One year ago today...

....I arrived in South Korea. It's been an incredible year. I am so thankful to God for allowing me the chance to do life here for a while. It's been amazing to see how He blessed me while I've been here. I arrived knowing no one. When I go back to America next week, I'll be leaving behind lots of friends. Not only Korean friends, but friends from America, Canada, South Africa and the Philippines. I've gotten to visit China and Japan. I've lived alone for a year and made it. I've realized recently that I really do love Korean people. I'm going to miss them so much.

But all that said, I'm ready to come home. I'm ready for family, friends, and all the other things I miss about the U. S. of A. Hopefully, I'll get to talk to many of you soon!

Trip to Japan

Toni and I on the way to Fukuoka!


Space World Amusement Park


Hypocenter of Atomic Bomb Dropped on Nagasaki


Yuko, Me and Mari


Dazaifu

Mom!

Pictures from Mom's week here! I was so happy she came and so proud of her while she was here!

Me and Mom



Mom trying kimchi, the spicy, fermented cabbage dish



On the mountain



At the meat buffet. You select raw meat at the buffet then grill it yourself at your table. Yum!



Me, Mom & Sunny

These Days

I feel like I should explain my nearly two-month silence to those of you who might have checked my blog and wondered if I was still in Korea. After being here close to ten months, I'm less inclined to write about my experiences. Now, this could be sheer laziness on my part, but it may be that the things that were new and interesting before are now commonplace. I feel less like a photo-happy tourist and more like a resident. But as I now have less than three months left, maybe I won't take so much for granted. Here's a few hightlights from the past couple months:



Day trip to Yeosu (home of the World Expo 2012)


T Express Roller Coaster at Everland (this ride was SO cool!)


Garlic anyone? This is at the traditional market by the river in my city

Gochang

Me, Agatha and Georgia. It rained all day...


Bundigie (larvae, silkworm larvae I believe)


Me getting ready to eat bundigie. I only ate one...


Pretty view in Gochange

Holiday!

Tomorrow is some sort of election day in Korea...that means I get the day off! Woo-hoo! I'm going with friends to see some cherry blossoms in another town...hopefully I'll get some good pix and post them soon!

Happy Resurrection Day!

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

Forbidden City

Looking at the Forbidden City's Gate


The place was huge! One gate led to another courtyard, another building another courtyard and so on.


One of the many courtyards



Detail

The Great Wall

This is me being excited after I finished the long climb to the highest point. It was a work out!

This is Sally. She's 8 years old, but she finished the climb too! Sally and her brother Tom are a couple of Korean kids who went with us on the trip. By the end of the trip, Sally had decided to change her name to "Jerry" (Tom & Jerry, get it?).

China!

I'm back from China and I had an AMAZING time! I feel extremely privileged to have had the opportunity to visit a place with such a rich history and fascinating culture so different from my own. My friend Kang Na was so gracious to show me around and her family's hospitality humbled me. I'll try to post some pictures showing just a few of the highlights!

All Grown-Up and Going to China

The count is down to hours now! I leave for Seoul tonight and will live for China in the morning! Woo-hoo! Talk to you later!

Best Moments of My Day

Best Wordless-Exchange: A smile between me and the lady on the corner who sells eggs. She seems really sweet.

Best Exercise of Patience: Waiting at the bank. I had #245 and they were serving about #207.

Best Gift: Citrus Tea from my coworker.

Best Compliment: "Your eye color is a mystery" (from the young Korean butcher at Kim's Mart. And I didn't even buy the bacon he was selling...).

Best Freebie: A 4-pack of tissue from Kim's Club.

Best Workout: Carrying 3 Kim's Mart Bags (plus the 4-pack of tissue.) and loading them into the taxi.

Best Attempt at Using Korean: Giving the taxi driver directions to my apartment using the Korean words for "leftside" and "rightside"

Best New Korean Word I Learned: chikja (it means "straight"; see above). Okay, actually this work came up in Korean class last week, but I never would have remembered if the taxi driver hadn't started using it.

Best Same-Same: Toward the end of the taxi ride, the driver said "I'm sorry" and I said "Mian hamnida" (I'm sorry).

Best Exercise of Courage: Walking past this enormous mountain of trash near my apartment in the dark. You can't see around it and you don't know what's in it. Usually, I don't walk that way but as I'm sure you're starting to realize, the taxi driver and I had communication issues.

Best-Tasting: My homemade deviled eggs (that rat from Ratatouille has nothing on me) or the fish bread (fish shaped) from the street vendor.

3 and 1 Pizza

This is "Seafood Island" pizza, available at a downtown pizza restaurant. On of top of the crust is some sort of breaded shrimp (the appetizer). The pizza has different types of seafood toppings (main course). Inside the crust is a sweet potato filling (dessert). I enjoyed the appetizer and dessert, but I'm still a plain cheese girl when it comes to toppings.

Eskimo

The way the heat works in my building is that there is some sort of central heat in the classrooms. The office area has space heaters. The hallway, stairwell and bathrooms have no heat at all. Usually, I'm in the class or the office so I stay pretty warm. However, something is wrong with the central heat in the classrooms. Today, I froze. I was wearing a down vest with a fur-trimmed hood. By the end of the day, I had the hood on and buttoned up tightly around my chin. A coworker walked in the classroom laughed and said I looked like an eskimo. It didn't bother me. You do what you have to do. I was hoping looking like an eskimo might also convince the powers that be that it really was time to repair the heater. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 24 degrees.

Snow! (sort of)

We got a little bit of snow today, but none of it was sticking. Too bad. I'd love a good snow! Not a whole lot new is going on here; it's pretty much business as usual. However, in two weeks (if all goes according to plan i.e. I get my visa), I should be in China getting ready to celebrate the Chinese New Year! Woo-hoo

Toni gives the animal hat a try...

Peyton's Polar Bear Hat

Style

These are pretty popular right now. Almost as cool as Davy Crockett's beaver hat, don't you think?

Happy 2008!

A belated happy new year to everybody! It was so good to be home for Christmas. I had a WONDERFUL time seeing my family, and I got to see a few (not enough!) friends. There's just nothing like English, Wal-Mart, and American food.