The end is near pt.1

I can't believe that I am so near the end of my time in Korea.  The last month has been an absolute whirlwind.  I have said good bye to many of my students, participated in another singing competition, went to a mud festival, gone to noraebong (karaoke) twice, went to the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, etc etc et.  It's been a busy time... but a great time.  I'm trying to take advantage of being in this country as long as I am here.

So I am going to do this blog in two parts... today I'm going to tell you about saying goodbye to some of my students and about the mud festival.

 This is my lovely Parents Class!  Most of them are moms of my students, but the lady on my left is the Principal's wife.  They have been such a great group of women to teach English to.  I am going to miss our Thursday mornings.  They were so sweet to me when they found out I was leaving.

 Me and the Principal's wife, and then me and Sun.

 Three of my favourite 5th grade students.  Eunice, Christy and Sarah.  They brought me a card that they had decorated and written little messages for me on.

 And this is probably my best student!  She is a 5th grade teacher at my school that came for English class with me all year.  She studies so hard and is so lovely to spend time with.  I will definitely miss Grace.

 The regular school semester ended last week and then for three days Kate and I taught at Pandong Elementary School for their summer English camp.  Here are some of the 3rd and 4th grade students we worked with.  They learned about family members (including creating their family tree), colors, numbers, and verbs.  Fun times all around.

 The students are colouring a butterfly.  They have to read the right colour for each section and then colour it that colour. 

 Numbers... please raise your hand!

 See I actually did some teaching in my time here in Korea...

 Verbs!  "He can jump" and "She can read."

 We also did a craft... decorating yo-yos.  I tried my best to teach them how to use the yo-yo... but at least they coloured them up nicely.

 I love my students!

 Pandong students proudly showing off their family trees and yo-yos.

 I thought this girl's family tree was particularly creative... it kind of has a vine thing going on.  And I'm a sucker for stars.

And yes... they are from Korea!  Korean children are very proud of their country.  I find that national identity fascinating.  I am, of course, proud to be Canadian, but I never realized how proud until I went to another country.  It makes me think what a Canadian national identity is.  Definitely not as homogenous as Korea's identity.  But also more than maple syrup, hockey, and saying "eh" at the end of a sentence.

I also went to Mud Festival at Boryeoung with a big group from Sangdang Church!  I have to be honest... initially the idea of going to a place where people would cover me with mud and roll around in mud and slide in mud and just be in mud did not sound good.  But I ended up having a good time.  And it was so great to be on the coast of Korea, the west coast.  Where I live is very landlocked, which is not the norm in Korea as it is surrounded by ocean on three sides.  So I had fun just being at the beach!  I, unfortunately, did not use the camera much.  It was a mud festival, so I wasn't interested in getting my camera completely covered in mud... but here's what I do have...

 The beach!

See!  I was covered in mud... almost as fun as camping.  Almost.

Just kidding... it was a lot of fun.

So more updates will come soon.  I can't believe in 9 days I will be getting on a plane.  It is a surreal feeling.  I don't know what to do with that.  I can't wait to see my family and friends and be around people I know and who know me.  I also can't wait to understand the language people are speaking around me.  That will be good as well.  But I am definitely enjoying my time in Korea while I am still here.  I want to make the most of every opportunity while I still can.

O Canada

It's a couple days after Canada Day (at least in Korea time), and also a couple days after my grandmother's birthday!  I guess it seems an appropriate week to have officially turned in my resignation to the English Center at Samsan Elementary School in Boeun, Chungbuk, South Korea.  For the most part, I'm sure this information is not new, but perhaps the reason is.

Being in Korea has been a great adventure.  I feel like I have grown so much amongst the challenges and experiences.  I have discovered aspects of myself I didn't know were there, I have developed a bit of a travel bug, and I feel like I have grown in my faith in a really powerful way too.  I definitely appreciate the friendships I have made here as well.

But at the end of the day, the path that I feel God has placed me on means that I need to finish my education at seminary.  So I am going home to finish my Masters of Divinity in preparation for ministry.  This means that I need to leave Korea a little earlier than my contract indicates so that I can start with the beginning of the semester.

So I board a plane on August 2, and arrive home on August 2!  I'm nervous yet incredibly excited about the next stage.

From one place to another

It's monsoon season in Korea.  Now, I am from Edmonton where it doesn't really rain very often, just a bit in the spring time (though I've heard there's been a lot of rain this year...).  And rain in Edmonton is a time to drink tea, snuggle up with a good book, and get cozy.  Rain in Korea still means incredibly hot temperatures and the only way you can snuggle up and drink tea is by turning your air conditioner on.

