birthday wildness
sometime last week - i already forget which day - was john's birthday. his mom, who should be awarded PTA mom of the year - brought in some snacks for the kids, and they just went wild. needless to say, all work fell by the wayside for half an hour. lol.

i continue to work hard with caleb. his older brother stephen can no longer come to ERC, because the other teachers found him uncontrollable, so i take comfort that i have been able to at least *control* caleb. i try to channel his high energy level through fun activities, but what i really want to reach is his heart. pray that in the core of who he is, caleb will respond to Jesus in me. for, just as i read yesterday in Corinthians, it is Christ's love that compels me (2 cor. 5,14) and i long to see that stubbornness and defiance go... dosh!



i have seen the most marvelous change in danny, who is "flying" in the above picture. lol. when he began in my class i couldn't get a peep out of him. now he's as talkative as anything. his writing is slow, meticulous and perfectly formed, and he's really done an excellent job.
wendy remains the alpha female in the class - sometimes loud and easily angered - but i can usually diffuse those anger clouds above the eyebrows with a joke or laugh or a command for a changed heart. lol. thankfully, i started from Day #1 not allowing whining, arguing or complaining... and they have learned.

here is dear, dear heidi. even at so young an age, she is a strong christian - so sweet, bold, and unashamed. so, about 4 months ago i began noticing that my gel pens (for writing letters) were all dying, and i needed to bite the bullet and buy more. that week i received 2: one from esther and one from heidi. a few weeks later, i was noticing i needed to get a smaller, more compact wallet for my purse. a few weeks later, heidi gave me a wallet - absolutely perfect for what i needed. and then, somehow i lost some lip gloss (it was only LIP GLOSS!) and i remember being a little bummed. but not long after losing it, heidi gave me a little present: it was lip gloss. the most amazing thing is that i did not tell anyone about what i wanted beforehand.
the Lord is awesome! He knows how to remind me that He loves me and knows the seemingly insignificant desires deep in my heart. i love it! it screams to the world and those who are hungry: "LOOK- God is a God who knows and sees. Just test Him in this..."

as emily said, "my path will be a tasty, snicker-filled way." looolol.

this past saturday i hung out with emily. she showed me pictures of romania, and we had a western lunch (tuna on rolls) with a coffee. it was great!

on sunday i went with a bunch of the teachers to insaedong for the lantern lotus festival. there were tons of foreigners, which was really jarring. i have gotten used to being the only white face, or at least just one of few. we had a great time... pictures to come soon.

OH YES.. IT'S FINALLY WARMER HERE!! yay!

Not only the young Christian but also the adult Christian will complain that the Scripture reading is often too long for him, and that much therein he does not understand. To this it must be said that, for the mature Christian, every Scripture reading will be "too long", even the shortest one, [for] the Scripture is a whole, and every word, every sentence, possesses such multiple relationships with the whole that it is impossible always to keep the whole in view when listening to details. It becomes apparent, therefore, that the whole of Scripture, and hence every passage in it as well, far surpasses our understanding. It is good for us to be daily reminded of this fact.

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

in my strong moments i say to myself that i will never be the type who rejoices - with every friday's arrival - that the weekend is here... but in my weak moments that is exactly what i do.
so, i must confess i'm having a weak moment.

been reading in the book of malachi lately. wow. some of the old testament prophets' audacity and faith in God blow my mind. stretch me, God, with the power of Your Word.

the woes of teaching

my poor poor step 3 kids. today we started the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. they have 8 pages of study questions and 6 pages of vocabulary words. it only took me 7+ hours to write up.

guess what i say to them now on a regular basis... as soon as the moans and groans begin? 


"you may hate me now, but you'll thank me later."

is that what all teachers and authority figures say?

and for some reason, these kids can't seem to handle one journal entry a week, due every monday. i give them a day of grace, and they STILL can't seem to handle it. lol. and today i told jason every time i hear korean out of his mouth from now on, i'm lowering his grade a letter.


ok, you can say it. i'm a cruel teacher.

but i also showed them "The Muffin Tree" - discovered freshman year, when we (of course) had no time to waste online - http://www.muffinfilms.com/tree.html. i expect to see phil and sehwan reenacting it in the course of the next few days.

