We're getting closer, and closer...

Exactly one month from today will be my last day teaching at Avalon English (May 29). For a hagwon, it has been a great job for the most part. I can't really complain....too much. :) I have enjoyed my students and my co-workers have been pretty easy to work with. My job hasn't required much outside work, which has been a wonderful change from teaching in the U.S. However, I am REALLY looking forward to the end of my contract for a few reasons:


1. Severance pay! I am looking forward to getting a bonus paycheck just for finishing my contract! Now I can buy those Gap jeans and some new Crocs to get me through my next year (at least) in Korea.

2.
Vacation! I haven't gone more than 5 days in a row without working since last June. As a teacher, this has been very different for me. It hasn't been bad, as my job has been MUCH easier than when I taught in the U.S....but I just love me some vacation time. So, I am thoroughly going to relish my 2 month vacation...in the U.S.!

3. Along those lines...going home to the U.S.!!
An unending supply of Mexican food, ranch dressing, and paper towels to dry my hands on instead of having to use toilet paper (hyu-gee). Not to mention family and friends. We are really looking forward to spending time with people this summer. I will include our itinerary at the end of this post so if you are going to be near us, maybe we can get together! We will not have a car though, so you will probably have to come to us.

4. A new job! I am so excited about being a librarian! It is seriously like a dream come true. :) One of the great things about this job that I have heard from others is that I can take graduate classes online towards either certification or a master's in Library/Media, and the headmaster will do a tuition reimbursement, so I won't have to spend a ton of money and I can get the certification needed for if we eventually move back to the U.S. I really don't see myself ever wanting to go back into classroom teaching in America (way too much stress--I like teaching but I can't handle everything else involved if I want to have a life), and I am so glad to finally "have a plan" for a possible fulfilling career for the rest of my life.

Along those lines...I went up to GSIS last Tuesday morning to spend the morning with the current librarian, whose shoes are going to be very hard to fill!! She spent a couple of hours with me, showing me around the library (which, I might add, is awesome! It is bigger than our apartment :), and then going over MANY things that I am going to need to learn, including several computer programs and how to catalog books, etc. I have to admit, I am a little...what's the word...not nervous, or even apprehensive...but another word that means something similar but in a good way. HA That was as clear as mud. I just mean that I am really excited about the job but there are a lot of things to learn that I have no idea about, involved in running a library. I am not worried at all about the teaching part, which only amounts to about 7.5 hrs a week anyway. Can you believe that! Less than 10 hrs of teaching a week! The librarian kept telling me how much she loved this job, that it was a dream job and a dream school. It really made me feel good going into it, that she enjoyed it so much. It is hard to take over a job when the person before you only has negative things to say, you know? She has done tremendous work with the library, as this is only the 3rd year of the school being open and she was there to start it. I will probably have a pretty big budget to do some ordering for one or two more years, and then the library should be pretty much built.

I also got to eat lunch for free in the school cafeteria. Why do I sound excited about this? Because the food is actually REALLY GOOD! They have 2 lines also, a Korean meal line and an international meal line with lots of other good stuff. And, it is free for all full-time staff to eat lunch every day. That is one of the fringe benefits of working there. That's a lot of money we will save not having to buy groceries! Plus, any time someone comes up to the school to visit or to volunteer or whatnot, they get to eat for free as well! How great is that?! They even have a special bread bar with fresh croissants and butter and honey...ooh I am going to gain some weight eating so well! Except...they also have a workout gym that employees are allowed to use for free! So Michael and I are looking forward to getting to use that as well. The school's facilities are SOOO nice. You should definitely come visit us next summer. And, if you are a teacher and a Christian, you should come work at the school! It would be great to have friends from home here.

Another thing that I am really looking forward to is working for a great principal who is personable. That makes such a HUGE difference in the climate of the school. When I walked into the cafeteria last Tuesday, the principal saw me and said "hey Mrs. Rains!" really loud and waved his hand high at me and was just so friendly and genuinely nice. His little son was eating lunch with him and he talked to me for a few minutes and told his son who I was (I did already know his son from teaching the Kindergarten class at church) and how I would be the librarian next year and the little boy said, "cool!" It was really cute. Anyway, it seems like the teachers all feel comfortable around him and he is an encourager, which is sooo different from the last place I taught. I think I even mentioned in a previous post, that before I interviewed with him at GSIS, he prayed with me for the interview. It will just be nice to not have to worry about whether or not my principal is going to look at me, talk to me, or grunt at me when I pass him in the hallway. Some of you know exactly what I am talking about.

So, it should be a great year. Michael is looking forward to having something different to do every day as a substitute. He likes spontaneity. Maybe he will realize that his calling is to teach Kindergarten!! hehe He has gotten to be pretty good friends with a few guys from our church that teach at GSIS as well, and he is really looking forward to getting to spend more time with them and possibly coach a sport (one of the guys is the athletic director and he said they will need several coaches next year). He also got a Bible Specialist teaching certificate from ACSI, so he can have his own work visa, and maybe things will open up for him to teach Bible full-time the following school year. We will just have to wait and see what the Lord has planned.

