48 hours...

less than 48 hours till takeoff.

in some ways, i feel like i've been here forever. in some ways, i feel like i got here last week.

i am really behind in updating and i honestly can't do justice to all that has happened in this last month.

to get an idea, click HERE!

one week in barcelona and andorra, breathing in the fresh mountain air, getting outside everyday (SUCH a refreshing change to always working!), and taking time to actually breathe. i loved getting into kelsey's life this past year and meeting the people she's lived with and hung out with.

three weeks in cheungcheon teaching summer camp. back to the humidity! but at least there are mountains, trees, and cute little korean farmers tending their fields in the evening. the students were great. it was exhausting. after spending a year with the same students, it was hard to turn around and invest in a whole new group of students. after the initial get-to-know-you phase, however, it was easy to want to spend time with them. many new friends!

my class for three weeks...

the next adventure is going home. i know it will be different...i know i am different. i am excited, but it will be really hard to leave at the same time.

i have a whirlwind of packing and saying goodbye to do, so i hope this short update will console you until i see you again in person and our joy is made complete!

seattle, 9:20 am, august 24th...it's a date!

the finale...

the final frontier...

all three textbooks read thoroughly and taught, well, somewhat thoroughly. check.

geography students' final review jeopardy game, with prizes of course. check.

finals written, taken, and graded. check.

[best quote on the end of a final essay: "Thank You!! I love you. I will miss you!, but I can’t say love you, because I’m so precious. I didn’t say, your not precious. I’m more precious than you. Ha! Ha!”]

report card grades and comments. almost.

so it must be summertime in korea, right?

well...

the day after finals, the teachers were instructed to teach the students.

teach the students.

the day after finals.

really?

the day after finals, only half of the students show up.

the day after finals, the students don't care to learn a thing.

i improvised. my 9-1 class discussed some ethical dilemmas (my philosophy degree finally getting some use).

my other classes, we mostly took photos and talked. but hey, they were practicing English.

i got reprimanded (during class, in korean so the students had to translate ha) for not teaching a lesson.

honestly i wouldnt have done anything differently. the students spoke more english than they usually do in class. but korean schools...man there's a logic screw loose in there somewhere...

ah well. on to graduation.

"oh, and by the way (if today is thursday), you are presiding at the graduation ceremony tomorrow. (in korean) please make yourself pretty."

oh boy.

kics graduated 12 seniors. i've never seen a graduation like it. each student gave a short testimony. each received a "special award". they gave a musical performance. it was special. it was nice to have some real closure to the year. lots of photos. some tears.

oh, and did i mention the students (except seniors) are supposed to come to school next week?

now THAT is class time well spent :)

oh and LOTS more photos HERE

its beginning #1 and #2: although i have a month left (thats right, i get to come home a bit early - August 24th! i can't wait to see you!) because the real school year is over, i have started saying goodbye. its so hard.

this is what monsoon season means to me #72: sitting in my twenty-seven degree Celsius room with the window open (no a/c) and i'm getting hit by rain.

but the good news is, i have killed more than 75 mosquitoes in the last month. the bad news is that ALL of them managed to get into my room in the first place despite the outlet mosquito repellent.

next week - barcelona and andorra with kelsey! :)

after that - one month of summer camp :(

then - one day conference, two days packing, HOME. :)

live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God. - jim elliot

this is for my mom...

happy birthday!

you have been asking me to write a post about your trip here so i will make it part of your birthday present :)

you have no idea how excited i was to see you when i picked you up at the airport. i couldn't believe you guys were really here. it feels so long ago now but i remember that moment well. can you believe you were in korea? sometimes i can't believe i am.

i loved seeing korea through your eyes. you gave me a new perspective as a first-time asia traveler, overwhelmed with the language and all the new experiences. i was impressed. you did really well adapting in the short time you were here.

i loved hearing you try to speak korean the first few days :) and even more impressed when you got better over the days.

