God is gracious

The Lord is so gracious with me. Last week I was sick (for really the first time in Korea). It was so wonderful to be gently reminded that I need to be kind to my body. I spent the week (and weekend) mostly laying in bed watching movies and napping. My friend Steve, who is now in Seoul, pointed Jesse and I to this really cool coffee shop where they have Dr. Fish. What is that? It's fish that eat the dead skin from your feet. It tickles SO MUCH!!! Don't worry, no one was injured. Anyway, Jesse, Leslie and I ended up going a couple of times last week, it was pretty sweet. I am very blessed in my friends here.

Things I realized in this time for reflection:
I'm not scared anymore. Whatever God has for me, it is what it is, I'm ready.
I am different. I've always felt like the fat girl in any group, and I don't think I am anymore. I realized this when I wimped out on hiking on Sunday because it was too cold. This is the first time I've been the one to wimp out, usually it's someone (or everyone) else, and I just go without them. I am thankful for the freedom of Korea - for the distance from all the conceptions I had built around myself, and a rotating social group that has helped me keep moving.
I'm not a bad teacher. I know I'm not the best, but I can tell some of my students have improved. And they like me, for whatever reason, and I like them! God has definitely used my students to love, encourage and challenge me this year.
I will be sad to leave, and the change will be stressful for me. I even thought (for a split second) about staying. (c: And then I stared working on my grad school application essays! They're almost done, so I will be meeting the "before December" deadline God set for me.
Hospitality is not important to me, it's part of me - I can't help it, I invite people over. And I love it.
More than anything else, I was left with the overwhelming realization that God is enough for me. In and through anything, Jesus keeps me all the way.

By the end of the week I was sick of laying around (and, fortunately, feeling much better). So, I've been loving pilates and going for long walks everyday since then! It has been very good; I was starting to feel like the sluggard in Proverbs 26:14.

Also, as most of you know, it's Thanksgiving. Mrs. Kim provided a lovely Thanksgiving meal this morning, if somewhat unexpected and impromptu. Tomorrow Jesse and Leslie and I are going to have fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and a big salad with lots of vegetables. The best part is that I don't have to do all the cooking! Yay!!! (Or, more importantly, all the dishes. (c:)

I love you all and am looking forward to seeing you soon.

Woah!

. . . six weeks left . . .

When 'Lady'bugs Go Bad . . .

Friday afternoon I went on a short hike. It was fun. On the way out there I was sitting on the train, and I realized I was having trouble concentrating on my book because . . . wait for it . . . I could understand someone talking on the train. That's right, my brain was on overload because English was being spoken. It's a good thing November starts tomorrow. (By the way, the guy speaking English turned out to be a very nice Colombian man who's here earning money for college in the Philippines. Cool.)

There was a man at the last subway station playing the accordion. I can't even describe how excited I was. I don't think I've ever walked that slowly through a subway station in my life. Magical.

I saw a snake. I actually saw it. I heard the rustling sound through the leaves, and somehow knew it was too steady to be a squirrel, and that's when I saw it! I was extremely excited. That and the accordion guy - wow!

There was a preying mantis carrying away some kind of beetle. Nature's wonders pulled out all the stops for me . . . but no, that's not all!!!

I do not know what was going on (and perhaps still is) but ladybugs attacked me for the last half of my hike. I kept looking down and there would be three or four on me! Now, I have to say, generally I'm not at all opposed to ladybugs, but these seemed to be visiting me in a particularly unladylike way. They were running into me from all different directions, flying at my face, settling on my arms, legs and torso. I had to keep swishing my hair to make sure they weren't building a nest. It was weird. I just thought I'd share. I've never even heard of anything like that before. I think one pooped on my arm. Like I said, not genteel.

(c:

Pictures

As you already know, I am not much of a picture person. However, having recently been gifted pictures of some different places here in Daegu, I thought I'd pass them along to give you (Mom) some sort of visual reference.

The most picturesque photo I've seen of downtown Daegu - truly Luke is a wizard with a camera.

Downtown Daegu at night. This is about 7-10 minutes from where I live (walking).
A picture of the bridge across the river Sincheon that is nearest to our house. You can't tell in the photo, but the lights across the bridge actually shift colors in a continuous spectrum. It's pretty.

Munyang

These are Molly and me at Sky Tower one night we went there to sit at the rotating restaurant and watch the sun set. It was beautiful.

Just me at the beach . . . apparently it's really dirty and all of our (Me, Jesse & Molly's) students were really appalled that we'd waded in. :c/ Live and learn. It was such a good day though, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Heinsa

Mrs. Kim took all of us teachers to Heinsa (a temple about 45 minutes from Daegu) and let us walk around. This temple stores a set of wooden prints for the Buddhist scriptures. Once a year people go to the temple and perform a ceremony where they carry each of the thousands of wooden slats on their heads around the temple grounds for hours to dry them out. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, the bus driver wouldn't let us walk . . . I'm not sure why. (?)

추석

This last weekend I had my second-to-last three-day weekend in Korea! On Friday Molly and Jesse and I went to 포항 (Pohang) and laid on the beach all day. I am excited to report that my legs have tanned imperceptibly, an unprecedented event in my life. The rest of the weekend was full of long walks culminating in a huge container of ice cream split by Miss Molly and myself on Sunday evening.

This weekend was the biggest Korean holiday (추석/Chuseok). Koreans get together, eat lots of food, go and visit all their ancestors' graves and tell family histories. Mrs. Kim made us japchae and lots of other good things I don't know the names of to take home on Thursday night after work, so we all had quite a treat.

Other that that I've been having class with my friend 임연정 (Eim, Eyun-jung) pretty much every day, working on college interview skills (which has been awesome) and am starting to think about how I need to pack for my trip home. Happily for me Maija and Terry have decided to drive down to Arizona, so I'll just fly straight to El Paso, TX to be with Heather and then catch up with them for the ride back to Portland. Wow, that sounds like a plan. It's amazing to be close enough that I can really plan it, but I'm SO excited to eat Mexican food!!!!!! And I'll be in the best possible place for it!!!!!!!! *Sigh* now I'll never be able to go to bed . . . I'll have to go check out my new book.

Shadows on the pavement

Luke and I went on the last of our many Korean walks last month. Now he is back in the US harvesting sugar beets. One night just before he left we went out to Munyang and watched the stars come out. We walked out to a little pond and saw a few lightning bugs and then sat down in a clearing and tried to count how many different types of insects we could distinguish from their noises - Munyang is peaceful, but certainly not quiet, at night. (c:

Another thing I'm sure y'all will be interested in is that I got to go to dinner at my friend 현지's (Hyun-ji/Karen) house. It was . . . amazing. Her family was . . . wonderful. Her mom even told me how to make Bulgogi (which is very delicious). If I can get a recipe for japchae and mandu I think I'll be pretty much set as far as Korean food goes. They do have this really spicy soup with tofu that I like, but my stomach is less enthusiastic about the heat. *Sigh* That's life.

Oh, and I read Tuck Everlasting with a student last week, and I found a quote that was kind of where I am: "Things had happened to her that were hers alone, and had nothing to do with them. It was the first time. And no amount of telling about it could help them understand or share what she felt. It was satisfying and lonely, both at once."

I love you guys.