Summer Plans

With summer vacation quickly approaching at school, I thought it would be a good time to let all those who are interested know our summer travel plans.

June 10th we will be heading back to KC from Seoul and should arrive late on the 10th in Kansas City

From the 10th-16th of June we will be recovering from jet-lag and enjoying almost a week in KC.

On the 16th we will be flying to Penn. till the 30th and catching up with all those in Quakertown.

From the 30th of June till the first week of August, we will be in Kansas City.

Our final tour will start the first week of August and take us Greenville, SC for a few days. Then we are going to Alabama to G-pa’s lake house and finally on the 18th heading back to KC to catch our flight out on the 20th.

Summary:

(6/10) – Fly into KC

(6/10-6/16) - KC “recovery from jetlag”

(6/16-6/30) - Penn. Pritt Family visiting

(6/30-First Week of August) - Kansas City and smaller, shorter trips

(First Week of August-8/18) - Greenville,SC; Lake in Alabama

(8/20) - Heading back to Seoul

So for anyone that would like to, we would love to see any friends or family along the way! Talk to you all (and hopefully see some of you all) soon!

Our Trip to America…

Well sorta…

 

How bad off are you when Taco Bell sounds awesome?  How long have you been away from your own country that seeing Chevy, Chrysler and Ford vehicles make you stop and stare?  How far from home have you been that hearing English being spoken in a bowling alley by the majority of the local clientele seems strange and a bit wonderful? 

 

I don’t know that I can answer all those questions, but thanks to a wonderful military couple from church, the Dooleys, my wife and I were able to appreciate all the oddity of being in America in the middle of South Korea for a short period of time on Saturday the 30th.

 

First, it should be pointed out that the Army base there in Ichon does constitute American sovereign soil and all that it entails.

 

Second, Mr. Dooley is not Army.  He is Air Force.  Nothing against the Army, but I just feel it should be said that he is an Air Force man.

 

The Dooleys invited a few of the teachers to come to Ichon and visit them on base.  The activity planned was bowling!  I haven’t bowled in over 8 months and found the time to be incredibly cathartic.  I sat there and allowed English to surround and envelop me.

 

Once done there, we also had the first Taco Bell meal in 6 months.  Also, so very good and somewhat odd that we missed it so much.  Needless to say that we all chowed-down heartily and everyone left the table with a very full stomach!

 

When then had the opportunity to tour the base a little and it looked and felt, for the most part, like we were back in the States.

 

This is my thank you post to Mr. and Mrs. Dooley for the generosity throughout the day as well as their kindness in inviting us.  We appreciate you all so much!

 

More to come…

We Are Still Here…

Nobody worry, we are still here.  I am sorry that I have been remiss in updating as I should, but I think the “honeymoon” stage of our acclimation period is on hold for awhile as we settle into the last few busy weeks of school.  I think one of the teachers said we have about 19 days left in the semester.  Sometimes it feels as if we have been here always, while other times I am still the lost sojourner at Inchon Airport.  Life is full of surprises and living here is no different.

 

While I have little news, I will say that Charity and I are signing up for Hangul (Korean script) classes for the summer and while we are excited about formalized teaching, I can say that it is a most frustrating language for my English tongue to learn.  I never really truly empathized with the missionaries attempting to learn a new language in adulthood till now.  While my need to learn the language is not an absolute necessity, it would be wonderful to walk into a business, restaurant or even church on Sunday and have even simple conversations with the wonderfully kind local people. 

 

Something that I just noticed recently, as not knowing Korean is much akin to a language cocoon, by trying to use Korean, they assume that I know waaaay more then I can actually say.  I can simple say in my best pronunciation “한국어 조금 이해하다” which, as near as I can make out, means “I understand Korean a little” (literally though it is “Korean little understand).”  Then they shoot down another lengthy list of Korean words as I repeat over and over again that I don’t know Korean in Korean.  I then have to finally say “I don’t understand” in English and that usually ends the matter.

