To all of my faithful blog followers sorry for the delay. I guess sometimes I think regular life isn't interesting enough to blog about. I maybe took 10 pictures all of January.
Well there are a few things to share as 2010 is under way. This past month we were able to pay off the rest of my student debt! So now we are debt free! It is an amazing feeling and we are so thankful that there are opportunities like this to make money.
I have started to take some Korean lessons again. Our friend Brenden came back to Korea a couple weeks ago and was interested in taking lessons so I brought him to some I knew about. Now I am attending as well. It's only once a week for 2 hours and really laid back so that is nice.
It's just the end of winter vacation for the students so we will go back to normal teaching hours again. Last month we were teaching in the mornings from 9-1. Now it's back to afternoons 1-5.
Having the afternoons free was really nice. I was able to help coach basketball with one of our friends. He works for an international school in Seoul and coaches the girls team. Also lots of time for reading and working out and meeting up with friends for dinner.
It's really interesting how long it takes to build friendships. We've been here 9 months now and we are really just starting to connect with people. It's definitely a blessing.
So our time here is getting shorter very quickly. We are planning and thinking about what's next but nothing has totally unfolded yet. Still considering going to Haiti in the fall but with the earth quake nothing is for sure because the ministry compound we would be going to needs to be rebuilt a lot. Please pray for us as we make decisions and ponder the future.
Chris is taking a break from basketball this month. His next league starts in March. We have been taking in the sporting events though. Last night we went to a hockey game in Anyang. It was a lot of fun. The league is made up of teams from Japan, China and one from Korea. Anyways last nights win sealed the first place spot for the Korea team. It's pretty fun to see hockey in Korea. Makes us excited for the Olympics. We are still trying to figure out how we are going to watch/stream some of the games.
Once a month we are involved in a homeless ministry at Suwon Station near our home. Last time we went we brought everyone long underwear and a meal. It was so neat to get to know these men better and encourage them. A few are Christians and they sang some hymns for us. It was a huge blessing and I am looking forward to the next time we go. Their stories are unreal a few of them used to be government officials but in the late 1990's Korea had a lot of economic trouble and many people lost their jobs and never recovered.
Well that's about all for today. Thanks for reading and following our journey here in Korea.
Next time I will have pictures. :)
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Happy 'Snow' New Year 2010!
Snow Day January 4, 2010!
I know that my title sounds a bit funny but today we got about 20 cm of snow. We did not expect it or rather we don't always check the forecast. Woke up this morning to snow falling, interesting that this was our first day back to work after Christmas holidays. The city is definitely in a bit of chaos. It is really entertaining watching the Korean people deal with this much snow. They are definitely not used to it, more on that later.
Chris and I went to Onyang Hot Springs last week for our holidays. It was really nice to get away but not at all what we expected. Thinking hot springs pools that we could enjoy together turned out to be the traditional male and female spas. So that means being naked in a public bath. There was nice hot spring water with wonderful relaxing out door pools (private) but not quite what we hoped for. We did enjoy it though, might have spent too much time watching NBA basketball but it was too cold to really walk around the city and explore.
Actually one day we tried to find a folk museum and failed miserably. We ended up walking around the city for an hour, decided that was enough then headed to Dunkin Donuts to warm up.
For New Years we went to Pyeongtaek (city 40 min south) to share it with some friends. We played Settlers of Catan and drank hot choco till midnight. Stayed the night because it was too late to get a train back to our city. Then New Years Day we went to see the movie Avatar in 3D. Who knew you could watch a movie at 9 in the morning, well in Korea you can. I thought the movie was really amazing the effects and creativity were unreal. Chris thought so too and thinks this movie has set the bar for visual effects, quote "unbelievable."
So here we are Jan 4th back to work day. Well lets just say this morning was an adventure getting to work. It took me 2 hours, not to mention my partner teacher who canceled class when I was about 10 min away. Chris and I actually trudged to work in the snow in Korea. I had no idea this was possible because last time I was here I saw maybe a couple centimeters and that's all. Chris got to help push out about 4 stuck cars, the people are at a bit of a loss as how to deal with this much snow. Lots of chains, spinning tires, and traffic jams. I am thankful for the snow it really slows the pace of life down.
After lunch we both decided to enjoy the afternoon in the snow. We built a snowman, made snow angels (I did) and had a mini snow fight. We even had a man ask to take pictures of us making the snowman. Being out today really reminded us of being in Canada and it made it all the more fun. Well those are my thoughts for the day. Hope you have enjoyed!
Until next time! :)
I know that my title sounds a bit funny but today we got about 20 cm of snow. We did not expect it or rather we don't always check the forecast. Woke up this morning to snow falling, interesting that this was our first day back to work after Christmas holidays. The city is definitely in a bit of chaos. It is really entertaining watching the Korean people deal with this much snow. They are definitely not used to it, more on that later.
Chris and I went to Onyang Hot Springs last week for our holidays. It was really nice to get away but not at all what we expected. Thinking hot springs pools that we could enjoy together turned out to be the traditional male and female spas. So that means being naked in a public bath. There was nice hot spring water with wonderful relaxing out door pools (private) but not quite what we hoped for. We did enjoy it though, might have spent too much time watching NBA basketball but it was too cold to really walk around the city and explore.
Actually one day we tried to find a folk museum and failed miserably. We ended up walking around the city for an hour, decided that was enough then headed to Dunkin Donuts to warm up.
For New Years we went to Pyeongtaek (city 40 min south) to share it with some friends. We played Settlers of Catan and drank hot choco till midnight. Stayed the night because it was too late to get a train back to our city. Then New Years Day we went to see the movie Avatar in 3D. Who knew you could watch a movie at 9 in the morning, well in Korea you can. I thought the movie was really amazing the effects and creativity were unreal. Chris thought so too and thinks this movie has set the bar for visual effects, quote "unbelievable."
So here we are Jan 4th back to work day. Well lets just say this morning was an adventure getting to work. It took me 2 hours, not to mention my partner teacher who canceled class when I was about 10 min away. Chris and I actually trudged to work in the snow in Korea. I had no idea this was possible because last time I was here I saw maybe a couple centimeters and that's all. Chris got to help push out about 4 stuck cars, the people are at a bit of a loss as how to deal with this much snow. Lots of chains, spinning tires, and traffic jams. I am thankful for the snow it really slows the pace of life down.
After lunch we both decided to enjoy the afternoon in the snow. We built a snowman, made snow angels (I did) and had a mini snow fight. We even had a man ask to take pictures of us making the snowman. Being out today really reminded us of being in Canada and it made it all the more fun. Well those are my thoughts for the day. Hope you have enjoyed!
Until next time! :)
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