there is no better way to describe korean culture than this....

AHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAA!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D1ABElypBs

Jody made salmon pooties!

Mom, look! See all that healthy food?!?!

friday musings.

i am stealing a few minutes away from my students to write. they are happily watching an episode of full house. surprisingly, the tv show is a hit with my younger students, who care less about current fashion and just appreciate the physical comedy and michelle's cuteness. i have been showing them full house with the hopes that english will be more fun for them.... we'll see if it computes.

it has been such a long time since i have written about what goes on during the work-week. i guess it's high-time i shared what's happening at work these days.

• on tuesday i learned that today (friday) will be my last day with my current 3 o'clock class. after working hard with them for 5-6 months and seeing very little progress, mrs. kim and i have agreed that they would progress better under the guidance of a korean teacher. i will be getting a new group of students (save one - woody), and i'm really excited about them. i understand they are an eager bunch, really wanting to improve their english. we'll see how things go with them. PRAY for creative juices to flow inside of me. i need rejuvination in that arena.
• i continue to press ahead with my 4 o'clock class, which is advancing a good deal. right now we're learning about space and our solar system, so they are beginning to learn more subject-specific vocabulary. it's thrilling to see them grow in their knowledge of english!

• my step 3 class continues to work through laura ingalls wilder's farmer boy, and we tackle various current events in newspaper articles. it is challenging for the students, but they are growing in their knowledge of the world. also, they are learning good, solid english vocabulary and how to write a strong chapter summary - taking the most important elements from a chapter and putting them all together with fluid transitions. it's a fun job, and i enjoy it.
  
• (i would request pray for one boy in particular. his name is kevin, and he's 9 years old. a smart boy with great english... but very strong in his opinion that korea is the best and all else is horrible. he has made several racist comments in my class. please pray for kevin. pray that God would crack his heart and show him that all people are equal and deserving of love.)

this week has been a challenging one for me, when it comes to living in korea. i find that i go through seasons of strength (whether it's one week or two months), and then i crash and burn and hate everything here with a force that scares even me. it's wearisome, because it is so extreme - much like this country. i long for home more with every day, and i cannot wait to be back in a country that is full of faults, but is nonetheless home. please pray for jody and me as we continue to do our best to follow God and remain here to the end of our contracts.

.shopping in insadong.

now that all the packages have safely arrived in the arms of family back home, i can finally tell you about what jody and i were up to a few weeks ago.

once upon a time, jody began to get an itch to send some love to our families in the states. i thought about my sad record (2.5 years in korea = o packages sent home) and decided that i agreed! (for those of you who are thinking evil thoughts, i hasten to add that in returning home twice in those 2.5 years i DID bring gifts home in my suitcase. so there. matthew 7 in your face!)

but i digress.

so we went into seoul to insadong and began to hunt for the best gifts for our families. it was fun! we ended up with tea sets, chopsticks, engraved rings and the best ever: spicy asian ramen. the best EVER!

while in insadong, we saw a cool guy twisting dough in the air, which was pretty cool. lots of people stopped to watch him.

and then we saw a man showing people how they make dokk. dokk is a gummy-feeling and tasting cake that is made entirely of rice. people eat it here a fair amount and consider it a traditional, healthy treat. some is good, some is not. on this day we opted just to watch rather than sample. :)

here the ajjumas (older women) are cutting up the dokk and offering it to everyone as samples. people flooded them!

then we wrapped up the day at... yep, you guessed it, Suh-taw-buk-suh Keo-pi ... also known as 'Starbucks'. it was fabulous to just sit down and rest... and to people-watch. jody and i both like to people-watch.

Myeongdong

Jody and I took a trip into Seoul a few weekends ago. We visited an area well known for its' fashion - Myeongdong - to see if we could find the GAP and any good boot stores. We found GAP but no boots. Alas.. Here are a few shots from our day.

a typical stand, selling dried squid legs and other unknown sea objects

do you need a hug?

the busy streets of myeongdong

koreans are such suckers for shopping

Suwon Fortress... and a Seafood Market

This past weekend Jody and I met up with some friends from our new church (Suwon Life Church) for an adventure. :) Chris and Dana Sikkens are from Canada and Barbados and are starting their second year in Korea. We went hiking around the Hwasong Fortress in Suwon and then we meandered through a market along the road. It was a beautiful fall day, and if there had been any wildlife in Korea, I'm sure they would have been prancing all about. But they've all been eaten, so they weren't.

