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!

all i want for Christmas is you!

It's finally starting to feel like Christmas! Anna and I finished up our Christmas shopping on Sunday. We even split up for an hour so we could shop for each other. It's difficult to buy stuff for your friend when you're with them almost all the time. I think we managed to get everything done. Tonight we wrapped presents and listened to some Christmas music. It was fun! This is the result...

And here are all the presents with our "fireplace"...


I can't wait until Christmas Eve! I'm actually pretty excited about Jen, Katie, and Chinchu coming over. That day at school our kinders are going to put on a Christmas performance. They've been practicing basically the whole time I've been in Korea! I have a part in it too, but I'm not really excited about that. Oh well, it should hopefully be a fun day!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! If you have a minute give me a call on my skype (it's free in case you were worried)...my number is 678-459-2231. If I'm not around my computer, you can leave me a message. I love you all and miss you tons!!!

::edit:: the night just got better when i looked outside to see snow falling!!!!!

Last weekend was A LOT of fun! Katie and Jen came up from Suji to hang out with us. It was great to see them again! So Anna, Chinchu, Katie, Jen, and I all went to show Jen and Katie a little bit of Korea. Jen had been here about 2 weeks and Katie had only been here for 4 days. We of course went to noraebang and had a blast.

But then on Sunday I woke up and felt so bad. I think I had the flu or something. I could hardly stand up. Monday morning I managed to get out of bed and go to work. I still just have a hard time calling out. Finally my lunch break came and I got to go to the hospital. I honestly don't know much of what happened because I felt so bad and everything was in Korean, of course. I got a shot and loads of medicine. It took a few days but I'm finally feeling better!

Yesterday, Anna and I both got our Christmas packages from home! (Thanks Mom!) We're not allowed to open them until Christmas day, but I got to open Anna's! hehehe There were a few things in hers that her mom wanted me to pull out. So I got out a couple of Christmas DVDs (A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life) and this kit to make a rice krispie holiday house! I think we'll make that on Christmas Eve and watch some movies. Chinchu, Katie, and Jen are all coming up Christmas Eve to spend the night! Christmas morning we'll exchange presents and then eat breakfast! We only get Christmas day off though, sadly. We go back to school on the 26th, but then we get the whole next week off!!!

It's Saturday but we have to spend most of the day at the school. We're having a "slumber party" day. At least we get to wear pjs and watch movies. I'd rather not be at work though....

Peru still has my heart

A post a day later? I'm setting a record here. Although, this will be a different kind of post.

I still have about 9 months left in Korea, but I can't help but wonder what is next for me. I think I have a disease or something. All I know is that I want to do something with meaning. I don't want to just get a job to get a job. Sadly, I still need money to pay off my student loans, so I cannot simply do just anything.

Peru really changed my life. Even from far away, I am constantly thinking about all the people there and what a great time it was in my life. I keep trying to figure out how to make it back there, but the burden of my debt makes it difficult. I wish so badly that I could go back in time and never take out any loans for school. How many years will they keep haunting me? Who knows? I didn’t exactly get a degree that will help me find a job easily, especially with the job market the way it is. What can I do with a degree in Global Studies? Study the world? Now, if someone can figure out a way for me to get paid to do that…I’m there!

I really need to work harder to make my time in Korea more memorable and beneficial. I should especially work harder at learning Korean. I’ve been incredibly lazy about it. I just can’t imagine this place meaning what Peru means to me. I guess God has finally showed me that my heart is in Peru and for the people there. He has given me the ability to love and I want to share that love as He has shared it with me.

So, I just want to say that I really do miss Peru. And I think of all of the friends I left there often. I’m praying for you and I hope to join you again there some day soon.

It seems like things are finally starting to slow down a little bit here...but I guess we'll have to actually see if that happens. We only have a couple more weeks until vacation! YEAH!!!! We finally finished final exams and writing evaluations for all of our students. Both of those took a lot of time and it meant we brought a lot of work home with us for two weeks straight. I'm SO glad it is finally over. We wanted to take it pretty seriously, but sadly that wasn't possible. Why? Because we can't be honest when we grade tests or give evaluations. If a student makes a terrible grade or we are honest about how their attitude sucks in class, etc., then their parents might pull them out of the school. So even for our worst students, they still got pretty decent evaluations. I have these three boys in one of my classes. Until yesterday, they had NEVER been to class on time. A lot of times they show up at 4:20 when the class starts at 4 and ends at 4:50. It's ridiculous! They come in talking and playing. They don't do their work. They stress me out SO much! But could I put any of that on their evaluation? NO! I had to write about how they're good students and show real potential....which is not true at all! Anyways, its over and we still have jobs, so I can't complain too much.

Julie left and we have a new teacher, Melissa. She seems really nice, but we definitely miss Julie. Anna and I are going to hang out with her one more time tomorrow night before she moves to Canada. Melissa taught at the school before, so at least she knows what she's doing. The school wants to hire one more Korean teacher though and we've had numerous people around for the past few weeks. They are always sitting in on our classes (which makes me pretty nervous). But it seems like as soon as we get to know them a little bit, they don't get hired. If we get another teacher, we'll all teach one less class and get a planning period. That will be pretty awesome!

So Jen and Katie are in Korea now! We get to hang out with them this weekend!!! We talked to Jen a lot last weekend and wanted to hang out with her, but honestly had no idea how to get her to Seoul. They live in the same city, just a little bit outside of Seoul. I think it'll be like a 30 minute bus ride into Seoul, somewhere on the subway line. I am so excited about getting to see them!

Our Thanksgiving was actually pretty amazing. We made a few American dishes, nothing fancy though. But the best part was having Scarlet, Julie, and Cinderella over. We'll definitely never forget the Thanksgiving when we ate dinner with chopsticks in Korea. It was funny when Cinderella said she wanted kimchi! Here's all of us that night having dinner in our apartment.


It snowed a little bit this past weekend! It was pretty exciting! We decided to head out in the snow for some pictures and walk up to Starbucks for some coffee. It was fun, but unfortunately the snow had mostly melted by the time we got out. That's ok though, I'm sure we'll get plenty more!

Well, there really isn't a lot going on right now besides work. We're getting ready for Christmas and were able to get some gifts and shipped them off to the States today! I'll try and be better about updating this in the future :) I miss you guys and love you lots!