The consumerism of Christmas

Reading everyone's status updates on Facebook makes me thankful that I live in South Korea, where there is no "black Friday."  Although Korea is a very consumer-driven culture, it is not in relation to Christmas, which I am thankful for.  It's sad to me how much people are obsessed with buying gifts to give for Christmas, standing in line at 3 am to get good deals when they could be spending that time with family or loved ones, and just going over the top buying "stuff" that will not make them happy.  I admit I've been guilty of it myself in the past, but thankful that I have been able to get out this year.  Christmas is about spending time with family and friends, and remembering our savior who came to the Earth to free us from these earthly chains. 

While we are not going home for Christmas this year to spend time with our family and loved ones, we will definitely miss the time spent together with them and cherish the time we can spend with them over Skype.  We will hopefully be coming home next Christmas so we look forward to that.  However, this year we will just spend Christmas with our own little family of two, driving through the beauty of God's creation that is New Zealand, and remembering the gift that God bestowed upon us all.

May you have a blessed holiday season!

North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Apparently, this afternoon, North Korea shot shells at Yeonpyeong island, a small island west of Seoul in South Korea. South Korea has fired back.  Two people have been killed, and maybe 20 injured. Not sure what is going to happen, but praying that God keeps us all safe. So far, we are fine and having no problems, but our administration is closely monitoring the situation and will let us know as any needs arise.

Here is an article from Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AM0YS20101123?pageNumber=1
And another from JoongAng Daily:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2928751
Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/korea-attack-yeonpyeong-island_n_787294.html
NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/world/asia/24korea.html?_r=1&hp

Hopefully this will not escalate into a full-fledged war. Keep us in your prayers over here, though! I jokingly commented to my co-worker tonight..."if Koreas go to war, do you think GSIS will let us out of our two-year contract?" :)

I will say that I have finally decided to register myself with the U.S. Embassy, however! I have been meaning to do this for over 2 yrs, so now I actually have a reason to do it.

Eating Cookies

This weekend I attended an inquiry for teaching and learning workshop in Tokyo which was very worthwhile.  Inquiry teaching is amazing and I think if I had been trained in it before I became a classroom teacher, I may have really enjoyed classroom teaching a lot more!  Anyway, the first day was really good, but on the second day it was very difficult to stay focused (as it was Sunday and we had just worked a full week at school before flying on Friday evening into Tokyo and going right back to work the next morning) and I was having a hard time concentrating on what was going on around me.

In the workshop, we would talk about different things and then discuss them with the people at our table, reflecting on things together, and sharing.  After the first morning tea break, I had gotten a chocolate chip cookie and was eating it.  Then it was time to talk and share and I just didn't really feel like talking about it with the group at that point (because honestly my mind was wandering and I hadn't been paying attention to the directions), so I said, "I'm just going to sit here and eat my cookie.  I'll let you all discuss."  They kind of laughed at me, and someone else started talking.

Not three hours later, after lunch, we were back at our seats and my co-worker Catherine was checking her Yahoo email instead of listening intently.  She started laughing and showed me the following news article from Yahoo Canada.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/101120/national/alta_cookie_apology

Needless to say, the two of us cracked up as silently as we could in a room with about 60 people for the next 5 minutes or so.  I'm still laughing about it today.  I looked up the Youtube video and started laughing hysterically in the library this afternoon and all the kids were wondering why I was laughing so hard.

She's a little runaway

Today my co-worker was trying to brighten my day (ha!), and shared this story with me:
http://www.takepart.com/news/2010/11/17/loveable-afghan-war-dog-euthanized-by-mistake

I know it is just a dog, but it's pretty sad.  I remember hearing about this dog and I think there was even a book written about her a couple years back?  Or maybe I am confusing it with another heroic war dog...

anyway, just thought I'd share the sad story.  You never know who that stray runaway could turn out to be...

