trying to settle in

its been a crazy time these last couple of weeks!

first of all a tank came by and almost ran over tova and some friends of ours luckily i was there to save tova, as for our friends its best not to talk about them :-p . . .

ok, so a tank didnt come, thats good news!

pretty much, its been 200 days since we first set foot in sokcho! how crazy is that?!

it has been a great time, and we are truly blessed beyond measure.

the toughest part had been the anxiety of not knowing when we were going to move.

to recap. . . we moved in to our old apartment december 20th. feb. 3rd we were told that we needed to move. we barely had over a month to get settled in, and once we felt like we could settle in, then we were told we had to move by the end of the month. even though the time table changed, we have been living with a pending move over our heads. (in korea they could tell you "you are moving next week" and thats normal)

i dont think tova or i really understood how much of a relief it is to be in OUR place. once we moved, and started to really get situated we felt like we could really settle down, and not have to worry about a pending move. the lease was signed for 2 years, so if we stay 2 years, we will NEVER have to move again. (the contract will expire 6 months after we would leave) this is AWESOME. already we have put up pictures around the house, done a little decorating, and i even added some door handles to a door that was lacking door handles (something i wouldnt do at the old apartment cause of the pending move)

to sum up, it feels AWESOME. to know that you are in a place, and its home, to know you can settle and put down some roots, just makes everything so much better. (seriously, the air even smells better :-p )

it doesnt mean that we are going to stay here forever, it doesnt mean anything like that. as much as we get settled, there is still the little thing in the back of our brains that tells us this is for a short time. we know that, but at least we can be settled, and feel like we have a home.

all i can say is that, even though we are thousands of miles away God is still good, and He still is keeping watch over us!

moving in korea

WOW! we moved!

so since we moved here is a quick update . . .

we moved :-p

we are going to update soon, but here is a video just giving a glimpse of what moving in korea entails. keep in mind while watching the clip we lived on the 15th floor. craziness is all i have to say :-p

enjoy!

A Lame Video

So I was trying to figure out the movie thing today (everything's in Korean ~ I just have to click around till something works) so that I can put a teaching video together for tomorrow. This is pretty lame and there's no music, but I like it. :-) Enjoy!

Stress

Today was a DAY.

I have been a teacher for three and a half years in the states. I have worked with other people in my classroom and I have worked on my own. I have worked with the TINY ones (kindergarten) and the not-so-tiny ones (fifth grade). I have taught different classes in extremely different situations.

Teaching comes with stress. It's part of the job description. There's stress in the lesson planning -- "What in the world can I plan that will simultaneously engage, challenge, mystify, and make sense to my kids without being so hard that they won't try?" There's stress in the actual teaching -- "Johnny! Pay attention! Susie, what's the answer to this question? Jim, what do you want? No, you cannot go to the bathroom for the third time in ten minutes!" There's stress in the grading -- "Do I give Sally an A on this paper? It's far beyond anything she's ever turned in, and I know she worked hard, but it's not A material. I don't want to come across as unfair to the other kids or too hard on Sally. I want her to know that hard work is worth it." There's stress in dealing with parents -- "I think Nick is a wonderful child. He's so imaginative and full of excitement. He brightens the classroom. He's having a little difficulty in paying attention, which is why he's failing." There's stress in the "extras" -- "Yes, I will help you plan the Christmas program and teach the kids some songs in class while preparing them for their tests." There's stress in working with other teachers -- "I think I should cover this because it's necessary. If you want to cover something else, I'll try to squeeze it in." There's stress around every corner.

In Korea, teaching is a BLAST. I'm having so much fun, and I'm learning so much!!!

The only thing is, it can be STRESSFUL sometimes! Working with another teacher and trying to meet the expectations of all the teachers is hard enough in itself. Throw a charming little language barrier in there, and you have the makings of a fine party.

Today was one of those days.

I'm trying to look at the bright side. After all, at the end of the day, each class is only 50 minutes long. I do the best I can, but if something doesn't work, it won't last forever. I love these kids, and I think they're amazing. I'm in this adventure with my husband ~ the love of my life. I have a beautiful apartment, some fantastic coworkers, and some great friends.

God is good, and He's blessing me more than I deserve.

And, in the end, I'm still WITH.

Ode to a Goofball...

It's true... You were one of the goofiest looking babies ever born.

However, my mullet and I soon grew to love you.

You broke my toys, stole the limelight, and made my life miserable at times.


But, in the end, you turned out to be not as shabby as I'd expected. Your hair made for some fun Elvis moments. At least you were amusing.

I'm really impressed by how mature you are now. Who would have guessed that the pumpkin-headed little kid would grow up to be a pretty decent 22-year-old?

Happy 22nd Birthday, goofy brother of mine.

6 months!!

We've been in Korea 6 months today. Craziness!!! :-)

People often ask why Daniel and I chose to do this -- to up and move around the world to teach in Korea -- in a place we've never been, with people we've never met, etc etc etc. Yes, it may be crazy, but I love it.

The main reason I love it - the kidlets. Here are the kids at my school (most of them, not all) singing their school song. Fun! :-)

english camp video

This video was JUST given to me a couple of days ago.

When tova and i first got to korea we both participated in an english camp at my school.

afterwards they made a video with some highlights.

one great thing about this video is that tovas hair is SO much shorter now, my hair is VERY long in the video, and both of us have "lost our weight" since the video was taken.

this was the first time we had the opportunity to teach, and we have many fond memories of that great week. hope you enjoyed!

PSA

so this is one of the things that i have been working on with my co-teacher.

he was asked to make a short video about our school. he put everything together and i (along with tovas help) edited the script. i then was the voice chosen to be in the video. i was told i have a gorgeous voice!

in the end i thought it turned out pretty good.

hope you enjoy!