Odae Mountain

This past weekend our friends Sophie and Joe took us a few hours south of Seoul to a National Park. Although the leaves haven't all quite turned colors yet, we were able to enjoy some beautiful fall weather! Actually, we FROZE! We didn't hike as much as we thought we would, but we had a great time. Cory and I also celebrated our 3 month wedding anniversary on Sunday - so it turned out to be a great weekend to get away. Hope you enjoy the pics.

It's always amazing what you find in another culture

One of the vocab words for my students this week was "honey." So as we asked what the Korean word for it was, my students would say "yago." I would turn to my co-teacher and she would nod in agreement.

Later, Jen and I were talking with Sophie and Joe and they explained that "yago" is actually the Korean word for "self," (like "I" or the prefix "ego") but many older Koreans also use it as the word for their spouse. So they are in fact calling their spouse "self" or in essence "part of me."

Hearing that reminded me of Genesis 5:1 which has amazed me since I first understood what it said. It reads (loosely) that man and woman got married and God called THEIR name Adam. God sees married couples as one person. I assume that this is kind of the same way we see God too, 3 in 1.

In God's eyes, the most realistic name I could call my wife is "self" or "me." If I can beat the concept into my brain, I'm sure Eph. 5 will be much easier to follow. I'm gonna try calling her "me" and see how she takes it. You try it too and see what happens. Let me know their reaction!

Our Latest Adventures

We have just finished a full week of school and a full weekend working at an English Festival! It's Sunday night and I'm beat! :) We're back to school tomorrow and in full swing until DECEMBER! We'll try to keep you up to date!

God Bless the Web

Last week we were able to hook up to the internet via our own line (instead of mooching wireless off our neighbors). In addition to this we picked up a webcam and speakers. All of this combined gives us the opportunity to chat with anybody in the world for free. The options vary, but all are free, and free is GOOD!

Throughout the last few years, I have picked up a Yahoo! Messenger account under my email address corydyck@yahoo.com. One of my students made a Windows Messenger account under the email address dyckonabike@hotmail.com. And I just picked up a Skype account with my yahoo address listed above. I've never used Skype before, but it can't be too much different from the other two. Our screen name on Skype is coryandjendyck.

So what are the options? Well, if you don't have a webcam or microphone, we can just instant message. You would be able to see us, but we wouldn't be able to see you. Good for you, bad for us. If you have a webcam but no microphone, we could see each other and instant message.

The best option (the one we used with my parents the other day) is for all of us to have webcams and microphones and speakers so we could see and talk to each other and not have to type anything at all!!

The best part about all of this is that you don't have to pay for anything but your internet connection (unless you mooch that off of your neighbors). We can talk audibly over the internet at no cost! It's amazing!

Anyhow, that's my blurb for today. Thanks for reading, keep the comments coming. I love to hear from you guys, and I think Jen does too. Shoot, all.

A Little Bit Of Culture

Happy Chuseok! We just finished celebrating our first Korean Thanksgiving. We enjoyed some time off school and went and did some sightseeing around Seoul. We got to visit several historical places while here and some modern sites as well.




I had written a blog about a week ago and intended to post it, but my conscience got the best of me. (Or maybe it was Cory.) I was going to complain about all the difficulties we're having because we're foreigners. It just makes some things a little more complicated - like banking, phones, internet, and . . . communicating! :) Also, in my case, it is hindering my shopping! Going to the grocery store is quite an adventure - I can't read 80% of the labels! Learning to read Korean won't help until I can understand what I'm reading! My other shopping problem is my feet. They're too big. No one sells above American size 8 . . . ok. Not "no one" - just hardly anyone! :) I 'm thinking about coming up with a Top Ten List of things we can't find . . . just for your amusement. Deoderant and shoes for Jen are at the top!




We've been able to travel around Seoul using the subway and bus systems quite freely. There aren't great maps here, just women directions - you know "turn right at the big department store and left at the big tree." Put that in Korean with a few hand signals and we're really confused!

Write us when you can! We miss being able to keep in touch with people. Our families most, I think. As we figure things out that should get better, I think.

Keep in touch and write us when you can!

Getting My Feet Wet.

As much fun as I thought I would have going out and getting lost in Korea, it's really not all it's cracked up to be. Keep in mind that we haven't actually seen anything but our town (Goyang) and Seoul. So we're tickling the armpit (geographically, not qualitatively) of Korea without really exploring the rest of the body. I want to go see some of the other stuff around here, but we'll have to wait for the piggy bank to get back to market shape before that happens.

We have gotten to see some pretty sweet stuff, as you can see below. We've also been to the underground. Not the subway, the black market. Okay, I don't really know if it's black or not, but there are tons of shops in just a little bit of space and everybody sells electronics. It looks shady even if it's not. Anyhow, what I'm talking about is a place called Yongsan. It's heaven for anybody who loves technology. I am becoming a bit of a gadget lover, so I was pretty pumped that we got to stop by there last week. I picked up a presenter mouse for class, some RAM for my laptop, a new DVD burning drive for my laptop (installed for free) all for less than two hundred dollars. (I had to stop and think about that real quick, but it's true.) It's a pretty happening place. I might go back down there sometime and pick up some software. I have a DVD burner, but I don't have a program that will convert home video to DVD format, unless I'm an idiot (entirely possible).

Anyway, enough about all that. I want to say that I miss you guys. I'm not sure exactly who all reads this, but I'm thankful for you. We've only been here really for three weeks, but I have been missing you a lot lately. I'm glad Jen is here with me, otherwise I'd probably be miserable. I look forward to hearing from you all. My email is up in the "About Me" section of this page. I can forward things to Jen also. Alright everybody, Shoot.

Aussie Accents and Crackers

We are in the midst of our Orientation in the city of Suwon, which is South of Seoul. We are staying here all week with all new English teachers from the Gyeonggi Province. There are almost 200 of us "Native English Speakers" from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, and South Africa. It's unbelievable how many different types of people we have met!

One of the funniest things is the several Koreans we've met who speak fluent English - with a DISTINCT Australian accent! You just don't expect it to come out of their mouths!



We've spoken about our friends Sophie and Joe from Ilsan, where we live. Here's a picture of their family. They've been SO helpful in so many ways! Joe is hilarious - and somehow while we were out with them last weekend Cory managed to teach him the slang term for white people. As we walked around a busy shopping area everytime Joe would see some white foreigners he would proudly state "there's some more crackers!"

Here's a few pics from while we toured Insadong, Myeungdong, and Namdaemun (the main gate fortress wall of Seoul).