fighting!!

so... today was the 10k! i was originally registered for the half marathon but when i looked at my training schedule a couple weeks ago and saw that i had not run AT ALL, i decided to change. and i'm glad i did... there is no way i would have survived the half! i was pretty stoked on finishing the 10k! i have been sick for the last week, and i've barely been able to breathe sitting still because my nose is so stuffed up. so i was pretty worried about running. even this morning i really didn't feel like going, but i sucked it up and went and it was totally worth it! i didn't really do very well... i walked some (on hills... the whole second half was uphill! but i only walked part of it). my final time was 1:04:26. i'm okay with that... it's definitely not the best, but i wasn't last either, so it's good. it was so awesome... every time i would start to slow down an old korean man would come up beside me and say "keep running!" this happened like 4 different times with 4 different guys... everyone is always encouraging each other and pushing each other. it's so cool to see! one man ran beside me for a while to make me keep running, and eventually he turned to me and said (in very broken english) "when i run with you, i am not tired!" haha... i was slowing him down a lot. anyway... i finished and it was good. i definitely could have used some running leading up to it, but now i've learned my lesson.

and it was really fun! marathons in korea are so awesome. everyone is really energetic and they have concerts and all the old korean men make speeches in their funny way of talking... it's just amazing. plus, since i was a foreigner i got a box of oranges and a sweet book about jeju! here are some pictures... there weren't as many foreigners as last time but it was still fun. and i put the rest on facebook so they're not on here...

kelly and me... she came to jeju at the same time i did and lives in my building. i originally convinced her to do the half with me, then i stopped training. she still did it though!

had to get the crotchpunch picture. also i wore my same outfit from the half... :) (the sun was behind me... thus the glary spot on this one and the next one...)

box of oranges and a book... awesome! they love foreigners here.

and there it is... the 10k. wonderful :)

praise the Lord for healthy legs and a beautiful day!

a story...

so today was a come home from school and get cozy day. it's cold, i'm sick, and middle schoolers are exhausting. so i came home, put in a load of laundry, cleaned out madeline's litter box, and curled up on the couch to catch up on some shows. both the washing machine and the litter box are in the bathroom (this is important). so about 10 minutes after i sat down i looked over to see madeline with wet paws. "that's weird," i thought to myself. but she's always knocking her water bowl around or climbing behind the washing machine (sometimes water gets back there... it's annoying that she goes back there but there's not much i can do about it), so i didn't think much of it. then a few minutes later i noticed her go into the bathroom and come out wet again. hmmm... so i got out of my cozy little ball and walked to the bathroom to see that the whole floor was soaking wet. now... i had been in there about 20 minutes before and everything was perfectly dry. i was so confused. so i looked behind the toilet and noticed that there was a little drip coming from the tank. the weird part was that it was really not dripping a lot... but the whole floor was wet. it made no sense. **sidenote: they have been doing some work in my building, and one of the things my housing coordinator informed us of was that some people would be checking on pipes in the bathroom. i'm not sure if they came to my room yet, but the toilet has never leaked before. but it was perfectly fine when i first got home, unless i really just missed it. it's so weird.** moving on... so i emailed coordinator han and asked him if people had been in my room, and could someone please come fix the leak (keep in mind that it's night time, so it won't be fixed until tomorrow at the earliest...). so after i sent the email, my washing machine started beeping for me to put in the fabric softener (normal.). so i went in there to see that now the whole bathroom was covered in like 2 inches of water! the washing machine drains into the drain on the floor, and for some reason the water was not draining. i have no idea why... it has never done that before. so i rushed to get the litter box out so that madeline wouldn't be running in and out, and when i went back in, the water had drained! it was the weirdest thing ever... and really annoying. so now my bathroom has a leaky toilet and a questionable drain, and i have to take a shower.

fin.

today...

i learned:

-it doesn't matter how much you can prove that it's not... koreans will still say that fan death is a real, legitimate danger

-if you have a slightly reflective surface (in this case, the tv screen with a black background), your students will use it as a mirror and (unbeknownst to them) provide lots of entertainment for you

-students are like bees when you smoke the hive. turn on the heater and they basically fall asleep. turn it off, and within 3 minutes they're back to being loud and crazy. it's the funniest thing ever to watch from the front of a classroom

-be careful when you wear a hat to cover up the fact that you didn't shower... one of your co-teachers will probably make you let her try it on, and your nappy bedhead will be out there for all to see

-watching kids' reactions to a funny video is usually funnier than the video itself

-"superstition" in korean is 미신

praise the Lord for entertainment in my day!

wednesdays are the best days.

wednesdays are my favorite weekdays. it's the day that i only have 2 classes (with my favorite co-teacher jenny), then for the rest of the day i just get to relax (or get stuff done, of course). every wednesday i wish i had my camera, and i finally remembered it this week. so here is my wednesday...

every week jenny and i go for a walk. my school is about a block away from the ocean, so we usually walk down there.

this is a little boat... it is neat. it was a really nice day (after a string of COLD ones!).