i loved seeing you struggle through some of the cultural differences. i loved that you were able to deal with those struggles with such an optimistic attitude.

i loved walking with you on the beach. no matter where you are, you are at home on the beach. busan was no different.

i loved that you picked out a fresh fish at jagalchi fish market - you went for it! that was such a memorable experience (and the best fish i've had in korea!)

i loved that we found the outdoor foot spa and went into the wrong pool first.

i loved that even in korea you can still make friends with strangers.

i loved that you tried new things.

i loved exploring new places with you. busan. the dmz. seoul.

i loved how affected you were by our experience at the dmz. you put into words some things that i was thinking but couldn't express. it was a pleasure to look into the south korean side of north korea for the first time with you. i vividly remember walking down into the 3rd tunnel of infiltration and ducking under the dripping ceiling, imagining the toil of the north korean soldiers. i can't believe i have a picture with you standing on the north korean side of the panmunjeon conference center. thank you for coming with an open mind and open eyes to share that with me.

i loved the night view at the base of the seoul tower. i'm glad you convinced me to keep going. thank you for your endurance during a long day.

i loved seeing you in my classrooms in front of my students in 'teacher mode'. i'm so glad you got to see why i love them so much. thank you for your extra work in getting your class to send pen-pal letters to my students. it was so much fun for everyone.

i loved that you gave your attention to the people who have meant so much to me here.

i loved that you came to visit me in korea.

i love you! happy birthday!

awesome!

i recently discovered i live a block from a puzzle factory.

AWESOME!

thinking some thoughts on thinking...

i don't mean to disappoint...this isn't actually a post about metacognition.

thinkings #1: i was thinking the other day about whether or not i was a pacifist. i was leaning toward the affirmative, until i realized that i would fully support and also engage in a full-scale Mosquito Genocide in Korea summer 2010.

habit #1: ever since jonsi's 'go' came out, i can no longer make "to do" lists. instead, my weekly duties are titled "go do".

thinkings #2: i think i will become nocturnal this summer. Korea is just too darn hot.

dae han min guk! #1: so technically i was "cheering" for korea in their match against argentina on thursday night, but of course knew the inevitable outcome. they played the game upstairs on the screen in our chapel for the students and it was fun seeing them go crazy when korea scored. but that only happened once because argentina danced around them the rest of the game to the tune of 4-1.

thinkings #3: i will probably come back and finish this off later...there is too much running around my brain right now.

the glee finale was SO GOOD.

what a day...

just a few (okay 40) new photos!

"what's up, my homies?"

i have been teaching some of my students slang and i really love it when they talk like FOB gangstas. 

new photos are from my birthday party, although the whole day was really a party.

the whole day was a blessing. i was a bit disappointed that it was raining, but i had so much to do that it didn't really end up being a big deal. and at one point i actually had to run in the rain while wearing a dress...and it was wonderful.

my students blessed me in countless ways.

three different classes got me a total of three cakes during the day. luckily, high schoolers are equally as good at devouring said cakes as they are of providing them. the best presents were letters from students. their words, although limited in their english expression, mean so much.

i definitely wasn't going to do regular classes on my birthday, so i instead presented them with a challenge - make a list of 100 things they want to do before they die. try it. it is actually much more difficult than you might expect. to help inspire them, i showed a power point of my own list in each class. one of my favorites, noah, came up to me really excited and said she could help me complete some of them. [okay, okay, so i shouldn't have favorites. i have about seventy. it's a problem.] however, noah is a special girl and i'm really, really sad that her last day was on friday. she is leaving to pursue music...she is incredibly talented at violin and piano.

so the whole day was fun (and i made every class no-bake cookies which they devoured) and such a whirlwind. some highlights include sammy teacher bringing all of 10-1 into the teacher's office to sing happy birthday and my homeroom throwing a little party after school, complete with balloons and cake and candles. the second cake, given by my homeroom, they wouldn't eat any of and they made me take the whole thing home. on top of that, i had a box of letters from them, two unopened box-gifts, and stacked on top of all of these was a party hat from my homeroom. just imagine what it must have looked like to see me walking home down the street with this stack...in the rain. wearing a dress.

