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.