Lord, You have my heart
and i will search for Yours
let me be to You a sacrifice....
- delirious

but one thing i do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, i press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

philippians 3,13-14

BIG SECRETS.... and eyebrow-raising

when i was younger my dad would ask us kids if we wanted to go somewhere fun. always ready for adventure, we'd jump up and down and beg him, "yes, yes! oh, daddy, daddy, where are we going?!?!" dad would laugh his great big laugh and say, "i can't tell you. it's a BIIIIIG SECRET!!" and of course, we would moan and groan in eager anticipation of our destination.


and then we'd go to the gas station.

as you can see, i'm scarred for life. lol. so now, when my kids ask me what we're going to do, guess what i tell them?
"oh, i can't tell you. it's a BIIIIIG SECRET!"

and then, guess what they do? (just like my dad, by the way), they pretend to cry loudly and pat their (bald) heads. LOOOL.

my little ones have also seen the numa numa dance (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/206373 - click on WATCH THIS MOVIE and then i think it's best to watch it without subtitles).

after watching it today caleb calls out to me, "miss ruth! miss ruth!! look!!"

i look over at him, and then he raises one eyebrow. just like that. cool as a cucumber, my 7 year old caleb.

what will they do next?!

have spent more time during the week with friends brittany and stefanie from church, who also work and live in suji. what an answer to prayer for the loneliness i have experienced the last 8 months. thank You, Lord. brittany is my working-out buddy in the mornings. last night we watched the phantom of the opera at their place, and it reminded me of watching the move in the byrd theater in richmond - complete with the chandelier and old opera feel to it!

tomorrow is myeongdong shopping with emily, thea, and hopefully nahamm. yay for die chance mehr deutsch zu sprechen. :) why the visions of shoes?? doh!


goodnight!

happy birthday lauren!

and i have a few more pictures from this past weekend.

tia smelling the flowers...

koreans do not own big dogs. i have seen maybe one or two larger dogs during my entire stay thus far. instead, the size of the two above is fairly typical. and you should see how they're decked out. we've got stores and shops full of dog clothes, hats, even booties for their cold little paws. Spiderman, Hello Kitty, and every animal design and pattern that you could imagine! lol.

dear dear emily and i

nahamm, me, tia... der ganze tag hat so viel spass gemacht!

we climbed a hill and found this - along with a full gym (weights, machines, etc) OUTSIDE. WHAT?! so anyway....

so beautiful. i love steps.

awww... hello me.

the little girl is SO cute!! and please notice the older woman walking (right side of the picture). she is wearing a viser to protect herself from the sun. apparently it's only an older generation thing, but i still see them a lot here. and friends s. and h. say that in california they see a lot of the koreans wearing them, too.

often, in driving around, i see these burial grounds. and while some still are buried on these hills, because of the increase in city population more and more koreans are choosing cremation.

oh.. and for some laughs...

Happy Easter, dear dear friends.... He is Risen!
this easter weekend was busy for me, full of friends and blessings from the Lord.... all amidst the wonderful words in pastor bob's message yesterday. Jesus is alive, and it is ONLY He who can save us from sin and death. because of Jesus' sacrifice - His death and resurrection - that, should we choose to submit our whole selves to Him, we can have life here and the glorious promise of eternal life with Him in heaven. what a simple - almost childlike - but beautiful reality!




i wanted to get some fotos before the flowers' blooming peak had past, so i went for a 'tourist' walk this past week. above, i was walking alongside a main road in suji.



the beautiful cherry blossoms line the streets everywhere.


a park near the suji library, YMCA, and "downtown" ... lol. and here's a picture of a parking lot right next to the library. as you will notice, there is a car parked in FRONT of several others. you are probably thinking, "why would any thinking individual block others from getting in and out?" well, the reason is that korea is such a small country and there's not enough room for extensive parking lots. parking garages are several stories. AND people park in front of others, leaving their car in neutral to be pushed out if the blocked-in individual needs to leave. also, their cell number will be posted on a window.


suji


an intersection... and in the middle of the picture you can see a truck covered with some sort of a tarp. there an 'ajjuma' - an older, married woman - is selling fruits or vegetables. these little outdoor 'marts' are at nearly every corner.


