Hong Kong!

I'm in Hong Kong right now!

Who would have ever thought I would end up in this city! Its so amazing! The city is massive and the people are so cool. We flew business class last night out of Tokyo. (which was amazing! My seat turned into a bed!)

We are staying in a pretty shady Hostel. The hostel isn't too shady, its just the area outside of it that is.

We only have one day here. We fly out tomorrow morning around 10. My schedule is pretty hectic. On my original ticket I had a lay over in Tokyo so I thought I could just skip the flight from Seoul and get on my connecting flight out of Detroit. Boy was I wrong! It would have cost $500 to change.

So here is my flight schedule for tomorrow and Sunday:

I fly out of Hong Kong to Tokyo in the morning. I have to go through immigration in Japan to pick up my bags, I paid to store at the airport. Then I go through customs again to leave the county.

I will then board a plane to Seoul. Go through immigration and customs in Korea. Check in for my flight. Then go through customs again to board the plane.

Then I fly back to Tokyo. Wait 4 hours then board a plane for Detroit. So I have 4 flights in one day! And two of the flights are to the same city!

Pray for me!

I need to run. I can't wait to be home in 3 days!

See you soon!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Dragon Mountain

This past week has been pretty amazing! On Sunday Kendall and I got lost in some tiny town for three hours in the middle of no where. It was pretty cool. I don't have any pictures from it but I will try to tell the story on here some other time.

Two weeks ago I went into town on a Sunday and the sea was full of ships coming in or leaving the port. I told Kendall I thought we should go to this big cliff we passed and watch the sun rise over the sea with all of the ships out there. It never really worked out.

Well last Sunday I talked a few people into going for a bike ride to watch the Sunrise. The plan was to leave Sunday morning at 6:15 A.M. and ride for 30 minutes to a place called "Dragon Mountain." We woke up on Sunday Morning an it was raining! We all went back to bed.

On Monday morning we didn't start work until 11:00 A.M. so we decided to try it again. This time only one other person wanted to join us. We set are alarms and forced ourselves out of bed at 6:00 A.M. Kendall, Ian and I meet in the lobby and decided we were really going to do this. The biggest problem was that none of us had bikes. But we were told that we could just "borrow" some bikes from the bike rack in front of our building. So at 6:15 we were test-riding what bikes we would steal! We found the correct bikes and headed out for "Dragon Mountain." The first section of the trail is about 25 minutes through a rice patty! It was amazing. It was pitch black outside and we are on a tiny trail in the middle of a field. We had no clue where we were going only that we wewre heading for Dragon Mountain!

We left the field and ended up on a small road leading into a town. When we reached the town the sea appeared on our right. We rode for the remainder of the trip all along the cost! It was beautiful. We rode, and rode, and rode for a while. After about 1 and a half hours we were exhausted and decided to just stop. We had obviously missed Dragon Mountain. But we did find one of the most beautiful places I've been to in Korea. We were on top of a large hill and decide to climb down to the sea coast.

When we reached the bottom the sun was just starting to rise above the water and the mountains in the distance. It was beautiful. The colors were vived and bright! The location we watched from was covered in massive rocks. We spent time jumping around on the rocks out to the sea!

After the sunrise we left the beach to head home. The ride back was even more beautiful with the sun actuly in the sky. We could see where we were going and the beautiful coast.

We also had our eyes open for Dragon Mountain. By chance we stopped at a bridge looked to the right and saw this temple on the side of a mountain! It was Dragon Mountain. We approaced the Mountain and discovered that there was indeed a giant dragon on the side of this mountain. It was a large tunnel that went up the side of this mountain and ended on the ground in a giant dragon head! We were examining things when out of no where a Buddhist monk appeared and told us to go inside the dragon. We followed him and were greated by this sight:



It was amazing! The monk left us and we were inside of the dragon alone. We followed the tunnel all the way to the top. All of the walls were lined with pictures and statues and at the end there was a large statue of Buddah with a prayer mat. We spent some time there and left.

As we were getting on our bikes another monk appeared and motioned to us to follow him. He took us into a private building and offered us coffe. He couldn't speak any English! We figured out he was the dish washer for the monks! We spent a little time with him and then went to leave. He bowed and told us good bye. As we were getting on our bikes he again called ups back and this time invited us into a different buiilding. This time he gave us each a calander!

