So, news from the food Korean food front-Anlee and I discovered a Mexican restaurant in Seoul a couple of weekends ago that has won the title of "my favorite meal in Korea." We went back the following weekend it was so good. And getting there involves over an hour train ride. But worth it. It's similar to Chipotle or Qdoba. Casual with big, fat burritos being its specialties. And their tortilla chips are amazing. Some of the best I've ever had. They are made fresh daily at the store. I plan on being a regular at this place. I'm already four stamps on my way to a free burrito. Here's the website if you wanna check it out-http://www.tomatillo.co.kr/. I found out about the restaurant through a blog called "seouleats." It's great: All about finding good food in and around Seoul. Why this would be so exciting is really impossible for anyone that's never been to Korea to really understand. Finding a non-Korean restaurant can be a challenge, in and of itself, depending on where you are. Being outside of the city myself, it's quite a challenge, unless you want to regularly partake of Pizza Hut or McDonald's. Additionally, most of the "Western" restaurants are Koreanized versions of western food. There are a decent amount of Italian places, but I've only found one or two that were what I would consider good, authentic Italian (or maybe good, authentic Americanized Italian. Not sure if what I'm used to is really authentic). And there are a significant amount of westernish buffets; but they leave quite a lot to be desired. Every time I go I get my hopes up-buffets just have a way of doing that for me-but every single time I realize that my expectations need to be lowered. All this to say, finding food that I can really get excited about has been a struggle here, hence my newfound interest in cooking. So...that gives you a glimpse of why I am so excited about finding Tomatillo. And I forgot to mention that Mexican food is my favorite kind of food. It just doesn't get any better than Mexican street tacos.

My free time has been spent mostly reading in these last couple of months. Let me rephrase that: When I'm not hanging out with Anlee, I've been doing some reading recently. Actually, Anlee and I have been spending some time together just reading our own books. It's really nice to do be able to do two of my favorite things at the same time. I received a few books in the mail that I had ordered off of Amazon. The first one was a biography of Martin Luther. I devoured that book in a week. I loved it. I felt like I really related to a lot of Luther's thinking and questioning regarding church, the Bible, and God's nature. Though he certainly had some faults, and this book didn't gloss over those, he was a pretty incredible man. I've only read two biographies-Martin Luther and Kurt Cobain-and I loved them both.

The second book I got is a history of philosophy written in novel form. It was recommended to me by my friend Jason, who I respect very much. I haven't started it yet, as I am in the middle of two other books, but I am quickly trying to finish those books so I can feel better about starting this new one. I am growing more and more interested in philosophy, and this seems like a good intro to the field which I only have knowledge of through Christian writers such as C.S. Lewis.

The new semester began at school last week. I was pumped to start teaching again, mainly just to see the students after a long winter and spring break. But it turned out that I didn't start teaching till this week. Bummer! But this week has been going great so far. I've kinda changed the nature of my lessons-I'm focusing essentially all the time on speaking; the students repeating phrases after me-and it seems to be going a bit better than last semester. I'm having a blast being a goof in front of the kids to get them into it. And it's working. They have been really engaged. I'm going to be really busy this semester. I have regular classes a week and then I agreed to teach 4 after school classes. I get paid extra for the after school classes, which will be really nice.

Philippines

I have been in the Philippines since Saturday, taking a vacation and visiting my aunt and uncle and cousins who are missionaries here. Anlee came here to Manila with me but she had to go back to Korea yesterday cause she doesn't get as many vacation days as I do. But we had a busy few days while she was here, with my relatives showing us around to several places. I'll post some pictures and write a caption for each to give you an overview of the trip so far.

Anlee and I in the neighborhood in Manila where my relatives, the Weissers, live. This is in the area that got flooded horribly a few months ago, and some houses in this area had water up to the 3rd floor!

These are some dancers showcasing traditional Filipino dances at a market in Manila.

The road in front of my uncle's ministries' office. He runs a ministry called Resources for the Blind (you can see the sign in the pic) that helps the many blind people in the Philippines in a variety of ways. We got to tour the office and then go out to some schools with a blind guy and watch him lead a Bible study. We followed him around, as he walked about a mile, got onto a Jeepney (the form of transportation here), got on a tricycle, then walked down another street. It was amazing. He can get around anywhere with his cane. Bananas! There's so much fresh fruit in this country. It's awesome! And there are smoothie stands everywhere where you can get a smoothie for about a dollar.
This is a pearl market, with over 50 stalls of pearl dealers. Anlee loved it. Supposedly you can buy a salt-water pearl here for $20 that would run for up to $800 in America. Yes!! This is why we came to the Philippines!
This is the view of Manila from Faith Academy, the private school for missionary kids that my cousins go to. It was a really nice school. It had a brand new 900 seat auditorium, a swimming facility, and a nice library that I am currently writing from. I took this picture just 30 minutes ago. It's a beautiful day, around 90 degrees. And back in Korea there's snow on the ground. Can't wait to go back. hmmm....

A view of Seoul from the Seoul Arts Center

Anlee and I at the Seoul Arts Center after seeing the Monet exhibit
"Teaching" at a public school in Korea during the months of Dec., Jan., and Feb., does not include much teaching. The students take the final exams the first week of December but the new semester doesn't start until the first week of March. We have no textbooks to go over, so I play a lot of games, lead some singing (carols for december), and try to come up with some interesting lesson plans for the students. That is, when school is actually in session. The whole month of January is vacation for most of the students. School is in session for one week in February and then the last two weeks are an all-school vacation before the new semester starts. It's really quite crazy, and doesn't seem very efficient. During the month of January I have 1-3 classes a day with two special groups of students that study all the time. These are the same groups of students that I have "extra" classes with in the afternoons. I have got to know these students better than any others. These last two weeks with these kids have been pretty fun. I'm getting more comfortable in front of them and confident in my lessons and just being able to ad lib stuff. I tend to always worry about not having enough stuff in my lesson for the class period, but it's worrying me less now. This week especially has been a lot of fun. The girls in my first year class (around 14 years old) have been super crazy and talkative, but not in a way that they ignore me. They are including me in their conversations (as long as they're speaking English I'm doing my job, right?) and they listen when I ask them to. I did a lesson on the 50 states for Monday and Tuesday. I gave them a blank map and as I went through a powerpoint with pictures and facts for each state, they had to fill in the state names. It was a lot of fun for me and they found it interesting. They're always asking to play games, but I've been challenging them recently with some harder stuff. They get bored, but I can see that they're learning so it's rewarding. And we do play games often too. We did 20 questions yesterday.

January is flying by. Tomorrow is my six month mark. Half-way through my contract. It's really a weird feeling seeing time go by in a completely different country, away from all the normal things that serve as markers for the passing of time: Christmas, school semesters, sports seasons, tv shows, etc. I kinda feel like time has stopped back home and that when I come back, everything will be unchanged.

