Saying Goodbye

I was both sad and relieved (okay, mostly relieved) to leave our jobs in Daegu. I was relieved because we were under new management and the work environment was becoming increasingly stress inducing. I am extremely thankful for God's timing in regard to our contract.

I was sad to go because I taught two classes full of wonderful students. The first, my ninth graders. They are extremely bright and dedicated students. Their English level is very high. In fact, I had them read The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman during my last 2 weeks. They were able to discuss symbolism, themes and how the literature related to the time period. I was equally impressed and proud. Because of their fluency they were a great class to have a laugh with.

I also miss my class of seven or so elementary age girls. They were always a hoot! I loved being able to teach them songs and games in English. They loved role-playing and charades, and let's face it I loved watching and laughing with them. They are just so cute! I think they have the potential to walk in my ninth grader's shoes.

Here they are on my last day (posing with lipstick highlighters):

 

 

We also left 2 dear friends in Daegu. Our hagwon also had a Chinese program and so they taught Chinese. One teacher is from Korea and the other China. Hopefully, we can visit soon. 01 02 12

Too Hot to Move

It's been so hot here lately I haven't wanted to do much of anything lately. I think the feels like temp on Saturday was in the 100's.

We just had a relaxing weekend, watching movies on TV and going out to eat. When it is 80+  degrees in your kitchen you really don't want to stay in there and cook!

I'm so glad that hubby had the foresight a few weeks ago and had us move our living room into the spare bedroom. Now, we can relax in air conditioning! Although, there is pink glittery wallpaper.

We hit up KFC for lunch yesterday. It was delicious but way over priced! We got a half bucket of chicken with fries and drinks and it was about $20. Yikes!

Saturday we went grocery shopping. We usually do one big Costco trip every six weeks and then small trips to our local store to stock up on milk, yogurt, bread and condiments. Meat is super expensive here so Costco is a life saver. Also, its the only place I've found non-processed cheese.

I really like that the grocery store has a food court. Not only that but they have plastic mockup of the food and you can order by number .It makes it super easy for foreigners. I had a delicious fried pork chop with spicy rice with an over easy egg on top, and onion soup. Hubby has something similar but with spaghetti instead of rice, and cheesy soup instead of onion. He also had an omelet on the side.  Not bad for $10.


How was your weekend? Did you get out and about or seek shelter like we did?

01 02 12

The Family Month: Holidays in Korea Part 2

May is often referred to as the family month in Korea. Parent's Day, Children's Day and Teacher's Day all fall in this month.

On Parent's Day, children give their parents red carnations. Some students told me their schools has special performances, also.

As a child, I remember asking my parent's why America didn't have a Children's Day. My mom told me that every day is Children's Day. Schools and academies are closed on Children's Day. A good many students told me they received school supplies from their parents .The majority, however, told me that their families took a trip to somewhere like an amusement park, zoo or waterpark to celebrate.

Throughout the year my students bring me gifts of candy and fruit. On Teacher's Day they were especially generous with perfume, cheesecake, candy and lots of handmade cards and letters. I especially loved the note from a little boy in opening class. We were just learning out letters when Teacher's Day arrived. He made me  a card and scrawled "I love teacher!". So sweet!

This is part 2 of a series on the holidays I've experienced in Korea. To read the first part of the series, Candy and Spam, click HERE. 01 02 12

Who Knew? My Superpower is Invisibility.

I never knew I had a superpower. And honestly, I'm not sure invisibility was first on my list of powers I'd choose. And, if that's what's going on here, its not all that cool. Actually, it causes you to get hurt a good bit.

No, I'm not actually invisible, but some days I sure feel like it.

For some reason, people are constantly walking and riding their cars and bikes into us.

I've had two men all but check me in the boards. I was the farthest to the side of the sidewalk I could go without walking on top of wall or border. I even turned my body sideways to avoid the brunt of the hit and they still ran into me.

My friend had a guy run his bike into her in a crosswalk. There were maybe 5 other people crossing the street and he still managed to knock her on the ground.

Just this week, I had an old man get off his bike, start walking it and walked it right into me.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband was halfway across the crosswalk at an alleyway and a car turned, without looking and my husband landed on the man's roof. My husband stood up, the man waved and drove away.

One of my Korean friends tried to explain that there is confusion because when Japan ruled Korea, people walked on the left. Afterwards, a Korean president officially changed it to where people would walk on the right. So, old people walk on the left, young people and foreigners walk on the right.

I'm not satisfied with this explanation. It's not like we're doing the tango and end the end they bump into me. They plow straight ahead into me like they never saw me to begin with.

Am I really invisible?

I'm linked up today with Mingle Monday. 01 02 12

The First Day of Summer

Summer is here!

Woo-hoo!!

The Hubster and I went out for lunch and stuffed our faces with some much loved and highly anticipated tacos and burritos. Yummy in my tummy!

After that we headed out to a flea market sponsored by one of the English churches in the area. The proceeds went to sponsor their mission trip to Turkey.

I purchased 5 shirts for the equivalent of $10. Here they are:

 There are two teal colored long sleeves, a heavy gray button up cardigan and a pink sweater. Apparently I'm trying to infuse some more blue into my wardrobe.

