Having your wallet stolen is kind of a party killer

This weekend was so awesome in so many ways. And so not in one way.
I went to Itaewon (the foreigner area of Seoul) with Blythe and some of her friends from orientation. It was a great time- we stayed at a hostel run by some really cool Serbians, and shared out dorm room with a guy who is traveling on his motorcycle and has been to dozens of countries. It seemed like we had the perfect set up. Including the fact that our hostel was located just a few blocks from Taco Bell!
We checked in, dropped off our bags and headed to Myeongdong for a lot of shopping. Blythe and the other girls arrived in Korea in October, and therefore hadn't had time to buy warm clothes for our bone-chilling Gangwon-do winter. After shopping, we stumbled to our hostel with all our packages and got ready for the evening. Then we went out with others from our hostel, including our motorcycle friend, Noah, and a girl from Germany, and a guy from Greenland (I've never met anyone who's from Greenland before!). We were having a good time, and then we went to a place that was very crowded and a bit seedy, and sometime around four in the morning, I checked the latch on my purse for the millionth time to make sure it was closed, and it was, but my purse felt oddly light so I opened it, and behold, no wallet. Some clever person opened my purse, removed my wallet (which is enormous and bright red) and even shut my purse. I had bought a water just minutes earlier, so it was only a couple minutes at most before I discovered it missing. Luckily we did eventually find the wallet- someone had thrown it on the ground. I snatched it eagerly from Blythe annnnd all the cards were gone. The thieves were kind enough to leave my ARC (ID card) and my subway card, but everything else was gone.
Noah kindly brought me back to the hostel where we ate more Taco Bell and I frantically tried to contact my credit card companies. Around 6am I gave up, as my calls kept getting disconnected, but luckily my lovely mother at home was able to take care of it for me. I just have to figure out what to do about my Korean card. I called and they didn't speak English, so when I got back to my apartment and had the luxury of google translate I tried again. I think I managed to convey that my card was stolen, and gave them my info, but I think the person on the other end might have just been saying  yes to get rid of me- I am not at all convince that she understood what I was trying to say. So a trip to the bank is most definitely in order.
We spent most of the day sitting around the hostel trying to recover from the evening, while I moaned my losses- amongst my losses, I should also include my voice, which disappeared at some point during the course of the evening, and has not yet returned. I'm seriously wondering how this is possible as the last time I lost my voice like this was following the USA vs Panama World Cup Qualifier, and I certainly wasn't yelling like that last night. Anything I now try to say sounds like I am imitating a creaky door hinge. Lovely. Anyhow, hopefully I get a new bank card tomorrow, and when Taco Bell and friendly Serbian hostel workers lure me back to Itaewon in future, I will be a little smarter about what purse and wallet I bring.

I have given up on NaNoWriMo for the year. And I don't feel bad about this. I've won four years in a row, and the point of doing it this year was that, despite moving to Korea and all the crazy things in life that came along with that, I had some free time on my hands and wanted to stay as busy as possible. I didn't want to use the fact that I was "settling in" as an excuse to sit around and mope instead of writing. While, I didn't sit around and mope. I wrote over 20,000 words, which is still a considerable amount, and I kept extremely busy when I wasn't writing. I've gone somewhere every weekend in November, from zip-lining to Thanksgiving parties to meeting up with old friends to touring the DMZ. And all of that was in between planning and teaching my students, administering their speaking tests and helping them prepare for their finals. It's been a busy and wonderful month. Even though I'm not going to "win" NaNoWriMo. And to be honest NaNo isn't about a specific number like 50k (which is pretty much an arbitrary number) anyway. It's about accomplishment. And I feel like I've accomplished a lot this month.

Happy Thanksgiving all!
This weekend was the Cheorwon Thanksgiving extravaganza. Thanks to much more experience and resourceful expats than me, several of us stayed in an apartment and ate a real Thanksgiving meal, including Turkey, stuffing, gravy and pumpkin pie.
After the meal, we chatted over mulled wine and more pie.
This morning was a massive cleaning effort, which I and the other Cheorwon-ites escaped a bit early since we have so far to travel.
I got home fairly early this afternoon, and immediately took a nap. Then I struggled with my Korean thermostat, because my floor has barely been getting warm when I turn it on lately, and the water for my shower has been a bit chilly too. After much button pushing, I managed to turn the hot water temperature up and get my apartment warm for once. The rest of the afternoon was spent cooking dinner, washing dishes and doing laundry.
No offense to the company I celebrated Thanksgiving with, but observing the holiday without my family made me feel pretty homesick. I have a feeling this might be a tough week for me as far as that goes. My school is trying to figure out what to do with me during winter vacation. Normally, teachers are given just two weeks off; the rest of the time, we are teaching "English Camp" or working on lesson plans and paperwork (aka "deskwarming"). Basically, even if there's no school, you still have to  be at work for 8 hours except when you're taking your two weeks of paid vacation. However, my school is going to remodel the building during break, which means no English Camp and possibly no desk to warm. So they are trying to figure out if they can give me the remainder of Winter break off unpaid, which would be fine by me, but it's very complicated as to whether my contract allows for that. Confusing. I haven't made any decisions about break yet, expect that if I have the entire month off, and permission to live the country for that amount of time, I will most likely come home.