the after-school party (as in the photos) was almost the entire 9-2 class in my apartment. it was hilarious how crowded and chaotic those few hours were, but it was indescribably wonderful to be surrounded by so much joy with such wonderful people. i make the whole-wheat pizza crust the day before, but the students brought toppings, drinks, ice cream and cake and then actually only about 5 of them did all of the preparation, cooking, AND clean-up, which was completely unexpected. i hardly had to clean up at all after all 15 or so of them left! we played games, took a ton of photos (one of the funniest things - they all took pictures of my room when they first came in), ate a lot, sang, and made a gross drink concoction as punishment for losing a game...i would say it was a successful evening.

blessings came from home as well in the form of packages and cards.

as i told my students, i fully expected to be homesick on my birthday, but i honestly didn't even have time to think about such things.

needless to say, i am so torn about leaving them come september. there are so many things that drive me crazy about the school itself, but these students are definitely not part of it. pray for direction!

what a day.

go do...

there are plenty of new PHOTOS from our children's day field trip on may 5th to the science museum and palace. most of them are just of my students, so of course not much to look at ;)

listen to your teacher: you should probably listen to jonsi's "go" if you haven't already.

highlights of the field trip: getting to be OUTSIDE with my lovely students all day (although they had to wear their uniforms and it was really warm) just taking photos and breathing in the fresh air at the flowery palace.

yesterday (yes, a saturday) was the official "teacher's day" in korea. in morning chapel friday, they lit sparklers and sung a song for all the teachers and my homeroom later in the day surprised me with flowers, grapes, sparklers, balloons, singing and hugs.

are-you-serious-moment #1: when i gave my students their "quiz" - create a song or rap (that will be performed monday...) about a country or region in Africa (which we are currently studying in geography). i can't wait.

we have a three-day weekend coming up and being just before my birthday, i'm trying to figure out what to do with an extra day!

UPDATE:

korea won 2-0 over ecuador last night!
the fans were crazy, like sounders fans, but there was at least one stark difference...

ahh the humidity...

as fast as blue skies have graced the sky, humidity has wrapped its grubby hands around us...

but our spring days (although intermittently interrupted by rain showers) seem to be spreading joy.

spring is the best season in bucheon. with all the newly sprouted flowers and cherry blossoms, it smells a little bit less of a heap of ddong.

i really love test week. midterms are over and the results are in...


laugh-out-loud-student-mishap #14: one of my government students pulled a jeremiah. that's right - he FELL ASLEEP during the test and as a result didn't write anything on the essay part - 10 out of the 50 points. sigh.

some highlights from the essay question answers:

(american government)

"I chose Ms. Kari vice president of U.S. because you are my favorite American Government teacher!!! that's why I picked you. Don't be need to thanks to me. Don't worry about government. you can do that."

(geography)

(this kid has a LOT of trouble with English - this is his entire answer to a question about deforestation in the Amazon rain forest) "because Amazon is air 70% so Amazon lost we are very bad air eat so we are sike and Amazon have a many anemal and plant live But Amazon is very important. so Amazon need we are help so Amazon is important. Thank you. Pleases NO F!!!"
(this must be from a new disney movie - all forests go to heaven?) "So if deforestation continue and Amazon rain forest go the heaven where do make 1/3 oxygen? So if Amazon rain forest go to heaven We can not drink 1/3 oxygen"
(this is the entire answer) "1. Amazon Rain forest is Biggest forest so important. 2. I AM Not deforestation..."
"The Amazon rain forest is important because it provides the 20% of earth's oxegen. Without this we really would have to hold on the air tanks when we go out"
(this kid should write dictionaries...) "When I saw that I was so angry to deforestationer...If they continuesly deforestate we will can not breath. If there are no oxyzon, they don't need money so they are very stupid I think. If I meet them I will punch them and crush them."

