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!