Roadtrip 2011

6 weeks and 7000 miles of fun, we have been traveling around Canada and the USA. Here are some pictures from our travels....it's been a blast!!
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A Brief Hiatus

We're back in the USA and it's awesome!! It's been a fun and interesting week trying to get ourselves adjusted back into the Western time zones and culture. I just keep telling people everything is so familiar, but it's not yet 'normal'. It has been so good though to see so many familiar things!

Tonight we leave on a 6 week road trip that will take us to see friends and family in, Canada, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico and California. It's going to be epic. We are excited to be on the open road and see so many of the people we have missed these past two years.  We will probably not be updating our blog for the next month or so. We'll be posting pictures and stories when we get back though. Hope you all enjoy your Summer....'til next time....

Bittersweet Goodbyes

Well this is it......time to say goodbye to our home of the past two years. Today we start our trip back home and the process of readjusting to life in the West. We are excited and apprehensive all at the same time.....which I suppose is pretty normal when you're making a big change. :) We are really looking forward to being closer to friends and family but lament leaving behind some of our friends and experiences that we've had here. But I can honestly say that being in a Western shopping mall or grocery store is going to be AWESOME!
Well here we go! We'll see many of you soon :)

Saying our Goodbyes

The past few days have been consumed with saying goodbye to friends and students. We've had parties in each class for our kids and a few of them have written us nice notes or given us a little something. It's been really sweet and we will seriously miss these kids! One of my students was excited to give me a fan......and here it is. 

 

thanks kid.....hahaha!....I laughed so hard....the girl had no idea what it even said, she just thought it was cute. Later, this gift was redeemed by two older students, who came in when they didn't have class just to give us a gift they had been saving for. They are the coolest girls, and both Jordan and I have had the chance to teach them. Here's their present. 

Needless to say we have had some really great students over the past few years and they will be dearly missed. We've been taking lots of pictures and saving our notes, so we can look back someday and remember our little English academy in the middle of Seoul.

Today is our last day of teaching and tomorrow morning we get on a plane and move back to the US. The hardest part has been explaining to the kids why we are leaving. It's been a great two years. :)

Fun times in Seoul

Here is a link to some pictures that we've put on facebook. They show some of the things we've been doing the past few days as we are preparing to leave Seoul. 
Last Days in Seoul

The Happiest Country in the World....

Some of you may have seen this in the news. North Korea recently came out with a new report ranking the happiest countries in the world on a scale of 0-100. North Korea themselves came in second with China in the first spot, followed by Cuba, Iran and Venezuala. I sense a trend here....
The "American Empire" was rated last with only 3 points. This just made us more unhappy..... :)


http://www.businessinsider.com/the-happiest-countries-in-the-world-according-to-north-korea-2011-5

Random Story of the Day.......

Of all the streets, in all the cities, in all the world, I ran into a friend from high school today while shopping in downtown Seoul. It was so unexpected it actually took my brain a few moments to figure out what was going on. He had recently moved back to Korea with his wife and just happened to be in the same shopping area at the same time as my friend and I. It's so crazy when these things happen, it was fun to see an old friend for a few minutes!

3 years!

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary! whoot whoot! It's been an a-mazing 3 years, and we have been so spoiled to have schedules that allow us so much time together. I'm so lucky to be married to my best friend!

1 room 1 bath

So, we were enjoying a lazy morning here at home when we got a phone call from our boss. He informed us out of the blue that some people were going to be showing up at our apartment in 20 minutes to look at it as a possible rental. We scrambled to tidy up, getting our dirty clothes into the laundry and the dishes out of sight. About 5 minutes later, the people actually show up. They had a key and were using in the lock before we could get the door open. It was rather awkward when they came into our tiny little place and peeked around....haha. Now we are much more careful about what we leave around the house, as this will be happening on a regular basis with little to no notice. Ah, the adventures of moving...

3 weeks and counting!