children's day on wednesday! we get to go on a field trip!!

blue skies are coming...

spring is emerging.

cherry blossoms are appearing.

and my friend emily is GETTING MARRIED today!!! oh how i wish i could be there!

some new photos!

the last month went by SO quickly.

my parents came and their visit was great albeit way too short and the time flew by.

the highlights were a weekend trip to busan (fresh air and beaches!) and half a saturday at the demilitarized zone (dmz) between north and south korea. eye-opening.

the best part of their visit (for me at least) was the friday they came to my school. they came to each of my classes and they wrote letters to students in my mom's class. they got to meet my students and my students got to meet them and they had a lot of fun with their letters.
one of my favorite lines:
[almost at the end of the letter] "Oh my gosh! I forgot my introduce. I'm hadsome (sic) and I wear big glasses. Are you curious now?" - one of my 9-3 students.

my homeroom is pretty photogenic.

this week has been SO joyful. my students make me smile and laugh every single day. praise God for that!

laugh-out-loud moment #57: walking into my ESL A class, there were a few kids missing, but since the bell hadn't run i wasn't too worried about it. seconds later, i found one under my desk in front of the room and a second one popped out of a cabinet in the back of the room. especially impressive is that the cabinet is maybe 5 feet tall  and has three shelves in it. he fit himself on the top shelf.

snowing-in-march: we've had a long winter and one of our last snowstorms was on the day i do soccer club. they all thought i was crazy for not canceling it, but that day marked the first many of them had played soccer in the snow :)

laugh-out-loud moment #58: when my adopted father mr. park told my real father in his broken English, "I will fight you for your daughter"

something a little different: since our school has really long winter and summer breaks, there are really no breaks at all in the semester. in addition, school has instituted a new stifling rules policy that has many of the students begging for mercy. the students, as a result, have become almost completely burnt out. so many have been out sick and they look and act tired everyday. many of the teachers have been sick too. i have a lingering cold and this week i had a brush with pink eye.
the past few weeks (even months) i have also been struck by all the events going on around the world and i felt a holy spirit tug to share with my students - most of my students are SO disconnected from the world outside of korea. reading the details of yet another earthquake in china this past week, i thought it would do something different. i wanted to give the students a chance to actually pray for these nations (instead of just talk about them) and take some time to rest from the busyness of the week. friday in all six of my classes i played a little video i put together to give them a visual of what they could pray about and then gave them complete freedom to create (draw, write, or whatever), pray, or sleep if they really needed to. the response was different in each class, but it was definitely a renewing time for me and some of my students as well. i expected many to fall asleep but surprisingly, very few of them took advantage of that opportunity. God really blessed this time. He gave me Psalm 97 for this video and the song "How He Loves Us" by Jesus Culture...


keep breathing. keep praying.

사랑해요

[i love you]

remember when it rained...

i really love rainy days in korea.

reason #1 why i love rainy days in korea: the students tell me it is "laining" outside.

reason #2 why i love rainy days in korea: koreans are afraid of rain. okay, so maybe their rain is acidic and bad for you. but they don't go ANYWHERE without an umbrella, even if it is just sprinkling. we are supposed to have soccer club "meetings" (which means we go and play soccer) on mondays and they (all boys, of course) asked me, "are we playing soccer today?" "yes, of course!" i said. "but it's laining!" "yeah...are you a girl? are you afraid of rain?" i taunted them.

this past week has been full. and great. and amazing.

why i love teaching geography to ESL students #17: i get to show boy meets world in class.

blatantly obvious racial ignorance #34 (this one is for LUKE): i also showed a clip of New York and had them guess what city was being shown. i also had them list two reasons WHY it was that city and obvious answers were things like "statue of liberty", "twin towers". but one student wrote: "black people".

