I'm Home!!

And I enjoyed a lovely first weekend at home with Jason and my family. I've had a certain amount of jet-lag, but mostly just plain ol' lack of sleep. I'm starting to catch up, though. My first time to do certain things (like wear shoes in the house) was a little strange, but things seem to be coming back pretty easily. I have, however, been caught bowing to people to say "thank you" or "nice to meet you" :). Today after shopping for Paula's wedding dress, we stopped at a Korean-run Asian food store. It's full of Korean and Japanese foods in brands I totally recognize from Korea. Even Milkis. We also got directions to a Korean restaurant further into the city. I'll take the family there sometime... maybe this weekend. 

Homeward Bound

For the past week I've been in heavy duty preparation mode for my departure. I spent Saturday cleaning my room and going out for some "lasts" with my roommates. That evening I went to my last young adults service. They invited me up front, sang a song to me, and asked me to say something. It was sweet. Then several came up to me and told me not to forget them. That's a great group of people. Sunday was full of more goodbyes at church and afterwards. Soo-young, "Jane", "Rainy" and I went out for one last noraebang session, and sang all the traditional songs :). Good times. I tried to go to sleep really early that night, because of the soccer game Monday morning. More specifically, at 4 am Monday morning! Yes, my last crazy late-night stunt in Korea was going out with Abra and Se-rok to see the Korea vs. France soccer game. It was fun. The best moment came when Korea finally scored a goal in the last 10 minutes of the game. All of the Koreans went NUTS screaming and hugging each other. You would've thought they had just won the entire competition. But no, they had just tied up the game :). As you might imagine, I was rather dead for the rest of Monday, but so was most of the country. It was especially nice that many of the naughtier boys were tired, and thus not so noisy ;). Today began the goodbyes to all my students. Each class today and tomorrow is my last of that particular class. My second graders were quite excited about the jigglers I brought them. My third graders were quite distraught that I was going to the US and that there was no plan to return to Korea. My fourth graders also enjoyed jello (one of them changed her name to "Tracy" when Tracy left, and I think another one has threatened to change her name to "April" when I go). My fifth graders put on a party for me- they decorated the room with balloons, bought treats, bought me earrings, and each wrote me little notes. It was so sweet. My 6th graders were a little more greedy- just hoping that it meant a party for them. Tonight I hung out with "Brian" for quite awhile- just talking about everything. We've had a lot of good conversations over the year honestly comparing Korean and American cultures. Tonight was no different. Other activities of the past few days have included bank chores, going out to lunch, packing suitcases, weighing them, repacking suitcases, and sending a package of all my heavy stuff home :). Tomorrow is my final day of teaching. Unfortunately, all my favorite classes were today :). My final class of the day is adult class, and rather than normal class we're headed to a student's apartment for a party. Hooray! Thursday I believe us roommates are going out for lunch, and then I have to catch a 3:20 bus to Incheon. Once there, I'll stay in a hotel near the airport. I'll be there ridiculously early, so maybe I'd better bring a book. I'm also thinking about going to sleep right away to get started on readjusting my time zone. Friday morning I'll go to the airport. My flight leaves at 11:15. From there I head to Tokyo, have a 2 hour layover, then onto the LONG flight to Atlanta, where I have another 2 hour layover, and finally to Cleveland. Then begin reunions and late night conversations and paper work and other chores and wedding shopping (for Paula) and appointments and phone calls and travelling and weddings and more reunions... Yeah, my system is in for a shock when my pace of life suddenly speeds up. :) Thank you for your prayers as I head home. Not only for travel details, but also for all the adjusting when I get home. In some ways I really don't know what to expect from the transition. I will talk to you again when I'm back on the other side of the world!

"Heaven is a wonderful place" :)

I had this great realization the other day- When I'm reunited with Korean friends and acquaintances in heaven one day, there won't be a language barrier!!! There are so many people I'd love to know better, but I can't because of our limited communication. But in heaven, we'll be able to communicate perfectly! Wow!! I got so excited just thinking about it :)

The most patriotic country in the WORLD!

Seriously- I think Korea's gotta be it. For those of you who don't know, the World Cup started this past weekend. For weeks now, posters and products in support of the Korean soccer team have been everywhere here. Then came the t-shirts. Every clothing store has its own version of a red "Go Korea" shirt. And now EVERYONE is wearing them!! It's pretty much accepted uniform no matter what your job is. All the cashiers at the grocery store are wearing red shirts and bandanas, as are all the toll booth workers, and plenty of other people, too. Tonight was Koreas first game- against Togo. Our tv is currently out of commission, so we weren't watching. But we knew everytime Korea scored by the shouts we could hear outside! So pretty soon Abra had her computer out so that we could read the play-by-play. It was so funny, because we could tell by the noises outside what had happened before it was posted :). And, Korea won. So now, at 12:30 am, rather than relatively quiet streets, I get to listen to cars honking their horns in time with the "Dae-han-min-guk" cheer, and people yelling it on occasion. I'm excited for Korea, but if they keep up this honking at late hours, I'm going to start hoping they lose! ;)

Cook-out!

Tuesday evening we had a sort of farewell party for Pastor Moon and me. The "Oh" family was super generous again by hosting it at their house and providing TONS of food. Benjamin even came over from Chonan to join us. It was a great time. There was plenty of Korean and English being spoken, and lots of joking around and just enjoying each others' company. It felt like a big family cook-out (even with watermelon). I really enjoyed it. After eating when it was getting cold outside, we went inside for a bit. There we sang a few songs (one in English, one in Chinese and one in Korean), Juliet spoke for a bit, and we prayed. I was on the verge of tears. It's a lot of goodbyes and everyone has been so loving to me. Here's the house and yard we were at: Susie, "Rainy," "Jane," and Tracy: "Juliet," Benjamin and Pastor "Moon" Sam-gyap-sal and side dishes- typical Korean cook-out food :) 

Japan

I made it back from Japan safe and sound and with lots of pictures. Not as many as I might've had, though.... Remember the nightmare about not having batteries for my camera? Well, I bought extra batteries just in case, and then left them here. Even worse, though- halfway through our trip I dropped my camera on the cement and now the lens won't open!! Arrgh! That was worse than my nightmare!! Thankfully, Tracy still had her camera, so our experiences didn't go unphotographed. I'm not going to go into a huge detailed account of our trip, but here are the highlights. We spent 2 days in Kyoto, 1 day in Himeji, and 1 day in Nara. It was immediately interesting to notice the differences and similarities between Japan and Korea. At first we were really excited to see how clean things are there and how much greenery they have. Later we got really tired of how expensive things are and how bland the food is. The Japanese also seem much more reserved than Koreans, and thus less fun. Of course, Ben will probably disagree with my take on Japan... ;) Both Tracy and I agreed that we would have enjoyed our trip much more if we hadn't already spent a year in Korea- there's so much that wasn't new to us anymore. Still it was a good trip- I'm glad we went. Here's a list of some of the "bests" from Japan... - Best Souvenir: Yukata (summer Kimono) - Best Restaurant Experience: Conveyor belt sushi -Best Tour: Himeji Castle with the coolest tour guide ever - Best Transportation: Bicycle (it was great through the pretty back streets of Kyoto) And again, be sure to check out my other pictures- there are many more details there. I've also updated the "May" folder with pictures from the end of last month.