Spring Planting

Well, I'm back in Iowa for the summer amidst the corn fields and bean fields. Seeing these fields is making me think about the rice paddies in Korea, which reminds me that I haven't shared how they plant the rice.

First, they start by preparing the fields. This, as you might imagine, it includes plowing. The only difference between plowing fields in Korea and in Iowa is the size of the machine that they use. All farm machinery and equipment is smaller in Korea.

Once all the fields are plowed, it is time to flood the fields. While it is common knowledge that rice is grown in standing water, it may not be common knowledge that the rice is not planted until after the fields have already been flooded. Even after the fields have been flooded, the farmers still do more plowing to get the soil ready before they actually plant the rice.

Now it is finally time to plant the rice. However, they don't plant seeds. They plant seedlings. The rice plants have already started to grow before they are planted. The rice plants start growing inside a greenhouse or elsewhere off site before they are transplanted to the fields. They then use a special machine which takes the blocks of rice plants, separates them, and then plants them individually in the fields. The process is quite fascinating to watch.

And basically, that's it. Planting the rice in the water helps with pests and weeds. Over the next several months the plants will continue to grow. When I get back to Korea in August, the rice will be tall enough so that you will longer be able to see the water in the rice paddies, even though it is still there.

Spring

Whew! It has been a very busy spring. I'm sorry I haven't posted a blog update since spring break, but with my many responsibilities and the end of the school year, I simply haven't had time. Let's see if I can go back and remember everything that has happened since April.

I took on a new position at Mission Baptist Church. I became the person in charge of Kids Quest. Kids Quest is a program for kindergarten through fifth graders during the main worship service. Before that time, I been helping is a small group leader, but the person who was leading needed to step into different responsibilities. I felt God calling me to step up and take over the ministry and be the one in charge. As a result, I had to prepare a lesson each week based on the main sermon topic, and I had to prepare games and activities and coordinate volunteers. It was definitely a lot of work. The program is still going on this summer, but in a little different format since I will not be in Korea.

Throughout April and into May, I continued to work on preparing for the school's spring musical. One of the classes I was teaching this semester was drama, so I was therefore the director of the musical. I worked alongside the music teacher (naturally) on My Fair Lady. Most of the cast consisted of the drama and choir classes; however, some other students helped us out as well. In the end, we had a total of 30 students helping us, which is three quarters of the ninth through 12th graders. That's a lot of kids!

At the end of April, we started after school rehearsals once soccer season was over. Previously, we had only been able to practice during our class time because students were at soccer practice after school. But once soccer season was over, we were able to start practicing for two hours after school three times a week. That's when my schedule really got crazy. Between school, the musical, and Kids Quest, I had no time for anything else. Not to mention that this is all happening in May, which any teacher can tell you is the busiest month of the year.

Eventually, the date of the play came. Because we do not have any facilities of our own, we had to rent a theater in Pyeongtaek. Because we were renting a theater, we were not able to get in there until the day of the play. Yikes! That means we were not able to finalize sets, finalize prop placement, finalize some blocking (where the characters stand on stage and how they move), finalize lights and sound, or entrances and exits until the day of the play. Because of our limited practice time, it was also the first time that we were going to be able to run through the musical from start to finish. This was especially a big deal because we had to figure out how we were moving things around on stage and how the timing of set changes was all going to work. Let's just say it was crazy, insane, very stressful day. Oh, did I also mention exhausting? I pushed the kids really hard that day. I had been pushing them really hard for a month with all our extra practices. I had been pushing myself really hard for month, and I definitely pushed myself on that day. Let's just say I didn't sit down very much that day; I was always running around making sure everything was taking care.

But they did it! My Fair Lady was a smashing success! The kids simply did a fantastic job. All of their hard work paid off. I am very proud of all that they accomplished with the production this year.

I don't have the video of the musical to share. It ended up being almost 3 hours long, and so we may not be able to put it online this year. But, I should have the video on DVD that I will be bringing back with me this summer. If you really want to see it, just let me know when you can borrow it. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from the play.















Once the play was over, it was just normal end of the school year stuff. You know, graduation, finals, cleaning up classroom, stuff like that. But school is over now for the summer and I finally get a chance to relax and take a bit of a break. To that end, I am heading to Busan tomorrow with my roommates to spend a few days sightseeing and hanging out at the beach. We get back on Wednesday, which will give me a couple days to pack up before I head back to the States on Friday.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the rice has been planted. But more about that another blog post.

