Snow pants...?

In my second grade class today, my question to the kids was, "What would you wear on a mountain where there is snow?" After a few of the regular answers, I tried to get them to say snow pants. I was describing them as pants that keep your legs warm. One kid shot up his hand, so excited that he had come up with the "right" answer. "Hot panties" he shouted! I busted out laughing and could not stop. The other students of course didn't get it.

It's funny to see little children's reaction to me on the subway. Everytime I ride the subway, I am the only white person. I think some of the little 2 and 3 year old children may have never seen someone like me in person before. They just stare and stare. Last weekend, this little boy's parents were trying to get him to sit in the only open seat...next to me. He refused. He turned the other way for the whole subway ride. He wouldn't even look at me. It's funny to see the parents reactions. They are speaking in Korean but we just smile, knowing what each other is thinking.

Today was the first mention of North Korea in my fourth grade class. None of my students had brought it up before, so I thought maybe their parents don't tell them what is going on. Today one girl asked me if I knew about what was going on. She proceeded to act out (because her English is not so good) what North Korea is doing. It was a little sad to see her stating the facts so bluntly as she acts out bombs blowing up. I asked her if that scares her. She got real serious and said, "A little." She said, "North and South Korea fight...but I think South can win!"

I don't really know where the status lies now. War is still lingering in the air, but hopefully things are dying down. It's weird that life is just going on like normal for me here.

Love

One of my students came up to me today an pulled on my shirt sleeve. She said, "Sara Teacher...Sara Teacher..." (until she got my full attention) "My is....bery bery bery bery much love you!" And she gave me a huge bear hug. I must remind myself each day that this is why I am a teacher. As draining, and even at times boring, the 10 hour school day is, every action, word and even facial expression is being read by my students. Their day can be made or broken by my reaction to them. Scary...but awesome that I can make a difference!

Today is my Thanksgiving

Today the teachers and some random other people celebrated Thansgiving in apartment 1205. Sidenote, I found out today that I have the biggest apartment out of all the teachers! Each teacher brought something. We ate fried chicken (closest to Turkey we could afford/find), mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, homemade bread, gravy, stuffing, pumkin and apple pie...the works! The food was delicious!

On Thursday my class had "cooking class." We were supposedly making apple pies. Well, as you can see from the picture, this apple pie consists of bread, apple jelly and 3 slices of apple! When I was showing the kids, I was told that I was putting on too much jelly. Apparently they don't like sweet things here and their apple pie is much different than ours! Check out their aprons and chef hats!

Well, episode two of throwing up student. And episode two of me gagging. At least it was again while I was at lunch! But...it's worse this time. The kid threw up on another kids pants! That is disgusting. The kid got to change his pants, but he pouted the rest of the day because he was so sad. I'm pretty sure I would pout to if I got thrown up on.

A Three Year Old's Prayers

The North/South Korea thing is all over the news here, but still regular people are not talking about it. Yesterday I went to the Wednesday night service at the church and it was awesome. It was pretty much 2 1/2 hours of talking about the tension between N. Korea and praying that there would be peace. I have never been a part of something like that before. People were shouting their prayers, declaring peace in the name of Jesus. So far, there has been no escalation of Tuesday's attacks. China (N. Korea's ally) strongly encourages them to stop attacks because it will be bad for Asian business and economy. The U.S. strongly discourages the attacks as well. So, it looks like things will stop here because no one wants them to attack. The theory is that the new N. Korean president is only trying to show off his military and show people that he is as powerful as his father was. I am reminded that I was sent to S. Korea for a reason, and it is no accident that I am here now. If things turn into war, I suppose I will need to head home, but that is not likely.

Also, Sara Luke Facebooked me today to say, "During Jack's afternoon snack we started playing this game with his goldfish. I put a cracker on every state or country and when Jack gets it right he can eat the cracker....Today Jack showed me where South Korea was. When I asked who was there he said, " Sara Hornback and she misses me very much."

Sara Luke also said that Jack has added me to his bedtime prayer list. She says that Jack prays with complete confidence. What a blessing!

North Korean Conflict

Well, I guess you're probably all wondering about the headlines about North and South Korea. The only news I've heard is what I have read on the American news sites. No one here is talking about it or seems concerned at all! That is so strange to me that they have no idea what is going on in their own country. I guess maybe they are so used to the tension because they see that it is not as big of a deal as America makes it. Anyway, I'm fine. All this is happening two hours east of me in Icheon. But, pray that nothing more becomes of it!

