Walk for Peace 10k

On this past Sunday, I woke up at 4:15 am and met a local cultural group for a 5 am bus ride to Seoul for a 10 k peace walk.... I was given the smallest seat on the bus, for some reason..... Assigned seats were not a good idea. We did get to Seoul Grand Park with enough time to enjoy the scenery and the massive Seoul Grand Park Zoo, which even has some bison.  I spent a little time with a few of the organizers and then we all had a little lunch in a nice grassy area near th starting area for the big event. As we were walking toward the event area, I started talking to a younger guy who is from Southern GA, via New York. He mentioned that he really wanted to just go back to the zoo, instead of partake in the walk.   The pre-event program was dragging on and on, so we looked at the programs for the zoo, and noticed the lion feeding was at 3. So as the walk got started we headed toward the zoo, to be kids for the next 90 minutes of our lives.

I did manage to meet some wonderful guys from Uzbekistan, who have invited me to have dinner sometime soon with them. Two of them speak really impressive korean, though they do study at school four hours a day as well.

From my Facebook status

Interesting event occurred today..... Usually during light rains here I just tend to keep my head covered up... As I was at the bus stop waiting in a light rain, an older lady came up to me saying that I was going to catch a cold, without an umbrella. I tried to tell her I couldn't pick up a virus in the rain. She must have ignored that comment, because she stood with her umbrella over me for about the next fifteen minutes. It was a good stretching exercise for her... Blessings to her for her kindness.

Testing

coming to an end. . . . . . 40 work days away!!!

So I'm hoping to be able to post every day here for the next 40 days (work days at least). . . That means there should be five posts each weeks for the next eight weeks. I'll be finished working here June 14th, and after some traveling, I'll be back in the states around the 4th of July. Soon after that, I'll be embarking on a new adventure in life. . . Eastern Europe. . . . check back tomorrow for more, or hopefully some pictures from recent adventures.

Have a good Monday wherever you may be in this wonderful world,
John

My little 3:30 buddies

I have what I call a private class with two twins that I taught last semester. Their mom enrolled them at a different pre-K school, but they still come and hang out with me in the afternoon. This class is good exercise for me. . . We get a little work done, but it's never really an EASY day with these too.

A few pics of late

Here are a few pictures from a recent hike. .  I have more on my phone, but no cable to connect to the computer here at the moment . I have a friend named Eunice that accompanies me on these "grueling hikes". In her opinion they are pretty tough. 

It's been way too long. . . . .

Hello everyone.. I can't believe I haven't posted anything for about three weeks.  Tonight (Sunday night), I was notified that I was losing my Sunday evening private class. I've been teaching two high school-aged girls and one middle school-aged girl on Sunday evenings in a room at church. Apparently the mothers think that they should be studying more, instead of having the fun conversation class with me. It kind of sucks not having the extra income for three months, since I'm done here sometime in June.

I did get to meet my good friend Sileshi today. I haven't seen him in a few months, and he showed up at church with another one of our Ethiopian friends Tirusew. Sileshi and I ate Vietnamese food for dinner, which I have started to grow fond of during my Sunday evenings. We were able to catch up, and have some good quality time together.

Yesterday, I went with Fritz (Indonesian church member) to see the movie Lincoln. I had to explain some of the parts since he had some trouble understanding some of the dialect in the film. We did both seem to enjoy the movie, especially the acting. The theater was maybe 30% full, but for Die Hard 4 they were full for quite a while.

Anyway, I'm going to post some pictures on here tomorrow, since I don't have the cable from my phone to do so at the moment. I may also post some news of my soon to begin mission as well.