Traveling to Tokyo

Well, I am heading to Tokyo on Friday for a weekend workshop through EARCOS (East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools).  It is being held at Tokyo International School and is a workshop on inquiry based teaching and learning by Kath Murdoch.  Two of my co-workers are going with me.  It should be a good workshop, but I have to admit I would rather stay home this weekend and rest.  A few weeks ago I realized that I didn't have any Saturdays free until Dec. 11...then I realized I was wrong and I don't have a free Saturday until Christmas Day!  Wow.  What a jam-packed fall!  But, I always enjoy traveling, especially to other countries.  I liked Tokyo when I was there back in May, so I am looking forward to seeing more of the city in the little free time that we have.  We're staying in Mito, which is very near to Tokyo Tower, so maybe we will check that out.

Here is a link to the information about the workshop:
http://www.earcos.org/ww_announcement/1011/TokyoIS-nov20-21.pdf

An Epidemic of Appendectomies

In our school community, we have now had 3 women to have appendectomies in the last 10 days.  They were also all part of the elementary school.  Is this some strange coincidence?  Can appendicitis be caused by external factors that these three ladies had in common?

I can never remember what side the appendix is on, or where exactly it is located, hence the diagram.  I've spent enough time over the last 3 years looking at diagrams of the digestive system, with my colon issues, but never realized that the appendix is right at the end of the colon!  Interesting to know. 

Has anyone else ever heard of this happening to multiple people all at about the same time?  I can't seem to find any known causes of appendicitis except that it is less common when there is a diet high in fiber.

Just something I've been thinking about lately!

Clicking the button

Well, we did it.  We clicked the button.   Actually, we clicked it a few weeks ago, but the deadline was just this Friday, Nov. 12th.  That was the deadline for the faculty at our school whose contract is up at the end of this school year to decide whether they want to leave the school and go elsewhere, or stay at the school for one or two more years.  There are incentives for signing on for one year, and even better incentives for signing for two years.  There are a LOT of people whose contracts are up this year, as this is only the school's fifth year of existence, so it will be interesting to see how many stay and how many are moving on.

We decided to click the button to sign on for two more years.  Yikes!  It sounds like a long time!  But, in all honesty, we feel peace about being here for a couple more years.  While we've now been here about 2 1/2 years, it has gone by so fast and in reality, two more years does not really seem that long at all.  Soon, we will have lived in Korea for more of our marriage than we lived in the U.S.! (I'm not sure that sentence is grammatically correct, but I'm not teaching English anymore :)

I have always been the kind of person that is thinking about the future, and where the "next" step is for me.  When I was in high school, all I could think about was getting to college.  When I was in college, all I could think about was getting out of college and teaching.  When I started teaching as a Title 1 teacher, all I could think about was having my own classroom.  Then, it was when can I retire? haha When can I move away from Arkansas?  But I have always had a hard time just thinking about the now and where I am now, and being content with it as that is where God has put me to serve, for such a time as this.  I have to say, that since moving to Korea, I honestly feel peace about staying here for a while, and I am not constantly thinking about where will we move next, when will we go, etc.  It is kind of an interesting feeling for me.  Both Michael and I knew God was telling us to move to Korea, and we we both feel that we will be here until we know that He is telling us to go elsewhere.  So, until that time comes, we are here! 

Now, we just wait to see if our school decides they want to keep us on or get rid of us. ;)  We'll let you know once we've officially signed the contracts.

Time Flies!

Well, time surely does fly! I have decided I am a horrible blogger. I think it is related to being a horrible journaler. For the life of me, I cannot keep up with a journal. Even as a young girl, I had a diary that I would write in a couple of days and then I would go months, or years before I would open it and write in it again. Too much going on and not enough time to reflect on it, is probably my problem.

