I always thought I was a good teacher...

and here's evidence!!

Look who we saw!!

So, we were walking down the streets of Itaewon yesterday in Seoul (some girlfriends and I went shopping) and we saw this guy basically mobbed by Koreans, getting photos taken with him.  Okay, I am not going lie...when I first saw him I was thinking, is that Evander Holyfield or Mike Tyson?  He was a HUGE guy!  I realized when I got close that he wasn't either of those two guys, but he was obviously famous, so my brave friends (yes, we acted like lame tourists) and I decided to get our photo taken with him.  Does anyone know who he is???

Okay, if you guessed Bob Sapp, you are right.  He is a mixed martial arts and K1 fighter.  Click here to read about him.  Of course, as soon as I showed Michael the photo later he knew who he was.  Anyway, we were pretty excited!  That's Nicole (my Kiwi friend), me, Bob, and Jee Yeon (my Korean friend).  Notice he is sporting his Big Black shirt (the guy from the show Rob & Big).  Poor guy, though.  We walked back by about 30 minutes later and he was still being mobbed.  Oh well, I guess that's what you've got to be willing to put up with to be a star!! :)

~Leslie

Wedding Bells

Okay, so I am trying to catch up on blogging for the past two months...

Many of you know that my "big" brother, Karl, married his wife Amy on September 21st in the mountains of Lyons, CO just outside of Denver, where they live.  Michael and I were fortunately able to take 3 vacation days from our jobs and make the whirlwind trip from Seoul to Denver in a span of 5 days to see them, attend the wedding, and spend a short time with some family and friends.  We left Seoul early on Saturday morning and returned late Wednesday evening.  We felt like we were walking in a fog most of the time while we were there because of the extreme jet lag, but it was well worth the trip.  It was great to be able to witness Karl & Amy's marriage ceremony and the love that they have for each other, as well as to get to meet many of their friends who mean so much to them in Denver.  If any of you know the Kukta family very well, you know that we three siblings may look strikingly similar, but we each have our own unique personalities and interests (Michael says we are the three most unlikely siblings he has ever met--of course, he is the master of hyperbole).  Karl is definitely the hippie, philosophical, intellectual sibling.  He has a degree in English, loves to play the drums of any sort, and enjoys sharing obscure music with people (he and Michael are similar in that respect).  We are two years apart and most of my life I was known as "Karl's sister"--he was pretty outgoing and was friends with everyone and I was very shy and reserved (haha, I know, many of you did not know me in those days).  I think my love for baseball and musical knowledge can be attributed to Karl--I grew up watching him play Little League and later high school baseball, and he knows all about pretty much every single musical artist or band known to man (I know my fair share, but I pale in comparison).  We went to high school together for a year, attended and graduated from the same university, and even took a class together in college (his hair was longer and mine was short and our professor first asked us if we were twins--kind of strange).  Anyway, we've had our share of ups and downs over the years as most siblings do (especially girls who are beaten up by their older brothers :), but we've always for the most part been able to enjoy each other's company, which of course is rare these days seeing as we've lived in different states/countries for about 5 years now.  So, it made me very happy to be able to take part in his special day and to see him so happy and content with Amy, my new sister-in-law.  I first met Amy about 3 years ago when she came to San Diego with him for Christmas, and liked her immediately.  Now, I don't know her as well as I would like to because of the distance factor, but what I do know is that she is a very kind, caring person who gives so much of herself to help others.  She is very artistic and creative and has a huge heart for people (and animals!).  They are similar, yet different, which makes them complement each other.  I look forward to maybe one day living closer to them so that we can spend more time together and develop a deeper relationship.

So, I am going to post just a few photos from the day (I don't have as many as I wanted to because my camera batteries died just as I started to take photos--argh!  That seems to be a trend these days). 

Here is Karl waiting patiently for the wedding to begin.  I was sooo happy that he finally cut his long hair off.  It looks great. :)

Amy and Karl with their friend, Mark (?), the officiant, during the ceremony.

