A few shots from campus and a walk around town...

My experience as advisor for the yearbook taught me one thing: not every picture needs a caption-- most should just be left to speak for themselves

If you have questions or want to know about more of any of the pics, just leave a comment at the bottom-- I'll tell the whole story =)

By the way, if you click on any picture in the blog, you can see the full-size version!











Fruit or prepared food for the table--just walk down the street!



It's a subway station park-and-ride =)




The college campus next door...
with their own version of The Thinker for inspiration!

Check out my business cards!

One Side in English, the other a translation to Korean

Culturally, when you meet someone new, you exchange cards (careful to give it with the information right-side-up for the receiver and with two hands if the other person is older-- there's kind of a bow that gets thrown in there too, I think =).
The day we got the cards we really should have stashed some in our wallets, because that evening Barbara and I had the bike purchase adventure and really could have used some help conveying where we live and work as well as sealing our new friendship!

Still shopping...

I went to church today and since I'm part of a group church shopping expedition, we didn't go to Onuri yet, but we will in future weeks-- I'll make sure =) Today, was Somang Presbyterian Church English service where some of our teachers attend; they wanted to show us this one first-- not my cup of tea, but it was good to be in a worship service with so many Koreans speaking a language I can understand. The choir was really good, the organ was nice (if you like that sort of thing), the preaching was Bible-based, but not overly insightful (read scripture in pieces, repeat phrases in a very loud voice, and give obvious advice...)

After church, Sylvia and I strolled around the area and made our way to a great coffee place; they had wonderful food, great coffee, and a cozy atmosphere. Then we popped into various shops that caught our eye and generally wasted the afternoon =) There's lots of sales going on right now. It's not a holiday thing, this is just sale season! Even the subway stations get in the act and all the competitively priced stuff is even cheaper-- lots of 5,000 Won racks (about $5), so I got a couple skirts to fill in the gaps of my teacher wardrobe.

Seriously, there's enough shopping in the larger subway stations that you wouldn't really have to come above ground-- ever! After a snooze on the subway ride home, we picked up some groceries (adventure items this week: a pouch of powdered imitation vanilla, tofu for stir-fry, and funny looking mushrooms =) and headed home to finish preparation for teaching this week.

One thing about being a day ahead of most of you: The Monday Blues hit here before you're even done with your Sunday afternoon naps!

T minus WEEKEND!!!

It's the weekend after the first full week of classes-- we all survived =)

When I realize it's only been 3 weeks since I woke up here for the first time, it's hard to believe all the things I've learned, done, and seen!

Highlights of this week:
~Remembering a tiny percentage of the names I need to know.

~Getting started as a sponsor teacher for the "Insider" student magazine team (published at least twice a year, it's a compilation of student writing and news.)

~Giving my seniors their first "hard" quiz of the year

~Joining the Speech & Debate program to help coach students for upcoming meets.

~Went out alone and walked the town one evening-- explored back roads, people watched, and used my 2 Korean phrases lots of times!

~We had a TGIF BBQ on the school terrace (Western burgers and Korean bulgogi along with a huge pot-luck spread!) with ALL the staff from teachers to office staff to security guards and school board-- here that's a big deal because it also means a mix of Canadians, Americans, Australians, Koreans, etc. and not everyone speaks English; but there are enough interpreters to go around and we even got to know the cleaning ladies =) It was hours of enjoyable time spent with new friends. I was too tired to join the impromptu Nori-Bang trip (that's a place with karaoke rooms for groups to use for entertaining themselves), but I expect they had a lot of fun and I'll go next time...

~I'm now certified as a registered alien and I have the card to prove it. I don't have to hide that third eye anymore!

~We're looking into a Christmas break trip somewhere, maybe Thailand, Japan, somewhere South Korea, or other places unknown.... we'll see!

Two wheeling!

One of the things I've wanted to look into buying (first paycheck comes the end of this month!) is a bicycle. Barbara-- my 61-year-young friend down the hall wanted one too and since we are both quite short for our ages, we figured we could even share a bike =) On our way to the pancake shop where we decided to eat last night (Korean pancakes are entirely different than IHOP, it's a dinner food), we went by the bike shop to look around.

There was a man getting his bike serviced while we browsed and his English was pretty good, so he interpreted our questions for the shop owner. We found out we'd need about $100 for the bike we were interested in-- nothing fancy, just simple mountain style with some gears to deal with the hills. We said we'd come back when we had money and headed toward dinner. After popping into a sporting goods store where we tried to ask about squash/racquetball courts-- they don't have them here-- our English-speaking friend was waiting outside with another guy who also had a bike. This second guy had heard us talking at the bike shop and he wanted to sell his bike, so he tracked us down with our good-natured interpreter to see if we wanted to buy his for $30 or $40. He said he got a new bike, only has one lock (a bike is the one thing that is readily stolen in Korea), and was planning to sell it to a bike shop before heading into Seoul for a family function.

