Shorter posts...and maybe more of them...

Ok, so now that I have an iPod touch I probably will be able to post more often. For instance, it is about 11:16pm and I am posting from bed with Charity asleep next to me.

Topic for tonight is the equivalent to the DMV in Korea. My international driver's license from the US expired on the fifth so I needed to get it renewed or go and get my Korean driver's license. The slightly more permanent option of a Korean license appealed to me so Mr. Goh, one of the other teachers and I set out to obtain these two Americans their local license.

First we had to ride the subway to the Samsung subway stop and walk to our destination about three blocks away. Done.

Then we stood in the first of what would end up being many different lines for the day. This first lady curtly informed us that we would have to get more pictures for the other teacher and that we needed to go to the physical exam. Done.

We took our increasing stack of papers with us from the main building to a low-slung building in the complex and proceeded to take the "physical."

Now this was no run of the mill physical. No way. First, you walk right by the eye exam boards that you will have to stand much further away to read a few characters that a busy Korean woman pointed to with a…pointer scant minutes later. I was little nervous about having to do it Korean but luckily she knew 영오 (English) and I passed simply and quickly.

While I was standing in this line I was lucky enough to take, what I am affectionately calling, the "squat-stand-honk-honk test.". Basically I had to squat down Korean style, stand up and with my hands facing forward at shoulder level had to make a "twinkle-twinkle" with my hand. Hence my name for it: the "squat-stand-honk-honk test."

From there we paid at another line, stood in another to have another document signed off on and on to take our test.

The test consisted of twenty random questions on a computer. I don't know what was worse, the English on the test or the fact that on some questions I only had a vague notion of what the question was asking. For instance, one of the question began "what mind should you have as you approach a cross-street:" and the rest were way worse...

From there we proceeded to the last two lines. The first of which we surrended our American licenses and the last where we were issued our Korean licenses.

In total we only spent…3+ hours in this process from leaving school to returning.

Another one for the memories!

Hope all who read this are doing well and if you are facebook jump on out to charityanddaniel2008.blogspot.com and leave a comment including additions, subtractions and comments about this or any other posts that you might see.

Thanks for reading and as always More to come...


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Hi I know it has been awhile…

Who are those two sitting there about a year ago? They look and act like tourists! Don't they understand what is coming?



One year later we sit looking both forward and backwards (don't worry, not at the same time… that would be painful) and realize that God has been good to us this past year.

We have enjoyed our students immensly, we travelled around Korea and out the Philippines and back. We added to our household through a little dog Mia, gained new friends and experienced untold new things. We lost a bit of money through a robbery and all our debt through some hard work and God's grace.

I have grown closer to my wife and to my God.

We have enjoyed new foods and new favorite dishes.

All in all it has been a great year and it will be fun to see where this year will take us in location, spiritual walk and mental knowledge.

Love to all and have a wonderful new year from Charity and Daniel

As always “More to come”

Hello Again from Seoul…

After not being able to sleep this Sunday morning, I decided to get up and work on lesson plans and some school work.  Upon sitting down with my laptop, I realized that I really didn’t want to work on school work and would rather blog.

 

Let me catch you up on some of the events of the past couple of weeks. 

 

First, we had our opening week of school at SCS and many teachers used that week to prepare students for some of the academic hardships they were facing this semester in their various classes.  This year, I am teaching a new class…SPEECH, which I am enjoying thoroughly, but I am not sure my students are yet.  Aside from our robbery, the week at school passed rather uneventfully.

 

Second, on the last day of that first week, Matt and Aaron Collier came to present some material for the camp they would be overseeing here in Seoul.  Our students were going to have the opportunity to experience camp as it is in America! 

 

During the second week of “school”, the teachers became counselors for a wonderful (if tiring) week of camp.  The students, while still students, were able to find out what American camp was all about.

 

You have to understand, these students do go to camps here in South Korea.  These camps though are more military and regimented than the WILDS, Southland, Northland, Co-Be-Ac and the like.  Talking out of turn can lead to severe, very extended punishments such as the “drop and give me 20” or prolonged calisthenics. 

 

The time is usually devoted to intensive study, Bible or otherwise, and other free times are devoted to all kinds of other…less wholesome activities. 

 

Imagine the surprise of these students when their teachers started screaming and cheering!  It took a LOT of effort to get them all into it at first, but they eventually came ‘round and I think we all had a fun time…well maybe that is not completely true.

 

I think it was good for our students to see us as counselors as I hope that they will be able to approach us much more easily.  Many of them made wonderful decisions and I look forward to what the Lord is going to do for the next couple of months in their lives.

 

This brings me to my third point.  It seems that many of our students and teachers fell ill.  There has been some talk that some of these cases were H1N1 and some of those that did get sick, got really sick.  However, while none of them enjoyed being sick I am sure, all of them recovered with the unfounded fears of the H1N1 virus!

 

While the level of work this year has been extraordinarily high this year, it has been wonderful to have the school full with the students again.  God blesses by giving more than we can handle and then taking care of those things we cannot!

 

More to come…

Well, I was Waiting for Something to Blog about…

…and it would appear that I have something now.

