A Care Package...a reminder from home from the ones who love you. The arrival of a care package each month has done more for me than the contents of each box. It has reminded me again and again of the goodness and abundant love that is friendship. From family to friends, I have been blessed by so many thoughtful people who have really been creative and considerate in what they have sent. Thank you guys so much.
Above is a package from Amanda, all the way from Pampa, Texas. It's contents: The most amazing book I have read in a while Half the Sky. You will want your own copy! Shampoo! Amanda noticed that I was rationing my favorite hair products, so she sent more. Toothpaste! Have to have my favorite kind! Brownies, oatmeal/raisin cookies (delish), no bake desserts!!! refried beans (the veggie kind!), my favorite wild sweet orange tea (nice), Vanity Fair (complete with an article on the Outer Hebrides, Scotland), an eyebrow razor and some great shirts. Also included were some gifts to the ladies at work and our friends. I carried 2 boxes full of love from Amanda home and smiled the whole time! A fantastic box of goodies from mom with a surprise on top! A beautiful Vera Bradley sling purse...the same one that I wouldn't buy for myself before I left because it was a bit expensive! Thanks mom. It came with a matching wallet and a journal! My favorite copy of Pride and Prejudice kept the purse company on the long flight as did my Study Bible (black and white book), a couple boxes of mac and cheese, tuna, ritz crackers, cool-aid, country time lemonade, espresso, lotion, body wash, some spices and my reuseable shopping bag! Bomb.com!! Mom also sent a Thanksgiving box with Thanksgiving microwaveable dinners. Side dishes of cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and english peas!! She also mailed some must have winter wardrobe pieces! THANKS MOM! Mascara, sheets to hang as curtains (flat sheets as you can't find them anywhere in this country), OREOS!!!! HECK YES, Mere Christianty, and black eyed peas!!Total weight of box - 30lbs! Value of my joy = priceless!
A Christmas box arrived from Natalie!! YES! Natters sent tye-dye! Can't wait to introduce my favorite apparel art to Korea! A calendar from Ecuador, a Christmas card, Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes, almond joys, a bomb.com Ecuadorian House Music CD, all wrapped with bows!!
Mom also sent a Christmas Box! All of my gifts perfectly wrapped and my childhood stocking bursting with personal hygiene products, tylenol, bath wash, combs, bobbypins, etc! An iTouch made it's way to Korea along with gifts from my brothers and dog, Scottie. Scottie gave mom a scarf, mittens and hat, while the boys gave me socks, socks and more socks! Mom sent a Christmas Tree, yup! She really did. Complete with decorations and a tree skirt. She somehow managed to conceal a Nativity scene in the box as well. What an amazing mom. Two bags of almond joys, another box of Christmas Tree cakes and brownies, 2 bags of hershey kisses and candy canes AND A BOX OF LIMITED EDITION WHITE CHOCOLATE FUDGE COVERED OREOS...I guess you can see that I have a sweets addiction. Working on it...seeking help as we speak.
Thanks everyone who has been sending me love in the forms of emails, skype dates and facebooks posts! You guys are amazing!
Haiti is 13,472 kilometers or 8371 miles or 7274 nautical miles from Seoul, South Korea. No matter the distance, I am thankful that my God is never distant. He hears our prayers and He meets our needs. The nation of Haiti is in my prayers. May God, with his power, comfort the people, reign peace over the chaos, supply needs and medical treatment, and burden hearts the world over with compassion to give and to pray.
If you are in Korea and would like to make a donation towards relief efforts for the people of Haiti, Industrial Bank of Korea has an account partnered with World Vision that is going directly to Haiti's relief.
If you are in the United States, you can text "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 automatically by your cell. It will show up on your next bill. You can also make donations to World Vision and The Red Cross.
Since my last post, the temperature has continued to drop...past cold...into frigid...way beyond "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME" and into "humm, it's in the positives today - why so warm?!?"
This week is the coldest week of winter so far. I'm really looking forward to the -13F wind chill outside. I have motivation each day to actually stay at school longer so as to avoid the icy cold. On a positive, the rarely right weather man is calling for snow again tomorrow. We shall see... About snow: at home, we watch as the snow quickly becomes mush and makes the ground ready for spring. Here, I watch as the snow becomes ice, the ice takes over the sidewalks, what is left of the snow becomes black from the dirty streets and the dump-trucks that come to haul it all away. I stopped for a minute to watch as a back-hoe scooped up large clumps of snow and put it in a truck to be hauled away. It did not make very much sense to me then, but when you expect more snow over the next few months, I guess it is called for. My apartment is still cold. Showers are something that I no longer look forward to. There is nothing worse than stepping out of the shower into cold air! How many layers I am wearing each day has stopped being funny and is now routine. The biggest change is that any temperature above 20F is starting to feel warm. It makes me think the summer is going to be brutal! Another positive - maybe - is that my school is taking my kids on a snow field trip. We are all going sledding at Seoul Land later this month. I can't tell you how excited I am to watch my kids play in the snow. Not so excited about the sledding. I have all of these mental images of my kids running over each other! We shall see.
