Island Times

All is well, hot, and happy! Strange Christmas time without my family and no snow =)

This blog brought to you by: Internet connection at the local tourism agent's office and funny symbols on the keyboard... and viewers like you =)

My computer has decided for no understandable reason that I need a driver disk to connect my camera to my laptop and download the pictures I've taken. The only thing that is different here is the fact that I don't have the disk, so I'm pretty sure that's why it is insisting that I need it =)

So, wait a bit for pictures, but here are some mental pictures to get you started...

Hot sun, white beaches, fruit galore, strange smells, good hotel, shopping from a chair on the beach, amazing food!, snorkeling, little sunburns, Christmas Eve on the beach and Christmas day moving into Bangkok.

Have a very Merry Christmas one and all! I hope for better connections in Bangkok between some serious sightseeing!

Off to Thailand!

True to form, I have left all the details for leaving town until the last second (resulting in pulling an all-nighter before departure!) It's hard to believe I'm actually jumping on a plane to go to yet another foreign country. This is normal in my new world where travel is fairly convenient and getting to "faraway" places is not out of the question, the question instead is, "why would you stay home?" I was surprised how it really feels like home here as I say goodbye to church friends and co-workers for a couple weeks-- a little bit sad to be away!

Though I won't see a white Christmas on the beaches of Phuket, Thailand, we did see about 3 inches fall overnight (of course, the snow wouldn't think of falling in inches here, only centimeters are allowed as long as it's below 0 Celsius-- not Fahrenheit =) A few pics from my window show our winter wonderland....

An icy, snowy, slippery commute to church today convinced Sylvia and I that sandy beaches were definitely going to be nice! I have no idea if I'll be able to connect to the Internet while I'm away, but if not, I'll be back just before the end of the year with lots of pictures to post and some fun stories, I hope.

One More Week...

This is our final week of school before the long Winter break! The week will be filled with drama productions, concerts, and practices to get ready for them. It will be a more laid-back week in the classroom as a result. Our Staff Christmas party was quite fun-- many Korean delicacies prepared by the mothers (my first taste of sushi!) and a fun gift exchange with no rules "because it's Christmas."

One week from today, I'll be boarding a plane to Phuket Thailand where Sylvia and I will relax on the beach, read, catch up on sleep, and generally enjoy the warm weather; Christmas day we'll move from Phuket to Bangkok to spend a few more days being proper tourists taking in all the sights and boosting the local economy ... not too much!

Then I'll have a week at home before school starts again, time to explore yet unvisited corners of Seoul, a New Year's Eve bash with my church, and baptism the first Sunday of the new year. It's true, I've never been baptized-- denominational hazard -- but it's time, and then I will begin to be involved in ministry at my church (music and youth Bible study in English).
Oh! and I'll have a new-to-me guitar by then too! One of the worship leaders at church offered to help me find a good used guitar to buy (he's got connections!), but now, someone is giving him one, so he's passing the free gift along to me!! Again, God has provided beyond my wildest prayer!

This year has flown by with so many new experiences and 2007 already promises to hold more of the same! I'm thankful for some down-time to reflect on the year and make some new goals for the coming year. Goals-- not New Year's Resolutions-- completely different! Goals last a whole week longer than resolutions

Holidays in the new land...

I love the holiday season! As much as I used to be a humbug (such a moody teenager was I), I now love everything about the celebrations running from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day! Not working in retail anymore, I don't spend the height of my holiday excitement too early and that makes the season even better!

It's a little strange to live in a country that barely blinks at Thanksgiving and doesn't revolve around the glitz, trees, and sacredness OR commercialism of Christmas-- even New Year's day isn't as big as the lunar New Year celebration (February, I think). BUT there is one thing that is wonderful about being here: I won't have to hear that overplayed, cheesy song Christmas in the Northwest!

Today it snowed during first period and melted by second period, the workers are beginning to deck the halls around school and the Christmas socks found their way to the front of my drawer. This is all encouraging after battling the flu on Thanksgiving and some kind of parasite earlier this week. It's good to be alive and listening to holiday music streaming online!

click on the carolers to see the stations I found

We'll celebrate around here, but a little differently than the all-encompassing way that the holiday season takes over in the states. The PTA will give us a Christmas party and dinner, I'll ship gifts home to put under the tree (or maybe they will get there in time for New Year's Eve), and Sylvia will be with me in Thailand to deck the beach and hang stockings from a palm tree

May you all re-discover the joy of Christmas in surprising ways this year!

... and to all a good night!

Giving Thanks with a Jeju Getaway

Jeju is a dormant volcanic island off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula where a separate Korean province grows amazing tangerines, shows off its art and lava tubes, grows black pigs, and caters to tourists with museums, parks, and shops.
They even shrink all the wonders of the world into a mini-park so we can pretend to be world travelers! Again, many of the pictures can speak for themselves,

so I'll let them

Folk Village and funny folks

In Korea, EVERYTHING is the "perfect" place to take everyone's picture, but if there's a whole in it, you CAN'T pass it up without sticking your head in and saying "cheese!" (or kimchee!)

The coast!

Black lava rock instead of granite or sand!

The Flora and Fauna...

palm tree blooms!

Jeju Man is a symbol of the island from a more tribal time...

and his goofy brothers?!?

Thanks for coming on a little tour of my vacation-- there's more I could tell you and more pictures to see, but it's time to get back to the real world

Marriage Made in Korea

Ms. Chong, our lovely office manager who is (as all school secretaries are!) often the one thing standing between us and total chaos, just got married last week and we were all invited!

In many ways, it wasn't too much different than a Western wedding-- except for the fact that I couldn't understand a word of it. When we arrived (all dressed up and on our best behavior, of course), I was surprised to see the bride all decked out in her beautiful gown in a room right off the front lobby-- we all took turns taking pictures with her!
Then we went into the ceremony hall and it was set up as a banguet room. We found a our tables and watched the bride and groom grow up before our eyes in a slide show while munching on fancy rice cakes. After the mothers were announced and seated, the groom was announced and walked down the aisle, and then the bride and her father. After that, it was pretty hard to follow as I was seated behind a pillar, could only see part of the screen in the back where the ceremony was projected, and can't understand the language-- so I munched some more rice cakes and soda.
Actually, Korean weddings don't require full attention from even the guests who speak the language! Cell phones were ringing, conversations continued at normal volume throughout the ceremony, and the attention of the guests was rarely focused at the front. But when they were introduced as man and wife, everyone turned their attention to the proceedings again to clap and cheer!
The happy couple had hardly left the room when the servers began bringing out the food. It was all very yummy and quick and before we knew it, dessert was finished and people were beginning to leave.
So, just like that, my first Korean wedding was over and it was time to look forward to next morninging's departure to Jeju Island for Thanksgiving break!