This last month has been hard for both of us. We found out that Amy's best friend who had bought a non-refundable plane ticket to Korea at the end of February will not be able to come because of work conflicts. Work also caused us some unneeded stress and drama. Needless to say January was not a good month.

Fortunately February came and we got a five day weekend. As some of you may know last week was the celebration of the new lunar year. Happy year of the rabbit! We got three days off from work to celebrate it. Our five day weekend (Feb. 2-6) was spent hanging around Ulsan with our friends from church. On Wednesday, we ate at a pretty good Chinese restaurant and went to a DVD bang (think private movie theater) with our friend Elana. Thursday we walked around Ulsan Grand Park and then invited our friends over for games, food, and a movie. On Friday we went over to our friend
Elana's and had a good dinner. Saturday we made our monthly trip to Costco in Busan and also ate at a terrible burger place. Sunday we just lazed around the apartment and enjoyed the last day of the long weekend.

Other than that not much has happened here. Starting in March Scott will no longer be teaching kindergarten. His class will be graduating and moving up to elementary school and afternoon classes at our academy. Also beginning in March both of our schedules will be dramatically changing with classes being merged and moved. The biggest change being that we will start teaching at 3:15 PM (we currently start teaching afternoon classes at 2:10 PM) and finish at 9:30 PM everyday. The bad thing is that Scott will have no breaks. Please pray that we get to keep at least some of the classes and students we like.

Alright that's about it. Peace be with you!

Hello,

I think we're going to update our blog once a month near the beginning of the month. I'm sorry it's been a month and a half since our last update.

Here's some quick highlights beginning from the most recent going back in time:

Snow: Snow is usually rare in these parts, but on Monday we received between 4-6 inches of snow. It definitely makes the city look less ugly and the park across the street is really pretty.

New Year's Eve: We got three days off for New Year's so we had a 5 day weekend (Thursday-Monday). On Friday we took a trip to Daegu, the third largest city in S. Korea. They had a larger selection of Western food and clothing stores there, so we enjoyed a French/Mediterranean meal and some shopping. On Monday, amidst a snowstorm in Ulsan, we took a trip to Busan and ate some Thai food and went to Costco. Overall, the holiday was relaxing and fun.

Christmas: We didn't get any vacation time for Christmas. On Christmas Eve was had a Christmas "party" at our schools. Scott dressed up as Santa for his kindergartners, and at both campuses the kids had a potluck and a coupon exchange party. On Christmas day we had a relaxing morning Skyping with family and then went to an evening candlelight service at church. Afterwords we had a few friends over to play our new favorite board game Settlers of Catan.

December: Amy has had several class changes, and now has the privilege of teaching the kindergartners, a beginner class of 8-10 year olds, and a class of 10 4th-5th grade boys. She is loving teaching her young beginners and is finding her boys' class to be loud and sometimes frustrating, but not completely unbearable.

Thanksgiving: Since Thanksgiving is obviously not a holiday in Korea, we did not have any vacation time. However, the Saturday after Thanksgiving we headed to Busan in search of a traditional Thanksgiving meal that we heard was served in a restaurant there. Long story short, we were unable to get the meal, and ended up eating some Indian food which Scott was very happy about.

Parent's Meeting: Scott had his kindergarten parent's meeting in late November. The kids did well and the parents and Scott's bosses seemed pleased.

Church orphanage visit: In November we went to a different orphanage in Busan with the church. The orphanage is really nice (it even has an indoor swimming pool). There were a lot of volunteers from the church and not many children so the we didn't have much to do most of the time, but we were glad we went and got to see it.

Sick: Amy's been sick for last two and half months with a cough and occasional fever and stuffy head. We think it is the cold weather that is causing it and hope it will go away when it gets warmer. The doctors here are unwilling to give anything stronger than a decongestant and antihistamine which don't do anything except make her dizzy and groggy. If you could please pray for her health, that would be appreciated.

That about sums up the major things that have been going on in our lives. We continue to keep going. We are more than half way done with our year here and hope that the second half goes a little faster than the first half. We do have more vacation to look forward to in the second half, along with a visit from Amy's best friend at the end of February. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.

Hello everyone,

I know its been a while since our last update. For the most part, not much has happened. Amy and I are doing alright. We have both recovered from being sick. Amy had an infection that required her going to the doctor and getting some antibiotics. Scott had a small cold.

The weather has become very cold and dry. It is definitely going to be a change for both of us as we are used to Southern California winters. Nevertheless, autumn is beautiful here. The trees have turned red, orange, and yellow and the air feels crisp and fresh.

Here is a list of stuff that has happened since our last update:

1. Kindergarten field trip to a Pottery Festival: We took the kindergartners to a pottery festival in countryside of Ulsan. Koreans used to and still do use these traditional pots called "Onggi" to cook food in. It was a fun day to hang out with the kids.