"It is that time of year again when Jaquie posts numbers on facebook... Boy I missed that." - Josh Gering

In other words, it's National Novel Writing Month! (nanowrimo.org) Which is why I haven't updated the blog in a few weeks. National Novel Writing Month is when I ( and many others) spend the month trying to force 50,000 words that, in some slight way, resemble the first draft of a novel into a blank word document. This is my sixth year participating, and if I manage to keep up, it will be my 5th straight "win." NaNoWriMo is one of my favorite hobbies, so be nice. And no, you can't read my novel, trust me, you really don't want to anyway.
I hope that one day I will actually finish Nanowrimo and not completely loath my characters and despair of ever piecing together the plot into something that makes any sense, in which case I will be able to move on to re-writing and editing. In the meantime, I won't inflict  my "novels" on anyone, just know that, however weird it may be, I'm actually enjoying this. Be happy for me and congratulate me when I make it to 50,000. Or just hide my status updates if the numbers annoy you that much. 

Moving to life in Korea, my schedule has gotten extremely confusing lately, due to the fact that I have to give a speaking test to all of my students, but each grade is getting their speaking tests at a different time. So last week it was the 3rd graders, and then this week they have their finals, so they are kind  of panicking all over the school (or they just look like zombies because they've been cramming all week). 
This week I have to give the 2nd graders their test, but unfortunately, the way we formatted the test, I simply can't even come close to fitting in all of them in one period, so it's going to take two weeks. The first graders will have their speaking test next week or the week after. 
It's all very confusing, with class times changing, I was late to one class, forgot the classroom key for another, and then EVERYONE -me, my co-teacher and the students for one class- got told the class was moved from second period to first period. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, except we were all told this ten minutes after the first period had started, and since we were giving an exam all the kids were panicking and saying they weren't ready (as though they'd be studying for their English exam had they had math class as regularly scheduled!).
And beyond that, since my 3rd graders have their finals 3 weeks earlier than the other two grades, I have to come up with something to teach them. What? Who knows really, just  something. So... I guess I better get on that sometime soon. Ah, well, we'll figure it out.

As for my weekends, I really don't know if I can describe how awesome the 1st-3rd was. There were a lot of animal costumes involved and bowling and karaoke. We also toured the DMZ, which was very cool. There were lots of covert photos taken in the 2nd tunnel. I won't say by whom, but there are photos. 
Last Saturday I woke up with a sore throat, and decided to ignore it, because Saturday day was zip-lining day! I met Ben and Rochelle, my fellow Cheorwon-ites, and we took the bus to Gapyeong where we met some friends of a friend. Sadly, our mutual friend was sick and couldn't come. We found the zip-lining platform and after a long wait (during which we took a lunch break) we made our way up to the top of the 80 meter platform and went whooshing two-by-two (except me, I was the odd one out) out over the water all the way to Nami island. The zip-lining was really amazing, but unfortunately, it began raining right after we touched down, after wandering around the island, we were all wet and tired. We hopped on a ferry back to the mainland, and waiting in the rain for what seemed like forever until we could shove our way onto a bus to the train station. Several hectic chases after trains and buses later, we made it safely on the bus to Sincheorwon and two hours later we were home and I was finally admitting that I was indeed coming down with a cold. So I've been well-punished for the rainy-day trip to Nami Island, but it was still lots of fun, and hopefully I will get a chance to go back sometime when the weather is more cooperative (and when I haven't been exposed to the Cheorwon death plague).