We finally got on our bikes and finished the rest of the ride back to school!

Well I need to run. I'm leaving for china in about 2 hours! I'll be in Hong Kong Tomorrow! I miss everyone back home! See you soon!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Temple:

Relaxing...

Coffee! My favorite way to relax no matter where in the world I am! This is a shot of my Latte at the Illy Cafe. I rode the bus into town on Monday by myself to read, write and spend some time alone. I had a really good time and I was able to get some good reading done! I'm just about to finish F. Scott Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise."

Camp ended on Friday at about 1:00 P.M. and I have had some time to explore and relax. The next camp doesn't start until Monday morning at 11:00 A.M. so we have plenty of time to do whatever we like.

Last night we went to a karaoke house as a group. It was amazing. We all paid 1,000 Won ($1) to get in and then they took our group to our own private Karaoke room. There were about 15 of us crammed in the room with a flat screen T.V. two wireless microphones, and about 6 tambourines. We all took turns singing our favorite songs for about 2 hours it was a great time! Its a pretty cool way to Karaoke!

Here is a video of our group rocking out to a Korean pop song:



Today we went to a place called Jukdo Market in the city of Pohang. It was amazing. There is no way I could ever describe the feeling, the sounds, and the smells that fill the place! Its a very large market with lots for sale. There are live fish everywhere, socks, fruit, vegetables, candy, blankets, and anything else you might need! People would be shouting and yelling and pushing and buying. I tried dried octopus, puffed rice, tofu chips, and dried squid legs!

Here is a picture of the entrance to the market:



Kendal, Lisa and Asha Looking for a good deal:



Squid for sale:



Fish for sale:



Fish Drying:



Tomorrow morning we are going for a bike ride really early to hike up a mountain named Dragon mountain to watch the sun rise over the water. Should be cool! Hope all is well! Love, Joy & Peace!

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My Class!

Our first camp is over and we are enjoying a long weekend break! We got off work on Friday at about 1:00 P.M. and are off until Monday morning at 8:30 A.M. So I've been relaxing and seeing some sights! I'll have another post after this one with some pictures of my time off.

During the camp I had a homeroom class that I was responsible for each day. They would start everyday in my classroom for a time called "Mission to the World." In that class we were assigned a Missionary from Cairo Illinois of all places! Each day we would discuss missions and our Missionary and the United States. Each homeroom was assigned a city and country to learn about during the camp. My class was the city of Chicago! These were the only kids I had in class everyday. So you get closer to these kids than the others.

Here are some pictures of my kids and my class.

My Classroom:



My Class:



My Boys



Our class project! We built our own version of the Chicago Skyline. They spent 3 days building this and our American Flag. Check out all of the little details:



My Boys proud of their city:



Boys and Girls with massive American Flag. Allice the girl in the back cut out every star on the flag!:

Pictures

Hello Everyone! Things have been pretty busy around here and I haven't had to much time to post on my blog. I usually have time to send Kara an e-mail and that's about it! But its Sunday night here and I have a little time before bed so I just thought I would put up some pictures really quick and you can see what I've been up to!

There are some hiking trails behind the dorm that I am living in. My roommate Kendall and I decided to go take a hike on Saturday afternoon. It as amazing. We stumbled upon a rice patty where there were shacks built for rice workers! They were pretty cool, but a little creepy too. They seemed like someone might jump out of one at any time!

We saw the sunset from the top of a really big hill. It set behind this large row of mountains it was amazing! Then we walked home under the light of a huge full moon!

So here are some pictures from that Hike:

Kendall and I checking out the Mountains in the distance:



In The Middle of a random rice patty!



Today we went to this old Korean folk village it was supposed to be around 600 years old! We walked through the village and along the river and then ate a traditional Korean dinner. The food was amazing! We all sat on the floor and ate from one big bowl in the middle. Here are some pictures of the village and our meal.

A Cool Building in the Village:



Kendall and I by the River:



A Beautiful Shot! Tea dried up with the Mountains in the background:



A cool mask that is worn for traditional dances. The mask was inside a mask museum we went to:



A group shot (minus me) after our dinner!



