This is home :)

Gabe was so funny. He says that I am in Kowea. Danny and Sarah have taught him the song "Soul Sister" by Train. Danny plays it on guitar and Gabe sings, "Heeeeeeeyyyyy. Hey S(e)oul Sister...la la la......tonight!" So cute!

Home for Christmas

Ah, it is so good to be home. The flight wasn't bad actually! I slept a lot and it went pretty quickly. It's really kind of strange being here. Being here, it seems like I never left. I feel like I live in two worlds right now... It's so good to see my family :) Thankfully nothing has changed much here. Today I get to play with my little nephews! I will go to Waverly probably Tuesday and Wednesday this week to visit with grandparents. Too bad it's such a short visit :( I head back to Korea on Friday. I'll add some pictures from home soon!

"1 more sleep until Christmas" as my students say

Today was our school's Christmas party. The kids were SO excited!! Santa came to visit our classrooms, we decorated cupcakes, made Christmas cards, we had a Christmas carol contest and I gave out presents in stockings to the kids. It was so fun to see them excited. They were afraid of Santa, which was so funny. When he walked in, they said, "It's an English Santa!" Haha.

Tonight I went to a catholic Christmas Eve Service. My favorite part about Christmas is always going to church, but my church's service wasn't till tomorrow. And, I just think Cathedrals are beautiful. When I walked in, I saw Becca Sauers from home!! This was beyond weird because I'd seen her the week before, randomly at the nutcracker. Out of 25 million people in the city, I've seen her 2 times in the past week! So crazy!

Tomorrow I will leave here about 6:30am to head home for Christmas! I am so lucky, I get to live two Christmas days, both here and home because of the time difference. I'm dreading the flight, but I'm sure it'll be worth it. I'm so excited to see my family :) Well, I suppose I better go to bed... Merry Christmas!

Christmasy Weekend

It's funny that I see some Christmas trees and lights, but it doesn't really feel like Christmas here. I guess it's because Christmas is not an official holiday here and it's not as hyped up as at home. Maybe it's because there is no snow on the ground. I'm trying my best to get in a Christmas mood!



Yesterday I went ice skating with Angie. It was kind of spontaneous! It was so beautiful to skate outside!














Last night I went with some of my co-workers to the Nutcracker! Sure enough, the Nutcracker comes to Korea too :)

Tonight after church is the whole church Christmas Party. That should be fun too. Well, only 6 days until I come home for Christmas!

Oh the people I meet

For not having anything to write about last week, I sure am windy this weekend. I thought I would tell the funny story about church. Well, I sat down for church and this very awkward Korean man (probably 30) came up and sat 2 chairs away from me. I smiled, but that's it. Then a few minutes later, he scooted 1 seat away. Next thing I knew he was right next to me. I said hi and asked his name. He was Korean and didn't speak much English. After he asked my name, the first thing he asked was if I had a girlfriend. He asked how old I was. The guy in front of me was from America and was laughing because he heard this conversation. The Korean only knew a few English words and kept saying, "Beautiful, beautiful." It's only because I have blonde hair and white skin. It's interesting being a minority. Anyway, throughout the service (picture this), he would lean sideways so that his shoulder would touch mine. So as he leaned uncomfortably closer, I leaning farther away. Oh, it gets funnier. Then, as my head was bowed and eyes were closed for the prayer, he leaned over to look at my face while I was praying! Oh man. I could feel him really close, so I peeked at sure enough, his face was like right by mine. AH, so strange! The whole service he was giggling because he was sitting next to me. It was an...experience.

On the subway home from church I was carrying my Bible because it wouldn't fit in my purse. This frail old man came up to me and said something in Korean and pointed to his watch. I figured he was asking me the time, so I took out my phone to show him the time. Later he pulled out his phone, so maybe that's not what he was asking :) He, too, only knew a few English words. Every few minutes he would ask me another one word question, like "USA?" After a few minutes of silence, he said, "Bible?" He said some things in Korean (or what I thought was Korean). Then, he said something that I recognized in Chinese! From what I gathered, I think he was Chinese. It's awesome that he said one of the only Chinese phrases I know. He said, "I love you as my sister in Christ." How cool is that?

Another quick interesting fact about today. I bought a bundle of bananas at the store yesterday hoping they would last me for the week. Wishful thinking. They don't have the preservatives or something here, because they were green yesterday and today all six of them had brown spots. I ate three today and I'll probably have to eat another 3 tomorrow or they will be mush. I'll be all set with potassium for the next few months!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I have snowflakes, a stocking, a tree, a bow, so Christmas streamers AND...paper chains! I was singing, Deck my Apartment with balls of holly, fa la la la la la la la la.