Like Wal Mart on Black Friday

I've always said that I would never go to Wal Mart on Black Friday. I don't even like going to Wal Mart on normal days, and I'd rather no go to any store at all on Black Friday. I don't have a death wish. But last night I did find myself in similar difficult circumstances.
Let's start at the beginning, when I decided to go to Busan for the fireworks festival, despite being warned that the crowds would be insane. My options at the time were: leave immediately after school, take the 8:10 pm bus and arrive around 1:30 in the morning, take the midnight bus and arrive at 6:30 am, or take an expensive KTX* train in the morning and arrive around noon. I wanted more time in Busan but didn't want to have to look for lodging in the middle of the night, so I took the overnight bus, thinking 6ish hours of sleep on a bus would be fine. The bus was actually great. You pay a little extra for a midnight bus, but it's worth it. The seats recline all the way and you even have a footstool. It's still not the most comfortable way to spend the night, but it's nearly as comfortable as sleeping in a vinyl recliner. I brought a pillow (Thanks for the travel pillow, Jessi and Josh S.) and blanket and prepared to settle in. And then the guy next to me started the small talk. "Where are you from?" The small talk continued for several minutes with me irritably removing one my headphones every time he asked a question, trying to make it obvious I didn't want to talk. Eventually I just reclined my seat and spread out my blanket and pillow and he finally took the hint and left me alone.
I slept pretty well on the bus, aside from being woken up at every stop. Then, but when there'd been a long stretch of no stops  and I'd fallen into a nice deep sleep, was woken by a concerned fellow passenger shaking me and speaking to me in Korean. I made a sound like "gnahhhhh?" and he said "Haeundae! Haeundae!" which is the name of the my stop (the final stop for that bus). I was extremely confused, because it was still pitch black outside, and I was sure that I shouldn't have had to wake up until dawn. The clock on the bus said 4:42, so I asked the bus driver and he confirmed that I was indeed in Haeundae. Great. I normally love it when my bus arrives somewhere early, but not when I was planning on getting six hours of rest on the bus and ended up with less than 5! I wandered down the main street considering going to a nearby jimjilbang**, and also keeping an eye out for any 24 hour coffee shops where I could order something hot to drink and then doze off in a comfy chair in the corner. Nothing was open except bars clubs, and seafood restaurants, which didn't look very appetizing at that time of the morning. I wandered back towards the bus stop thinking I'd get a taxi to the jimjilbang and then stopped to check the metro sign and realized the first train was at 5:20. I went down into the station and dozed off on a bench there for a while before catching a train to Busan station. My hostel was near there, but I couldn't check in until 4, so I put my backpack in a rented locker, bought my return ticket via KTX to Seoul for the next day, got some coffee and breakfast and then picked a random location from a flyer at the tourism info booth. Gupo market.

The market has a lot of clothing stores, but it is mainly famous alllllllll the many different foods, especially seafood, which is mostly live and wiggling in tanks and buckets of water in front of the vendors stalls. I saw all kinds of snails, oysters, clams, mussels, eels, fish, turtles and shrimp. 

Sadly, also had a street devoted to vendors selling these:

No, those aren't pet stores. Those are dogs being raised specifically as food. This was the end of the street, I saw the dogs, snapped the picture and immediately did a U-turn because I couldn't stand to walk down there. They were crying. They look so sad in their cages, and it's bad enough to see them while they are alive, I had no wish to see the dead ones being sold as meat. This is one Korean dish that I just have no desire to try.

After a full morning of shopping and taking in the sights at the market, I was hungry, so I headed back to where I had arrived at not quite 5am- Haeundae beach. I knew there would be good seafood there and I was not disappointed. About a block from the beach various restaurant owners began calling out to me when I showed the least bit of interest in their signs. I chose one that looked promising and settled in to enjoy this lovely, lovely meal:

Mmmm... Yes, all that food was for me, and I ate nearly all of it. The seafood soup was delightful. I even ignored the stares of the Korean diners and used my fingers to eat the crab. Because it is just wrong to try and use chopsticks for that- you end up leaving half the meat in the shell. It was SO good. If I lived in Busan, I would probably want to eat this for dinner almost every night!

After lunch I wandered down Haeundae beach for a while

and then headed back to Busan station to retrieve my backpack and check in to my hostel, which turned out to be the beginning of a very unfortunate 'adventure.' You see, I had been a bit desperate to get a room because I'd been waffling about whether or not I was going to go to the festival for so long that everything filled up. I snagged a bed at hostel that had less-than-stellar reviews and hoped for the best. Later I realized I should have looked into the place a little more carefully. The directions I had led to Busan Station and stopped, but I figured, google maps would come to the rescue. Not so. The address provided was missing important info like parts of the street names. 

Not panicking, I called the number to ask for directions and was greeted by a pre-recorded message informing me that "the number you are calling does not exist." 

Still not panicking (well, not too much) I asked at the tourist information desk. They couldn't help me. I asked random people on the street. No one had seen it. I gave up, as I was already late for meeting my friends at Gwangalli Beach for the fireworks festival. I emailed the hostel begging them to call me with directions and caught a very crammed subway to Gwangalli, where I began to realize slowly the extent of the crowds and impossibility of finding my friends in such a press. I made it almost to them when the first fireworks went off and the crowd completely solidified. I was unable to move in any direction, could barely breath and very luck if I wasn't being viciously elbowed. The fireworks were INCREDIBLE. Really gorgeous, but it was painful being in that kind of crowd. I didn't take any photos or video, mostly because my arms were pinned down by the crowd and I was terrified of dropping my cell phone. Also because I was being elbowed in the head by people holding up cellphones and camera, and I knew that by the time I got around to posting in my blog, there would already be posting it on you tube. So I decided to just enjoy the show as much as I could in my contorted position and post some links for it later. So here you are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyEzpUYwMyk

The show was about an hour long, and by the end, the crowd was getting to me. I don't usually panic over things like that, it's just a crowd. But I was legitimately afraid that if I fell over, I could be trampled by the crowd and seriously injured. As the finale neared, people began trying to leave by forcefully shoving their way through the crowd and the solid mass of people around me became one wall of viciously flying elbows. People were screaming and yelling and trying to protect their children from being crushed. I began to panic. Just as the show ended in breath-taking explosions of light and color, a fight broke out next to me. Seriously, two men beside me were throwing punches and it was all I could do to stay out of the way. Maybe it sounds a little funny now, or maybe it sounds like I'm being over dramatic, but I think that may have been the most terrifying moment of my life so far. I completely snapped. Usually when I'm upset, I get frustrated and angry. I have never experienced sheer panic like that. I guess there's no way to describe it other than to say I was having a panic attack. I felt like I couldn't breathe. The wife and two little girls of one of the men were crying and screaming at them to stop, and I got shoved into some steps (which were pretty much invisible in the crowd) and nearly fell.  I was rescued by very elderly gentleman who had taken refuge on the steps. He saw me falling and grabbed my pack and practically lifted me up onto the steps by it. I was so grateful I could have hugged him!

After a few minutes the crowd thinned a little more and I was able to fight my way against it into a nearby convenience store where I bought a bottle of water and some tissues and tried to calm down before sending very a pitiful text message to my friend Chris asking him to come and fetch me. Finally seeing a familiar face in that crowd was a huge relief! Chris took me to a bar where his other friends from Wonju were waiting and I was able to calm down and enjoy the rest of the evening. Unfortunately, I never did hear back from "Guest House Korea Busan Station" because their email account was shut down. So basically; I got scammed. Hopefully Hostelworld can get my money back. Meanwhile, the company from Wonju missed the last bus back, so we all slept in a fast food restaurant in the bus terminal. Not how I planned to spend my weekend getaway! But we all survived, and at 7:00am we said our farewells and they got on the bus to Wonju while I hopped on the subway back to Busan Station and exchanged my 12:30 KTX ticket for the 8:30 train instead. Three hours later I arrived in Seoul Station. 

Some of the highlights of the rest of the trip home:

I was in line for the bathroom and an adjumma*** yelled at me that I was in a wrong line. She was very shocked and embarrassed when I turned around and she realized that I was actually a girl. Then she told me that I was actually really pretty!! I can't blame her though, I was wearing a puffy down coat, carrying an enormous backpack, and hadn't showered in more than two days, so my hair looked... interesting.

Then, just minutes later, I was on the subway and an adjoshi**** came up and began chatting with me. He asked several times if I was Russian, despite my firm denials (If you don't know what the connotations of being a "Russian Women" are to the older generation in Korea, here is a video explaining: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7DrBbyosDQ). Then he asked if had a boyfriend. Thinking this was a way out, I lied and said yes. He nodded as though this made sense and then said "Many boyfriend." 

"No!" I said, indignantly.

"Russian person." He insisted, and then added something in Korean which I think had the words "How much?" in it.

Luckily as that point we reached the stop. I was annoyed when he got off too, but I made a quick escape and managed to duck to the side and get on a different car from him when I transferred to the other line. 

*KTX is the highspeed train system in Korea (as opposed to bullet trains which are Japanese).
**Korean Sauna. It's a very cheap place to stay when you don't have any other options. You get a little pillow and a tiny blanket and crash on a (in my one experience very, very hot) stone floor with about a hundred other people. Not my top choice as a place to sleep, but still a place to sleep.
***adjumma is an older woman in Korean.
****adjoshi is an older man.

Incoming- long and rambling post

Right, time for another of my sporadic and random blog updates. I’ve been busy, having settled into a somewhat insane routine of a quiet, somewhat boring, and mostly relaxed and comfortable life during the week in Cheorwon, and insane mayhem crazy business on the weekends. It sort of balances out in an insane sort of way.

Weekend before last I went to Seoul. I went to Nakwon Music Arcade and spent about an hour being overwhelmed by the vast array of instruments. Eventually I decided I needed a break and so spent the following three-ish hours wandering in Insadong and picking out presents for the October Birthdays in my family (as well as a few presents for myself). Then I finally made up my mind regarding the instruments, and went back to buy a lovely violin. After successfully navigating two subway lines carrying backpack, violin and shopping bags, I checking into my hostel and then took myself out for dinner. Later I met up with some friends and we went out on the town. On Sunday I dragged myself out of my hostel and, still carrying violin, backpack, and shopping bags, I made my way through two subway lines (again) and arrived only somewhat late to the English service at Grace Community Church. After church and chatting with friends, I got back on the subway and made my way back towards Dongseoul bus terminal to catch a bus back to Sincheorwon. I made a quick stop (still carrying violin, backpack, and shopping bags) at a Lotte Mart that I had learned is under the subway station there, and finally found the long sought after jar of nutella. Then with the added shopping bags in tow, I finally made it on the bus back to Sincheorwon, triumphant in the fact that I hadn't left my violin on the subway at any point.

