"dress in drag and do the hula" -Timon

-One of my friends who lives here reminded me the other day of the part in Lion King where they need a distraction so Simba and Nala can sneak back to Pride Rock. Timon looks at them and says "what do you want me to do...dress in drag and do the hula!??!" Then they proceed to do it...shamelessly. <---this is how I feel most days. It's the best description i've heard so far of living in Korea

You're always on display here in korea nad it pretty much provides entertainment for the Koreans and ourselves. We're learning korean, but when we don't understand what people are saying, they just start yelling louder at us haha like suddenly that will help us learn to understand it better haha!


 I have been working quite a bit over the last month or so. I teach 35 classes between two schools (kindergarten-middle school) in one week with the school that I signed my contract with. I also teach six classes on Tuesday morning at a different kindergarten . On top of that, I privately tutor one of my students for two hours a week. I tutor conversation and science. So, altogether I work about 45-47 hours a week. Clearly, i'm a workaholic. ehh...that's not the point of this blog.

I also intentionally use large words to prove to myself that my vocabulary is not rapidly deteriorating.

I really like chomchee Keembop= tuna california spring rolls, but healthier for you.

I've had some funny moments with my students in the past couple of months. One of my good friends told me that it takes about six months for the students to really trust me as their teacher and be accustomed to the routine of our class. I'm really starting to see that happen as time goes on.

-One of my 6th grade students calls me "meghandi" because he thinks it's funny. Well, this has caught on with the whole class and even some other classes in the school. So, the nickname has leaked. He also talks about osama bin laden, and obama all the time. He has asked me questions about terrorists and this class and i have had deep discussions about 9/11 and what happened. So, this student is writing an essay entitled "Why Meghandi is Better Than Osama Bin Laden".  I need to steal a copy of this paper.

-One of my fourth graders left the class to make a copy of our book because he forgot his. He came back with a copy of his face perfectly smooshed against the copier. His eyes were squinty and his lips were in an "O". It was so funny, but in those moments I have to remember that I'm the teacher and not the student. I tried taking it from it so i could keep it, but he shoved it in his backpack.

-One of my sixth grade students broke his arm a few weeks ago and had a huge cast on his arm. He's one of the boys with a mouth on him, but he understands sarcasm so I pick on him a lot in class. Today, i made fun of his cast and cracked myself up. I couldn't stop laughing...he realized what happened and just put his head down laughing too. ha!

-I have three classes that have been absolute disasters. One class is sixth grade and mostly boys. When they first started, they were completely disrespectful to me and literally would not listen. They are a beginning level class but they understand enough to know how to act in a class. Something that might be hard for people to imagine is that when you're teaching a foreign language, all of your students can talk to each other and you have no idea what they are saying. So, these boys definitely used that against me. However, after embracing the act of "strict teacher", I can say that I almost look forward to this class every week. Although it feels more like an unstable bomb than anything else, I think I can consider this class a success.
      I also have a middle school class that is the same story. They were out of control and now I look forward to teaching them. I'm not sure if they like me or just fear their korean teacher, but either way something is working!

-Yesterday we finished up "open demonstration classes" in the kindergarten for all the parents. The kindergarten we work at is very expensive and the parents have high expectations. When students leave this academy at the age of 7, they are more fluent than some of my sixth graders. So, the education is effective but there is also a lot of other things to be said of putting so much pressure on five year olds. Essentially, during these class, we (the foreigners) teach class to our students but their mommies are sitting behind them observing everything we say and do and everything their kid says and does. It's literally like putting on a show. We were prepared for an act  and we knew it because our bosses would give us names of kids whose moms were straight crazy. We were supposed to ask those kids more questions and give them more opportunities to talk while asking fewer and easier questions to the "dumber" kids. At the end of the 30 minute demonstration where the mommies would obviously have a completely accurate understanding of a normal day in class, they filled out evaluations and had conversation with our boss.  We figuratively dress in drag and do the hula...

There are some other things going on besides work and school.

-I've decided that I want to officially pursue a Master's degree. I miss learning. I'm tossing around the idea of a Linguistics degree which would be a loooooot of work. It's a very universal degree that could be used almost anywhere that I travel. I still have to do research and apply to schools, but that's starting to make it's way to the front of my mind.

-It's weird for me to not be in leadership of any kind within a church or discipleship-style setting. For those of you who know me well know that i've been working in churches, teaching, leading, and been passionate about discipleship for the last ten years or longer. I've been leading and learning leadership in one capacity or another literally for the last ten years and now, i'm not. It's as simple as that. It's possible that people think i'm a missionary while living over here in korea and at the core of it, yes, yes i am. however, for the traditional style of "missions" or "doing ministry", no, no i'm not. It looks different and I don't have the resources available like I used to. In a sense, i'm learning how to relive life with a different focus that is somehow the same as before but with less encouragement, mentorship, and the need for more intentionality on my end. It's been a challenge, but it proves the good of the lord and his faithfulness.

summer is the time to travel here in korea. We've been to the beach, two baseball games, the second largest city in the world (Seoul), been on a field trip to ride horse with our kids and we have even sought out real-tasting Mexican food!

Here are some photos of our group!

The birthday Kids!

This is a bike path in our city!

Busan: beach city!

Climbing rocks...learned that from Oregon! 

Also, Busan. The Gold Towers in the middle are famous in the area!

horse back riding...they told me this was a big horse! horses are really rare in korea!

Gyeupyongdong crew...or G-Squad as we call ourselves! This was after a water fight on our day off.

Lions won...notice the koreans in the back who are not as excited

Cooking Bipinbop after church!

MEXICAN FOOD!!!!!!

Seoul at night...the view from the roof of our hostel!

Seoul again...

Itaewon in Seoul: a place for foreigners...really weird to be around so many of them.

The sidewalk had greetings from other cultures there...I found the US

Korean War memorial...this honors the beginning of  The Republic of Korea which is only about 60 years old.

The US flag is hanging closest to the Korean flag. This memorial is right next to the US military base and it really brings out feelings of patriotism as you live in a country that is so united with USA and has really gained it's economic growth and independence because of the influence.

That's all folks! I won't take so long to post next time! :)