2. Sports day: A twelve hour day of playing sports with our coworkers and bosses. It was forced and controlled fun and not very fun.

3. Halloween party: On the Friday before Halloween we had a Halloween party for all of the students. We didn't have to teach classes, but we did have a candy room, a haunted house, a secret box room, and a mummy room. All of the teachers dressed up in costumes. Scott was a vampire and Amy was a doctor. The kids had fun, but it was another twelve hour exhausting day.

4. Orphanage trips: We continue to volunteer at the orphanage in Ulsan about once a month. However, last weekend we went with our church to an orphanage they volunteer at in Busan. It was nice to go, but there were too many volunteers and not enough children so there was not much for us to do. Nevertheless it was a good trip.

5. Costco trips: We have decided to make a Costco trip once a month. It has been really nice to have some more Western food. We make a trip to Costco once a month.

Next week Scott has a kindergarten parents meeting. He has been preparing his kids for this meeting for over a month now. It is basically a big performance for the parents so it looks like the children are learning English. He is looking forward for it to be finished so he can go back to his normal teaching routine.

Also this weekend, we hope to go on a one night retreat with the church to a nearby mountain. We hope to bring Dori with us.

Speaking of Dori she is doing well and is as cute as ever. She seems healthy and happy.

Well that's it for now. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

One of the downsides of working at private schools in Korea is you typically don't get much vacation time. Fortunately for us, we were able to get a whole week off from work during Chuseok, a Korean harvest festival holiday (kind of like America's Thanksgiving). The holiday was on September 21-23. We used one of our five extra vacation days to get Monday off and at the last minute our school gave us Friday off as well. It was a much needed vacation after a hard week. We went to Seoraksan National Park in north eastern part of Korea. Don't worry, we didn't stray across the border into North Korea (you would have heard about it on the news already if we did). We spent three days hiking in the beautiful national park. It was very relaxing and refreshing to get away from work and the city and spend time in nature.

After that we decided to give Seoul another shot after our disastrous first attempt at seeing the city. Unfortunately we arrived in the middle of a surprise typhoon that was pounding the city with rain. This time we both had umbrellas, but we forgot to bring jackets. Also the subway stop we needed to get off at was completely flooded so we had to get off next stop and hail a cab to drive us back to the subway stop we needed to be at. After waiting for quite some time to get a cab, we were able to make one stop for us with the help of another foreigner visiting Seoul. We finally arrived at our hostel, both bodies and suitcase soaked through, after getting a little lost trying to walk to it. The only goal for that night was to find some half-decent Mexican food in Itaewon (the foreigner section of town). Thankfully, this time we were successful. The next day we were determined to get into Namsan Park, which we failed at last time. Again, thankfully, with the help of a map and Amy's amazing map reading abilities, we found our way into the park, which is less of a park and more of a mountain surrounded by a brick wall. Nevertheless, we walked through it and came upon a Chuseok festival with lots of people, traditional games, live music, and food. It was an interesting cultural experience to see. There are pictures of it on my Photobucket account. We spent two days in Seoul and left for home on Thursday.

We spent the remaining days mostly at home relaxing. The highlight of the weekend was shopping at Costco. There is a Costco in Busan, a big city about an hour away by train. We purchased a membership, got a Costco card, and went shopping. It was exciting to see and buy food that we are more accustomed to eating, like cheddar cheese and muffins. All in all it was a great vacation, so much so that we were depressed to go back to work.

However, we did go back to work and were met with Rochelle's replacements. Our friend Rochelle, who we went to college with and who helped get us these jobs, had her last day on the Friday before vacation. It was sad to see her go, but she will remain in Korea for a few more weeks doing some traveling and we hope to see her one more time before she leaves Korea. They replaced Rochelle with a British couple, Jack and Colleen, who have taught for a year in Korea before. They seem nice and are very experienced at working at a Korean private school.

We were also met with changes to our schedules, which is not uncommon. Scott got the better deal and now has three breaks a day. However, Amy has to work an hour later on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She does get off earlier on Tuesday and Thursday.

We ask that you continue to pray for us and that we have strength to get through this year. It is getting easier in some ways and Amy and I are set on finishing a year here. However the job is draining and sometimes feels pointless and soul-crushing. More importantly, Amy and I have yet to make many friends, which has been hard on us. We continue to do things together and strengthen our relationship between each other. For example, this weekend we took Dori and walked along the river near our house and went to an art festival (pictures on Photobucket). Nevertheless, we desire to form some other relationships with other people and our failure to do so has made us homesick. If you could pray that we make friends that would be great.

Alright, this blog entry is long enough. Thank you for your support and prayers.

The past month

Since our vacation in Jeju, we have been very busy at both work and in our free time.