adopted family members #3, #4, and #5. maybe even #6: one day, after school in the office, an eleventh grade student asked me if i had any brothers. i told him i had two older brothers and he said "i want to be your brother". quite matter-of-factly. and ever since, he calls me sister and i call him brother. today, when we exchanged our family pleasantries, another student in his class said, "i want to be your brother. can i be your brother too?" and another boy, wanting to join in the fun, said, "can i be your sister?". hence, #3-5. #6 was a marriage proposal from a 12th grade student. more like a marriage demand..."marry me" as i was walking back from the cafeteria one day.

yesterday, besides being the infamous day of pi, was "white day" in korea. valentines day is the day for girls to give chocolate to boys, and white day for boys to give candy to girls. usually it is a confession or expression of love. my "brother", my "future husband", and a 9th grader were sweet to me, in candy form.

on a more serious note #1: thursday, i went to an 80th anniversary church celebration my student invited me too. i didn't realize it would be so formal, but they played a lot of classical music. she played violin in the orchestra, her mom played piano, and her dad sang in a choir. her family was very generous to me and the students i went with and took us out to dinner afterwards. they didn't speak much english, but their gratitude for me as a teacher was quite striking. i don't get a lot of interaction with parents, but they were wonderful.

i have a new homeroom class because they switched the students into "levels" - so instead of being a mix of english levels, we have high, medium, and low. i still have 9-3, so i have the "low" kids in my homeroom. they are fantastic though. they listen really well. 9-2 is the loud, fun bunch (although too loud at times) and 9-1 is a bunch of smarty-pantses. but i like them all.

PTL #1: the boy in front, joshua, was a difficult student last semester. he didn't ever want to study, he slept a lot in class, and hardly ever smiled. he failed my class and probably a few others. this semester, though, he is a completely different person. from the first day, i noticed him smiling and participating in class a lot more. on the way to lunch one day, he exclaimed, "i made a new friend!". he was walking with the new student in our class (who didn't know anyone). i mentioned to him that i was really proud of his work so far this semester and that he was completely different from last semester. he told me, "over winter break, i prayed for God to change my heart". a hallelujah moment!! what a testament to God's grace and providence.

if you can believe it, that was a brief update. God is good. everyday.

and as of last thursday, i officially passed the six-month mark!!!

oh, hey!

back to school!

we started school this week, so things have suddenly picked up again. some new students, and getting to see all the students again was fantastic. but getting back to planning and five classes a day was surprisingly exhausting. as well as moving to a new apartment yesterday. i now have an oven! amazing. there seem to be very few around here.

what the moment #1-5: they tore down part of the building next to our school (it was a restaurant) and are now constructing at all hours of the day. this whole week, in the middle of class, i would be talking about something and i would hear the D-D-D-D-D-DRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE of the drill from outside. wow.

we have a (surprise) day off tomorrow!

sometimes-i-do-things-to-watch-my-students-faces #1: i taught about Russia in geography this week and capped off the last class with an abridged version of Bear Gryll's Man vs. Wild in Siberia. if you haven't seen this show (which i actually hadn't until i came here and watched one on youtube - they're all on there), this guy, bear, uses his survival skills to show you how to survive in the most extreme situations. in this particular episode, he drank fresh yak blood and ate yak eyeball. they also got to see him ride a self-made deerskin toboggan and jump onto a moving freight train. it was fantastic to see and hear their reactions.

famous-by-association #1: about two weeks ago i discovered that a very famous k-pop star is the same kid i went to elementary school with and some of my students FREAKED out when they found out. they take their celebrities very seriously here.

and that's about it. really.

if you had any doubt it your mind that YOU SHOULD GO SEE JONSI ON APRIL 9TH OR 10TH...this is what the show is going to be like...

