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 :)