Latest happenings......

Wow. It's been an interesting last few days. Sometimes, it's hard to know if this many interesting things happened the entire time I was here, or if sometimes it just hits me how truly remarkable things can be in my life here.

I taught my kids an old camp song I learned at Camp Judson in the Black Hills a few summers back: "Pharoah Pharoah." It's funny, because back then, we got really sick of all the kids singing the song because it sticks in your head. Even though it's these kids second language, it stuck in there heads too! I couldn't get them super excited about the actions though......

One of the girls names in my English time 2 class is Kim. This is fine, except that Kim is a very popular last name in Korea. What that means is when she westernizes her name, her name becomes Kim Kim. Also, I jokingly called her Kimbap---which is a popular seaweed-rice roll in Korea, similar to sushi. That stuck with the other kids. My bad, Kim! When I suggested we give her a different name, I started with my grandmother's name. She was not of fan of "Florence," however, nor did she take to my mother's name: "Elaine." The older of my two younger sisters is Anita (which sounds Spanish) so I skipped to Joanna, my youngest sister's name. Kim said, "banana" and shook her head.......it struck me as funny, because my youngest sister has been teased many times the same way. I finally gave her the name Luann, because back in the day, my Sunday school teachers were Kim and Luann. It seemed fitting to just switch to the other. However, a day later, she decided to just stick with Kim. I told the class there was to be no "kimbap" talking. That worked, until today in the last five minutes, I said, "Kimbap, sit down." Woops. Better just take Luann, Kimbap......

This morning, I was getting ready to get dressed when I heard my apartment door open and "Jay" in that unmistakable voice that belongs to my director. When I first came to Korea, I was a bit intimidated by the woman, because of her aggressive, strong willed personality. Now, I merely said, "what?" She proceeded to tell me that a Korean Pastor was visiting from America and that he'd be staying in my apartment. She appologized for not telling me the day before he'd be coming. I was tempted to be upset---mostly because I hadn't cleaned up much. But this was part of the deal when I came. I got a 3 bedroom apartment to my self----with drop in guests possible. Between Somonim and myself, the place was fine within a few minutes anyway. All part of the experience. Funny how now I just roll with it.

Then there was today. I've had a weak lower back for years and have been working on trying to strengthen it. One of the other teachers has training in physical therapy, and during our break in the office, she showed me how to do a stretch. I was trying it out--and was rather shocked when Somonim came over and yanked my belt upward to try and get my belly higher......Wow. Granted, she was right----I wasn't quite in form yet. Apparently my eyes bugged out of my head and the others in the office roared with laughter. I could only laugh too. This was priceless.

I gave a quiz on basic prepositions in Grammar I. One of the questions was "draw a picture of a fish under the water." One student drew a picture of fish under the shower head. Another drew a picture of a fish literally under a fish tank. Wow. I couldn't count them wrong.

Hope you are having a good spring!

Jay