Spring Break in Thailand

Greetings from South Korea! I made it back safely from my trip to Thailand last week. My roommates (Kari and Jennifer) and I went to three different cities in Thailand, and we never had any transportation or other issues. Considering how much traveling around we did, I'm pretty amazed at how well it went. Well, I guess we did have one issue, but that was before we even left Korea. You see, we take a public bus up to the airport. Normally, there are no problems on this bus; however, he managed to get a bus accident on our way there. The bus stops in another city, called Osan, about 20 minutes down the road before heading up to the airport. As we were pulling out of the Osan bus station, we clipped another bus. We managed to have our only transportation issue only 20 minutes from home. It was pretty funny. Neither bus was damaged very much and no one was hurt, so we were able to get back underway in just a few minutes. The accident also gave us a funny line that we kept revisiting all week. Before we had even left Songtan, we had been talking to other people in line for the bus, including another American. He ended up sitting in the back of the bus on the side that hit the other one. Discussing the accident, someone on the other side of the back row mentioned that the bus driver had about 6 inches on that side. The other gentleman replied, "He had less than that on this side." As we heard this from our seats a few rows up, Kari and I just burst out laughing. It was so obvious, which made it so hilarious. For the rest of the trip, especially when we got in close traffic situations, we always came back to that comment and tried to figure out if they had less than 6 inches.

Perhaps I should back up and give you an overview of our trip before getting into any more specifics. We left South Korea on Saturday, March 23 and returned a week later. Well, we left a week later, but it was an overnight flight that landed Sunday morning (Easter morning) at 6 AM. We were all very sleepy at church that day.



We started in Bangkok, where Kari taught for three years before moving to Korea. We were in Bangkok, we spent a lot of time with people that Kari knew from school. Our flight landed in Bangkok late Saturday night, so we didn't get to our hotel until about midnight. On Sunday morning we got up and went to church at Bangna Christian Fellowship, the church that Kari had attended when she was living in Thailand. After church, we went to a little Thai restaurant near the school, and then we headed out to a market to do some shopping. We went to Chatuchak Market in downtown Bangkok. It was a fairly typical outdoor market, with lots of stalls close together and all different kinds of products available. This was the place where we did our main souvenir shopping for the week. In Thailand, it is traditional to bargain for the price. Kari is an old pro at this, since she lived in Thailand for so long. I think I managed to do okay, though I probably paid more for some items that I should have. My roommate Jennifer, however, was hilarious to watch. She is a very nice sweet girl, which is wonderful most of the time; however, it doesn't work out so well when you have to barter. With a little coaching, she got better and we were always watching out for her. Sunday night we had dinner with Kari's mentor teacher and her family. It was a good opportunity to meet other people from the school and learn more about life in Thailand.

Monday morning, Kari headed out bright and early to the school so that she could catch up with some of her former students. Jennifer and I chose to sleep in. When Kari got back to the hotel, we headed out to do some sightseeing. Our goal for the day was to go to the Grand Palace, the most elaborate and most famous of the Royal palaces in Bangkok. To get there, we took the skytrain from our hotel to downtown Bangkok. Once downtown, we hopped on a water taxi to take us to the palace. That was an amazing experience. After getting a quick lunch on the street, we headed into the palace. The Grand Palace is a combination of a palace and a Buddhist temple. Our admission included both the palace and the temple, so we had a chance to see everything up close. About 95% of the population of Thailand is Buddhist. As a result, most of the Thai people who were visiting the temple were burning incense and worshiping the Buddha. It was a heartbreaking sight, and we made sure to take a few minutes to pray for the people of Thailand. Only about .5% of the population is Christian. For the most part, those who aren't Buddhist are Muslim. It is a country locked in spiritual darkness.



After spending most of the afternoon outside in the 90+ degree heat, it was a relief to go to the mall food court and have dinner with some of Kari's friends. Of course, we only went to the mall after we had explored a downtown park to see the water monitors. These are strange looking lizards that are very common in Thailand. While they are not actually poisonous, the bacteria in their mouth is so strong that if you get bitten you will get a terrible infection that you will probably die from. Therefore, if you ever get bitten by a water monitor, head directly to the hospital. We got close enough to take some pictures, but we kept our distance.



