Last Sunday was a busy day for me. No one was able to meet up for lunch, so I grabbed lunch on my own before church. I met Elaine and Soo at church at noon, and enjoyed an awesome church service. The college pastor, Pastor Andrew, did the message. It was his best sermon yet! Elaine and I hung out a bit after church and chatted, and then we parted ways. She went to the bookstore, and I went to the bus stop.
I took the 3003 bus into Suwon, and met Darren at SungKyunKwan University Station. We walked to Caffe Bene, one of my favorite coffee shops in Korea. I needed Darren to sign some recommendation letters for me for a few school districts back home. We finished the paperwork pretty quickly, and then sat and chatted for an hour or so. It was really good to catch up with Darren. We stayed in contact after I left his school, but we rarely get together. Since I moved to Seoul, it's not really convenient. Anyway, we caught up on life, talked about school, traveling, scary movies. Then, he had to leave to meet his friend, and I told him I was going to head home. It turns out, we were both going into Gangnam, so he offered to DRIVE ME!! Wow!! I was so excited! From Suwon to where I live in Seoul is at least 2 hours by bus and subway. So, I was thrilled when he offered to give me a lift! That would take an hour off of my traveling.
I gratefully accepted his offer, and we chatted some more on the car ride there. I love catching up with friends I haven't seen in awhile. It's such a great feeling. I'm leaving Korea in 6 months, so I'll have to make an effort to see Darren at least one more time before I head home. But, Darren has plans to visit America in 2014, so hopefully we'll be able to cross paths then! :)
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Saturday, January 19, 2013
JiHyun and Rebecca.
Today was a busy, but productive day for me. My body clock woke me up at 8:15am, and I was up and about by 8:30am. The early mornings I have during the week don't allow me to sleep in much on the weekends. Oh well...it gives me a good excuse to get some things done. That's good, right? :)
Right away, I jumped online and kept working on my teaching applications. I have decided to start applying for teaching jobs back home for Fall 2013. This has proven to be quite an involved process, with transcripts, recommendations, references, previous job history, fingerprinting, official test scores, certificates...it's exhausting! But, all this work will pay off for sure! And I'm lucky that my parents have been so willing to help me out, making copies and getting everything sent to the right places. (Shout out to them!!) :)
After working on that for a few hours, I quickly got ready and headed to the subway station. I met a girl, JiHyun, and her mom, Rebecca, at a coffee shop near work. (I ran into JiHyun on one of my breaks during the week. She was looking for someone to help her practice her English. Anyway, we got to talking, and I agreed to meet with her every week.) She's a nearly-fluent English speaker and wants to improve her writing skills. She wants to write papers and have me grade them and go over them with her. I'm really happy to do it! I was quite surprised today though, because I only intended on meeting her. However, her mom showed up and asked if she could get some help from me as well. Her mom, Rebecca, works in a company that writes English grammar books. Her writing is flawless, but she can't speak well. When she found out that JiHyun and I were meeting, she totally came along to see if she could meet with me as well. After the initial shock wore off, I agreed to meet with both of them. From now on, every Saturday, I'll meet with JiHyun at 1pm, and then with Rebecca at 2:30pm. That will work out quite nicely, I think!
After that, I went home and worked on my applications a bit more. I also did some research on how I could help my new "students." I came up with some really cool ideas, so I'm really excited! After that, I met up with Lisa and Brighid at a bar nearby. I hadn't eaten anything all day because I was so busy, so I was really grateful for the break! We ordered chicken, fries, and beer, which was a perfect combination. I finally had a chance to relax and breathe after a busy Saturday. Brighid left after awhile, and Lisa and I were able to catch up on each other's lives. Even though we work together, it's sometimes difficult to catch up and chat with each other. It was nice to have that chance tonight. I'm really tired now, but I got a lot of things done today. I'm really excited for the weeks ahead, and can't wait for a good night's sleep and church in the morning! It will be just what I need. :)
Right away, I jumped online and kept working on my teaching applications. I have decided to start applying for teaching jobs back home for Fall 2013. This has proven to be quite an involved process, with transcripts, recommendations, references, previous job history, fingerprinting, official test scores, certificates...it's exhausting! But, all this work will pay off for sure! And I'm lucky that my parents have been so willing to help me out, making copies and getting everything sent to the right places. (Shout out to them!!) :)
After working on that for a few hours, I quickly got ready and headed to the subway station. I met a girl, JiHyun, and her mom, Rebecca, at a coffee shop near work. (I ran into JiHyun on one of my breaks during the week. She was looking for someone to help her practice her English. Anyway, we got to talking, and I agreed to meet with her every week.) She's a nearly-fluent English speaker and wants to improve her writing skills. She wants to write papers and have me grade them and go over them with her. I'm really happy to do it! I was quite surprised today though, because I only intended on meeting her. However, her mom showed up and asked if she could get some help from me as well. Her mom, Rebecca, works in a company that writes English grammar books. Her writing is flawless, but she can't speak well. When she found out that JiHyun and I were meeting, she totally came along to see if she could meet with me as well. After the initial shock wore off, I agreed to meet with both of them. From now on, every Saturday, I'll meet with JiHyun at 1pm, and then with Rebecca at 2:30pm. That will work out quite nicely, I think!
