The Been Briefing

 Sweet, sweet friends

Sooyeon and I on her last day at the Suji campus. Since last Thursday Mrs. Kim has officially hired a new teacher, Cindy, and is in the process of of hiring another. Cindy is great, but I miss Sooyeon!!

Let me explain. Sooyeon was hired to work at the Yeongtong branch of ERC - where Lauren and Carlos work under Danny and Wuan jang nim's care. Since Miss Che quit working here at Suji to care for her grandmother, we were left short on staff and Mrs. Kim had to begin looking for a new teacher. Sooyeon came over during the 1st block to fill in the gap for a couple of weeks. When Mrs. Kim hired Cindy, Sooyeon returned to Yeongtong full-time. From what Lauren has shared with me, I think she is a welcome friend to both her and especially Carlos. The teachers at Lauren's branch are perhaps not as much a close-knit group as my campus is (I attribute it to Mrs. Kim's loving touch), so Sooyeon's international mindset is a breath of fresh air.

This past Saturday I spent with Dave and Winnie Pitman, SIM missionaries to Africa for 35 years. With their humor and tireless tackling of life, you would never guess they're approaching 60. I had a blast hanging out with them and hearing stories of their travels. They took me to a Costco in Seoul, where I lovingly stroked beautiful American foods. Cheez-its. Goldfish. Since buying in large quantities is ridiculously expensive, I bought only a huge can of peanut butter (I know it's a worthwhile investment), a block of Colby Jack cheese (YAY!!!), and a 12 pack of muffins. Beautiful, beautiful muffins. :)

And I do believe I have a little group of girlfriends at church now. Kelsie is from Alaska, Laura is from Wisconsin, and Maria is from Michigan. With Dave and Winnie from Oregon and me from Virginia we have a little family! We went and got Baskin Robbins after church and lunch. What fun it was! After that, I met up with Sooyeon right there in Migeum and she treated me to Haagen Daz (sp?) ... yes... more ice cream. We played with scrabble-like cards and talked. Around 6 we met up with Carlos, Esther, and Lauren for dinner at a vietnamese restaurant and then went and watched The Legend of Zorro in Ori (the next town on the Seoul subway line). I thoroughly enjoyed the movie; it was a breath of fresh American adventuresome air amidst my very Korean world. 

At church on Sunday, Maria and I found out about an opportunity to work with orphans on a volunteer-basis, teaching English. I am really looking forward to checking it out and seeing if this is something the Lord wants me to pursue. We're going to visit the orphanage next Saturday afternoon.