January has been a good month. Along with the National Museum of Korea visit, Anlee and I went to a Monet/Picasso exhibit this past weekend in Seoul. I have never found much enjoyment in visual art, so I did not have high expectations for this. But I found it quite a bit more interesting than I had anticipated. I found that if I took the time to look intently at some pictures, there is quite a lot to take in, and it can be a fairly satisfying experience. There are, of course, other pictures that I have no desire to look twice at. Most of the abstract stuff just doesn't do it for me. We went to the Museum with two new friends of ours, Samantha and Barry. Samantha is from Malawi, via England and Barry is from Ireland. They are really fun. It's so cool making friends from all over the world and hearing their different stories.

I have continued to read quite a bit. The most significant reading that I am doing is this book called "The Gospel in a Pluralist Society" by Lesslie Newbigin. It's really speaking to me with where I'm at right now. There's a lot of underlining going on. Also, I'm going through the New Testament and writing down every verse that has to do with the workings of salvation; how man actually becomes saved. This is a huge topic. And one that is not very clear. But I really want to get a better understanding of what the Bible says about it and formulate my belief based on that. It's been a good experience so far. I've gone through Matthew and Ephesians.

Well, I'm going to get to reading. This is my one night with nothing to do and I look forward to sitting back and taking in what these books have to offer. I love stimulating my mind. Take care. Here's a video of the snow we had a couple of weeks ago-http://www.vimeo.com/9015475.

Peace, derek

Above-two of my students in the snow
Below-the korean food I eat most frequently, Dongas. Basically a pork cutlet.
Below-Mexican food. Yum!
Below-Me at Buddha's Belly Thai Restaurant.

GOOD FOOD!! I have finally found some good food in this country. Their is an international district in Seoul called Itaewon. It is near the U.S. Army Base in Seoul, so it attracts all the Americans from the base, along with many of the other foreigners located around the Seoul area. It seems like foreigners outnumber the Koreans in this area. And the best thing about this place is that there are many great restaurants of a wide variety. Everybody had told me about Itaewon, but I hadn't ever checked it out until December. I will probably be going there a couple of times a month now, I suspect. These last two weekends, Anlee and I have gone and eaten at a Thai restaurant there called Buddha's Belly. And one of those weekends, we met some friends and went to a Mexican place there also. The Mexican place deserves a few sentences. The guy running the place was actually Mexican, which was a surprise. You just don't see a lot of cultural mixing between hispanics and asians. And then, our server was African-American. All the other workers, including the cooks, were Korean. So, we were getting Mexican food... in Korea...cooked by a Korean... served by an African-American. And it was actually pretty good. I will go back, for sure. I love Mexican food. And it's really hard to find here. The other cool thing about Itaewon is that there is an English book store there called What the Book? I've been there several times now. It's pretty nice. They have a decent selection, and you can order pretty much any book and have it shipped for free. I bought C.S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory a couple of weeks ago.

It is still freakin' cold here. I don't think it's been above freezing all this week. The low tomorrow is 5 degrees F. As you may have seen on the news, we got a foot of snow during one night last week. And since it won't really be above freezing for the next two months, it's here to stay. The Korean solution is to get backhoe's to scoop up all the snow and put it in dump trucks to be hauled away. Pretty funny.

This past weekend, my friend Tricia came up from the south part of South Korea to check out Seoul. Anlee and I had a great time hanging out with and checking out Seoul together. We went to the National Museum of Korea. I think the girls were bored, but I enjoyed learning about the history of Korea. After church on Sunday, we went out to a Nepalese restaurant near my place that serves great curry, and ended having a group of around 10 come with us. We made friends with some new great people and ended up all going shopping together after that. It was a really fun and refreshing day.

And I'll leave you with this story: On Monday this week, I was waiting at school for Cam to go out to lunch. A few of my students were having a snowball fight so I joined them. You know, just have some fun with my students, get to know them outside of the classroom, and show them that I can have fun too. Well, it was going well. The snow had been there a while, so it had kinda chunked up into blocks that were easy to grab and throw. They may have been kinda icy, but that just made them easier to snow. I had been chasing this one kid, Tom, around. I hit him once or twice. All the others were just watching us. During a lull in the action, another student, John, is standing about 25 yards away, his back towards me. I decide to throw one at him. Just before it makes contact, I realize that the throw was a little too high. It hits him in the face. He goes down. I run over to him. There's blood. I lean down, say I'm sorry and try to see where the blood is coming from. It's coming from his nose. That's good, I think. Just a bloody nose. The blood keeps coming, so I run inside to get some tissue to stop it up. I give him the tissue. It doesn't seem to be stopping, so I tell him to let me see his face. Darn, it's not a bloody nose. There's a huge gash just underneath his nose. Pretty deep and pretty wide. Darn! I give him another bunch of tissue and tell him to push it on it hard, hopefully the bleeding will stop. At this point, Cam and one of the Korean teachers come out. Long story short (or shorter), two teachers end up taking John to the hospital and he gets 8 stitches! I felt (and still feel) horrible. He's a really good student of mine. I felt so stupid. Injuring my own students. I will not be having snow(or ice) ball fights with students anymore.

Well, it's been a while since I've written on here. And I'm gonna blame Anlee. Having a girlfriend takes a lot of time! I find myself wanting to see her all the time, and other things get pushed to the back. It's crazy! Having a girlfriend should mean you get 4 extra hours in every day. Where was God on that one? But seriously, it's great. My time and priorities have certainly been rearranged, but it's all very good.

I've give you some snapshots of the last 3 weeks.

Well, my mind isn't going back that far, so let's do the last week. Last Saturday, Anlee, me, Amanda(Anlee's roommate), Brian (Amanda's friend), Cam, and Gideon went to see the Nutcracker ballet in Seoul. Some of Anlee and Amanda's Korean co-teachers also joined us, one of them bringing their family. It was a great night. Probably the best part was eating a full-on American meal at Tony Roma's before hand. I got just a plain old burger and my taste buds were jumping up and down in excitement the whole time. It was incredible. I had a good time talking with the husband of one of the korean teachers. They lived in Canada for several years, and more recently lived in NYC for 2 years. They have two younger kids that both speak Korean and English. Pretty cool. After dinner we walked up the street (in the 25 or so degree weather) to the Seoul Arts Center. It was a really nice building. Our seats were way up at the top, but it was still a good view. I was surprised at the number of foreigners there were around us. There was a white couple probably in their late 60's, early 70's right in front of us. I also wonder what other people's stories are. I wonder how long they've been in Korea. The ballet itself was very different from the American version. I had seen the Nutcracker in Seattle as a child and had really fond memories of it. This version did not really captivate me. The dancers were great and the music was great, but it was kinda hard to pick up on the story line, and really didn't draw you in very well. It was not as captivating as I had hoped it would be. And it didn't help that the audience would clap after every slightly impressive individual dance performance. And so every 8 minutes or so, the play would be interrupted by applause. Kind of annoying. But it was still a good time. It's nice having a group of English speaking friends to hang out with.