Jónsi live show by 59 Productions from Jónsi on Vimeo.

miss you. ride my bike for me, will you? it's lonely in my garage!

if you could have one superpower...

new student camp week!

last thursday we were informed that we were to teach prospective new students this week. lucky for me, i got conversation class (while other unfortunate souls were stuck with the likes of science and math), so i got to play pictionary and 20 questions and talk with my students all week. not a bad deal.

a LOT better than sitting at a desk for eight hours doing "lesson plans" like last week.

a friend took me to get a guitar last week and so i'm spending some free time after work learning to play! i like having the creative outlet and its a good break from the everyday piano-hymns at school.

today in class, i had them ask and answer "what if" questions and the most interesting was

"if you could have one superpower, what would it be?"

the most common answer: "invisibility". if that doesn't give an accurate social commentary on the average korean high school student, i don't know what does.

best meeting ever #1: the weekly friday afternoon meeting is lost on most teachers. as the final stepping stone to the weekend, hardly anyone actually pays attention. today was more amusing than usual. we actually have assigned seats but today a few of us rebels chose to sit in the very back pew (against the back wall) just for fun, at least ten rows behind everybody else. text messages and teary-eyed laughter are all i fondly remember of the meeting.

quote of the week: "aww you're such a good student!" "good teacher makes a good student" :)

and definitely the song of the week, can't stop listening. boy lilikoi - first release from jónsi's (yep, from sigur rós) solo project to be released april 5th (and he's playing the the showbox sodo april 9th AND 10th...you should go because i can't!)...and he sings in english...a soaring and majestically epic song...



great is thy faithfulness.

winter camp...

some new photos (they start on page four of this album)!


home from winter camp! three weeks out of the city made most of the teachers almost crazy. i was only there for a little more than two, but it is good to be back.

for all of you that were hoping life would get a little more unexciting, you got your wish :)

back to teaching, back to routine. didn't get stuck anywhere, didn't have too many adventures, but we still had some good times.

highlights:

- three days of (free!) skiing with the students. the ski resort, however, was tiny and not all that challenging (which was apparent by the fact that i only rode the diamond runs and they still weren't all that exciting). but it was a good starter slope for the kids and even for me since it has been awhile since i have been on skis. it got really cold the last day, but the first two days were fun and it was a nice break. and every time we got on or off the lift, the lift attendent would practice their english on us.

- playing soccer almost every day in the afternoon (between classes) in the (very packed down) snow with students.

- saturday hike which turned into a snow fight.

the whole hiking group...

- "I've Never" with E5 students...falling off of chairs.

- fourth-grade Kelly taught me Korean one day and then she numbered the paper and made me take a test :)

- catching up on some mars hill sermons - "God doesn't need us, but he loves to use us so we can share in his joy"


- seeing bucheon students and making some new student friends

i will miss them (and many more)


now it is back to the office : / but hopefully i will get a lot of planning done before the semester starts!

how are you? i miss you.

ode to a friend.

 hey.

it has been an intense week.

the fact that i am not yet at winter camp will be explained in a bit, but i need to take some time first for my co-worker steve na.

yesterday, my roommate told me that steve fell ill at camp and was sent to the hospital where he lost consciousness. he died today.

because i haven't talked to anyone at camp directly, i don't know the full story, but the whole thing is very sudden and shocking. the picture above is one i took at our thanksgiving dinner, just over a month ago. i didn't know steve all that well, but he was a good teacher and led the youth group at hanyoung church. please please please pray for his family and the teachers here that were close to him. he will be missed, but he's with Jesus and I'm sure he's never been better.

any transition i make to the events that transpired this past week before all of this doesn't really fit, but it's quite a story.

i set off for the airport last tuesday with only sketchy details of meeting at the beijing airport and no address for the place i was to be staying. let's just say i won't do that again.

the subway ride to the incheon airport was beautiful with a light icing of snow in low morning light. we took off on time for the short one-and-a-half-hour flight to shenyang. not long into it, the pilot informed us that we were to land in qingdao, the shenyang airport closed due to snow. when we landed, they made us sit on the plane for two hours in case shenyang opened soon. we watched all of julie & julia before they let us off.