Their dog, Osso, the "ring bearer," along with Rogelio and Mikey (?)  Obviously I am not remembering names so well...I think it has to do with the fact that we were in an airplane for the same amount of time that we were on American soil.

Amy and Karl.

Andy, our little brother, whispering sweet nothings in Karl's ear. :)  That's also Ben Ebert next to Andy, an old friend of Karl's from our youth group days.  It was great to see Ben again.

 A kiss!

Both of my dad's siblings made it to the wedding, from CT and CA, and here they are with their spouses, sitting around and laughing.  This was the first time the three of them had all been together in a long time.  It was good to see my aunts and uncles.  We did miss Gramma Kukta, though, as well as the cousins on the Kukta side.  This is Uncle John & Aunt Sue, Uncle Dickie & Aunt Barbara, and Dad & Mom.

We also missed most of the Wilson clan, Papa and Grammy, and most of the aunts, uncles and cousins. Cousins David, Sarah, and Jenny were able to make it and so did Aunt Kathy.  It was great to see them!  Here's a photo of me and my beautiful cousin Jenny!

Here are the two cakes.  They not only looked great, but they tasted delicious (and believe me, I had plenty of each--its hard to find delicious cakes in Korea).

Cutting the cake.

Andy, little brother, giving his "best man" toast.

First dance.

Here's a photo of our family, not the best quality.

Here's another one (I copied it off of the wedding photographer's website, but I am citing it right here so I don't get in trouble).

Here's a photo from the day after the wedding as we headed out.  Me, Karl, and Andy.

We headed to Denver to meet up with some of my best girlfriends from college, and former roommates!  We shopped a little, ate a great dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, went to Starbucks, and then headed to Heidi's house to crash for a few short hours before we flew home to Korea.

Here are Jenny, me, Michael, Anne, Dustin (Heidi's boyfriend), and Heidi.  What a great time to see them and to get to meet Dustin!

So, that concludes our long-weekend trip to the U.S.  Wish it could have been longer, but we were able to do what we needed to do!  More catching up to come soon...

~Leslie

5 Months...

No, I am not five months pregnant! Don't get your hopes up--it will more than likely be a few more years before we attempt to try for that. :) No, today marks the five month point in our lives here in South Korea. The time is flying by! I guess that's what happens when you have fun, right? This move has been so good for us for many reasons (with the exception of the fact that we are far away from our family and close friends). God has truly blessed us in so many ways, even ones we weren't sure we would see. We knew that in coming to Korea, we would be able to save money for the future (and maybe use some to pay off school loans). That is an awesome aspect of living here. We are able to save half of our income and live on the rest very comfortably, while getting to go places and see things that we would normally not be able to do. Part of my goal in coming here was to be able to save up enough money over the course of a few years so that if and when we do happen to return to the States, and maybe "settle down" somewhere, that we will be able to better afford me staying home and hopefully having a baby. I know it's not what a lot of women want to do these days, but I truly desire to be a stay-at-home mom and raise my own children when the day comes. I really look forward to that day, and I know that being here and kind of sacrificing my desire to have a baby now, will help that be a bit more enjoyable for me in the future. Plus, I know it's not God's timing yet. :)

We also knew that we would get to spend more time together, which has been great (most of the time ;). It's been nice to get to see and spend more quality time with each other a lot more often than we did when we were working in the U.S.: Michael as a full-time minister and me as a full-time elementary school teacher. Those were both pretty life-consuming jobs that seemed to take up all our time and energy. Though we both have jobs teaching here, it is soo different from teaching in the U.S. and we can pretty much get all our work done at work and not have to bring things home with us. That has been awesome.