The next day, Sunday, was our Christmas service at my church. Now, I haven't really ever played with the worship team at my church. I've done a couple of special music pieces, but nothing with the team. They know that I play and have asked if I want to get involved. But I've told them that one of my reasons for coming over here was to take a break from being in a leadership position, and being up front in the church. Not because I don't like it, or don't feel called to it. But just because I've done it for most of my post-middle school life and feel like if I'm going to continue to be in ministry or leadership positions in the future, I'd like to take a step back now, while I can, and just evaluate life and God from a non-ministry perspective. So, I've turned down the offers, but have said that in time, I'd love to join them. And this Sunday was mostly a bunch of special music stuff so I agreed to be a part of it and ended up being part of 4 different songs. I played O Come, O Come Emmanuel on the guitar and sang. I played piano for a Korean guy named Sung Min for a Kirk Franklin song. It was all jazzy and gospely, and was a good challenge for me on the piano. I also played piano for an American girl named AP on Oh Holy Night. It was an interesting blend cause she's a classically trained singer (think opera) and I worked up an arrangement that was more upbeat and syncopated. So we both had to compromise and agree on a medium. It turned out great though. And lastly, my Korean friend Paul was doing a rap and he asked me to right a hook (you know, the singing part that comes in between raps; kinda like the chorus). I put together something and sang that with him to a track. It was pretty fun. It was nice to play a good amount of music that day. I still think I'll wait a bit to play with the team, but am feeling close to being ready.

On Monday, Anlee and I went and saw Avatar. That was really sweet. Go see it.

Then, Christmas Eve, I got to lead a song in the Korean Christmas Eve service. The Korean church that my English service is held in is huge (I think 15,000 members). And they put on a Christmas Eve service that was mostly just special music, and a lot of kids dancing around. And they asked a group from the English service to do a song. I volunteered to lead something kinda last minute. So we did my arrangement of Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee. I played guitar and sang, Pastor Nick played piano, someone played bass, and then there were 3 other singers. It was really fun. There were probably around 3000 people there. Good experience.

After the service, a group of us went over to Anlee and Amanda's place. The girls had the idea that we could all just crash over there and then nobody had to wake up alone on Christmas day. We had a great night eating yummy food (thanks to Costco), watching Elf, and playing Nertz, the greatest card game in the history of the world. The only bad part was that I got dominated by Amanda, who's only played once before. I will get revenge before I leave (that's right Amanda, just wait). It was a good time hanging out with friends, and then we all crashed on the floor.

Christmas day, we went back to the church, as there was a turkey dinner being served for the English service. It was pretty good. Not amazing, but real American food is always appreciated. After that, Anlee came over to my place and we hung out for the rest of the day/evening. We shared gifts, made a Christmas tree (picture), watched Grinch, went on a walk, and had some yummy alfredo and ice cream cake. It was one of the best day in my recent memory. It was nice to have Anlee and other friends to share Christmas with. At no point did I feel lonely. Then I skyped with my family today (the 26th) and got to chat with all the relatives that are over. I almost felt like I was there with them.

Here's a link to a new video that I just took this last week of the infamous Tae-oo Fekkes, my Korean brother. http://www.vimeo.com/8390635

http://www.vimeo.com/8116619-here's another video. This gives you a taste of my everyday morning walk into school. Enjoy.

Well, I have a lot of videos that I would like to show you all, but for some reason, I haven't been able to upload them directly to the blog. So, if you'd like to see more of my life in Korea through video, you can go to this link and watch the videos. I just put one up of a student of mine who wants to be my brother and has named himself Taylor Fekkes. Enjoy! http://www.vimeo.com/8005805

Hello, hello. It's December already. Crazy! Time goes by in really weird ways when you're in a new country. Yesterday there was some snow blowing around, but it didn't stick. It was really cold last night though. I went shopping in Seoul with my ladyfriend (everyone: see below; Anlee: you said you preferred "lady" over "girl". haha). And it was cuh-old!! I bought a new beenie that keeps my head nice and warm, but it's tough to keep out the chilling wind. I guess the average temperature is right around freezing for the next 3 months. Golly!

I found out roughly what my teaching schedule looks like for the next few months. And it's pretty sweet! So, the students all just finished final exams this past week. And the next three weeks we have school, but we're finished with the textbooks so I just get to plan whatever I want for the classes. I'm doing "Missing Lyrics" this next week with both grades. How it works is all the students get a sheet with the lyrics of a song, except that some lyrics are missing. And then we listen (or I play on guitar) the song several times and they try to fill in the blanks. This is my favorite lesson plan. Easy, fun, and it involves music. I'm playing "Hey Jude" for the first year students, and we're listening to "Hello Seattle" by Owl City with the third year students. The following week I have a "Creating Sentences" lesson for the 1st year students. And then the 3rd week I am going to do Christmas carols with my guitar with both classes. And maybe a Christmas quiz and candy canes for prizes. Should be loads of fun. And that's December. And then there is technically no school in January. But during the first week, I am supposed to put on a English Winter Camp, with a special group of kids that sign up to continue studying throughout the month. And then I will have some classes with this same group of students (I think) throughout the month, but it should be a pretty easy load. Maybe one or two classes a day. And then, normal school is back in session the first two weeks of February, and there is no school whatsoever for the last two weeks in February. So, for one of those weeks, I just bought a ticket to go visit my relatives in the Philippines. Pretty pumped about that. Got a great deal on the ticket too. I'll be there in Manila for one week. So, that's how my next few months look teaching wise.

Another notable thing in this past week is that I started reading a biography of Martin Luther. It was written in the '50's I think and is called "Here I Stand." Several years ago, I watched the Luther movie when it was in theaters, and I was really intrigued by his life. And reading all the details now has really been captivating me. He story is amazingly interesting. I recommend both the movie and this book to everyone. Why it is no refreshing for me to read this right now is that I, at times, get kinda isolated and forget that other people struggle with faith and understanding God and the Bible. I tend to think that nobody really struggles like I do and that I ought to not struggle like this. But Luther wrestled INTENSELY with what to make of the Bible and what God's thoughts towards him were. It controlled his life! And this has given me some peace with where I'm at, and some strength to keep asking questions and searching. But I've learned that there is a right and a wrong way to ask questions, and to have doubts. As I learned in different book yesterday (yes, dad, I starting reading "Doubting" and it's perfect for me right now), there's a difference between skepticism and doubting. Skepticism is "the decision to doubt everything deliberately, as a matter of principle." And doubt is something that is quite natural as humans with limited understandings and abilities who are trying to understand a God and his created world that are beyond comprehension. I would say that I have been living mostly in the skepticism realm for the past 4ish years. Purposely bringing everything in to question and being afraid to hold anything as "truth." But things are changing now, and I will soon write a blog that contains more of my present thoughts. I have much more to say. All that to say, Luther is hugely encouraging to me right now. I read the biography for like 6 hours on Monday.