As we walked home with our $30 21-speed mountain bike, $6 lock, our interpreter-friend's phone number to set up a bike ride some Sunday, and tummies full of spicy pancakes, I found a musical instrument shop. When I left my guitar in the states (thanks guitar-sitter Steve!), I promised myself I'd find a used one here to strum a little when I need to restore some sanity. Most of the guitars on display were foreign brands I've never heard of with Chinese labels inside, but it looks like I can pick one up for about $120 when I get paid-- unless, of course, on my way to the shop someone just happens to be selling a used guitar and there just happens to be an interpreter... Hey, it could happen!


^{Philippians 4:19}And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

^{Luke 12:29}And don't worry about food--what to eat and drink. Don't worry whether God will provide it for you. ³⁰These things dominate the thoughts of most people, but your Father already knows your needs.
... and wants, and desires, and vague wishes for insignificant comforts, and....

I'm just here to point to the fact that it's all TRUE!

Changes!

Changes to this blog:

• new layout
• I'm now on the Blogger Beta program, so there are some new features I can play with and some old ones they haven't worked out yet
• Still no fix for the Internet Explorer formatting problem...
  

Changes in plans:

• Sylvia and I were planning to try the new church today, but she had a minor family emergency come up (her extended family lives near here), so we're on for next week.
• Yesterday was supposed to be a school work day, but it turned out to be only shopping errands, so today I'll work on plans for the coming week.

Changes in clothes:

• I need some, so I'm off to do laundry now =)
  

Just a couple errands?

As the Saturday morning hallway traffic got going this morning, a bunch of us ended up checking in with each other to see who wanted to join up and go do errands/exploring together. I needed to go to Carrefour (the everything store-- like a Fred Meyer, only bigger =) and 2 of the newbie teachers were going there, so we took off about 11 am. They needed to go to Itaewon (some cities in the US have a Chinatown, well, this is the USA-town in Korea). It's the only place we can withdraw money from banks back home or credit cards. For some reason, it is taking a long time to get all the paperwork through immigration so that we can go open checking accounts here, but hopefully Monday we can!

Anyway, after our quick stop at the ATM about 45 minutes out of our way, meeting some of our giggling students on the subway, and coming out the wrong end of the right station, we finally made it back around to Carrefour. Now it was past time for lunch and we had walked an extra mile because we got turned around at the station, so we stopped at the foodcourt just inside the store before starting our serious shopping.

It's official, no matter what country I'm in, shopping always takes longer than I expect-- especially when there are 3 floors of endless stuff to look through. So we finally finished our shopping and had to pack everything very carefully so we could lug it back on the subway.

I'm thoroughly enjoying not having a car to deal with, someone else doing all the driving for me, and not having to fight with traffic or parking spaces-- except on errand days! We looked like 3 white idiots waddling down the road back to the subway station with our bags bulging (you can only have 2 bags from the store-- and you have to pay for those!), backpacks loaded, and legs bowing under the cumbersome load and hot sun. The short subway ride back to our home-stop was too short to really rest up and before we knew it, the last leg of our journey brought us to the base of the hills leading up to the school. What crazy architect thought it was a good idea to put our school on the top of a hill? There are many ways to get home, but ALL of them are very definitely UP!

When we finally got home at about 5 pm, it was unanimous: #1 we would never do this again and #2 when we do this again (it's inevitable =), we will allow the nice man with the taxi to charge us the $16 to take us to our front door and call it a bargain! The subway ride is less than a dollar, but by the time we got home, we were less than human, so it's a trade-off =)

I won't bore you with my purchases, but let's just say I finally own enough hangers for all my clothes, I have a lamp to see my way to the bed after turning off the light switches at the other end of the apartment, and I don't have to wait on the very unreliable bread-fairy to come for breakfast in the morning (I'm starting to doubt her existence!)

After the rain...

This evening, just before sunset, the skies opened up and gushed rain. Later, I was walking across campus and saw the mountains glowing with that soft after-rain light with the sunset reflected in suddenly-friendly clouds and blue sky-- and a perfect rainbow.























Old Testament promise meets New Testament promise



** We are not a religious school, but the college right next door gifted this cross to our school and they couldn't turn it down =) It's about 30 feet high and stands between the Elementary and High school buildings-- very hard to miss!

Working out the quirks...

If you've been trying to play the video of my apartment but couldn't, it should work now (it was on the "private" setting, so blogger couldn't access it).

If you use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox for your browser, the format of the page is off-- I don't know why and still need to figure out how to fix it. the right-hand column shouldn't be squished like it is and the photo captions should show up WITH the pictures. But, if you want to download Firefox, it's free and you don't get nearly as many pop-ups!

