Japan

I got back yesterday from my 4 day vacation in Japan. It was a lot of fun! We went to visit Elijah in a town south of Osaka. He lives in the country. It was strange to not be in a huge city for the first time in four months! He also lives really close to the beach. Too bad it was cold...definitely not as cold as Korea though. We were afraid we weren't going to make it because there was snowing so much in Seoul the morning we left...

Luckily we made it to Japan without any problems (just an hour long delay due to the de-icing of the plane).

Unfortunately, it was a very short trip. So we tried to squeeze in as much as we could in four days. We spent some time in Wakayama with Elijah and some of his friends. We also spent a day in Kyoto. I loved Kyoto! Jen grew up there, so she was able to take us around and show us lots of stuff.

However, Japan is definitely the most expensive place I've ever been. I knew it was expensive, but I had absolutely no idea just how bad it was! I don't want to think about how much money I spent there in such a short amount of time. Next vacation I take will surely be to somewhere tropical and cheap!

I think it was a good trip for me because it made me realize how much I actually like Korea. I was ready to come back home by the end of the trip. It still isn't near what I feel for Peru, but Seoul has definitely become my temporary home.

Well, I'm still pretty exhausted from the trip so I'll just share some pictures with you before I go to bed....

Today I had a nice moment in the restaurant where we eat lunch all the time... I was sitting there eating when I overheard a Korean man asking the waitress about what I was eating. First, I was excited because he thought what I was eating looked good. I am a very visual person and I feel like I do this kind of thing a lot. I rarely ask about it, but I am constantly checking out other people's food. Then, I realized that I was able to understand what they were saying enough to figure out that they were talking about my dish! That part made me really happy. Although my speaking skills are almost nonexistent, it was nice to realize I can now understand what people are talking about to a certain extent.

I just talked to my mom a little bit ago and it turns out my dad is not doing well at all. Please pray for him and the rest of my family. They're getting a lot of other family members involved to try and help him. I don't know what will happen with this, but I am really hoping and praying that he will listen and do something. It's so hard for me to be so far away and not be able to help him or anyone else in any way. I know that all I can do is pray, even if I was at home, this is pretty much all I could do. But there's still that part of me that wants to hop on a plane and try and do something. Thanks for your prayers. I love you guys.

When does Spring come to Korea?

It is currently 9 degrees (fahrenheit) with winds around 10-15 mph. So basically, it is VERY cold outside. One thing I am very grateful for, however, is the heating system. The heat in our apartment comes from the floors. There are pipes running all throughout the apartment that warm it with hot water. So when you walk around, your feet are nice and toasty. I have found that being messy can help. One night I threw my hoodie on the floor. The next morning I put it on to find it very warm. Now I have decided to be a little messy and have started keeping some of my clothes on the floor.

It is still VERY cold at the school. There is nothing I can do about that. I'm just waiting for spring time and some warmer weather....

Vacation has ended and life has gone back to normal. This past week was a long week definitely. Our schedules changed and seem more full than before. Evidently our school isn't doing well. Even though we are constantly getting new students, old ones are leaving. Why? I've been trying to figure that out exactly. One of the reasons I've heard is that the kids haven't improved over a certain amount of time. I am not completely surprised by this in some cases because I often feel that the school cares more about appearances and making money than about the actual education. I was riding in a cab with Scarlet yesterday and she asked me if I was scared about it. "What if the school loses too many students and we get laid off??" That scared me a little bit. I don't know if it is actually a possibility or not.

This new schedule has definitely left me frustrated. Some of the classes have been rearranged. One of my classes (a pretty low level) now has so many students that there aren't enough seats. One of them has to sit at the teacher's desk and we're still short one seat after that. I hate it. Mostly because I can't help the students at all. I spend most of the time trying to get everyone to quit talking and pay attention. Then when they do their workbooks, I hardly have time to even check them all. I feel like I'm just correcting it and handing it back to them, with no chance to explain their mistakes and help them understand better.

So I don't know what will happen in the future. I hope things will get better. I'm not too worried about it all though. I guess if things do go wrong, we'll most likely get placed at another school. The salary is about the same all over Korea, so it wouldn't change most of that. It would just mean a new apartment and new location most likely. But I won't think about that too much right now.

On a better note...the Korean Lunar New Year is coming up at the end of this month. So we'll have 2 days off work, leaving us with a 4 day weekend. SO we are going to go to Japan to visit Elijah!!! I'm pretty excited about that! We leave Saturday the 24th and will return on the 27th. We're flying into Osaka and taking a train to Elijah's town. We're also going to get to spend a day in Kyoto! Jen is also going to visit her family so we should be able to hang out with her! I'm excited about going to a new place! I've been in the airport in Japan several times, but never really been there. Only two more weeks to go!

I must say, Christmas in Korea was pretty good. We didn't do anything Korean really, but tried to make it feel a little bit like home. It took a while, but Jen, Chinchu, and Katie all finally made it over Christmas Eve. We woke up Christmas morning and opened our presents from each other. Anna and I also had some pretty huge packages from home to open, which was amazing! Thanks Mom! We finished opening gifts just in time for the "McDelivery" or our McDonalds breakfast to arrive. It was absolutely nothing compared to breakfast my mom makes on Christmas morning, but it was nice to not have oatmeal or cereal for once.

We went out later in the day. Christmas is celebrated in Korea, but it definitely isn't as big as back home. Everything was open and there were a lot of people out. Chinchu really wanted to go ice skating. We figured we'd give that a try but quickly changed our minds when we saw how long the lines were. We got our picture taken with some guys dressed up like Santa. They were selling polaroids as a part time job. Santa on the right had a black eye!


On our way home we decided to have some american food, so we went to Friday's. Traditional Christmas dinner, I know! It was delicious! After dinner we went to the Krispy Kreme under Friday's and had some HOT doughnuts and coffee. (Although I think I was more excited about some good coffee!) So all in all, I really enjoyed my Christmas. It was sad to not be at home with my family, but it was nice to have friends here to spend it with. I will definitely never forget my Christmas in Korea!