Do do dooo

Annyong hasay yo!!!

So here it is officially one week into my year sojourn in Korea. So far I must say that things are going great! The weather is absolutely delicious. Hot and humid and wonderful. It is supposed to rain this weekend which I am very excited about because if it does I plan on doing some hiking. There is a little park right outside our apartment building which has a little trail with trees, flowers and squash vines everywhere (my window over looks it too).

As far as teaching goes… well lets just say its work. I still have a lot to learn in terms of how to read a classroom and give them work that is challenging but not over their heads, and how to maintain discipline and respect while still having fun. The kids really are very sweet, and I have yet to have any major behavior problems (even though I have only been there not even quite five days so I should not be too surprised).

The school itself is very nice. It is on the 8^th floor of this building (everything here is built up not out). All the teachers that I work with are really nice, both the English and Korean teachers, and they have been so helpful in getting me situated. We don’t get a lunch break, and instead we eat lunch with the kids. Each teacher is in charge of a classroom and our meals are prepared by this wonderful Korean Lady who is a stellar chef. Every day is a totally traditional Korean meal complete with Kimchi, rice and then usually two or three other dishes. Yesterday we had a dish that consisted of whole dehydrated anchovies (eyes, skin the works) in this sweet-savory chili sauce with walnuts. It was so good. I still have plenty of breaks through out the day because we don’t teach a class every period. The parents are also always bringing by treats for us.

I am pretty tired at the end of the day and my feet are starting to hurt a lot. We don’t wear shoes inside the school either. There is a shelf were you take your outside shoes off and put on slippers that you keep there at the school. Right now it’s pretty charming but I have a feeling I will be over it real soon. I need better arch support.

I am starting Korean classes this Saturday which I am very excited about. I have been able to pick up a few more vocab words since coming here but not being able to communicate with people is getting really annoying!!! So my goal is to be able to carry on a very basic exchange about food or myself with in the next 2 months or so.

Thank you all again for your prayers and good vibrations. Please continue to keep me in them. May the God of peace whose love passes all understanding be with you, and remain in you, wherever you might go.

All my love!

Miss Maggie

Where ever you go, There He is.

Well Howdy, or Annyong hasayo!

This is a test/first entry so I am setting the bar low... there will be more to come, including pictures. I would also just like to state for the record that the word "blog" is dreadful and whoever made that word up should have to be called that forever and name their first born "blog" as well.

So I arrived in South Korea on Thursday the 31st of July. The first thing I saw were these little, perfectly formed, rounded mountains popping up out of the sea. I got there right around sunset so it was beautiful and the water was like a looking glass, all still and reflecting a pastel rubbed sky. It seems like everything here in smaller; the Mountains, the cars, even the ants are smaller (and reddish) .

My apartment is wonderful now. I should have taken pictures of what it looked like before I made friends and had my way with it, because I am pretty sure if I sent them in to "Flip-that-one-room-studio-with-nothing-but-bleach-and- determination" I would win. Its supper zen, I will try to get a photo up.

I have gone to the school that I will be working at and sort of gotten to know what everything looks like. It is called Wonderland and it is a private school that teaches English along with everything else. However we (as in the English teachers; of which there are four, two guys from England, a lovely little Aussie gal and me) only teach English. I will be in charge of the younger kids so we will see how things go! Monday I will be observing classes and then I will start teaching on Weds.

Tomorrow I am going to Church in a different part of Seoul with one of the other teachers Phil. I am quite excited and can't wait to see more of the City. Guri, which is the town I am in, is not truly part of Seoul, but it feels very urban. However there are lots of trees and we are surround by mountains. Its really beautiful... Its raining right now, and the weather is sticky hot, which I could not be more please about.

Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to keep me in them over the next couple weeks. I really want to learn the language and I am praying for an Acts 2:1-21 type of occurrence. Aside from that I want to be able to love the kids but be firm and discipline.

I Hope for wonder and joy to surround you all and go with you where ever you go (because there you are!)

All my Love

Maggie