this is a view looking inland from on top of a bridge... my school is in there somewhere. the square area with the little covered part is a pool that women will go to in the summer to bathe and wash clothes and talk to other women... it's really cold! jenny told me that her mom used to take her there all the time when she was younger, and she (her mom) still goes all the time when it's hot.

squid boats. when i first got here the ocean would be completely full of these at night, and the view from my window of the lights on the water was completely surreal.

my favorite co-teacher jenny! seriously... i can't tell you how much she has blessed me. she has no idea either. but she has helped me more than any of my other co-teachers, and she's only at the school once a week! i love our weekly walks... i look forward to them every week. she always gives me advice, and helped me when i was sick, and she always makes sure i remember my milk :) (i actually just learned that her husband runs a milk delivery company! that explains why she is so adamant about it haha) i would also like to point out her fuzzy vest. she was very proud of it... she bought it for herself as an anniversary gift from her husband.

so we were walking one day and came across this random little field. then jenny read the sign that was there and we found out that it belongs to our school! all the classes have their own little crop... this picture makes me laugh because it's the kindergarteners' crop... notice that it's just a bunch of dirt and weeds haha!

this is a little area with some wood paths over a pond. it's one of the stops on our walk :)

and jenny asked me to take another picture of her. i wish that i could express to you how precious she is. (she's the one who gave me the oven, by the way. i gave her some persimmon bread as a thank you.)

now back to school...

can you spot the waygook? there are actually 2 of us, but one is a lot more obvious.

as soon as the kids see the camera they want a picture. this one is funny because he's doing "kimchi!" everyone gives the peace sign in pictures here. it's seriously like an automatic reaction to a camera.

this is mi ri, my head co-teacher at sinchon. she's wonderful and works really hard.

here's what my desk in my office looks like! don't worry... i didn't bother to straighten it up. i like to keep things real on this bloggy blog.

here's from the other side. right behind where i stood to take this is a corner filled with books and a little table. and through the door and windows is my classroom! i didn't take a picture of it because alpha had a class in there... also i promise that i didn't realize it was pink until i took this picture. the only wall i ever noticed was the sweet wood one (on the left, behind the desk).

and this is alpha omega (talk teacher) and mj (talk co-teacher). they are fun to have around :)

and of course this would not be complete without the baby... here she is looking at me while we played with the laser pointer. if i turn it off, she comes and makes this face because she knows exactly where the light comes from. little does she know in this one that it is, in fact, right by her.

once she sees the light, it's on. notice it on her ear... she has no idea that she caught it!

and that is all.

praise the Lord for wednesdays!

a running tally...

so... God is good.
here's just a little list of some of the things i'm thanking Him for today:

-persimmon bread for breakfast (seriously... yum!)-
-only 2 classes today-
-finding a topic for my middle schoolers on friday-
-my favorite co-teacher Jenny-
-delicious lunch-
-friends and family who love the Lord and recognize that blessings are from HIM-
and finally (and the biggest thing)...
-MY DAD BEING HEALED!-
here is a little snippet of the email i got from him first thing this morning:

"I returned to the nephrologist today for the oft postponed six month checkup for the status of my chronic kidney disease. His words: 'You are healed'. Confirming what I knew to be true, God has healed me! We then got to talk about some other things God has been doing; our recent trips, our families, etc. He told me there is no need and he has no intention of seeing me as a patient again. God is good!"

(in case you didn't read it or forgot, this talks about my dad's kidney issues...)

seriously... there's no other way to say it. God is so good!

i'm praying for you all today... that God will bless you immensely and He will show Himself to you in all the little (and big!) things!


here are some more that have happened since i wrote that a couple hours ago:

-getting my bank account and phone bill figured out (specifically jenny's willingness to help with this)-
-my weekly walk and good conversation-
-mi ri (my head co-teacher at sinchon) telling me the persimmon bread i gave her was delicious and then telling me how lucky she feels to have good english teachers at this school-
-being able to talk to friends from home while i'm at work-

really. i know there will be more.

all right... before i go to bed:

-an insanely pleasant bus ride home-

-yoga/pilates class with extra stretching-

-time with friends watching toy story 3 and eating snacks-

-talking to david, who i haven't talked to in a long time!-

praise God for the little things that are HUGE blessings.

currently obsessed

i just rediscovered this little gem.

do it.

http://thewildernessdowntown.com/

the last month or so...

so... here are some things i have done (in backwards order):

today i went to the jeju united soccer game in seogwipo (where i want to live.) apparently they are 2nd in the league right now, so they should have fans. but i guess the league sucks in general, so it's really not that big of a deal. BUT they play at the world cup stadium, so it's all fancy and cool looking.

it was a good time. we got some orange gear. this is sari. she lives in my building. she is neat.

i just wanted a shirt with the logo on it, because it cracks me up. it's definitely a volcano with horns.

this kid was the best part of the game. he loved us and kept leading us in cheers. he would run down like 2 steps, then turn around and do this, then run down a couple more, then do the same thing. it was awesome. that's his mom in the hat smiling. he was probably the cutest child ever.

