Life is Good

This is why I don't wash my sheets very often. It takes a couple of days of my sheets hanging all over my apartment to dry. Most of the time I don't really miss a dryer, but today I do :)

This morning on my way to Korean class I was sitting next to an old woman on the subway. I saw that there was an open seat, so I sat down. I failed to notice that she desperately needed sleep. Throughout the ride, she began nodding off, head bobbing up and down as she drifted in and out of sleep. Next thing I know, her head was in my book, which was on my lap. Probably ten times, she woke up and then fell back over on my lap. The people around me were all nudging each other, saying "hey look at that!" Then they just giggled. The two military men in front of me got me laughing pretty hard about it. Finally I just got up and moved 2 seats down. Then the military men and I got to watch the same senario happen to another poor unsuspecting soul. It's always good to have some entertainment on a long subway ride :)

This week I had a revelation. My life is so good right now. These last couple weeks have just been going so well. School is continuing to get better. I actually like my job now, I love my kids, the supervisors and being nicer, and I work with really fun co-workers. As I was riding my bike down the river one night last week, I looked around at the lit up sky line in the dark and thought, "I am so lucky to live here at this time in my life." My whole time here I've always liked Korea, but I'm really starting to appreciate and enjoy it now. It's such an awesome place to live. I am learning so much. I have a great apartment. I'm part of a great church and small group. Beth is coming to visit in four days! Life is just really good right now.

I was reading back through one of my journals when I first came. It was interesting to read back through all the questions, worries, and uncertainties I had. When I came I had really no idea what I was getting myself into, no idea my school would close just 4 months after I got here, no idea the ways that I would grow as a person. Even though it was all a big unknown to me, God knew it all. Just as He got me through the difficult last couple of months, He'll get me through tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. No need to worry.

The So Called Farm

Today my school went on a field trip to a farm. When I think farm, I think barn, horses, corn fields... A city farm is a lot different! Our "farm" was about an hour away and when we pulled up, I thought in my head, "Where is it?" Haha, it turned out to be more like a greenhouse or a nursery. After an hour on the bus, we got off, walked to this little patch of dirt, patted some dirt, and drank our drinks. We were there a total of 15 minutes. I counted. As I was trying to do at least a little bit of teaching about plants, watering, etc., we were told to hurry up and get back on the bus to get out of the sun! Oh man... The other teacher on the bus and I were just laughing about how ridiculous the field trip was, considering there was no learning going on. I think the Koreans took about 50 pictures of us with the kids patting the dirt so that the parents would see pictures of us at the "farm." So funny. I wonder what field trips to the farm in an American big city would be like. In my town we didn't need a field trip to go to the farm, it was just down the road!

Today one of my students brought me a whole box of Dunkin Donuts! When I asked what the occassion was, she whispered to me about an incident last week. I caught her cheating on her spelling test, so I took her test and gave her a zero. I sent it home so her parents would see it. I guess her mom felt so bad that she sent me donuts! Wow, I had already forgotten all about the cheating incident... We all shared the donuts!

How much are training wheels?

Maybe my first trip on the bike shouldn't have been to the grocery store. Whoever made the old saying, "it's just like riding a bike" did not meet me. Let's just say I haven't really ridden a bike since I was about 12 years old. After I got all my groceries in my recyclable bag, I realized they would not fit into my handy dandy basket. No problem, I would just do a bit of rearranging to fit everything inside. Well, the problem was, my bike was still locked to the pole. As I tried to maneuver the lock, the heavy things in the basket tipped over the bike, and spilled everything out on the ground. My jar of spaghetti sauce broke on the cement and made a huge mess. I didn't know what to do, so I just rode away....really fast! I probably should have told someone what happened, but no one was around (thankfully!). Problem number two. I am having people over tomorrow for brunch, so I had bought 3 dozen eggs! Yeah...many of them broke while I was fighting with my bike :( Problem number 3. The streets of Seoul are crowded. As I was trying to dodge the people (I have a bell on the bike!) this little 4 or 5 year old on a bike, just about as wobbly as I am, came barreling towards me. We did the swerving thing and almost hit each other! Maybe I better stick to riding on the river...or just get some training wheels.