looooong story short, three other foreign English teachers in Korea on that flight were connecting to Beijing and, not knowing when the airport would open, we decided to get tickets for a direct flight to Beijing from Qingdao instead of waiting to go to Shenyang first, with the promise that our other flight would be refunded. having those three others was quite a blessing, as well as seeing one of my students at the Qingdao airport as he was flying in to be with his family over break. we made it to Beijing five hours later than scheduled and i hoped that the friends meeting me there would not have been waiting that whole time. since i knew my friend anna was flying in sometime later that night, i decided to wait and try to find her. i had no idea what flight she was on, and after two hours i realized there were also two other terminals. it turns out i was in the wrong one and the subway was closed by now, not that i had an address to look for anyway. or a phone number to call. (by the way, in the qingdao airport, i had access to internet and i looked for clues on how i might get there and sent an e-mail informing them about the delay).

[mom, you should probably close your eyes right about now]

so i spent the night in the airport, which was really only about three hours, wrestling with cold and dozing every once in awhile in a lounge chair in a cafe area. there were quite a few other people in the same area too and although no flights were coming in, it turns out that airports never sleep and i didn't really either.

[proceed with caution]

once the subway opened, i took the three trains to East Gate of Peking University stop because one of the only things i knew was that the friend (kyle) was teaching english at a program somehow related to the university. i made it there (p.s. i was carrying my backpacking pack on my back and my north face daypack on my front this whole time) and walked around until i found a building with a computer which happened to be the library. i had to get a visitor library card, scanned my way in, and found someone to get me log-in information and paid my 5 kuai to use the internet for an hour. i looked everywhere until i finally re-checked my e-mail and found that there was an address at the bottom of an e-mail (in the signature). despite the travel stress and the lack of sleep, i hadn't been extremely worried about the situation but was so relieved that i wouldn't be spending a week in china wandering around by myself (which, of course, i knew wouldn't happen). twelve hours after i landed in beijing, i was finally headed, by way of taxi, to at least the right area. the driver dropped me off in front of a gate and i wandered around some buildings, going into a few. the first person i found knew kyle and pointed me straight toward his room and you should have seen the look on his face when he opened the door...they had NO idea how they were going to find me.

[okay, mom, you're safe from here]

my less-than-a-week in Beijing was exactly the vacation i needed. it was windy and cold for the most part, but spending time with amazing people and seeing how God was working in and through this English program was extremely refreshing. of a very much abridged version of my trip, the highlights include:

<--kyle, anna, chen

- meeting kyle's co-workers. they live in a dorm and the community within those walls is incredible and something i've been missing. i felt so at home right away and that is rare for me. i came knowing one person well and it was hard to leave all those new friends behind.

- making pancake shapes with erichen. (that's not really his name, it's eric chen, but in my head i usually just squash them together.)

- spooning with anna after a really cold day at the Wall.

- geeking out photo-style with kyle.

- new year's eve broccoli pizza and catchphrase. weird (different), but very very good. (i missed the rydmans, though!! we even played apples to apples and i thought of you guys!)

- God's provision and travel mercies, to say the least.

- throwing a disc in tian'anmen square AND inside the walls of the forbidden city :)

- climbing and photoing a new (for me) part of the Great Wall with great people.

- all four of us wearing panda hats throughout the forbidden city and on our rickshaw ride.

- maple twist/cafe latte night, staying up late enjoying and talking to wonderful new friends and old.

- a "fructiferous bargaining sesh" at the silk market (i wish i made up that phrase, but i got it from the insider's guide to beijing the first time i was there). i even got a death threat; it was that good. 

if you would like to see some China photos, please click here!

i wish that was all of the adventure because i had plenty at this point, but getting back to korea is a whole 'notha story. can you handle it?