Kendall with his meal (he had a separate meatless meal from the rest of us):



Our Meal just before we devoured it!



The Remains of our Meal:



This is pretty amazing! It's a Korean version of the see-saw...except you launch the other person into the air!



Here is a video of some Koreans showing us how it's done! It's pretty Scary!



And Finally a video from class on Saturday. My kids were playing a game where you had to try to get the student to guess the word or phrase written on the board behind them. This kid is trying to guess "Anything is Possible for God." I thought you might enjoy seeing my kids in action!


I hope things are great for you and that all is well! Have a great week!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Sledding! Korean style

All week long the staff from outside of Korea has really been looking forward to today. We had been told that we were going sledding with the students this afternoon.

We later found out that Koreans don't exactly sled like they do in America. Actually they don't even go sledding in the snow.

We drove 50 minutes up this huge mountain range. It was beautiful! But when I looked out my window I was terrified, it dropped down further than I could see and I was on a big tour bus with about 60 kids. We arrived at this rice patty unloaded the kids. They were each handed a wooden sled made out of shipping pallet with something like ice-skate blades on the bottom and two sticks each with a large nail at the bottom. Then we walked around a building and they had a rice patty that they had filled with water and it was frozen. The kids would sit on their sleds and scoot around with the wooden handled nail things. It was AMAZING!

After we were done sledding we went to another area where old men had been cooking potatoes for us! They had these huge open grills filled with rocks, with a big fire beneath them. They rolled up regular potato's and sweet potato's in foil and threw them in the rocks to cook for about an hour. They tasted amazing! (I ate a sweet potato so Aunt Gina you owe me a $1 at Thanksgiving! Sorry Mom!) All the kids would stand around and fight to get one when they threw it out of the grill! Here are a few videos from today's festivities!

The first one is of Kendall introducing you to Korean sledding, and the second is my friend Ann Brill (a teacher here) falling down! She had never seen snow before and was very excited for the little that was there. Hope all is well for you! Love, Joy & Peace!

Who wants a Lobster?

I went into town last night to buy some rice for class. We ran out of rice for our shakers. While we were waiting for the bus one of my friends said you have to see this! We walked around a street corner and found this machine...I'll let the video speak for itself.



Love, Joy & Peace!

A day in Korea

When I’m not sick and in bed sleeping I have a pretty busy schedule. The whole month that I am here is one big camp that kids from all over Korea have paid nearly $3000 to attend. The purpose of the camp is to help improve the English skills of the children in a Christian environment. So the structure is a lot like a camp in the U.S. would be. They have a pretty set schedule that they follow every day.

What is hard for me and probably many Americans to imagine is that the age of the campers is from 7 or 8 years old to about 16. Could you imagine being sent away to a camp to learn English for 3 weeks by yourself when you were 8 years old? It’s pretty crazy! For the most part the kids are pretty good with being away from home.

So here is what I do all day!

I usually wake up around 7:30 A.M. and get ready in my dorm room. We have bathrooms and showers on our floor just like a college dorm in the states. I finish up any last minute lesson plans, check my e-mail and rush out the door for breakfast and staff meeting at 8:30. At our staff meeting we discuss the day and any other specific things that need to be addressed.

Foyer - Outside of Dorm rooms and Staff Lounge -

Staff Lounge - In Dorm

Dorm Room Hallway -

At 9:00 A.M. I have a homeroom class. Every teacher has a homeroom class. This is the only class that I get to see every day. Each homeroom is named after a different city around the world and is assigned a missionary from that area to learn about during camp. My homeroom city is pretty easy for me…it’s Chicago! Our class missionary lives in Cairo Illinois. So every homeroom period we have a game and a lesson about missions, Chicago, or our missionary. They are a pretty fun class. Here is a picture of my homeroom class.



At 10:00 A.M. I have my first class followed by another class at 11:00 A.M. I am teaching bible and was assigned a text book to teach from so my lesson prep is fairly easy. I usually begin the class with a game (the kids love hangman!) and then I have the students go around the room and read one paragraph at a time from the book. I then write some vocabulary words on the chalk board and have the students write them on a sheet of paper. Then I will have the students pronounce each word and I then define it for them. After we define all of the words I read the story out loud to the class. I will stop every few sentences to explain what is going on or act scenes out.

