Picture This....

Some of the bus drivers here must deal with suppressed rage. They must feel that they have to prove something to the world... or at least to other Korean drivers by being the WORST DRIVERS IN THE WORLD! I believe the bus driver who took me home today is one of those men.

Imagine, if you will, a city bus; handles hanging down from the ceiling, seats along the sides... a spacious isle... can you see the inside of a city bus? Now picture me, hanging on to two handles with all of my might while my feet fly up towards the windshield because the crazy bus driver alternately stomps on the break and gas. I kid you not, I nearly flew today! There was definitely at least one point in the ride where I was horizontal.

I mean, the guys only got about 100 yards to cover before he's going to have to break, but do you think he's going to just mosey up to the stop??? HECK NO! I think it was his goal to see how many people he could get to fall down... or to see how close he could get to the car in front of him before he SMASHED on the breaks!

I kept looking up at his face to see if there was any remorse or feeling.. or human spark in this man's eyes... I could only see a dull void. I would have tried to feel bad for him if I didn't have to concentrate so hard on staying on my feet during the bus ride... it was really bad folks... really bad!

On the up side... I survived. And, I can't wait to go out and try again. Oh, I also just joined a gym. It's right across the street from me and the people who work there seem super nice. I met a guy there who speaks English really well. His name is June, and he's really nice and helpful! I just wish I could hear better.. and I wish I looked a little better after I work out... you know trying to flirt with a boy while sweating and disgusting doesn't always do much for you! JK!

Love you, miss you, praying for you!

Hil

I'm Really Starting to Like it Here!

I realized today that I'm really starting to like it here... it's more than just having good experiences and adventures... I feel content, I feel comfortable.

I'm slightly worried about coming back home. I almost feel as if I've moved away from the English language... it's English only in theory. I speak some sort of Konglish that helps me to be understood by my students and Koreans in general. When I come back to the States I'm afraid that I won't be able to understand anything... "THAT"S TOO MUCH ENGLISH AT ONCE! TALK SLOWER PLEASE!" Because of course speaking loudly helps people understand you!

And, what if I get a teaching job (which I really hope I do)... I think I'm going to have to re-learn how to teach. I'm not going to be used to my students understanding what I'm saying!

I had a fun day today. I gave out Oreos to the students who had the most participation points in each class. I think my point was made about participation and how much I value it. Nothing speaks louder than cookies! During lunch, I ate with some of my co-teachers. One co-teacher and I had already had a class together and I asked her if she thought the students enjoyed the Oreos... she said a little bashfully, "Oh yes! I like the Oreos."

Soooo... after lunch, on my way to share my Oreos with my co-teacher, (her name is Yu Mi-kyun and she's the best co-teacher I have) I suddenly became surrounded by a bunch of "hungry" girls who "like cookies!" It's funny how their English becomes so much better when I have food. I almost had to run away, they were like leeches...

I like to play a game with my upper level students. I have all of the students put their heads down and shut their eyes. Then one by one (the students are in groups so, one by one in each group) the students are to look up and read a word I've written on the board. After each person in the group has a word, I say "Go!" and they all have to put their individual words together to make a sentence. Once the team thinks they have the sentence in the correct order (word order) they raise their hands (or more realistically, scream and yell for me to come over) and they have to say the sentence out loud in the correct order. If they are the first team to do this, each person on the team gets a participation point (and after today's Oreos... they all really wanted participation points!)!

Today, during the game, when it was all quiet and they were waiting for their words... a boy in a seat right next to where I was standing farted really loudly! I couldn't stop laughing. Also, today I was having students complete a worksheet. One of the answers on the worksheet was "Shirt." Now, some of the students have trouble spelling... one boy today misspelled shirt... I'll let you figure that one out. I laughed at that one too, but couldn't explain to anyone why I was chuckling.

Well, that's all for today... more adventures to come. I'd love to hear more from all of you. Receiving emails from you is like getting a little hug! Keep 'em coming!

Hil

My Co-Workers Stay at School Until 8 in the Evening

My New Nickname... "Crazy Korean Man Magnet!"

For some reason, I always get the crazy men coming up to me, wanting to be... friendly. My theory is that most Koreans have never seen anyone as strange looking as me, but that's up for debate.

The milk here smells like corn and tastes like... bad. I think it's probably octopus milk or something like that. Or corn milk.. they make everything out of corn and rice here.. I wouldn't be surprised!

I'm continually thankful, God continues to bless me with relationships and opportunities to build on my faith. I am so unaware and take advantage of God's good grace and love in my life. This week was a rough one for me, but it became clear to me that I really am in the center of God's will. So many people rose up to show me that I am loved, valued and thought well of. I have found that, being in the center of God's will is the safest place to be and it's only by my very human and base thoughts and actions that lead me to fall away from what is good and right. Thank you, God, for your protection, love and grace. Where would I be without it!

I love you all. And I miss you. Please keep in touch through email and prayers.

In HIM who knows all things.

I Saw Underwear Hanging Out to Dry On The Sidewalk

Walking home from school today, I saw some laundry, underwear included, being hung out to dry on the sidewalk. I don't know about you, but my undergarments are never hung out for display!