Erin's neck is sick...

Yesterday my students said two things that I thought were funny. Erin, one of my kindergarteners kept telling me that her neck was hot. Finally she exclaimed, "Sara Teacher, my neck is sick!"

We were reviewing before a test yesterday and the word they were supposed to know was "toes." I asked them to use toes in a sentence. After a few wrong guesses, one kids said, "Oh, oh, I know!! My toe is dirty." Oh man, for some reason I just thought that was hilarlious! I could not stop laughing. Of course they didn't think it was funny, so they just looked at me like I was crazy.

I bought a Christmas tree yesterday! I found one at a really cheap store for $5! I have never been more excited about a tree. I went with two other girls. They bought one too. So here we went down the street with three Christmas trees in a culture where they don't even really get Christmas trees. We got quite a few stares!

Yesterday I had one girl with a bloody nose in one class and one of my morning kindergarteners threw up while I was at lunch. When I walked in the room, it smelled like puke. I gagged. Ugh, gross. I sprayed about a whole can of Lysol in the room and then all the kids got headaches from the fumes! Whooops. Well, I guess that's better than me throwing up too!

Riding a Bike

Yesterday Angie took me riding bikes in Seoul Forest. It was really fun. I hadn't ridden a bike in a LONG time, so I was a bit wobbly at first. I only fell over once. The park was kind of small, so we rode around it seven times! We rented the bikes for an hour. On the way back to the "subway" we accidentally ran into the river walk. YAY! I found the river. The walk is beautiful and goes on for miles and miles! We wandered around, only a bit lost, trying to find the subway station. We finally did!

Later in the day I went in search of a Christian bookstore in order to buy Christmas cards, which apparently are hard to find around here. On the way I saw this exercise park with these old people working out. I hope I can raise my leg that high when I am an old woman!

I am becoming quite the cook! For now it is fun trying to see what I can create, but I'm sure it will get old real fast. Yesterday I made some rockin potatoes! They were stirfried with garlic and lots of spices. Soooo good.

Unfortunately a new baby was born into the apartment next to mine. It cries all the time...

Yesterday I skyped Danny and Sarah and I got to see the boys. Danny said, "Where is aunt Sara?" Gabe said, "She's in Kowea!" Hah, Kowea. So cute.

I tried a small group today. It was good, but there were only two other people and me. Now that is a SMALL group. Maybe I will try to find one with people more my age. I must keep looking for friends... :)

A cup of coffee

Today I was walking back from lunch and I came to an intersection. A woman had a tray of cups and offered me one. I thought she was trying to sell me something, so I almost told her no. Then proceeded to tell me the different kinds of drinks on her tray. The only one she said in English was coffee, so I took that one. Then she handed me a small booklet. She started pointing towards a building. After she realized I had no idea what she was saying, she called over an Indian man (who was with her) to translate. It turns out, this was a church group evangelizing. They had give me a gospel tract and were pointing me towards their church.

It was eye opening to me to be evangelized to by a Korean and an Indian. They didn't know I am already a Christian. As Americans we think that we are the only ones evangelizing and sending out missionaries, but there are actually more Korean missionaries in the world than Americans! It gave me hope for today :)

Sunday

It was a really good Sunday. First I ventured out to the river. I walked two hours and still didn't get to it. There must be a better way. The way I went there was no way to cross the expressway to get to the river on the other side. I saw it though! ;)

Later I met with all the other girl teachers and went tourist shopping with them. It was a fun little area that we went too. It was mostly just trinket shops, but a parade of some sort of tribal Koreans went by playing the drums. Hah! We also went to a Buddhist temple. That was pretty interesting to see.

In the afternoon, I met Angie, a Spring Arbor grad. We also worked together at camp for a couple of years. Man was it good to see her. It was just nice to talk with someone who already knows me! She took me to her English church. IT WAS AWESOME! I will definitely be going back. It was huge! Then we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant (imagine that!) and out for ice cream.

It is so good to be in a different country. I really don't realize how self-centered I am until I'm out of my element. In the sermon, he was talking about the persecution of Christians in the world. He talked a lot about North Korea and how Christians are not accepted there. It was interesting to hear this Korean pastor talk about the way that the American church is viewed. He commented that the American church focuses on the wealth and prosperity gospel. (Boy to we have a bad reputation. But is it far from the truth?) He said that as Christians, our number 1 goal should not be comfort, but to count it all as joy when we suffer! Wow.