Oh, so I mentioned that my last day is May 29th, but I didn't mention that Michael's is June 4th. Its kind of weird, but it actually works out really well. My last day was supposed to be the 4th as well, but my best college friend Heidi and her fiancee Dustin are getting married on June 6th in Denver...

(Here they are--aren't they just the most adorable thing ever?! :)
...so I had asked if I could use my last few vacation days my last week and leave on June 1st, to get there earlier and spend time with my girlfriends before the wedding. They ended up letting me change my last day to May 29th, since that is the last day of the spring semester and they are not replacing me as they have enough teachers already for the amount of students enrolled. Plus, they are going to pay me for my unused vacation days! Sweet deal. :) So, I was going to still leave on the 1st of June, but it turns out that the memorial service for my youth minister, John, is going to be in San Diego on May 30th, so I am now going to fly out on the 30th and hopefully make it to San Diego in time for the service. I don't get to choose the flight that they book for me, but I am praying that it gets in early so I can make it to the service on time. I am sooo thankful that I am going to get to be there--it has been really hard for me the past week since losing John. I am very much looking forward to getting to spend some time remembering John's life and fellowshipping with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, many of whom I can call that because of John's influence!

So, I will then fly to Denver from San Diego on June 1st as originally planned, and Michael will fly to Denver on June 5th. Here is the rundown of the rest of our summer thus far:

June 1-10: Denver @ my college roommates' houses and Karl & Amy's house
(my parents and Andy & his gf are going to be there from June 4-9; Heidi's wedding is June 6)

June 10-27: Houston @ Rachel & Aaron's--Michael's sister and husband (in between there--June 19-21 we will be renting a car and meeting my mom in Dallas for my cousin Dana's wedding; Michael will be in Waco on June 2oth for his college friend Myles' wedding--we may also take a trip over to Baton Rouge to see Rebekah, Michael's youngest sister)

June 27-July 14: Searcy, AR @ Michael's parents' house
July 14-28: San Diego @ Leslie's parents' house
July 28: back to South Korea!

It will be busy but should be a great trip. I just hope they get this swine flu thing contained before we get there. I am tired of people wearing face masks. I live with this every day, people!


~Leslie

Spring flowers are in bloom!

I went to Yeouido Island for the Spring Flower Festival a few weeks ago on a Friday morning with some ladies from our Wednesday morning Bible study group. This is the time of year when the cherry blossoms are in bloom ALL over the place! Yeouido has so many cherry blossom trees and it was such a beautiful place and a beautiful day. All of the other ladies had really nice DSLR cameras with changeable lenses, so they were taking really high-tech and awesome photos. However, I was pretty impressed with how my photos turned out with my little digicam. Here are some photos of the cherry blossoms, as well as some other flowers. They had some tulips, which are my favorite flower. As you can tell, these pictures were
taken before I got my hair cut. I actually got it cut the next day because I was looking at these pictures and decided that my hair looked really bad. :) Hooray for spring and new life! I like this photo of the monk standing on the street.































































































































































Here I am with my friends: Michelle, Katherine, Amy, and Soyon. We asked a man to take our photo under the trees, but he didn't really get the trees.



























This guy was pretty cool. At first we just thought he was a crazy man hula hooping in the street, so we decided to take some pictures. Then, my friend Amy started talking to him and he pulled out his wallet. We thought he was going to make us pay him for taking his picture, but he gave her his business card, and it turns out he was the torch-bearer in the Seoul Olympics in 1988! He was pretty proud and it was cute, so we took our photo with him. See, the hula hoops are like Olympic rings! :)




















































We had a great day! Looking forward to going back next year!
~Leslie

Rest in peace, dear friend...

I have a heavy heart right now. I just found out a couple of hours ago that my dear, beloved youth minister, John Austin Smith, passed away unexpectedly. I am not sure of the details yet as it happened in the U.S. and I am at work in Korea, and all I can gather is information from Facebook, etc. but as I understand it he had been having some heart problems, went to sleep and had a heart attack in his sleep. He was only 43 years old. Please pray for his sweet mother, Elizabeth, and for the innumerable people who knew him and loved him. I have so much emotion within me right now and so many memories of John that I don't have time to put down at the moment, but I will write another post soon dedicated to him. Here is a great photo of John with two other dear friends in ministry, Toni and Laketa. I don't know if I have any photos of John and I together with me here in Korea, but I will look when I get home tonight. If any of you have some, would you be able to scan them and email them to me? Thanks, friends.

~Leslie

Korea: A Love/Hate Relationship

Over the past few weeks, a few things have happened that have made me realize I'm definitely not living in America (as if I could forget or something!). :) Here are a few stories of some good things and some irritating things that have happened.