I met some really great people this past weekend. A friend of Derek's from Seattle who lives in the southern part of Korea came up to visit and stayed with me for the weekend as my first official house guest. It was really nice to have someone in the apartment. Even better that she was a really encouraging and uplifting sister in Christ. Derek and I took Trish to the Museum of Korea (ehhh...), Itaewon to the Book Store, out for Thai food and back home to watch Two Weeks Notice. We woke up Sunday and went to Derek's church, Dongsan, in Ansan. While waiting for the service, we met Samantha, from Malawi/England. After a really good service, we all went to a great Nepalese Curry place for lunch/dinner. Ummmm vegetable curry and nannnnnnnnnn! It was great to get to know each other a bit better and hang out. I really enjoyed some of the new Korean friends that we made. Joey, (aka - pretty much the Korean version of Joey Tribiani from Friends) was the jokster of the day. He is the first English-speaking Korean I have met that can use scarcasm. It leaves me stumped on half of his jokes, but they were gooooood. Another thing about Joey. Joey spent 5 months in Tennessee studying. While there, he visited Atlanta and learned about some dawgs that called woof woof. Right in the middle of the bookstore, Joey starts "calling the dawgs!!!!" My jaw drops and I am in awe of this new friend who knows my dawgs. Derek eventually walked over and Joey and I celebrated our new bond by calling the dawgs together.
All in all, it was a great weekend!
On a not so great note, the teacher that was scheduled to replace Amanda has declined the position. We are now looking for another teacher to help with the tremendous workload that we have. I looked at a resume today from a girl from New Zealand. I plan to call her tomorrow and talk to her about teaching at my school. I really hope she works out as her resume was outstanding!
OUTSTANDING NEWS ALERT: I have pretty much decided that I am going to be staying in Korea an extra year. Will keep you posted on this as it develops. I have big plans for the time that I am going to be here. I am wanting to see a women's prayer/support group for foreign teachers and young English-speaking Korean women start up and running. I'm really praying for this now and would ask that you cover this desire in prayer as well.
Lastly, I want to leave you with the faithful and ever gracious Madea...she can offer you great relationship advice ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF_10F7eYRE
So, Christmas came...a half week at work...New Years Eve...Welcome 2010...Goodbye Amanda...A foot of snow falls...I take on more classes and students...I live by myself for the first time in my life! ...2010... a new year, a new decade.
First, I need to apologize for not blogging...hang in there with me. It's not that I'm not experiencing amazing things - I haven't really had very much down time - but, that I am taking my experiences and cherishing them to myself a bit more. Second, I'm going to try and get everyone up-to-date, therefore, this post might be insanely long. I'm not offended if you do not make it to the end...
After the absolutely amazing Christmas, I felt rested and rejuvenated. I had a short week at work where I only had to teach 4 classes. AMAZING! It was sad due to Amanda packing her things, tidying her desk and saying one last goodbye to her students. Sometime that week it snowed. Amanda and I had ventured out one morning - I cut my hair. For the first time in my life I had NO anxiety about entrusting someone else with my hair, especially someone who doesn't speak the same language! I felt so pampered! I had not one, but TWO stylists cutting, drying and styling my hair. I will return. Amanda and I made our way to Le Epi France - our favorite coffee place - to visit with Chung Hey. She gave us yet another free cake - a little slice of heaven. (If she continues to give me cake each time I come in...?) We saw the Heath Ledger movie - it was good. Walking out of the movie we caught our first glimpse of SNOW!!! I smiled, Amanda frowned. It was furious snow, coming at you in every direction, pelting your face so you have to squint. Made my day! I was so excited I stopped outside of the apartment near a crosswalk, fell to the ground and made a snow angel. Again, Amanda kept walking.