It's been a long weekend getting ready to leave in a few weeks. We found out from our school that they are not replacing us with other foreign teachers because they can't afford to. This means that they will sell our apartment to someone else. This was a little sad for us to hear because we had worked hard to get this place cozy and were bummed to know that no other foreigners coming over here would benefit from that. On the other hand, it allows us to make a little more money off of selling things in the apartment. We have been hard at work selling our furniture and other accumulated items from 2 years of living here. The apartment is looking empty. However, I've found there's something therapeutic about sorting through all your stuff and purging unnecessary things, getting ready to move on to what's next. Slowly, we're saying 'goodbye' to Seoul.
We are sad to leave, but ready to go.

Kelly

My student brought her traditional Korean flute, called a "danso," to class the other day. I asked here to play a little song....and here it is! :)

Teachers Day

May 15th was Teacher's Day here in Korea.  I was surprised to walk into class the other day and find that my students had drawn me a message on the board. They wanted to wish me a very big Happy Teacher's Day....it was very sweet. And then they announced that since it was Teacher's Day, they should get to play games all class. :) hahaha.....of course....there's always a reason to play games all class!

The Friendship Fair

Spring in Seoul brings many festivals and events. People are dying to get out of their tiny little apartments after the long cold Winter. We decided to go with some friends to a festival called the Friendship Fair. We had heard that it was a good one to go to mostly because it had a wide variety of foreign dishes to sample. This festival is all about getting to learn about other cultures.

The embassies are each given a tent, where they can provide information, or sell goods from their home countries. Then as you walk down another street you see that each embassy has also been given a tent for food. Here you can walk around and, for a small price, sample a wide variety of foods from Europe, Africa, South America, the Middle East and Asia. This was incredibly exciting for us because most of the food options were the "real deal". It is very difficult to get international foods in Seoul, that have not in someway been hijacked and "koreanized," as we call it.

So we walked around stuffing ourselves with food and enjoying some of the street theater that was going on. Some of the embassies had people in costumes doing traditional dances and whatnot. And I have to say that I have not seen so many foreigners in once place since being in Korea! It was a great day all around, with sunshine, good friends, delicious food, and a smorgasbord of cultural offerings!

One fellow even decided to get in the mood and dance! It was awesome! :)

Another Subway Adventure

The other day we were riding the subway home after a long day bummin around in Seoul. Jordan was carrying an empty water bottle that he was tapping and playing with as we chatted to pass the time. Suddenly, an old man walked up to us and muttered something in Korean while pointing at the water bottle and making a stomping motion. Jordan looked at him in confusion. The man then grabbed the bottle, took the top off, squished it, twisted it and stomped on it. He then picked it up twisted the cap back on and handed it to Jordan. We just stood there dumbfounded and smiling. We managed to mumble "thanks" to this strange man who had so kindly smashed the water bottle for us....

Tri-ways

We had our first real day of Summer last weekend and we decided to make the most of it. We went on a picnic with our friends and then we decided to rent these little "scooter" things called tri-ways. We took them down to the river and had a hilarious time riding around on these tiny little machines. All the Koreans were staring and pointing....not that they don't anyway....but today it was particularly noticeable as we zoomed past on our tri-ways. We had to have a good laugh ourselves because the machines were so small that we originally thought they were for kids...but it turns out they're for everyone. So us, giant, white, foreigners hopped on and made ourselves quite conspicuous. What a good laugh we had....

Buddha's Birthday

Today is Buddha's birthday and we get the day off! Most Asian countries have enormous celebrations on this holiday and Korea is no exception. Korea started by hanging lanterns, on nearly all of the streets, about 3 weeks ago. They also have a lantern festival, parade, and a variety of other traditional activities that occur at the many Buddhist temples. While we don't personally celebrate this day, it has been fun to see some of the more traditional events that happen around this holiday. Here are some pictures showing how Buddha's birthday is celebrated in Korea.

Payday

Payday was last week, which is always nice. We got to talking to our coworkers about paycheck traditions in Korea vs. the US. We learned that in Korea when you receive your first paycheck it's tradition to go and buy your parents a present. We thought this was a nice tradition until we learned what you were supposed to buy them. When you get your first paycheck in Korea it's customary to buy each of your parents some underwear! When we asked why, they couldn't tell us....maybe it's just that nothing feels as nice as a fresh pair of underoos :)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Just want to give a shout out to mom's everywhere...but our Mom's in particular. We couldn't ask for better loving, caring, Godly women in our lives! Thank you Mom for EVERYTHING you do!!!

