Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown

We've made it through the holiday season. It really didn't feel too much like Christmas this year. Thank you to all the friends and family that sent Christmas cards- that was a nice touch and reminder from home. We are actually still getting a few by mail. The last few weeks leading up to Christmas were spent watching lots of Christmas movies- Elf, Home Alone 1&2, Santa Clause 1&2, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original), A Charlie Brown Christmas.

When we woke up on Christmas morning, we opened up the stockings that my mom, aunt Cathy, and cousin Nicole had sent in the mail. I was so excited to find 4 jars of Penzeys Spices.
That has to be one of my favorite stores!

Around 10 AM we invited all the other American teachers over for breakfast. Taylor's gift from me was a griddle for him to make Toad in a Hole (aka Eggs in a Basket) and Pancakes. If you've never heard of Toad in a Hole, don't worry, I hadn't either until I married Taylor. I had my first one a few months into our first year of marriage. Just ask somebody from the south- they'll know. While we enjoyed breakfast, we watched A Christmas Story.We spent the day relaxing and watching Christmas movies. After A Christmas story was the new Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Die Hard. Later on that evening, we invited everyone back for a Christmas Dinner.
I made lemon-rosemary roasted chicken (borrowed an oven from one of the other teachers), my Great Grandma Kitty's creamed corn casserole, glazed carrots, and an apple crisp. A couple other people brought mashed potatoes, rolls, and pasta.
It was a fun night. After dinner, we played a few rounds of Catch Phrase, with It's a Wonderful Life in the background. It was quite animated at times.

One of the best/funniest parts of the night was when we sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Anyone who knows the true story of Jesus' birth knows that he was not born in December. More than likely it was probably around April. I won't go into the whole story now but there is a reason we celebrate his birthday in December. Some families have a tradition of actually singing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas- complete with a cake and candles and everything. Allan, one of the teachers, thought he was escaping that tradition this year. Apparently his mother and aunt force him to sing every year. Rachel (holding the cake), on the other hand, was genuinely excited and enthusiastic about this celebration.

I love the expression on her face in this picture, coupled with Allan's body language. When he saw the cake and realized this was really happening, he silently shook his head with disapproval. Haha. I hope his mother does not read this blog, because I will probably be getting him in trouble. Don't mess with Italian women!

Well, that was pretty much our Christmas. New Year's Eve is tomorrow. We are thinking about going to Seoul for Christmas. To all you people back in America, we will be ringing in the New Year far ahead of you. We'll let you know how 2011 is. :)

Here's a quick look into the past couple months of our lives.

Fall Semester- 83 minute class periods 5x/Week= almost twice as much teacher prep for each week than a normal semester.
This school decided to squeeze a whole year into 1 semester, so classes are longer, there's a lot more homework, and a lot less time to get everything done. Thank goodness that will be changing next year. We are moving to a full year schedule with 2 semesters.

Fall Semester was from August-December. I taught Debate and AP Psychology to Juniors and Seniors. Taylor taught World History to 9th grade and AP World History to Juniors and Seniors.

Originally we thought we would be teaching ESL when we moved here but we soon realized that we were teaching the same classes that are taught in the states, except we have the limitation of teaching to an entire class full of ESL learners. (ESL stands for English as a 2nd language).

The first semester of teaching was EXTREMELY busy, tiring, and stressful. But we made it. Our Fall Semester ended on Wednesday, December 22. We had December 23 and 24th off and back to school with a new semester beginning on Monday, January 27. We went skiing on December 23 and the 24th was Christmas Eve of course. Who wants to do any work on Christmas Eve? So we basically began the semester without any time to plan or prepare. For some of you reading, you might be saying "I only got 2 days off for Christmas." While that may be true, I think it is unheard of for teachers. We need time to plan!!!!!!

This winter semester will only last 7 weeks. Technically it is supposed to be the same number of class hours as a normal semester, which means that each class is approximately 2 1/2 hours long, and classes go from 8:20-4:30 every day for 7 weeks. I am teaching 9th grade English this semester and Taylor is teaching Government/Global Studies.

I hope this winter semester, as well as future semesters, will not be like our first semester here. Our workdays were on average 12 hours a day. We got to school at 7:40 and worked all the way until about 9:30 every night with a few breaks in between. That was a very typical night from August-December. Weekends were full of planning and preparing for the following week.

I hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining. This job is very very demanding but it is also very rewarding. I love connecting with these students and reaching them beyond just an educational level. Through the role of a teacher, we have been able to get involved more personally in a few of their lives. We only wish that we had more time to do so.

