Thursday, December 29, 2011

Just a Random Thought

So, this morning I woke up maybe 8:30am.  It felt so good to sleep in.  I am off school today because the semester is over.  The only thing separating me from winter break is English Camp which starts Monday.  Today is to be as follows: clean house, laundry, meet co-teacher and shop for English camp supplies, then come here and plan my butt off all weekend.  :-)

So,  I stepped out of my apartment this morning to walk to the next district's 24hr coffee shop (my favorite!) and the cold air turned my breath to steam.  Traffic busied itself in the streets, buses going here and there, with the occasional crazy taxi driver speeding by.  As I started the brisk walk towards my impending Skype date and  Chai Latte, I was struck with a random thought.  "THIS IS MY LIFE.  This is my normal.  This is my home for now."  I am used to travelling.  I love travelling.  But I am not on a trip.  I have an apartment.  I have a job.  I have a life?

Suddenly the words of an old song from Semisonic came to mind, "Every new beginning come from some other beginning's end."  Hmm...I am not sure exactly when my life here began, (when this turned from a trip to a life) but does this beginning affect my old life?  Not sure.

On a less random train of thought.  I got my Christmas presents yesterday.  I was so very happy to open the boxes and snack on homemade peanut brittle while reading the cards that the church kids wrote for me.  The cutest one had to have been from one young boy who wrote, "Merry Christmas, have a great time!!! PS. Don't get arrested.  Your buddy, xxxxx xxxxx" (I left off his name obviously...who would name their child xxxx?)  Well, don't worry friend, I don't plan on getting arrested but your concern touches me.

Oh, I am so full of joy knowing all the love that comes from home.  Even from the kids.
And I know that I am very blessed.  Not sure if this "new beginning" is the end of anything at all. :-)

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Surviving Christmas!!!


I SURVIVED!!!!!!!!!


So here are some photos from the orphanage.  I was kinda dead the rest of the weekend...




 One of my little boys really loved his gift!  Who wouldn't? It has sirens and lights....oh yeah!

My other boy liked his Legos and tossed the school supplies aside.  Oh well...you can't win them all.
And above, my precious little girl remembered me.  That made my holiday.

To the right:  Many of the kids opening thier presents.  There were 69 in total.

And below: Floppy's debut as baby Jesus in the Christmas play.

Got News back from the girls home in Thailand.  I am all set to start volunteering there as soon as I arrive.  I just need to buy my airfare.  I will let you know how that goes...the prices are going up and I still haven't been able to make it to the bank.  They open after I get to school and they close before I leave.  So feel free to pray for my airline ticket aquisition.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Wow!!!!!

Christmas is only a WEEK AWAY!!!!!!!
I can't believe it!  I am just so darn excited!  I know that it is not going to be the same without being with family and all...  But if I Skype home on Christmas morning it will be Christmas Eve for all my family.  And God has provided me some friends to spend the holidays with.

The Photo to the left is my first Christmas party.  I hosted it in my Apt on Friday.  It was so much fun.  I made food and drinks (including homemade eggnog which was the first thing to go!) and we all exchange gifts from our secret Santa. Do you see the wonderful wrapping job that the boys did?...haha...Newspaper and all.




I got a mug from my secret Santa.  It was awesome because it has this built in strainer for tea and the girl who got me knows that I like tea.  It also is very earthy in color...which gives it even more bonus points.  :-)

As for what's under my tree now.  All for the orphans.  The photo to the right is me holding my newly wrapped gifts.  I swear that I have "adopted" my last child.  It's just that Christmas is in a week and there were still 6 kids without gifts.  So I grabbed a name of a six year old boy, skipped bible study, and headed three metro transfers over to Toys 'R Us.  I picked up a set of battery powered emergency vehicles that make sirens and flashy lights.  They even come with two emergency personnel....haha.

As for the Christmas play at the orphanage...they made me Mary.  Typical!  Ha ha.  And for all who know my stuffed monkey Floppy, he will be playing baby Jesus.  He is to be wrapped beyond definition in swaddling cloth.  Haha....my little monkey is a star!  The last responsibly I have for that is to finish getting candy and supplies for my booth and possibly help the balloon animal both with my limited balloon shaping skills.  :-)

This week at school I need to plan my winter camp for my students, budget for winter camp supplies, and get winter break plans finalized.  No problem....ba ha ha!

