things we've discovered here, as well as some of the things we haven't got around seeing/doing yet. We returned to the tower and places like Insadong and Dongdaemun for the markets. We visited the palaces at Deoksugung and Changdeokgung (which was particularly impressive), the Jogyesa Buddhist temple and the Korean Folk Villiage in Suwon. We took a cruise down the river in gorgeous sunshine and my dad and I watched a particularly good but ultimately disappointing match at the World Cup Stadium (it finished 2-2). We had loads of great meals, the most noteworthy being at a tiny Morroccan place we discovered in Itaewon and a very generous gift from some of our neighbours:

The mother who approached us months ago about helping her son with his English sent both her sons round with a tray of traditional Korean Chuseok food for us - beef ribs, savoury pancakes, ricecakes and chestnuts. Chuseok is the traditional Korean thanksgiving - it's such a huge thing here and the reason we had four days of national holidays in a row. The gift was such a lovely gesture I was blown away. I had received two other Chuseok gifts but neither had been such an incredible surprise. The day before my parents came my principal asked me what fruit I liked. When I thoughtlessly replied I was quite partial to strawberries ( impossible to get in Korea) he asked if I liked Korean pears which are enormous things, about the size of melons. They might even be Korea's national fruit, I'm not sure. I said I did and on Sunday morning we received a big box containing twenty of these things - four of which have now been passed on to the Korean family who brought round the food, as a thank you. The other present I received is even more bizarre, it's beyond a joke. Think of the food item you would least want to receive as a present. Okay, what is it.? What's the first thing that comes into your head? Right, I bet I can top it. How would you feel about being presented with a gift box of Spam. Yes, Spam - that second-world-war favorite. It must have arrived here with the Americans in the fifties and set up shop because for some reason people love it here! It was given to me by my school for Chuseok. I think the other teachers get bonuses but not little old me. Still, as I sit back, chewing on my Spam fritters, I can smile to myself and remember the old adage - "only when all the Spam in the world has been eaten will people begin to realise - you can't eat money!" Ha!

Anyway, it was brilliant to have my parents here to stay. I said to them when they arrived that after putting up with me for so many years they had better make themselves at home. They asked if this meant they had to break everything and stain the floor with red wine and sick and I said no, it didn't. I think just being out with them on visits though meant I took an extra moment to take things in and see things I may have passed by otherwise. We definitely made the best possible use of the week and I will miss them now they're gone. I'm sure Rakhi will put some photos up soon.

Now I have to focus on this stupid play I've agreed to do. On return to school today I realised the arts festival is in ten days. I reckon I've got just about enought time if we can get all the sound recorded and finish the dances by the end of the week, which is still quite a tall order. I know it's only a fifteen minute kids play - I just don't want it to be rubbish.