A few Sundays ago, we rode the bus to church as usual. A couple of friends from church got on the bus at the stop after we did, so I moved back a few seats to chat with them as we rode. It is usually about a 40 min. bus ride from where we live to the bus stop that we get off at to walk to church. Anyway, I got to church and we realized that Michael didn't have his cell phone. he had left it on the dining table. Then, a little while later, I realized MY phone was not in my purse. I was almost positive that I had brought it with me that morning, but I figured that maybe I left without it as well. So that afternoon, when we got home, I checked and it was not at home. I knew that I had lost it on the bus. I started to panic (even though it is just a prepaid phone and I could just get a new one easily), so I called my wonderful friend Jee Yeon to ask her if she knew of a lost & found number for the buses. She didn't, so I called the foreigner help line to ask for a number, but all they had was a number for Seoul, and this was a bus for Suwon. Anyway, it turned out that Jee Yeon called my phone, and the bus driver answered it! So, he said he would leave it at the end of the bus route where the bus drivers take a break, and I hopped on the bus again and rode it all the way to the end of the line. It took me about 2 hours altogether to ride there and back, but I had my phone back within the same day! If I was living in Miguk (U.S.), I am certain someone would have stolen my phone and I'd never see it again.

The next week, I was standing outside the elevator waiting to go down the 10 floors to head to work. There were 2 men standing there waiting as well, speaking English. This was odd to me because they were Asian. It turns out one was Korean and one was Chinese, visiting from Taiwan. I asked them a question about why the elevator was not running, so then we started making small talk. Obviously, if I have a chance to talk to people, I find a way. :) We talked about where I worked and how it was in the same area that the one man lived in. They headed on their way and I started to walk to work, and a few minutes later a black SUV pulls up beside me and the man rolls down his window. He says, "We are going the same direction..." and that's it. So I said, "Sure I would love a ride to work. Thank you!" and hopped into a car with two random strangers. The funny thing is I honestly didn't think a thing of it. I was just happy to have a free ride to work! It turns out the man is sort of in administration of our apartment, so he gave me his business card in case we ever need anything. So, I rode to work with them and halfway through it I felt like a hitchhiker. But, I was safe and they were very nice!

Now, fast forward a week or so. It is a beautiful, sunny day, one of the first warm sunny days of spring. I am so excited about the weather being in the 70s. I wear a short-sleeved shirt and run to Lotte Mart to get some groceries before work. On my way back, a lady starts talking to me in English in the middle of the street as we are walking across. She starts out with, "hi nice lady," and then proceeds to ask me if I love the sun. I tell her yes, and then she starts going into the dangers of the sun and the ultraviolet rays and how I need to be sure to protect myself from the sun. I told her, yes, I do wear sunscreen, thanks. She said that she knew Europeans loved the sun, and that I needed to be careful. I thanked her and went on my way. Then, not even 1 minute later, an ajumma on the corner sees me and smiles, then points to my arms and motions that I must be cold and I need to put on sleeves. I just smile and keep walking. I thought it was amusing. I noticed that when the sun comes out, the Koreans tend to wear long-sleeves and carry their umbrellas, so as to not get any tan or any sun on them at all. Then, over the next 2 weeks, I can't tell you how many times people have asked me if I was cold, because I was wearing a short-sleeved or sleeveless shirt. It is starting to get a little old, people. I like the sun, I like short sleeves, I sweat easily. Got it?? Then about a week ago I went to Yeoido for the Cherry Blossom Festival. The day was beautiful, sunny, hot even~I was walking and 2 ajummas with an umbrella walked up to me and asked me in Korean, ,"추워요?(Choo-a yo?)" which basically means, "Aren't you cold?" I realized what they were saying, and I smartly replied, "괜찮아요(kwen-chan-a-yo), which means, "I am fine." Basically, leave me alone. :) I was proud of myself for being able to respond to them in Korean. It is just really interesting how so many random Koreans feel like it is their duty to give you advice on things. It makes me laugh. I've decided that they don't think it is appropriate for me to show my arms/shoulders, so instead of just telling me that, they will ask me if I am cold--beating around the bush. I could get really annoyed, but I try to just take it lightly. Here's actually a photo of the women asking me that! So well-meaning. :)

This morning, we were riding the bus and showing a girl who is new to our area how to get to our church. We just met her, so I sat next to her and we chatted for the majority of the 40-minute bus ride. We were about 2 minutes away from our bus stop, when the ajoshee (middle aged man) sitting across the aisle from us gets my attention and using charades, basically tells me to stop talking. He pointed to me, put his fingers in his ears, pointed to the people behind us in the bus, made the little hand gesture for talking, and then makes an x with his arms. I was completely shocked! We had been speaking but we weren't talking loudly or anything! I was just in utter disbelief. I just stared at him and then kept talking. I was not going to apologize for talking on a bus. My new friend was shocked too (she's only been here 4 weeks). She reassured me that I was not talking loudly either. I just had to laugh, but I still was a little ticked off!! What a rude man. Geez.

On another note, Michael and I took a little walk last night along the stream that runs behind our apartment and ate dinner at a cute little cafe. We also stopped to take some photos along the way. The flowers are blooming and it is beautiful! I think Spring is my favorite of all the seasons, no matter where you live. I love the newness of life after drab dreariness, and all of the abundant colors.

Thanks for reading. More to come soon! Oh yeah, I got my hair cut off also! :)
~Leslie

2011 Sounds SO Far Away!

Well, God just continues to shower us with blessings, and we are beyond thankful.  We officially both have jobs in Korea for at least two more years!  We talked to the principal at GSIS on Thursday and he offered Michael the full-time substitute job, with the chance of possibly teaching some Bible classes if they need him to.  Either way, we are just thrilled to know that he for sure has a job there as well!  So, we will both be working at the same school until at least July 2011.  Doesn't that sound crazy?! :)  This means that we will get really nice housing, and a lot more vacation time, among many other perks.  So, if you are in the market for a trip to Asia, please come see us!  We should for sure have an extra bedroom and bathroom just for guests.

