Posts Tagged Korea

A Week Left…

This past week has been, well, a true test for me. Our schedule is as follows:

Wake up around 6:00-6:30, get ready, be at the church by 8:00.

Start Class at 9:00, teach until 11:35. Eat lunch, then climb 3 flights of stairs and spend an hour and a half trying to keep 200 kids in one room when they may, in fact, be ridiculously bored.

Start teaching a different class at 2:00. Continue doing so until 5:00, then have dinner and head home.

Repeat.

Needless to say, this schedule has been a little draining. However, the best part is that my first class is 10 kids, 3 of whom are trouble-makers in any degree, and three who pretty much get in trouble every 5 minutes or so. It’s like they put all of the trouble kids in one class, and I just happened to get it. :( God is really teaching me perseverance through this! I have never wanted to stop doing something that I had to do more times in one week than this past week! But, although it is difficult, I’m learning a lot and getting stronger. I have definitely started getting practice on “the look” this week, as well!

There have definitely been plusses this week, too. The team is really close…we have a lot of fun times! I know that we all bring something unique and necessary to the team, and it definitely shows. When we are together, we come up with all sorts of ways to support each other. I have sent troublemakers to visit more than one teammate’s class! :)

We have had a lot of adventures this week, like going to a DVD room with some Korean friends (you rent a room with a big screen and pick a movie (we watched Seven Pounds)), and traveling to Seoul to go shopping and to visit a palace. Shopping was a lot of fun, even though it threatened to rain the entire time. I got some really neat things. The palace was pretty spiffy, but it was so hot/humid out that some of us just chilled after seeing the main attractions. Normally, I would be exploring the whole place taking pictures, but my camera definitely died. After that, we went to Pizza Hut, where we had some goofy pizza. The really weird thing was that we had to share drinks…they just brought them out with lots of straws in them. Juan and I definitely found sharing a Pepsi to be interesting. If Phillippa was unlucky, she would have had to split her drink with 2 other people. Fortunately for her, she got it all to herself. Also, you only get one salad bar plate per 3 people. A very strange custom, but whatever.

It is so crazy that we’ve been here for 18 days, and even crazier that we only have one week left! Sometimes, I am so ready to be home, and other times I am so sad to be leaving. I guess that’s the way it goes, though!  I definitely have a place for Korea in my heart, but Texas is definitely home!

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The Final Countdown

So, in two days I will be headed to Suwon, South Korea. I’ll be there for 3.5 weeks, teaching English, leading VBS and learning a ton about Korean culture. The last time I went to Korea (last fall break), I learned a lot in only a week. The increase from this experience should be astronomical!

Our game plan has changed somewhat over the past few months, but as of today, it looks like we will be flying out of DFW at 10:10 Wednesday and landing in Tokyo around 1:05 on Thursday. The flight lasts 13 hours! Then we have about a six hour layover in Japan, and we will head to Seoul, where we will arive two or three (I can’t remember) hours later. From Incheon International Airport, we will have about an hour-two hour drive to Suwon, my home for the next month.

I am definitely excited, but I feel so unprepared/overwhelmed when I think about it. I have never been so far away for so long, which is exciting, but still challenging at the same time. I know I will miss my family and friends, and Mark, and American food, but I have my team, new places to see, new foods to try and, of course, God. :) I will be just fine, I think.

One thing that does have me slightly on edge is the fact that we might be staying in host homes, maybe even by ourselves. on the one hand, this is a really great, once in a lifetime, worldview shaping event that will be the best way to experience Korea. On the other hand, I do not know Korean, am kinda creeped out by several Korean foods, and a little worried that I may end up offending some nice people due to my lack of cultural knowledge. I think the pluses are undeniably better than the minuses are bad, but still, I am tad worried. :)

I don’t know how much internet time I’ll be able to snag, but I’ll do my best to keep you updated on everything.

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