July

Hello July,

We are so excited that you are here! With you coming we only have you and August to get through before we are home. That means 8 1/2 weeks, 60 days in Korea, 30 teaching days (for Anlee) 15 teaching days for Derek, 24 vacation days for Anlee, one anniversary weekend, one birthday celebration (D), one Korean road trip, one last camp, one last trip to the airport and then HOME SWEET HOME!

One suitcase is already packed! One newlywed couple is counting down the days...

Sweet July, we have plans for you...they go something like this (for our family and friends sake.)

July 1st - Dallas Willard is speaking in Seoul and we are going! (He will be here for 2 weeks and we are going to try to make as many speaking engagements as we can.)

July 4-15: Finishing up the semester before Summer Camp.

July 16: Saying goodbye to our co-teachers dinner at our place!

July 18-22: Camp! Intensive English Camp Program.

July 22: DEREK'S LAST DAY!!! WOOTWOOT!

July 23: Derek's birthday weekend in Seoul! We booked another hotel room and are treating ourselves to one more weekend wonderful in Seoul. This is when we are doing any and all souvenir shopping.

July 23-31: Anlee is on vacation! We are having dental work done, surgery on my eye and packing! Derek will be playing the piano for 3-4 hours daily! We are also hoping to have a job and begin planning for what is next.

July, we literally "heart" you! We don't mind that your forecast says rain for the next 20 days! We don't mind your humidity or heat...we are just thankful you are here! 

Love,
D&A

Final Exams

Our students are deep into final exams. Derek's students began today so he is desk warming for the next week and my students are rushing to cram as much as they can into their brains before tomorrows test. I gave my students the chance to use my class time to study for their exam. I walked around glimpsing at their test preparation and found myself with a puzzled look of "seriously?" Here are two examples of what my students are facing tomorrow:

"Consciously and unconsciously, people tend to imitate those around them. That’s why the latest research shows things like happiness, depression and obesity can spread like wildfires through social networks. So, surround yourself with friends who can also be good role models. You can hang out with people who look and act the way you would want to. Social imitation is the easiest form of self-improvement. Social support is critical to changing all kinds of behavior. Good friends can not only help you through bad times, but they can also help you stay focused on your goals."

This paragraph is asking the student to elaborate on the term "role model." This isn't my idea of a role model and I think there are some Korean Values embedded in the paragraph. Social imitation is a way of life here. Individuality involves deciding which famous person to imitate. But, either way, my point is that this paragraph is on last years test...my students struggle with subject/verb agreement. This is way beyond their level! They are busy trying to memorize this exact paragraph, which will not be on the test!

The Republic of Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a 2,798 km coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans. To the north (A) lie/lay Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland. This country is known for its diversity in languages. Eleven languages are (B) official/officially recognized. English is the most commonly spoken language in official and commercial public life; however, it is only the fifth mostspoken language at home. Although 79.5% of the South African population is black, the people are from various ethnic group (C) speaking/spoken different Bantu languages.

Here is example number 2 and any typos you see are direct from the test. I sometimes get asked to proof the test questions. After I'm finished the paper is generally filled with red marker! I know for a fact that my students can't pronounce more than half of this paragraph, but they can memorize it!

What we've been doing

Raspberry Crepes!

Chicken Salad Croissants

Choco cupcakes with icing all from scratch!

I'm working on my decorating techniques!

Lemon cream cupcakes with lemon cream whip cream on top

Couples T-shirts

Just for my mom

MOM - this is an aquarium that is on sale - SALE - at Homeplus (our Walmart).

1,980,000W = $1,800

 Seriously! Who is going to buy this thing? And everything else is just images of our week. The crepes, cupcakes and couples t's were all a part of our week! Love life in Korea! Can't wait to be home! 

Treasure - By Derek Fekkes

So, Derek recently finished this song. He wrote this for the church to worship together. He took the lyrics from different places in scripture...the lyric that screams truth to me talks about broken cisterns and how all that we need is found in Him!

