¡Amigas Aquí!

I was so excited in my last entry to tell you about my trip to India that I forgot what happened before that. Tami and Colleen spent an amazing week in Korea. Although the weather was a little chilly, I had a great time playing hostess. I took a few days off work which allowed us to do just about everything there is to do in Korea all in one week. The trip began in Seoul where we stayed in an ondul--traditional style--room where you sleep on the heated floor. We spent a day shopping in markets, drinking tea, and visiting a palace/museum, and going up Seoul Tower.

Tami and Colleen were so brave! They ate everything I put in front of them. :) We ate shabu shabu (similar to Korean BBQ, but in a hotpot), bulgogi (cooked meat), mandu (dumplings), dongas (pork cutlet), samgyetang (whole chicken in a ginseng soup) and bimbimbap (mixed veggies with rice). We also visited friends from Central and had a couple little reunions. Crazy! Tami and Colleen observed classes at TCIS on Thursday and Friday while I had to teach.

One of the best things about the week was that Tami and Colleen came when school was actually in session, which meant everyone was here. They met most of my friends, and we enjoyed doctor fish and going to noraebang, coffee shops, and photo sticker booth; all things I love to do here. On the last night we did something I've never done...slept at the jjimjilbang before the girls went to the DMZ.

In the middle of the week we took a day trip via KTX to Busan to see the fish market, cliffs, and ocean. We also met up with our friend Zach (aka G) from college. It was so fun to hangout and have G show us all around his city.

It was so fun to have my amigas here, but it has been a busy couple weeks. I'm definitely exhausted now. And, I'm having quite a bit of trouble sleeping...well, being able to fall asleep especially. Stupid jet lag!

Yesterday and today was World Language Festival, which also may contribute to my extreme sleepiness. Like last year, the Mandarin, Korean, and Spanish students all got together to play traditional games from the target countries. The year 1 kids enjoyed it, but the year 2 students enjoyed it even more. Their theme was food, and we cooked doekbokki (rice cakes in hot sauce), mapo tofu (yummy yummy Chinese dish), and quesadillas. It was a huge hit, and a lot of fun. Next year, when there are year 3 students, we are planning to have a section of music and dance. Looking forward to it already!

I'm happy because tomorrow is a half day of teaching, and since I don't have class until 10:40, I only have students for 40 min. Unfortunately, the half day is due to parent/teacher conferences, meaning I have to be at school until 8:30. Yuck! However, Thursday we get to sleep in and Friday there is no school thanks to good Friday. Yay! Happy Easter!

I ♥ India!

I just returned from a fantastic week at an orphanage outside of Bangalore, India along with 14 others from TCIS (11 high school students and 3 other adults). We spent the entire week at the orphanage playing with the 68 kids who live there. We worshiped together,  did crafts, played games, and spent time just talking and hanging out. It was a great experience. We lived in a guesthouse at the orphanage, ate wonderful food prepared by some of the older girls, and took bucket showers. And in every other moment of the day we were with the kids. It was exhausting, but so incredible; they taught us so much! From new games and songs to being grateful for what we have to having a childlike faith. The children there are wise beyond their years and are absolutely beautiful inside and out. I know the trip made a great impact on some of the members of our team, because on the last day everyone's eyes were full of tears as we said our goodbyes to our new friends. I have been on many mission trips, but I've never been on one like this where we see the same kids everyday and really know them by the end of the week. We also had a really great team, and by the end of the week had grown close, too.

Although we spent the majority of the time at the orphanage with the kids, we did experience a bit of Indian culture. Each day we took a break for tea time...I'm assuming this was started because of the British influence in the country. We had the chance to watch a couple of Indian movies with the kids; one of them My Name is Khan was sooooooo good and very interesting. I would recommend it. I learned how to count to 10 in Kannara, the language spoken in that part of the country. One night we had a dance show, so we watched some Indian dances and performed some Korean ones for them. We also spent half a day in the city of Bangalore shopping. I bought a beautiful Indian purse and shirt. (Their clothing is gorgeous! Very colorful and decorative.) We also had dinner in a restaurant before heading to the airport for our long trip home. As you can see, I had a wonderful time. Hopefully I can go back and see those kids next year. I miss them already!

Check out the rest of the pics here!

Jealousy

It's snowing here! And not just a little snow, but really snowing! We are forecast to get 7 inches in Daejeon, but I don't think that will happen. I thought spring was almost here, but then winter got jealous of spring (as they say in Korea.) Crazy weather! I hope it warms up before Colleen and Tami get here!!

March

Wow, it's March already. I'm hoping to get a few more posts this month, but I know time is going to FLY by. Since Spring break the weeks have been passing so quickly and now in just a couple short weeks quarter 3 will be over and it will be one last push until the end.

Here is an update about what I've been doing and will do. Enjoy!

The weather has been pretty nice so last weekend my friend Laura and I went hiking at Bomunsan, a mountain I had never been to but is actually in the city of Daejeon. After walking 15 or so minutes you get to a lookout where you can look down on most of the city. It was nice to rest, watch, and enjoy the weather (plus take lots of goofy pics). Then, we walked around the mountain about an hour before heading home. I really enjoyed it because it wasn't like normal Korean hiking where you walk on a cement path or up rock stairs. The trails were more natural...and thankfully there were way less people.

This weekend, next weekend, and last weekend was/will be filled with swim meets. Last weekend we went to SAHS--going to SAHS is always exciting because we get to go on the base and eat Taco Bell and toasted Subway sandwiches and get all kinds of good candy out of the vending machine :)--for the shortest meet in KAIAC history! I don't know if that's really true, but we were done before noon. Next week we will be on the base again at OSAN.

This week we had the first 10-team meet. It was at YISS and it was a great day! TCIS swam so well. It is so cool to see the improvements my swimmers have made since last year. A good chunk of them have cut 7-10 seconds on their 50 freestyle times (which is totally crazy)! The meet got off to a good start when both the girls and boys relay teams passed people on the last leg to win their respective heats. Another cool...well, probably the coolest part of the meet was that Gil Stovall, an Olympic swimmer was there! He is apparently best friends with the new aquatic director at YISS. He was hanging around the whole meet so we got some pictures and autographs and asked lots of questions about the Olympics and training and Michael Phelps. haha. Then, at the break, he swam an exhibition 100 butterfly. I have never seen an Olympian swim live, so that was really cool. To the swimmers out there who will find this amazing; he took 6-7 strokes per lap! And he was so smoothe in the water. Watch the video below to see what I mean. Anyway, after the meet he talked to us about his journey to the Olympics, where he was went in seeded 2nd right behind Michael Phelps in the 200 fly, expected to medal, but woke up sick on semifinals day and missed the finals heat by .01 sec. He talked about how his faith had kept him going through his entire swimming career, and how when he looks back on that day, he realizes that God was teaching him that dreams of the world can disappear, but God is constant and never leaves. It was a great message and we all really enjoyed listening to him.

Besides swimming, not too much has been going on. I have just been preparing for Tami and Colleen, who will be here 1 week from today!!!! I cannot wait. They will be here all next week and then the following week I will be in India. Be looking for a post after that for sure! :)