Embracing our inner 'carnie'....

We got to see Cirque du Soleil "Varekai" for the first time....it was AMAZING!! I highly recommend going to see a production if you ever have the chance. It was a dazzling display of costumes and sets. Also, it gave us lots of laughs and plenty of panic as we held our breath during some incredible acrobatic stunts.What a show!

Homeward Bound

Okay so I know I've been terrible at posting these days....on the other hand I'm pretty sure there's only 3 people who read this blog...haha...anyway, we are down to our last 40 days before we head back to the States. We are in process of selling some of the things we have acquired while living over here, such as out futon which just went out the door this morning. The weather's getting warmer, we have a long weekend ahead and it's really starting to feel like change is in the air.

It's going to be a long process moving back to the US and getting situated there, but we are REALLY excited about the changes that are coming. We are looking forward to finding jobs and a good church to be involved in, as well as being much closer to family when we get back. As of yet we don't know what city we'll be living in but we have some options on the table and are waiting to see what works out job-wise. We are just biding our time, trying to enjoy the last few weeks we have here in Korea and trusting that God will put us where He wants us in his own timing.

We are scheduled to arrive back in the US on June 15th. We'll be arriving in Portland where we will spend a few days getting a car and whatnot, and then we embark on a 6 week road trip, which will take us up into Canada, through Minnesota, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico and California.....it's going to be epic! We'll be back in Portland in August for a week or two, so if we don't see you in June, there's always August :) We can hardly wait to be back enjoying the homeland and seeing our family and friends.

We were watching a movie the other day that had a sweeping view of land and mountains as the sun was setting. My jaw just dropped and I turned to Jordan and said "I can't wait to be able to see that kind of space again!" We both laughed because there aren't many places you can go here in Korea where you wont see tall concrete buildings and TONS of people and virtually nothing that  can compare to the sweeping plains and rocky mountains of North America. For all the great things we've experienced here, seeing nature and simply spaciousness is something we've really missed. :)

Here's to the future....we'll keep you updated as we figure out what's in store for us next....and I promise (you three readers)...I'll try to update more often these days :)

HAPPY EASTER!!

Happy Easter everyone! We had such a good day at church and with friends. We went to the early service and then had a late, lunch/dinner at our friends house. May you all enjoy the day as much as we did, celebrating the day our Lord conquered the grave!

Cherry Blossoms

We went to the Cherry Blossom Festival again this year. The trees were gorgeous and the Spring weather was an added bonus. Despite the enormous crowds we still thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Here are some pictures of the day.

Plastic Surgery

As some of you may know plastic surgery is VERY common in South Korea and Asia in general. Most commonly people get eye-widening surgery and nose surgery. This is an advertisement that we see all over the place on billboards and in the subway that shows people what kind of surgeries they can get, with examples of "before" and "after"....who knew emoticons could be so funny.

Yes I Wanna!

Here are some signs we saw in the subway for plastic surgery.....bahaha!

Fool Me Once......

Once again my students celebrated April Fool's Day by saying things like..."Teacher, you're beautiful....it's a LIE!" and "Teacher, I didn't do my homework....it's a LIE!" Pretty much everything they said today was followed by "It's a LIE!" At least I got a good laugh out of it :)

Kyla's 27th Birthday!

Jordan spoiled me rotten today! He took me out shopping, I got my nails done, went out to dinner with friends and finished off the day with a foot soak and a diet coke! What a great day!!

Cousins in Korea

Marty and Chelsea (Kyla's cousin) came to visit for a day this weekend. Marty's brother lives in Gwangju which is in the southern part of the peninsula. They spent a week down there and were able to come up here on Sunday and headed to Japan and then home on Monday. We managed to squeeze in Dr. Fish, Karaoke and a trip to the N Seoul Tower at night. We had such a good time with them! It's always good to see family :)

NOT FOR SALE- Freedom Sunday

Jordan and I have had the privilege of hearing David Batstone speak on two occassions. He is a global leader in the fight to abolish modern day slavery. There are an estimated 20-30 million people in the world today who are trapped in slavery. The encouraging thing is that there are practical things we can do about it!