We teamed up to make this video. I had three very old digital cameras stationed around the room recording him. I love watching Mr. Fekkes doing what he does so well, music. And I like that I get to twirl around and pretend like I'm a ballerina again while he does it.

Fekkes Music Video

Here is Derek's latest recording. We recorded this song at in our church. It's just Derek leading and worshipping without the band. And its my first official music video edit! It was really fun to set up the camera angels, (we had three cameras going) and to figure out how to edit it. We know its amateur but still a lot of fun!

We are still praying over a job in a church where Derek can be a worship pastor! 

Please pray with us that we will be given a church home. 

Our prayer is to be near friends and family

and in a body of believers! 

Sports Day Video!

I know it's long, but its worth it! Watch the video from my high school's Sports Day. You think "field day" was fun in middle and elementary school...look and see what High Schools in Korea do for fun! This is a one day a year occurrence and it is treasured by each student. Let's face it, they are studying every day other than this one special day! 

Things I would like to be better at:

1. Proofreading my blogs before I post them! And being more consistent. 
2. Wearing sunscreen.
3. Spending quiet time just gazing and wondering at the awesomeness of the Lord.
4. Not matching! I really hate matching, but I have a hard time experimenting.
5. Photography!
6. Being an aunt and baby whisperer. I want to be the world's most reliable babysitter! 
7. Drawing and Painting. Derek is encouraging me to take an art class.
8. Exercise! Enough said. I'm currently doing a crappy job of the boot camp Derek designed for us this month! 
9. Answering my phone, charging my phone, knowing where my phone is...I hate cell phones!  I'm hoping to break really bad habits reinforced here in Korea and actually use a phone! 
10. Piano...that means Derek and I both have to be better at teaching me! I can play two rhythms now and a couple of inversions, but I'm not doing anything other than playing chords. I guess its safe to say guitar has been put to rest for the time being. 
11. Cooking - balanced and healthy meals that the main ingredient is not cheese, meat, starch or salt! Eating my daily servings of fruit AND veggies! (I slack on the veggies!)
12. Giving. I really want to be more generous with time, money and PATIENCE! I'm not a social butterfly. I really, really love alone time and Korea has spoiled me, so I'm hoping to overcome the homebody attitude and gear up for socializing again! 
13. Enunciating! YES, after being an ESL teacher and constantly enunciating every single word, I have almost fully lost my Southern accent. I don't necessarily want it back, but I don't want to be a walking ESL teacher in America. I'm hoping this will fade away as we acclimate to home again. 
14. Sewing - My sewing machine and I have a twisted, not always pleasant relationship. But, we do make some fun and interesting things together. I have a crafty side that I can't wait to share with the new people in my life. I just need a week long vacation with my machine and endless fabric to craft and create everything we could ever need for our  new home!
15. Being a better wife, daughter, sister, friend and in-law

It's a .......

 BABY BOY!!!!! YAY! Another baby boy will be joining our ever growing family this November. Ashleigh and Whit found out today that the future Long Baby is Knox Whitly Long! Now, the fun can begin! Derek and I (mostly I) are planning to surprise our sweet nephews with ... I'm not sure yet. I'm planning on something highly fashionable for Baby Knox and a hand sewn Pooh Bear for Baby Caleb. Oh GOSH! The great part of this is that I WILL BE THERE for Baby Knox!  Whit is already planning to buy Knox his first set of six-month golf clubs. Ashleigh has picked out Burberry overalls and I'm planning...to cry when I meet the little guy! Here are some amazing photos of the happy family from the annual beach trip. (I had a lot of fun editing the photos, taking out a tent on the beach, some random shoes on the boardwalk and softening the overall look...can someone please send me to photography school! THANK YOU!)