Oh, before I forget... Jody finally landed the job he's been waiting for! Tonight he signed a contract with an English academy in Suji called SEI. After making a quick trip to Japan to get his visa, he will start working the first week in December. So... we'll be home for Christmas '08! Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for him. We have been very prayerful and slow in the decision-making process, so we're excited to see what the job holds for him.

Ok... here are some snapshots from the weekend.

I have happened upon an email I sent to friends and family a year and a half ago. It is so enlightening. So much change has happened in my life since then, and yet, since Jody and I are returning to Korea, the heart of this email remains the same. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Dear, dear friends and family,

The days are marching on, and I can hardly believe it. My time in Korea is half-way completed, and this week I experienced a measure of both joy and sadness. But it's not time to get sappy yet....

I am writing you now, as yellow dust from China has settled on Seoul... the sky had a sickly yellow hue to it all day long. Woohoooo! But I don't want to alarm you! I am 100%, great, and all is well. I stayed home today, and it was marvelous. My sister Sarah interviewed me for a class over Skype; the topic: my experience teaching ESL here in Korea. We had a delightful time, and I think it was a good chance for her to know what it has been like for me as a Westerner, a foreigner, teaching English as a foreign language to children ranging in ages from 5 to 15 in a rapidly advancing country - really experiencing growing pains. They are a hard-working people, and yet the ties of Confucianist thinking are still strong.

I was able to explain to her the poor conditions of the Korean educational system, and that reform is greatly needed. The public school teachers yell at their students and are allowed to hit them. Janitors are not employed. Instead, the students themselves clean. My children tell me they go to school primarily for their friends; they don't actually learn much there. Their real learning occurs in their afternoon hogwans - usually for math, English, and Korean. Hence, most Korean children stay in school from morning to night, with breaks from homework usually spent playing computer games. And not to forget school on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month. Yikes! I'm glad I grew up in the States!

She asked me if this experience has changed my opinion of the States. What a wonderful question. I answered with a comment that my friend Ernie said once that I have remembered on numerous occasions. There's just no country like America. Here in Korea there is such homogeny, and while I don't think it's bad... it is nonetheless vastly different from America, where everybody's ancestors are from all over the globe. It is amazing to me that our country has not been torn apart by countless civil wars and rebellions... So, in short, I have come to appreciate the greater diversity in America. And while living across the world gives greater objectivity to our nation's shortcomings... with all our faults, I am nonetheless still so very proud to be American.

At ERC, the structure of my classes is changing. I will now be teaching only one class (2nd BLOCK) for little children and two classes (3rd & 4th BLOCKS) for the more advanced students. I have tried to retain the little ones in whom I've seen the most progress and with whom I've developed the best rapport. There are currently 7 of those children. Monday I start the new intermediate/advanced class during 3rd block, so I am looking forward to seeing their level of abilities and adjusting my teaching accordingly. My Step 3 class has been both a joy and a challenge. The joy is in the higher level of work, and the challenge has been mainly in getting them to talk - but they are starting to loosen up. I sincerely believe that once they lose their fear of making mistakes, their speaking will improve astronomically.

On a personal note, I am doing well. I continue to work out at the Y, get at least 8 hours of sleep, etc, etc. I finished a biography of George Mueller, who (along with Amy Carmichael) is my new hero. Not just because he was German, of course. Or the fact that he knew 7 languages.. or housed thousands of British orphans in the 1800s without asking for a cent... but because he believed God, and God answered him. Amazing what believing God and the promises of His Word can accomplish! And through a man who was not passionate in personality, but a cool, calm businessman! Amazing. Along the same lines... I am at the halfway mark and so beginning to pray and seek the Lord about where He would have me go post-Korea.

Stay in touch!

Jesus keep you.
Love,

Ruth

"first" impressions of america (reverse culture shock)

1. everyone is so friendly! people talk to strangers here. that's amazing.
2. life is much slower here. ahhhh. my stomach is slowly relaxing.
3. the air smells wonderfully sweet and heavy (currently from the humidity). where are the smells of car and bus exhaust, sewage, and garbage?!
4. there are so many trees and i can see wildlife. i forgot about the sounds of birds!
5. so much SPACE!!! i can go for stretches without seeing more than 5 people. that's phenomenal. awesome. wonderful.
6. ENGLISH! i can understand everything. it's amazing. things get accomplished so much more quickly because we speak the same language. communication IS key. but it's overwhelming. so much stimulation. where is the quiet?
7. i can't walk here very much. i miss having the choice to walk anywhere (if i wanted to).
8. my family is loud. and overpowering. and very opinionated. where is the quiet of my apartment?!
9. there are so many ridiculous and unnecessary choices here.. why is life so complicated? 50 types of cereal? come on, is that really necessary?
10. dryers and sink disposals are the best inventions EVER.