And yes, I have turned my air on.  I just am not one of those people that thinks "I'll just save the air conditioning until it gets really hot."  I think anything over 27 degrees Celsius is hot!  I mean, that is a really hot summer day where I'm from!

Needless to say... I might die in the next couple weeks, just due to the weather!

In other news, I have moved apartments!  You have no idea how much happier I am to not be in the old apartment.  Of course, I definitely think it would have been better to move back in January when the heating costs were astronomical, or really at any point in the spring when I found roaches and other random bugs all throughout my place.  But better late than never I guess!  I now live a bit further from my school and in a smaller place, yet the benefits definitely outweigh those two facts.  It's a brand new apartment (never has anyone lived here before), the building is clean, I really like the location (I'm close to the river and really close to the gym), everything in the apartment is new and works and just looks nice!  And the size doesn't really bother me because I do not have very much stuff/furniture to begin with and I found I only used a fraction of space in my old place anyway.

I have taken photos of all four corners of my place, plus the side room and the bathroom.

 First corner view, at the moment I'm standing in the doorway.  In a way I guess the couch is in an awkward spot... but it's too far from the TV to watch from my bed and I kind of like it here.

 Standing in the bathroom entrance.  A good view of my guitar!  One of the best purchases I have made in Korea!  That and my bike.  And, of course, watching an episode of Friends...

 I'm so happy that I can hook up my laptop to the TV!  And that the TV works... another benefit of this place as opposed to the last place...

 A good view of the couch... which also doubles as a futon.  The arm rests go down.  So if anyone wants to visit, I would gladly take the couch!!!  And you can see the air conditioning unit up on the wall.

 The side room that has the washing machine and where I moved the fridge and microwave/microwave stand.  It was nice to free a bit more space in the main room.  The green field out of the river is actually a rice field (I think...).  If you take a photo of the outside of my building it kind of looks like it's randomly placed in the middle of a rice field.  And just beyond that apartment building you can see there, is the river.  Which I can actually see from my window as well.

 And the bathroom.  Though using my hair straightener is kind of fruitless right now.  With something like 90% humidity, it's not like my hair is ever going to stay straight anyway.

And my shower sink!  I can't tell you how much I miss having a bath tub and a shower curtain...

Another benefit of this place is that the water heats continuously when using the shower.  At the last apartment, I would wait for the water to heat up and then have the fastest shower known to man, while turning the water off in between rinses to shampoo and soap up or else the hot water would run out and it would be freezing cold.  Not so great during the winter.  It's nice to just have a continuous stream of hot water.  I'm happy!  The building itself is four floors (though the first is just for cars), and has about 6 apartments on each floor.  Right now there are not too many people living here, but I'm sure more will move in as time goes on.

So that is the biggest change that has happened as of late.  It was one of the more interesting experiences I have had in Korea, having the school move me.  A bunch of men from the school came to help move, as well as a few English teachers, and I appreciated everyone's help so much!  Though, of course, I had several awkward moments not understanding what everyone was saying around me in Korean while they were moving my stuff around.  It's definitely a challenge to just accept that you might never fully know what is happening until you are fluent in Korean, which is not happening anytime soon.  Though I can order food to be delivered to my house in Korean like a pro!

Earlier in May, Laura, Betty and I went on a little shopping trip to Seoul!  I hadn't updated the blog about it because it was in my time of delinquent blogging, so I thought I'd share a few photos.  Though looking at photos of Betty being in Korea makes me sad because her and Chris have officially moved far, far away... to Hawaii!  Needless to say, I am going to visit them!  And in the meantime, I just miss my neighbours!

 Our hotel room, with three beds.  See... they are excited!

 The view from our balcony.  Seoul is a huge city.  Like... massive!  It's so large I just can't comprehend it.  I was just looking at a list of cities, ranked in order of population, and Seoul was ranked as the third largest in the world.  Edmonton, 403rd.  Boeun... not even on the list.

 We went for Mexican food... and it was awesome.  Yes, I've been here before, but it was still awesome!

 I'm happy to be here too!

And the next day was for shopping in MyeoungDong in Seoul.  It was so much fun!  There are some things you just have to venture out of Boeun for...

So that is the most recent update on life in Korea.  Time is simply flying by!  I cannot believe I have been here for about nine months already.  Thanks again for all the support, prayers, emails, good thoughts, and carrier pigeons! 

Where has the time gone?!

Right now it is June 13th.  The fact that it is June is shocking enough, not to mention the fact that June is almost halfway gone!