Puzzle

We can't stop thinking about coming home! We are really trying to live in the Kingdom now and have experienced undescribable grace in our prayer to do so, but we are still longing and battling - daily - this desire to come home right NOW!

So, yesterday after church, we called our Dads, cooked some amazing lunch, (Homemade pizza...I don't think I'll ever be able to eat frozen again after learning how to make my own!) and cleaned the house. THEN...I saw the suitcase...and then I saw a jacket that clearly will not be needed again before we leave...next thing I know...I have one full suitcase packed...one HUGE box of goods to donate...3 BIG bags of trash and one happy husband and wife! Seriously, I have packed our first suitcase and we still have 10 weeks to go! AND I hate packing! Period! I never do it on time, or even late. I fall into the frantic, last-minute-packer category.

Diagnosis: Home sickness
Remedy: A Puzzle!

 I brainstormed and viola - puzzle! Derek jumped onto the idea immediate! WE as a couple LOVE puzzles! So, we immediately left the house for the 2 mile walk to the store to buy a puzzle! AND WE DID! We went to dinner after and developed our strategy for taking down the 1000 piece puzzle that you see above! Thankfully, we both have the same taste in puzzles! We love country villages with moderate difficulty. We were so excited after we got home that we pieced together the frame (outside pieces) and are ready to begin the attack. Strategy: Anlee is taking down the buildings. Derek is planning his attack on the mountain. YES - we are so obsessed with puzzles that we didn't want to go to work today so I can sincerely say I think it's working!

Air Con

Okay, so it's hot wherever you are, right? Well, I know it's hot here! Living on the peninsula of South Korea with it's tropical summer climate equals day-to-day suffocating humidity. I'm not complaining too much. Winter is by far worse and we know that this summer heat wave will last a shorter time...we will be back in America before it weans itself, but still a shorter time. Why am I blogging about this...Hum...

In sweet Georgia it is in the 90s this week. That's hot! But, I bet that all of you have your air con on and are drinking iced tea. Not us. At school, we are not allowed (and by not allowed I mean the power switch is not turned on) to turn on our air con until the temperature reaches 30 degrees Celsius. That evens out around 86 degrees. Now, I work in a 5 story concrete building with heavy red bricks, in a classroom with absolutely zero circulating air and over 100-200 students revolving through the door each day. It gets hot in here! Most classrooms are equipped with circulating ceiling fans. I'm not that lucky. I am in the state-of-art English conversation classroom which has been designed to look more professional than the dreary, gray-hued classrooms. My classroom only has ceiling duel air com/heating units. BUT, they will not be turned on until it is 86 DEGREES! 85 and it's not too bad, but a consistant daily temperature of 86 and I can have air con??? Are you serious???? Yes, I complained. After nearly fainting in my classroom from the heat and teaching (which is exhausting in and of itself) I called down to the main office to beg for the air con. My students can't keep their eyes open without some kind of air. A couple of hours later, I was dumbstruck as the maintainance guy disrupted my afternoon class to cart in ONE electric fan! ONE for 30 people! Of course the lucky students who were sitting closest to the fan immediately went to sleep...can you see a future problem here? I CAN! Now, my students fight over the fan seats! As the teacher, I can only give them the fan and hope they stay awake while I sweat it away in front of the class. Is it bad that I'm now wishing for a 30 degree day (expected on Monday) so my air con will turn on...is it also bad that I remember last summer when they only turned on the air con around 3pm after sweating pools throughout the morning?

Lastly, iced tea! GRRRR! Yep, I just growled...why...because the only time I have had ice in this country is when my mom was here and she actually made some. I know it's easy to make, but thanks to Costco our freezer is jam packed. BUT, you can buy a cup of ice at any convenience store for $1.00.

To finish off, every morning Derek and I try to find the clothing in our closet that is the lightest and that we don't have to pair with an undershirt. When we leave the house, we still feel slightly under-dressed after carrying around the weight of our winter clothes! It's amazing to us how much weather affects our daily lives! I must now return to sweat fest 2011!