I thought this little guy was so cute. He has on an old man hat and a pea-coat. The parents always try to out-do each other by dressing up their kids so nicely.

First Christmas Party of the Year

Today I met with another girl from Dexter. She was in my German class in high school for 3 years and I hadn't seen her in 4 years! I met with her and her friend for coffee. After that, we went back to her apartment for a Christmas party with some of her friends. The day was so much fun! It was so good to see her and we picked up just where we left off four years ago. Her friend is from South Africa! She had a sweet accent. At the party, we played the White Elephant present game and I came home with a bunch of hand sanitizer! Somebody knows me too well already! Everyone brought lots of good food too. It was a really fun day with her and her friends.

Today I saw a nun wearing "shape-up shoes". It was so funny. No one was there to chuckle with me though...

The time I made cookies in a frying pan...

This weekend I wanted to do some baking. I don't have an oven, so my options are limited. I thought pudding would be easy enough to make. Well, not exactly. I couldn't find vanilla anywhere in the store. I searched forever trying to find it. Finally I gave up, trying to think of a substitute. I made a bad choice, maple syrup. Why I chose syrup, I don't know. The pudding was not good and it tasted like (believe it or not) syrup. Yuck.

I have also been in search of powdered sugar to make french toast. I bought what I thought was powdered sugar. It said vanilla on the package, but I just thought that was the korean way of saying powered sugar. It sure looked like it. I made my french toast, piled on the "powered sugar" and sat down, so excited to eat. It was not powered sugar. It tasted like flour all over my french toast. Yuck again.

Tonight on the way home from church, I stopped by this tiny little convience store to buy a snack. I looked around and I found vanilla AND powered sugar! Who would have thought that I couldn't find them at the supermarket, yet I found it at a hole in the wall convience store! I also bought a cookie mix.

I had this great idea to make cookies in my skillet. Well it turned out to be not such a good idea. I guess it says put them in the OVEN for a reason. I burnt up the cookie dough and now it smells like smoke in here...bummer. But, I salvaged some of the dough to save for later!

I've been thinking a lot about the big things in life lately. The moral of my cookie story is that if God cares enough about the details in my life to help find vanilla and powdered sugar, He'll take care of the big things in my life all the more!

The most fun I've ever had getting my haircut...

This morning I went to the church to help wrap presents for both the orphanage and missionaries. I thought it would be a good way to get involved and meet people too. It was really fun! I talked to a lot of people while we were wrapping too. Man, I never knew wrapping could be so complicated! We had to match like items for each family and then label who gets what item and the number. It was stressful! Just kidding :) I talked a lot with a young woman and her husband. They are living here on an american army base. She was so nice and fun to talk with. It's really nice to go to a church with almost all young people. Everyone is very friendly. I'm starting to get to know people now and it's cool to have people call me by name. I found out the English part of the church is about 1,500 people and then the Korean part of the church is MUCH bigger. They didn't say how many.

I just got back from getting my haircut. All of the other girls at my school go to a far away place to get their haircut where the hairstylists are trained in London and it costs $30. I'm not too particular about haircuts, so I just went to one of the three salons on the way to my school. It is called "Kim Jungs Hair Art." I wasn't so sure I wanted them making art with my hair, but I figured I would give it a try anyway.

I just chose the one that was the least busy. When I walked in, the place had about 5 women in there. It turns out there is only one lady cutting hair and the other middle aged ladies just sit in there all day to talk! When I walked in, they were very excited to say the least! They tried to speak to me in Korean but when they realized I don't speak Korean they just laughed. The whole time I was getting my hair cut they were talking about my hair, the color, the texture, my body, my age, everything! They just kept starring and giggling at me. They were such happy ladies and they enjoyed having me! The gave me coffee and a heated seat. They took care of me! After she'd cut my hair, she styled it. She gave me ringlets! Haha. I think she just wanted to play with my hair longer. I almost fell asleep while she was playing with my hair because it felt so good.

The best part is...it was only $5! Score. I'm pretty sure they told me to come back soon (that's what I interpreted from their giggling and thumbs up as I went out the door). I will be going back!

This week one of my students asked if my hair is really black and I dye it blonde! They have no concept of having naturally blonde hair! He said I would look better with black hair... I don't think I'll try it.

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!