Last week was fairly quiet (as my week days tend to be). I went out with some other teachers from my school on Monday and some other EPIK teachers on Tuesday and then Wednesday was Hangeul day, so we had the whole day off. On Thursday after school, my main co-teacher and I headed to Chuncheon where we went out to dinner with a friend of hers. After dinner we did a bit of shopping, and then Ji-Hye dropped me off at a motel. At an insanely early hour (ok, it was a little before 7), Ji-Hye picked me up and we drove to Yangyang on the Eastern coast for a Gangwon-do EPIK training conference. The conference was pretty uneventful, but for me it was a great excuse to hang out in one of my favorite parts of Korea for a weekend. After the conference I met up with a bunch of other friends and we went out for chicken, spent hours at a Noraebang (Korean Singing Room AKA karaoke) and then crashed on the floor at a friend's apartment.

Saturday was mostly spent sleeping in, which, in retrospect, seems a dreadful waste since it was an absolutely gorgeous day (can you tell I’m still regretting that I didn’t take advantage of the beach while I there?). In the afternoon we caught a bus to the small town of Inje, where we had a Braai (South African Barbeque. But I’m going to take this moment to point out that “braai” is a much cooler word) for the people in our group with October birthdays.

We once again crashed on the floor (actually I snagged the couch) at a friend’s place and then, having promised to meet my entire family on google hangouts, I woke up insanely early, hopped on the first bus to Seoul (bus trips for me usually mean two hours naps. And that was luckily the most comfortable bus I’ve been on; I slept better on the bus than I had all weekend!) after two hours, I groggily stumbled off the bus in Seoul and onto the bus headed for Sincheorwon (Life would be a lot easier if Chuncheon had a decent number of buses to Sincheorwon, but it doesn’t so I end up going the long way round to avoid getting stuck waiting for hours in Chuncheon). Another two hour nap later, and I was back in my sleepy little town, trudging home with my heavy backpack and easily making my google-hangout appointment. Of course, we spent the majority of the time using the effects to put funny hats and glasses on ourselves and laughing ourselves silly when Josh and Jessi Strong made a walrus mustache very confused about what face it should be on. And for the record siblings and parents, chatting (or laughing about the “sad trombone” sound effect) with you is totally more than worth leaving a party early, waking up at 6:30am and spending four hours on buses. I miss you guys and it was great to chat with you (and to see mom wearing a cartoon pirate hat).

School this morning was a bit tough as I had my somewhat difficult 2^nd graders. Luckily for me, tomorrow is activity day and the day after is the school festival so all my 3^rd grade classes are cancelled. Of course, the fact that they don’t have classes tomorrow may also have contributed to the fact that they couldn’t sit still today. The 2nd graders' topic for the last week has been "Inventions" so today they were divided into groups and each group had to think of an invention and present it to the class. The class then voted for the best invention and the winners were given chocolate. I loved seeing what they cam up with! There was quite a wide variety of ideas. Here's some of my favorite:

The most ambitious invention of the day, the Sam Sung (very different from Samsung, they assured me) Universe Maker can make your own planet, so that if earth is destroyed we can all live happy.  

 This one is basically windshield wipers for your glasses. The drawing kind of looks like a spare set of eyebrows though!

 A phone that reads minds. Note that under "Why is it good?" they listed "convenient" and "girl's mind" (they even used a apostrophe!) I guess the phone can be used to read your girlfriend's mind as well as your own.

Moving on to a less complicated invention, an umbrella with wheels. I guess carrying the umbrella does get a bit annoying.

Three-ball: you get effect three balls in one! air small=volley ball, air enough=soccer ball, air many=basket ball

My favorite drawing. Who wouldn't want a flying chair?

This one is... so Korean. Not sure if you can read it, and they drew the picture sideways, but it says "Chili Honey Ice cream"

And under "Why is it good?" they wrote "You can feel the special and traditional Korean taste."

I'm only surprised they didn't want invent Kimchi Ice Cream.

I love a successful shopping trip!