Tuesday found us splitting ways. Kari headed up north to visit the child she sponsors. Jennifer and I went to the beach at Hua Hin, a city about three hours south of Bangkok. To get to Hua Hin, we took a mini-bus (basically a 15 passenger van) from downtown Bangkok. Hua Hin was the vacation within a vacation. We just relaxed the entire time. We didn't really have a schedule or anything we wanted to do, so we just hung out by the pool and at the beach reading a lot of books. It was wonderful! And, as a big accomplishment, I did not get sunburned at the beach. If you have ever been with me in a tropical climate, or seen the pictures of when I was in one, then you know that I am pale and easily sunburned. I can be outside for just an hour and manage to turn bright red. However, I made sure to apply plenty of sunscreen several times throughout the day, and it worked.



The beach at Hua Hin was gorgeous. The beach where we were was nice and clear, not a lot of people or other things, not even a lot of pollution or trash, and the water was a wonderful clear blue. Overall, I thought the Thai countryside was beautiful with lots of green plants including trees and fields. The flowers were all sorts of beautiful colors, purples and pinks and yellows and whites and blues and reds. Bangkok wasn't always that pretty to look at, with its urban sprawl and construction everywhere, but our last city, Chiang Mai, was beautiful.

We headed up to Chiang Mai on Thursday to join Kari. We took the mini-bus back to Bangkok and then caught an hour long flight to Chiang Mai. When we got there Thursday evening, we dropped our stop at the hotel and then went exploring. The historic part of Chiang Mai includes the old walled city. Most of the wall is gone now, but a few parts still remain. There is now a moat that is where the wall used to be. Our hotel was right across the street from the moat, so we had a really good location. After walking around for a little bit, we got some supper and then went to a night market to finish up our souvenir shopping.



The next day, we did elephant training. This was probably one of the things that all three of us were most looking forward to on the trip. While it is fairly common for tourists to ride elephants while in Thailand, our experience was a little different. You see, most tourists riding in a basket on the back of the elephant. By doing the elephant training, we actually got to drive the elephant. In order to do that, you don't sit on its back but rather on its neck. From that position, you use your legs and knees to get the elephant to move and help it turn. You also have a little stick that helps you turn and stop the elephant. Driving the elephant was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I only wish that this once-in-a-lifetime experience didn't also coincide with my carpal tunnel. I could not hold the stick with the right firmness and pressure or move the elephant's head like I needed to as long as I was wearing my wrist brace. And to take off my wrist brace meant a lot of pain and numbness. As a result, I only drove the elephant for probably about 10 minutes during the little training part of the day. Later, when we went for a little trek up the mountainside, I rode on the back of an elephant while Kari drove. While this was once again a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it was not a pain-free one. I had a rope to hold onto, but it hurt my wrist to hold on too tightly, which I unfortunately needed to do going up and down the mountain. Also, I was on the back of the elephant without any sort of basket. I was riding the elephant bareback. Let's just say that an elephant's spinal cord is not very comfortable. Also, our elephant was stubborn and didn't want to move more than a few steps at a time. Occasionally, in protest of being forced to move, the elephant would spit at us. Kari and I got hit with elephant spit and snot probably about 10 times in the course of trek. I was very thankful during this time that the training camp had provided us with clothes to wear so it wasn't my actual clothes that were getting all dirty and gross. In the afternoon, we also had an opportunity to wash the elephants. All you simply did was ride the elephant into little pond and the elephant and its trainers would splash water up onto its body and you would get to scrub. Because my wrist was really hurting at this time, I elected to watch this process. However, I still managed to get a good laugh. Kari's elephant splashed her with mud from head to toe. Jennifer squirmed and squealed every time she got hit with water. While the day definitely did not go as I had originally planned, it was still a good experience. It was a great opportunity to feed and ride and bathe the elephants. If you're ever in Thailand or get the opportunity to do anything like this, I would highly recommend it, provided that you don't have carpal tunnel. While definitely more touristy, a basket with have been much better for me this time around.