common korean landscaping alongside the road... lots of small shrubs with rocks. it really is quite lovely in a barren, craggy sort of way.


notice, first, the cute blue car. probably not the safest thing on the road. then, the guy on the moped. these guys are everywhere, delivering food. they're maniacs, some of them, and they seem to have their own traffic rules. lastly, notice the building. there is no room for appreciating the actual structure of the building itself - a comment that the teacher jay (whom i met within my first few weeks here) said as a reason for his wanting to become an architect.


the overhead crosswalk, a bus station, and of course... lots of apartment buildings. :)
after church yesterday daniel drove emily, tia, nahaam and me to a park near the jeongja subway station. we had a wonderful time walking around, climbing a mini "mountain" and people-watching. then we decided to walk back to migeum... only to get lost. not an uncommon experience in korea, where street signs are nonexistent. we ended up finding a bus to take us to the subway and from there back to migeum and an ice cream fondue at baskin robbins. it was wonderful!


the cherry blossoms really were beautiful. and i was able to catch the last of the magnolias, as well.


tia (in the forefront) is the 24 y.o. from germany. she is here for 4 months, teaching english and hopefully spending lots of weekends with me!!! nahamm (in the background) is korean, but has spent half of her life in germany, first during her father's studium and then the last 14 years for her own Ph.D and professorship. i have been in heaven, having this opportunity alles auf Deutsch zu sprechen.
im Moment funktioniert mein Computer nicht. dosh! so i will continue with the rest of the pictures later.
*tonight one of my intermediate students told me he could "cook" .... i asked him what. he said, "ramen" ... and i confessed i laughed. his face was so earnest. so sincere. lol.

If you want to know what's going on in the Korean world, check out these online English newspapers:

The Korea Times: http://times.hankooki.com/

The Chosun Ilbo: http://english.chosun.com/


a personal favorite.... since when did the color pink become acceptable not just for 5-6 year old girls starting kindergarten, but for 22 year old, testosterone-driven males, as well? read below. it's hit korea, too.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200604/200604120006.html

A stroll down German memory lane...

Heute habe ich mich an Max und Moritz erinnert. Viele Lachen von deutsche Klasse im 12. Klasse in Hochschule. :)

Max und Moritz

Eine Bubengeschichte in Sieben Streichen (von Wilhelm Busch)
Erster Streich
Mancher gibt sich viele Müh'Mit dem lieben Federvieh; Einesteils der Eier wegen,Welche diese Vögel legen, Zweitens: weil man dann und wann Einen Braten essen kann; Drittens aber nimmt man auch Ihre Federn zum Gebrauch In die Kissen und die Pfühle, Denn man liegt nicht gerne kühle. -
Seht, da ist die Witwe Bolte, Die das auch nicht gerne wollte....

den Rest findest du hier: http://www.fln.vcu.edu/mm/mm1.html

At church on Sunday there were two women from Germany- one a girl named Thea, who is just a few years older than me, and the other a Korean woman who has spent half her life in Germany and is delightfully more European than Korean. I invited them to join Emily, Daniel and me over my favorite Korean meal, which sounds like boo-duh-ji-gae and is translated as "army food." Yum yum! So good! We had a great time together, laughing over language mistakes in English, Korean, and German. Ich wundere mich, was die nächste Monate bringen.

This past weekend was, however, a rather rough time for me. At times I find my patience with Korean culture wearing thin, and then I am frustrated with myself for my bumbling attempts to adapt and immerse myself here. When I look back on the past months, I see that I have done the best I can. iI is nonetheless dissatisfying when somehow those meager attempts seem not to be enough... at least in my own heart.

Prayers for the next 4.5 months would be appreciated. T_T

it is always an adventure finding things outside the apartments in my complex. lol.

with more yellow dust blowing in from the gobi desert in southern mongolia and northern china, the streets of seoul are not as busy. everyone is wearing one of those masks and hiding away.... after all, it's not good for your healss. -.-

an email from one of my older students, who had to quit ERC:

Miss Ruth!
I'm Annie.
how are you doing?
I am so fine !

I miss you T_T
Everybody is okay?

and
please say hello to Jackie.
I sent her massage, but
she didn't answer.
how is she doing?
Is she okay?!


goodbye
and take care.
Annie

Esther just told me I look like a cherry blossom...