We are also really excited about this because now we can begin planning our summer vacation to the US!  We're so excited to be able to have the chance to spend some good, quality time with family and friends.  We're working on the itinerary right now, but we know for sure we'll be flying to Denver the first week of June (my best college friend Heidi is getting married June 6th and I am a bridesmaid), and flying out from San Diego the last week of July.  Somewhere in between there we are planning to make it to Dallas, Houston, Baton Rouge, Searcy, and hopefully Connecticut.  The really awesome thing about all this is our current school pays for our flight home, and the new school will pay for our flight back to Korea.  Korea is so good to English-speaking foreigners!  We are blessed.

I know that I haven't even started as a librarian yet, but I just have this feeling that this is going to be my favorite job ever.  I think this is something that I can see myself doing for a long time, which is not something I could say about being a classroom teacher.  I know that it will be a lot of work, but it is going to be work that I think I will really, truly enjoy, and feel like I can do a good job at.  Praise God for this opportunity!

In other news, it looks like spring is finally arriving here.  We had a week of mostly sunny, semi-warm days this week, though tomorrow it is supposed to be 44 F and snowing.  Next week the weather is supposed to get up to the high 50s and 60s, which makes me soo excited!  Spring is my favorite season.  I love the feeling of seeing the sun after almost 5 months of just clouds and wind.  It makes me so happy!  It also makes me motivated to work out again.  I've been going back to the gym with more regularity, which in turn makes me feel better.  I lost half a kilogram last week!  haha  That's about 1 pound.  Anything is exciting at this point!

We do have a prayer request.  We found out this week that a dear lady from our old church in Judsonia unexpectedly passed away.  Her name was Hazel Wiggs and she was one of the most precious ladies we have ever had the privilege to know.  She was always such an encouragement to us when Michael was the youth minister and she was always one of his biggest fans.  She had gone in for a routine gall-bladder surgery over a month ago I guess, and had complications and just never recovered from it--basically had been in a coma for the last month.  She was a loving wife and a proud mother and grandmother.  She had a hard time hearing, and I can still envision her at church on a Sunday morning, with the earphones to hear the sermon better in her ears, practically dancing down the aisles during the meet and greet time, hugging everyone she went by and smiling her beautiful smile.  What a loss for us here on Earth, but what a prize for Heaven!  I know she is enjoying every moment she has with Jesus now.  Please pray for her husband, Alton, and her daughters and grandchildren.  Her grandson Jordan had started coming to the youth group for the last few months that we were there, and he and Michael really had a connection.  It is sad for us to know that we won't be able to see her the next time we visit.

Well, I guess that's it for now.  I just wanted to fill everyone in on what's been going on and again, thank you for your prayers!  

~Leslie

I owe it all to LeVar Burton...

It all started, years ago, with a little song that went like this:

"Butterfly in the sky....I can go twice as high...take a look, it's in a book, Reading Rainbow...I can go anywhere..."

It seems as though my anywhere is South Korea!  Sorry, I know this is cheesy, but it is official--I (Leslie) am going to be the Elementary Librarian at Gyeonggi Suwon International School (GSIS)!!  Click on the name to go to the school's website if you want to see more.

I am so thrilled about this job!  In my four years of teaching experience, I have found the most satisfaction in teaching children to read and getting kids excited about books, and I am soo excited to get to do this as a school librarian!  I am wanting to start working on my school library certification as well, so hopefully I can work that into my schedule and eventually be certified so that I will have a better chance of doing this as a career when we eventually return to the U.S. to live.  Oh yeah, the school requires a 2 year contract, so we will for sure be living in South Korea for at least 2 more years.  Start making plans to come visit us!! :)

We will be moving to the city of Suwon, which is the capital city of our province, Gyeonggi-do, and has a population of around a million.  It is a cool historic city which actually has the original fortress wall intact, Hwaseong Fortress, but of course the city has spread past the original wall.  Suwon is the home to one of the World Cup soccer stadiums, and the Suwon Bluewings soccer team, which is great because we love to go to the games here.  Suwon is also where galbi, my favorite Korean meal, originated.  That is the barbecue-style meal where you cook the meat on a grill at your table and make lettuce wraps with rice and other veggies and stuff.  I am excited that we'll be living in galbi-land!  haha  I could seriously eat galbi every day and be happy.

So, I don't have all of the official details yet with start dates, etc. but the principal is supposed to get back with me at the beginning of next week (they've been on a week-long winter vacation this week) with all that.  Like I have mentioned in a previous post, the international schools are on a westernized calendar and curriculum, so it will be very similar to teaching in an American school, just without many American kids!  School starts in August and goes through June, and I think they have a good 7 week summer vacation, as well as a 3 week Christmas break, and other breaks throughout the school year (winter break, spring break, Chuseok--Korean Thanksgiving).  So, it will give me more vacation time and hopefully more time to travel!