It has been OVER a year since we last updated our blog. I've made some visual changes to it and now I am going to attempt to summarize the last year with a bullet list, month by month, to catch you up. I'll start with Sept 2009, as that was the last time I really posted (besides uploading a video in October). :)

September 2009

• Leslie went to her first Korean wedding for Grace, Elementary School secretary
  
• Michael coached his first varsity volleyball team
• Leslie went to PYP training in Chiang Mai, Thailand for 5 days
  

October 2009

• We celebrated Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) by going to some lovely mountains in northeastern Korea called Seoraksan for a few days, and also went to a party put on by our church
• Celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with co-workers
• Celebrated Leslie's 29th birthday by eating at a Brazilian steakhouse with friends; went to Seoul Art Museum to see a photography exhibit
• Michael's volleyball team won the division championships!
  

November 2009

• Michael went to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone, border of North and South Korea) Leslie didn't go because she had the flu.
• Leslie spent a week in the hospital with a flare up of ulcerative colitis after a clinic gave her medicine for the flu that flared up her colon--spent the next 4 months on steroids
  

December 2009

• Michael became a part-time Bible teacher after a teacher left, teaching 2 classes 2 days a week and subbing the other 3
  
• Leslie started volunteering to administer the SAT on Saturday mornings when our school offers it, to make a little extra cash
• Leslie got her Korean drivers license and started borrowing a school car to drive places
• We went to the US for 3 weeks for the Christmas holidays. Leslie flew to Denver to be in former college roommate Jenny's wedding, then joined Michael with her family in San Diego for the week. Then we spent about a week and a half in Arkansas with Michael's family, and catching up with friends.

January 2010

• We came back to start our second semester at GSIS
  
• Leslie started working on an M.Ed in School Library and Information Technology online through Mansfield University in Pennsylvania.

February 2010

• Michael helped chaperone a weeklong HS service trip to Northern India, in the Darjeeling district, during our Lunar New Year break. Leslie stayed home to rest, shop, and work on grad school homework.

March 2010

• Leslie ran her first school Literacy Week and hosted an author visit at school with two poets from the US, Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger. She also got her camera stolen out of the library one night, and lost all of her pictures of the book character dress-up day.
• Leslie got to go off of the steroids after 4 loooong months.
  
• We flew back to the US for a week for Spring Break: flew into NYC, met up with Michael's best friend Tim for breakfast (who just happened to be in NYC for his spring break) before taking a train to CT to see Leslie's Gramma Kukta and the rest of the family for Gram's "surprise" 90th birthday. Michael got to meet Gramma for the first time, along with most of the Kukta/Torino crew. We went back to NYC for a couple of nights and saw Mary Poppins on Broadway, walked through Central Park, went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and got to go see the Statue of Liberty.

April 2010

• Leslie successfully set up and ran her first book fair at school, which was a TON of work but also made a lot of profit towards future author visits and books for the library!
• We went to see Jamie Cullum in concert in Seoul with some co-workers. He was awesome!
• Leslie went to another IB training, this time for Librarians and in Melbourne, Australia, for 6 days
  
• Leslie took a cake decorating class with some co-workers and learned how to make fondant icing.

May 2010

• Leslie went to another workshop specifically for librarians, with her assistant Reica, to Tokyo, Japan for 5 days

June 2010

• We wrapped up our first year of working at GSIS, and completed our second full year in Korea
• Leslie's mom, Karen, came to visit us in Korea for about 10 days.
• Michael's parents, Rodney & Vicki, came to visit us in Korea for about 9 days
• Michael turned 33 years old and we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary
  

July 2010

• We flew to Thailand for two weeks and celebrated our anniversary for 3 nights at an amazing resort on the beaches in Krabi; then we spent time in Ko Phi Phi, Phuket, Chiang Mai (and met up with a friend from college, Angela, who happened to be there on a mission trip), and Chiang Rai.
• Our school moved us into a new, much bigger and nicer apartment (since Michael got a job promotion) while we were in Thailand.
  