people. faces. pictures. love.

in coming to korea i was forced to face the korean mentality towards beauty and a person's inherent value. koreans constantly size me up based on my appearance here, and, i have come to realize, they rather harshly size one another up, as well. there is a relentless standard imposed on everyone. in korea, i pass simply because i have a "thin" face, big eyes, and a high nose.

there is another challenge, as well. and that is personal space. koreans do not see the need to give one another space. they cut in front of me and each other without losing step or batting an eye. they shamelessly run, walk, or shove past you and think nothing of it. i have come to realize that it is not necessarily intentional rudeness on their part. it is rather, a complete lack of awareness of those around them.

it does make one think.

today as i was walking to the doctor's i passed a man in a business suit, carrying a briefcase. he was an ordinary, older gentleman. i pass many like him all the time. but this man was different. he was smiling. his face was alive with light. and he acknowledged me. it was just a nod. and a smile. but he was admitting that i existed. that i am alive. that i am another human being. and i could sense that it was not because i was a white girl. i have received plenty of that attention. this was different, and i loved it.

i found myself nodding back at him. and smiling. and even mouthing a 'hello' without thinking of it. i felt proud to be acknowledged.

and so, because i am learning about this wonderful gift we've all been given - the gift of being a wonderful human, created in the image and likeness of God and deserving of respect and dignity - i wanted to honor it. and not just that... but that Jesus came to the earth and died... for you and for me. He seemed to fully believe that each one of us was worthy of His heart and love. that is absolutely amazing.

and so, i wanted to ask you to send me pictures of yourself. yes.... YOU. or you and your spouse. or you and your children. i want to post them on my blog. and i want to write a little something about you.... and say where you live and what you do. or not say, depending on what you prefer. i want to do this because i love you and care about you. and you deserve to be known. and acknowledged.

so please send them to me: my email is ruth.clementson@gmail.com and then give me time, so that i can put them up. hopefully, depending on the response, i can have them up within a week or so of you sending it to me.

hostessing, lunch with parentals, a visit to the war museum, and phone english

this past week has been a busy one, though refreshing, too. having john and sarah stay with jody and me has been a real treat. they are the first connection from home since lauren to come to my apartment and really be in my world. it was funny to hear sarah say how similar i am to my sister rebekah. it made me long for the family and the familiarity of home! in any case, the four of us have been busy when jody and i have not been at work. and i must confess i have been prayerful as to how to balance work with time with the Lord, time with jo, and just time to get the basic necessities of life accomplished. much prayer would be appreciated.

on saturday i was finally able to accept sehwan and sehee's parents' invitation to lunch. we went to a korean restaurant near suji, and it was truly a pleasant time to catch up with julia (the mother) and to engage with their father for the first time. julia is considering homeschooling her boys, so i was able to put in a few good words as to the benefits of homeschooling to her husband, who's against the idea. it was a good discussion, and i was able to honestly recommend homeschooling, in light of korea's extremely poor educational system. also, i know that sehwan and sehee have the personal drive for excellence that would really benefit them. so i guess we'll see.

after lunch on saturday i joined jo, john and sarah in seoul. they had visited the DMZ while i was at lunch, so from there we went on to the korean war museum. it was pretty amazing to see what we did. unfortunately, we didn't get to see everything because the museum closed at 6. from there we went to dinner. sarah and i tried to hide the chips and salsa from jody. he is passionate about a certain kind of salsa. haha.

as for my children, today i was teaching my 2nd class a little phone english. you know, that thing called manners that parents no longer teach their children when it comes to communicating over the phone. well, i'm taking it upon myself to teach these children how to talk on the phone correctly. :) we were rolling. they loved pretending to use my cell phone, even hanging up on me and watching the dramatic exaggerated expression of shock on my face. they have my phone number, so now i'm expecting random phone calls from my children.