Musings from Mozart

The second day of school was even better than the first and this is quite a surprise since the sleep factor was missing =) We got back from the concert just before midnight and my little sleepy head thinks I should get more sleep than that on a school night.

There were 8 of us from the school who made the hour and a half trip by subway and bus to the Korean Art Center and the Mannes College of Music's Alumni concert. Haewan is the choir teacher here and she played a "world premiere" piece by a composer who sat a couple rows in front of me =) The whole concert was great. Lots of classical Mozart along with some spiced up contemp. jazz arrangements and even a collection of Mozart operas played with percussion instruments (marimba, xylophone, bells, and timpany)-- dry humor, symphony style =) Of course, the MC gave the introductions for each piece in Korean, so I just tried to look mildly interested until Sylvia translated the important stuff for me.

On our long subway trip, I did some great people watching, a little journaling, and even got close to becoming a pillow for the very large Korean next to me (lots of people snooze on the subway to pass the time). There's not really any personal "bubble" here like in America, takes a little getting used to, but I figure as long as no one drools on me while they nap, I'll be fine =)

The time NOT doing school was time well spent as I got to know some of my co-workers better, saw more of Seoul, and got to hear some beautiful music. There's something mysterious that happens in a concert where the music is not just performed, but really communicated-- it hits this strange re-set button deep inside-- makes me more alive, and peaceful at the same time. And it lasts beyond the final note of the strings or even the neon-lighted drive home with graphic rap/R&B coming through the speakers (of all things why does THAT have to be in English?!?). The soul-level harmony lasts for days. Like a kind note from a friend, a Toffee Crunch Haagen-dazs bar on a hot and sticky evening, or a breathtaking sunset after a near-perfect day. All is well with the world.

Of course, reality does inch back in; but even the bad news or the string of frustrations can't completely break the spell, because after beauty resets your internal rhythm, it becomes part of your reality so that all the rest is just bad news or frustration-- nothing peace-altering or able to ruin the order that has been restored inside.

OK, so maybe I'm on "new experience" overload. But you should try a good concert, or at least a Toffee Crunch Haagen-dazs bar. After all, it couldn't hurt!

Which brings us to...

Life's little ironies...

... You can become more energized and more ready to take on whatever life hands out if you "waste" time with people and take part in the wider world instead of "working" so much on getting everything so prepared that life can't surprise you...

... The computer always works-- until you're in a hurry...

... I always have a camera strapped to my neck until something really picture-worthy comes up-- then it's at home...

... If your roof ever leaks, it never happens to be right over the plant that needs watering...

... The cell phone that tagged along on my journey was only to give me the phone numbers I have stored in it, since I no longer have an account on this phone, I expected nothing more-- now it can't give me the numbers because it can't find a signal...

... The "shower" water is the perfect temerature while washing my hair and face, but when I start to spray the rest of me, it suddenly turns cold until I turn it away from me only to find the warm water is back (rinse and repeat =)...

... When I first got here, I couldn't sleep past 5 am when the sun came up. Slowly that moved to 6 and then 6:30 all those mornings when I didn't have to be anywhere until 10 am-- now that I have to be up, ready, and awake for school, I could probably sleep till noon...

First day of school...

It was organized chaos as all first days are everywhere. The students are great! My 7th graders are quite cute clear up to the seniors who are a lot of fun to talk with. It's going to be a lot of work, but very fun to teach here!

What I'm teaching : English 7, 8 & 10 all lower English proficiency and some truly ESL
U.S. History 11 and U.S. Government 12. So, I have all grades but 9 and about 50 students all together. It's an iteresting schedule with some block classes (2 periods together) and some singles and every day is different, but throughout the week in all different combinations and times, each class meets for 5 periods. We also have some after school activities and Friday afternoon periods are for organized sports, so there's lots going on and tons to do =)

There's a Mozart concert in Seoul tonight where one of our staff is playing with the grad students at a university there. I'm reisisting the urge to stay home and try to get more ready for school instead of doing the active/social thing and going to the concert. I'll let you know how it all comes out =)

Answer to prayer!!!

One of the teachers on my floor is going to be my church buddy! She is Korean by blood, but was born and raised in Canada; she came to Korea for international school when she was a teenager and then came back here after college. Anyway, she knows Korean, and fits well in both cultures, so she was asking if there was anything I was having a hard time finding here. I said I wanted to find an international church or English service or something and she said she wanted to try one she had just heard about-- it's the same one I found (see previous post). Isn't God great?!?

Sylvia is excited to show off all Seoul has to offer, so she and I went into town tonight to browse around this huge shopping district with a gigantic department store (the whole store is in little departments that operate separately, but it's not a mall), movie theater, and more food options than you could eat in a month! We had Vietnamese in downtown Korea-- it was delicious! This is her second year here at the school, but she's been all over the world and lived in many places.