That's a little update on us. We're still very busy during this winter semester so this blog might not be updated for awhile. We love you and miss you all. Please pray for us. We need those prayers!

Love,
Ashley and Taylor

Merry Christmas, everyone.

(sorry it looks like the voices are off from the motions- maybe it's just appearing that way on my computer)

Although it's not the same, we are finding our own ways to celebrate the Christmas Season in Korea. My students are always asking to listen to music at the end of class. Lately I've been telling them "Ok, but only Christmas music." I had to record their little performance.

I've been thinking about the Christmas season lately. In one regard, it is nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of the season. I think most Americans have lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas. For me, I am realizing that it is not just a celebration of Christ's birth but a time of being with family. We will be missing that this year. I'm beginning to realize it's something I truly cherish. I think it is a little bit harder for me to be away at Christmas than Taylor. I have realized being married to him and just meeting so many other people in college and other places that I have a somewhat unique situation. I am so blessed to have both my mom's and dad's side of the family living in the same area. That means on holidays we get to see everyone! I never had the experience of most where you have to alternate holidays or just see 1 side of the family. I got to see everyone! Now that I am older, I realize how lucky I was. Christmas morning growing up was with our nuclear family. Then we'd go over to my mom's side for mid-day/lunch; then on to my dad's side for evening/dinner.

I am realizing now more than ever, it is not even about the presents. It's the joy of your family coming together and spending time together- this is essential for me (my love language is quality time). One of my favorite Christmas memories was when all of my aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents on my dad's side of the family picked a family in need to bless. I don't remember all the details because I was young but I do remember that my uncles did construction projects around their house, my aunts bought groceries and other items the kids needed and all of us stood outside their home and sang Christmas Carols.

I challenge you to not get caught up in the business of the season. Don't be consumed with buying presents for people. Presents do not equal love. Give your time this season- give words of affirmation. Money cannot buy happiness. If it did, rich people would never commit suicide or be so miserable. I've been inspired by something called the Advent Conspiracy. Check out this video on the "Advent Conspiracy" -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

here's their website for more information: http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

For more info, read this article: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/no-more-stuff-give-experiences.html

Spend less and give more (relationally).

Taylor and I want to begin a new tradition of giving experiences, rather than stuff this holiday. Do you have any creative ideas of things to give family members? For us, it is easy. We can take a trip together or find cheap/free ways to spend quality time together. But what about sisters/brothers/moms/dad/extended family? How can we give the gift of time and experience?

How can you give the gift of time to others rather than wasting time buying a gift that might be useless in 10-20 years? I challenge you to build memories with loved ones, rather than just giving "stuff".







P.S. These are the pumpkin pies I made for Thanksgiving which turned out pretty well considering that I had to modify many of the ingredients.

Arigato, Japan

Ashley and I have officially been to Japan. Here was our travel schedule for Saturday and Sunday (December 4-5):

Saturday

7:30am leave Eumseong for Cheongju

9:30am take bus from Cheongju to Incheon Airport

11:30am arrive in Incheon and check in with Korean Air

1:30pm leave South Korea for Japan

2:30pm arrive in Fukuoka, Japan

Sunday

10:30am leave Japan for South Korea

Noon arrive in Incheon and do everything all over again (but in reverse)

So as you can tell we spent less than 24 hours in Japan. Due to certain visa restrictions we needed to leave the country. We are now back in home sweet Eumseong where we are busily decorating our Christmas tree while listening to Sufjan Christmas (as if there was any other way to celebrate the holidays). Actually, live update: Ashley has stopped putting up ornaments and is now in the other room listening to different Christmas music and sipping hot cocoa.

While our plane ticket and hotel stay were covered by the school we still had to pay for meals and transportation around the city. That would not seem like a big expense if we were in Thailand. Japan is expensive. I thought Korea was somewhat expensive and then I landed in Japan. I will say that Japan is a very easy place to navigate and the main issues to watch out for are people on bicycles almost hitting you on the sidewalk and of course they drive on the left side of the road.

Looking for bike storage?

The best way I can explain the expenses would be to use the conversion of Japanese Yen to USD. Korean Won is easy to convert to USD because 1,000 won is close to 1 dollar. But, when I gave them 70,000 won ($62) they gave me 4,000 yen (I did lose about $12 in the exchange at the airport which sucks). So 1,000 yen is about $12, just remember that.