It's interesting how living in Korea as a foreigner is for the most part a very laid-back lifestyle. Now, don't get me wrong--the Korean society is not laid back at all--we find that most people here are very last minute with things, but then there is such an emphasis placed on image and appearance, which makes for a very stressful environment. It's no wonder Korea has such a high suicide rate. However, as a foreigner, you learn to quickly deal with last-minute changes to your schedule and such, and the rest of the time, life is pretty chill. You know, sleep till 10 or 11, get up, lazy around and get to work by 2:30 or 3. I think I can say that the last five months have definitely been a "restful" period on our lives.

We have started to get busier though, especially this last month, as we have started to get more involved with things, particularly with our church and people there. We were soo blessed to "stumble" across Life Church Korea after being in the country for only 4 days, and have had the privilege to get to meet and know some really amazing people with hearts for God and ministry, and just make some awesome new friends! Life Church is a fairly young church, probably between 2-3 years old, that was started as a ministry of a church in England of the same name. The pastors, Jack and Jenny, are supported as missionaries to Korea, and the church is very focused on missions and sending people to unreached areas of the world, particularly India, Nepal, and other places. There is a good combination of Koreans and foreigners that meet together for worship--probably about 2/3 foreigners and 1/3 Korean. We meet at the campus of an International School in Suwon, GSIS (which, consequently, I am thinking/praying about us applying to teach there next year). Jack and Jenny also just recently opened up a coffee shop (which doubles as a church office), called the Mosaic Cafe, in a nice area of another city not too far from us, so we have been frequenting it often for jazz concerts, art mingles, and bible studies. Michael and couple of other guys started a men's bible study on Wednesday mornings at Mosaic, and in a few short weeks it has grown to about 5 or 6 guys that have been meeting regularly. I had been meeting with some ladies at the coffee shop to just chat and have good coffee/dessert (though Michael swore it was gossip meetings :), but now we've actually started doing little bible studies as well and are going to hopefully begin doing a Beth Moore study soon (thanks to my mother-in-law being willing to send us one from their church!). I have been working with the children on Sunday mornings, teaching once every month or working in the nursery, and Michael has filled in for the youth minister once when he was out of town. We are confident that God has placed us here for a reason and are seeking to know what that is, besides just saving money and having a good time. We feel like He is slowly showing us what He might have planned for our lives in the future, if we can just figure out how to listen well enough and obey His call.

One wonderful note of praise is that I have now gone for I think 3 weeks without having any kind of flare-up of my colon! I had been struggling for the past few months with a flare-up of my disease, since about when we hit the 1-month mark of being here, and was starting to get very frustrated and down about it. I was going to the doctor weekly to get more medicine and try different things, but now it seems to have finally calmed down, at least for a little bit. I have pretty much cut milk out of my diet and am limiting my spicy food and caffeine intake, and it seems to be helping. One thing I am having to deal with is the realization that this is something I will most likely live with and suffer through for the rest of my life. I know the Lord can completely heal me, if He so chooses, but I also have to face the reality that He may choose not to. It's been hard, as a person who has really never been sick much in my life and could barely swallow pills without gagging, to sometimes take 25 pills a day (that is not my normal dosage, just extra during difficult times)! I just keep leaning on the Lord and trusting that even in this, He will be glorified. So, I praise Him for calming my colon down this month. :)

I know a lot of people are probably wondering how long we plan to stay here in Korea. Our contracts with our current hagwons will up the first week of June, and we are thinking that we probably will not renew our contracts with them for another year. We do like our jobs, as I said, they are seriously some of the easiest jobs we've ever had. However, we REALLY want more vacation time, and we don't get much of that working at a hagwon (we get 1 day off for Christmas this year--bummer!). So we are exploring our options right now. We are not opposed to staying another year or two and trying to either get jobs at public schools, or possibly an International School as I mentioned before. We definitely feel that this is the best place for us to be right now, and we are happy with that! Of course, God may tell us to go, and if He does, we will. But, more than likely, we will return for another year after this first one is up. We do plan to make a trip back to the States next summer, though, in June or July probably, to get some good Mexican food and see all of you! We will keep you posted, though, as that is still about 7 months away.