My Class Hard at work -

Its really neat to teach bible to these kids. Korea is a pretty Christian country but some of these kids are still shocked by the stories! My first lesson was on the birth of Jesus and in several different classes it was amazing to see the shock on some of the students faces when I told them that God’s Son was born in a stable! I hope that I always have that sense of wonder and awe about Jesus!

After my 11:00 A.M. class I have to take my students to lunch in the cafeteria. It is about a 5 minute walk from my class room but it is very cold out! I will eat lunch with whatever class I happen to have that day and after lunch I will walk the class back to the dorm room. I then have a break from Lunch until 2:00 P.M. (I’m usually online around then which is about 11:00 P.M. in Indiana if you want to try and catch me on msn or facebook!)

After my break I have a 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 P.M. class. At 5:00 I am responsible for leading a club. Each teacher is required to lead a club every afternoon. Some of the clubs offered are soccer, beadwork, film, African dance and card games. I am co-leading the Music club with my friend Kendall Ludwig. Students go to their club with their homeroom class and get to go to a different club every week. Last week I posted a video of our kids playing shakers that they made in our club to a song that I said Kendall wrote. I know that Kendall didn’t write “River of Life” I just uploaded the wrong video! So here is a new video of our kids shaking their shakers to Kendall’s song.



After our club Kendall and I take our 20 kids to dinner. We eat with them, walk them back to the dorm and then we are done for the evening. It’s a pretty full day. Once I get feeling better I will have some pictures up from around town and some different buildings on campus and things.

Hope all is well!

Love, Joy & Peace!

M.A.S.H.

If you have been following my updates on facebook, or have happened to catch me on MSN or facebook chat you probably know that I have been pretty sick these past few days. Well apparently I’ve been really sick! I’ve been in bed for the past 2 days with the Asian flu! I know…real exotic!

The staff here actually made me go to the ER yesterday afternoon. I had to walk downstairs and then a driver drove me about 20 minutes to the city of Pohong to go to the hospital. I was a little afraid to go to a hospital ER in Korea (maybe to many episodes of M.A.S.H.?) but then I began to think about how many doctors I know from the states that are Korean. My fears subsided a little…until we walked into the ER. My translator Cu said to me “You might see something interesting in here,” right before we walked in.

It was crazy! The ER was like a trauma center and there were people on cots all over the room! Their were no dividers between beds and you could see everyone. Some were rolling around their beds in pain, some had blood over them and some weren’t really moving at all.

We talked to the man at the front desk and he told us that it would cost $100 USD to see a doctor today (Sunday) but if I waited until tomorrow I could see one for only $10 USD. So we went to the grocery store and bought some fruit instead! I didn't go back today. I'm feeling a lot better!

The camp nurse gave me a bunch of pills to take so I have been taking those. I have been drinking lots of water, sleeping a lot, and I even found some mint tea (my favorite!) at the grocery store. I’m starting to feeling better but my voice is still a little rough and I’m pretty congested still. It’s much better than cold chills and sweating all night with a high fever! So please keep praying for me that I continue to improve. I had to have someone teach my class today which means I don’t get paid for being here today!

Hope all is well for you!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Dancing in Korea

School has been going great!

Things are a little different than I expected but its been very fun and interesting. I wish I had more time to sit back and write out all of the funny things that these kids have said and done! They are so much fun. I'm off on Sunday so maybe I will be able to share some stories then!

I am teaching 5 classes a day. Some classes are pretty advanced and some have a hard time understanding the word "wave."

I am also responsible for a "Club" each day after class. I am co-teaching Music club with my friend Kendall. Our plan was to sing and learn some new songs. That didn't work well. Apparently Korean kids don't like to sing. But as you can see from the video below they love to shake! We made the shakers yesterday in class and today we had them shake along to some of our songs! It was really fun!

I'm off to bed. I'll try to put some funny stories together for the week end! Enjoy the videos. Love, Joy & Peace!



This last video is of me walking my kids back to our dorm after dinner! They had a bit of energy and I wanted them to say hello to you!