hmmmm

Honestly, the past week or so have no been the best. I'm struggling with feelings of despondency and fatigue. Is this delayed jet lag? PMS? Argh, I don't know but I want it to go away! It helps to make plans, and I have a fun day in Seoul planned with G this weekend (Seoul Tower, shopping, and sushi, here we come!) and I have one of my oldest and bestest friends visiting soon. It really helps to have plans...

Also, I got the SWEETEST email from LG (10 yrs old), who I used to babysit, and she said (in big pink letters) "I thought you might be lonely and wanted to email you...I miss you and love you....don't stay in Korea....come back and live with us!" and then there were smiley faces. How precious! Really lifted me up...

Anyway, prayers going out for my dear Kara.....I love you, BFF!!

My first attempt at a Korean style dinner

You might be wondering what it all is...well, technically this wouldn't be what a Korean mom would make for her kids...BUT it's the best I can do. I just picked my favorite things and made it a meal :) Rice (of course, and my first attempt at using the rice cooker turned out DELICIOUSLY), samjang (the red stuff in the green container), sliced fresh cucumber, and pork, onion and fresh garlic cooked in my DeMarle (shameless shoutout there) non-stick skillet. That with a couple glasses of ice cold beer....heaven!

This is how I feel today...

Hopefully, lunch and my yummy frozen coffee pop will make it all better.....

Kkotji Trip

Though I realize this post is long overdue, better late than never, right? I'm sure whoever said that was really wise, so I'm going with it...

So, last weekend, G, Brian and I went to Kkotji. I think there's another name for the place but I'm horrible at remembering the Korean names for things and places if I don't write them down. Anyway...

We left Saturday morning and it was a pretty good drive down. We headed to the western coast and it took about 3 or 4 hours. On Saturday, we took an hour long detour just to go to this special restaurant Brian likes. It was SO worth it! The restaurant (called Avocado) was on the grounds of a pension that was so beautiful. The beach was rocky and dark but we got to chase little crabs around and there were these little fish-like animals that were minnow sized but had front legs and they scuttled around and down into holes. Very strange but very cool :)KBFF and ABFF

Next to the restaurant was a gorgeous field of wildflowers, the bluest hydrangeas I've ever seen, and hot pink crepe myrtles....dragonflies and butterflies flocked to the flowers and it looked like they were dancing! So pretty. There was a little gazebo, wooden lawn chairs to relax on and the whole place was just idyllic. Happiness :)









After lunch, we had plans to go ATV riding but the place was closed (which we didn't figure out until driving past the same rice paddies and forested area about 4 times, ror). So, we just went to the beach. It was all rocky and the tide was low, completely exposing the 2 islands off the coast, Grandmother and Grandfather Islands. We walked for a bit, watching scores of people with shovels and buckets digging for clams and crabs, which were conveniently for sale at a couple kiosks on the beach. Dig up a clam, and this lady will open it and serve it to you with some pepper sauce! They also had sea cucumbers, some weird red, horny thing, and other ocean animals to eat in buckets. Very Asian, I think!

I decided that Grandfather Island was climb-able and convinced G and Brian to come with me...of course, I was wearing flip flops (what else would I be wearing?!) and so it's a miracle I didn't fall and kill myself!Grandfather IslandMy attempts at being a mountain goat...The path up the island...the sign says "Slippery!".On top of Grandfather Island!!

I think I actually freaked G and Brian out by wandering off and climbing random rocks and boulders...G kept saying "Please don't die! You don't have insurance yet!" Needless to say, the only time my foot slipped was while walking (not climbing) on flat ground. Bruised my heel pretty good, but I didn't die. Yay!

