Wow, so much has happened and it's so difficult to condense it all into a neat little package. I've hiked gorgeous mountains that proclaim the glory of God;
they also reminded me of the fear of God (walking around with worn out shoes on a granite precipice that drops a couple thousand feet is a little nerve-wracking to say the least ). I've swam in the East Sea and observed Buddhist services. I've rode an elephant in a massive children's park, where Sky and I later got our ego's checked by some Koreans in a game of pick-up (basketball). I visited a massive man-made waterfall, which was really quite hilarious because I thought it was real in the advertisement but later learned it turns on at 3 o'clock pm. (Sky wasn't impressed - I convinced him to tag along under the impression that it was natural hahah). I've been to the massive sea-port in Incheon, watching the huge cargo ships coming and going from a 2 storey Chinese pavilion on a hill in China Town (one of my favorite things I've done yet). I watched the never-ending fire-works in Seoul along with a reported 1 million other spectators (I've never seen so many people in one spot in my life and the mayhem of trying to get to the subway afterwards is a story in of itself haha). 
I took my kindergarten kids to Olympic Park on a beautiful sunny day and just loved watching them be kids. I recently took them on a class trip to a big fire station where we played with water hoses on a projection screen and saw all the shiny red fire trucks. I've been growing as a teacher, learning how to control my students, learning how to interact with them, loving them and praying for them. Some of them have become very precious to me, especially Lucy and Harley, a couple of my elementary students, and Julie, my little Kindergarten student. She's a doll. I'd adopt her if I could. I'm also learning that teaching kids is hard work, and I've got a lot to learn yet! Today was "father's day" at our school. I spent the morning in an apron and chef hat giving English cooking lessons to the kindergarten students and their dads (it was a little odd, and thinking about it disrupted my sleep a bit last night, but it actually went really well). We made Kimbap. I have never made Kimbap before.
Church has been going well. I was asked to give intercessory prayer for the church last Sunday. The sermon was short but I made up for it with my prayer hahahhaha.. One Korean girl came up to me and said, "good prayer - but too long I think." I've made some good friends at the church and hope to get more involved as I get more settled in. Sky (my co-pilot at work), Jordan (from Union Street), Blake (from Peterborough, Cdn) and myself have been meeting on Wednesday nights for some accountability, prayer, and bible study. We're currently trying to make it through a book on Spiritual Disciplines. I've recently memorized Romans chapter 1, and I'm going to try and keep going to see how much I can do before it all blurs together. I'm also reading through the Old Testament and summarizing the chapters as I go (very helpful). God's been challenging me in many ways, and I feel myself maturing spiritually through all that I'm learning.
Oh, I recently bought a small tree to take care of - I think that means I'm adjusting - otherwise why would I take on another responsibility (it has survived almost a month; its still green in colour; and only 3 branches have fallen off - I don't know why they fell off but you can't really tell anyway).
Here's a little story for you.... that happened a little while ago...
A little while ago, I had a chance to meet and work out with an Olympic gold medalist. It was a very inspiring experience. He's famous in Korea for winning the gold medal in Judo at the 2004 Olympic games and being engaged to a famous Korean LPGA golfer.
A hot-shot golf trainer who was following me around in the gym and making numerous compliments about my arms, like "wow, very big" but was disappointed that my back muscles weren't bigger, saying things like "ahhh too small" (which really made me laugh by the way), pointed to a guy doing some heroic chin-ups and said in broken english "he win first place medal". My inital thoughts were, "oh maybe he won a Korean race or something. "Hmm, that's great," I said sincerely happy for the guy, but only mildly interested in pursuing it any further. Not making much of it, I continued about my business, occasionally drawing inspiration and sometimes feelings of inferiority from some intensely muscle bound dudes posterized on the gym walls. A few sets later, interspersed of course with some musing at posters, this medal winning fellow happened to be on my machine, so I said, "ahhh, mind if I work in with you?" to which he replied with a smile, "ok". After finishing a set, I said kind of awkwardly to this guy waiting for his turn, "so ah, you won a medal eh? "Yea," he nodded and smiled. "Congratulations! What did you win it in?" I said curiously. "Judo (pronounced yudo in Korean). "Really? that's cool," I said with piqued interest. I started sizing him up as any guy would. Ok, he's got a few pounds on me, but we're sort of evenly matched physically. Maybe 9 times out of 10 he'd get me, but I'm sure I could catch him off guard once, and before he had time to register what was happening, whamo, he'd be licking the mat (these are the kinds of delusions men entertain sometimes hhahaha). Anyway, "Where did you win the medal" I said getting really curious? "2004 Athens," he replied smiling. "No way" I said. At this point, everything changed, basically for two reasons: first of all, I realized that if I did something to irritate him he could probably snap my neck without a chance to defend myself; secondly, he's an Olympian. "Wow, that's awesome! So did you win the gold medal in Judo?" I said hopefully. I mean, an Olympian is an Olympian, but to meet an Olympic gold medalist, that'd be too cool. "Yea," he said. His English was broken, but he understood enough and spoke enough to have a basic english conversation. "Amazing," I said and a little stunned. "So you're dangerous, I said matter of factly. "No, I'm nice guy" he said laughing. I didn't think it was that funny, but I waited for him to finish laughing, thinking "yeah, a few more good jokes like that and we're going to be best of friends." I mean, an Olympian friend is just what I need. At the time, I was feeling a little undisciplined in some areas of my life and I figured chumming with a super-disciplined person could be a positive and uplifiting experience.
We continued working out side-by-side, and he at one point looked at me and said, "you have a good body." hahaha... that's struck me funny. An extremely well-built Olympian is complementing my build, this is too weird! (by the way, if a Korean thinks you're handsome, he/she will tell you, even if they don't know you - it's really strange!). I wasn't able to score any more good jokes with him, partially due to the language barrier, and partially because I couldn't think of anything funny to say, but surprisingly, at the end of the workout, he shocked me when he asked for my email address. Earlier, we had jokingly negotiated an agreement that I'd help him with English for a few Judo lessons; that has not yet materialized by the way, nor do I expect it to (that's why you got to get contracts in writing!). After exchanging email addresses, he asked me if I had made many friends in Korea. "I said, not too many yet." He said "don't worry, I'll be your friend; here come with me he said.
The whole time I was thinking "Wow!" What an interesting experience. The thought that carried the most weight afterwards though was wondering if he's a Christian. That's the one thing I regret not asking him or at least exploring (it's hard when there is a language barrier to talk about spiritual things). I hope to get a chance to find out.
When I told Skyler the next day, he was so upset. He goes to the gym more then I do and he has never met the guy. What's even funnier is that since then I've met two more Judo Olympians from the Beijing games who unfortunately speak no English, and whom, humorously, Sky has also yet to meet: Choi Min Ho, a really famous 2008 gold medalist and a massive 2008 silver medalist. This is the gym to be at apparently!...
Be blessed everyone and hope to hear from you!
Miss you Union Street!
Miss you family!