A Stork Party with Pictures

Birds nest cupcakes. They look a little better in person, but 2 eggs for twins! :) I made the icing from scratch! FUN!

I've already blogged about the stork party we threw for our sweet friend Amy who is expecting twins this August. Here are some pictures from the special day...I'm thankful to announce that I came away from this shower with zero baby cravings! God is really giving Derek and I a happy patience in waiting for little ones.

The sweet husband made all of these himself! Cucumber and pineapple sandwiches.

Thank you Martha Stewart for another crafty creation! Two napkins, ribbon and a stapler made these forks spectacular!

Melidy taught me a new twist on spinach dip - PINEAPPLE! Delicious!

The spread of amazing food and a look of utter "HELP" on my face!

The watermelon baby carriage! Melidy ingeniously added the wheels from a recycled ribbon box.

The momma opening her gifts! Notice the lone man in the background...:)

Trying to translate the diaper package!

Just so you know, BABY PRODUCTS are FREAKING expensive in Korea! Whatever you pay in America you can often times multiply by 10 and that's what you could expect here. There are zero clearance racks for baby clothes, but thankfully, COSTCO sells diapers in bulk!

Books of the Moment

 

Derek read this book in 4 days. Looks like I'm going to plow through it in 2. It's amazing and anyone involved in church ministry should read it, meditate on it and be changed by the awesome humility of the authors. Then, anyone in a church should read it, meditate on it and be changed by the awesome humility of the authors. I keep thinking the words "method" and "Kingdom" when I read this book. 

 

I know it's trendy to read, but Francis Chan is an amazing man who is actually listening to God. The words that comes to mind most are "lukewarm"  "sincerity" "grace" and "love." Chan is sincere instead of preachy. He "gets it." I like this book because it's not heavy in theology, but rich in scripture. This book isn't a 12 step program. It's how to radically (that's what you have to call it these days) live for and with God.

 

This is Derek's book. He's loving it. Lately, we have turned off the computer and just spent time reading. We've been so busy lately that thinking deeply about the Lord has been more of a chore or something we only find time for when we are exhausted. (Mostly my excuse.) Even sickness has kept us from reading, but Derek's early birthday gift arrived in June instead of July and he couldn't resist cracking these books open. 

Question: How has marriage changed you...well, before I really enjoyed and read a lot of memoirs, travel essays and biographies...My theological reading was pretty limited to the Case for Series and Lewis. Now, thanks to D, all I read are his hand-me-downs. Sometimes my brain feels like it's going to explode, but it's changed my reading taste so deeply that reading a fiction book is the hardest chore. I just can't do it! I feel like I'm wasting time if I pick up a book that isn't teaching me more about God. I have to say I'm slightly bitter about this. I really want to read the new book club favorite, The Help. Regardless, you should pick up Crazy Love and Renovation of the Heart! I'll review Derek's book after I finish it!

Baby Watch 2011

My Sista - Ashleigh Long

My first sister was one of the greatest gifts in my life. I met her when I was an awkward middle-schooler and she was my oldest brother's hot date. I remember what she wore the first time I met her. She had on an American Eagle mini skirt with a fluffy winter vest and white turtle neck and a multi-colored scarf with boots with the fur. Throughout my high school years, she was the coolest person I knew and the most fashionable. I became really sick my senior year and was in the hospital. She gave me a picture frame that said friends. I still have it. She is my best friend. BEST meaning you can't find a better one. Her heart is so generous and loving, full of life and laughter. She is that person that you think can't really be real because they are so full of joy. And now, she is going to be a momma.

I can't believe that I am missing her pregnancy! I've been waiting long enough for her and Whit to start a family knowing that the 9 months that she would be pregnant would be filled with fun planning and baby books. Scout Remmy or Knox Whitley will join us sometime in November. I can't wait!