It has been way way way way way too long since I have written anything in a blog.  Way too long.  And the unfortunate thing is that so many things have happened that I could share about.  I went on a church outing to this cool mountain, I've been to Seoul twice, there have been goodbye parties for people leaving Korea for good, I participated in the first leg of a Korean singing competition (where I actually memorized a song in KOREAN), a school wide Sports Day happened, as well as many other things.

Unfortunately, this blog isn't going to give you any photos of those things (mostly because I left my camera at home and I'm currently at school).  Moreover, I'm not going to go into any details at the moment.

More than anything I just wanted to do a brief update and say that life right now is good.  I feel so blessed by the experiences I have had and the friendships I have made while being in Korea.  Lately I feel like so many things are happening.  If it's not preparing to lead worship on Sunday morning, it's preparing to move to a new apartment or saying goodbye to my next door neighbours or wondering about the coming months. And although "things" can be overwhelming, I have a lot of joy.  I'd love to tell you that I've mastered teaching ESL or have finally gotten my 6-3 class to listen to me or that I can speak fluent Korean... but although none of these things have happened, what has happened is just a renewed sense that I am where I'm supposed to be right now.  I always thought that when I look back at my time in Korea it would finally be made clear to me why God opened the door to Korea so wide when so many other doors closed.  And I think some of that is coming to light for me already. 

When I came out to Korea, I came struggling a lot with so many questions in my life.  I was struggling with my faith and struggling to figure out my next steps.  And while I do not necessarily have answers, I have a lot more peace. 

So on the one hand I apologize for my dreadful blogging habits.  But on the other hand, I guess you can take my lack of blogging communication as a sign that I'm just enjoying life right now.

Kate, me, Juhui, Jenny, and Dahye at the Sports Day (even though I'm not even looking at the camera I still like this picture... thanks for the photo Angela!)

BBQ (just not Korean style) and other fun things

As I mentioned in my last blog, we are most definitely in Spring in Korea!  And that means it's time for outdoor activities... specifically barbecuing!  Now, none of us foreigners live in a house with a yard or anything like that, so finding a place to have a real, outdoor grilling session is a little bit of a task.  Luckily the apartment building behind my building has a roof and even stair access to the roof.  Unfortunately... it is gross.  Like, really gross.  But Betty, Chris and I were up for the challenge of tidying it up before we could chill up there.

 The roof

 Gross junk on the roof

 More gross stuff on the roof (and I'm not talking about Chris... but more so the random stroller)

 I'm grossed out.  What these pics do not convey are also all the pieces of broken glass and just general grossness.

Now, the cleaning of the roof nicely brings up to one of my biggest pet peeves in Korea.  This is an odd pet peeve, but it drives me crazy!  Perhaps first I should tell you some things I really like about Korea, just to balance this a bit.  For example, I like that in restaurants there is a little bell on your table so that you just push that and the server then comes to see what you need.  You don't have to do the awkward wave, try to catch their eye, impatient thing.  I also like that you can go to noraebong (karoake) every month and no one judges you.  And I really love kimchi jigae.  It is my favourite food in Korea.  Delicious!

However, there are some things that drive me crazy here too.  And the one in particular I'm talking about is the length of the broom handles.  Yes... broom handles.  I will NEVER understand why every broom I have seen in Korea is about half the length as it should be thus whenever anyone sweeps, they have to be hunched over.  Hunched over awkwardly so that it causes your back to hurt if you sweep long enough.  I swear this is what causes back problems later in life.  Let me demonstrate...

See... I will never understand.  Why, I ask you?  Why?

Once the cleaning happened we could finally get down to some BBQ-ing business! 

 

You have no idea how good it was to have a burger!  We used ground pork instead of beef, but it was still fantastic!

 Simon and Laura enjoying the view.  Me and Betty getting in a good photo op.

 The burgers were amazing, thanks to chef Chris.  Some of us had two... one of us even had three... though I will not mention any names *cough*Simon*cough*...

 Something is clearly funny...

 Yes yes, it's a story by Betty!  Of course...  I'm sure she's regaling the tales of her famous relatives.  Namely... the Rock.  Yep.

 I'm loving the sun!

 It looks way better without as much garbage on the roof... and instead filled with lovely people!

The group! 

In other fun news... just this past Sunday I had the wonderful opportunity to sing at my church here in Korea, Sangdang Presbyterian Church.  It was such a blessing to worship in the main sanctuary with hundreds of local believers.  And I was so touched to be asked to sing.  Forgive me if you've seen the video, but if you would like to check it out... here it is:

Thanks again for checking out the blog.  Please feel free to comment, email, text, send out good thoughts, however the mood strikes you to communicate with me!  Happy Spring everyone!