One last thing.  God surely is a provider.  I was scratching the bottom of the barrel so to speak when it came to finances.  I spent a lot on the Christmas party (the chocolate alone had cost me 12 bucks and lets not even talk about the vanilla extract.), the After-school pizza party for my students (in which 8 pizzas were ordered instead of 6 because of language barrier), and the gifts for the orphans, friends, and family.  BUT!  Today I checked my bank account and there was surprise funds...Where did they come from?  A friend said that it was probably my After-school overtime kicking in.  What a relief and what wonderful timing from God!....just when I picked up the orphan's name wondering how I was going to afford a gift...and God provided.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Happy

I am very happy right now.  I just had the most amazing class ever.  Half the class was gone so it was more manageable.  And, the students were attentive and loved the game we played to practice English.  The more advanced students help the challenged ones and everything went well.  When the bell rang for the end of class...there was a vocalized "AWWWW!!!!"

WHAT?!?!?!?  My students wanted more and were sad that I was leaving.  THIS MADE MY KOREA!  I really feel like this was a gift from God because he knows that I have been having  hard time connecting with my students lately.

Actually I had to have quite a prayer with him last night....it went a little something like this:
         "Daddy, I miss spending time with you.  And it's my fault when I don't spend time with you.  I go around with the pretense of being very busy...but we both know I have the time...I just use it poorly.  I don't like the me that I am when I am far from you.  I am a selfish, judgemental, controlling, know-it-all, who goes around with this self righteous attitude but wearing a mask of humility.  The me without you is UGLY!  I don't want to look like her...I want to look like you.  And I can only do that by spending time with you.  Please help me to remember that."

So...I spent a little time with God last night...and I plan to do it again tonight.  This is going to be a daily struggle to commit time to Him...but like any friendship, how can we be close if we don't hang out?

Anyway...winter break plans may finally be coming together.  I am filling out an application to a home for girls at risk of being sold into sex slavery.  I have signed a release so I can't say the country name or the organization on the Blog...but I really hope all things go through for that.  They are a reliable Christan organization in need of an English teacher...but I am willing to do so much more.  I told them that I would be willing to do anything from teaching and playing to cooking and cleaning.  I just really want to do the work.  :-)

Tonight is my big Christmas party with my orientation friends.  I hope they like it.  I have been making deserts and cleaning the apartment all week.  Ha ha ha.  We will be having Secret Santa...I wonder who has my name.... :-)

Monday, December 12, 2011

The North


Well.  As a perfectly neutral bystander with no loyalty to any side...I have to say that North Korea is being a complete and total jerk in this matter.  Read this article if you don't mind:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2011/12/20111211191120907127.html

Anyway....they claim that Christmas trees are an act of war...but they can bomb our border islands.  North Korea?  Please...give it a rest for one Holiday.
I have a feeling that families divided by the border find comfort and maybe even a sense of unity at seeing the same tree in the night.  And if my family were trapped up North...I would want to give them hope this Christmas.
That is really all I wanted to share.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Just Another Update

I survived the weekend.  And I was even lucky enough to be told that I am getting off early today.  YAY! Not a bad Monday at all.  :-)

This was the weekend that I went with the co-teachers to Namhae..an island in the South Sea.  It was a nice little countryside experience where I got to harvest some veggies from thier garden and we cooked them to go with our Sashimi for dinner.  It was lovely.  Then I went hiking the next day.  Sunday was pretty busy too with all the things that were planned (Two Skype Dates, Church, Lunch, Bible Study, Cookie Baking...all before 5pm...and then I cancelled my last plan so that I could spend the evening with a friend watching Korean Drama and eating Quizzno's subs.  Yes...much more relaxing!)

Oh...and I got a hair cut.  It is really cute...but I am having issues accepting it.  I have not cut my hair for the past maybe 7 years without donating it somewhere.  And now that I got it cut here....I feel like I wasted it.  I will take a photo for you guys once I start to feel a little better about it...but I have some thinking to do first.

