Chuseok Days

So as it turns out, once you get outside of Korean cities, the country side is gorgeous. Sharp mountains and farms all over. Although my co-worker informed me many of the small farms don't even have real toilets, in fact when she visited her grandmother's for chuseok she had to drive her army (American) boyfriend into town because he was afraid of breaking the boards, over the hole that you squat on to do your business......anyway Korea is lovely. We visited the 'Toy Market' which is a young boys dream. The toy guns are eerily realistic.

You can buy groundhogs for pets here.....I am reminded of a stop at the humane society in Virginia and hearing a story of a pet groundhog that they had which would come in and out of the house as it pleased and was smart enough to open the fridge and help himself to the veggies in the lower drawers.....so maybe they would be fun to have.

Did I mention that Koreans are crazy and put cats, dogs, and bunnies all in the same cage? Well it is true; you can't see it in this picture, but there were puppies beside these cats and bunny.

We almost bought this little guy. He was seriously the softest thing I have ever touched. It was unreal, like long cashmere on a living creature. However when we asked the price he was 200,000 won ($200), so we decided to shop and think about bargaining them down. He thought we would pay 120,000 won; unfortunately when we went back, they told us the price was 250,000 and we decided we didn't want to deal with crooks and told them "In America cats are free."

I made a new friend....

So did Stephen....

In downtown Cheonan we found some dance wear.... well Stephen did, I wasn't about to hop in that green nasty.
And ate some Taco bell, which was a bit dissapointing, all I wanted was a crunch wrap supreme (which just writing about it now makes my mouth water) but sure enough, they were out of the large quesadillas and therefore my dreams were smashed, still it was fun to eat on the 3rd floor.
Lil' dude we passed after eating DELICIOUS Italian food, made by a man who actually studied in Italy how to cook....*sigh*

I also got to visit with Emily, which was wonderful. It was just really nice to hang out with someone who already knows you, no introduction or life stories, just chillin.

Stephen found his dream bike....

So all in all it was a good vacation, relaxed and full of blessings, be they a soft kitten or an art museum with wonderful Asian art.

Blessings in Photography

My fiance says my blog is not full of Whims or Joy, so I have decided to just post a few pictures that show my actual joy living in Korea.

This is our new friend, he kept staring at us so our photographer (Yolondo Lupoe) decided we should jump in with our buddy for a quick picture. Stunning old man isn't he?

After a long day of shooting we decided to jump in a fountain for our last location. Dripping wet, cold and completely happy. I love green.
We bought our traditional clothing at a market that sells used clothing, together they cost us about 20,000 won, which is less than $20 US. Amazing and my very favorite part of picture taking. Hanboks are lovely, comfortable and so fun. We definitely were in the Korean spirit.
Life is good. I am blessed with a man of God who knows my heart. He even recognizes when I need time alone and doesn't take it personally that I would rather paint than hang out on a rainy holiday day.

God is good all the time, and although I have been finding it hard to see his exact purpose for my being here in Korea teaching english and not art, I do believe he is good and I can clearly see how blessed I am. I mean God cares about the details; on our photography day I didn't have acne or chapped lips and even my hair was in place, which of recent has been non-existent. He provided a perfect green dress for fountain pictures and hanbok's for our Korean style and all for near nothing. He provided a professional photographer who loves us enough to cut us a ridiculous deal and took her entire saturday to bless us. He blessed us with perfect picture weather and locations all within walking distance of each other.

When normality lies across the sea I like to store away these small blessings in the pockets of my mind, easily accessible for that rainy holiday.

My Job

I work 5 days a week and I don't believe I have mentioned it yet.

My job is nothing too exciting and today I have found myself counting down the minutes. All too often we finish reading a story and we have 30 minutes to go and I have few ideas on how to spend the time.

Still I have some favorite students. I'm starting to see that some of them actually do like me. And that is encouraging even though they are often pains in the you-know-what.

Yesterday I had four girls fighting in my class, which for these 8/9 year-olds consists of tattling when they speak Korean and tattling when they point at each other and make the sign for 'crazy.'

I literally screamed at one point "uhhhhhhhhhhhg! I don't care. DON'T talk to each other, DON'T look at each other, NO crazy signs, NO 'teacher teacher she korean talking, she crazy.'" While at the same time I fake sign languaged- with X arms (Japanese style) and mimicking their bad english. So frustrating.

The boys must have been loving it. I usually have trouble with the guys, but it seems they have gotten over their hatred for me and now just want to get points. They actually pay attention most the time and rarely give me attitude.

When I pulled in their regular teacher to talk to the girls, there was an eruption of noise in trying to blame each other. Poor Jessica (my co-teacher), I tried to silence the girls long enough to explain that I don't care who was first, or who said what, I just don't want it in my class-and that's all I wanted translated. I am not really sure if that made it through.

I hate it when kids gang up on each other, or are mean. It makes me sad for their hearts.