• We spent 2 nights at our new place and then left for 2 weeks in China! We flew to Shanghai and took a small tour with Intrepid Travel from there to Xi'an and then Beijing. We saw amazing things including the Shanghai World Expo, Xitang water town (where Mission Impossible 3 was filmed) Terracotta Warriors, Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, Summer Palace, Pearl Market, Acrobat and Kung Fu shows, etc. We also spent some massive amounts of time on sleeper trains as there were mudslides and we had to re-route and our trains were extremely late (lost a whole day in Beijing). Then we flew to Chengdu and spent 2 nights with Michael's college roommate Mark and his family. They took us to see the pandas and out for Tex-mex, and even to Ikea!

August 2010

• We started our second and current school year at GSIS. Michael is currently teaching full-time Bible classes to high school students, has one middle school class, and is an additional Student Life Minister. Leslie is still the Elementary Teacher Librarian.
• Leslie had to completely rearrange/redesign the library as there was a lot of construction over the summer and we added a 5th grade classroom in the back of the library and tore down a computer lab. It looks pretty good, though, and she is pretty happy with the way it turned out so far. She's had lots of compliments on it from colleagues, which is nice.
• Michael started coaching varsity volleyball for the second year, but this is the first year our school moved into Division 1 for sports.
• Michael started taking online courses in math, so that he can get enough units towards a teaching certificate in Math, and hopefully eventually a Master's degree.
• We hired a housekeeper to clean our house every other Thursday. :) It has been wonderful!
  

September 2010

• We hosted a co-ed baby shower for our friends, John & Soyon, who are moving to Nepal at the end of the year.
  
• Michael was involved with all 3 school division's SEW (Spiritual Emphasis Week). He was the speaker for the elementary, and he helped run the middle school and high school weeks as those are his main divisions.
• Leslie started another grad class.
  
• Leslie went to Shanghai for the Learning 2.010 technology conference for 3 days
• We went to Singapore for a week to celebrate our Chuseok holiday.
• Leslie joined a teacher book club, discussing The Help by Katherine Stockett (which she had luckily already read over the summer)

October 2010

• Leslie hosted another baby shower for her friend Katherine
• We celebrated Leslie's 30th birthday by going out to eat with a large group of friends and then going to the noraebang afterward
  
• Michael got to take the volleyball team to Kobe, Japan for 5 days to compete in a regional tournament
• Our colleague, Mark, passed away after having a heart attack and developing pneumonia. He was the HS band director. This was the first death within our school community and was a very difficult and emotional time. We had a memorial service for him at the end of school the following Monday.

This bring us to the current month, November! I think I will start a new post for November and then hopefully will be caught up enough to be able to start posting on a regular basis.

I'm thinking of adding a slideshow of photos from the last year to the blog so that you can see photos from many of the events that I just told you about. :) We'll see if I ever get that done!

If you've read this far, thanks for taking the time to catch up. Hopefully I will do a better job from now on about communicating, as it is so hard to catch people to chat on the phone with our schedules and the time difference. Love you all!

Leslie & Michael

Bondaeggi--the video

I tried to upload this video in the last post, but it wouldn't work. So here, for your viewing pleasure, is our experience with bondaeggi. I only wish you could smell the foulness that is bondaeggi.

H1N1...School's out-for-swine flu! Let's go to Seoul!

School was open for two weeks when the H1N1 virus infiltrated GSIS. We showed up at work on Monday morning, only to discover all of our coworkers in t-shirts and shorts, and no students in sight. We somehow were the only employees that had missed the phone calls the night before from our principals, and just happened NOT to check our email before we went to bed on Sunday night, nor in the morning as we were getting ready (which I usually do every morning). If we had, we would have gotten the message that school was being shut down for a whole week. We had meetings that morning and frantically worked (getting lessons together to put online for the students to work at home) until 11 am, when the school had to be evacuated. We would not be allowed to return until the following Monday morning at 7:30 am. It turns out that Korea has been making very secure laws about H1N1, trying to keep it from spreading here, as they have very little of the vaccine to offer their citizens. We had one student the week before who had tested positive for H1N1, and several more students who had symptoms and were awaiting the results of their tests. The health department said that if we had at least 2 confirmed cases, we would have to shut down for a week, so we went ahead and closed down. We ended up having one more student confirmed, as well as a few faculty members, so it was a wise decision to close.