So, now, you are probably wondering about Michael. :)  At this point we are hoping that he can also get a job at GSIS.  The principal had talked to me at one point about a full-time substitute job that Michael could possibly fill, and he said the administrators are going to discuss that next week.  We have also heard that they are going to have some Bible openings, as it is also a Christian school, so he has put in his application if any jobs open up there.  So, we are praying that one of these will work out so that we can both work there and have the same schedules, vacations, etc.  We're just trusting that God will take care of it for us! 

We'll update as we know more and will hopefully be planning our summer vacation to the US pretty soon here!  I want to thank you again for all of your prayers and to ask you to keep them coming for Michael!  

~Leslie

Friday Night Fun on Korean TV

So, we were flipping through the channels late last night while we were waiting for the most recent episodes of Lost to download, and we came across this show.  It was so stinking adorable that I decided I needed to get my camera and video it.  These have to be some of the cutest kids I have EVER seen!  Korea has a ton of shows like this, with kids singing and dancing.  Many times it is little girls dressed skankily with tons of makeup on, doing provocative dances, but this time they were just your typical all-around cute little kids.  I think this was the All-Stars or the finals of whatever this show is called.  Anyway, watch it and enjoy.  Even though most of the time we have no idea what they are saying, it is amusing anyway.  I think the guy with the blue ball cap on looks like a Korean Tiger Woods. hehe  Also, there is a black stripe that showed up across the screen on my camera (our TV is not that bad), but I still think you can get the general idea. 

Here's another, shorter video of the kids singing on their own.  Talk about cute!  We just couldn't stop watching!!  I love the girl with the long hair!  And, check out the little boy rapping to "Axel F!"

Another interview...

Just a quick update: 

We had an interview with an international school in Seoul this morning and it went really well! They have a few openings in the elementary school (K, 2nd and 5th) and a position as a MS/HS Bible teacher along with a few ESL classes. I told them I would be most interested in 2nd grade. We met with the principal, who is a very sweet Korean lady, the elementary head teacher and the chaplain (who are actually married to each other). We felt very comfortable there and the school seems like such a good environment—they have small class sizes and it seems to be a kind of a close-knit community, where we would really enjoy teaching. The principal called me after the interview to let me know that she had spoken with her boss and there are a few issues with visas since Michael is not a certified teacher and does not have 2 years of experience, but they have a couple of ways to work it out, which might involve him getting a certificate through ACSI. She did say that if things work out with that, that they would like to send us contracts! So, now we have to make a decision! Haha, Well, I am supposed to hear from the first school I interviewed with sometime this week hopefully and if that works out as well, then we will have to choose between the two schools. So, we are praying that God will just make it clear to us which way to go. Both schools seem to have a lot of positive points, so I think we would be happy at either place. We are trying to think long-term here, because we may end up staying in Korea for a while if that’s what the Lord tells us to do! So anyway, please pray for us, that we will have a clear direction from the Lord and make the right decisions in this process. The thought of having 2 job offers is a blessing considering the economy right now, so I know we are very blessed! Thanks for praying!!
~Leslie

Encouragement

I know the last post was really long (I am long-winded sometimes, what can I say?), but I do have some good news!  I received an email this morning from the principal that I interviewed with last week about the librarian position, and he just wanted to give me some encouragement and let me know they were strongly and prayerfully considering me for the position.  He said they can't make any final decisions until he can talk with the headmaster (who is still out recruiting as far as I know), but he is hoping to let me know something next week.  I took that as good news.  Hopefully there will also be an available position there for Michael.  Either way, as I said before, I am confident God will lead where He wants us.

On the hunt...

The job hunt, that is! We've been in Korea for over 8 months now, working at hagwons, which are private, after-school academies for Korean kids to learn/practice English. We've enjoyed our jobs for the most part, but we are exploring our possibilities for new jobs after our contracts are up (first week of June). The hagwons have been good jobs, but they are pretty much run as businesses rather than schools. It can be frustrating as things change from day to day with complaints of parents, etc. They just try to please the parents because it is a very lucrative business and they want to keep as many students as possible. Honestly, though, these have been some of the easiest jobs that Michael and I have ever had, so we are not complaining about that! I don't even feel like I really teach at my job--I just give kids practice tests and then feedback and teach them how to do better on the TOEFL exam. It's kind of like SAT prep or something. Michael does more actual teaching than I do, since his students are younger and less fluent in English, but I do more correcting essays and such. Anyway, since I am an actual certified teacher, with a master's degree in education (to teach at a hagwon you just have to have a Bachelor's degree in any subject), there are a lot more options out there for me, and honestly we'd like to find jobs that would pay more, have better vacation time, housing, etc. since part of our motivation in being here is to save as much money as we can, while still being able to do a fair bit of traveling. With our current jobs, we get a total of 10 vacation days during the year, 5 of which were pre-chosen for us (and not all at the same time). So, we haven't had enough time to really leave the country for a good trip somewhere else. Hopefully that will change, though, if we get new jobs elsewhere!