Also, as I was walking home from school.. I passed a man who had very dark skin... he almost looked red. Also, his eyes were red and... he just looked rather strange. But, the funny thing was... when he saw me, he gave this little start. His head jerked back a little and his eyes got all wide with surprise. Seeing as I wanted to (but didn't) do the exact same thing when I saw him, I thought it was terribly ironic! I guess I'm still a freak here. Dang it! I thought I was starting to blend in!


Yesterday was school picture day. I was reminded of this by three different teachers, so I took it to be kind of a big deal. Soooo... I got all dressed up (which for most people isn't that dressed up, but you know...) and headed out my door feeling pretty sophisticated and.... well just down right good looking. However, after I had to SPRINT across TWO different roads in order to not get creamed... ones dignity, sophistication and well... just everything sort of flies out of the window. I've seen girls do this before... streak across the road... in heels... hair and scarfs flying... and I used to think... "How ridiculous." I have become ridiculous.


Here are some pictures of my students, my school, my co-workers (In-ji) and me... the "sophisticated" teacher!











As always, thanks for your prayers and encouraging words. I still love emails and for those of you who have sent me letters and packages... THANK YOU SO MUCH! I love them!

Please stay in touch!

Miss you, love you, praying for you!

Hil

My Walk Home

I walked home from school today and I got lost.

But, fortunately, I had my wits about me and I eventually found the right way! Bravo, me, I know!

On my way home, I happened across a toy poodle being walked. The animal really just looked like a bunch of cotton balls bouncing along on two pairs of legs... and RED TENNIS SHOES! Yes. The toy poodle had on four tiny little red tennis shoes!

Now, I'm of the opinion that poodles, especially toy poodles, look ridiculous anyway... why would anyone want to make them look even more ridiculous by putting red tennis shoes on them? IT'S A DOG for crying out loud, not a baby! Oh Korea!

This morning, at school, a man came in and started shouting at the Vice-principal. It was quite dramatic! He had to be escorted out by a big male teacher (my VP is tiny!). Later on I found out that it had something to do with In-Ji, the teacher whose desk is right next to mine. Let me tell you a little about In-Ji:

She is 27 or 28 and teaches social studies. I ate lunch with her today and I learned more about the school and the character of certain teachers and just Korea in general in the 20 minutes I spent with her than I have learned from 3 weeks of eating lunch with other, older, Korean English teachers. I think it's because she is young and very open and honest with me. She also seems really open to a friendship outside of school... so that's exciting! And, the best thing is... she's a Christian!

God is good!

Some Interesting Things...

So, some very interesting things have been happening to me while in Korea... I'm not sure if being a foreigner here makes me an easy target for these sorts of incidents or if I'm just lucky, but allow me to share a few of these moments with you...

One day, I was in Gwanghwamun with some friends. We were sitting by this lovely river reading books. Suddenly, Shannon (one of my friends) notices that there is a strange Korean man taking our picture from across the river. After she tells us about him and we all look up, he waves to us and then snaps a few more. No big deal... whatever.

Then he come over to where we are. He asks us in broken English if we would please go over and sit on some stones and splash water around. He wants to take more pictures.... Ok. He seems nice enough. So we do... And that's all really. After he was done, he said thank you, we said thank you... we splashed each other and laughed a lot and that was it. I still wonder why he wanted to take our picture... maybe I'm going to end up in a magazine somewhere!

This is Leigh and I splashing water in the river for the strange man!

Then, today I was on my way back home from teaching my adult class when two young Korean women approached me about a survey they wanted me to take. It was in English and after reading the first question, I figured out that it was about God. It really looked as if they were a couple of Christian women and just wanted me to fill this survey out for them for a class or something they were taking.... I was wrong!

They believe something about there being a Father God and a Mother God and that only Mother God can save us and only by taking the Passover communion and they were trying to prove it to me through scripture. They were really taking the Word of God out of context and, it seemed to me, just inferring a lot of things about there being a Mother God who is equal to Father God without any basis or support. I was really disappointed that they used the pretext of a survey and a "preaching practice" (they said I was going to evaluate them on their English) to draw me in.

I really feel dumb now that I see what they did. I should have known that they were going to try to convert me or insist that I believe their religion. They also came at me in the name of Christianity... I wouldn't call what they believe Christianity. After a lot of listening I finally said to them, "I appreciate your enthusiasm and your desire to help me, but I believe that people were eternally separted from God by sin. But, after Jesus died on the cross, He took all of the sin upon Himself and if we believe that He is our Lord and Savior and ask Him to come into our hearts, that is all we need to be saved. That's it!" And then I drew the little thing where there are people on one side and God on the other and Jesus serves as the bridge. They tried to brush that off and say stuff about the Mother God and the Passover. I told them I wanted to leave and, thought they looked really disappointed, they walked me out. On our walk they kept trying to convince me to think about what they had told me and were asking me questions... I told them "I'm not confused about what I believe. I'm confused about what you believe."

We actually parted well. I really didn't want to be rude to them, but I felt like they took advantage of me. I felt like they pushed WAY too hard and I know what they believe is just.... wrong. But, I figure I'm a guest in this country and I'm going to try as hard as I can not to be rude... even when people are challenging my faith.

So, yeah, strange even number 2!