[mom, maybe you should just skip to the last paragraph]

the night before, it started snowing lightly. after what happened with my flight to shenyang, i asked with a slight worry, "is it supposed to snow all night? i hope nothing happens to my flight tomorrow..." "it is supposed to snow maybe 9 millimeters" "okay, that sounds good". 

after sleeping for about two hours (as a result of staying up late and having to leave at 6 am), i stepped outside with my bags into at least three inches of snow. i got to the airport easily via a taxi and an airport shuttle bus (which was much easier than carrying my baggage onto three different subway lines, although cold because they apparently don't use heat on buses in china).

checking in at around 8 am for my 10 am flight to Dalian (followed by a 6 pm flight to Seoul), the lady behind the counter said "maybe come back tomorrow". "what?" "flight is delay, so wait one hour and ask manager". after one hour "dalian, no time. wait one hour". this happened a few times. finally, at 11, "dalian (yeah, i didn't even have to ask. he remembered me), check in". i checked in and headed to gate 26 where i was for the next seven hours. i read two books, ran down half the battery on my iPod, wandered around, ate the weird tv-dinner-style-food they gave us, watched the never-ending
steady snow fall, and took a few photos before they suddenly announced that they were taking us to a hotel to take a rest. waiting in line to check in to the hotel, an older woman i had seen at the airport asked if i wanted to stay with her. i hadn't talked to her at all before, but i said okay. that night i had dinner at a very decent hotel with my roommate, an Australian English teacher in Dalian and a Norwegian businessman. it was nice to have someone to talk to and they both have fascinating stories. it was nice to be able to take a wonderful, warm shower and sleep well after a whole day in the airport.

the next morning, we sat at gate 37 for about seven hours. i found a newspaper which confirmed that this unexpected snowstorm is one of the biggest and coldest for at least fifty years. this airport time was better because i had a friend who would watch my stuff so i didn't have to take it with me every time i had to get something (like i did the day before) and it's odd but i knew (by face) almost all of the people waiting for our flight (the airport was crazy because most flights were delayed the day before) and which of them could speak English. every time they announced something about our flight, it was of course in Chinese so i would watch for reactions from those people. people started yelling at about 2 pm and we were on a plane at about 7, though we didn't actually take off until about 8. we got TWO chinese-tv-style meals in the airport this time. we finally reached Dalian at 9:30 and i said good-bye to my roommate who said i could visit her in Australia and then i ran around that airport trying to figure out my next flight. we left Dalian for Seoul on a midnight flight on a quarter-full plane and touched down at 2 am, korea time (one hour later than china). because it was so late, it made sense to once again find a nice chair or bench in the airport until the subway opened at 5:30. the seoul airport is pretty dang cool and after walking around for awhile, i found a winner - the stargarden. sheltered, slightly warmer, and empty save for a man sleeping on a bench at the other end, i was able to sleep for at least an hour here before i woke up freezing a little before 5 am.

[alright you should be okay now]

i took the subway and walked back to bucheon through the snow-covered city, getting in at 7:15 am, only 46 hours after i had planned to be back. i wasn't able to contact anyone at school while i was in the airport, but i knew i had missed the bus to Cheong-Cheun, where our winter camp is being held, and i called our vp who told me to hang out here for awhile. there was a record snowfall here as well and the roads are a mess. i still haven't gotten a time for when i will be heading out there, but i think i'm leaving sometime tomorrow (which is really later today...). honestly, i'm glad i had a bit of time to recover from the whole ordeal. i lost a lot of sleep over those two days and was fairly sick on top of it, catching some sort of something in china that made me even lose my voice for half a day. i'm feeling a lot better now and i'm pretty much packed and ready to go. although i have been to the campus before, i have idea what to expect. new students, new classes, plus this unexpected passing of one of our teachers...it will be a much different atmosphere.

phew. now i know what it really means to have a flight delayed. so many new experiences and we're less than a week into 2010. in all of this, God has been so faithful. i never felt in danger, was hardly ever frustrated, i just kind of rolled with it. i even found a lot of it funny. i was exhausted, for sure, but it is definitely a story, if nothing else.

it's going to be a good year.