 

What is worse, some Korean words pop into my head at the wrong time and the right ones won’t come, no matter how hard I think.  It is very awkward to say thank you when you should be saying hello…

 

A couple of quick items and then I will have to touch in with you all again later.  First, I was asked and had the privilege of leading Bible Study last Sunday.  It is a little daunting to be opening the Bible in front of the local body as I have not really done this before and because many in the local body have very strong faith and knowledge of the Bible already.  My plea for prayer comes on two fronts.  First, that I would not be the center of the teaching time and Christ would take preeminence.  Second, that I would have enough time and diligence to properly prepare. 

 

Second, this week has been insane!  With the absence of one of the teachers this week, Charity and I have been picking up the other classes and while I initially thought it would be no big deal, it has been quite hectic!

 

All that to say that we are still here and I know I have been remiss in my posting, but I will try to get back to it shortly…

 

Until next time,

 

More to come…

Part 2 At Lotte World…

Ok, as promised, I will fill you in on the activities of last Friday (4/10/2009).  I know that I am over a week late, but I totally underestimated the business of the first week back to school.  If you go to the Map that I created here.  You can see not only the many paths of our travels in and around Seoul, but I also updates as we go on our little excursions.  Take a look around and especially take a look at the satellite view of Lotte World, it is pretty cool.

 

If you would like to see a few pictures of Lotte World, then check those out here. 

 

So first impressions?  It was like walking into Disney World—without the super-long waits for rides and super-long walks from one ride to the other—right down to the cartoon characters and teenagers running a majority of the rides. 

 

It was a blast!  They officially have one of my top 5 favorite rides.  It is this giant swing with a rotating disk on the “seat” of the swing.  Here it is at the apex of the parabolic movement. 

 

Also, the vast majority of rides and places to get something to eat or drink are actually inside! 

The dome in the video is actually the indoor section of the amusement park.  It is quite the sight to see! 

 

I thought I might be uncomfortable in some of the rides due to my size, but found most of them to be quite nicely sized.  Lotte World is not a Six Flags, Worlds of Fun or Cedar Point, but its rides are slightly better then those I remember at Disney.

 

As for the other entertainment, I dropped about 8,000 won at the midway games to win about 3,000 won worth of prizes.  It was a bit of fun to shoot a gun that looked remarkably close to a an AK-47.  I am not in the West anymore! 

 

Also, there was show on the main stage of the interior part of the park.  I really couldn’t understand what was being sung and said, but Captain Hook, Peter Pan, Snow White, some bears, a few Dutch people and a couple of guys in shiny shorts and glossy pants were all singing and prancing around on stage.  I love Korea…  Koreans love English words and they did say and sing a little in English.  What little English came through seemed they were singing about believing in yourself, having confidence and being positive as those things will give you a wonderful life…or something.  Very strange and a little comical.

 

Otherwise, it was a very fun day. 

 

Ok, I can’t leave this post without stating a few contrasts…  To understand the first contrast, you would almost have to see the men here.  While there are many women here who take great time to make sure that they are well put together.  You can see these ladies, young and old alike, pull out their mirrors every couple of hours to make sure their face is still perfect, hair is all in place and that their clothes have not rumpled incorrectly.  The humorous part is that the men here are equally if not more concerned about their appearance.  After every ride, I would get off and slowly stroll to the exit as I became spectator to this odd phenomenon of everyone else taking 5 minutes to check how they look in the back of iPods, cell phone screens (called hand-phones here) or nearby windows.  As one, they participated in this little ritual before continuing their day.  All this really brings me to another point. 

 

I would call them “pretty boys” back in the States and would probably look upon them as less than a “true man.”  However, they are considered very attractive here.  Too my Western mind though, I find it difficult to not look at them like vain peacocks.

 

Second, Korean couples love to dress alike.  Here they have “couples outfits.”  Couple outfits usually have a saying on one shirt that is finished on the other, cartoon characters that are the same or picture that complete when they stand next to each other.  While this is somewhat silly on its own, it does speak to the simplicity of their love.  They appear to simply enjoy the other person completely.  This is only an external, public observation so I am hesitant even to say that.  However, they do seem to have a wonderful time in each other’s presence. 

 

Well, I should probably wrap this up.  I will say that I am about a week or so behind and will be making a valiant attempt to get caught back up in the coming weeks.  The one nice thing about being behind is what I will call the preview factor.

