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.