A year today - An Ebeneezer

That I have been back in the United States from the Dominican Republic. A year today that I have been living with my parents.

I have been teaching part time for CPCC for 10 months! This is my third semester teaching with them, so that has been a good experience. (Trying at times, but overall I love what I do!)

And I have had my 'day job' for 3.5 months. (Gosh, it sure feels longer than that!)

I am scheduled to close on a small house off wilkinson on June 30th, and my roommate from the DR (rachel) is supposed to arrive that evening for a week stay.

It is a moment to be thankful. To consider how much life I have enjoyed in the past year and to prayerfully consider the opportunities of the coming year.

Thank you, Jesus.

Some odds and ends

I have a lot of odds and ends to post again. Lotsa pictures of things, stuff and other things.

First, I went to the stationary store today and bought some things for me and my nephew. A cute pencil box and some pens. Pens like these are usually $3 or $4 in the States, but here they are under $1. Stickers!!!! And a cat shaped 'sleep eye mask' for the plane. I giggled with glee.



This morning, when I left my aparment I found that it was snowing!



Of course, the kids loved it. It was so hard to get them all in a picture.


After lunch we played in the snow.


Lunch today was that weird, not-even-close-to-shrimp shrimp-shaped fried things. They taste good, but more like rice noodles than meat. We also had rice (of course) and soup and pasta salad and yogurt for dessert. Quite satisfying.



James had two bowls of soup. He is often a bottomless pit!

Laura was chatting me up at lunch.

This is Harry and I.


After work today (after my visit to the stationary store - my favorite consumer haunt) a hoard of us when to have dinner for Mark's birthday.

Jess and I at dinner.


We ate Sam Gyup Sal. Here is the meat on the grill and the fixings.

We also had green noodles that are made out of some kind of mountain plant. Not sure what I was eating but it tasted good.


It was a good day. Hard to believe I have less than a week left. Oh, Korea, how I will miss you!!!

some odds and ends

What to do when you get off the subway in Seoul (ok, not all that unlike what you do when you get off the subway other places, but the signs are interesting.)
#1 figure out which stop you just got off at:


#2 figure out which exit you want to take to get out of the subway station and onto the street (which is rather important as there are usually at least 4 and often 6 or 8 choices that will put you on different street corners from which the view might be dramatically different.)


#3 figure out where you are trying to go. (This is the point at which you wonder why you left your warm room to try to explore the streets in a city where it hasn't been above freezing in close to two weeks!)


Another thing I love about the subways. There are no exit signs. Instead all the signs say:

Other things I enjoy include the different vending machines, like these which are at the building where I teach:

Some close ups for you to examine:
Here is a funny thing - you can go buy a can of soda like the skinny ones you see in the pictures in the 7-11, familymart or other convenience stores for 800 or you can get one from the machine for 500. Sometimes there are machines right outside the convenience stores. It took me a little while to catch onto this, but I am smart to their sneaky ways now!

I keep forgetting to take pictures of my lunch until after I have started eating it! Oops. So here are yesterday's and today's lunches.



Yesterday's lunch was just strange. They do these weird protein meat things that aren't really anything distinguishable. (I would be worried about what they are serving us except soy products etc. are much cheaper than any exotic meat that I wouldn't want to eat. I had already eaten the salad which was good before I remembered to take the picture. The frenchfries are always cold, so I usually pass them off to the kids or toss 'em.
Today's lunch, however, was fantastic. The rice had that spicy red sauce on it which was HOT but sweetish and totally yummy. Another one of those cases where my mouth is burning but I just keep eating it because I enjoy it so much. But the soup....oh, let me tell you about the soup. Udon soup has a lovely light broth, slightly sweet, lotsa yummy thick noodles, various seafood (looked like imitation crab to me) and fried something (not sure what it was, but it tasted vegetable like) and it was SO good. I always struggle because about every 4th day we have a new dish that I think must be the best thing we have had in the cafeteria. (As you know, I often get to eat really yummy stuff outside the cafeteria) but I think that Udon might be my favorite - though the spicy stuff was really good too. My ramen hybrid steeping next to me no longer sounds so appealing.