School is in full swing with almost an entire week under the belt. The students are not exactly excited about being here, but I have been enjoying them just the same!

From the hat I pulled Speech (Very Excited!), Life Science, Geometry and Algebra 1. I can honestly say that it may be a very tuff year! However, I am very excited about the new subjects and cannot wait to fully sink my teeth into teaching them.

Charity is teaching 4th grade this year…well, that is if she can get over her laryngitis and get her voice back. Unfortunately, she has been sick and unable to recover completely yet from being sick. She has not been able to teach all her subjects and has spent much of her time helping in the office or cleaning our almost always messy apartment. But now I am getting ahead of myself…

I was sitting down this afternoon enjoying my chicken mayo and discussing this afternoon’s boy’s PE class with Mr. May, when Charity came up to say hi and ask whether I had picked up a board game at home. A little puzzled, I asked why she would ask such a question. Her response is the true beginning to this post:

“Because I went home to get something and the door was unlock. Did you forget to lock it back up when you went home this afternoon.”

*Long Pause*

“I didn’t go home today,” I said, “I have been here the whole time.”

Upon these words I knew already what had happened. Still, I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions and assume. Charity and I took the long semi-run home (well it seemed like a long way). Upon walking in I noticed items had been thrown around, stuff was out of drawers and it appeared that our stuff had been thoroughly picked through.

We immediately came back to school to call the Police. The Police came and dusted for finger prints as one of the officers and I filled out a report of what was missing. I noticed that they left my home computer, speakers, TV, PS2, Charity’s iPod and many other valuable items. Both Charity and I had our laptops and I had my iPod, so the things that help us communicate and get our job done also was in no danger.

It seems that they only came to get the Won that was in the various locations in our house. Sum total was about 600,000 Won, which appears to be about $500.00 US. A large financial loss, but aside from some small jewelry for Charity, there was really not much else, as near as we can figure, that was stolen.

The only thing that is really affecting us now is the thought of safety. Still, a couple of things that set my mind at ease and calm my spirit is the following facts.

1. God knows what is happening, has happened and will happen.

2. I cannot be separated from His love in any way (Romans 8).

3. He has been taking care of us so far and will continue to take care of us in the future. (Luke 12)

4. My treasure is not here on earth and cannot be stolen. (Matthew 6)

So here it is in a nutshell. It was scary to think that someone came into our house, invaded our privacy and stole from us. However, God is controlling the situation and He will watch over us.

Let me also say that we are not in fear of this country or of Seoul. This is still a very safe place to live and we are still enjoying it very much.

As always…

More to come…

Time to Spare?…Time to Blog…

So with the special edition “Debt Free” blog last time, I didn’t get a chance to tell you about all the other things going on in our life for the time being.

First, yes the many rumors are true; we did get a scooter…two in fact. The first one is a little piece of junk Daelim (Honda) 50cc Tact. It is a nice little light runaround, but I had to have some repairs done on it to make it “road worthy.” For a short, small shopping trip it is great…for anything else, at least for this hefty bro, it is a little too small. That led us to look around for another one. I found a 100cc (102.3cc to be exact) Honda Beat (aka. Lead, SCR100) model that is designed to carry two people. Still a little underpowered, but it gets the job done.

Now you might ask why a scooter. Well, it really is a great way to get around. It is a simple machine that also operates using only a twist of the wrist and a clench of the hand. A motorcycle would be more fun, but to have to deal with the many, many, many, many stops and starts here, it is simply more problem than it is worth. As for being underpowered well I have some solutions for that! Probably not for awhile yet though…and will probably have to be used.

Ok, no motorcycle, but why not a car? Let me tell you! With a scooter, you don’t wait at the traffic lights in back…with the other vehicles. You can—and I think sometimes you are expected to—go all the way to the front of the pack and charge ahead of the cars right before the light turns green. It is also a great way to explore on a budget. It costs about 7,000won (around $5) to fill the tank and that will last for about 250km on that 1.5 gallon fill up.

Here are some pics of the scooters

Second, along with these highly economical means of transportation, we also finished up our level 1 of Korean. It has opened us up so much more to the culture and language surrounding us. This does not mean that we are proficient at all, but I can understand and speak enough now to not seem like a total newbie. Still we get the “I-am-smiling-because-I-can-only-partially-understand-what-in-the-world-you-are-talking-about” looks from the Koreans…still a long way to go.

While we enjoyed our classes, I happy that we are done with the summer classes. While we were only in class 6 hours a week, the amount of time that goes into study for that time was huge! I could easily spend 10-15 hours outside of class just in independent study.

Third, with the end of the one thing, begins the next. We will be starting school within the next couple of weeks and it is about time. =) While we have enjoyed the “time off”, it will be nice to get back into the classroom with the students and fellow teachers. I can honestly say this is probably the first time in my life that I can say that I am excited about going back to work!

Charity is starting to get ready for her new position as a 4th grade teacher. I think certain aspects of her new job make her nervous, but I also think the prospect of working with the younger kids make her very excited.

Tomorrow I will be filling in for one of the teachers at our church at Moongyeong Middle school for a couple days at their Summer English Camp. I am looking forward to it!

Well, as always…

More to come…