"hello, miss ruth!"
"hello. who's this?"
"it's me, miss ruth!"
"yay! who's 'me'?"
"i am wendy, miss ruth!"
"oh, hi wendy! what are you up to?"
"i don't know.... bye!"
"uh, bye, wendy. love you!"

sad news- this afternoon one of my kids accidentally knocked my glasses off my face and broke the rim. the lense totally popped out. i've glued it back together, but it's not very tight. i may have to buy some new glasses while i'm here. :(

** please pray for me to know how long to renew my contract for. i am tentatively thinking until the end of july, so i will be back in virginia in time for my brother's wedding. please pray that the Lord will make plans firm and make His plans and purposes clear.

update

a few weeks ago jo and i met my good friend from back home, stephanie cole, who was visiting her boyfriend jarrod. jarrod teaches here in seoul. it was soooo good to see a friend from home on my new home turf.

we went skating at lotte world, a big shopping center/amusement center, grabbed some dinner at my favorite restaurant, and then ended the night at the seoul tower. it was really a great time. then, this past saturday, we met again for some mexican food in itaewon, the part of seoul where the most foreigners congregate. it's kind of weird and not my favorite area... but the food is supposed to be really good.

the big news now is that friends from home are staying with us. john and sarah have been traveling around the world for 7 months, and they've decided to stop in south korea for a few weeks. john is staying with jo and sarah is staying with me. the Lord was gracious, and i was able to get away from work during my dinner break to run to the bus stop yesterday evening. i was able to take them to my apartment and then return to work for my last two classes. then when jo got off work, he was able to come over to my apartment, meet these people he's never seen before, and then take them into suji for some food and a little bit of tour guiding.

this morning after coffee, showers, and jo headed off to work, i took them to lotte mart to get some food for their stay here. jo and i are so excited to be able to offer our small apartments to them, and we just pray that God will meet their needs and hear their prayers during their time in korea. after 7 months of travel, i hope they will be able to relax and spend time with the Lord and at the same time see a little of the korean sights.

please pray that God will show jo and me how to best serve them while continuing on with our lives and our jobs. love you and miss you all.

gangnam station at night

this past sunday night i went with mrs. kim and my co-workers to see chang ha-na in concert. she is korean, 23, a graduate of julliard and currently studying philosophy at harvard. she also happens to be a world-renowned cellist. the concert was wonderful, and i couldn't help but marvel at the way those little white arms flew over the instrument and brought out such beautiful music. i am really glad i got to go.

i am also excited about being able to talk to more people from back home. i now have a US phone number you can reach me at (it connects to my computer), so if i forgot to include you in my email, let me know and i'll send it to you. then we can catch up.
in the meantime, know i am doing well. the computer is up and running again beautifully. the kids are fine. christy from church is getting married on saturday, so that's exciting. i am still working out. the weather is colder, but not freezing. and tomorrow i have to go grocery shopping. yay. the end.

love you all and basking in the goodness of God this thanksgiving. will write more later. goodnight.

Readjustment

The trip home to America was too short for reverse culture shock to set in, or perhaps I didn't experience it in any measure worth mentioning. It was so wonderful to see you all! However, this is the first time I have returned to Korea... and I would be lying if I didn't admit to there being some small awkwardness in readjusting. It took me a good 3 days to get back into a normal sleeping schedule, and the first day of teaching was overwhelming. It was one of those days where I questioned my calling. You know... one of those days. And I have realized how much I must consciously look at those here in Korea with the eyes and heart of the Lord. Otherwise, I'm hopeless in cross-cultural relating.

In any case, the Lord was gracious to me and granted me the time at home to regroup, reconnect, and establish a course for the next 6 months I am here in Korea. I am just now starting to process all that happened while I was home, and to ask Him for even more direction once I finish this second contract. Now more than ever I have such a sense of how critical this period is in directing the course of my life.

I move apartments tomorrow morning, so I've been packing up and living out of my suitcases. Although I will dreadfully miss my current home, it will be nice to set up house and establish myself in a new place - a symbolic 'fresh start', if you will. Please pray for a smooth transition!

Also, I've been drinking in the Word of God, not just in reading but through my favorite Jesus movie - The Gospel According to Matthew - the movie that caused me to fall in love with Jesus back in high school. I missed it last year and so brought it back with me this time. I am reminded of how helpful it has been in my memorization of large chunks of the book of Matthew.... and how full of JOY Jesus must have been while He was on the earth.

And I'm wondering who I can share the movie with -- not just Brittany and Stefanie, but perhaps with some of my non-Christian coworkers, too. Oh, that they may know Him!

Always an Adventure...

On Saturday Laura and I met up at Ori station, as it would be our last time to spend together before we both leave for the States - I for vacation, and she for good. Over dolsot bi-bim-bap and dokk ramien in a traditional Korean restaurant, we reminisced about our experiences this past year and asked each other questions in preparation for the barrage of questions we will receive upon arriving back home. You know, those open-ended questions like, "So... how was Korea?" to which we both guffaw and chuckle, hem and haw over the endless possible ways we could answer. One comment Laura made, however, was blog-worthy. She said that in Korea every day is random. Something random happens every single day, and in some ways it has not become random anymore. Nothing surprises me anymore, and yet it always does. (And, I shall confess quite honestly, some days I handle the differences more valiantly than others. I have recognized my own sinfulness on several occasions as I see how ungracefully I have accepted the differences in culture here.)