All of this brings us to Saturday morning. We spent the morning exploring a Royal botanical park just outside Chiang Mai. We were only able to stay for a little over an hour because we had to get back to Chiang Mai to catch a flight to Bangkok to then catch a flight to Korea. The grounds were gorgeous and well kept and included some buildings with traditional Thai architecture as well as some international gardens. One of the first international gardens we saw was the one from South Korea. It looked like a mini Korean palace. We looked inside to see what was being in the Korean garden, we discovered that the only thing there were kimchi pots. Once again, we could only laugh. Another thing that made us laugh was when a couple of guys asked if they could take their picture with me. It is not uncommon for Thai people to want their picture with Westerners, but this situation was especially funny because one of them was a Buddhist monk. A Buddhist monk becomes ceremonially unclean if he touches a woman or takes something from her, so the fact that he wanted a picture with me was hilarious.

All in all, I had a wonderful trip to Thailand. It was a bit of a surreal experience it first, as it reminded me simultaneously of Latin America and Asia all rolled into one. Latin America because it was so hot and some of the attitudes of the people were the same, and Asia because all the architecture and food was typically Asian. If you ever get the opportunity, I would recommend a visit to Thailand. It is a beautiful country. And on that trip, you should definitely make it up to Chiang Mai. Yes, go and see Bangkok, but you need to also go to Chiang Mai. In my opinion, Chiang Mai is a nicer and more historical feeling city than Bangkok. I like the feel of Chiang Mai much better than Bangkok. If I ever get back to Thailand, seeing more of Chiang Mai is definitely on my list of things to do, along with spending more than two days at the beach.

Life Update

Well, it has been a while since I have posted on this blog. I know in my last couple blogs I have promised things about Korean literature; however, this post is still not about that. Instead, I thought I would give you an update of my last few weeks and what is coming up for me.

The past couple weeks have really been a test of my endurance and patience. My wrist has been hurting again. However, this time, the pain is more than it has ever been before. The past 10 days especially has been more pain that I have experienced. As a result, it has been very tiring and frustrating. I have not been able to get as much work done because of the pain. In fact, this past week I was only able to do schoolwork two out of five days because the last three days of the week the pain was just too intense. Instead, I had to have other teachers and some students help me type. Thankfully, I have wonderful colleagues and students who are more than willing to help me when I need it. That doesn't make it any easier pain wise at least, but it is nice to know that they are willing to be a blessing to me.

The good news is that I have scheduled a doctor's appointment for when I will be back in Iowa in June. This doctor's appointment will hopefully be the appointment where the doctor says, "You can have surgery." When I made the appointment, I checked how soon after the appointment I would be able to schedule surgery. Based on what the nurse said, I should be able to schedule surgery within the next week or so. That time frame will allow me to have surgery and two follow-up appointments before returning to Korea in August. If I do need physical therapy after surgery, there is a good possibility that I will be able to do it by myself. I would still be recovering from surgery when I got back to Korea; however, it will be a lot better than it is right now. And, I know that I will have plenty of people willing to help me since I will just be recovering from surgery.

In the meantime, I am taking some steps to try to reduce the pain I am in right now. I have switched medications to one that is possibly stronger and lasts for longer. Hopefully, this will make a difference in the pain. I have also bought a new computer software that will type whatever I speak. It is called Dragon Speech Recognition software, and I am using it to compose this blog post. My blog posts may not come with any greater frequency; however, my excuse will no longer be wrist pain.

My prayer request in the midst of all of this is for strength and endurance until June. There are only three months until my doctor's appointment; however, it feels like these next three months will last forever. The last three months of the school year always fly by, and I'm sure that this year will be no exception. Until the end of the school year comes, though, I have a lot of work to get done. The English teacher always has plenty of typing and writing to do. While some of the changes I am making will certainly help reduce the stress on my wrist, there are still some things that I will have to do by myself. But more than just praying that the pain would go away, I want you to pray that I will be able to get through the pain with a good attitude and stay focused on God. Pray that I will learn what God wants me to learn through this experience, and that I will stay focused on him and not on my pain. The pain really walloped me this week, and part of it was because I had a hard time staying focused on Him. If I can stay focused on God, then that will make things better, even if pain does not go away. More than anything else, I want God to be glorified through this trial and struggle in my life. I want people to look at my life and say, "She is handling this trial with grace, and I hope that I can handle trials like that in the future." If that happens, then I will feel like God has used this for a good purpose.