And lastly, as I mentioned before, there is a really cool girl named Anlee that is part of my life. She's been a good friend of mine for a while and now I get to call her my girlfriend. I've been teaching her guitar and we have bible study with a few others every thursday. She teaches at a different school about 30 minutes from here. She's 23 and from Georgia. Yup. If you want more info, you're gonna have to contact me personally.

Alright. Hope y'all are well. Let me know if there are ways I can be praying for ya. Gotta get ready to go to church. peace, derek

Things are going well here in South Korea. This past week was another good one. Next week is final exams, so I put together a game to help review everything we've gone over. I did a similar version of the game with both my 1st and 3rd year students. It brought some nice competition in the classes and I had a lot of fun with the students. This next week, since it is exam week, I think I have only one class on Monday, and none the rest of the week. I still need to come to school, but I'll be spending my time lesson planning and somehow trying not to be bored. I don't even really know what lesson planning I need to be doing since the following three weeks we don't follow the book, but just do whatever we want in class. So, I think I'll bring in my guitar and do a song one week, and I've already got ideas for the next two weeks. But I guess it doesn't hurt to have random lesson plans lying around. This past week, I had some extra time so I started researching why so many English words have silent letters, which turned into researching loanwords, which lead to the history of English words in general, which lead to the history of England and me reading about the Vikings, Old English, Old Norse, and the Anglo-Saxons. It was really interesting. So, I put together a lesson plan about loanwords (words that a particular language "borrows" from another language; like Pizza(italian), knight(german), tortilla(you should know this one), and the history of English words. I think my original goal was to show my students the reason English spelling rarely keeps to any rules. And I ended up finding it really fascinating that the reason is that English has always been a language that is influenced and changed by the cultures and people around it, even those that are attacking it. Some other world languages are protected for their purity, that they won't be deluded by other languages. But English has always welcomed that change and is a representation of all the different types of people that speak it. Isn't that interesting? I thought so. And I hope my students think so, though I think it may be a little beyond most of them. We'll see...

On Friday, I went over to Anlee and Amanda's house for some of Anlee's salmon salad. It was very delicious. But the most exciting part of the night was that we played Nertz! For those of you who aren't aware of the awesomeness that is Nertz, it is a card game that is kind of a combination of solitare and speed. As Anlee put it, Nertz was her version of partying in college. And I can say the same thing. We would have Nertz parties at our house senior year and play for several hours. One guy at my school even started keeping a spreadsheet on his computer to keep track of like 10 categories of stats from the game. Every time a game was played, he inserted the data in the computer. He must have had like 70+ people in there.

Saturday was an eventful day. And I wanted to tell you about it by making a list of the 8 reasons I'd rather take a road trip with 25 Korean middle schoolers than 25 Korean middle school teachers, but I felt bad about listing all those unpretty details. So, I'll just give you a quick rundown. One of the teachers at my school got married yesterday down near the south part of South Korea; about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride from Ansan. The school decided to take a bus down there for the teachers that wanted to go to the wedding. I didn't have anything else going and decided it would be a great Korean experience-seeing a Korean wedding, seeing another part of the country, and hanging out with the teachers outside of school. And it was mostly a great time. I was glad I went and I now have lots of knowledge and experience that I didn't have beforehand (some of which I would be alright not having). We first went to a traditional Korean village down in Jeonju, the city in which the wedding was being held. That was pretty cool. Then we went to the church where the wedding was being held. (As a side note, many Korean weddings are actually held in an apartment or office highrise, with a couple floors set aside for weddings. My apartment building is one of these. Also, Korean weddings are typically very short. I've been told weddings at these buildings are just in and out, with another wedding right afterwards). Well, this wedding was a western style wedding and was at a church. When we got there, the first thing we did was go into this room where the bride was positioned against one side, seated, with her wedding dress on. And anybody that wanted could go up to her and get a picture with her. So there were like 20 of us in this tiny room all waiting to get a picture with the bride. I found this situation rather odd, since it is not part of a typical American wedding. Typically, as a guest at a wedding in America, you don't see the bride till she walks down the aisle during the wedding. I can see some of the purpose of taking pictures with the bride before the wedding, but all that I could think of was, if I was a bride, the last place I'd want to be in the minutes leading up to the wedding was seated, unable to move, with people rotating in to get a picture with me. But that's probably just my American expectations and traditions coming through....Okay, so back to the story. After we get a quick shot with the bride (and of course as the foreigner, I'm immediately pushed up to get in a picture) we head out of the church back towards the bus. And I'm confused. I had heard Korean weddings were short, but was this it? Turns out we were heading to lunch. The guys were hungry. But it was 1:15 and the wedding was starting at 1:30. I asked about this seemingly important fact. "The guys are REAllY hungry." Oh, that makes sense...No! It doesn't at all. We're going to miss the wedding! Am I the only one who see this? But I don't make much of a fuss, because I am not in charge and I figure the principle and other leaders know better than I do. So we get some lunch. I figure the wedding probably starts later than we thought. After about 25 minutes, I am told it is time to go to the wedding. About half the teachers get up to leave. Turns out the principal, vice principal, and the others are not going to come, but stay and drink. Interesting turn of events. And at first the principal tells me to stay, but the others come to my rescue. So, we get back to the church, and sure enough, the wedding has started. Not sure how much we missed but I'm guessing about half. The wedding was not anything too different from what I've seen, except the part where the groom gets on his knees to bow before both sets of parents. After the wedding, we get a group shot with the couple, and then head off to find the others. The plan is to go get some makuli, some Korean rice alcohol that is popular in this part of the country. We take a taxi to this small restaurant where the others are already waiting, and drinking. I will try give you a picture of what it's like being the lone foreigner in a situation like this. The moment I walk in, the principal yells out my name, bringing everyone's attention to me. They all have this slightly mischievous look on their face because of what's about to happen. Before I can barely sit down, the head of teachers gives me his bowl of makuli to drink. I think he wanted me to drink it all, but I take a sip. I am then handed a combination of food I know my body doesn't want. It's a piece of fermented skate (fish), some kimchee, and something else. But all eyes are on me, so what else can I do. As the only beverage around, I take a few more sips of the makuli since the taste of the makuli is heaven compared to the taste of what I'm trying to digest. I then ask for some mool, or water, and am quickly turned down. Eventually, another teacher sympathizes with me and gets some water. Makuli and a plate of food is brought out for all of us who just got there. I am poured a bowl of makuli and I take tiny sips to appease the others. Most of the food does not look very appetizing to me, so I try to bide the time with eating carrots. A little ways in, and about halfway finished with my makuli, one of the not-so-sober teachers insists that I take another bowl by (ha, he thinks I'm actually gonna drink this). Thankfully, we leave soon after this.

I will mention just one more thing. I asked about why the principal and the others didn't go to the wedding, and this is the answer I got. When it was originally asked about taking a bus to come to the wedding, the answer was that it would be too expensive. BUT, if it was turned into a "teacher's outing," then it could work. So, throw in the lunch($), the makuli($), and the folk village, and all of sudden it's affordable. I'm confused...