What do you think of this one? I'm not sure how I feel about the pattern. Also, it's a little long but not long enough to be worn with just leggings.  Now, that I'm seeing in these photos I'm liking it even less. I think I'm going to try to sell it.

Afterwards we stopped at Daiso, Korea's version of the Dollar Tree, and I stocked up on stickers for my students. If you remember, from this post, I have a class obsessed with princesses and fairy tales. So I thought they would love these:

I also bought some thread so I can sew buttons back on the shorts that I bought from the online flea market a few weeks ago. I picked the shorts up to wear them for the first time Saturday morning and the buttons popped off in my hand!

Then, we wandered around until we found a hair salon that wasn't overly crowded and went for a haircut. My friend, a native Korean, had written down my requests (a simple 1-2 inch trim) at the top of the page, next to my name written in Korean and my husbands requests (he had been growing his hair out to donate but wanted it all made even with his bangs) at the bottom of the page, also next to this name. At first the hairdresser thought both requests were for me since I was going first. But in broken Korean and lots of pointing, I did my best to show her that the top portion of the paper was what I wanted and the second part was for my husband. She said "okay" and nodded.

Once I was in the chair, she held my hair and showed me where she would cut. It was about two inches so I agreed in Korean. It wasn't until she was midway finished that I realized she DIDN'T understand that one request was for me and the other for my husband. She was cutting all of my long layered hair even with my bangs. Thank goodness I'd been growing out my bangs for years and that they currently reached just below my shoulder. Otherwise, all my hair would be ear length! Mercy!

Needless to say, my feet will be on South Carolina soil before I attempt to get another haircut. By that time it will be a  suitable length to have the layers put back in. Until then, it will just hang limp beside my head.

How did you spend your first day of Summer? 01 02 12

Burger King Fail

Oh Burger King! What were you thinking?!

A couple of Sundays ago the Hubster stopped into Burger King and grabbed me a chocolate sundae on our way home from church.

I looked down and there was a soft serve sundae topped with a piece of cardboard.

There wasn't a plastic spoon, not even a cardboard spoon, but a rectangular piece of cardboard sticking out of my sundae. I didn't have a camera with me so I couldn't capture the sheer lack of spoon-ness that Burger King had placed in my sundae.

I attempted to scoop up my first bite, only to realize that the cardboard was, in fact, really thin cardboard. It required a lot of torque to lift the ice cream. I overestimated and the spoonful of ice cream catapulted into my hair.

Smooth move.

So I re-strategized. I was able to get the ice cream into my mouth if I dipped it, rather than scooped it. In the first couple of bites I realized that I really don't like the taste of cardboard flavored ice cream.

Do you know that ice cream is wet? Do you know what happens when cardboard is repeatedly dipped into something wet? It collapses.

You can't scoop ice cream with collapsed cardboard. Not going to happen.

So, my ice cream sundae melted. And I drank every bit. Wouldn't you?

PS: I linked up with Mingle Monday.

01 02 12

Oldie But Goodie #1: My Fish and Loaves Story

Hi there!

I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite posts from my previous blogs to help you get to know me a little better.

This post is entitled, My God is an AWESOME God and is from Nov. 2013

So do not worry ,saying, "What will we eat?" or "What will we drink?" or "What will we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and these things will be given to you as well. -Matthew 6:31-33

When we arrived in Korea we learned that we would be paid on the 15th of each month. This meant, on October 15th that we would be paid for a weeks worth of work and would not receive a full paycheck until the middle of November.

We had several unexpected  out of pocket expenses such as physicals and alien card fees. We also needed things for the bathroom, like a shower head an a toilet seat.

We'd saved money to bring with us but these unexpected expenses cut in quite a bit.

Now, we come to the week before payday.

We got down to our last several thousand won (I can't remember but I think it was around $50ish). (1,000 won is just under $1) This had to get us each 2 meals a day  for a week and a  six pack of 2 liter water bottles. We also usually buy a small snack to get us through the afternoon. 8 hours without eating gets to be a long time!

Our cupboards were down to 2 slices of bread, 3 slices of ham, a couple slices of processed cheese, onion, a box of cereal (no milk)and 3 packs of ramen. We also didn't have enough water to make it a week.

We've slowly learned that in this country it is usually costs more to buy groceries than it does to eat out. We could easily spend $50 on groceries and not make it a week.

Mike and I prayed that God would get us through the week and that we wouldn't be miserably hungry. We usually purchased snacks to get us through the 8 hour shift, but it looked as if we wouldn't be able to afford them this week.

On Sunday we bought a pizza box. It included a pizza, chicken tenders and fries and spaghetti. We were able to eat all day Sunday and lunch on Monday from this box. Monday we stopped and bought drinks for later in the afternoon.

However, the amount of spaghetti we shared left us hungry part way through work. It was Pepero day. A day devoted to cookies sticks covered in chocolate and other toppings like nuts. Teachers and students often exchange these treats. We didn't have any to give out, but God blessed us greatly by having students gift us with a couple boxes of them. We were able to have our snack after all! I truly felt has if God had had some marketing guru suggest Pepero day just to help Mike and I out of our hunger!


