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!

Almost Finished!

Well, I figured that it was about time to update seeing as how we are in our final week of working at Avalon English! I (Leslie) only have 3 more days of work and then I am finished! I fly to the US on Saturday, May 30th! Michael finishes next Thursday, June 4th, and will fly to Denver on June 5th. We are really looking forward to our busy but hopefully relaxing summer in the US. It is coming at a good time, I think, with all the stuff that is going on with North Korea right now. I am not really sure how seriously to take their threats, since the South Koreans don't really seem too bothered by it...however, I think I will feel a little safer at home for the next 2 months! I just want all of my friends here in South Korea to be safe as well. Let's pray for North Korea and the whole situation to be resolved peacefully! Just in case you haven't been keeping up with what's going on, here is a link to a recent article on yahoo news (where I get ALL of my news! ha!).

We will probably update the blog when we get home and spend some time reflecting on our first year in Korea. I'm looking forward to having some down time to spend digesting all that we've experienced this past year.

I have updated our contact info. on the side bar of this blog. Please don't send any mail to our old address at Charmant Officetel. Our new address is actually our new school, so if you happen to send something there, it should be there waiting for us when we get back, and safe. :) If you want to get in touch with us this summer, I will try to set it up so that our skype number gets forwarded to whoever's cell phone is with us (either our parents or siblings or friends), so feel free to call the Little Rock number on the side of the page.

YEAY! We are so excited to come home for a nice long visit. Korea is great, but there is no place like home. :) Please keep us in your prayers as we will be traveling a lot!

I will leave you with a couple of photos from our new camera. This is at the Insadong Lantern Festival for Buddha's Birthday, back on May 2nd. This was at a temple in Seoul.






This was at a cool tea house in Insadong that I really like.

And here we are at On The Border, waiting for our Mexican food!! :)

Love you!
~Leslie (& Michael)

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