Today, I'm going to the US military base in Seoul for a full on thanksgiving meal. Pretty pumped about that. Here are some pics of the trip. peace out.


Below is Mrs. Kwon, who has taken care of me so well. She is the head English teacher and is so helpful and compassionate. I am so thankful for her.

Kimchee!!

Well, it's Sunday evening. I just finished putting the finishing touches on my lessons for this next week's classes. As this is the last week before final exams, I'm doing a review game with both my 1st and 3rd year students. I have a powerpoint with a bunch of sentences that either have a wrong word or are missing a word, and have something to do with all the stuff we've learned this semester. And each table gets a turn to pick a number, then I give them that sentence, and they have one minute to write the full sentence on the board. If they get it right, they get 2 points. If they get it wrong, the next table gets a chance to do it for 1 point. Furthermore, there are Jackpot and Ka-boom slides. If they pick a Jackpot slide, they get however many points are written on there; if they pick a Ka-boom slide, they lose however many points are written on it. Team with the most points gets a great treat (which I just remembered I need to go get at the store tonight. Bummer!). Should be fun.

This past week was my best week of teaching by far! It was awesome and I just had a blast everyday. I really enjoyed the students and I was confident and able to just be a goof at times and have fun with them. We all laughed a lot. I am learning how to engage the students more and getting more confident in teaching. I also started writing in Korean on the board this past week, which really got their attention. I got an ovation every time I did it. That was my favorite part each class. I'd have them give me a translation of a word that we were working on, and then I'd write it in Roman letters, and then attempt to write it in Hangul(Korean), which is possible because Hangul is phonetic. But the main reason last week went so well was that I got kicked out of my classroom and had to go around to the student homerooms, as most of the other teachers have to do. The thing is, in my English classroom, there are 6 tables with 6 chairs around each table; a set-up that lets the students sit next to their friends and encourages lots of chatting. In the homerooms, they are sitting in individual desks and have assigned seats. I had their attention 10 times more. It was so great. I hardly got frustrated at all. I was tired at the end of the week from putting so much energy out to make each class fun, but it was worth it. So, on Friday I told Mrs. Kwon that this week had been so great and that teaching in the homerooms was the major reason, and asked her if I could continue to teach in the homerooms. And she said it was up to me. Sweet!!! Mrs. Kwon is amazing. She is so understanding and takes care of me so well. So grateful. I need to get her a great Christmas present. So, whenever I'm doing a game or activity, I'm going to use my English room since it works best for team stuff, but otherwise, I'm going to keep going around to the student's rooms.

Watched two bad movies this weekend. District 9 and 2012. Not worth your time.

Today at church, I played a song for special music. Me and my Nigerian friend Badejo played my arrangement of Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee. I played guitar and sang, Badejo sung some sweet harmony, and a girl played piano with us. It was a lot of fun. And people really liked it. And I guess that the church is gonna have a concert thing around Christmas time and they asked if I'd be willing to play some songs. "Umm...Yes!" So, I'm excited about that.

This next week is Thanksgiving, and I am going to a big Thanksgiving feast at the US military base in Seoul with my friends Amanda and Anlee on Sunday. It's kinda pricey but I'm thinking it's going to be well worth it. And Saturday, one of the teachers from school is getting married about 4 hours away, and the school is renting bus to take all of us over there. I'm pretty interested to see a Korean wedding. I'll bring my camera.

Speaking of camera's, it's Kimchee making season here, and all the grocery stores are flooded with cabbage to be destroyed, I mean prepared, into Kimchee (picture above). How it works is that families buy like 100 heads of cabbage and prepare Kimchee to last for the entire year. They actually have a special "Kimchee Refrigerator" to store this stuff. According to Wikipedia, this appliance is the "most wanted household item in Korea!!" What the $%#? Seriously?!!? So, you don't see a need for an oven, but you make sure to clear a space for a refrigerator to keep fermented cabbage "fresh." Why not just leave it under the couch or something. Then, you could "enjoy" the smell of it all year long. Okay, I am being too harsh. Sorry. I actually do eat the stuff a couple of times a week. But on the other hand, I did see a bunch of cabbage leaves spread neatly across a big electical box outside this one restaurant. They were out there for like a week. A week that included rain. Note to self-don't eat Kimchee at that restaurant. And Anlee said that she saw some Kimchee being "prepared" by a guy walking on top of the leaves with shoes on. That explains some of the scent of Kimchee. Hmm...Nothing against Korea. I just don't understand the obsession behind this stuff. I'm going to list the Korean food that I do like just to counteract my previous words. Bulgogi, Dongas, Mandu, Kimbap, the seafood pancake thing, meet buffet, duck buffet, shrimp fried rice. That's all I can think of. There are some good eats here.

Okay, time for bed. An yeong he gae sae yo (goodbye in Korean).

P.S. It's cold here. I wear 5 layers to walk to school.

The other English teachers at my school. (above)

So, I got kicked out of my classroom for one week. My school is being audited/inspected and the inspection officers get to take over my room to use as their office. So, now I get to go around to the students home rooms to teach. This is how the majority of the other teachers do it anyways. The students stay in their classroom, and the teachers go around to the different classes. I really like having my own classroom. But I'm finding that their are some benefits to teaching in the homerooms. You see, in my classroom, there are six tables with six chairs around each table. This set up lends itself to lots of talking going on when I'm trying to teach (equaling a very frustrated Derek). But in the home rooms, they're all in individual desks facing the front of the class, and they naturally pay attention a lot better. So, my first day teaching in the homerooms was a little rough, just cause it was different for me and I had to adjust. But Friday was great! The students were so much more attentive than in my classroom, my lesson plans allowed for a lot of fun and laughter, and we all had a blast. So fun! So, I'll be teaching in the home rooms until Friday this next week.

I have 3rd year student named Ji Won who has started coming into my classroom at lunch to chat. Her English isn't great, but it's been really fun trying to have a conversation. She'll teach me some Korean and I'll correct her English. One day she brought in a 2x2 rubik's cube. I told her to try to finish it by the time school was finished. So, she brought it back after school and it was done. I was impressed. I asked if I could try it, so she let me take it home and I said I'd bring it back the next day finished. It was a late night, to say the least. I stayed up till 2 looking at stuff online trying to figure out how to do the freakin' thing! All the videos online were by these genius guys who always begin with the same sentence, "They're really nothing to this; it's really easy." And within 5 seconds they've lost me. So, I brought it to school the next day unfinished. But during a break period, I found a website that was simpler and was able to figure it out. So, I was inspired and went and bought a 3x3 for myself. I haven't had any time to put into it, but some students come in and solve it sometimes for me. They all seem to have them figured out.

I went to Costco yesterday. Kettle Chips, Tillamook Colby Jack Cheese, bratwurst (for breakfast scramble), bread, and pumpkin pie. Yummmmmyyyyyy! They had pumpkin cheesecake there but it was around $20 so I decided against it. But I may give in sometime.