Visiting Derek's School: Derek works at a public middle school. Since I have been considering staying another year teaching in Korea, Derek invited me to visit his classroom to see if public school would be something I would prefer...the answer to that I already knew - YES! Thanks to the snow and ice covering the sidewalks I busted it on the way to his school! The worst part was that I fell on my guitar. It survived and so did I. I took a taxi to the school. My cab driver spoke pretty good English...he said at one point we were ice-skating in the cab - translation: we were sliding on ice?!? I make it to Derek's school and sit down in his classroom. A student opens the door, walks in, sees me and stares...stares...stares...then, he turns around and runs out. Comes back, asks me if I am Derek's girlfriend, runs out, gets some of his friends, comes back to stare some more. Derek comes to retrieve me. The day of "girlfriend? married? pretty, ohhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhh, boyfriend?" begins. If you ever feel down about yourself, teach in a foreign place, walk into a middle school and you will have an ego for the rest of your life. Students would walk into the teachers room to get a look at me, ask Derek questions, stampede us in the hall, comment on my wardrobe and stare. It was really cute, but also really overwhelming. Moral of the story: Derek is a really great teacher, middle schools have Korean co-teachers to help maintain classroom control and explain difficult concepts and I want to teach in a public school!
New Years Eve in Korea: the day was spent buying Amanda books so that she would have something to read on her way back stateside. After watching Julia & Julie, I was inspired to cook, so I made these great pepper/tomato/cheese baguettes that really were amazing. Derek came over and we watched The Gods Must Be Angry. Paused just in time to countdown the last few seconds of 2009...we might have missed the actual time due to trying to count backwards in Korean...ship...coup...chill...pal..you...oh...sa...sam...e...el.. Happy New Years!!! Toasted with the cheapest champagne "sparkling wine" you have ever tasted! (Even more so than Andre!)
New Years Day: Amanda and I "slept in". Mary and Cam came over for a "girls hang out." We went to Le Epi...guess what - FREE NEW YEARS CAKE! The ladies came back to the apartment and started NERTZ. Derek joined the game - his playing style was pretty much domination. Everyone nertzed at least once. We made one last meal for Amanda, enjoyed a movie on our kitchen floor and gave Amanda hugs and well wishes.
Amanda's last day: Amanda and I wake up pretty early. She's packed and ready to go. We look outside...SNOW SNOW SNOW! Nancy, Lucy and Troy drive us to the airport. Amanda and I reminisce about our first meeting. We ride over the second longest bridge in the world, we have one last coffee, check Amanda's bags, walk her to security and give one last big hug...she's only gone a few minutes and I miss her. I realize once I get back to the apartment that she is an amazing friend that I came to love so quickly. I look into her room and realize that I didn't say goodbye to a friend, I just said see you later...
Derek and I spent the rest of the day hanging out. He was great support throughout the day and just amazing in general. Thai food in Itaewon, a side trip to What the Book, dessert at a bakery and seats home on the train. First night in the apartment alone - not quite alone...the mouse has taken over Amanda's room.
Sunday: had dinner with Derek, Young and a couple of his friends at Los Amigos, a legit Mexican-Korean restaurant. There was real guacamole (ummmm) and REAL enchiladas! There was even a real Hispanic person who served us. Live music, Tyler Perry on Larry King, chips and salsa...am I really in Korea??
Monday -- IT SNOWS ALL NIGHT. IT SNOWS ALL MORNING. IT SNOWS ALL DAY! Most of my kids cannot make it school. The bus is buried under a foot of snow. I am given a reprieve. No teaching for me today. I spend most of the day playing in the snow as natives look on wondering how anyone can enjoy snow this much. The trains are delayed. Some stop running. Cars are stuck and buried, but the taxis are still going. People bump into each other as narrow trails are blazed by determined workaholics. I make a video for you guys to enjoy.
It takes me 45 minutes to catch a train, but I take one into Seoul to meet Young for one last dinner before he heads back to the States. We eat fish and chips at an Irish Pub, talk about how Korea has changed us, grab a donut for dessert, wait on the trains to take us home, say goodbye (I'm getting good at these) cram into the train like a sardine. My hand gets stuck in my pocket for the next 45 minutes due to so many people on the train. There is no fear of falling over...it's impossible. Home...alone...wait...the mouse is still here. He starts running laps throughout the night...I'm up early so I spend some time with God. I feel good and ready for the day. Nine classes proves to be exhausting. I'm yawning by 2 o'clock. Am I going to get through this next month of intense work? Yes. I will.
Tonight is my first night just hanging out with me. It's a good night. I fix the kitchen cabinet, clean the apartment, realize there are more sweets in the apt than "real" food. It's flipping cold, the temperature is around zero degrees Fahrenheit outside. But...I am happy. Welcome 2010...
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