On a brighter note, my spring break is coming up next week. For spring break, I am heading to Thailand with my two roommates. It should be a fun, grand, and glorious time! Don't worry; there will be a blog post and pictures coming afterwards.

Lunar New Year

Well, as you can see, I didn't quite get to my post about Lunar New Year over the weekend. I was originally going to have a nice quiet weekend at home, just me, grading papers and watching movies. The perfect time to update my blog. The plans changed on Friday afternoon. I ended up going into Seoul on Saturday with friends from church. We went to Itaewon, which is a very "American" neighborhood with lots of American restaurants and shopping geared for foreigners. We also went to Times Square in Seoul, which is basically a big shopping mall. We needed to escape the cold after being outside for several hours. It was a great time with friends, but I was tired by the time I got back to my apartment. And I still had grading to do on Sunday! It's a good thing my blog readers will forgive a few days tardiness.

Itaewon:


Times Square:



Inside Times Square:






Now, on to Lunar New Year. This is the major holiday in the Korean calendar. This holiday goes back centuries to when Korea (like China) followed a lunar calendar. It is the same holiday as Chinese New Year, but the two countries celebrate it differently. While the Chinese holiday lasts for a couple weeks and is filled with fireworks and parties, the Korean version is shorter more sedate. The holiday lasts three days; the day in the middle is the actual holiday and the two days on each side are travel days. That's right, they set aside days specifically for travel. That also means that it is a horrible time to travel around Korea, as most of the country is on the roads at that time. You see, most Koreans travel to see family for Lunar New Year. As a result, sons and daughters (with their own families) are descending on their parents' house. The travel problem is exacerbated by the fact that Korea is such a small country. With 48 million people squeezed into a country the size of Indiana, you will run into travel problems whenever a large percentage decides to travel at the same time. The holiday just exaggerates that trouble, making it difficult to go anywhere in a car during the prime holiday travel hours. On the Saturday of Lunar New Year weekend (the first travel day), I was riding with some friends to go out to eat, and it took us about twice as long to get to the restaurant as it normally would have, and the drive normally only takes about 10 minutes. It was craziness, and we never even left our neighborhood!

Anyway, Lunar New Year is a big holiday for family, kind of like Christmas and Thanksgiving all rolled into one. There are special Korean dishes that they eat for the new year. Traditionally, there are also sacrifices to the gods, but that was before Christianity arrived in the country. Some parts of the traditional Lunar New Year celebration still cater to that tradition, but it has lost most of the religious aspect. Another traditional component to Lunar New Year is that the grandparents give money to the children, which is something that all the kids look forward to. I had some students wish they were going to their grandparents' house so they could get money. While there are other details about the holiday (some of which I'm not even sure about), the important thing about the holiday is that families get together to celebrate the start of the new year.

Reflections

So, last weekend was Lunar New Year, which is a major holiday in Korea. It's not a two week deal like it is in China, but it lasts for three days. Everyone has it off work, and many stores and restaurants are closed. I had it all planned out to write a nice long post about Lunar New Year and other Korean things (including some stuff about Korean literature). However, as we started this week, I couldn't help but be reflective.

You see, one year ago, things looked very different.

One year ago, I was working at Grandview and was planning on being there for a while longer.

One year ago, as class sponsor, I was starting to plan things like senior trip for the Class of 2013.

One year ago, I was living in Des Moines, Iowa, within just a few minutes drive of my parents and where I grew up.

One year ago, everything was familiar.

One year ago, my world flipped upside down.

One year ago, on this very day, I learned that I would not have a job at Grandview for the 2012-2013 school year.

One year ago, I was updating my resume and applying for jobs.

One year ago, I was scrambling to apply to NICS and get to Southaven, Mississippi, for a job fair.

One year ago, I was offered a position a Pyongtaek International Christian School in South Korea.

One year later, my life has completely changed. I am living in a different country, on the other side of the world, teaching not only in a different school but in a different kind of school. I am teaching some different classes with different responsibilities. I am far away from my family, talking to them only occasionally and being with them only a couple times a year.