I think an interesting question to ask oneself is, "If you did/do not worship God, what would/do you worship. I think everybody worships something. Money, comfort, family, friends, fame, respect, sex, alcohol, etc. I think for me, if I did not worship God, I would probably worship Kettle Chips. They're just that good! Next topic...

An African guy that I know from church is coming over today after church to work on some music together. It's so cool that he's actually from Africa, and not African American. I think he's from Nigeria. Speaks English. He's like 32 and married and is here studying at a university. Should be fun.

Well, I got to shower and get to church. Peace out, Derek

Okay, okay, I know it's been freakin' long since I put anything on here and most of you have probably given up on me. I'm sorry. But here's the latest.

Three weeks ago I flew back to the States for my friend Ryan's wedding in Colorado. It was weird coming to America not as my home, but being more like a visitor/tourist. But it was super good to be around my good friends Ryan and Tripp. We three lived together senior year of college. There are two of my closest friends and I am so grateful for them. I flew out of Seoul Wednesday night after school and arrived in Denver one hour later due to the 16 hour time difference. Wednesday night I stayed at Ryan's new house along with a couple of the other groomsmen. Thursday, all 7 or us groomsmen drove up to Breckenridge where Ryan's now wife's family has a freakin' sweet "cabin." We went by the grocery store and bought steak, potatoes, seafood, chips, and more and made a meal fit for a king. It was great. After that, there was a hot tub and Super Smash brothers on 64. I didn't really sleep at all that night. Possibly my favorite part of the time in Breck was getting up around 7 before everyone else (by that time I had given up on the idea of sleeping) and going outside as the sun was just coming up. I took a lot of pictures of the sun shining on the mountain and had a good time reading my Bible (Psalm 88 was refreshing for me at that time). I'll post a pic or two of this. Friday, we drove the 2 hours back to Boulder, where the wedding was, and that evening had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Tripp, my roommate for 3 and 1/2 years of college flew in from Chicago and him and I stuck together as we were the only two friends from Belmont there. After the rehearsal dinner there was a desert/wine get together at Ryan's house put on by a bunch of mothers. Tripp and I missed out on most of this, because we ended up getting into a great conversation in the car out on the street. It was a much needed and anticipated talk. Tripp is doing awesome! He's just on fire for God and the word. What's most exciting about it is where he's come from. It's been really encouraging for me to see the change that has happened in Him and how God has captured his heart. He's memorizing chapters of the Bible and is now considering becoming a pastor, things that I would have never imagined a year ago. Tripp and I have gone through some similar things with our thoughts on God and as far as being cynical and questioning God, so for me it was great to see. That conversation, coupled with an email from Shea and some other factors have really brought about some great changes in my outlook and faith. Mostly, grace has become evident in my life. God has been more real and the Bible is becoming more alive. I'm memorizing Romans 8 which reminds me of grace each day. I'll write more of what's going on later. But the past couple of weeks have been great.

Okay, what else is going on? Hmmm....I ate dog. Yup. Went out with all the teachers from my school, and I had heard that dog would be an option. I had said I wouldn't try it and wasn't planning on it. We get there and all the tables are prepared with chicken soup and some pork stuff (bosan?), except the principal's table, which had dog (supposedly it's really expensive and gives you stamina). So, being the foreigner and all, the vice principal and principal wanted to offer me some of this delicacy, and in the moment with everybody watching, coupled with the fact that it looked similar to any other meat, I gave in and tried a small piece. It was super tough and took at least 5 minutes to chew and swallow. And it didn't have much flavor either. I don't think I'll try it again, but the ceiling on my "Weirdest Things I've Eaten" list just got bumped way up.

A couple of weeks ago, I had probably my most exciting night in Korea so far. One of the Korean teachers at my school is a member at this music club in Seoul and she asked me if I'd like to go with her. So, I went up to Seoul with a few other friends of mine and we met her there. It was so much better than I had expected. It was a dimly lit room with comfy couches and tables spread across it, a bar, and up front a pretty nice drum set, a piano, and a plethora of guitars. And the only other people there were some of Eun Son's (my co-teacher) friends. There are no employees, just the members who can just go up and get the drinks or food that they want. And we could just go up and play anytime we wanted. Super relaxed environment. It was awesome. I played a couple of my songs on piano and then got to play drums with Eun Son and my friend Chris. It was a blast. I told Eun Son that I'd love to come back as often as possible. So, this past Thursday, the club had a big party, and apparently the owner called Eun Son and told her to invite us back. A personal invitation from the owner! So me, Chris, Anlee, Amanda, and another co-teacher of mine, Eun Jeong, went up there. I got to play a few sets of my songs and also jam with some other people. It was a pretty fun night. There were a lot of people there, and some of them were really good musicians. It's really nice to have a place to play my music and also to play drums once and a while. I hope I can keep going there on a regular basis.

Probably the most encouraging thing that's happening here is the Bible study that a few friends and I started. My friends Anlee and Amanda (both American) suggested the idea, and so them and I and my friend Chris (from Vancouver) have been meeting every Tuesday for the past week at the girls' apartment. A couple of other people have since joined us. We are going through the book of Luke. But the most encouraging part has just been the fellowship and level of comfort and honesty we have developed with each other. I am really enjoying and benefiting from this time and these people in my life.

Well, I gotta get going to church. Heading up to a church in Seoul with Anlee and Amanda that I go to once and a while. Not my normal one here in Ansan. I'm excited for my lesson plans this next week. Should be pretty fun. Talking about adjectives of comparison-better, stronger, faster, best, longest, etc. I'll post a few pics here and maybe a video.

P.S. new music update-David Crowder Band's new CD rocks. These guys are so creative. And I'm still listening to Owl City like 4 times a day.

So, I've been super motivated to work on music recently. This new music that I've just been turned on to by Owl City(apparantly, I'm not the only one as their song is first on the itunes store) is inspiring me like none other. I highly recommend it. I composed a couple of new sets of lyrics on the plane ride to the states and back. Here's one that is unabashedly romantic. Started putting music to it today. Enjoy!

Tonight, my dear, it's you and me
Our hands entwined, our hearts alive
The world has a glow only we can see
Lit with the news that you are mine

chorus-
Love, unselfish love
Over all my lesser wants
Love, I'll wait for love
My soul and mind will join my heart

As a bird finds shelter in its mother's wings
Let my arms be a refuge, a surrounding grace
As the evening cools, and the daylights wanes
Give into the warmth of my embrace

Do not fear when your eyes give way
To the pull of the night, I will not leave
As your head finds the rhythm of my chest
May your dreams never fly this abiding scene

Well, just wanted to do a quick post before hitting the sack. It's been a little while since I've last posted, and I'm taking off for Colorado tomorrow for Ryan's wedding. Haven't really thought too much about what it's going to be like to go back to the states. I imagine it will be kinda surreal. But amazing, too. I'm so happy to spend some time with Ryan before he ties the knot. I get in on Wednesday night, get to join the other groomsmen for a bachelor party up at a beautiful cabin in Breckenridge, and then wedding on Saturday. And my other roommate from college, Tripp, is flying in from Chicago and I'm very excited to spend some time with him too. I fly back on Sunday morning and arrive in Korea at 5 PM Monday and teach again on Tuesday. Not sure how I'll be feeling by then with 2 12 hour flights within 5 days.

