Movie night at church

Yeah, I'm still horrible at keeping my word on this thing. . . . Anyway, I did a movie and dinner night thing at the church back at the end of April.  The movie was called The Grace Card; It actually took place in Memphis, TN, which I'm proud to say. I didn't watch the whole thing through until that night, but I think we all enjoyed the movie and the message that it had to offer us. We did have 12 folks that came and ate with us that night, and I think eight of them stayed for the movie, which worked out well.  I made a bow tie pasta dish, with duck, and chicken, that consisted of some onions, and shittake mushrooms, along with a handful of basil, oregano, and sage.  It seemed like everyone enjoyed the pasta, and two of the Ethiopian ladies made some of their native dishes which I definitely enjoyed as well.

Overall, the first test of this event went well. So it looks like we'll do something like this at the end of May also. I'm not sure what the movie or what the meal will consist of next time, but I've got a few bags of penne pasta here calling my name.  

Happy May Day . . . .

I'm a slacker. . . ., so on my birthday of all days, I'll somehow try to catch you folks up with things. It's not an easy task, but not much has really gone on in the last ten days.

I did enjoy a trip on the 21st (a very rainy day), to a national museum, in Gyeoungju, a city with a ton of history. It was an adventure that I kind of planned, but due to the rain, we had to schedule a different activity or two instead. The eight of us that did go, did seem to have  a good time. The museum was packed full of people, being that the weather wasn't all that great.

Work keeps me energized, as well as sleeping deeply on a nightly basis too.  The little ones are learning well, and they definitely get cuter as time goes by too. Story time, and music time are my favorite times of the day. The late afternoon can be dreadful, but I somehow have my ways of easing these kids into my command, one pushup at a time (j/k.). Today was Labor Day in Korea, which meant the little ones at are school, didn't come to school today at all.  So, I had a few hours free, which was awesome. I spent more time playing with my little ones that I teach in the mornings, and probably ate more than usual too.  Our boss made the food today, and it was more of a hit than the usual meals were.

I'll leave a few pictures up here for now, and will do my best to update again tomorrow or the next day -- I haven't mentioned our movie night that I hosted at church last Saturday night (April 28th).

                                          one of the coolest pics ever!!

                                         one of my favorite little dudes

                                        this kid is great too

                                          One of Mimi's students celebrated her bday last week

                                                   When kids get bored

                                            Or really bored

                                         I don't think I've ever had this many to drink before getting on a subway

                                                     Picture from the Arboretum

                                             this kid comes with a warning sign

                                       Pumpkin and duck meal -- awesome

My Boss, and the Korean Workers

I am so happy to say this . . . . I work with Koreans that are almost always smiling -- and not arguing about something.   It's so nice to see this. My boss will even take my coworker Amelia, and I out for our birthdays in a week or so.  That's pretty rare in this country as well.  It's definitely nice to see people are happy with their jobs -- my boss treats everyone really well, and it shows.

Happy 4/20

No, I don't celebrate it, but it's interesting that I found a song released by Willie Nelson, that he did with Snoop Dogg today.  If you don't know the meaning of 4/20 then just look it up on Wikipedia or one of those websites that shows you all the important information about this day.  I do believe tomorrow is Earth Day, or perhaps it's on Sunday -- regardless let's be mindful of the great Earth that we have to use at our convenience. Sometimes we take too much advantage of this great Earth we have as well.

My job is so random, but interesting.  I had two little girls that were both wanting to sit next to me when we do our storybook class.  Turns out one had the seat "reserved", and the other one took the seat anyway.  So, I told the loser (one way to put it) that she could just take my big chair and sit next to her brother.  Apparently that didn't work, and she stood crying for maybe five or ten minutes -- I even tried to pick her up and "daddy" her -- not sure how that works when they're 10 or 11 years old, but whatever.  That didn't work either though.  So, then I went to my Korean assistant and asked her to come intervene.  Turns out the girl who took the chair went to the bathroom and started bawling her eyes out as well.  She came back was just choked up full of guilt I guess.  So twenty minutes of that class was wasted for them due to their tears -- all because of a little chair.

The rest of the day was a genuine blessing, because it went over really well.  The week itself, went by with ease for the most part.  Anyway, I'll get off of here for now, and take clothes out of the washer and get to sleep very soon.

Goodnight

A few pictures

A glorious day on the KNU campus with my Ethiopian friends, and Chote, from church.

some weekend photos

                                                      purpose of event

                                                   church friend Chote

                                                    waiting. . . and waiting. . .

                                                part of Team Pakistan

                                             another shot of part of Team Pakistan

Another Productive weekend, but I'm worn out

I think I need a weekend where I seriously stay in my neighborhood.

I love being productive and always doing things, but I guess it's hard when I actually have to work a job that tires me out as well.  I feel like I put so much energy into the last two hours of my work day, but perhaps I do put a lot of energy into the other part of the day too.  It's definitely not easy to get my workouts in at night, but they get done anyway.

The kids are fun, these days.  With the exception of a pair of twins having a sword fight with their tongues, I haven't had anything real strange happen lately.  One girl tries to the pull up my coworker Amelia's skirt during class once a week -- of course we share the same class, so I have to look away asap.  Just like usual with jobs here, I'm outnumbered by women.

I really see myself out of here in about seven months.  . . . . I'm making an impact on a church here, but I really need to be impacting a church in Tennessee or Kentucky instead.

Anyway, this weekend I took part in an event entitled Global Awareness 10km in Their Shoes -- this was to show awareness for countries that have suffered through natural disasters in the past year or so. It was a fun event, where my church friend Chote and I meet quite a few people from Korea, and other pasts of the world.  The walk wasn't exactly 10km, but the weather was beautiful.  If only we didn't stop and take 10,000 pictures, things would have been a little more exciting.  We did do some video footage to send to the countries we were showing support for.  Those countries would be Pakistan, Chile, Haiti, Turkey, Japan, and Thailand.
Chote and I were part of Team Pakistan, in honor of Khan, who attends our church and is a native of Pakistan.