Good Bye For Now!

Who would have thought that you could go to another country and see family more often than at home where you both live? Well, that's been true for me. In the past four months, I have seen my aunt and uncle from Virginia five times. That's more than we've seen each other in the past five years! Our first visit was the Seoul City Bus Tour in September when uncle Bob came to the city for work. Then, uncle Bob made a short stop in Suji to see where I live, help me find the basic necessities at Lotte Mart (detergent, hand soap, Sung-pyeon, etc.), and got a chance to eat at our favorite local Korean restaurant. In October Britney, Shauna, and I spent Korean Thanksgiving (Chusok) at Bob and Shina's doing lots of fun activities (site seeing, hiking, shopping, eating, eating, and more eating). We also visited Shina's family's who prepared an amazing Korean meal for us and generously gave us a tour of the main attractions in their city. This will be on of the most memorable weekends for me in the entire year, I'm quite sure! Then, I visited Bob and Shina once more in November and December. They took me to the Jeonju paper museum, a traditional Korean drum concert, a fun market, the movie 2012, and Korean church. On Sunday evening, I had to say good bye. They are going back to Virginia on December 27th. I thought it was going to be harder than it was, but I could hardly be sad after being so lucky to see them so often in such a short time. My relationship with them has grown tremendously and I feel blessed to now be so close with relatives who are soon to be far away again. While I am definitely sad to see them go, I am now motivated to take a trip to Virginia when I get home to see them again. So...I know it's only good by for now.

The Good with the Bad

As life gets more and more routine, I feel as though I have less and less to tell you about! But, in the last few weeks, I've had a variety of fun and not so fun things happen. Let me give you a quick (yeah, right) summary, add a few pictures, and get on my way.

NOT FUN THINGS (saving the best for last is always better):

-Losing Rachel- What a sad loss! She was so smart for her age. My little Rachel, who hadn't missed a day of class since I

started didn't come to school one Thursday and Friday. I for sure thought she had H1N1, but never expected to hear that she wouldn't be back. On Monday, my 2:30pm elementary class was interrupted when my supervisor came in to

tell me that Rachel was leaving LCI, as her family was going to take some time away to travel. It was such a shock that I immediately started crying. We took one last picture together as I was in tears, her parents thanked me for being such a good teacher, and then she was gone. Needless to say, I was a pretty ineffective teacher the rest of the day. Rachel wasn't even my favorite student, and I was so sad to see her leave. I can't imagine how attached I'm going to be to ALL my students after a year!

-Battling Bronchitis- I'm feeling better now, but I should be from the drug overdose I was on the last week. The Korean doctor I saw prescribed a shot in the rear and six pills, thee time a day for my first case of my never failing winter Bronchitis!

-Korean Funeral- It never once crossed my mind that I would be attending a Korean funeral when I came here. In Kore

a, funerals are the most important event to attend for a family/friend. Last week, our Korean supervisor's

(Lucy) mother, who we knew was sick, passed away. The funeral started the day she died and lasted for the next three days. They take place in the hospital on a "funeral wing" in large public rooms. No embalming is done; there is just a large photo surrounded by many huge, beautiful flower bouquets. Each of us (teachers) placed a flower on the alter and shared a moment in silence with Lucy's family (similar to a wake in the US). After, we entered the room next door to enjoy a traditional Korean meal. Certainly sad, but another unique cultural experience to take home. I'm glad we could all be there for Lucy.

FUN THINGS:

-Thanksgiving- I was lucky enough to celebrate Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving) with fam

ily in October, and then our English staff celebrated our Thanksgiving together! We all pitched in for a potluck style meal that truly turned into a feast! Although we didn't have turkey, green been casserole, or pumpkin pie, we did have rotisserie chicken (hot dog flavored-a surprise to us!),

corn, vegetable and fruit trays, twice bakes potatoes, salad with feta cheese, grits, a DELICIOUS homemade apple pie, and many bottles of wine! We ended the night (or morning) together around 3:30am after an evening full or Noraebong (Karaoke) singing...what a blast!

-Decorating My Apartment- Across the street from our school is a Korean version of the Dollar Store, which I LOVE! I bought garland, bows, poinsettias, and bunch of fun hanging decorations to get my apartment in the Christmas spirit. It was a blast decorating my own

"home!"

-Christmas Card Making Party: Britney, Shuana, and I cozied up in my apartment with hot chocolate, ice cream, songpyeon (the delicious Korean rice cakes), and Christmas music to make Christmas cards. None of us got anywhere near done with them, but it was such a relaxing evening kicking off the holiday

season!

-Kevin K.- I got a third new student last week. I now have a Kevin and a Kevin K. Our Korean sta

ff asked his parents to change his English name, so they went from Kevin to Kevin K. Too funny! I was told he was a good reader, but would have trouble speaking and understanding me,

so I was worried. Turns out, he's my smartest boy in the class...and SO CUTE!

-New Glasses- Not that exciting for you, but certainly fun to tell that I got a new pair of glasses for a total price of 35,000 won, which would be less that $35! Can you believe that? I'm still in shock. I went to one of the big markets in Seoul where there are glasses shops every other direction. They checked my eyes (for free) on the spot and had my new glasses ready in 20 minutes! Can't get any better than that- and yes, I can see out of them!

-Shauna's Birthday!- Most recently, we celebrated Shauna's 23rd birthday.

We had another fun night out bar hopping in Seoul. Let's just say, it's a good thing we don't live in Seoul- way too much fun to do that often! :)

So...I guess I had more to share than I thought! Life continues to be busy as we are all getting our classrooms decorated for Christmas and getting gifts sent home for the holidays. Time has been going so fast that I thankfully haven't been able to get too sad in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I still can't imagine not being home for the holiday, but I'm sure I'll be having quite a good time in Hong Kong!