I will leave you with a couple of photos of us from the past month, and I promise to update next with more photos and details about our fun adventures as of late, including our trip to the U.S. for my brother Karl's wedding, the Andong Mask Festival, my 28th birthday, and a visit to the orphanage.

~Leslie

at Black Angus for my birthday steak dinner!


Haha, for some reason this photo is cracking me up.

Just a teaser...

I know I haven't updated in a while...it's long overdue...but here's what I've had to put up with!  More to come soon (I promise)...

Happy Chuseok 2008!

This past weekend we got a nice 4-day vacation!  It was Chuseok, which is basically Korean Thanksgiving.  It is one of the biggest holidays of the year.  We both got gifts from our work, Avalon.  They LOVE to give gift sets here.  One of the most popular gift sets is a huge box of multiple cans of Spam.  Koreans love Spam.  While we didn't receive a Spam gift box, we did get pretty exciting gifts.

I got a Unilever gift set.
It was full of wonderful Dove/Vaseline soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion!  This should last us for the rest of our year in Korea (if we use it sparingly :).
Michael, on the other hand, got a gift I could definitely have lived without...
A Dong Won Tuna gift set!
It had 22 assorted cans of tuna...as you can see, Michael had already eaten 5 cans by the time I took this photo (we got our gifts the week before Chuseok actually).
I hate the smell of tuna, but I will have to live with it for the next few weeks.  Mmm...hot pepper and vegetable tuna!!

We did have a nice weekend, though.  We went to the largest amusement park here in Korea, Everland, on Friday with several of Michael's co-workers and rode the steepest wooden roller coaster in the world, the T Express!!  It was a ton of fun.  Not quite Disneyland or Six Flags, but still pretty awesome in it's own right.  

Jared, Tim, Michael, and me on the Human Sky.

On Saturday I relaxed and finished reading my sci-fi book, The Host by Stephenie Meyer...excellent read by the way.  Michael went to a baseball game in Jamsil with most of the guys from work and had a good time.  Sunday we had church and relaxed, went over to some friends from church's apartment that night and played a game with them, and then Monday we went to a church Chuseok party at the new coffee shop, Mosaic, that our pastor Jack and his wife Jenny just recently opened up in Jeongja, Bundang.  We played games, drank yummy coffee, had a barbecue (YUM), and socialized.  After that, I got to go experience my first Noraebang (literally singing room) with some fun girlfriends.  You pay about W20,000 for an hour and basically get your own room equipped with 2 microphones, neon/disco lights,  and a whole surround sound karaoke room!  It was tons of fun.  I have posted photos on my Facebook page if you want to see us in action. :)

Here we are--me with some new friends...Amy, Ji Yun (정지연 or Jung Jee Yeon), and Naomi.  They rocked it out!  We will definitely have to do it again.

Thus concludes our first Chuseok in Korea.  Maybe next year we'll take a trip somewhere like Japan or something. :)  

In a few short hours we have to wake up and head to the airport for a very quick trip to the U.S. of A.!  My brother, Karl, and his fiancee, Amy, are getting married on Sunday in Lyons, CO.  We're flying to Denver for about 2 1/2 days!  haha Yes, we are insane, but I think it will be worth it.  We're excited for the wedding and to be able to see some family and friends for a short time.  I'll post when we get back and of course will most likely have more photos.

Anyeong haseyo!!

~Leslie

I can call it a mile away! (or farther)

I just have to say...I was so dead on with this one.   I must admit, I am a little bit proud of myself!  :)  As soon as she was announced, I thought to myself, "she looks just like Tina Fey with big hair," and I made that Face Double blog post well before SNL ever did a sketch with her in it (Sept 5th).  Go me!! :)  I am looking forward to all of the poking fun that comes with this election in the future episodes of SNL.  Of course, I will have to rely on the internet to see it, seeing as how I'm living in South Korea.  Enjoy.