After that, I went home and worked on my applications a bit more. I also did some research on how I could help my new "students." I came up with some really cool ideas, so I'm really excited! After that, I met up with Lisa and Brighid at a bar nearby. I hadn't eaten anything all day because I was so busy, so I was really grateful for the break! We ordered chicken, fries, and beer, which was a perfect combination. I finally had a chance to relax and breathe after a busy Saturday. Brighid left after awhile, and Lisa and I were able to catch up on each other's lives. Even though we work together, it's sometimes difficult to catch up and chat with each other. It was nice to have that chance tonight. I'm really tired now, but I got a lot of things done today. I'm really excited for the weeks ahead, and can't wait for a good night's sleep and church in the morning! It will be just what I need. :)
Friday, January 4, 2013
Merry Christmas!! :)
Christmas has always been a really big deal in my family. There is a day devoted to hanging up decorations and pulling the tree from the attic to adorn with lights and ornaments. Lights are hung outside, and stockings are hung on the mantle. Thanksgiving is gone, and the Christmas season is here!
However, living in Korea, especially during Christmastime, is a completely different experience! It is not recognized as anything of value, and we work the day before AND the day after. Lame. My coworkers and I wanted to make the best of it so we made some awesome plans! After school on Monday (Christmas Eve), we took the subway into Hongdae. There was a huge group of us: Lisa, Rosie, Matthew, Brighid, Ian, Sonya, Mike, and me. We were going to NANTA, the stage show that's really famous here. I went last year and had such a good time that I convinced everyone we should go. We got to the theater, after getting a bit lost, and took our seats in the VIP section. We had great seats with an incredible view!
After the show, we headed out for drinks and dancing. We went to a few different places, kind of hopping from here to there. At one point it started snowing, so we OBVIOUSLY had to go play and take pictures in it! :)
We ended up in a small bar with only a few people in it. We bought a few drinks, and the bartender told us we could request songs to play. We were so pumped! I wrote down a few songs, and in no time, we were linedancing our way around the bar! We had a few onlookers and even a few Korean people who wanted to learn and join in the fun! Finally, at 6am on Christmas morning, the bar closed so we decided to call it a night. In separate groups, we took the subway home. We finally made it back to our apartments at 8am. We were exhausted, but we had a great night! All of us were feeling homesick being away from our families on Christmas, but we made plans and made the best of it!
After sleeping for a few hours, everyone came over to my house for a Christmas Day get together. Sonya and Mike are from Ireland, so they brought over ingredients to make everyone Irish coffees. It was my first time trying Irish coffee, and it was DELICIOUS! (Lisa, Rosie, and Matthew left soon after to go see the Nutcracker. I saw it last year so I knew they would have a good time!) After a few hours, Sonya, Ian, Mike, Brighid, and I took the subway into Cheonho, only a few stops away. We wanted a proper dinner (and an escape from Korean food!), so we went to Outback Steakhouse. We had to wait for about 45 minutes for a seat which wasn't too bad, considering it was Christmas Day. The food was great, as was the company. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty successful Christmas!
My family just arrived back from their ski trip to Utah for the holidays. I'm really wishing I could be with them, but I know they had a blast! I'm so blessed to have an incredible family, amazing friends, and a church community with whom I can celebrate Jesus' birth and be so thankful! Merry Christmas, everyone, and Happy New Year!! :)
However, living in Korea, especially during Christmastime, is a completely different experience! It is not recognized as anything of value, and we work the day before AND the day after. Lame. My coworkers and I wanted to make the best of it so we made some awesome plans! After school on Monday (Christmas Eve), we took the subway into Hongdae. There was a huge group of us: Lisa, Rosie, Matthew, Brighid, Ian, Sonya, Mike, and me. We were going to NANTA, the stage show that's really famous here. I went last year and had such a good time that I convinced everyone we should go. We got to the theater, after getting a bit lost, and took our seats in the VIP section. We had great seats with an incredible view!
After the show, we headed out for drinks and dancing. We went to a few different places, kind of hopping from here to there. At one point it started snowing, so we OBVIOUSLY had to go play and take pictures in it! :)
We ended up in a small bar with only a few people in it. We bought a few drinks, and the bartender told us we could request songs to play. We were so pumped! I wrote down a few songs, and in no time, we were linedancing our way around the bar! We had a few onlookers and even a few Korean people who wanted to learn and join in the fun! Finally, at 6am on Christmas morning, the bar closed so we decided to call it a night. In separate groups, we took the subway home. We finally made it back to our apartments at 8am. We were exhausted, but we had a great night! All of us were feeling homesick being away from our families on Christmas, but we made plans and made the best of it!
After sleeping for a few hours, everyone came over to my house for a Christmas Day get together. Sonya and Mike are from Ireland, so they brought over ingredients to make everyone Irish coffees. It was my first time trying Irish coffee, and it was DELICIOUS! (Lisa, Rosie, and Matthew left soon after to go see the Nutcracker. I saw it last year so I knew they would have a good time!) After a few hours, Sonya, Ian, Mike, Brighid, and I took the subway into Cheonho, only a few stops away. We wanted a proper dinner (and an escape from Korean food!), so we went to Outback Steakhouse. We had to wait for about 45 minutes for a seat which wasn't too bad, considering it was Christmas Day. The food was great, as was the company. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty successful Christmas!
My family just arrived back from their ski trip to Utah for the holidays. I'm really wishing I could be with them, but I know they had a blast! I'm so blessed to have an incredible family, amazing friends, and a church community with whom I can celebrate Jesus' birth and be so thankful! Merry Christmas, everyone, and Happy New Year!! :)
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