I was thinking more along the lines of 'frumpled' and 'happy'.

• It's 60 degrees and sunny. Wouldn't a field trip to Baskin Robbins be nice?

• My room is now being used during the 3:00-4:20 class.

• It's movie night tonight for Step 3. The prospect of a "party" was the only thing keeping them going during last night's class.

• Now that the Dr. Hwang Woo-suk faking stem cell fiasco has died down, other things have been in the news...

• The United States has officially recognized Dokdo Island (long considered to be Korean in their own eyes) as belonging to the Japanese. Ooh, that's gotta hurt.

• Steelers player and Superbowl MVP Hines Ward is currently in Korea. Everybody is celebrating him as a hero. Strange to me, since American football is basically a footnote amongst other Korean sports. Still, his multi-racial background opens up discussion in this most-homogeneous nation. I hear the numbers of inter-racial marriages is rapidly increasing.

• Lee Seung-yeop, the Korean "power slugger" who signed on with the Yomiuri Giants, a Japanese central league team, is looking stateside....

hello, monday...

so, Daylight Savings Time has kicked in back home. i'm now 13 instead of 14 hours ahead of you guys. bear with me when it comes to Skype conversations.

friday night was pride and prejudice with esther. let me digress just for a moment. please. pride and prejudice is a literary masterpiece. and why, you ask? because austen manages to blend optimistic happily-ever-after with a remarkable dose of satire and realism all within the four walls of an 19th century english parlor. it is a perfect novel, and the characters she creates are perfect. i am "lizzy" as every girl is, and perhaps every young man "mr. darcy." but what magic when the right two collide! and who can forget such marvelous creatures as lady catherine de bourgh, mr. collins, and the ever-nerve-stricken mrs. bennet? ahhh. even though i know the story so well, my stomach was full of butterflies, excitement, joy, horror, and delight until the closing scene... and now i'll stop. haha.

saturday night laura and i had a movie marathon at her place. we saw the notebook - me for the first time. for those of you who have seen it already..... i didn't sleep well saturday night. lol. does such a man exist anymore? lol. i hear they're out there..... somewhere.

and now some laughs for you at my expense. sunday morning i did what i have not done in my 7 months here. i went to migeum, laden with my umbrella and several bags of books to give people. (the foreigners in church have developed a sort of library amongst us. the ted dekker books my mom sent me for christmas have been passed around 4 or 5 times, i believe!) so i sat down only to realize i was missing something. surely not my purse?! oh no... definitely not that. it only has my korean ID card, wallet, bank cards - korean and american banks, medical insurance card, keys, etc etc. (basically, everything short of my passport). it took me a whole 2 seconds to realize my purse was indeed on Bus 11. holy mackeral.

i went to one of the deacons, intaek kim (who, by the way, is awesome), and he called the bus company and was able to have them hunt for it and reserve it at the bus office. also, sean, a guy on the praise team, wrote down a little note in korean to give to the bus driver, so he would know that i needed to be dropped off there.

on top of that, i was so flustered about my purse that i left my umbrella at the restaurant where a bunch of us had lunch! so after retrieving my purse, emily and i had to return to the restaurant to retrieve my umbrella, as well. phew.

the prayers continue for the right english teacher who will take my place at ERC when my contract is up. mrs. kim and i are always planning and discussing.

tonight my step 3 boys were..... being 13 year old boys and doing what 13 year old boys do best: being immature and annoying. i was trying to explain the word 'serenade,' and so i told them that for my 18th birthday an accapella group at william & mary serenaded me with the song 'Lady in Red." i googled the song, found a site that played it, and could hardly hear it for the noises they were making. what was i thinking?