This past weekend I took a trip with 3 friends down to Busan on the south tip of the Korean peninsula. The purpose of the trip was to go to the Busan International Film Festival. We took the high speed (180 MPH) train there and back. It was about a 2 and a half hour trip. Super smooth and comfortable. I could have stayed on there much longer. Hopefully, the flight tomorrow will be similar. It was a good weekend. Spent some time on the beach-walking, taking pictures, playing frisbee, etc. Ate some great food, most of it western. Went to a couple of Italian restaurants. For some reason, I just haven't been feeling the Korean food lately. So, I'm excited to head back to the land of hamburgers, quality beer, and chips. I am definitely bringing back some American food to Korea.

Tonight I had a great Bible study with my friends Anlee, Amanda, and Chris. I am so thankful for them and this opportunity to seek God together and be honest about what's going on in our lives. I felt very encouraged tonight. Which was a welcome change for the brokenness and discontent I feel quite often (I can expound on that later). But today was a good day.

Well, going to bed. Below is a video of Amanda, Anlee, Gideon, and I on the train to Busan. A

Brandon and I at the scrumpious meet buffet.
My student Tae Woo, or Taylor. Quite an interesting kid. Tests my patience I enjoy him.

Soy, Brandon, and I on Gwanak Mountain today.

Hello, hello. Well, I got lots of stuff I want to post. Most of it is videos and pictures. I also just finished the song I've been working on. I thought I could post it on here, but I don't think I can (unless I'm missing where to do it at). But I'm really excited about this song. I've had it mostly done for about 3 weeks but have just been waiting and listening to it a ton until I was completely satisfied with it. So, I guess the next best option is to post it to my myspace and give you the link. Here it is -www.myspace.com/derekfekkesmusic. The song is called "Discontent Breeds Growth." Let me know what you think. I think I'm going to try to do some more songs along this vein, in part because I don't have much choice here in Korea with a computer, keyboard, and mic to work with. But I like this kinda stuff a lot. I've been playing on the piano at school after classes some. It's way out of tune, but it's still great to play on a real piano for a change.

Well, I am just beginning a four day weekend. It's Korean Thanksgiving, called Chuseok (pronounced "chew-suck"). Everybody goes to their relatives place and makes different foods, some in honor of their deceased relatives. Tomorrow, Saturday, most everything is closed I am told. So, I stocked up on supplies to make some curry for lunch. Can't wait. Today is Friday, and I met up with Brandon and Soy (his girlfriend) around 2 and we went on a hike in Gwancheon, which is about a 45 minute subway ride from me, up towards Seoul. It was awesome!! Gorgeous 360 view of all of Seoul. Simply incredible! I'll put the video below. There was a Buddhist temple towards the top. You could here people chanting most of the way up. It was pretty cool. At the top, there was a little food vendor set up making ramen and other stuff. It was kinda weird. But I did buy two ice cream pops from a guy who hauled up a backpack freezer full of them to sell. They hit the spot. Overall, it was a great hike and I'd like to go do it again, maybe even try to run part of it.

Well, here are some pics and videos. Hope it gives you a image of my life here.

This is one of my classes from last week. Notice how the boys are all about the camera and the girls are extremely embarrassed.



Here is Seoul from the top of Gwanak Mountain.

Well, it's Sunday morning, Sep. 27th. I'm not going to church this morning because I'm meeting up with a couple friends and going to a different church in Seoul. I've been to this church once before with another friend. It's really great. The English service has like 1000 people in it, and it's very lively. I'm looking forward to it. And then, after church I'm meeting up with Brandon Mueller (friend from high school) who is flying in today from China. He's been teaching in China for several months, but has a girlfriend here in Korea. I'm super excited to see him. He'll be here for a week so I'm sure we'll hang out several times.

This past week was decent. Teaching was kinda hard Monday-Wednesday. I just found myself very frustrated with the students and also with myself. Sometimes I don't feel like I have very much control, and when the kids talk when I'm teaching, I take it personally. I have this desire for control, which means that I want all the students to be interested and to learn something. I'm realizing this isn't realistic. I want to make my lessons as engaging as possible, but I've got to accept that some students just don't want to learn and I can't really change that. I think Mondays I generally have high expectations, and then I'm usually let down. And then by Friday, I don't have any expectations and get excited about every little thing that goes well. I always end the week on a high note. My lesson for the 1st year students this past week was about hopes and dreams-"I want to be a..." I have them write down their dream and then share them with the class. One boy said, "I want to be a god." And in the same class, another boy said, "I want to be a pastor." So, I obviously introduced them to each other. "Pastor, meet god." In another class, a girl said she wants to be in the mafia. Didn't really know how to respond to that.

The weather has been fantastic here. In the 70's and little humidity. I went hiking last Saturday on what was probably the nicest day since I've been here. It felt great! I went with Paul, a guy from my apartment who's from Kansas City. It was fun. The hike was short; only 30 minutes to the top. But the view was great; 360 degrees of Ansan. I took lots of pics and a couple of videos. One is posted below. After the hike we went out to this Nepalese restaurant that serves great curry. It was awesome. This next weekend is Chuseok, a big Korean holiday. I think I get Thursday, Friday, and Monday off. Brandon will be here till Monday so I'll probably hang out with him a few times. May go hiking. And I've been working on this song on my computer for 3 weeks or so and hope to finish that up soon and put it up so y'all can check it out. I'm really excited about it. It's way different from anything I've done before.

Well, I've got some lesson planning I need to finish up. Here's a couple of pics. Peace, derek

This one is at a Korean restaurant. I forget what this stuff is called, but it's basically really big, really fatty pieces of bacon that you fry up on your table. And then all the side dishes.



This is at Pizza Hut for Melanie's goodbye party. Melanie (back with the black shirt and short hair) returned home to Canada last week. Here's a video from the hike.

Yesterday, one of my co-teachers, Yoona, and her friend Ivan took me on a trip to Seoul. We visited a famous court palace from the Joseon dynasty. We were going to leave at 9, but it was absolutely pouring in the morning, so we ended up leaving around 12. It ended up being a beautiful day. It's really cooled off here and the days have been very nice. We got to Seoul around 2:30 cause the traffic was horrible (I see know why riding the subway is the preferred mode of transportation). We got to the palace just as the temple guard was being changed, which I guess only happens once a week. It was pretty neat to see. The palace was very large, and the architecture and designs very intricate and colorful. We walked around for over an hour and took lots of pictures. After that we drove up a hill that has an observatory tower on it where you can see most of the city (on a clear day, which is rare). There was a really cool, and expensive, cafe on the side of the mountain (called "cafe on the side of the mountain") that we hit up on the way down. Got a glass of lemonade for 7 bucks. Actually there was more ice than lemonade. But you pay for the view, which was amazing. We sat on the top balcony and looked over the city. It was getting later by this time, so we drove down into the Insadong area of Seoul and they took me out to a really neat Korean restaurant. We got some Korean pizza thing and some bulgogi, which is thin slices of beef. Amazingly, this meal didn't come with Kimchee.

