Monday, February 22, 2010

sorry it has been a little while. things have been busy with TESOL, so i haven't had time for much else. and because of that...i have neither blogged nor had much to blog about. i am, however, glad to report that this is our last week of training and we will be graduates this friday! so excited. we will then have a long weekend (another korean holiday this monday...they have alot of those) then start teaching at our schools on tuesday, march 2nd. nervous and excited when i think about going to school and facing my hundreds and hundreds of students. pretty overwhelming...i hope i can handle it!

all of the treveccans are pretty excited to welcome another one of us to korea this week. patrick was supposed to come with us in january, but was delayed due to some paperwork complications. thankfully, it has all been worked out and he will arriving here thursday evening. keep him in your thoughts and prayers, though, because this means he will only have the weekend to conquer jetlag, familiarize himself with the area, experience some culture shock, and get prepared to start a new job. it has been pretty overwhelming to try to do all of these things in a month, so the idea of condensing it into one weekend is pretty mindblowing. i know he will be fine, but do me a favor and remember him this next week!

i had another wonderful sunday at church yesterday. we had a delicious meal after a great service, then played a popular korean game called yut. it is often played to celebrate the chinese new year (which was technically last week). it was alot of fun to see another aspect of the culture and learn a new game...even though my team came in last place. :( hoping for better luck next time.

i had a chance to share lunch with one of the professors here @ KNU last week. she is a korean adoptee who came back right after she graduated from a nazarene school...just like me! we had a great discussion about lots of things and she was a huge help to me. she is also alot of fun and super sweet, so it was just enjoyable! i hope to be able to share lots more of those lunches together. one thing we discussed was the rehabilitation program at KNU. i think this is so cool. the school has a major focus on helping students with disabilities or special needs, and offers several different majors related to rehabilitation and a great facility with some state of the art equipment. most of you know that special needs students are very near and dear to my heart, and i love the opportunity to spend time working with them. i also just think it is so cool to see the university not only recognizing an often-overlooked population, but also saying "we believe in you and want to help you in whatever way we can. we want to see you succeed!" i feel like this is such a beautiful way of living out the mission of the church and being the people we are supposed to be. all that to say, the KNU professor works in that program and was really excited when i told her how interested i was in it. she is putting me in touch with one of her students from that dept and hopefully i will be able to tour the facility soon and find out if there is a way i can help out. nothing would make me happier!

the dynamics of interpersonal relationships always take any situation and turn it into something infinitely more interesting. my time in korea is no exception. i have made alot of korean friends and i love spending time with them and learning more about their culture and them as individuals. i love spending time with my church family and sharing meals with them and getting to know them a little better every week. i love spending time with the other new teachers and learning about their backgrounds and personalities and likes and dislikes. and i love spending time with my old friends who i have known since freshman year of college. i love being thrown into a situation like this where we have no choice but to depend on each other and support one another and i love finding out new things about them and seeing that, just maybe, we don't know each other quite as well as we thought we did. our relationships with one another are some of the most frustrating and rewarding things about our short time here on this earth. healthy relationships don't come naturally and they sometimes take sweat, blood, and tears. but those are the things that make it all worth it in the end. take some time this week to consider your relationships with those around you and be reminded that nothing that is worthwhile comes easily.

may God bless you guys this week!

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