We get to the subway and pay 500 yen to get to the hotel ($6) and in Korea the subway is $2 for two people in Seoul! After arriving at the hotel we took another subway to see another part of the city, 500 yen ($6). I bought a bottle of water for 250 yen ($3) and then we got on the wrong bus which cost us 350 yen ($4). Since we got on the wrong bus we needed to take another subway to find some food, 500 yen ($6). Found some street food where we sat down and had some amazing Japanese noodles, 1000 yen ($12). We were still a little hungry and so we went for some more noodles (just one bowl this time for 400 yen or $5). Got on the subway back to the hotel which was another 500 yen ($6) and we were done. We were not only tired, but out of money...and every money exchange place was closed and none of the ATM machines I found would take my card from Korea...that is when we thought we might not make it to the airport in the morning.

Subway leaving...

...Subway coming

Well, after walking all over the city, I realized that I was using the wrong bank card so I tried the bank card from Korea that said global on the front and go figure- it worked! The only problem was I had to take out a minimum of 10,000 yen ($120). At this point I did not care and just took the money out and converted the leftover amount at home. I had given Japan around $60 of my money and had not done much so why not keep going with it! We bought some pocky (10 times better than Pepero from korea), woke up and got some seasonal Starbucks drinks with a Mcdonalds breakfast and went back to the airport.

I hate to say that money was the reason I did not enjoy Japan very much, but that was a big reason. While we are paying off loans I am still pretty tight with cash especially when I think that my money is not being used for much (ie subway fees and three noodle bowls). I am happy for the experience however because while I never want to encourage people to make poor decisions with money, sometimes you have to not clamp down so hard on the expenses. It ruins the times you spend with the people you love when you are so focused on counting every penny (sorry Ashley). Go to Japan and spend away, you will be surprised that all your money is gone in an hour!

This man wanted to help us find some food (we think)

Flipping the noodles

McDonalds and Starbucks

After getting back to the hotel, we did watch a Japanese TV show involving teenagers racing robots that they built and it was pretty cool. In the morning I used the bidet in the hotel bathroom...is that too much to share?

A little Christmas in Japan

Just a vending machine right?

Oh thats right a vending machine with beer

North Korea Update

I'm sure some of you are wondering what's going on and what the impact is over here.

For those who don't know the recent news, yesterday North and South Korea got into a military skirmish. South Korea was doing military drills- firing West. North Korea claims they fired North (they didn't) so they started attacking with shells. 2 South Korean marines were killed, 15 soldiers, and 3 civilians were wounded. This took place on a small island off the west coast.

It is not believed that this will turn into a war or be a big deal. This isn't the first time that North Korea has done something like this. Some believe it is because of the U.S.'s push for 6-party talks on de-nuclearizing the North. Other analysts say it is because the current leader Kim Jong-Il is shifiting his power down to his son.

One thing is for sure- the situation is not as bad as the American media would have you believe. The Media does a great job of hyping people up and making things seem worse than they are.

North Korea knows it is not in their best interest to start a war. In fact, in the event that they did, they would quickly be destroyed. South Korea has so many other countries backing them up; it would quickly be over. Nobody wants to go to war.

We are fine. We are safe. Pray for peace between the 2 countries. Maybe even 1 day, North and South Korea will re-unite. That would be a miracle.

Picture Updates

One of the readers asked for more pictures so here they are.



One of my students doing his best to give a sad face. He was begging to watch a movie in class instead of having class.This is what happens when you leave your personal computer unattended in the classroom.

One of my student's brain projects for AP Psychology. This was the best one.

Poor poor puppy. I don't know if my aunt Cristy reads this but if you are reading, I feel the same way you do!

Rice Fields in August

September October

Taekwondo and PTC

In the last post, I mentioned the Pepero holiday. Here's one of my favorites from a student. I'm starting to save notes from students. I keep them on my desk and pull them out when I feel overwhelmed or ready to give up.


Two weeks ago we had our first parent-teacher conferences. It took place on a Saturday. Since we are a boarding school, many of the parents do not live close-by and have to travel some distance to get here. This was a very interesting experience. Sometimes there weren't enough translators to go around, so the unfortunate children that were with their parents had to translate about themselves. Some of them really did not want to. They found it embarrassing to repeat back to their mom or dad that they were a good student (if that was the case). I had a few students that I absolutely did not trust to translate to their parents exactly what I was saying, so I waited until one of the bilingual staff was available. Overall, it was a good day.


Unlike the U.S., people tend to dress more formally for everyday events. It is not uncommon to get on a bus or train on a Saturday and see men in suits, or women in business attire. Parent-teacher conferences obviously warranted some extra fancy attire. Here's Taylor, Cody, and Allan at the end of the day.