 

So what can you expect in the next couple of blog posts?  At school we had the Spring Concert and I have a few thoughts I would love to share on that.  Also, I Charity and I are looking at beginning our studies in educational Masters degrees and there are some interesting thoughts I have on education in general.

 

But as you can probably guess,

 

More to come…

Part 1 From Suwon…

In an effort to add a little interest to this blog, I will be doing a small two-part mini-series on some of the events this week.  When you take either an entire day or most of a day going or doing one thing, it should be recorded.

 

On Wednesday, we went to meet a former teacher and friend of one of the current teachers.  So Charity and I along with another teacher, Charity’s sister and her sister’s roommate went to meet up with this lovely lady and her young (toddler age) daughter.  The interesting part of this first leg was really the trip itself.  We rode the subway to Sadang and hopped on a bus to head to the specific part of Suwon we wanted to go.

 

The subway is never really that interesting except for the crowded conditions.  The bus on the other hand was very interesting.  First, they have what appear to be washable covers for the seats.  While it may not seem like a big deal, if you assume that there are 48 million people in Korea (give or take a few hundred thousand) and that somewhere between 10 and 11 million of them live here in Seoul (again give or take…), it can be a little disturbing to know that you are sitting on the same seat as so many other people.  Now to all the mysophobes out there getting ready to spray their Lysol indiscriminately, please realize, in order to go anywhere greater than 10 km—and most often way less—you have to ride in some form of transportation and having your own car is a luxury beyond our desires and means.  Besides, germs are a good way to build immunities…right?

 

The next thing I noticed is how warm I felt.  In fact, it is true of everywhere I have been in the last week.  It is HOT!  But no Korean seemed phased by the oven created in the bus full of human BTUs and the solar oven created by the metal bus with the glass windows.  I may be overstating it a bit but it was really hot.  All we needed was an open window to help cool off.  For the first few stops I was standing and had no control over the windows.  Here I stood in short sleeves and jeans in the midst of Koreans bedecked in sweaters and woolen hats who didn’t even seem warm in the least.  Needless to say, my window was opened as soon as I got a seat.  By the way, total trip time via public transportation is about an hour.

 

Ok, so we got to Suwon with little issue and met up with this former teacher and her daughter just fine.  We settled on Outback for lunch.  For those who may not know, South Korea has many American restaurants but if you want something with a nice atmosphere which also has good western food, Outback is a natural choice. 

 

A minor side note here, if you look in the menus of at Outback, they are full of wonderful dishes.  With each dish containing meat they include the country of origin for every meat product in the form “Pork.France” or “Beef.Australia.”  Evidently there have been “Mad Cow Disease” scares with American beef and as a result, no self-respecting establishment will be found without the country of origin for their meat.

 

After nice meal of chicken and ribs, we headed out for the city of Suwon at large.  I cannot say I know that much about Suwon.  However, what I do know is that it was a main battlement and historically a place of refuge.  I was able to find some info about the structures, but it is hard to find a lot of concrete history on the place.  I suppose I will have to continue to look.

 

I guess a few things struck me as interesting there is Suwon.  First, the city is like this growing/morphing organism that expands outward while constricting itself inward.  The old fortress walls barely stand out against the ever encroaching new buildings.  As you look out you can see the old battlements beside new, shiny constructions.  Also, I think advertisers must overwhelm the public at large.  If there is a way to advertise on it, it will have a poster or flyer or some other form of promotion on it! 

 

I have posted some pictures here on Facebook.  Also, you can check the map of our travels here.  I might be adding some info to this map as we go and if you would like to follow along at home, feel free to use this map.

 

Well, that is all I have for the moment.  Please post questions in the comment section if there are any and I will do my best to answer.

 

So until next time…

 

More to Come…

A Little 미아, a Little Splattered Paint and an Egged-Faced Teacher.

Thought some might get a kick out of this short movie of 미아 playing one of her new favorite games; Flick the Food! 

 

As for the splattered paint.  One of the wonderful teachers here at SCS had an epiphany for an activity to kick off Easter Break.  PAINTBALL!!!

