One of the great things about having a summer birthday is that you get to do fun things to celebrate and for me, I’ve gotten to be in all different awesome places for my birthday including Jamaica, California, Minnesota, and Korea. Here are a few pics with some of my extended family and me at at restaurant on the east side of Seoul.
(Korean cakes are awesome)
Don’t ask me why they are holding large plastic axes…
Happy 22nd birthday to me!
I grew up in an Evangelical home and community and went to an Evangelical college. As a result, Christian faith has always been important to me as well as a big part of my life. However, when there were too many unanswered questions (or too many different answers to my questions), I wanted to find something that seemed more rooted in something other than everyone’s different interpretations of the Bible. As a result, I turned to the Ancient Church–Eastern Orthodoxy, for guidance. I was very skeptical of it for a long time, as I was of all churches and claims to Truth, but during my time in Korea I decided to give it a fair chance. And am I ever glad that I did. I met a wonderful priest named Father Daniel Na and attended his church, St. Paul Orthodox Church in Incheon, one city over from Bucheon. Luckily, he was fluent in English, so he was able to teach me a lot. I didn’t end up joining the Church while in Korea, but it was an important stage in my spiritual search. Here are some pictures of the beautiful church:
I also had the pleasure of celebrating Pascha (Easter) while in Korea. It’s an incredibly joyous celebration of Christ’s resurrection involving a long, late night service followed by LOTS of good food and drink! Here are some pictures my Priests’ son took of the occasion:
Me w/ the priest’s wife:
Father Daniel giving me a red egg, symbolizing the resurrection of Christ
Aren’t the icon murals incredible??
This church was a precious, precious part of my time in Korea and I will never forget all of the wonderful, warm, loving people in this congregation. I can’t wait to go back to see everyone next time I’m in Korea!
Periodically, the staff at my school would go on little trips or dinner outings together to get away from work and spend time with one another. Our first trip was to Jebu-Do, (the “do” part meaning “island.”) I was pretty excited when I first found out we were going to an island because I was getting sick of the smog of the city and, well, even though it’s Korea, I ignorantly had images of tropical happiness in my mind. Well, I was in for a surprise when we got there and there were no palm trees, no sun, and only mud. Korean island. Hello…
Well, anyway, even though it wasn’t what I expected, it still was pretty. Here are some pics for you to judge for yourself:
Some of my coworkers:
Have you ever been anywhere that turned out to be totally different from what you expected?
One of the things that makes Korea Korea are karaoke rooms. For $15, you can rent out a big room for your group of friends and sing the night away. They usually have hundreds of songs available in Korean, English, and Chinese, so foreigners can have fun, too! One of my most memorable moments was karaoke night with my students. They were so adorable and incredibly into it!
(Please forgive the poor-res photos, Korea was before my DSLR days…)
And a video!
If you’re ever in Korea, be sure to check out a Karaoke room. (They are called Noh-reh-bong, or 노래방) You won’t regret it!
Okay, so even though this post is categorized under places, you’re mostly going to see faces in this post. HOWEVER, I don’t think that is necessarily a contradiction because at the end of the day, places and travel are all about people, culture, and relationships. Right? So here goes the first post of several to come about my time living in South Korea.
I lived in Bucheon, South Korea for most of 2009, teaching at an international Christian school called Samkwang International Christian School (SICS). It wasn’t your traditional international school, considering that all of the students were actually Korean citizens. They call it an international school because the curriculum is (in theory) entirely in English. Most of them had started at this all-English-speaking school in kindergarten, so through immersion, they learned to learn in English. While most of them were very fluent in English, they spoke what many would call “Konglish.” They always called me “teacher,” when I asked them why they were doing something they would say, “just,” and they always dragged out their consonants at the end of every sentence. “Butuhhhh!” ”Teacherrrrr” ”Too much homeworkuhhhh!” ”I don’t like Englisheeee!” (If you’ve lived there, I’m sure you will know what I’m talking about.)
Since I had traveled to Korea over half a dozen times to visit relatives and had previously lived in Korea over a summer to work with North Korean refugees, I didn’t spend a lot of time sightseeing or traveling around. The bulk of my time was spent in the daily grind teaching these kids, grading their papers, planning their lessons, tutoring them after school, buying them ice cream, taking them out for dinner, hanging out at the park, playing soccer with them, listening to their problems, meeting their families, and kicking them out of my apartment when it was time for me to go to bed.
If you’re wondering if this is normal for foreign teacher’s in Korea, it’s definitely not. I was at a very unique school that encouraged personal relationships and mentorship with the small classes of students. And since my students were all transitioning into puberty, their parents were especially thankful for my personal investment.
My time in Bucheon, South Korea, was a life-impacting year. Now, when I think of Korea, I don’t think of the typical things–kimchee, karaoke rooms, Korean bbq, Namsan tower, Jeju Island, temples, mountains, public baths, no, I think of these beautiful kids who have taught me more than I ever want to know about pre-teens, but more importantly, have shared themselves, their spunk, their energy, their humor, their intelligence, and their love, with me:
Andy
Robert
Peter
Mary
Jimmy
Daniel
Sarah
Justin
Clement
Joey
Jennifer
And Rebecca managed to successfully dodge the camera for an entire year, so here she is with the other girls (Top right corner):
A few more just for fun:
They were always looking for things to do during cleaning time besides cleaning. On this particular occasion they thought it would be funny to tape Jimmy to the pole in our classroom. And to be honest, it was pretty funny, so I took a picture; then I yelled at them to get back to work…^-^
Hope you come back to hear more about my year in Bucheon, South Korea!