So, this left us with a week off of school and no plans! I still had 2,000 new books in the library that I had been hoping to get shelved that day with the help of many parent volunteers, but that did not happen. I couldn’t go up to do any work at all, which was a little frustrating, but it ended up being a great blessing! This was really the first downtime we had had since we arrived back in Korea about 4 weeks before. The first day we left school with some of our coworkers and went to another city called Osan, where a US airforce base is, and ate lunch at an AUTHENTIC Mexican resturant! It was very delicious, and we enjoyed hanging out with new friends.

The next day we went to Seoul to see Dr. Kim, my gastroenterologist, and get my prescription renewed for my colon medicine. He is such a kind doctor and so accommodating. He changed my medicine dosage a little bit and told me to come back in November. I was feeling good, and still am, praise the Lord! It is such a relief for my colon to be "under control" right now. What an answer to prayer! We spent the rest of the day in Seoul, shopping, and even made a trip to Costco to pick up a few things.

We wanted to plan a trip to go somewhere in Korea that we hadn’t been before, but Michael started to come down with a cold, so he basically spent the next 2 days in bed, while I spent time unpacking, organizing, and shopping! I got to take care of a lot of things at home and spent some time around Suwon getting things to decorate our new place and make it feel more like home. It was a much needed week of resting.

At the end of the week, we decided to take a day to go to Seoul and see some of the things that we hadn’t seen yet, even after living here for a year! A couple of our co-workers joined us, Sarah and Lauren, and one of Sarah’s friends from her old school, Anna. We went first to the largest palace in Seoul, Gyeongbukgong Palace. In English this means "Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven." This was the main palace from the Chosun/Joseon Dynasty, when Korea was ruled by kings. It was first constructed in 1394 and reconstructed in 1867, but then was heavily destroyed by the Japanese in the early 1900s when they occupied Korea, and now they are working on rebuilding it. It is huge and has some really pretty places. When we first got there they were doing the changing of the guards. Then we walked around for a while and took some photos. I really want to go back when the leaves are changing colors and take some photos there.


























We then were walking to go eat lunch, and on the side of the road, there was an ajumma selling bondaeggi. This is silkworm larvae, and it smells horribly disgusting. Michael, Anna, and Sarah were brave enough to try it, while Lauren and I stood back and gagged the whole time. I think Michael actually liked it because he just kept eating it as we were walking.




We also went to an area of Seoul where an arts school, Honggik University is located, called Hongdae. Every Saturday they have an Art Free Market at a local playground where artists of all kinds bring their wares to sell. It was a really cool place to go and I would like to go back sometime.














Then we went to Seoul Tower, also called Namsan Tower. This is a tower in the middle of Seoul, near Myeongdong, that overlooks the city of Seoul. We took a cable car up to the tower and then walked around. You can take a hiking path up to the top, but it was humid and we were tired and sweaty and decided we'd rather just ride. There were some amazing views of the city from up there!











They also have locks all over the fences, and the tradition is that a couple puts a lock on the fence and throws away the key to signify their everlasting love. This is one example of how cheesy Korean culture is! :)







Here are a few other random sightings around Seoul that amused me.





So, we ended up having a great time experiencing some new things. I'm glad we still have at least 2 more years here, because there are so many places and things I want to see before we leave!

One more thing...when we came back to school the following Monday, we had to begin a new procedure of "fever screening" for all students. We now do this every morning before the kids are allowed to go to class, they must check in at their assigned station and have their temperature taken. If their temperature is higher than 37 degrees, they are re-screened and sometimes sent home. Here are some photos of us on our first day of fever screening. I got to wear a face mask because I was taking temps. I have since ditched the mask.