 

It was somewhat interesting to note that almost all the students disliked the idea of playing paintball.  The opportunity to shoot your teacher with an exploding sphere of dyed glycerin propelled by a heavy *puff* of compressed air. 

 

It was amazing to see the ferocity that arose in sweet student and teacher alike.  The battle cry of one of the teachers as he stormed an “enemy” trench.  The drawing of battle lines.  The shots lucky to hit at a distance and the pain of the paint shot at close range.

 

While we all are probably still bearing the scars of the event, I believe that everyone had a wonderful time.  I even think we maybe planning on doing this next year perhaps.

 

Now for the moment you may not have known everyone was waiting for…

 

While everyone has an April 1st, it seems that Koreans don’t place as much significance on the “Fools” part of that day.  So one of the teachers here helped them learn the full meaning of April Fools.  If you think that teacher was me, well, think again.  I did some nice and easy April Fools jokes and basically had a good-natured laugh.  Little did I know that my day would get…interesting.

 

I started the 9th grade class just like any other but halfway through—when I was writing something on the board—three of the boys stood up—turning over a desk in the process and creating a huge crash—and started posturing.  This is an important juncture to point out that I probably outweighed all three of these boys and probably also outweighed any two of them combined. 

 

When I took stock of the situation I immediately treated it as I would two dogs fighting—I went for the scare off.  I slammed the ruler that I had in my hand down on a desk and proceeded to explain—in volumes none to quiet—that if one punch was thrown that I would be the one throwing the rest.  Looking back, I am not sure that was the best action but live and learn…  Two sentences in both boys had their tails between their legs.  I then told them they both had detention for the next two class days.

 

As I went back to teaching, one of the girls raised her hand and told me “Mr. Moorehead, I am sorry, but you have just been punked!”  Of course, there at the door was the other teacher laughing hysterically. 

 

So consider this my bow to the fact that the other teacher spent her whole class period planning. :o)

 

I am sure there will be,

 

More to come.

The Sights, Sounds and…Smells?

With the recent poll on the blog I thought I would be the eyes, ears and nose of of your experience here in Korea.  I really can’t give you the whole experience, but I can give you a small *snicker* taste of Korea.

 

From rolling out of bed to breakfast there is really no difference here than in America.  However from moving from breakfast to the first step into the cold shower does bring its surprises.  You see, the floor in the bathroom is one of only three places in the apartment that doesn’t have floor heating.  The only comfort from cold feet is the seemingly endless hot water pouring from the shower head.

 

Again, nothing really new or exciting between the shower and getting dressed. 

 

Upon opening the door to our apartment onto the stairwell, the first smells hit.  Sometimes it is the smell of fish and rice being cooked from across the hall.  Sometimes it is the musty odor of all the wet ads laying on the floor close to the entry way.  Yet other times it has no smell at all (which I find in some ways to be very comforting).

 

Stepping outside the apartment for the first time in Korea almost made me gag.  If you haven’t lived in a city then you don’t know what kinds of smells are associated with city life.  I lived in Toronto and got used to many of the smells locally in Toronto.

 

Korea is no different.  However, the smells here have different mixtures behind them.  Everything from the cleaning products to the foods, even to the containers products come in play their roll in cornucopia of aromas meeting the nostrils.  The open sewer at the road in front of our apartment always brings its own major wave of smells. 

 

The walk to school is a short one, but the road is far from the even, nicely paved roads on the highways and suburban streets  in the US.  It is an uneven, pot-hole-ridden walk to school (or to any traveling over non-main roads). 

 

Now a walk down the main road is a slightly different story.  There is nothing inherently wrong with the sidewalks.  In fact a stroll down the main road provides many sensory stimuli.  The smell of the squid, octopi, shellfish along with various other fish being sold at the fish market.  The smell of diesel fuel hanging in the air lingers in the nose(most of the cars seem to be diesel).  The sound of the scooters and extremely small delivery “trucks” passing on the road as they dart and weave through traffic.  If you ever have the opportunity to smell silk-worm larva being cooked (they seemed to be eaten much like popcorn…) you will never forget the musty, sickly-sweet smell. 