The other options for teaching are public schools (teaching Korean students English, but you have 40+ kids in class and only see them once a week. Right now at our hagwons, our classes have 10-12 students and we see them about 2 or 3 days a week), universities (usually teaching lower level conversational English classes to college freshman, and most universities require teachers to have a master's degree), and international schools. These are generally on an American/western calendar/curriculum, and they teach all subjects in English, just like schools in the US. The difference is the students usually have to have a foreign passport (not Korean) to attend these schools because they are designed to serve the foreign community (meaning, non-Korean citizens). These usually require a teaching certificate in order to work at one.

The Korean school year starts in March and ends in Feb. but they often hire teachers to start in September because that is the start of their second semester. The universities also hire for both semesters starting in March and September, though the majority of jobs for both are open in March. Since our contracts aren't up until June, we can't apply for either of those types of jobs until probably July or August. Korean employers do not seem to hire very far in advance, plus most employees only have to give maybe 1 or 2 month's notice (not quite sure about that though, at least that's how it is for us). So, if we end up going this route, it will be a while before we will be able to apply or know anything, most likely.

On the other hand, the international schools try to hire early in the year. The school year usually runs Aug-June (like a US school) and most require a 2-yr contract. They seem to post their jobs in January and then hire by spring time. This is nice for people who are planners, like me! :) Anyway, since they are hiring now, we've been working on applying for jobs. Right now we are just applying for international Christian schools, though, since Michael does not have a teaching degree but a degree in Biblical studies. Ideally we would both get jobs at the same school so that we would have the same vacations and schedules. The one thing about the international schools, that most people have said, is that they require a lot more time and hard work. Of course, they are similar to teaching in the U.S., so that is kind of a given. However, they do pay a lot more (half of the salary is in $US, so no matter the exchange rate, we could be saving good money), and usually provide much nicer accommodations. They also observe the American holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas with decent vacations.

I had an interview last week with one int'l school for an elementary librarian position. This is honestly my dream job--getting to teach children but not having the same stresses and responsibilities of a classroom teacher, getting to encourage them to read great books and enjoy reading, and getting to help teachers with multimedia stuff that is hard to implement in the regular classroom. I have toyed over the last year with the possibility of getting another master's degree in Library/Media so I could be a school librarian, but don't really want to pay the money for another degree right now. So, having the chance to work as one without having to go back to school is very appealing to me! I felt like the interview went pretty well, but am still waiting to hear back from them, as they have had some administrators recruiting for several positions in the US and Canada over the past few weeks. Also, they do not know if there will be any Bible positions open for Michael to fill yet. We've heard hearsay from other teachers who work there, but nothing official has been posted yet. So, that is a possibility. We know that they do like to hire couples, especially if they're already living in Korea, because we've already adjusted to whatever culture shock there is to adjust to. haha

Also, this week I discovered two more schools with available positions. One has some elementary positions, grades 2 and 5, and some Bible classes (we are going there on Tuesday to talk with the principal about it) and the other has elementary grades 1-5 and an elementary Chaplain position. We are working on getting together the paperwork to send to the second school to hopefully get an interview as well.

So, we definitely have some options that we are praying about. We just really want to be where the Lord wants us, where He can use us most. If one of these schools works out, that would be awesome! But, we want to be open to other options if they don't. Please keep us in your prayers that we will be able to discern the Lord's will for us in this area.

We like living in Korea. We have some good friends and a great church full of ministry opportunities. We can lead a financially comfortable life here while being able to save much more than we ever could living in the U.S., which will be great for when we decide to start a family. We do have different stresses here, but overall life here for a foreigner is generally low-stress (as opposed to the extremely stressed-out Koreans), which is nice and is good for my health. We feel like we will be in Korea until God tells us to go. Honestly, this is the first time in my life as far back as Jr. high that I have not been extremely focused on the future instead of the present. I've realized that I have spent a lot of my life worrying about what is to come next, what's the next step, where will I go and what will I do, rather than living in the now. Kind of funny to say this, as this whole blog post is about what jobs will be next for us, but honestly, that is not on the forefront of my mind in all of this. I just feel like we are here in Korea and God will take care of the rest, and I am not worrying about it. It's a great feeling!

Oh, also...seeing as how whatever jobs we take will either start in Aug. or Sept., we will be returning home for at least a month or so in June/July to visit with family and friends! Depending on what happens with jobs, we will be working out an itinerary and will let you know when we will be where. All we know right now is we are flying straight to Denver for my dear friend Heidi's wedding on June 6th, and from there on out we are uncertain.

Have a great Valentine's Day weekend!
~Leslie

Happy Chinese New Year/Snowboarding

A couple of posts ago I said that I would post photos from our snowboarding trip over Chinese New Year, which is also called Lunar New year, or Seol-nal.  It was the last weekend in January this year, though usually it is in February.  Seol-nal is pretty much the biggest holiday of the year for Koreans, besides Chuseok, which is their Thanksgiving holiday in September.   Most everyone goes to visit their families and celebrate together, eating special foods.  This is also the holiday when they give gifts.  Actually, the children bow to their parents and their parents give them differing amounts of money.  One of my students got 500,000 won for bowing to their parents!  It is a 3-day holiday but this year it fell on a weekend, so we only got 2 work days off, but it did make for a decent little 4-day weekend.  Originally we had tried to plan a trip to Beijing, China to go sightseeing, but since it is such a big holiday, all the fares were hiked up, and it costs sooo much for US citizens ($130 US, pretty much any other country only costs $30) to just get a visitors visa to China, that we decided we'd try that another time, when it is warmer and hopefully a little less-crowded.  So instead, we opted to take a snowboarding trip with some friends from church.  It was definitely a weekend full of adventure and fun, as well as a *little* bit of frustration. :)

We got up early Saturday morning to catch a free shuttle to the ski resort.  We had to walk about 15 minutes or so to the bus stop where the free shuttle was to pick us up at 8:05.  Here are some photos of us walking in Suji to the bus stop, in the midst of a lot of snow coming down!