On our way back home from Montréal, Rick and I stopped in Cleveland to visit the Cleveland Metroparks Rainforest that Rick grew up frequenting when he was an Ohioan. It was such a joy to see the adorable and interesting animals, and I had a lot of fun taking pictures! Here are some of my favs:
Monkey (Sorry, I didn’t make note of the scientific names of all these animals, so my made up names will have to do):
Chameleon:
Very large python:
Green Frogs (Can you count how many there are?):
Extremely large (and unhappy looking) rodent:
Alligator:
Really interesting looking frogs with cartoonish looking eyes:
Green snake:
Interesting Birds:
Turtles:
Monkey:
Monkey scratching his butt:
Really awesome blue frogs:
Really awesome black and green frog:
More really awesome black and green frogs:
Bats!!:
Really freaky looking underside of a gecko:
Lizard:
And now for my favorites! The adorably hilarious Mrs. Orangutan picking stuff out of very patient Mr. Orangutan’s ear :
Mrs. Orangutan giving the camera innocent looks:
My ultimate favorite animal in the whole world, three toed sloth!!:
And last but not least, my favorite monkey ever! ;)
I hope you liked these adorable, intriguing animals as much as we did! It is so fascinating how many different species are out there, and I am glad we got a chance to see just a few of the many amazing creatures there are in the world.
Until next time…
(Rick’s grandma bought me my own stuffed sloth! Whoo!)
Rick’s extended family is largely based in the Cleveland area, so we have frequented the city a number of times in the last year and a half. One of the first things we did when we went into the city together for the first time was explore the Orthodox and Catholic cathedrals. One of our favorites was St. Theodosius, located in an awesome neighborhood we could envision ourselves living in someday called Tremont. Here is a shot from the outside:
At the time we went, it was locked, but we went back again on a later visit and got to meet the priest and take some pictures from the inside (which I cannot locate at this time.) :/
I did, however, get a couple nice shots of the industrial valley, which we had a nice view of on the hill by the church:
(Do you like the fake film effect? I love film, but can’t afford using it a lot, so I pretend…don’t hate, filmians!)
Cleveland was the first rustbelt city I’d ever really explored, and I found it fascinating to see the old nestled up against the new. Believe it or not, Cleveland IS developing and building up again, and there are some nice things to do and see in the area. If anything, I just love how it tells a story with all it’s old run down buildings and industrial plants. It’s a tired city for sure, but it’s also beautiful in it’s own way. More to come from Cleveland, for sure!
One of the great perks of being with Rick has been getting to know his incredible family. They have been so loving and accepting since day one, and this holiday we shared day-after-Christmas together. Rick’s grandma was in town from Cleveland for the holidays, so she and Rick’s sister and parents came over for dinner and presents. Elizabeth just so happens to love dried seaweed, so I gave her a few packs as part of her Christmas present. As you can see, she had a lot of fun devouring them:
After dinner, we cozied up in the family room to exchange some presents. Everyone had fun playing with the ukulele that my Aunt Terry bought me this Christmas:
I sent Elizabeth on a hunt to find her presents. She was very excited to find them:
Mom and Grandma Pat:
I gave Rick’s family a photo book with a bunch of pics I’ve accumulated of their family over the last year and a half Rick and I have been together:
I gave Rick a really awesome print from Ork Posters of Toronto to psych ourselves up for our Canada trip:
It was a wonderful time for our families to be together and celebrate the Christmas season. Thanks so much, Libby, Robert, Elizabeth, and Grandma Pat for coming and being an awesome family-in-dating! :)
For Christmas dinner, we went all out and had our friends, the Kim Family, along with my photography partners Nathan & Sarah of Adhikari Photography over for our turn of Asian hospitality. This time, we did hot pot, or Shabu Shabu (샤브샤브). Here are some of the highlights:
And of course, the girls brought with them some youthful energy as they continued their knitting and played with their awesome new crayon sets! Suna sure knows how to be a little diva:
It was a lovely Christmas dinner shared with friends, family, and of course, good food. And I will complete the awesomeness of this Christmas with the most killer Christmas picture ever, my brother with his new hair dryer:
Whoo! Merry Christmas, everyone!
It’s been a crazy year, being back at home putting myself through grad school. But when the times get tough, my friends and family are always there to brighten my day and make life bearable! In honor of them, I wanted to have an “appreciation breakfast,” for Christmas. So, on Christmas eve, I had a small group of my local friends over for crepes, crepes, and more crepes!
(Crepe maker courtesy of my darling little brother as a gift last Christmas)
(Thank you Nathan for taking pictures!)
Everyone had their own personalized menus:
Tea menus:
My ma, crepin it up!
Sarah (aka Korean Princess) and Anna (aka Greek Goddess) (Can you tell which is which?):
Yummmmmm
The honored guests:
Thanks to all of my mom’s help (and my kind friends for showing up), it was a lovely brunch, and we successfully made and ate around 100 crepes! Love you guys, and Merry Christmas!