 

Also, an interesting thing happens as people in Korea pass each other.  Now, Koreans drive on the right side of the road as does US.  The crosswalks likewise are marked to pass each other on the right.  The funny thing is many Koreans naturally want to pass each other on the left.  This gets awkward at time for yours truly.  I find it best to simply stay towards the left and hopefully there won’t be this “no-touch” dance as we figure out how to pass each other.

 

Last, but certainly not least, is the subway.  I will attempt to pull all the stops to describe the complete helplessness that comes with participating in the subterranean, human mass-transit system.  Now, please don’t think it is like this all the time, but there are time its seems the green line (the subway line through Bongcheon) is this crowded.  I don’t think I will ever forget stepping onto the green-line subway one day and completely losing—for about twenty minutes—any preconceived personal space boundaries.  I stand between 6’ and 6’2” depending on what shoes I am wearing that day and how tall I decide to stand.  Needless to say, I am Goliath to about 11 million Davids.  I stand easily a head and shoulders above the average Korean.  This height difference makes for an interesting ride as I attempt to keep my face out of the head of hair in front of me while also keeping my 230 lb. body from turning the people closest too me into the first to fall in a long line of human dominos and making sure that I do not take up more than my allotted space and encroach upon the boundaries of any other person on the subway.  Fun, fun. 

 

Honestly though, it costs usually no more than 1,200 Won (currently, less than a dollar) to go from Bongcheon to anywhere else in Seoul.  Also, if we didn’t use that mode of transportation, then it would be nearly impossible to meet some of the nicest people Korea has to offer.

 

~~~

 

I would like to take a break and ask those of you that pray, that you would pray for Charity.  She has had some difficulties adapting to some of the food and lifestyle changes and somewhere along the way has picked up an ulcer in lower opening of her stomach (at least that what Dr. Cho said when we went to visit him).  I do not believe it to be a serious health risk, but it is giving her no end of grief and he pain is my pain (or at lest I wish it could be…).  There is a chance that she will have to go in for an endoscopy and I think the thought of that procedure is more frightening than it actually is.  For those that have been reading this blog regularly (and even those that haven’t) I would ask that you might leave a comment of encouragement to her as I know that would mean a lot.  Besides, I always love it when people leave a comment on my blog. :o)

 

 

Lastly, I would ask for your prayers over our testimony.  I do not know if all my students are saved and those that are, may not be living up to their full potential (who really is).  For some of them, I do not think there is a desire to even seek after God.

 

More to come…

미아 – Mia…

Ok, for all of you dog/animal lovers out there…I know there are a few, I am devoting this short post to the diminutive defecator of all thing dear to Daniel. Yes you guessed it, I will be talking about that little, loveable, annoying animal Mia.

Don’t get me wrong, I will absolutely love this dog when it learns to use the facilities or learns to squelch her nocturnal whines.

She is cute though. It is sometimes hard to punish her for using the bathroom in the wrong place when she looks up with the large black eyes. *sigh* I suppose I shouldn’t expect too much when she is still only about 2.5 months old. She has been doing better now that we have a semi-solid routine of going to bed, waking up and getting fed, going outside (emphasis on the going) and finally coming home and waiting patiently till we return from school.

Speaking of school, I found out how to make Mia’s name phonetically in Korean. It is “미아,” which unfortunately means “Lost Child” in Korean…

Ok, I know you have been wanting to see some pics (or more pics) so here they are:

This one is of Mia and Mya (Mya is Mylinda’s new kitten). While they are not the “best of friends,” they do seem to get along reasonably well.

Here is our “family” picture. Sorry for Mia’s immodesty, she is still a work in progress.

Here is Mia and Charity.

Ok, now you have seen her. Expect to hear little snippets about Mia peppered throughout this blog as she has become one of the family, but don’t expect her to take as much space as she has today.

I am thinking of doing a small ongoing series on foods, customs, mannerisms or places. Please vote in the poll towards the top of this page and I will see what we can do about getting more information out.

Lastly, I am going to attempt to post three times a week. Hopefully I will have a longer post over the weekend and then two small posts during the week. Please don’t hold me to it as I have been somewhat unlucky in having frequent or for that matter, consistent posts.

Thank you to all that are reading and:

More to come…