Sidney Poitier, i don't have it half as bad as you did (in To Sir, With Love) but i feel for you. sometimes you just want to choke 'em. but enough venting. oh the joys of being a student in the Lord's school.

but what a patient Teacher He is. Lord, may i never leave Your feet.

p.s. nothing was lost from my purse. God is good.

faith as small as a mustard seed....

tonight i prayed for cindy's back. cindy is a teacher at my school, and the sweetest, kindest young woman. she is not a Christian (yet!!!) ... but neither is she antagonistic towards the Lord. apparently her back has been hurting her for a while and she left to go home and rest and then came back. please pray for her complete healing!


my kids have been more difficult this week. so much whining. it's hard not to let it get to me. i was telling my grandparents on skype that my love for the children is constant (and i want them to know that, regardless of their behavior, i still love them), but i don't tolerate bad behavior. grammie said that it sounds like a mother. haha. well, in so many ways i am a mother to these children, even the 13 and 14 year olds. what a balancing act it is to be merciful and yet to be firm so they don't walk over me! i definitely have the confucianist respect-your-elders in my favor, but kids are the same all over the world - a mixture of sweetness and blatant selfishness.


we've had pushing, yelling, tattle-taling, begging for no quiz (and a movie instead)... but we also have had good storytimes and lessons on putting others first (little ones), and great movie discussions - ie. captain jack sparrow in pirates of the caribbean and wilson in castaway (my older ones). always i find that these kids are DYING for genuine love and encouragement, and i have to dish it out, even while challenging them to rise to a higher level of academic achievement. i told my intermediate kids yesterday, "no more training wheels, kids! it's time for harder work. and you can do it!" pray that they will. and that i will have wisdom to arouse the internal motivation - that they will want to do well for their own sake and not because i or their mother is standing over their shoulders with a checklist.


tonight esther and i are going to the ori CGV (ori is the closest town with a big movie theater) to see the new pride and prejudice. it's finally made its way to korea, and i'm stoked.

oh the joys of English Reading Club

how many times 20 children (literally!) have piled out of that elevator and crashed through the glass doors into the school?! unlike businesses and stores in america, which often are 1-2 stories and have their own buildings, here in korea several businesses share the same building and even the same floor. i believe ERC is flanked on the right and left by other hogwans (private academies).

i administered a practice PELT test to my intermediate and advanced children last week. all of them passed! the test shows that they are weakest in vocabulary, however, so we are working to remedy that now.

my step 3 children and i are starting to read treasure island now. justin - one of my top students whose a real hoot - is begging for a chance to see pirates of the caribbean. i think we will have to soon. haha. tomorrow they are being quizzed on exciting words like 'rum,' 'sailor,' 'beggar,' 'seafaring,' and 'hanging.' what 13 year old boy wouldn't be stoked?! ha ha.

 
and here is an excerpt from justin's journal. i couldn't resist. he is bemoaning korea's loss to japan in their third game of the World Classic Baseball game, and blaming america. lol. don't we make such an easy scapegoat? on a serious note, though, koreans show RARE emotion when certain national sports comes on. it's refreshing to see some passion come out!

oh. we've had snow flurries the past few days. and azaleas are starting to bloom. WHAT?!?

i was encouraged last night by something mrs. kim told me. she no longer stresses out when one of my students' mothers calls; the reason: i almost always will have made a point to mention her child's progress the night before. and i don't go through each child's progress every day - only when that child is really strongly on my heart - so this is quite miraculous! mrs. kim and i stopped a moment to marvel at the Lord's amazing goodness in caring for His children- how He has led us on a straight path here at ERC and blessed the months i've been teaching. as my mom has said, all we can offer our Lord Jesus is the five loaves and two fish. with it He feeds the multitudes. Jesus, be pleased with our offering, i pray. it comes from our humble hands with love and thanks. all glory belongs to You.

Shopping in Korea

me, mrs. jung, esther at dongdaemun

Last week through Saturday was busy. One day (I already forget which!) a Korean-Canadian young lady by the name of Danby came to ERC to observe my little kids' class. She was to start teaching at another ERC branch the following day and was feeling slightly ill-prepared for her task. Apparently she's here in Korea visiting her grandmother for 5 months and just wanted to pick up some money. In any case, during the course of the class, I pulled out Wendy's 5th tooth. We (Wendy and I) have been working on it every now and then for over 3 weeks.

Danby: Does this happen often?!

Me: Ha ha. Nope. This was a first for me.

Danby: Are you always so calm?

Me: Try 24 four year-olds! Also, I'm one of eight kids.

