I'm on vacation with my sister in Korea!!! :) YAY!!!!

Heat wave

The heat is coming and I am not ready for it. Usually the nights and mornings aren't too bad, but the afternoons are deadly (maybe not 'deadly', but hot enough). Oh, and I heard it only gets more humid and hot when July shows it's face. I'm very excited. hmmm.

Well time has continued to fly by and I still haven't learned how to control it. I'm not holding my breath for that day..and yet I continue to try and conquer time and have my say at how fast or slow it should go by...

So last week my choir from Calvin College was in town. Unfortunately I was not able to hear them in concert, but I did meet up with them during the day in Seoul. It was great to talk to catch up with friends/professors. Great ladies. Good memories of being in the choir. It's always weird though when 2 worlds collide together...G.R. people and Korea.

(L. The wonderful Linda, C. me, R. the amazing Dr. Shangkuan)

Love them both dearly.

Last weekend there was a big festival in my city. It was pretty fun I have to say. There was some great drumming and traditional music. I have fallen in love with Korean Tradition drumming. It's amazing. Ari rang is turning into a person favorite as well :)

There was a viol inst there who was pretty great, but it was the most interesting combination; short skirt and top, Canon in D, and B-Boys (Break-dancers). Fascinating. (see pic. below)

I was thinking that Pachelbel was rolling over in his grave :) It was entertaining though. Anyways, it was fun. Good musicians, good friends, good times. Oh, my roommates and I got a family portrait done...yup. The artists wasn't very impressive though. I have a deformed hand, my friend has an odd shaped head and interesting facial hair.

This past week we also had a day off so my friend and I decided to go to the beach which was supposedly only 2 hours away on an island...supposedly.

Quick walk thru of the day:

no sun-

Bus: 15 min. to subway ($.60)

Subway: 1 Hr. to airport ($2.00)

Taxi (b.c. we missed the bus that comes once every hour) ($30 for a 10 min. ride)

oh wait...oh yes, the taxi ended up taking us the wrong way...yup

Wait for bus: 30 min.-

-no sun

Take bus back to airport (oh, and this is the bus that we supposedly missed but was going the wrong way anyway) ($.90) 1 hour-finally get to the ferry-

-clouds are rollin in-

Ferry ($2.00)-2 min. ride to island (me looking excited about the rain, wind, and cold beach)

-rain drop-

Arrive on island-bus pulls up right away, but wait...oh he doesn't' pick any of us up for some strange reason, so we wait....and wait....and the rain comes in.....and thunder...more waiting....

40 min. later...back on the ferry...

so basically hours of trying to get to this beach and never actually seeing it or the sun. oi.

Teaching on the other hand has been going well. I'm really enjoying my new students (we started a new semester about a week and a half ago). I have some of the upper level classes, which has been more challenging for me as well as the students. These students continue to amaze me with their intelligence. Very bright :) It's times like these when I wish I was trained to be a teacher so I could be more beneficial to them in a more efficient way. A musician knows only so much about teaching haiku, ballads, cinquain, onomatopoeia etc.

My Friday classes involve teaching logic, debates, oh and interviews...logic is a lot of fun..maybe more so for me than the students, but nonetheless it's good for them.

This past weekend I went out to hear some jazz in Hongdae. I am realizing how much I miss quality music..where's Wagner and Schumann when I need them. The good news is, I moved the piano into my bedroom finally! yay! more time to practice and learn some more Debussy and Chopin. I'm very excited :)

Soccer is going well. The guys are great. Good times, Hot weather though. My sister is coming next week so that is also very very exciting :)

Rainy days...

Things here are continuing as usual. We are finishing up our first semester of Avalon and diving into the next one in about a week. We are in the middle of our parent-teacher-translator meetings; the first one that us foreign teachers have partaken in. It's a good experience for me but It also reminds me that I am an extreme amateur at teaching...what do you expect though when I majored in Music and a German....hmm


I've been filling my weekends with sports and hanging out with friends in Seoul. Time continue to flies by...Soccer is going well. It's always a good time to play on the great gravel "fields" (and if we are lucky we can get field without too many potholes :) Actually we've been playing on some turf which is pretty fun. Rock climbing is going well also. I definitely need to work on my balance and strengthening my grip but it's coming along slowly. I tore up my hands this past weekend but no pain no gain right?...:)

There was a fun market right outside our apartment this past week. There were tons of stalls to buy food/spatulas/fish/yup...everything you need to survive in Korea :)

This past weekend there were some celebrations for Buddha's birthday (that is actually today). I was able to check out the Lotus Lantern Parade which was pretty fun and saw some cool sites in Seoul. Seoul continues to surprise me...