Thanks to skype I saw my sista's pregnant belly for the first time today and she posted this picture. I seriously can't believe it. Whit and Ashley are the most amazing people and I can't wait to see them become parents...with their matching Burberry sweaters and baby and daddy swimsuits! Now, we just need to find out if my next baby will be a niece or nephew!

10 months

Happy 10 Months of Marriage Husband

In the past 10 months of beautiful marriage, I've learned a lot about this sweet husband of mine. In the hope of only embarrassing him a little, here are some of the amazing things that I have witnessed since we were married...

• When I least expect it, he is handing over beautiful bouquets of my favorite flowers. Early on he learned the Korean word for Lily - my favorite flower. When I see him with the flowers, it always reminds me of how love changes us and takes me back to the heart of God's love. 
• We've gone through countless pet names, all of which would embarrass him too much, so I'll save them for us. But, I never thought exotic and endangered animals could be pet names.
• Every morning - he hits the alarm, even if I'm sleeping closer to it. He turns on the hot water for my shower and he makes my breakfast and lunch. It's safe to say it takes me a long time to wake up these days. 
• Every morning I get a text message from the sweet guy telling me he loves me and saying a prayer over our day. 
• He knows when I need to be held. He says I take on the look of a scarecrow with my arms stretched out and my hands flapping up and down. He holds me. 
• He's been humbled in his love and communication. He's always seeking understanding of his thoughts and feelings, always desiring to communicate in a way that brings glory to God. He begins by saying, "I want to talk, please." 
• He's my strength to speak when I can't. 
• He's writing music again. He's working on an amazing song that really cries out in worship of a great God. I like his original stuff much more than the classical piece that I think he plays just to annoy me sometimes! 
• He's excited about getting a dog, Kimchi
• His leadership has truly transformed my relationship with God. 

 These are just some of the things...I didn't include a lot of what I could have, but those things are for us to laugh about throughout our many more years together!

 

2 more months and we will reach the big year mark! We've decided not to go on another international trip, but instead to borrow a car from a friend and do one last road trip up the East coast of Korea. Neither of us have really seen much of the East coast so we are getting excited! 

 
 

School in Korea-by Derek

Hey!  This is Derek writing.  I decided that one way that I could contribute to "our" blog is to take some pictures of school food and show it to all of you who read our blog.  I thought this would be pretty interesting. 
School food anywhere is interesting.  School food in Korea...well, very interesting.  Probably much more healthy then American school food, but also much more questionable.  One of the things that I quickly noticed about eating school lunches in Korea is that everybody eats everything, regardless of what it is, and sometimes not knowing what the heck it is.  Once and a while I'll ask a co-teacher who's sitting next to me in the teacher's lunch room, "What is this?"  They usually don't know.  That's when I go to the kitchen and ask, "Igae meo ye yo?"  (Korean for "What is this?"). 
So, everybody eats everything.  I eat about half.  If I don't get enough I'll go to a convenience store around the school.  If there's nothing that looks edible, I'll go get some fried rice or kimbap at a restaurant.  Without further ado, here are some pics of school lunches.

(Above)  This is some fish stuff.  I don't usually eat this.

 I think this is meatballs.  Little balls of meat in semi-spicy red pepper sauce.  It's okay.  I'll usually eat it.  But you gotta watch out, cause sometimes the cooks will trick you and it's tofu instead of meat.  Tofu is really common.  Comes in all different forms.  Probably have it 3 times a week in some form for lunch.

 Rice.  Everyday.  Every meal. 

 It's always exciting when they serve yoghurt for lunch.  I usually take at least 3.

 This is just diced cucumber in spicy red sauce. (You'll notice that everything comes in spicy red pepper sauce).

 This is meat balls again.  The white things are rice cakes.   Super popular. 

 Every meal comes with a soup.  Koreans don't really drink much liquids with their meals; they have soup instead.  (It was hard to get used to not having any water or other liquids with a meal.  But it's kinda grown on me now).  I don't usually eat the soups.  Many have seaweed in them.  Some of them smell really bad.