On another note: My to-do list has grown so much.  But it is ok because I hope to knock a few things off of it day.  And hopefully get to bed a a decent time since my evening has not been planned to pieces (yet..haha)

Oh...and My Nana is going to be going home soon!  She will be home for Christmas!!!!!!!  She will still be doing rehab but she is going to have my grandfather drive her back and forth.  She wants to be able to walk without help by the end of the week.  She is a strong one!  Thank you all for your prayers.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Playing Christmas Music

I am playing Christmas music and wrapping gifts.  Which gifts specifically...these one...



I am very happy.  These gifts are my two kids at the orphanage.  I have my little girl that I love to death.  And I also got a little 8 yr old boy that I have never met.  But I have a feeling he will like the Legos...I mean...who wouldn't.  Also, they needed some school supplies (thus the Simpson's pencil case and erasers...I'm not a fan of the Simpsons...but the kids here love it.)

As for the gifts for friends and family...they are America bound as of tonight.  To avoid the issue I had with poor Alesha and Eliza's presents (Happy Christmas in April...hahah), I pulled out a calender on my fancy new phone and pointed to the 25th.  With luck...you guys will get your presents soon.  :-)

I am loving the Christmas music!  Thanks to my Big Brother Kyle for sending me music before I went to Korea!  I hear some stuff playing in the coffee shop and I always want to stop my walk and pop in for a cup. BUT...I promised myself no coffee shops until I get my apartment clean.  I have been procrastinating on cleaning.  Once I clean my apt. I am allow to treat myself to a Cinnamon Mocha Frappe at TOM and TOM's coffee.  MY FAVORITE!

I hope I can get the cleaning done soon so I can splurge....:-P

Friday, December 2, 2011

Open my Fridge and the Whole Place Smells like Kimchi

Hello all!


So, things have been going well.  My co-teachers have invited me to a little co-teacher retreat at this villa in the countryside next weekend.  The villa belongs to the family of one of the teachers.  And it should be an interesting weekend.  It will definently be a cultural experience...namely me never knowing what's going on (cuz when you get them all together, they kinda forget to use English for me...haha)  So I will let you know how that goes when I get to that point.

Anyway,  I have a phone now.  :-)  I am so happy with my techno toy.  :-)

Also, this Sunday I am bringing a Guest English Teacher from orientation to my church.  I really hope he likes it.  It would be cool to start seeing people from my group head to church.  The majority have claimed atheism and one Buddhism (but not devout...she's Buddhist only cuz her parents are).

You know the little girl who clung to me from the orphanage?  <see below picture from November post>.  Well, I got her name for the Angel tree project and am hoping to get her a HUGE stuffed animal for Christmas!  I can't wait!

Not too much more is going on.  Well, except me being a mean teacher one day.  I was forced to actually discipline which is hard for me.  But in the long run I need to be the teacher not the friend.



Though I do want to be someone approachable for help.  Which I think I am.....I have a girl who is hoping to do a study abroad in the Atlanta, Georgia in January.  She came to me to help her prepare for the phone interview and I gave her a list of questions that they may ask.  Then she requested that we meet again to talk.  The second time was yesterday and we discussed difficulties and culture of American high school.  After that, she asked that I meet her one more time if she passes the interview so I can help her prepare to leave.  If I help no one else in my career here...at least I know I helped one girl.

Anyway...enough of that...let me show you some photos.


Ok...so this was the most difficult thing for me to try to eat yet. (this is a tiny crab....chilled...shell and all.  this was harder to stomach than the Mugwort/Woodworm and even the baby octopus.  Yeah...will not be eating that again unless stranded on a deserted island. 
I thought this huge crab was going to escape his tank in the seafood market.  I was like...RUN FOR IT LITTLE GUY!!!!!!












It's now the Christmas season here...and a visit to Nampo-Dong shopping district got me in the spirit.  I couldn't help but set up my own little tree in the Apt.  It's my little 3 foot Charlie Brown tree...but I love it.  I even have gifts under it already that I need to send out for family soon.  Hopefully I won't make the same mistake that I made with Alesha/Eliza's gifts...which are now on a boat to America...and should arrive anytime from February to April.  We know for the future "Airmail" is the correct response to anything they ask in Korean.  :-P