Here is Charmant, our Officetel (apartment building).

Pretty trees covered in snow.

Here are our friend Travis and Michael walking behind me.

Me, trying to keep my face warm/dry in the snow.

So, we get to the intersection where the shuttle is supposed to pick us up.  The day before, YoungJun, one of the guys who came with us, reserved the shuttle for us online.  The website said that the shuttle would pick us up directly across the street from the entrance of the Suji E-Mart.  Well, its on a corner, and the entrance faces diagonally, so there were 3 possible areas that the shuttle could pick us up.  I wanted to be prepared and make sure we got to the correct corner, going the correct direction.  So, I got my Korean co-workers to look at the website with me and tell me where I needed to go.  Some of them knew which resort it was, and they drew me a little map, saying "you need to be either here, or here, going this direction," etc.  I was feeling good and prepared.  Well, we get to the intersection about 10 minutes early and go to the corner my co-workers told me.  We see a large bus across the street, going the completely opposite direction, and it says Hana on the side (which is a big tour agency, Hana Tours--hana means "one").  Well, we were heading to the Yangji Pine Resort, and it said a free shuttle, so I wasn't expecting a big bus.  Plus, it was not where my co-workers said it would be.  And, it was Lunar New Year, traffic is usually horrible, so we were expecting the shuttle to be late.  Michael suggested we go check to see if that was it, but I insisted that it was going the wrong direction, so we didn't just go check.  Oops.  It sat there until 8:05 and then drove off.  Five minutes later, my friend Kelsi texted me to say that she had just gotten on her shuttle in another city at 8:10, on time.  She said it was a huge bus, etc.  We realized that we had missed our free shuttle, and we had no idea how to get to the place, because the shuttle only runs once a day.  

I proceeded to get a little frustrated and upset.  You can't believe that, can you? :)  Luckily, Travis was with us to keep things light and less-upsetting.  I don't know about anyone else, but I can usually keep my cool a little easier if I am upset and someone else besides my family is with me.  If it is just me and Michael, though, I tend to get a little more upset.  I guess it's that level of comfort of being with your spouse that you can react in the way you really want to.  haha  Anyway, I did get upset because I felt like a huge idiot for insisting that we not check the bus to see where it was going.  Now, we had no idea what to do.  It was still snowing, mind you, and we were a good 20 min. walk from our apt.   I called my dear, sweet friend Jee Yeon, and she looked online for us and said we could take the subway to Seoul and from there take an Express Bus to Yangji, but the buses online showed that all the seats were booked for the day.  She said sometimes they will let you stand on those buses, so we decided to chance it.  We took the subway about an hour to Seoul, then got on a bus (they had seats!) to Yangji at 10:40.

Here is a photo from the bus ride up to Yangji.

The place is actually only about 40 mins. from where we live, but there are no direct buses from our area to there, so we had to go way out of the way to get the bus.  Oh well, it got us there anyway!  When we got to the resort, we met up with our friends John & Soyon, YoungJun (Soyon's brother), and Kelsi.  These are all friends from our church.  The rest had been snowboarding all morning, but we just decided to do half a day since we got there so much later.  Kelsi took a lot of good photos with her camera, so I have stolen most of these photos from her!  The cool thing is she got a lot of action shots, which is kind of fun.

Here's at the bottom, looking up at some of the slopes.  The bunny area is in the foreground.  We did some practice there first to figure out how to use the snowboards.

Me on the bunny slope.

Going up the ski lift.  These are seriously the death of me.  I have never been able to get off the lift very well.  This time, without fail, I would ALWAYS fall as soon as I got off, sometimes taking others down with me.  One time I twisted my entire leg around backwards (that hurt).  Although Michael did take out a small child on one of his turns, also.  haha

Kelsi and me.  It was her 23rd birthday (such a youngin'!), but she was kind of the little mother-hen.  She had been snowboarding before, but most of us hadn't (except John--he is a pro), so she would go up the lift with us and then make sure we all got down from the top okay before she would head down behind us.  It was cute.

I like this one.  Michael is sitting on the right, and I am sitting on the left.  This was near the beginning, when we were both falling quite a bit.  Actually, Michael was falling a lot.  I was making myself fall because I was squatting so much that my quads were killing me!  Haha, Michael couldn't stand the fact that I was actually a little better than him at something--for once in my life!

Here are YoungJun and Soyon--brother and sister.  They are both so sweet.  They were also very helpful on the trip as they are both fluent in Korean (though they grew up in Nigeria)!