But I wouldn't trade it for the world. I am doing what God wants me to do in exactly the place God wants me to do it. And while there are things I miss about teaching at Grandview and living in Iowa close to family, I really do love Korea.

So this week, as I reflect back on what my life used to be, I cannot help but feel content with what my life is right now. It's something that I would never have imagined for myself a year ago, but here I am. I teach a great group of kids at an excellent school. I have a wonderful church family and awesome friends. God has blessed me here in Korea.



And I promise to keep in touch with people back in the States, and I will eventually write that post about Lunar New Year and Korean literature. Maybe even this weekend...

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. I spent the holidays in Iowa with my family and friends. Despite being jetlagged the entire time, I was able to relax and take a break. I played games with my sisters (including our perennial favorite, Jeopardy) and the rest of my family, including Hand and Foot and Ticket to Ride. I spent a weekend at my grandparents' house and got to see all of my extended family on my mom's side, including my two adorable cousins, Max (3 1/2) and Auggie (1 1/2). Hooray for family!

I also spent some time with friends, getting lunch or seeing a movie. Additionally, I was able to stop in at Grandview and see my former students and co-workers/teachers. I even got to share about Korea with the 3rd grade class, which was a really neat experience. They asked a lot of good questions (and thankfully I knew the answers!). If for some reason I didn't get to see or spend a lot of time with you, I'm sorry. A two and a half week trip doesn't leave a lot of time for seeing everybody. However, I will be back for the summer for probably about six weeks, giving me time to see and spend time with a lot more people.

There was also one other thing I did over break that is of mention. I went to the doctor about my wrist. I haven't mentioned it a lot on here, but my wrist has been really bothering me this semester, especially from October on. So I decided when I was in Iowa for Christmas that I should go see the doctor about it. I could have seen a doctor in Korea about it but I didn't want to for a couple reasons. The first is that I've had a hard time explaining exactly what's going on to doctors in the States who speak English. I wasn't quite ready to tackle it with a language barrier. The second, and more significant reason, is that I wanted to stick with the same doctor for the sake of continuity. I have discovered with carpal tunnel that you have to go back to the same doctor several times before anything gets done in order to prove that this is a consistent problem over time. So, long story short, I went back to the orthopedic doctor I saw last winter. Last time I went to see him, he told me to keep wearing my brace and resting it and see if that would help. This time, however, it was a much more productive appointment. Because it is still a problem, he gave me a cortisone shot to help with the pain. Now, this is not a long term solution. It should help for a few months, but then it will fade away. When I get back to the States, I need to make an appointment with him again. At that point, we are probably looking at surgery. I am hoping that if I have surgery this summer that I can have it as close to when I get home as possible so I have the maximum recovery time before starting school again. But, we'll just see what happens. There's a lot up in the air yet. However, we are making progress. And, if the cortisone shot helps (which it is), then I'm a good candidate for surgery.

Since the cortisone shot will not solve this problem, your continued prayers for my wrist would be much appreciated. And don't just pray that I don't have pain. Most days I've accepted that I will have pain. My bigger request is for my attitude. Most of the time, I do okay, but I have bad days with a lot of pain or when I get really frustrated, and then I go into pity party "woe is me" mode. Pray that I can maintain a good attitude and be thankful for what I am able to do. Pray that I can even be thankful that I am dealing with this and that I will accept help from others to make my life easier and less pain-filled.

Things have been really busy since returning to Korea, as they always are at the beginning of a new semester. However, this semester will be especially busy as I take on a new responsibility. I am one of the directors of the school's spring musical. We are doing My Fair Lady. Yes, our little high school with a total of 46 students is going to attempt My Fair Lady. And, I think we'll be able to pull it off. It is going to require a lot of work and a lot of students with multiple small parts, but I think we can do it. We will be cutting some of the music, mostly just the length of the songs, as well as a scene or two. Don't worry, you'll hear much more about it over the next few months. The performance is on May 18th, so it's still a few months away. We are, however, starting auditions this week. We want to give the students as much time to practice as possible. And the performance will be video taped, of that I have no doubt, so I'll probably be able to post the video or a link to the video from my blog. I've never directed a play before, so that's a little scary. It's a good thing I have all that acting experience from high school under my belt. Here's hoping I can be almost as good a director as Mrs. Fisher or Mrs. Fincham.