 Yesterday I moved the furniture around in my kitchen, and sett up my shelf and table so that I have pantry area of sorts rather than a teetering stack of tupperware on top of the microwave. I was delighted with the result. Now I can sit (on the floor, of course) at my table and whip up a batch cornbread and almost everything I need is right within reach. Unfortunately, this meant that my bathroom storage, already a problem, became a dire situation, as the shelf I has been using to store my towels had suddenly become part a pantry. I decided to think about the situation some other time and went to bed. Then morning I nearly dropped my hair straightener in the toilet. It was a narrow escape. Something had to be done.
After leaving school today, my co-teacher took me to the bank to teach me how to pay my (overdue... oops!) bills, and I caught sight of what look like some shelves at one of the stores. After the bill paying I went home, opened all the windows to let in the glorious breeze, sighed over my pile of towels on the floor, and then dragged myself outside to go look at the shelves. After wandering the store for a good chunk of time, I found them. So it's nothing special, just a simple little thing with 4 wire shelves. And maybe it's a bit flimsy, but that was perfect, since it was also lightweight, and it had to be for me to carry it home!
And not only did I find the shelf I wanted, I also found a basket that fits neatly on it, and saves my hair straightener from its former dangerous perch near the toilet. AND I also got a cutting board and a couple more containers for my "pantry." Huzzah!
On the way home, I got stopped by an elderly Korean lady who gestured to the shelf and interrogated me in Korean. I've no idea what she was saying, but the conversation went like this:
Korean Lady: Question in Korean. Gestures to shelf. Waits.
Me: Blank look.
Korean Lady: repeats question.
Me: (in English, of course) I got it at the corner store.
Korean Lady: Another question in Korean. Points to me.
Me: um....
Korean Lady: Repeats question. Points to me. Points to my apartment building. Points to shelf. Repeats question.
Me: It's not heavy. I can carry it that far just fine.
Korean Lady: Nods and smiles and says something else in Korean.
Me: (taking this as my cue to leave) Ok, bye!
So, my kitchen is starting to look quite home-y and nice, what with the nice tidy storage areas. Now that I've got that done, and I have some proper storage, time to clean the bedroom and rearrange the furniture in there. I'm hoping to get a desk, but I will probably have to order that, as I can't imagine trotting home from the corner store with a desk!

The shelves! Oh, the wonderful shelves! Also please take special note of my penguin washcloth. Aren't you jealous? I bet you wish you had a penguin washcloth.

My "pantry."

Ah, I didn't tell this story, as it's getting past my dinner time. But the short version is that I had a mop handle and I wanted to mop the floor, so with the help of an old towel and several paper clips, I got... well... this. It works quite nicely though, even if it doesn't look quite like a proper mop.

Oh, right the blog that I promised to try and update. First of all, sorry there are no pictures. My camera inexplicably died days after my arrival in Korea and now my co-teacher has my cell phone in her possession as she tries to browbeat the cell phone place into giving me service. They’ve been remarkably unhelpful so far. So I have nothing with which to take any pictures. You all should tweet about how unhelpful Olympus is when you purchase a defective camera from them. Ok now, moving on from my tech problems.

I’ve settled in at school pretty well, which is to say I’ve already had one lesson that was a complete flop. But, oh, well, that happens to every teacher, and at least my co-teacher was very understanding and helpful about sorting out an activity and salvaging something from the day. Last week my 3^rd grade middle school students played mafia in our classes, which was a fun way to end our unit on detective stories. They didn’t speak as much English as I wanted them too, but they sure got passionate about the game (and I went hoarse from trying to be heard above all the accusations).

My weeknights have been pretty quiet, but the weekends are a lot of fun. Two weeks ago, I joined dozens of other EPIK teachers for an awesome get-together in Seoul: one evening with all the August arriving teachers, and one evening with just the teachers from Gangwon-do province. It was exhausting, but fun.

Last weekend, everyone seemed already had plans, and feeling homesick and sorry for myself, I decided I wasn’t just going to sit in my apartment in Cheorwon and mope. So on Saturday I booked a hostel and hopped on a bus to Seoul. I arrived about dinner time and took the subway to Myeondong, where I grabbed dinner and shopped until I could shop no more. I didn’t really buy much, but definitely enjoyed wandering through the crowd for a while. After that, I headed to my hostel.

On Sunday morning I decided to go to Grace Community church, which I had found while searching on google for an English-speaking church in Seoul. I showed up and was very surprised when I ran into someone I knew! Marilyn went WWU just after me and did the TESL program, and she did the same internship as me at Korea University just six months later than I did. I knew that she was back in Korea, but what a surprise that she was on the worship team at a church I just randomly showed up at!

After church, I went to Sinchon and found a larger grocery store where I was able to buy cheese. Hurray! But I still haven’t found Nutella.

This week is the Korean holiday Chuseok, which is similar to Thanksgiving. I’m planning to hop on a bus and head to Sokcho to take in the beach, since everyone has Wednesday-Friday off. 

Surprise!

I had my first "Korean surprise" today. Just as I had finished planning my activities for the 3rd grade students, I discovered that the schedule had changed and I would actually be teaching the 2nd graders on Monday. Had a two-second meeting with my co-teacher for those classes to find out for sure which pages she wanted me to cover and then brought my book home with me for the weekend. I figured with my light schedule I could easily get all my lesson planning done at school, but sometimes you just can't plan for this stuff. Oh, well, at least I do have the weekend to prepare, better than some teachers who have just gotten tossed straight into the classroom and have to do some serious improvising!