I encourage you to check out www.notforsalecampaign.org as well as the Freedom Project at CNN.com.  Also, if you have an Android phone or an iphone download the app "free2work" it's free and it gives companies a rating (A-F) on how effectively they keep slave labor out of their factories. Choose not to buy products that receive a poor rating, this will force companies to pay more attention to the issue of forced labor in their factories....sadly, chocolate companies are some of the worst offenders, with around 284,000 children trapped in the cocoa industry. However there are some cocoa companies who are making a change, so check out the website or the app.  Soon there will be an app coming that will allow you to simply scan items in the store.

Not For Sale is working with companies to help them find practical ways to eliminate slavery in their factories and improve their rating. They are also training and equipping people around the world to be able to locate slaves in the sex trade and effectively shut down brothels. Not For Sale has recently partnered with CNN to bring more global awareness to this issue. They have also been working with the US government to bring more accountability to companies to ignore slave labor in their factories.

Today is Freedom Sunday, where many churches around the world are celebrating those who have been freed and praying for those who are still enslaved. I encourage you to give some thought and prayer to the issue and what practical things you can do to help abolish modern day slavery. This is not an issue far across the sea, it is a HUGE issue in the US, right in our own backyard.

Jordan's Fan Club

Sunday afternoon Jordan and I decided to go for a walk, just to get out of the house. The city has been doing a lot of work on a stream that runs close to our apartment, such as putting on walkways and aesthetic rock structures.  We decided to go take a look at how the work was coming along.

As we turned off the main road, to get onto the path next to the stream, there were three old women sitting on a rock enjoying a nice chat. Suddenly one of the old ladies turned around to see the foreigners strolling towards them. As she turned around we were greeted by a brown, weathered old face and a smile that contained only two teeth. As soon as she saw Jordan, her eyes lit up and she gave us the biggest toothless smile ever; completing the display of excitement with a vigorous thumbs up! It was hilarious.

This wild looking old woman had found some eye candy and her two friends just giggled and laughed as we walked by. Jordan gets super star status here in Korea, by simply looking "so handsome teacher!" This old woman is the latest addition to his fan club )

Another Day at the Office

It's a regular occurrence for us to come to school and find fellow teachers or our bosses sleeping. Korea is such a "work-a-holic" society that it's not uncommon to see people in certain professions sleeping at work. Today, we walked into school and found our boss taking his afternoon nap, he had even tucked a blanket up under his chin. :) so awesome!

 

Christine's Wedding

A teacher friend of ours got married this weekend and we were invited to the wedding. Traditional Korean weddings are quite different from western style weddings, however in recent years "wedding halls" have become very popular. At these wedding halls they provide everything you need for your ceremony and reception. And they churn out close to 100 weddings on a good day. Many western traditions have become part of the Korean wedding system. We really enjoyed ourselves although we were a little sad to see how westernized weddings here had become. It seemed like so many traditions had been adopted without the meanings behind those traditions. Most couples still do a tea ceremony, but it is usually done in private, instead of as a part of the overall ceremony. All in all though it was a fun experience to go and see how weddings were done here! Here's a glimpse of the event:


To start off when you arrive at the wedding hall you drop your cards off at a "front desk" of sorts. Some attendants then open your card and count the money that's inside so that the couple has a nice lump sum when they head out for their honeymoon. Then you can go to a small room next to the main room where the bride is sitting and you can have your picture taken with her.

 

Afterwards, you go into the reception/ceremony hall and you are seated at tables that surround a runway. 

Finally the ceremony begins with a candle-lighting by the mothers of the bride and groom. Then the groom struts his stuff down the aisle to a beat-box tune.

Next, the bride walks the aisle with her dad.

Then there's a short ceremony, and while this is going on the guests are chatting and walking around, while remembering to clap at appropriate moments.
At the end of the ceremony, the bride and groom are announced to the guests and they happily stroll back down the aisle.

Then there are professional pictures taken, with family, friends and co-workers.
After that, the happy couple goes to change in the their hanboks (korean traditional clothing), while the guests are served a meal. This meal brought with it an onslaught of Celine Dion songs. :)

 

Next the couple returns in the their hanboks, for the cake cutting, the champagne fountain pouring and to greet all the guests. 

After your table is greeted by the newlyweds the wedding's over and you can go home.