 This day, I went out to a restaurant with my co-teachers.  This is the typical layout of a Korean meal-many sidedishes.  I usually can't tell what most of the side dishes are.

 Like this one.  Maybe spinach?  Doesn't taste like it though.  Weird.

 I ordered mandu (dumplings) at this restaurant.  All they had were kimchee mandu.  Oh well.

 The infamous kimchee.  Comes with every meal.  Still haven't acquired a taste for it.

 Back at school.  This is one of the soups I'll eat.  Kinda like Chinese egg drop soup.

 This day I went out to eat at a restaurant around my school.  I usually either get shrimp fried rice from a chinese restaurant or this, Dongas.  It's a pork cutlet with gravy on top.  Pretty good.  Notice the salad-cabbage with ketchup.

Add caption

 

 

 

 

 

Since I had my camera at school, I thought I'd take some pics of my students playing outside during lunch time.  

 This is Tae-oo.  If you followed my blog when I first got here you might remember him.  He follows me around.  Comes to my classroom every day during lunch to hang out.  He's pretty funny.  He's hyperactive and pretty wild sometimes, but his English is actually pretty good.

 Some of my 3rd year students (roughly 8th grade).

 These three boys have been coming to my classroom every lunch time for a few weeks now.  Pretty funny kids.

 Some girls. 

 The basketball boys.

My school.  My classroom is on the first floor on the right.

Hope you enjoyed all of these pictures.  I hope you got a sense of what our life in Korea is like a little bit.  Home in 2 1/2 month!!  Peace, Derek

Videos of Dr. Fish and Surisan

Cathleen and Niki experiencing Dr. Fish for the first time!

Derek taking a sweet video of our hike up Surisan

These videos are a part of "Another week ends."

A Stork Party

This past Saturday, AP, Julie and I prepared a baby shower for our sweet friend Amy who is expecting twins this August! Just to let you know the extent of my duties....I was food girl. So, the menu I prepared with the amazing hands of Bola, Jess, Cathleen, Melidy and Derek included tuna kimbop (provided by Bola), fudge and banana bread (by Cathleen), quiche by Jess and cucumber and pineapple mini sandwiches made by Derek, spinach dip, deviled eggs and I can't remember what else prepared by Melidy and pasta salad, veggie trays, a watermelon fruit basket cut in the shape of a baby stroller and white cupcakes made from scratch with choco icing (no-bake from scratch) made to look like little birds nests with twin eggs on top! Oh man! Now, I was feverish and sickly while doing all of this, but it turned out amazing! 

This is life in Korea! Friends pulling together to be creative and use all of their Macgyver skills to make something beautiful! A quick trip to the dollar store and we had beautiful napkins made from patterned paper, ribbon and a stapler! Ingenuity at it's best! Pictures to come soon! I was too sick to take any so I'll have to borrow from friends.

Another week ends...

Melidy, Adam, D and A @ Coffee

 It's that time of year again...teachers are finishing their contracts and preparing to go back to wherever they came from. This is sad for us because that means Adam and Melidy are leaving us. (Adam is actually already gone, but I'm late posting this blog.) 

Melidy and I have decided that we are going to have a "Sisterhood of the traveling Photo Album" as a way of staying in touch with each other. This is our first photo for the book...one of our last nights together doing what we do best, eating and talking and shopping for hair accessories. 

Melidy is getting married in a couple of weeks so we couldn't send her off without first having a bachelorette party. Just remember that we live in Korea, without party city, so we had to be creative. First, we began the day with a ladies brunch at our sweet and hugely pregnant friend Amy's house. Tea, coffee, whipped cream (13.00$ for one can!!), stuffed banana french toast (via me), cucumber dip, quiche, fruit salad and much more. After giving Melidy marriage advice and sharing our wedding memories with her, we went to the bus stop for our ride into Seoul. Only problem, we took the wrong bus. Somewhere in the chaos of having 6 women get on a bus, we took the one to Suwon (farther south) instead of the one to Gangnam (farther north). We didn't realize this until the last stop on the bus route. To make up for it, we had to take the subway, which we were originally avoiding, into Seoul. We were a couple of hours behind schedule, but we had a lot of fun and great girl time. 

