Round Two

We’ve been back in Korea now for a little over 2 months, and I am just now getting around to sitting down and updating the blog (I guess I have no excuse, seeing as I am sitting on an express bus for the next 4 hrs and I have already finished reading the books that I brought with me)! Sorry for such an extended absence…life has been busy and updating the blog has not been at the top of my priority list! I will try to give a very brief recap of the past few months.

We had a great summer in the US, traveling around from place to place and visiting with our family that we hadn’t gotten to see in a while. I really planned to update the blog over the summer, but once again, it wasn’t at the top of my list. It kept us busy, yet was low-key enough that we got to relax quite a bit. It was so nice to have 2 months off of work together! I am used to having a long summer vacation, but Michael has never gotten to have one with me. I could get used to this! ☺ We loved coming home, and are thankful that we had the opportunity to. We are planning to travel around southeast Asia next summer and hopefully go to Europe the following summer, so we wanted to make a summer trip home while we had the chance.

We returned to South Korea on July 30th and went right to work at GSIS the next day—we had new teacher orientation for 5 days and then the returning teachers joined us for about 6 days, and then school started on August 10th! It was a very exhausting time, but good to get into the routine and help us get over any jet-lag. We are working at a wonderful school and have some really awesome co-workers that we’ve been getting to know. We feel so blessed to be working at GSIS.

I am really enjoying being the librarian. There is still a lot for me to learn, but I am taking it one day at a time and will hopefully get my bearings straight before too long! We are a PYP candidate school (Primary Years Programme of the International Baccalaureate program), so all of the new teachers are still learning the way that the school works, which is very different from a typical American school. I’ll go more into detail in a later post when I talk about my trip to Thailand! Jealous?? ☺ But the library is full of great books, and the kids really use the library a lot. My goal is to try to make it a more kid-friendly library, as the way it is set up now is just like a regular library, and not really child-centered. If you have any suggestions (I know some of you out there are librarians also!), send them my way!! I am really loving the “freedom” I guess you could say of not being a classroom teacher. I think this is more of what I was designed for. I love having the kids come and teaching them lessons, but not having to give them grades and all of that. I think it is the best job out there!

Teaching the second grade class in the library.
I actually stole this photo from our October school newsletter...

This is me with my assistant, Reica. She is wonderful! She has worked at GSIS for 2 years I think, and she has been a lifesaver to help me with learning the basic procedures and things. She is also a lot of fun and I am so blessed to work with her! She has two sons who are in middle school at GSIS. This photo was taken at our secretary's wedding.

Michael is enjoying his position as a substitute, and has also decided to fill up his remaining time with coaching varsity boy’s volleyball and organizing the after-school activities program for the elementary school. Between the three, he is probably busier than I am! He doesn’t have an office but he uses mine more than I do, and anytime someone calls me on my extension at work, they are really looking for him. He has also helped out some with the high school chapels, and even got to fill in as the main speaker for the high school’s SEW (spiritual emphasis week) when the scheduled speaker had to cancel at the last minute. He is really having a great time being so involved with the kids, and I have to say that he is like a superstar to the elementary kids. They all LOVE “Mr. Rains!” It doesn’t really come as a surprise though, since he’s just a big kid himself. ☺




We are loving our new apartment in Suwon. It is more than twice the size of the place we lived in last year, plus it has an oven, a bathtub, and a washer that can also be used as a dryer!! It does take FOREVER to dry, though. We are about a 10 minute walk from our door to the school, so it is also nice being so close. Michael bought a bike from a friend of ours that left Korea last month, so he has been riding that some. I am hoping to get my own bike for my birthday in a few weeks! Then we can take some rides together. Our apartment complex has a Tuesday market set up each week, which is kind of fun. They have all kinds of things for sale every week, from food to shoes to plants to clothes! It takes place right in front of our building also, which is very tempting for me! So far I have just bought myself one plant. I am doing pretty good at demonstrating self-control.

We live on the 13th floor of this building.

This is our bedroom (I couldn't fit the whole thing into a photo).

This is our office/guest room with the futon. Again, I couldn't fit it all into one photo.

Another great thing about living in Suwon is that we are very close to our church also, which is nice. We are still pretty involved with different ministries at church…Michael rotates teaching the youth and we both teach the pre-school/kindergarten aged kids together, and I am on the welcome teams. My good friend Ji Yun and I are also taking over the orphanage ministry, because our friends who had been leading it are in Nepal and India for missions training. I think that means that I am going to have to get my driver’s license so that I can drive the LifeChurch van when we go to the orphanage. I am a little excited but scared to do this at the same time! Koreans are notoriously bad drivers (they just don’t really obey traffic laws) and I think I will have a hard time with that! Please pray for me!

Well, I guess that’s about it for now. Most of our time is taken up working and with after-school activities. We are rarely home before 6 pm, and Michael usually has volleyball games 2-3 days a week. The volleyball season is over at the end of this month, though, so maybe things will let up a little then. But, even with the busyness, we are really happy with where we are at and feel like these are the perfect jobs for us now. We are so thankful to have good jobs, especially at a time when so many people back in the U.S. are struggling. God constantly reminds us of His goodness and faithfulness.

We love and miss you all back home! If you ever want to come visit us, please do!