so even though jeju is 2nd in the league, there are still not a lot of fans. tickets to games are outrageously cheap... this is the loud jeju cheering section at the end of the field in 3000 won (about $2.90) seats. we were sitting in the better seats because we just went where people told us to go and ended up with more expensive tickets. they were still only 9000 won.

and that was the incheon (the other team) cheering section. they were all the way down at the other end and significantly smaller, but still surprisingly loud! sorry the picture is blurry... the cardboard cut out threw off the focus.

so a little while after he led us in the cheers, this kid started coming up and giving us things (it's actually common for kids to give you stuff randomly. my students are always giving me gifts. usually it's food like oranges or little candies or something...). it was hilarious. you could tell that he was just digging in his mom's bag. i'm not sure if she knew or not, but he took a lot. eventually he just started giving me stuff because i was his favorite. he gave me coffee and crackers and a chip. it was stinking precious. i wanted to steal him.

and this was his little brother. he was maybe like 2. he was running around with his little dinosaur like crazy.

and this little thug was sitting right in front of us. he wasn't as precious, but he looked like a balla.

and that was the soccer game... we also saw the tallest waterfall in asia that goes directly into the ocean, but i didn't get any good pictures. i fail with the camera here... it's a goal of mine to be better.

moving on... little backstory: i've been looking at getting an oven since i got here. at first i was just going to get a cheap little toaster oven, but then i remembered that i really like baking, especially in the winter, so i wanted to get a little bigger and better one. so i was looking online a lot trying to figure out which one for a few weeks. my favorite co-teacher jenny knew that i had been looking, and, when i still hadn't bought one after a few weeks, she told me that she had one i could have. she said: "i have an old oven that i don't use. you can have it. it's round." i wasn't really sure what that meant, but i was so grateful that she would want to give it to me that i just said ok! so the next week she brought it... and i was really confused. i asked her if she had ever baked in it (she told me it was good for chicken and fish). she said, "no, but you should try." so i said okay and took it.

then it sat on my table for about a week... i had never seen anything like this oven. well the other night i finally tried it out. and here you go:

the oven. seriously... it's really an oven. it reminds me more of a crockpot... but the heat comes from the top (obviously). there's a fan in there that blows it around.

and it totally works! i got this tiny little heart shaped baking pan for really cheap (it's hard to find baking pans here that aren't really expensive, but i found a good alternative in aluminum lunchboxes...) this is persimmon bread (seriously... delicious.) i was eating a persimmon once and thought it would make delicious bread. turns out other people thought the same thing, and it's really easy to find recipes online. try it! it tastes very holiday-y. and it smells like heaven.

anyway... i can only make mini things but that doesn't matter... the important thing is that i can bake. and it feels like i'm in a spaceship when i do it.

next... last weekend was the foreign language festival. all the foreign teachers who went got 2 extra vacation days. and if you performed, you got another 1.

the picture is bad, but that's me in the middle playing the bongos. caleb is the one sitting next to me playing the synthesizer. he was the only person in our "band" that i knew. those were some of the funniest, weirdest 6 minutes of my life. totally worth the extra vacation day.

and then...

a few weeks ago was my middle school's field trip day. we went to an eco forest, then to the jeju rock park, which was actually really cool. (this is the field trip where i learned about the 3 things jeju has and doesn't have). these are a few pictures from that.

so this girl is stinkin precious. she's really soft-spoken and sweet. in the morning i saw her sweatshirt and got really excited. there was actually another girl with a denver sweatshirt too! anyway... all these koreans wear these shirts with english on them, but they really have no idea what they mean. so when i get excited and tell them, they get confused.

when i got a closer look at this sweatshirt, though, i wasn't so excited. i was more just amused. because, no, that is not a "denver" shirt. it's "denved." and that is how you know that it's just words to them... (there are lots of gems with funny stuff written on them. it's awesome)

so normally the kids wear uniforms. but field trip day is when they get to show off their cool clothes. and these 3rd grade (equivalent of 9th grade) boys just needed to show off their insanely tight pants.

these are some of my 2nd grade girls (and a random teacher). they are great. the one right next to me giving the peace sign is jiney. she really wants to be good at english, and she followed me around all day. she also declared us to be "be (bay) pu" which means best friends. and she got my number and texted me from the other bus on the ride home. hahaha she cracks me up.

this is ms. oh! she's my korean mother. i love her.

these people are (from left to right): the vice principal (who i found out during the field trip is in remission from some type of cancer), a guy i don't know, the principal (who thinks i'm awesome because i can count to 3 for a picture in korean), and mrs. kim (my co-teacher who intimidates me and is also awesome at the same time). it's funny because i was wearing toms and jeans and a t-shirt, but all the teachers were completely decked out in hiking gear with packs and hats and hiking boots. no... we were not hiking.

it was a fun day...

and finally, i will leave you with a picture of the baby.

this was the day she discovered the sink. she couldn't quite figure out what to do with the water (she has now... don't worry). this was right before she toppled right off the edge haha! you can see that there's not really much for her to stand on, so she was just laying there straddling it.

and there it is... some stuff in my life. i've done a lot more, but this is what i have pictures of. life is good... God is blessing me all the time :)

praise the Lord for that.