Here is an action shot of me.  haha See how much I was squatting that first day?  I am very cautious, and as I told them, I DON'T have a need for speed!  So, I was keeping my balance.  It KILLED my legs later that night, though.  They hurt sooo bad that I couldn't sleep and they felt like they were on fire!  I told Michael, "I think this is what hell feels like."  It was pretty bad, I was crying quietly, so as not to wake anyone else up.  It's funny now, but at the time it was not!!

The ladies on the lift--Kelsi, Soyon, and Leslie.  

Poor Soyon fell and hurt her rib that day, so she was in a lot of pain.

Here are some cool scenic photos:

YoungJun.

John & Soyon.

Here came YoungJun, proud of himself for something.  

He put up his hands in victory!  Next thing we knew, he was flat on his face. hehe

Ah, here was Michael's stance for most of the first day.  He was a little frustrated because it wasn't as easy for him as he thought it would be.  He just kept going straight down and extremely fast, so he would flip over and hurt himself.  The 2nd day he even took out 5 poles from the fence.  haha  He finally got the hang of it, though, and by the end of the trip was leaving me in the dust...er, snow.

We were exhausted the first day, and we found a minbak to stay in above a ski rental place.  We all 7 stayed in the room and we brought lots of food to eat, so we made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches the first night.  It was yummy.  Then I think we went to bed at like 8:30, we were all sooo tired!  The next day we slept in until about 10:30 (well, we didn't really sleep all that well--the floor was sooo hard!  But we didn't get up until then) and decided to just do another half-day lift ticket.  John & Soyon made us pancakes for breakfast which was mashisoyo (delicious).  Soyon decided to take the day off from snowboarding since her rib was so sore, and she went to the spa for the day to relax while we hit the slopes again.

Soyon, with her tree branch in her hat.

John, looking like a lumberjack.

Kelsi and I, ready for another day!

We got to the top of the slope, and boarded down this first little hill.  I fell, and realized that my arms were soo sore from the day before, that I could NOT lift myself up!  It was pitiful!!  Michael finally succeeded in helping me up, and I was good to go from then on.

What a sweet husband.

There we go, down the slope!  

This was my first ever trip all the way down without falling once!  

I was pretty proud. 

Being cute.

Michael and Travis, a little tired.  

I think this was after Travis ate it big time and hurt his shoulder.

Sitting at the top of the slope...wasting tiiiime....

Kelsi, the adorable photographer, and mother-hen! :)

All in all, it was a successful second day of snowboarding.  I got tired and quit a little early while they went a few more times.  It was definitely something I would like to do again sometime.  I honestly enjoyed it MUCH more than skiing.  I felt more in control of what I was doing than I ever felt skiing.  And I am a control-freak, so that means I like it!  haha  But as I said, I am not a person who has the "need for speed," so skiing always freaked me out whenever I went in high school.  I fell a lot less on a snowboard.

Michael enjoying a pizza dog or something.  

He went to the restroom and came back with this.

We spent a second night on the hard floor of the minbak, but it only cost us about $10 a person per night, so it was cheap.  We made spaghetti and garlic bread the second night for dinner, and played some Skip-bo.  We also used a lot of Icy-Hot and I was not in nearly as much pain as the first night.  YoungJun also entertained us all with his muscles that he didn't know he had.  haha

The next morning, John, Soyon, and YoungJun headed out at like 5 am to meet up with their family for Seolnal in Seoul.  The rest of us slept late and took our time getting around.  It was nice.  We headed down to the bus stop to wait for this bus that we discovered would take us to Suwon, and then we could take a bus from Suwon back to Suji.

Here was a cute little snowman that we liked. 

It had chopsticks for the arms and a bucket hat.

This says "Hol-Een-Won Mart," which is Konglish for "Hole In One Mart."

Travis and Michael waiting for bus 10 to take us to Suwon.  

We waited for about 25 minutes for this bus, but we didn't mind. We knew where it was heading. We should have asked the bus driver. We hopped on it and rode for about 40 minutes...

And ended up here, at the end of the line, with a bunch of other 10 buses!

We rode the bus 40 minutes in the WRONG DIRECTION!  This bus, I didn't mention, had a long route anyway.  When we first got on, we were like, man, we're going to be riding this thing for like an hour and a half!  Little did we know...and all we had to do was ask the bus driver when we first got on if it was heading to Suwon Station.  Ahh!  Another bus fiasco!  I had another little mini-meltdown, but by this point, you had to admit that it was funny.

Here we are waiting in the cold for the next bus to leave, eating Pringles.

We FINALLY got back on the bus, heading the right direction, and had to ride it for close to 2 hrs.  But, we made it home safely, and had a great time. Thankfully, Travis ate all of his dried squid BEFORE we got back on the bus, so we didn't have to smell it!!!

So, it was a fun weekend.  We got to hang out with some people that we hadn't spent much time with before, and had a great time.  We also got to see this guy, who I think made the trip worth it just to be able to see this:
It was a onesie type outfit for grownups, like those kids pajamas that have the legs built it, that was designed like a giraffe.  This guy was having a grand old time on the slopes.  We saw several other "animals" on the hill, but I think this guy was my favorite.  Ahh, Korea.