I had my taekwondo competition a couple weeks ago and have yet to find out if I received my black belt. It was one of the shortest tests I've taken. It must have lasted about 2 minutes...okay maybe like 5, but regardless, it was really really short. I had to spar for about 30 sec. and perform 2 pumsae's (a combination of about 15-20 punches and kicks) and do some other kicking (of which I didn't understand the commands and so I kind of messed that up...yup...) It was fun though and I'm glad I did it. When I was sparing, one of the refs was saying something to me in Korean and I just have him my confused look...it's a common look...
(The pic to the bottom is me with my sparring gear...:)

The weather is so rainy these days which can be nice but defintely plays a role on your mood.. The mosquitos have officially began to attack me though. The other night I ended up with about 5 bites from this one darn mosquito...oi. I can't escape them...

I guess nothing else too new has been happening. I'm just rollin with the punches and still trying to figure out what I'm going to do when I'm done.

My sister is also coming out in a couple weeks so I'm definitely looking forward to that! What a better place to chill with the sis :) I still dont' know what travel plans we'll be partaking off, but we'll figure it out.

I'm still trying to learn Korean on my own which is hard but I'm making slow but steady progress. The self-motivation is going surprisingly well...some days better than others for sure. The korean teachers that sit beside me have been extremely helpful. Great people.

oh ajummas...

The joys of Korea continue to appear.. i love it. God is continuing to show me His love and awesomeness. Let's see, over the past couple weeks the weather has been warming up with no signs of mosquitoes ....yet...(crossing my fingers). I hear they are brutal here in the summer. Not excited...they seem to love the asian blood..or something like that :) It's great to wake up to a sunny morning and some "fresh" air...maybe fresh smog would be more applicable...get some reading or soccer in before the school day starts...

Ever since the rock climbing trip I have been interested in getting into it a little more, therefore I bought some climbing gear last weekend :) yay! (Go big or go home right? ;) I met some Koreans a couple weeks ago at an outdoor climbing facility, so they have been coaching me. Good times. There's a lot I need to work on, but it's been fun so far :)

Last weekend there was a huge festival in Seoul so I checked out that scene. My roommate and I were able to see some musicians...yup not the greatest music....but it was nevertheless
fun :) We also saw some fireworks and b-boyz (break dancers..pic above) good stuff. There was also some traditional music and performances I was able to check out. I love it!

This past weekend my other roommate and I went on a hiking trip with Ad. Korea.

We went down South and did some good hiking and checked out some festivities down there. It was nice to get away from Bupyeong for the weekend, meet some new people, and most importantly, to be back in the great outdoors; see some real green grass/hear birds/smell the trees....ahhh....not deal with the pushy Ajummas oi...(ajummas are women over the age of like 35ish...pushy little gals...)

(pic to the left..sunset 2 nights ago in the mountains....after our crew got lost...long story) :)

The weather is continuing to warm up and there continues to be an increase of 'exercising' machines outside our apartment...possibly a subtle hint...these machines more or less are twisting and swinging machines...i haven't quite figured out what their purpose is....hmm

I guess that's about it for my main adventures over the past couple weeks. Time continues to fly by...the students continue to get more and more energy with the weather warming up and all. Hope you all have a lovely week!

6 months already gone by...

Well it's hard for me to believe that I'm already halfway done with my contract. It seems like it was forever ago that I came but at the same time it seems like I just arrived...weird. Everyone says that the last 6 months go by quicker than the first...crazy.

Well this past weekend some of my friends and I went rock climbing and hiking. It was my first time actually rock climbing outdoors and repelling...Great times :) I definitely wish I could have done it for a longer time, but you take what you can get I suppose. Anyways the hiking was great...it was mainly ridge hiking, so we hiked up one of the main mountains and then hit 6 other peaks and then descended; like a 5 hour hike so not too bad. The weather was gorgeous! Not too hot, not too cold...just right. It was great to be out in nature again...I definitely miss it. I'm realizing indoor jobs aren't very good for my sanity...:)

Anyways, this week flew by for sure. The kids were decent...I didn't send anyone to detention this week so that was good I suppose :) Things at Avalon are still disorganized...yup. We keep getting new teachers, losing new teachers, etc... what do ya do.