~Leslie

I'm Audrey Hepburn.

Here in Korea, there is an unending amount of entertaining commercials. Many of them make NO SENSE at all, even when they are in English! This is one of my favorite commercials so far. Notice the song in the background. Mind you, this is a commercial for a cell phone. There are a few other favorites that I will post when I can find them on YouTube.

From 30 Rock to the White House?

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed an uncanny resemblance???

The Look

In Korea, things are all about presentation. They love to make things look so beautiful and well-put together. When you get a pizza to go, they put it in a box and wrap it with a ribbon bow to keep it shut.

Just check out this fruit in the grocery store.

They look like they should have cute little faces painted on them!

Also, notice that a honeydew melon is 17,000 won. That's about $17 US! Fruit is sooo expensive over here. I definitely take advantage of fresh fruit when I am at a restaurant with a buffet or salad bar.

~Leslie

"Good for Health"

I just had a breakthrough.

It was sooner than I expected, actually.

What is it, you ask?

I voluntarily ate kimchi with my meal tonight.

Kimchi, if you did not know, is basically the national food of Korea. It is a spicy red peppery side dish of fermented vegetables, most often cabbage (though it is also known to be made with radish or cucumber). If you go into ANY restaurant in Korea, unless it is McDonald's or something, you will be brought a couple of side dishes of kimchi. Koreans also like to say "kimchi" when they take photos just as Americans will say "cheese." Read about kimchi here.

I do not enjoy cabbage. I don't like coleslaw. I don't eat fried cabbage and sausage as my husband craves sometimes. I might tolerate a little bit of fresh cabbage in a salad now and then, but I will never purposely eat the stuff. Especially fermented cabbage. I never have before. That is, until tonight.

Koreans have a way of trying to eat extremely healthily. They have a phrase here that they use over and over when asked why they might eat or drink something--"It's good for health." I promise you, every Korean partakes of something simply because it is "good for health." In our writing classes, we try to correct this grammatical error when the students use that phrase. We tell them to say instead, "It is healthy," or "It is good for one's health." We have a lady from the Pulmuone company who delivers "health-juice" (as we affectionately refer to it in our office) each day to people who order a month's supply. My Korean co-worker that sits next to me has been receiving a little green pack every day with her heath juice for a while. Some days it is carrot juice, some days aloe vera juice, other days maybe broccoli juice, and so on. One type of juice simply says "Beauty" on it. She drinks it because it is good for health, even though it tastes disgusting. I have tried the free samples. However, last week I discovered that she sells Pomegranate juice. I decided I needed to order some of my own health juice, since it actually tastes good. I couldn't help it. It's good for health! So now, I receive my daily dose of Pulmuone juice for 40,000 won (about $40) a month. I am so jumping on the bandwagon of good health.

(Sorry for my digression. I didn't brainstorm before I wrote this blog post, as I tell my students they must ALWAYS do before writing something, and this is a prime example why. My goal was to tell you about kimchi and I ended up talking about beauty juice. That's called "prefacing," in case you didn't know that, and I do that quite often. Ask my husband or anyone who knows me well. I always feel the need to give the background information before I actually get to my main point. I guess it's the teacher in me, always trying to build schema!)

So anyhow, tonight I had a break for dinner at about 8:15, while everyone else was in class. I decided to walk down to the Orange Place (that's what we call it--just a little typical Korean restaurant, kind of like a diner--they have pretty much standard Korean foods and it's very cheap--and their sign is orange). I ordered my usual bowl of bibimbap (steamed rice with a mixture of vegetables on top and a fried egg w/sesame seeds).