My Grandaddy Would Be Proud

I just bought a bike!! Everyone at school has a bike and I've been thinking about getting one since right now is the perfect time of the year to have one. I bargained with the old man in Korean! He just kept laughing that I was using Korean numbers to bargain with him. Finally he agreed to give it to me for the price I wanted. It's a lot easier to barter here cause I don't have to worry about being embarrassed. Yes Grandaddy, I walked away and all :) By the time I left, he shook his head and said, "You are good..." I was probably more annoying than anything! Either way, I have a red and black bike, complete with lock and basket :)


This afternoon I went to Olympic park to just lay on a blanket out in the sun and journal and read. It was so great, aside from the ants that almost carried me away! It gives a whole new meaning to "ants in your pants!" Also, it was some special "walk" or something at the park today cause there were hundreds of people with race numbers on their shirts. Whatever the event was, it turned out to be "look at the foreigner laying out in the sun" day. All of the walkers were dressed in long sleeves, long pants, BIG visors, masks, sun glasses, and some even had gloves, so that no part of their body was exposed to the sun. Contrast that with me, laying on a blanket with my pants all rolled up, short sleeves, purposely soaking up the sun. I tried to take a nap, but the gawkers and people shouting "HELLO!" kept me up. I guess they were just curious as to why I would want to tan my white skin. Even though some of my fashion sense and conception of beauty has changed being here, white is still pasty white to me..:)


One of my second grade students just about drives me crazy, yet he's one of my favorites! He has a serious ADHD problem I'm sure, but he's just SO funny. My favorite part is that his name is Arthur! HAHA. I purposely put him right beside me, so when he gets way too silly I can try to tame him. Anyway, at our school we have this sticker system to reward good behavior. When students are doing well (without me having to ask) they sometimes get a sticker. All of the kids in the class were working on this one assignment for 3 days. I gave the people working well stickers. I didn't give Arthur a sticker cause he was no doing what he was supposed to. It really devasted him, but I wanted to teach him a lesson. Throughout the rest of the day he obsessed about the sticker. I think he probably said, "Arthur gets a sticker" about 79 times within the 2 hours! It got to the point where he said it so many times and I was so annoyed that it became really funny! Once again I just laughed and laughed! Oh yeah, every day (yes, everyday) he asks me the same question. "Teacher, why do you have blue eyes?" Everyday I reply, "I don't know Arthur. Why do you have black eyes?" Day after day, he gives me the same puzzled expression and I can see the wheels turning as he says, "Oh......I don't know either." You'd think he'd memorize my response by now but at least he gives me a good laugh everyday! :) I think I'm really starting to love these kids.

What a day

Yesterday was probably the most interesting day I've had in Korea. I signed up with a couple of my co-workers to go to a cherry blossom festival about 2 hours away. At 8:00am we hopped on a tour bus headed for the fesival. As I'm finding, things are never quite the way I expect them to be here. In general, Koreans don't seem to be too concerned about specifics, such as times, places, etc. I told my friend Clara, that a year ago, this would have driven me nuts, but I'm learning to be ok with "going with the flow."

First stop on our tour bus was...the "mysterious" cave. We got out and walked through this cave. It was sadly dissappointing. There were so many man-made things in the cave and it was totally commercialized, that we kind of laughed about it the whole way through. The cave in China was way cooler.

Next we went to the cherry blossom festival. The trees were beautiful and the festival was kind of fun. I think that my group of girls was really more of the attraction than the festival, since we didn't see many other foreigners. A group of middle school girls came up to us to ask to get their picture taken with us.

Then...was the really fun part of the day! Before I tell you what I did, I must say that everyone here thinks I lead the most boring life! Because I don't go out drinking or partying with my co-workers, they think I don't do anything fun. One of the other teachers this week even asked me, "Sara, do you ever go out?" Hah! :) I told her that even though my life might seem boring to her, I enjoy it!

So, considering I never really do anything crazy, I did it. I went bungee jumping! It was the scariest, craziest, most fun thing I've ever done. I've always had a desire to do it, but I thought I'd always be too chicken. When all of the girls in my group decided to do it, I took the opportunity too. It feels good to overcome such a big fear like that. Here is a picture before I went up...

