Christmas Eve

We got together with some friends for a fun-filled evening after a LONG day!  Most of us had to work Christmas Eve and several were leaving Christmas Day for the States.  However, by the time we all got together it was a great time with friends, some strange Christmas games, and my Aunt Anita's WORLD CLASS eggnog from scratch!  It is NOT Christmas without it, and I was lucky enough to find some vanilla ice cream fairly cheap (it's not as common as you'd think).

Cory had the GREAT idea of making Christmas stockings for everyone, but fuzzy red socks was the best we could come up with!  Nate decided he'd try them on after cleaning out the treats inside!

Eddy helps us sing some Christmas carols.

Not the whole group, but the only pic that turned out -

Nate, Eddy, Cory & Snickers, Hilary, Sharon

The Reindeer Game

Sharon, Jess, Rudolph (Hilary), Mary, Snickers

Cory trying desperately to get into his White Elephant Gift

Goodbye, Nangmin!

I finished my time at Nangmin Elementary School as the Native English Teacher last week. Here are a few comments from the notes students gave me. They are 4th and 5th graders and have vast differences in levels of English, so keep that in mind and be forgiving. Still, they make me smile!

"I wonder who the next English teacher will be. I think he/she will be better than you!"

"My name is ... I like you. Do you like me?"

"I really hate English, but when I and you are together English is change to fun subject."


"I thanks about you so much. Because you teaching the student excitely (?) and hot."

"I want you can marry and have cute babies."


"I saw many time you and your husband ride motorcycle. Your husband and you are very friendly and look good."

"You are the prettiest girl in the America!"


Teaching English the last year and a half has been a challenge, but I am thankful for the time God had me there. I pray that the things I learned will not be forgotten.

HOLY CATS!!!

Check this out!

Some Pics

We're getting back into the swing of things, but I don't have much time tonight to talk about it. As you look at these pictures, try to think of the thousands of words we would say about them.

(Hard to believe all our stuff once fit into suitcases and boxes)

(Our beautiful bathroom)

(Guess how much these solid wood closets cost us)

(Snickers lost her chances of being a mother the week before we moved)

(Eddy helped us put up our Christmas tree right after we moved in)

Konglish - Jeonja Range

And the winner is? (drum roll) A MICROWAVE OVEN!!! (music plays, hyper overweight audience members break down in ecstatic surprise)

Good work, you person. One lucky person guessed correctly. I don't know who you are but feel free to gloat in the comments section below. Thanks for playing and don't forget to look for the next Konglish Quiz in the near future.

I LOVE KOREA

We never thought we would utter those words. Sure, there's good things about this country, plenty of them, but we were surprised tonight when we said it, "I love Korea!" So what made us feel this way? The other day I had a terrible time trying to get my bike to change gears and I thought it was just a little too cold for the bike. Today it happened again. I thought maybe the clutch cable needed to be adjusted. So, being the "fix it till it breaks" type guy, I broke it. I turned the screw a bit too far I guess and it snapped. AWESOME! The bike is in the basement, so Jen and I push it up the ramp so I can walk it to the shop. "Where's the shop?" "I don't know, do you?" Hahaha, I hate this country.

I walked over to the security guy and asked him, in my best Korean tongue, "Motorbike, place, where-yo?" "I don't know." Awesome! Ok, I'll push the bike down the street until I find one. I wandered to one side of the parking lot and then to the other. The security guard must have felt sorry for me, because he came out of his security hut and asked what happened to the bike. I showed him the weak link and he walked off. A couple minutes later he walked back with a phone number. He motioned for me to call them and I laughed and said, "I don't understand Korean" again in my best Korean. So HE called and told me that they don't have the cable, but would call back in an hour. Apparently they had to buy the cable from somebody else. It's already 6:30 and the sun is getting farther below the horizon. Jen and I took the dog around the block and to the store.

While I was waiting outside for Jen to come back, the mechanic called me and said a bunch of stuff I couldn't understand. I caught, "...first floor..." so I said ok and started walking toward the house. A minute later he called again and all I heard was "...hurry, hurry..." so I said ok and began running to the house.

Anyway, to keep a long story from getting longer, the cable broke at 6. The cable was fixed before 8 and it only cost me 15,000 won. The US equivalent would be around $10 with the atrocious exchange rate currently.

Think about it, these guys:
1) Rounded up the correct cable to fix the bike,
2) Drove to my apartment so I wouldn't have to push the bike to the shop,
3) At 8:00 PM on a Friday,
4) Replaced it in 15 minutes,
5) for $10 and a thank you.

I LOVE KOREA!

Living in a Whirlwind

Sometimes you just have to MAKE time for things, and that is what I am doing right now. I feel guilty that I have not kept up any of the new and exciting things going on in our lives on our blog. So, I am taking 5 minutes to update YOU.

First of all, I was offered a job in October as an ESL teacher at a small international school in Seoul. It is about an hour and a half by public transportation and I thought it was a job I could "work into" over time. Turned out it was available immediately, and due to several circumstances and prayer we believed this opportunity was of the Lord. So we made plans for me to change jobs as of January.

Since then, we have decided to go ahead and make the move into Seoul. It will be easier for Cory to commute to his same school then for me to get into the city during rush hour. In addition, I signed a contract for a year and a half . . . so we'd be moving there by summertime anyway.

In the last few weeks, I found out that the school is going to be losing a 4th grade homeroom teacher and wanted to know if I would be interested in taking that job as of January. OF COURSE! In fact, that was what I figured I'd be working towards anyway. Get in as the ESL teacher, move to homeroom the following year.

Well, I am thrilled to say I will be taking the 4th grade homeroom as of January 5th. I am also pleased to let you know that our weeks of apartment searching has come to a close. We found a GREAT place and will be moving in 6 days. Yikes.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, but we have to work. I've got major deadlines for our English newspaper and a baby shower to host on Saturday. So, the packing will wait until Sunday, at least! LOL! But I am SO thankful that we will be moving way before Christmas! I can't wait to decorate our new place!

Hope that updates you a little. My 5 minutes is spent, and I've still got a "to-do" list. Don't we all? :) Check out this link to the school if you have time: www.ccslions.com