China Trip

Temple of Heaven

I had a good week in China. I enjoyed my new experience of going on an accreditation visit. I was part of a team-four total-that visited an international school in Beijing. Our responsibility was to see if the school was in a position to be accredited. We had to interview teachers and look at documents...It was interesting. I think the school will get their accreditation.

Did some shopping while I was there. A little stressful to shop in China. You have to bargain hard! And they are relentless in trying to get you to buy something. They grab your arms and talk really loud. But with patience you can get some good deals. I bought some pearl necklaces ($3.00), some Nike tops ($3.00), some silk pillow covers and a few other little things. Since I only have one class I bought my students a little panda pin. I wasn't sure what they would think but they really liked it! They wear it on their uniform top. It was quite gratifying!

My last day there we visited the Temple of Heaven. This is where the emperor (or someone!) went to pray for harvest. It's in the middle of a park. The most interesting part to me was the social life going on there. There were groups of people singing just for fun. There were people taking dancing lessons, learning how to use swords, doing Tai Chi, playing cards...it was fun to see them doing things together.

Lunar New Year

Here in Korea we just recently celebrated Lunar New Year. (Chinese New Year). Lunar New Year is a big event. To me it seems like one of the biggest holidays in Korea. On Lunar New Year families get together to celebrate the new year but also at this time they pray to their ancestors if they are not Christians. This is often a problem for our students who become Christians at our school. They know they are not supposed to pray to people but only to God.

This is the year of the Golden pig. It is supposed to be a lucky year. The golden pig only comes around every 600 years. I've pasted a link here if you want to read more about it.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200612/kt2006123119133111710.htm

I used to think I was born in the year of the ox, which I didn't think sounded too bad, but recently I found out I was born in the year of the rat!! That does not sound nice. I've decided to call it the year of the mouse. It sounds a little cuter if I think about Mickey Mouse!

I was born January 15 and so I guess I was born before Lunar New Year that year-that's why I'm in the year of the rat. If I had been born after Lunar New Year that January I would have been the year of the ox. :) does that make sense! Anyway, it doesn't really mean anything but it's fun to talk about. Supposedly each animal has strengths and weaknesses and some animals get along better with other animals.

I don't think they do it that much anymore but I guess matchmakers used to take it all very seriously and made sure that people matched correctly with their animal.

At least I wasn't born in the year of the snake!
The year of the rabbit sounds the nicest. You can say you are a bunny. :)

We had one day off of school for the holiday. I invited some girl-friends over and we had brunch and watched movies. We watched Facing the Giants and Rocky 6. (Yo, Adrianne.) They were both good.

Ninth Graders!

These are my 9th grade students. Let me tell you this first semester was not that easy for me. It took me hours to prepare my lessons and then I didn't even think they were that good! And I had a hard time figuring out these kids-high school kids are very different from elementary kids. But I can tell you that I am really starting to enjoy my class. The students and I are warming up to one another and I think my lessons are going better!

Saying goodbye to friends.

This was an outing I had with Tom and Jaime, and Hyun Su and Amy and their son. It was a kind of goodbye occasion as Hyun Su and Amy were getting ready to move to the states. (They left last week). I've known Hyun Su for a long time-maybe since 1996

I like to take the credit for the fact that Hyun Su and Tom became such good friends and then later I was the one who arranged for Hyun Su to teach Korean to the teachers at our school and that's where Hyun Su and Amy met and later they got married.

The first time I ever did something with Hyun Su we went climbing at Tobong Mountain with a group of people. In my opinion it's a strenuous hike and I was out of shape. Hyun Su on the other hand had just gotten out of the army. I remember him asking me, "You are kind of weak, aren't you? "! But he was very considerate and made sure that I accomplished our trek.

Many times I went to his house for Lunar New Year. I got to know his mom and dad who were always so kind to me. His mom is a great cook! . One time a group of us from school took a tour to China together. Hyun Su went as well. One evening Hyun Su and I went for a walk around our hotel and many people thought Hyun Su was Chinese, but he couldn't communicate with them. I told him, "now you know how I feel when I can't communicate in Korea". Ok, it's weird but it was kind of fun to see him on the other side of the fence because usually he was the "authority" but this time we were equally clueless!

These are all kind of insignificant memories but there has always been a real recognition of the friendship between us. God really blessed me by giving me a friend like Hyun Su. I knew that I could always count on him. He is a great person.

Just for the record I love Amy too. She is a lovely person and I am thankful that Hyun Su found a wife like her.

I pray that Amy and Hyun Su will get settled in very quickly. I pray that Hyun Su will be able to find a good job. I pray that Hyun Su and his familywill be able to adjust to the states well and that he won't be too homesick! I know that I can look forward to seeing how God will work in their lives.