I (Ashley) am proud to say that I earned a yellow belt in Taekwondo tonight. I went from the beginner white belt to the second yellow. I don't really feel that I deserve this- seriously my form was terrible! But, I am happy nonetheless. Taekwondo is a lot of mental activity in addition to physical activity. I was not aware of this. It actually requires a lot of memorization. There are over 8 different forms to memorize. Luckily, the test for yellow belt only required the first two. I was so focused on getting all the moves in the form right that I did not focus on my actual form- my punches were weak and kind of sloppy.



Here's a nice action shot:


This is my attempt to upload a short video. I don't know why it is so small but maybe you can get a little glimpse of Taeguek-2. Yay for yellow belt.


Well, it looks like the video didn't work. :( Maybe some people will be able to watch it.


Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family. I was thinking this morning that Thanksgiving is either #1 or #2 on my favorite holidays list. It's pushing for #1 over Christmas because it is all about family, celebration, and thanksgiving. Lately with Christmas the emphasis has been too much on gifts. I am definitely missing my family this Thanksgiving.

Eat some turkey and homemade pumpkin pie for us!

Photo Holiday Cards from Shutterfly.

I hadn't given much thought to sending out Christmas cards this year. After all, we are halfway around the world and postage is not cheap. However, I just learned of an awesome promotion going on with Shutterfly. They are giving 50 free cards away to bloggers. And they'll even directly mail the cards for you!
Shutterfly has a wide range of designs and offers folded greeting cards, flat stationary cards and flat photo cards. There is no minimum purchase for the folded greeting cards. Flat photo cards can be purchased in sets of 12. There are lots of great designs this year, including Story Cards.

Last year we used Shutterfly to make photo books of our wedding for our parents and grandparents and we were so pleased with the results. It was an expensive way to make a very meaningful gift. This year, I'm excited to try out the photocards!

P.S. How cute is that little girl? There are so many great options for these cards, and I'm looking forward to trying to narrow down the choices. If you have a blog, you can qualify for 50 free cards too!

Let me know if you want to be on our Christmas card list. :)

Happy Veteran's Day/ 빼빼로 Day

Thank you to all the veteran's who have served our country. Also a big thanks to those who are currently serving our country. A special shout out to the men in my family who are currently serving- my 2nd cousin Brandon, who just left for Afghanistan and his wife Morgan. Also my cousin-in-law Chris and my cousin Jennifer in Guam. And to our friends Chris and Lacey Stevens serving in the Navy. I cannot even imagine being a wife of someone in the military or having that lifestyle. We are so grateful for your sacrifice. I read the following quote on somebody's facebook status today and wanted to repost it.

"A Veteran is someone who at one point in their life wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to, and including, his or her life.That is beyond honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer remember that fact."

Korea celebrates an entirely different holiday on November 11. Pepero Day. Pepero is a type of snack/candy. It's basically a biscuit-like stick dipped in chocolate, covered with chocolate and nuts, or filled with chocolate. You might be familiar with the Japanese version called Pockey.

Now, America has its fair share of commercialized holidays, but they all seem to be in commemeration of some special date or event, right? Pepero Day is basically a holiday celebrating candy- similar to Valentine's Day but much more commercialized if you can believe that. It is rumored to have started in Korea by a bunch of school girls in 1994. There is no historical or religious significance to this day. Even more impressive (that may not be the right choice of words here) is that Pepero is manufactured by one company- Lotte. Lotte is like the Walmart of America but even worse. Pepero Day is therefore a monopolized holiday. In fact, Lotte does about 55% of their Pepero business in November. There is some speculation as to whether or not Lotte started this holiday to increase their sales or just started marketing after they heard of the Pepero trend. Regardless, their marketing scheme has been quite effective. We participated.

We were told that you give a 빼빼로 stick to people that you really like- your close friends, family, favorite teacher, etc. So we decided that we would buy a bunch of 빼빼로 and give it out to all of our students. They were very appreciative. We even got a few back from them.

One crucial factor that allows people to accept Pepero Day as a holiday and not a fraud is the day it falls on. It's not just celebrated on any random day. If it were, it wouldn't be a holiday. It has to be celebrated on November 11. Why, you may ask? Think of the numerical writing: 11 11. Looks like a bunch of 빼빼로 sticks lined up. This simple numerical representation has lead to a genius marketing campaign by Lotte.

Here's the 빼빼로 that my husband gave me. I love the cute little package. This is quite possibly one of my weirdest smiles.

Just imagine what next year will be like: 11.11.11