It was so good to be in church. I really hope to get involved and make friends there. I think I will also take Korean lessons at this church. They're free, I'd learn Korean and meet people. Perfect.

Hiking is serious business!

This morning I went hiking. There are mountains right in the middle of the city. People had been telling me this, but I didn't believe them because I hadn't seen any yet. Sure enough there are. The one I hiked this morning was really small. It only took 30 min. to get up and another 30 min to get down. There are really big ones though that can take all day. I knew I was only hiking a small one, so I just brought a backpack. My sweatpants and fleece were SO out of style for the hiking crowd. I am learning that Seoul is ALL about appearance and materialism. The Koreans hiking the same mountain as me, wore a special hiking outfit, hiking boots, a big backpack, a walking stick, an emergency pack, one of those waterbackpack things were there straw is like a tube, and...the biggest visor I've ever seen. All of the hikers had every part of this outfit, when they were only hiking for an hour! It's not just a few people that hike either. Almost every 50 year old person or older hikes! The subway was full of them.

I guess Korea just recently changed to a 5 day work week. Many business people still work on Saturday. I saw so many men wearing suits to work today, Saturday. Also, some of my students have Korean school on Saturday too :(

Yesterday I got dangerously close to being hit by a bike. The bike riders are crazy around here. It was dark and a wild bike rider almost ran me over! He didn't ring his bell to let me know he was coming or anything. We did that "he goes left, I go left, he goes right, I go right thing." Anyway, he hit his brakes and I put my hands out to stop his bike from running me over. He looked very exasperated...I just laughed. Leave it to me to get hit by a bike!

Today I went shopping on my street. I didn't really buy much. I just wanted to know what kind of clothes stores are around here. In the two weeks I've been here, I have not seen one American (other than my school teachers). I know there are many Americans in Korea, I'm just not sure where! They are not where I live. Today I saw my first fellow blonde American. I hadn't seen a blonde since I got here! I must say we really stick out. As I passed her on the street, we smiled as if we knew each other, even though we didn't.

I bought the dreaded leggings today. It's funny how my perception of beauty changes when I go somewhere else. The Korean women are on top of the fashion. It's pretty much like America's fashion but trendier. The clothes that a couple months ago I said I would NEVER wear, I am now starting to like!

Peter's Birthday!

Peter wore a suit on his birthday! Ah, so cute!

My class

We made mirrors for arts and crafts today.

Today is a national holiday called Pepero Day. It's like an American Valentines Day. All the kids brought in these chocolate sticks for us to share!

Also today there was a puppet show of Hansel and Gretel! A big day! This is my class.

This is on my street. There are these random produce places everywhere.

This is a Christmas store on my street! I will be getting a small Christmas tree :)

From Barbie to Elephant in one day

Well, one of my students told my Korean supervisor that I look like her Barbie. I guess to her, all white people with blonde hair look the same! Hah, well I'll take the compliment. Later today, another student told me that Americans have long noses...like an elephant!! I guess these comments balance each other out :)

The other day the kids started laughing and pointing at my face. They whispered to each other in Korean. Hmmm... I thought I had something on my face. I asked them what they were pointing at. They thought it was hilarious that I have "white" eyebrows! Oh, the things we take for granted... They also commented that I have "gold" hair.

My home for a year

To the left is my apartment from the outside. On the right is a view out my window.

Notice the stove is on top of the washer/dryer...weird.

The bathroom is actually not a bad size. Somebody liked flowers...

The apartment is in a perfect location and it is a good size for just one person!

E- Mart

I got to move into my apartment today! This morning I packed up everything into my two suitcases and moved out of the hotel. All I had to do was cross the street to go to my apartment, but that was a job, let me tell you! One of my suitcases is huge and heavy and I didn't exactly have the best control of it going across the street. People were definitely starring as this white girl goes across the road with her out of control suitcases! It's so nice to be all moved in. So far it had felt like I was only on vacation, but now it's starting to feel like a home.

Two of the other teachers took me to Itaewon today, which is the foreigner district of Seoul. It was nice to see some American faces and hear English going down the sidewalk. We had to take the subway to get there, so now I have a good handle on the Subway. I came back by myself.