Today is Sunday, and I'm about to head to church. My friend Melanie is leaving next week, so we are going out to lunch with some people after church for her. Tomorrow starts my third week of classes. Last week ended up being great, after a rough Monday. I'm learning how to control a class, yet have fun with them. It's a good challenge for me. I had a student in one of my classes on Friday that was taller than me. It was crazy. He walked in and I just stared at him for like a minute. Every class I had been having them guess my height and they would all be in shock and applause when they found out it was 188 centimeters. This guy was 191. 15 years old. Dang!

Well, I would like to write more, but got to get to church. Here are some pics. BTW-new switchfoot single up on youtube. Also, Tobin posted a couple of my songs from the "Living Room Concert" up on youtube, also. here's the link-http://www.youtube.com/user/DerekFekkesMusic

Well, it's been a few days. I finished up my first full week of normal classes this past week. It went very well. I enjoyed it. I'm learning as I go what works and what doesn't work. I have 3-4 classes a day with around 40 students in each class. I have a Korean co-teacher in the classroom too, just to help with discipline and translation if necessary. I am teaching the only the 6th and 8th graders. There are over 1000 students in the school, so I only see the 6th graders once a week and the 8th graders once every two weeks. So one lesson plan lasts me a week or two. That's pretty nice. I definitely had my lesson down by the end of this week. But it's too bad that my time with each class is so limited. I really have to make the most of my time. I also have three "extra" classes after normal school is out. These are with the kids I had for summer camp. There are only 15 or so in a class and there English is much better. I think these classes will be my favorite. Cause I'll actually get to know the kids and hopefully be able to see more progress in them. And I don't have to follow a textbook for these classes but can plan my own stuff. On Friday I was talking with my 7th grade extra class students, and I found out that this group of students-the 15 of them-are at school until 9 PM every day! There parents pay extra money for them to be a part of this special group, and they study from 9 AM-9 PM every day. Plus, Korean's go to school every other saturday also!

I went out this past week for a goodbye party for my friend Nikia. She left today for home (Philly). There were 12 of us that went out for duck. (above) It was very good. I ate a lot. We got like 3 whole ducks and it was about $10 a person. Afterwards, Melanie and I helped Nikia pack till 2 in the morning.

So, I had a revelation this past week. I think I came upon the story of how Kimchee came to be the Korean tradition that it is. I'm pretty sure this is close to the way it happened...

"Times were hard in Korea. The war had left the country ravaged. Work was hard to come by and food was scarce. Malnutrition and famine were common in all areas of the country. It was getting so bad that some families were even starting to eat their pet dogs! The Park family was a typical Korean family. They had long ago said goodbye to Buster. And things weren't getting any better. Pa Park hadn't had work in more than a year. He had lost 3 fingers fighting in the war and was at a disadvantage for the jobs at the few factories that were still running.

One night, after two days of eating nothing but scraps of dried squid, Pa Park had had enough. He could handle this horid state no more. There must be something; there must be some way to sustain his family. As he poured the last of the murky drinking water into his wife's glass, he had an idea. He thought it over. Would it work? Would it be edible? Would his family go for it? It was worth a shot. There were no other options. He turned to his wife. 'Honey, I may be crazy, but I have an idea. Go get me the compost.'"

And thus Kimchee (meaning "I can't believe I'm eating this") found its way into Korean tradition.

Well, I'm finally finished with the recording project and am feeling better. The past week was not been very productive or enjoyable, for the most part. Felt mildly sick most of the week and then felt like crap Thurs.-Sat. Left school early on Friday and went to the doctor. Got diagnosed with the lovely "common" cold. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to react to that prognosis. I think I was mostly disappointed. "Come on! Validate my feelings of crappiness and all my complaining!" But I guess it's good that I don't have the swine flu. I had English Camp all last week with two groups of students. It was pretty fun. Played a lot of games, did a powerpoint "tour" of American cities and landmarks, and made burritos with them. They weren't as ecstatic about the burritos as I had hoped (or as I was). Mostly it was fun getting to know the students better and help them learn English.

Today (Monday) was the first day of the semester. I wasn't given a class schedule or told what to teach or anything. I didn't know what grades I would be teaching till this morning. Communication is not...ideal. But it's okay. It turns out that I will only be teaching 1st and 3rd year students, which is similar to 6th and 8th grades. And though I was told I'd have a class of 20 students to myself, the principal decided he wanted to go the route of most of the other schools and give me 40 students with a Korean c0-teacher. Lame!! 40 students is a world of difference from 20. My class-control-level just plummeted. Plus, I had gotten used to the level of English the the camp kids had, but they seem to be the better kids. Communicating with the classes today was surprisingly difficult. I got a lot of blank stares. I was thankful the Korean co-teacher was there to translate some things. After an introduction of myself, I taught the 1st year students a short lesson on verbs, especially future tense, and then had them right 3 things they "will do" this coming week. The 3rd year students were much more advanced than the 1st year. I was pleased. I was able to have conversations with many of them. I had them write about their summer. This was quite easy for some, but still difficult for some. There is such a huge range between their level of understanding. It's gonna be tough challenging the top while catering to the bottom. Reminds me of a book I read in college while writing a paper on homeschooling titled "Dumbing Us Down." hmmm...

So, spent some time browsing itunes, myspace, billboard today. Turns out there's a buttload of new music just coming out. Third Eye Blind, Imogen Heap, Skillet, and Mutemath. Just bought Imogen Heap's new one. She is amazing. I don't know how she does all this herself. I'm jealous. Well, I'm gonna end this. If anyone wants to skype on the weekends, let me know. below is a picture of my church. The English service is held on the top floor of the building on the left. Pretty crazy. I think there's around 8000 people at the church. And I'm taller then them all!!! No, that's probably not true. There's probably a few other giants around.

Summer camp tomorrow: Picture tour of America-Cities and landmarks; and ultimate frisbee. Yes! Gonna turn these Korean kids on to the great sport of ultimate frisbee.

I'm getting into the habit of getting home from work and listening to a sermon. The last couple of days I've listened to sermons by Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill in Seattle. His free podcasts on itunes are great. I also listen to Tim Keller from Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC at times too. I recommend both. Today's sermon by Mark was about wisdom. Proverbs says that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom." And Mark was saying that if you want to understand and improve your life, your first item of business should be to learn the fear of God. I try to focus on clearing up all the problems and confusions in my life first. But that will never clear things up. Also, the fear of the Lord cannot happen as long as we fear man. And I fear man quite often. I value and give worth, or weight, to what different people say or think often more than what God says or thinks. None of this is really new. It just hit me today with where I'm at and was what I needed to be reminded of. I had forgotten this. So yea.

Gonna hit the sack.