New beginnings

So, after a whirlwind week of orientation, here I am at Sincheorwon middle school (pronounced “Shin-chul-won.” The other teachers in the area have been so helpful and welcoming, and my co-teacher, Ji-Hye is really nice. I’m trying to be as friendly as I can, but they also seem understanding when I tell them I’m a little shy. I’m sure I will be feeling comfortable here soon enough. So far, the students are very good. I’m new, so they are relatively interested in what I have to say (which isn’t much since all that I am doing this week is introducing myself). Everything I do have to say is punctuated by a long “Whooooaaa” from all the students, but I’m willing to bet that won’t last long. Middle school students sure have a knack for saying “whoooaaa” all in a chorus.

It is pouring down rain, and, like an idiot, I forgot to buy an umbrella yesterday, so I had to walk halfway to school in the rain before I make a quick detour at a convenience store to buy an umbrella. I know, I know, Washingtonians aren’t much for carrying umbrellas, but we don’t have rain like this in Washington. Luckily my waterproof coat from Sara kept me dry on the top half, but I am still sopping wet from the knees down. I’ve also learned from looking about me at the other teachers that long pants aren’t the thing to wear in the rain, so next time it rains I’ll wear short dress pants or a skirt that can’t wick the water like long pants.

Although the pouring down rain is pretty loud, it doesn’t do a whole lot to cover the sound of the neighbors’ roosters crowing or the sounds coming from the nearby military base. Last night there were loud explosions and a helicopter flying over, and this morning lots of gunfire. These are all things that I’m told I soon won’t notice at all. And right on cue, the gunfire just started up again. I guess they are right, because no one seems to notice except for me. The explosions are mostly in the late afternoon and evening, and sometimes they are so loud they make the windows and doors rattle in my poor little apartment.

 Today I’m going to class with Teacher Eun-Jeong again. I have four co-teachers here, but I’ve only gone to classes with three of them so far. I’ve already met class 1-4, and Eun-Jeong has that class again today, so I’m hoping she isn’t expecting me to take the lead, because my intro lesson isn’t finished yet. I think I will take a look over the grade 1 book and see what the students are working on. I also get to meet a new class of 1^st graders today,* so that should be fun.

*in Korea, they don’t count up from first grade all the way to 12^th, like we do in the US. Instead, there is 1^st grade-6^th grade Elementary, and then when the kids graduate to middle school they start the count over again. So I have 1^st grade middle school=7^th grade in the US, 2^nd=8^th, and 3^rd =9^th. Those are all the grades I have as of now, but it’s likely that next semester I will have to teach 1^st grade highschool (10^th grade) as well. I won’t have to worry about all that for several months though.

Ever since I was little, I've felt like I shouldn't ask God for frivolous things, and while I feel my parents and Sunday-school teachers were probably trying to prevent me from making bargains with God (God I'll be a good little girl if you just give me a pony) I began to feel guilty about asking God for anything that I didn't need. 

Only recently, I began to realize that there is nothing shameful about bringing anything before God. There is nothing good about feelings of shame that separate us further from God. There is nothing shameful in sharing anything from our lives with our Father in heaven. There is a vulnerability, and a closeness in sharing more than just our needs with God. 

Think about it. There is a voice that tells us not to bother God with anything non-essential, and that voice is not from God. If we only ask God for the things that we need we are treating him as we would a stranger, rather than the friend and father that we so desperately need. 

If your car breaks down and you don't have your phone, will you wait for a friend to happen by and help, or will you ask a stranger? If you are lost, wouldn't you ask a someone, even someone you don't know, for help? In times of need, we will turn to anyone who can help us. 

But would you hand out your Christmas list to a complete stranger? No, we share our wants with the people closest to us. Not that I am suggesting we should treat God like Santa Claus, and bring him our list and expect that if we are good He will simply give us everything. I am saying we should treat God like he is a close friend, or family member. Isn't that the relationship that we say we want with him?

Gardening and James 1

So I was gardening, and I came to a heart-breaking decision: I must prune my pansies. It was a shame, because they were beautiful.

If you didn't look close, they looked like gorgeous, healthy plants with lots of lovely blooms. But if you did look close, you would realize that they grew too fast. 

 The stems got too long, and underneath, there were bugs and mold and disease. I could have left them, and they would have continued to look beautiful for a few more weeks, and then they would have slowly turned yellow and died.

 Once I began cutting off the healthy-looking upper leaves, it became quite apparent that the damage was worse than I thought. I had to cut off nearly all the healthy-looking leaves and leave sad-looking yellow stems and spotted leaves. It looks sad, and dead, and nothing like the pretty flowers that were there this morning.

 The upper leaves and the flowers looked so beautiful, but the further down the stem you look, the more bug and disease damage there was.