Melidy, me and Cathleen on the bus in the wrong direction!

AP

The Bride - Melidy

Trish and Nicki

Like I said, there isn't a party city here and hen parties are not common, so we had to be creative. I was in charge of making decorations for Melidy to wear that distinguished her as the bride. So, I went to our favorite second-hand store, The Beautiful Store, and found a ajuma (grandmother), pink-laced mosquite net that my mind instantly saw possibilities for. I could make a veil out of it, right? YES! Check out Melidy's recycled, mosquito net, pink-laced veil! (Sewn onto a barrette.)

The Veil!

Can you count the passengers?

 Being a holiday weekend, everyone was out and about Seoul. These are the hundreds of people that crammed onto the train with us. No Stranger Danger to be found. We six girls surrounded each other blocking off our personal space with humongous purses!

They didn't eat my feet - They ate my legs...hum...

 The reason for going into Seoul was to visit Dr. Fish foot spa. Dr. Fish are special breeds of fish that love to eat the dead skin off of your tired feet! YEP! I did this in Cambodia so I thought I would be prepared again for the feeling. NOPE! Still squealed. When you go to Dr. Fish you order coffee, bread or gelato and pay 2,000won ($1.75) for 15 minutes with the little fishes.

The ladies with the fishes!

 After Dr. Fish we boarded the right bus back to Ansan for a co-ed Mexican Fiesta for the bride and groom. (SIDE-NOTE: While the ladies were off playing, the guys were "playing" manly sports. So manly in fact that Derek was tackled by another guy in the ribcage and heard a snap. He called and said he was sore, but taking it easy.) Because we were so late in our lady time, the guys had to prepare the meal cooking for 30 of the couples close friends. 

After eating, Derek touched his ribs and became immediately dizzy so we left the party early for a visit to the ER. There we walked into the waiting room, of which we never left, to the sight of a boy who was missing his big toe and his foot hanging over a trash can, a 3-and-under boy with chickenpox, a kid having his arm re-located and put in a cast and many other not-looking-so-good illnesses. Derek had his X-ray, which came out negative for a broken bone, and I contracted every disease in the waiting area. A week later, two sick days off from school and enough medicine to open a pharmacy and I'm still sick. 

Sick food for me is Alfredo by D! Yummm!

  
After Saturday's events, we relaxed with a bike ride down by the ocean water, a movie (X-men) and choco covered strawberries! YUMMMMM! 

  
Monday was another holiday, I've already forgotten which one. Even though we were sick and injured, we had planned a hike so we went! We left early Monday morning and rode the bikes to McDonald's for breakfast. We took the bikes (carried them up the stairs) to the train station and rode 6 stops to Sanbon (where I lived last year). We rode the bikes to the base of Surisan and locked them up. After hydrating on the 100% humidity day, we hiked up to my favorite spot, a group of rocky ledges that overlook Gunpo and Suwon cities. The towering buildings look so small from the ledge...

  
Today is our Sabbath! And oh have we rested! First, Nyquil helped me sleep through the night. Then, we woke up without the alarm! Blueberry pancakes and a sermon by Francis Chan later we were feeling pretty good. Derek wanted to get some flowers so we went for a walk into town. He picked out the beautiful lilies. The best part is he has learned the Korean word for lily because they are his favorite flower to get for me. (He knows how much I love them.) I picked out the beautiful purple flowers to compliment them. Now, the are making me smile each time I look up. D is reading his bible and I'm blogging. Sabbath day is goooooood!