After we had taken our conversation from the restaurant to a nearby coffee shop to continue, we noticed an older man (an ajjossi) stumbling around the street and finally passing out at the corner of an intersection, obviously drunk. It was a troubling reminder of the incredible drinking problem here in Korea amongst the Korean business community, as it is the result of attempting to cope with the incredible competition and stress that exists here. We stopped our conversation right then and prayed that the Lord would protect that man and get him safely home.

When Laura and I parted, I got on the bus to come home, and on the bus another ajjossi sitting further behind and adjacent to me started yelling. At first I dismissed the noise, but then I noticed he had gotten out of his seat and was gesturing to a group of young people. I could not tell if his anger was directed towards the whole group, but after 5 minutes of his ranting, I saw he was directing his venom towards one young man in particular. A few times it seemed as if it would go to blows, so there was obviously unrest and borderline mayhem. Despite the teenager's attempts to calm him, and the requests of other passengers and the bus driver, this ajjossi would not be placated. Finally, after the group of young people got off in Suji, he settled down a bit.

Then I noticed a businessman sitting in front of me, who had been turning around to watch the affair with sad eyes. He turned to me and said, "Where are you from?" I answered, "America," to which he kindly replied, "I have been to Portland." I then felt it was an opportunity to understand, so I asked him, "What just happened?" He said, "Older man was very angry, because young man not respectful.... I am very sorry about that."

I was again reminded of the ever-widening gap between the older and younger generation in Korea, the older generation still often steeped in Confucianist thinking, and the younger generation embracing the more western ways of thinking. What a clash there sometimes is!

my new little ones
sophia took my kindergarten kids, and i have started out with a new group of little ones. they are - overall - very well prepared to be in my class. their grasp of phonics is excellent, and i find them a good deal less taxing than my other group of munchkins. the only problem children seem to be anthony (not pictured... he was hiding from the camera under the table), who sometimes gets stubborn and refuses to do anything at random times, and jason, whose attention span is about 3 seconds... before he starts staring off into space or pointing the finger at anthony and saying what sounds like 'don't speaking korean!!!" in the highest pitched voice i've heard in a long time. oh dear... but no... i am enjoying the class. God give me wisdom and grace to teach them well. and i must not forget david, who is meticulous and always worried, as he carefully writes each letter. "wait a minute, please, teacher! wait a minute!" (heaving a deep sigh) to his credit, he gets most everything right. and jake is very good. may i just say how nice it is to have a decidedly good student? one who tries his best and does well and is conscientious. ahh...

bryant, jake, hannah

david, bryant, jake

hannah, jake??, brett, jason

the ubiquitous peace sign

caleb update: he has been moved to a lower level (level 3 in gina's class)... and while his speaking and listening comprehension is good, he still doesn't know basic grammar concepts or how to write well. i am not despairing, though. i love that boy and desire for him to succeed. pray he will try hard to focus so he doesn't have to move down to the most basic level and start from the very beginning all over again.

this past weekend

laura and i went into seoul - first to a little coffee shop called seoul selection, where used books are sold, and foreigners can see korean movies with english subtitles, etc. it was a nice little place. afterwards we wandered around itaewon (the foreigners area in seoul) looking for a bookstore called 'What the Book?" ... we asked people where it was, and always we got the double-take. laura realized she had to take special care how she annunciated her words, so people didn't think they were being cursed at. it was really quite hilarious.

and after that we went to hapgejeong to the foreigners cemetery, which was really fascinating. i loved seeing the gravestones of missionaries from america, canada, germany, denmark... people who gave their lives to korea for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

and while i do not (at least not long-term) feel the calling of God to korea, i am eagerly awaiting the Lord's clear direction for where He is calling me in particular to serve Him. what joy there will be in going to that country and learning their language and giving my life for them... that they might know and experience the love and power of Jesus Christ.

Chaebu-do ... waterfront...
older women were looking for crabs, clams, and baby octopus in the mud. pretty cool, huh?
we were at the tail-end of the monsoon season, so everything is wet and green, and the clouds are thick and heavy.
i am telling you... the people out in the front of the restaurants trying to get you to park your car and come in and eat were beyond ridiculous. this is soliciting at a whole new level. we had back flips going.
playing like little children in the mud and rocks: daniel, philip, andy, naomi, and daniel

wheee!

don't let the mud deceive you. those rocks and shells were sharp. you had to be crazy careful...