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 :)