After getting that out of my system, we walked down the beach for a ways and decided to take a boat ride! G and Brian were all for doing the banana boat ride, but I wasn't too keen on getting soaked in coldish water with no change of clothes or towel. Not for me. I convinced them that we needed to take a regular boat ride...they thought it would be boring, but G screamed so loudly she made the boat driver laugh. I think he went faster and turned sharper because her screaming was hilarious. And yes, I'm still making fun of her for that ;)

We were starting to get hungry so we headed to the fish market, and it was so cool! Every stall had row upon row of water filled bins brimming with different kinds of clams, slimy things, prawns, crabs, fish, eel, etc...it was so interested and we ended up getting a kilo of HUGE prawns about 4 inches long. Then ,we headed home for the best part....the BBQ!!!We had brought pork, onion, potatoes, and samjang and Brian brought some of his mom's homemade kimchi. We had the pension set up a grill for us in the BBQ area and we ate and ate and ate for about 2 hours.....so delicious....I don't know of a better way to finish off a great day of travel in Korea!happy Ansley :)

I can't wait for our next trip! What is next, you might ask? Well, a secret trip with an old friend visiting from America...but stories of that will come later. As far as Gina and me go, I think Incheon is next on the list...whee! I love Korea!

Bowling with the Stars

Well, not really stars, just me and Gina and Brian. Anyway, we went bowling last week and had a blast. I think the best part was that I made my highest score ever: 94!!!!!!!! That's a marked improvement from my last game, which resulted in a miserable score of 71. I'm improving, folks...South Korea is good for your game!!!

practicing my form

I think I totally missed all the pins on this one....oh well...

The bowling champions!

Delivery!

School is going well still. I am getting into the groove of teaching and I can even remember all the students' names! I'm even finding comfort in the "normal" things....hearing my little trumpet player as I walk to school, exercising with G in the mornings, lunches with the other teachers, hugs from sweet Linda, taking off my shoes at night and putting on my "house shoes", my daily hello to the sweet lady who runs the store beneath the school....it's these little things that have become the norm that help me feel more at home here. I may not speak the language, but I'm feeling a lot more comfortable!!!

Learned something new tonight: if you spend over 20,000 won at the supermarket (about $18 US), they will deliver it to your house for you! How awesome is that?! No more schlepping tons of water and green tea back home! I bought 4 6packs of 2L bottles of water tonight and it's being brought to my door tomorrow morning. I think I like this a lot :) Now if only E-mart would deliver fans.....

Please keep in prayer:
- safety as G, Brian and I travel this weekend to the western coast of Korea for some much needed away time
- that God will provide more fellowship opportunities
- my health...as many of you know, the past year hasn't been the best for me in the health department...I've been seriously ill almost 10 times, but I have been completely healthy since being here. Please pray that God will continue to protect my health.
- that God will continue to draw me closer to Him and that my desire for time with Him will increase

Thanks so much, guys :) All the emails and letters are so encouraging!!!

Camp-tastic

I just got back from an overnight English church retreat and I'm still recovering! It was fun but exhausting...so many little kids speaking so much Korean...wow. We slept on the floor on mats (remember those blue mats from PE) and I was surrounded by legs, arms, and heads all night long. THANK THE LORD I brought my earplugs....I could still hear chattering through the "snore proof" plugs, but at least I got SOME sleep :)

Some of my kids from the school were there, and it was cool to hang out with them apart from the classroom. We were also in a GORGEOUS mountain area, so it was very cool (but buggy!).


This is a picture of our dinner Friday night....it was the coolest picnic ever! There are tons of these raised platforms everywhere here. There is even on in the park near my apt. People grill out and have lunch or take naps all the time on these things.
Anyway, we had Korean BBQ and it was really good...you dip the pork in the red sauce (sam jang?) and wrap it in lettuce with kimchi. Delish! The kids were everywhere and we had so much food...we even had an after dinner snack of hot dogs (spitted on chopsticks, naturally), roasted purple sweet potates, and this really starchy corn that, I swear, athletes should use for energy...the kids ran around like banshee children after that snack!

We went on a mountain walk (to exercise) early Saturday morning...best part of the day :) Sweet Julie (who is TINY) was lagging behind, so I gave her a piggy-back ride to help her out.

More pictures are on Facebook, for those who are members. If you aren't a member of Facebook, get with the times and do it already. Everybody else is :)