Then...I went to the grocery store. It is called E-mart and is pretty much the same as a Wal-mart. I don't think I'll be going back on a Saturday again! It was incredibly busy. It was hard to know what to buy, so I just looked at the pictures and guessed. I think I got everything I wanted though!

E-mart is probably about 3/4 mile- 1mile walk from my apartment. So here I came trekking out of E-mart, arms full of paper grocery bags. That walk seemed a lot longer going back than it did going! Instead of lifting weights, I can just go to the grocery store :) I didn't want to drop the bags, so I walked back so fast that I got a side cramp. Haha, I think I need to find a better system.

Tomorrow I will try a church. I'm interested to see how Korean churches are different from
American ones.

I will try to do a video tour of my apartment soon!

Korean BBQ

Yesterday was a much better day! I was not so overwhelmed with all of the things I have to do with school. I am starting to get in a routine. I really do like all of the kids and the teachers are all being really nice. They keep reminding me that they were all once in my shoes too and they are more than willing to help! Good thing :)
Last night after school I went with a few of the teachers to a Korean BBQ restaurant. It was SOOOO good, and cheap too! Then they took me to the Walmart-type store to show me how to grocery shop here.
I got to see my apartment for the first time yesterday. It is bigger than I was imagining and it's actually pretty nice. I can't wait to move in and get out of my suitcase. Just a couple more days!
Today one of the supervisors will take me to the hospital to get a check-up, which sounds pretty intensive from what I hear. The hospital is right on my block. So close!
So, in my hotel room there is a really fancy bathroom. There is a heated toilet seat (yes, it's true!), a badet (not sure how to spell that), a jaccuzi and a shower head that is so big it feels like it's raining. Haha, I'm like a little kid exploring all of this. Too bad I'm getting spoiled now and will be down to the basics in my apartment this weekend. Oh well, it's fun to live large now!

The Skirt Problem

It seems as if most girls were skirts here. So, today I thought I will try to fit in by wearing a skirt! I didn't bring any nylons from home because I figured bare legs would be ok. I looked up online this morning "skirts without nylons" to see if there was anything written online about bare legs being bad. I didn't find anything, so I thought it must be ok. I went to a little "Family Mart" down the street to buy breakfast this morning. On the way, everyone was starring at my "bare" legs. Apparently it is not ok to go without nylons. I walked and walked to find an open store to buy some, but nothing is open in the morning before work. Finally I went back to the Family Mart hoping to find some. I did! But.....when I got back to the hotel....they make their nylons for short people! Hah. My legs are not short. Anyway, I stretched them pretty far to put on, so hopefully they don't rip today!

First Day of School

Woah! It turns out I have 4 classes! That is a lot of names to learn. I don't even have all of the teachers' names down yet. For the morning and part of the afternoon I have a kindergarten class, next a 2nd grade class, and last a 4th grade class. Certain days of the week that last class changes with another class, but I haven't figured that out yet. The older kids in the afternoon come from a full day of Korean school. They have tons of homework from all three of their schools. I have no idea how they find time to do it all. These poor kids are SO tired by the time they get to my school. I feel really bad for them. I guess that's just how it works here. After lunch I hit a wall and am about to crash. I'm hoping to sleep the jet lag off tonight by going to bed early!

Day One Down

Well, it's been a long day to say the least. I left Dexter this morning Oct 31 at 2:30 Am and just arrived about an hour ago in Seoul at 9:00 PM on Nov 1. I enjoy flying, but I got SO antsy on the plane. It's such a long time to sit still. I met a lot of interesting people along the way. As most of you know, I like to strike up conversations with strangers :) At the Chicago airport an 8 year old Indian boy plopped down next to me because he wanted to practice his English. At the LA airport, I talked with a couple who was headed to a city in China that I'd been to.
On the way to Seoul I was fed Korean food. Good news, I like kimchi, picked cabbage. The bad news is that the dried minos were not good at all!
When I finally got to the hotel, no one was here to meet me, so I just went in by myself. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to turn on the lights, cause everything here is super high tech...and in Korean! I was quite proud of myself for figuring it out! There is a computer in the hotel room so that is what I am using to type. I couldn't figure out how to turn off the Korean characters and just type regular, but I think I figured that out too.
Two of the supervisors and one of the teachers took me to a bakery just a while ago. It was nice to meet them before tomorrow. Well, I'm headed to bed...
Man, I have a lot to learn! Tomorrow's my first day on the job and I have no idea what to expect!