When I met her I was immediately struck by her appearance. She was what most would consider 'beautiful' and stylish. but when I made a comment at dinner to the other teachers, they all disagreed. I was surprised, thinking that surely there must be some threshold where beauty is universal. The other teachers, however, said that Danby would not be considered 'beautiful' in Korea; she is not 'cute' and there's just not that something in the atmosphere around her. Perhaps she would be considered too bold, too aggressive, to up-front. I don't know. When I thought about it later, I realized there really is a difference in Western and Korean ideas of beauty. If you look at all the advertisements around Korea "cuteness" and soft girls in breathy, pastel colors definitely dominate over the confident, bold and striking. And I realize the Korean advertisements would never cut it in the States.

Changing topics... the picture above is at dongdaemun, an all-night shopping mall in Seoul. The party starts around 10 or 11 and continues until morning. I've never seen so much traffic between 12 and 3AM in all my life!

And here's Hannah and I. Hannah is 28 years old (Korean age) and is often the one Mrs. Kim leaves in charge at school when absent. I like Hannah a lot. I'll never forget when I first met her. I found out she'd studied in California for 3 years, so I asked her if she'd liked it and if she missed anything about it. Her response: The Cheesecake Factory. lol. What a hoot!

And here I'm getting my coffee so I can stay awake for the long night of shopping. Jennie, the Australian/Korean teacher at ERC, has the camera. :) 

The six of us split into two groups; I went with Jenny and Hannah... and neither group found anything. LOL. By 3:30 we called it quits. Even though it wasn't so successful in shopping, it was a fun time with the teachers. :)

And then yesterday Laura and I went to COEX mall at Samsung station. We passed by a sign that said 'WORLD TRADE CENTER SEOUL" and we figured it was a pretty important place, so we decided it was worth a picture. It was a really fun time.

We browsed, shopped, had lunch at a fun sit-down pizza restaurant, got ice cream at Baskin Robbins, and then browsed and wandered some more. It was a really fun day, and Laura's random, hilarious stories and comments had me rolling on the subway.

There was some show happening in the outdoor part of the COEX mall when we arrived. We didn't stay to find out what it was. Laura guessed it was hardly worth the crowd it drew. And the Pringles? I have no idea. Some Western things in Korea just DON'T make sense. LOL. After COEX, I stopped by Dave and Winnie's for a few hours. I have missed them... and then today was church and Emily time. As usual, that includes much laughter, talking, coffee, and shopping. I praise God for such a friend.

So that's all. I'm off to grade papers and settle in for the night. ^^

The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
~ psalm 138,8

today john came up to me, tugging on my shirt as he always does when he wants to whisper something in my ear.
i leaned down and i heard, "miss ruth, i know how to spell 'clean-shaven' ... you know, when there's no moustache."
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

some of the ladies... in the kitchen before classes start. (L-R esther, gina, cindy, mrs. chung)


cindy, myself, and esther.... this was the 'i didn't bathe, didn't wash my hair, didn't want to dress up' day for me.... lol.


here's mrs. jung our secretary. she doesn't speak much english, but she's so sweet. and in the past few months she's gone from just saying "dinner" to actually saying a few sentences.

and i have other pictures but my computer is being weird. it won't let me upload them.... so i'm going to go work on my treasure island study questions and write a letter.
laura called and shared the random, hilarious events of this past week... how she got ahold of her elusive recruiter and this korean guy this week only because she called them from a payphone in the subway. LOL. (they didn't have caller ID for a payphone. LOOOOOOOOOL) we shared a few good laughs over that one. and i think we might do something fun this weekend!

interesting.... does it sound like me, everyone?

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have medium extroversion. You're not the life of the party, but you do show up for the party. Sometimes you are full of energy and open to new social experiences. But you also need to hibernate and enjoy your "down time." Conscientiousness: You have medium conscientiousness. You're generally good at balancing work and play. When you need to buckle down, you can usually get tasks done. But you've been known to goof off when you know you can get away with it. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You're generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism. You are very emotionally stable and mentally together. Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly. Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is medium. You are generally broad minded when it come to new things. But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it. You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Das Opfer, das die Liebe bringt

Das Opfer, das die Liebe bringt,

Es ist das teuerste von allen;

Doch wer sein Eigenstes bezwingt,

Dem ist das schönste Los gefallen.