When I finished, this is what it looked like. It's sad. 

As I was cutting my poor plants to bits, and wishing I didn't have too, I was thinking about a few verses. James 1:2-3 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance"

I'm sure that cutting off large branches isn't particularly pleasant for the plants. I'd consider it a trial for them. And after the trials, they don't look so good. In fact, they might die. But without pruning them, the disease, bugs and weeds would have eventually killed them anyway. In order to cut the plants I had to care about not just how they look now, but how they will look later this summer. I could have torn out the plants completely and put new ones in, and I wanted to give the old plants a chance. I have faith in the integrity of their roots. I think they are strong enough to survive this, and that they will be stronger and more beautiful in the future because I pruned them today. Maybe my faith is misplaced and they aren't strong enough to survive. Or maybe in a few weeks I will be posting more pictures of lovely, healthy pansies.

FEI Fundraising Banquet

Well, this post is overdue. I guess that's what happens when you click "save" instead of "publish" and then proceed to abandon your blog for several months... again. Anyway, I wrote this back in November. A busy month for me, what with National Novel Writing Month and a trip to Portland to see some very dear friends at the Forward Edge International Fundraising Banquet.


So just one note, a long weekend away from home without your computer isn't the best way to start off NaNoWriMo. So... yeah. I've got 1400ish words plus a paragraph or so that I scrawled in the car. That said, this weekend was entirely worth it.
My mom and dad and I left on Friday morning. Upon arrival in Portland, we spent an hour or so at the fabulous Powell's City of Books. This was only the second time I've gotten to go to Powell's and the first time I had a high temperature, and don't recall enjoying myself much. This time, we didn't really have a lot of time to wander around, but I found a wonderful memoir about North Korea which I have been eyeing on Amazon for quite some time. It's called "The Eyes of the Tailless Animals" and I highly recommend it, I finished it on the car ride (when I probably should have been writing.)
On Saturday, we did a little sight-seeing and then headed North to Hayden Island where the Forward Edge Banquet was being held. Forward Edge International is the organization that I went to Oaxaca Mexico with, and I was delighted when I heard a couple of months ago that Tom and Wendy, my host family from Mexico, and Victor and Lety, who run the a family center called Trigo y Miel in Oaxaca, would all be speaking at the banquet. I lived with Tom and Wendy and helped out at Victor and Lety's center almost every day for the nine weeks I spent in Oaxaca.
When we arrived at the hotel where the banquet was being held we met up with Bill and Anita and some other friends who were had gone with us on our first, week-long trip to Oaxaca.
That evening when went to the banquet. I had a somewhat tearful reunion with Tom and Wendy and Victor and Lety, and then had a few stressful moments of getting back into the swing of speaking Spanish as Victor expected me to translate for him and Lety to the rest of our group when Tom and Wendy weren't around. Happily, I did OK with the Spanish though, as Victor is pretty careful to speak slowly for me. We were able to taste some of the Mexican sweet bread they brought to show off their successful new project- a bakery which brings food and employment to the families in a neighborhood where many of the people, and especially the women, don't believe they have the talents and abilities necessary to have a good job.
After some time to chat and a silent auction, we headed into the banquet hall and enjoyed a tasty dinner and then listened to the special speakers for the evening. In addition to Tom and Victor and Lety, we also heard from Forward Edge facilitators and local missionaries from Nicaragua and New Orleans.
After the speakers, we hung around and chatted with Tom and Wendy and Victor and Lety a little more, as well as others who came on short term mission trips to Oaxaca while I was there.
Victor and Lety kept asking us, "When are you coming back?"
My mom said, "Now that the bakery is finished, what work do you have for us there?" and Victor and Lety both responded, "Oh, so much! We have so many plans!"
My plan right now may be to live and work in South Korea, but at the same time, I hope God brings me back to Oaxaca and the wonderful work he is doing there through Victor and Lety. Their faith and constant encouragement has been so influential in my life. There is nothing like seeing people full of love and compassion for people who have, all their lives, felt inferior, abandoned, and rejected. These children and families are just longing to feel the love and acceptance that they can only find though Christ's love- a love which Victor and Lety strive to show them every day of their lives.
Here are some of my pictures from my time volunteering in Oaxaca at the family center Trigo y Miel.

Brother and sister Yoselin and Leonel wait in line to wash their hands before eating their Saturday breakfast at Trigo y Miel.

Jacqueline, one of the younger kids, enjoys her meal of tuna salad and crackers. Wendy and Lety mix vegetable protein into the salad to make it healthier for the kids. The older kids help carry the plates out to the younger kids before they get food for themselves.

My sponsor child, Clara, waits for the activities to begin after finishing her meal.

Lalo and his sister Melina pose for a picture. I was trying to keep them entertained while their mom and Lety helped their older sister write a letter to her sponsor.