On Friday night I bought this dress:


And on Saturday these super warm leg warmers which I love (flattering they may not be, but fuction over form in this weather, I say!)I wore them both to school today.


I often get little gifts from my kids. You know, elementary school kid gifts -- the odd piece of candy, the gonggi, things they make, etc.
Here are a few examples:


Notice the stickers, etc. I also got a small card (which is inside my nametag and I forgot to pull it out and take a picture of it.) But, I have to admit my favorite is the drawing that Julie gave me. She is quite talented.

(the artist is on the left.) I have three Julies in my MWF class. They labeled themselves Julie 1, Julie 2 and Julie 3. Julie 2 is my drawer.

Oh, I cannot wait to take video of them doing their little performance of Calendar Girl by Neil Sedaka. We have motions and a little dance and everything. They are SO adorable.

And I forgot to mention that when I got up this morning I found that it had snowed just a little bit. It was already evaporating (so cold and dry here) but still, it was pretty.


And I am still infatuated with the magpies. This one was saying absolutely horrible things to me today as I passed it on my walk to school. I would have scolded it for the language it was using, but I was just too cold to do more than take its picture.


Ok, that is enough for now. I still have one more test to write before I can go to sleep, and I didn't sleep well last night! Sorry that it took a few days to post. I am sure to have a few more adventures before I leave!

Friday, Jan 2, 2009 (and a little from Jan 1)

First, the big news! We had a cake decorating contest today. I had so much fun! It was hysterical and adorable and whimsical and care-free.



Watch the video here!

Now for news mostly about food:

The food was ok, but it has been my least favorite lunch so far.


Our 'dorm mother' made a traditional new years soup for us yesterday evening. Wow, so good. Beef, rice noodles, onions. Amazing.

Here are Sarah, Amber, Michelle, Mark and Diana enjoying the yumminess!

A few hours later we went out to dinner for Amanda's 23rd birthday. We found a Chinese restaurant on the 2nd floor of the building I live in (I am on the 7th floor) which had really amazing prices and some incredible food.

Brandon ordered fried rice and got a serving of black bean sause as well.


Amanda ordered seafood and rice in some kind of red sauce. Apparently it was very spicy!


The restaurant was having a special last night for new year's. Black beans and noodles which were only 1,000 won instead of 2,000 and very delicious.(I am about to eat my left overs for dinner tonight.) Apparently, this dish is somewhat traditional (we had it at school today too.)

Eating noodles with chopsticks is a little bit of a challenge (at least, if you don't want to wear sauce home with you) but apparently I did fairly well since the Korean girl who was with us asked where I had learned to use chopsticks. I have actually had a few Koreans compliment me on my use of chopsticks. It makes me laugh since I remember the first time I ate at a Thai restaurant where we had to use chopsticks (most of the time in Thailand you use a spoon) and I made a HUGE mess. I guess that was enough to encourage me to perfect my skills. Now I practice picking every piece of rice off my plate when I go to eat sushi. I guessed it finally paid off.



Brandon, Amber, myself and Brianna at dinner.

And lastly, because I know some of Michelle's friends have been reading this blog and because a few people have asked me about who I am here teaching with, this is Michelle in her room. She is next door to me, but teaches in the lower school building, and I teach in the upper school building. She is from Concord and I am from Charlotte. She is also the only other believer I know of in the American staff that is here.

Short update

Today was largely uneventful. Woke up at 6am and could not get back to sleep so I posted the second half of Sunday to the blog. Went to school. School was fine but tiring. T, Th, Sat classes are just a little tougher. They are a little younger, speak a little less english, are a little less prepared and just make you work a little harder. They are still very cute though.

Last night we went to Emart and I bought a pillow. I was looking for something cheap, small and comfortable. Now don't be jealous, but this is what I found for just over 4,000 won: (the little gold one, not the pink one.)

The pink one was they one they gave us, but it is like a rock and oddly shaped for sleeping.

When I was in Seoul on Sunday I bought this book at a bookstore. It looks like a fairly good book, but I think I would learn any language faster in a classroom.


Lastly, two pictures from today's lunch.


See, they are cute, but so full of mischief!