-goethe

the world is over!

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-03-17T171131Z_01_T33001_RTRUKOC_0_US-JAPAN-CHERRIES.xml&archived=False

NEWS ALERT: Japan defeated Korea in the World (literally) Series 6-0. There has been much grief and outrage. You remember, Korean and Japanese relations are tenuous, at best.

a gift from one of the student's mothers. it was japanese sushi, and the bowl design is absolutely beautiful. according to esther, it probably cost around $50-60. wow. i had fun eating the carrot "birds" and the parts without the raw fish. lol. sometimes i don't understand how koreans will plunk down so much money for some things!

 
here is an intersection at yangjae station in seoul. notice the huge TV screen directly in the center of the picture. as i mentioned in an earlier post, they are in random places throughout the city. also, there are so many more people in this country that the number of pedestrians in the city and at the crosswalks is crazy. i've become just as comfortable as a korean crossing the streets even when there is no crosswalk. :)

and here is a typical city street. nothing exciting, i guess. love the yellow dumptser. ^^ i guess my favorite part is actually how small the streets are. everything is SO jam-packed together. the people. their apartments. everything!

here are susan and anna, who i met at church. both of them are from canada, teaching english.... as most young foreigners here are. (it's a safe bet, in any case.) a very small percentage are actually married to a korean; though i hear that number is growing. we have a few racially-mixed couples at the church... they're pretty cool.

UPDATE: had a good, but exhausting weekend. friday night after work mrs. kim treated all the teachers to a galbi dinner (korean BBQ) and norebang (a singing room)... it was fun... esther and i sang my heart will go on again, on the other teachers' request, ^^ but i was tired. saturday i met up with emily and shopped for some workout clothes at the 2001 Outlet near jiguchon church. (shopping in korea is an experience all in itself. you have to push out those elbows and be extremely RUDE ... or you'll get knocked over. lol. also, i am learning not to let the hovering of the salespeople annoy me; after almost 7 months the Lord is finally working patience and understanding in me in that area. ) after shopping i went to karen and ken farley's apt near the jeongja subway stop for a movie, pizza & dunkin donuts. a healthy dinner, i know! but a good time.

P.S. my prep class took the practice PELT test today. we'll see how they did. and my step 3 kids do not understand the humor in monty python, but i guess that's not suprising. while watching it, i was reminded of my friend trish from high school ("GREEEEEEN!") who was constantly impersonating characters and quoting the lines... they do, however, greatly appreciate the Newground videos for the Numa numa dance and Monday Sucks ... sehwan and justin have already begun dancing along to our numa friend. LOOOOOOL.

hope to hear from you all soon. love you!

i love smith wigglesworth's writings. such bluntness. such honesty. such truth. and from a man who started out as just a little plumber in England a century ago... but whose life God used in mighty ways. he was unafraid and so didn't mince words. perhaps that's why i like him!

and so i wanted to share with you the message i read for today.

The Scriptures do not tell two stories. They tell the truth. I want you to know the truth, and the truth will set you free. What is truth? Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14,6). "He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7,38). This he [spoke] of the Spirit that should be given [to] them after he was glorified.

I do not find anything in the Bible but holiness, and nothing in the world but worldliness. Therefore, if I live in the world, I shall become worldly; but, on the other hand, if I live in the Bible, I shall become holy. This is the truth, and the truth will set you free.

The power of God can remodel you. He can make you hate sin and love righteousness. He can take away bitterness and hatred and covetousness and malice, and can so consecrate you by his power, through his blood, that you are made pure - every bit holy. Pure in mind, heart, and actions - pure right through...

Jesus is the best there is for you, and you can have him today if you do not know him as your Savior and Lord. God gave his Son for your sins, and for the sins of the whole world.

wow. let that settle for a bit. reread it. think about it. and may God do His thing in you. :)

loving and missing you all. ^.^

If you enjoy movies as much as I do , you might find this article an interesting read. It is entitled A Lady's Lament Where have all the Hollywood hunks gone?, by Kimberly A. Strassel:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110008039

A lot on my mind today. But otherwise, good. Thankful for the nearness of the Lord. He is truly my Constant.

Missing you guys from home. Hope everyone is well.