Last weekend we (my roomies and I) went to Seoul to check out the cherry blossoms some more. On the way we saw policemen in the park doing leap frog...or their version of it I suppose. Very humorous. I feel very safe in this country ;) Anyways the cherry blossoms were amazing to see at night in Seoul. Unbelievable. I stopped by the largest member Church in the world last week. Hopefully I'll attend a service soon. Should be interesting...

The weather has been warming up, but I think we are hitting the rainy season and possibly the start of mosquitoes....oi.....

Taekwondo is going well. It can be frustrating at times, but I enjoy it for sure. I have my test in a couple weeks so hopefully that goes well...I'm already getting nervous. They yell out commands in Korean ....ahhh! I need to work on my Hangul for sure....

Other than that nothing major has been happening. Just taking things as they come and going with it. I figure I should start thinking about what I'm doing at the end of these 6 months but a lot can happen between now and then...

"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future." :)

the weekend....ahh

It's already April which is hard to believe... time is flying by. Work has been going well. I feel bad for the kids having to go to school all day and night. They start at about 8 in the morning and some go to academy until about 10 at night...crazy. If we give them detention, they stay until about 11/11:30 I believe; and these are elementary students. The middle schoolers stay until about midnight M-Th. crazy. That's what they know though. To think that I could have grown up here and be one of the kids that had to go to school, academy, and wear uniforms.

The yellow dust is still here a little bit. (This is dust that comes over from China). Supposedly it was kind of a bad season and we might get hit again with it soon. Everyone wears masks to cover their mouths. With the sun coming out, the women are starting to get these visors that cover their entire face plus the face mask! hmmm...I don't think I'll be doing that anytime soon.

I started taking Korean classes in Seoul every Saturday and I've been studying on my own. Oh, and I do a language exchange with one of my friends. good times. It's a hard language but fun. Hopefully before i leave I'll be able to have an okay conversation. we'll see :)

After 3 doctor visits I'm finally somewhat healthy which is a nice change. I still don't know what I had but hopefully I'll get my test results back and see what the deal was.

The cherry blossoms are starting to come out which is making me extremely happy. They are gorgeous and all over!! :) Love it. I'm sad that they only last about 2 weeks. What do you do though.

Today I have a taekwondo event.....but I really have no idea what I'm doing. The language barrier is rather large. I guess I'm just going to show up, kick some boards, do some punching and that's that...hmmm...

So in Korea they do have Krispy Kream which is an amazing thing. I had no idea this was in Korea but yes, it is true :) After Korean class I took some of my friends to KK. Their first time!! :) It's truly a wonderful experience :)

I have officially decided that weekends go by waaay to fast. Just when you are beginning to relax it's already Monday. oi.

It's starting to warm up a bit which is nice though. I need sunshine! You rarely see it though due to all the pollution in the city. bleh.

So I realize again this is rather short but I need to get this day rollin:)

What's the crack?

One week left in March...crazy. Time is flying by as usual and things are going pretty normal around here. I haven't had any major trips lately which is probably good for my bank account :) The weather is crazy here. Sometimes it's beautiful, sunny and warm, and other days it's just rainy, dreary and cold. It's been good though. Teaching is going well. Everything is still disorganized but such is life I suppose. You just learn to adjust. My students are good for the most part. I have about 100 kids throughout the week that I teach but they all are fun.

I've been realizing that I haven't really had any goals while I've been here and it's rather necessary...at least for me. So my new goal is to study Korean intensively and hopefully become okay at the language while I'm here....we'll see how that goes...wish me luck! I think I finally feel settled enough and have a better idea of time management here where I can do a more effective job of studying so hopefully that goes well. I also need to focus on music and start writing more songs and practice the old vocal cords. ;) They're getting a little rusty...bleh.

Taekwondo is going well. I'm still going 3 times a week and have been working on Pumsae...yay! There's way too much to memorize but it's a good challenge for me. My black belt test is in like 2 and a half months so I gotta crack down on this.

I guess nothing else major has been happening. I'm still sick which is frustrating...it's been over a month now I believe, so hopefully I'll start feeling better in the near future. I don't really trust the doctors over here for some reason.

Here's a pic of my apartment's living room with one of my roommates (Enda-Irish Guy) and a fellow teacher/friend Ciara-Irish girl. We just re-arranged our living room a couple days ago. Anyways, it's a good place; roomie and nice. I like it. Okay I should get back to studying. I hope things are going well by you all and blessings :)