To add to our day of funny/fun experiences, our bus got lost on the way home and we ended up a little far from our apartments. By this time, we were all so tired from a packed day, that we just laughed and laughed. I laughed so hard yesterday that my abs hurt today. Who needs to do sit ups when you are around funny people all day!

The Princess Complex

I have one student who has never been to school before. Let's just say her social skills are...um still developing. She is OBSESSED with princesses. She often wears a crown to school, spins around constantly in her dress and tries to kiss the boys in our class as she exclaims, "My Prince!" Her favorite come back when one of the boys does something boyish, is "Well then you can't come to my princess tea party!" She says it as if everyone in the world is just dying to come to her tea party at play time. Even though she says this everyday, I still find it a bit amusing to watch the boys' reaction (or rather non-reaction). She is quite a cute little girl. Another girl constantly wants to color with her crayons on the desk. As much as I tell her everyday not to do it, and make her erase it during her playtime, there is just something so tempting about drawing on the "forbidden" table! Ugh! Anyway, today, she drew on the table again. When I called her out on it, she tried to cover it with her arms and her body. She didn't want me to see. Her arms weren't big enough to cover the blue crayon scribbling all over the table. As she attempted to cover it, she insisted that she REALLY had not done it. :) I can't help but think that things aren't really all that different when we get older. We make excuses and try to convince ourselves that we really didn't do something we shouldn't have. It would be so much easier if we would just admit our mistakes! Easier said than done I suppose. Impatience is hard for 6 year olds, and it is still hard for me! Today we went around during snack time talking about what we did on the weekend. One girl went on, and on, and on about her weekend. She spared no details: drinking grape juice, walking to the park, putting on a sweater...the whole scoop. All of the kids (ok and me too!) were getting so bored. One girl finally raised her hand and said, "Jina, it is not quickly!" After a few more stories from the same girl about the grape juice, the other girl said, "Jina, faster!" I smirked. It is so hard to wait for something! Though this girl was just waiting for a turn to talk, we are usually all waiting for something. Waiting is hard business, even for "old" teachers like me!

Radiation Rain

Some of my kids didn't come to school today because of the rain. When I asked my boss why rain was a problem, she said that because it's the first time it's rained since the Japan Earthquake, people think that the radiation is traveling in the clouds and raining on us. It's called 방사능 비 or radioactive rain. The government said it's not dangerous, but some of the parents are still paranoid and won't go outside in the rain. I think if the government says it's ok, I should be fine!

Then what?

I've been thinking a lot about what to do after my time in Korea. I know I'm way ahead of myself, but I feel like I should start thinking now. I think what sparked all these thoughts was a spiritual gifts test that I took in my small group. The test didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know, but it was good confirmation and it got me thinking. Our leader asked us what it was that we feel like we were put on the Earth to do. What is it that makes you feel so fulfilled? For me that is mentoring/ counseling teen girls. Obviously there is not a specific spiritual gift of teen girls, but I do feel like it is a gift. I can think of so many girls in my life, in which God used me. These were girls who were popular, closed off to the world, and jaded, yet for some reason, God chose me to break through to them. I've never been in the "popular" crowd, so everytime this happens, I know it is not just a natural gift...It amazes me everytime! For some reason people open up to me when they don't to anyone else. When I am able to help someone in this way, it makes me feel that this is what I was made to do! I absolutely love listening and mentoring/counseling girls. Though I like teaching and love kids, I don't feel 100% fulfilled teaching. I feel like God has a different call on my life. I know I will use my teaching experience in whatever I do, but I feel like I need to be doing a job more in my area of spiritual gifts. I'm not really sure what that is yet... Maybe I will continue to teach while I am working on a masters in counseling. So, I don't really know what's after Korea. I trust that when the time comes, God will provide the perfect job for me. He hasn't failed me yet! P.S. If anyone reading knows of any job that has to do with these things, let me know :) I'm trying to asking everyone I know to help me brainstorm. -Teaching (maybe not the traditional "teacher") -Counseling -Music -Languages -Working with Refugees or disaster relief Yes, I realize that is a broad spectrum of interests, but I really think the job is out there, I just don't know where to look!

The Shark Will Not Eat You

This week our school went on a field trip to an aquarium. It was pretty cool and that kids really enjoyed it! Let's just say they were a little scared of the shark! Here are some of my new kindergarteners.