Thanks for all your prayers! God is making straight the way and smooth the path for the transition to living here. Classes will be starting in 2 days and my head is spinning with all that needs to be done, can't be done yet, and all that will be added very soon! We'll be changing around class lists and class outlines until next month, I think, so it's a little stressful not knowing exactly how to prepare, yet knowing that there's no time left to prepare for what I can't know yet anyway! It's similar to what we dealt with at my previous school, but this time I'll be teaching second language learners in a culture not my own... this should be good =)

There are a few of us here who realize we can let school eat us alive if we're not careful, so I think we'll be able to supply good support and accountability for each other. My experiences up to this point have prepared me for where I am now, and the place I find myself has been prepared by the ONE who brought me here, so no matter what stress mounts in my little world, the peace that passes understanding is over all of it! It's not only true in Korea-- God is in control of your world too.

Off to church?

Since all of you back home are having a Sunday today, you might be wondering how my church hunt is going. So far, I haven't gone to church yet, but late Saturday night I did find this one online that I'm going to try (you can check it out at this link: Onnuri) they have English services at 2 campuses in Seoul. I was hoping for something closer, but I think Onnuri is the closest I'm going to find.

I couldn't go this week because I'm not good enough with the subway system yet. You know how I get turned around and lost easily? Well, now I can do it at high speeds in a foreign country =) I'll try to find a subway buddy to go with me and check it out next week.

That's the church scoop; I'll keep you posted!

The Palace

The old culture and new culture coexist here

























Secret Garden Palace






















.

First week in the new land

Everything here is new and beautiful in its own way-- I've been snapping pictures like crazy!

A cool phone in our waiting area. They're all over in Seoul.

the crazy pizza man and a happy piggy

No matter where you go, some things never change...
















All that power starts somewhere...

The view from here

Cutest baby in the world!!

Little Kaitlyn Tamara Reimer decided not to join the outside world before I left the country; however, through digital cameras, e-mail, and the internet, I can give her a good start on her modeling career =)
After a VERY quick labor, Kaitlyn popped out red and chubby. Once she decided to come there was barely time to get into the hospital and into a bed-- even her doctor missed the occasion by a few minutes and another doc was pulled in from the hall at the last minute!

Here are the stats:

• born August 6, 2006 2:56 PM
• 8 lbs 2 oz
• 19.75"
• good, easy baby so far!
  

Flat 305

Disclaimer: No real directors, actors, videographers, or animals were used in the making of this film-- obviously, they should have been! It's quite possibly the most amateur flick ever =)

Hello from tomorrow...

This is one cool place! And we're always a day ahead of you guys back home =)

After getting to the school after dark last night, I was led to my studio apartment (I'll try to include pictures as soon as my personal internet connection is set up) and had just enough steam left explore the corners of my new digs and liberate my pillow from the depths of a box. So far, I've had no problem being awake when I should be and sleepy when it's time for that-- like now!

The school has gone to great lengths to make us feel welcome from an international calling card in our packets to baby bannanas on the counter and a new toothbrush in the bathroom. I'll really be unpacking and moving in tomorrow. Somehow, my room has double furniture (2 vanities, 2 freestanding cupboards, 2 wardrobes, 2 coffee tables [only a foot off the floor], 2 short drawers...) Now all I need is a desk and I'll be set!

We took a trip into town today; my school is actually between Seoul and Uijeongbu, but not rural by U.S. standards at all! The neighborhood area has everything a person needs within walking distance; but better deals and more variety calls for a trip on the subway! We discovered Seoul and Uijeongbu today and it was amazing! We all spent our moving-in allowance at this incredible 3 level department/grocery store(100,000 won = $100 usd) and shopped till we dropped =)

Well, actually, we didn't get a chance to drop because we had a dinner outing to Uijeongbu for some "duk"-something: spicy chicken stirfry cooked at the table on a big griddle. So far, there are 7 new teachers and some have families, so it was a fun group experience. We went the long way around to the subway after cooling our burning lips with 7-up, Pepsi, and soju. (Yes, I tried the famous Korean liquor and my untrained alcoholic pallet simply registered NyQuil without the licorice =) Taking the long way brought us into the crazy-busy streets with neon lights, vendors, and people.people.people-- So crowded that a car actually brushed against my leg as we were waiting to get through an intersection.

The funny thing is that even though there are people everywhere, and they all have places they need to go, it's not a hurried/bustling/harried kind of crowding. Hard to explain, but people still have time to be kind to the foreigners =) Usually when I find myself in a sea of people, there seems to be a general sense of urgency and impatience that is contageous even to tourists and innocent bystanders-- not so here. It may have been because it's Saturday, or maybe I'm in a jet-lagged brain oblivion, or maybe it's just that calm; only time will tell.

Many more things to write, but it's just before midnight and I'm feeling the need to plop into bed.

Have a good tomorrow!