Monday night we ate more leftover pizza and left over chicken from Friday night. On Monday night Mike calculated our cash in hand to be 20,000 won (just under $20)

Tuesday morning, Mike counted our money and determined we actually had 40,000 won. It was as if God had come into our apartment and slipped us a $20.

Tuesday we went out to eat for lunch. Mike had a rice stir fry type dish and I had a noodle soup. Our typical orders at this restaurant. Usually, it costs us 8,000 won. This time it was 7,500 won. This allowed Mike to buy a Pepsi, for a pick me up. Another food related blessing came today. We had been helping a student prepare for a speaking competition. Her mother dropped off two loaves of coffee and nut bread for the teachers to share.

Wednesday, we ventured to McDonalds and discovered that (Praise God!) they were running specials. We both ate full size meals for the same price as two Happy Meals. Towards the end of the work day, I was starting to get hungry. Suddenly, I began to smell cinnamon. One of the managers had gone out and purchased brown sugar cinnamon pancakes from a street vendor. Knowing my love of sweets, she graciously shared with me.

Wednesday night, our next door neighbor and former boss dropped off a bunch of extra bananas. I ate mine for dessert with melted pieces of chocolate that were a gift from my student. We have enough bananas to each eat one for a snack tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow, God has provided enough money for us to keep up our traditional lunch with the teachers at the food court across from our school. I'm so looking forward to a warm bowl of curry.

We've yet to see what God has in store for the rest of the week but I am confident he will provide. Ever since we've started tithing we have never needed for anything.

I feel as if I am living the story of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fish. 01 02 12

Tidbits from Taegu

Living in a foreign country and teaching English, I hear a lot of funny things. I thought I'd take a minute to share some of them with you.

 

 

 

1. I have one class of all elementary school aged girls. They drew pictures if me in various clothes. They've taken to calling me Princess Rachel. The picture on the right is a fairly accurate depiction of my outfit.

2. A coworker explained that she was teaching a lesson on foreign foods and asked me to explain chicken pot pie. I did and when she asked where to get a pie crust from, I told her that I usually make my own but she could probably buy one if she didn't want to. Her response:

"Really? It is possible to make a pie crust yourself!?"

3. "Teacher, do you live in Korea.?" This one speaks for itself.

4.. It was just a usual , happy day. My co-teacher took one look on me and pronounced that I looked "hard". Hmmmm

5. I once went to dinner with a former coworker. As a side we were served what looked like colored bits of Styrofoam. She tried one and then told me I should eat them. "Try, it", she said, "It's delicious. It has no taste."   Wait...what?

6. It is very popular to cut meat with scissors here. Some times we do activities in class that require me to give the students scissors. One student received a larger pair than the other students. She refused to used them because they are "kitchen scissors".

7. This winter I  came into work with a cold. My former coworker explained to me that drinking cold water in the winter causes colds.

8. I was eating a pork chop in the teacher's room. My co-teacher looks at me and says she's never seen anyone use a knife on pork before. I'm sorry I forget to pack my chainsaw.

9. One day, I brought a sandwich, jumbo pickle, chips and fruit for my dinner. My coworker asks, "Is that all you are eating? That would be a snack for me." She then proceeded to crack open a small can of corn to eat for her dinner.

10. And most recently, "Teacher's nose looks like monkey nose." Thanks guys, really. 01 02 12

How We Got Here

If you read my first post, you may remember that I mentioned that my husband and I are currently teaching English in Daegu, South Korea.

                                                        (Our trip to Suseong Lake)

I would like to share with you the story of how we came to be in South Korea.

In 2009, my husband and I were dating. He took advantage of the opportunity to teach in Changwon, South Korea for one year. Before the year was out, we were engaged and I spent my summer vacation visiting him.



We married in 2010, moved to PA and tossed around the idea of moving back to South Korea pretty continuously.

In 2013, we were seriously considering either moving to sunny SC or back to South Korea.  One day, Mike looked at me and asked, "Tell me what you want to do. South Carolina or South Korea?"

Instantly, in my gut, I felt that I should answer South Korea. However, I spoke out of my own desire to move back to my home state.

Before bed, I did a Bible study in my Charles Stanley Life Principles  Bible. Throughout the Scriptures he highlights consistent life principles. Throughout my study,  one principle kept standing out. Basically, it said that to obey God means to obey the initial promptings of the Holy Spirit. (Side note: if you don't have one of these Bibles I highly recommend it. He explains things so clearly.)

I started to feel as if I should have gone with that "gut feeling" and told my husband we were going to South Korea. I prayed and asked God for a sign that this was the right decision. I turned to the next page in my Bible, and there it was- the same principle again!

The next day, I told my husband we should go to South Korea and explained why. We started looking and applying for jobs.

Nothing was coming through, yet we still felt this was what God was calling us to do. So, we put in notices at our jobs and with our landlord.

We packed up and moved out.

The day after we moved out, my husband found and applied for a particular job. Within days we had interviewed and accepted the job.

And, here we are 8 months into our first year's contract.





01 02 12