On the other hand I have two boys that I teach, Nelly and Kevin and they are probably younger, maybe American age 8, and adorable! Well Kevin is REALLY adorable (like ring-bearer adorable), but Nelly has this funny way of clapping his hands "ah-ha!" every time he understands something, which is particularly endearing. They are just such a joy. I go from classes of a rowdy 10 kids, 70% of which are dumb as bricks and then I get to teach Nelly and Kevin who's understanding is far past their grade level AND they have a sense of humor!

I give them so much candy. Shoot, the classes that I like get so much candy and actually get to have fun.

All this job makes me realize is how much better suited I am to teach Art. I am already bored of teaching english and it hasn't even been two months.

At least the money is good.

Girls Night 2

Although it was a smaller crowd with a few girls working overtime (unpaid of course, as the system is) Brittani's girls night was wonderful.

BrittOni and I bused down from Palyong, to Sangnam and just so happened to arrive at the bus stop the moment Britt-A walked out of work, which was convenient since we were not certain where this neon pink yogurt shop was that we were told of. It also helped that Brit-A just had her hair dyed blonde, which was easy for spotting.

This yogurt shop is so cute. Ridiculously expensive (4000 won for a black coffee!) but it was so cute! It has a loft lay out and fake interior shutters.

So Brit-A was in charge of this excursion and she did something wonderful; she spotted a carb-packed pie at Costco with apple center and she lost no time in making it into a girls night.

So four tiny girls, attacked this pie with out delicious yogurt treats and in no time created an 'X' of a pie.

The women who worked at the shop were all young and cute and so sweet. They didn't care that we brought in extra food, and they even made some people move from their seats so we could all sit inside....nice for us, but kinda mean to the koreans who had to move to make room for the foreigners eating pie. This is actually pretty common here; it isn't rude to make people move from their seats if there is too few of them at the table and an appropriate number of people come in.

So we gorged ourselves on pie and chatted and were satisfied.

A Surprise Treasure

Brit-O and I left early, due to our fatigue and not wanting to pay for at taxi home, and as we walked out I found a nice little treasure in the trash, a black metal spirally......candle holder? Well, I think it is originally for plants, but it has now become a nice candle holder, which I tested out last night when my lovely fiance brought me a whopper, wine and candles. I swear that boy knows my heart like no other man ever has.

Life in Changwon

Girls night

Crafting, feasting, wining, and chatting. What more can a girl ask for than a good breakfast burrito and time with sweet women sipping on soju-orange juice? Nothing other than craft time.....at least as the child of art that I am, there is nothing else I can think of.

Yes, Wonderful Womanly Wednesdays has been a hit. And it appears it is more than a themed movie night; we are actually coming up with various ideas. In fact in the upcoming week we will be going to a yogurt bar with apple pie and feasting.

I love how active people are here in Changwon. Everyone is so up

for activities and really seem eager to do anything but go to a bar, which is to regular an occasion.

I love the ladies I get to spend time with and it is such a God-send to have girl time. I mean don't get me wrong, I love Stephen, but of all I miss from back home, my girls are what I miss most. I didn't even realize I had that many girl friends, but being over here I realized the ridiculous importance of having females around. You can only make your fiance shop with you for so long.

So here is a snap shot of girls crafting extravaganza-

The Fiance

So did I mention that my man washes the dishes every time he comes over to eat? Or that he always asks where I would like to go for eating, or that he drives in the rain on his moped to visit me? Or that he spoils me rotten and lets me choose movies, even if they are chick flicks? I mean how is it that the Lord sees fit to give me such a wonderful specimen. I sometimes wonder if people meet him and are like "why is he marrying her, he is so amazing!?," because that is what I would think.

I guess what is greatest about him is how much his servanthood makes me thank the Lord for how blessed I am.

The Lord's plan for my life has been so different from my own. I mean, had you told me in high school that I would end up with Stephen Howard I would have laughed into a dizzy. But God's plan has been so much better than my own. If it were up to my plan I would have married the wrong man, gotten a job in America or over seas and been lonely. But how wonderful that the Lord wanted me groomed before dating the man that would accept all my strangeness and love me more for it. How great that we are able to avoid so many relationship problems because we have already made them with someone else (at least kinda great haha). How ridiculous that we have yet to kiss, and yet, it's so divinely amazing. Less than four months now.

The Infest

There is a giant cockroach that lives underneath my bed. Apparently the ant poison is not enough for this big boy. Twice he has brazenly crawled up my wall in the light of my room only for me to attempt to kill him and him jump to the floor and crawl beneath my bed at lightning speed. In my defense, the first time I was unprepared and all I did was hit him with a broom that I knew was not hard enough to crack his exoskeleton; and the second time, well I went for a shoe and had it in hand ready to strike when my dear biologist fiance stopped me saying I'd leave a stain on my wall paper so he got toilet paper allowing for the roach to crawl higher and sense his coming to get him.

Alas dear Leonard (like the old man in 'Community') till next time nasty foe.