I have never eaten at this place by myself, so tonight I decided to sit at the wall/bar type seats so I wouldn't take up a whole table. I have to add that a Korean guy came over to talk to me as soon as I walked in, and just kept talking for about 10 minutes about who knows what. His English was difficult to understand, but he just kept talking! It was tiresome I tell you. I gathered that he is Korean but he lives in Japan and is here for a few months on business. Couldn't really determine what he did, but he was nice, so I talked as much as I could for the few minutes. Anyway, I sat down and the ajumma brought me my food, plus a bowl of soup, plus the sides of kimchi and radish. I took a bite of bibimbap, a sip of soup, and then a piece of kimchi! Then I continued, and KEPT eating the kimchi! It was like I was the host body for a Korean soul, doing something beyond my control, and I just let it happen (by the way, I am reading Stephenie Meyer's sci-fi book, The Host, right now, so that was sort of a reference to that)! I couldn't believe it. Everyone told me that it was an acquired taste (definitely) and that after a while I would actually want to eat kimchi with my meals. Michael already eats it pretty often, but not me. I usually won't even try it, unless it's a completely new kind. I seriously thought it would take me a year or so before I warmed up to it. How about not even 3 months?? I am amazing myself.

Haha, I guess I have been brainwashed by the Korean thought that you should eat foods that are good for you, even if you don't enjoy the taste. Tonight, I didn't even mind it! Also, there is a lot of research that supposedly points to the fact that kimchi can aid in digestion and help prevent colon cancer, which I am at a higher risk for because of my colon disease (ulcerative colitis). I've been dealing with a flare-up of sorts, so maybe subconsciously I am hoping that eating kimchi will help with that. Whatever the reason, I am totally bewildered. I just spent my entire break time at work typing this blog post before my next class because I didn't want to forget about it!!

I guess I really am becoming Korean. :)

~Leslie

Sunrise, sunrise...

Two weeks ago we had our Summer Vacation at work--we got 3 whole days off!  Ah, the life of a hagwon teacher...so, anyhow, we decided to take a trip to the beach on the east coast.  We heard from several people that the east coast beaches are nicer (mostly because they are on the Japan side as opposed to the China side--less pollution), and one of my Korean co-workers told me about a nice beach that is not usually as crowded as the more popular ones, but was supposed to be nice, so I decided to do a little investigating.  I discovered this article that tells about Jeongdongjin Beach.  Read it for a little background knowledge (building schema--that's my job!).  The train station in Jeongdongjin is in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the closest train station to the beach in the world.  If you know me very well, you know I love to take photos of fun and silly things (I don't always have the best memories of things, so I try to take a lot of pictures, and then when I look at my photo albums the memories come floating back to me). After reading the article, I just KNEW that we had to go there for our vacation!  So, we decided that we would pack ahead of time so that we could leave work Tuesday evening and go straight to Seoul to the train station, which would take us on the sunrise train to Jeongdongjin.  The train (1661) left Seoul at 9:50 pm and was scheduled to arrive at Jeongdongjin at 4:08 am.  This way we didn't have to pay for a night in a hotel, and we could get to the beach in time to watch the sun rise!  I was very excited, because growing up in San Diego on the west coast, I was able to go to the beach often and watch the sun set.  However, I never got to see the sun RISE over the ocean there since the sun rises in the east...so I was really looking forward to it.  I love a good sunrise.  The last really good sunrise I remember seeing was in 2004 when Amber and I drove to the Grand Canyon overnight so that we would get there as the sun was rising--it was magnificent!  

We rode the train and didn't get much sleep.  You would think an overnight train would be conducive to sleeping, but they left the overhead lights on the entire time, and all of the passengers were really noisy.  Needless to say, when we got to our stop, we were pretty tired.  So, if we look haggard, excuse that. :)

So, here are the photos from the first part of our trip to the coast and the sunrise.  We took lots of other pictures at the beach and our fun hotel, etc. but those will come in a later post.  Just enjoy the beauty of the sunrise on the East Sea/Sea of Japan/Pacific Ocean!

~Leslie

Go here to view more photos from our trip on Shutterfly.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Acsm7hq5bOWLi4