Everything Thus Far

Last Tuesday, our van driver arrived to take us to church, but he kept trying to tell us something about a scenic route. "Only 20 minutes", he kept saying. Encouraged by the bright sun and surprising morning warmth in the air, we said yes. Unfortunately, what should have been 20 minutes turned into a whole hour plus a couple more minutes. But, we did get to see some awesome sights.

We went up a mountain to this little village with a lake. It was beautiful and peaceful, and if we didn't have to plan for a day of classes, we could have stayed there all day. But we will be going to the beach soon, we hope ^^ When leaving, we all caught shots of this sign:

In case it's not too clear, the bottom left corner has this warning: Cold Water (Heart Failure)

Those teaching the middle and high school classes had a break last week, as those students all were at a camp. So instead of staying at church until 9PM, we left early on Thursday and Friday to go back to Yedamon (where we live) to eat great Korean bbq with many of our Korean helpers. Look at all the yummy food we got to eat!

Also, to get back on Friday, we got to smush in a van with a total of 17 people. This is kinda what it looked like all the way from the back:

Totally safe, right?

This weekend, we visited two palaces, the Changgyeongung Palace and the Deoksugung Palace. At the Deoksugung Palace, we also got to the see the changing of the guard!

Isn't that awesome?!?! We also saw them process out, right by us!

Our weekend also consisted of a visit to the Seoul Tower, to which we had to take a crowded bus ride and then walk up the last leg of the mountain. Whew! I found out the next day that we could have taken a thrifty little trolley up the mountain :( Oh well, it was pretty worth it. At the top of the tower, there's an observation deck, like every other tower. But this one is unique in that at the top of each window, you'll find something like this (please excuse my horrible night pictures!):

So, at approximately 9:30PM Seoul time Saturday night, I was looking at Chicago! Isn't that awesome?

Also, for all who know me, you know that I looooooove Christmas. Here's my next Christmas profile picture:

Yes that is a Christmas tree and yes it is made entirely of couple locks. Awesome, I know.

We have less than two weeks left in Korea now (sniff, sniff), but the good news is that a lot of our Korean helpers will be joining us at Taylor in the fall. Unfortunately, my wonderful and God-sent helper, Eun Jung, will not be :( but she has promised to try to visit me in Taiwan after my student teaching :) Here's us being our usual selves:

Finally some pictures!

I finally remembered to take some pictures of my elementary class. Here they are, all cute and everything. Can you tell just how crazy they were on Monday?

Last weekend was soooo packed. We saw the movie Inception (pretty great and intense movie, by the way, although I would never go so far as to rate a movie...) and did some great shopping on University Road. We also saw this in front of the movie theater:

Totally creepy!

On Saturday night, due to a slight yet invited change of plans, we had more than enough time for a wonderful round of kareoke. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to show of this wonderous event, but I leave you with two pictures. First of all, look up the song "Gee", by Girl's Generation. Then imagine a group of guys doing the exact dance moves while singing. Yes, that totally did make my night ^^ Secondly, imagine hearing people sing the song "Rude Boy" in kareoke. Enough said.

On Sunday, we visited Insadong, which is the part of Seoul most known for its traditional buildings and for shops selling traditional items. Here's one picture I managed to snap, but thanks to the group of smokers, we got a cloud in the picture :(

Rachel and I left Insadong early to attend a concert at the Yum Kwang Church. The Seoul Motet Choir is a Christian group dedicated to the soul purpose of praising God. It was absolutely beautiful, even though I had no idea what they were singing ^^

After the concert, Rachel and I were still hungry, so out we went with Jonathan and June to get some ddukboki, spicy rice cakes :) Sooooooooo goood, but so super spicy. After eating that, even the humid night air felt nice.

Ok, that's it for now. A recap of this week and weekend coming up soon. Meanwhile, this is what we look like right now....and every morning, for that matter:

Eaten alive!!!!

Yesterday and today, I only had one student :( the rest of my students are at a church camp, but I got to see some today after lunch. I was walking out when they were walking in, and the AMBUSHED me. Literally, they saw me and started yelling "Teacher, Teacher!". Three of them clumped around me and were pulling my arm, holding my hands, wrapping themselves around my waist, etc. Sooooo cute I wanted to eat them up! Unfortunately, my student David was so hungry he decided to started eating me. He literally took my arm up to his mouth and pretended to bite me. I asked him if he was hungry, and he said "Yes!" very emphatically. He also said "Christina chu-se-yo", which basically means, "I want a Christina please." It's nice to know your students love you, although a tad creepy that they want to eat you...

What's up so far :)

After three days without a computer, I'm finally back on track! Here's what happened:

I was writing my lesson plans for Thursday when my computer had a minor freakout. I turned the thing off to restart it, but it started telling me that I needed a CD to restart it. Awesome, but I left it at home so I wouldn't have to bring more things. I fretted all weekend, prayed, and tried not to freak out, but this morning, I decided to turn it on again and see what I could do. The result? My computer decided to let me restore it! So, I lost everything, but my computer works. AWESOME! I'm in the midst of taking pictures again - but here are a few:

This is mykindergarten class - aren't they precious? They love to repeat just about everything we say, even when it doesn't make sense :) Most of them are pretty well behaved...but there are some students with a ton of energy...

This is Ki Joo, a little mischevious boy who always has a way of finding me. On the first day of class, he decided to attack me from behind...I didn't mind too much ^^ One day, though, he was sitting in my lap, saw my ring, and started pulling it off while saying something slightly angrily. I'm dyyyiing to know what he said.

This is my elementary school class - they're getting ready to go listen to a Bible story. They are pretty good students, although quite energetic. However, I'd rather they have too much energy than no confindence in speaking in class. Also, one girl's name is Winky. Enough said.

Me and my roommate, Molly Farris, being ridiculous and sharing a drink at Lotteria (kinda like McDonald's). We also bought matching headbands and are wearing them in this picture...although they are obviously not visable in this picture.

We're in Korea, so how could we resist? We got some facemasks to use while watching Korean dramas. Did you know you can't smile while using a face mask? That's why we hold our faces, like this:

That would be Ji Seong, telling us to stop laughing while holding his "face". Great great night ^^

First Day of Teaching!

I'm in South Korea!!!!!! It's been kind of busy, so I'll post a complete summary of what we've been up to in a few days. In the meantime, here are some pictures!

This is the view from my window. Isn't it beautiful?

We are staying at a church's retreat site, and there are two dogs there. This is the first dog we saw, and my roommate, Molly, decided she wanted to give him a Korean name. Since the only Korean word she knew was "an-yong-ha-se-yo", which means "hello", we decided to call this dog "An-yong". He's very smart - he already knows his name!

We met this dog today, and due to a conversation we were having, decided to name him "Chaperone". We are kind of hoping to bring these dogs with us to class one day, but...we'll see. ^^