The highlight of these past few week has been a new addition to our home. We are "fostering" a dog from a local pet sanctuary until the end of our time in Korea. Her name is Dori, and she is a small, quiet white dog (at least part Maltese) who loves head rubs and knocking over the kitchen trash can to find food. When we took her in from the sanctuary, she was having a difficult time adjusting to life at the shelter (she had recently returned from another foster stay) as the other dogs were picking on her and not letting her eat her food. We are very happy to provide her a temporary home, and it makes our lives a little more joyful to have a little one to excitedly greet us when we return home from work. We have posted a picture of her in our photobucket (click on the link under "Pictures").

Both Scott and Amy have had highs and lows at work this past month. We cherish the small moments when one our students improves either in behavior or learning, or simply when they do or say something funny, but still both struggle with our "problem" classes (mostly the jr. high level students) and with the ridiculous and sexist management of the schools. Amy also had a hard week when her boss, who she got along with really well and felt like she had good communication with, suddenly left the school. We are unsure whether she quit or was fired, but either way Amy misses the positive atmosphere that her ex-boss brought to the school.

Next week Rochelle, our friend, will be leaving the school and a new couple will be coming to replace her. Scott's schedule will therefore be undergoing some good changes and he will most likely have less classes as there are two new teachers instead of one. Amy's schedule has also been undergoing changes lately, for the worse, and she now has to teach an extra 50 minutes (until 9:20 pm) on Wednesday without any extra time off or pay. As her schedule gets later and more erratic, it makes keeping a consistent eating and sleeping pattern difficult, and also makes sharing meals as a couple difficult.

In our free time, we have been doing our best to go on adventures, meet new people, and make friends. We occasionally go out to dinner with co-workers and their friends, and we recently have a discovered a British-style pub that we enjoy spending time at. We also volunteer at the orphanage when we can, and attend church most Sundays.
We are excited for the cooler weather that has just started to arrive, and we are hoping to explore more of Ulsan and go on hikes often.

Next weekend we will start a 6-day vacation for Chuseok (the Korean version of America's Thanksgiving), and we will travel to the northern part of the country for some time in a national park and then in Seoul. We are looking forward to spending some time away from Ulsan.

Jeju Island

Last week was summer vacation for our academy, which meant we had a five day weekend. We left on Thursday morning for Jeju Island, Korea's version of Hawaii. We took a bus to the airport in Busan and took a 40 minute plane ride to Jeju. When we arrived, we took another bus to the southern part of the island where our inn was located.

The best part of our trip was our stay at Tae Gong Gak Inn, a small 15 room hostel-type inn. The owners were very personable and remembered our names throughout our entire stay. They spoke fluent English and were very helpful in giving suggestions and directions for what we wanted to do.

On our first full day, we decided to hike Mount Halla, which was a total of about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles). It was a beautiful hike, but very difficult on our feet as we did not have proper hiking gear. Parts of the hike were jagged, slippery rock, so it was a long process and our feet and legs were sore for the rest of the trip.

The next day, we were sore and exhausted so we tried to have a relaxing day at the beach. Unfortunately, it was hot, humid, and there was absolutely no breeze, so we ended up pretending to be guests at the Hyatt hotel (right by the beach) in order to enjoy their air conditioning. In the evening, we took a walk to a waterfall near our inn. It was quite pretty and the mist from the waterfall was cool and refreshing.

On our third and last full day in Jeju, we took a long (hour and a half) bus ride around to the eastern side of the Island and took a ferry to Udo Island, a very small island near Jeju. We rented an ATV and spent a few hours riding around the circumference of the Island. It was quite beautiful with many green fields and open spaces, and the coast line was gorgeous. It's atmosphere is surprisingly very similar to that of the Irish coast.

Our trip home the next day was very smooth, which we were very thankful for after our experience in Seoul.
We had a nice summer vacation and are looking forward to more travels when we have more vacation time.

Last week marked the end of our second month teaching in Korea, and the time has been going very slowly. It feels as though we have been here more like 6 months rather than 2. Teaching is very hard work: though sometimes rewarding, it is often frustrating as the curriculum we are teaching the children is of little to no value. We have also encountered some ridiculous rules and micromanaging at our hagwans which make the whole experience even more frustrating. It is difficult to take this job seriously, but we are doing our best to find the good and at least teach the children something of value.

We will write more later.

I know it's been awhile. We haven't done a good job keeping you updated, but here's what's happened in the past few weeks.

Scott's birthday was on Monday July 19th. Amy cooked him birthday pancakes for breakfast and we had macaroni and cheese for dinner, which was sent to us from Amy's parents. Scott also received a cake at work, great gifts, and cards from my family. All in all it was a good day. Unfortunately the same could not be said for our weekend trip to Seoul.

When we arrived it was raining quite hard and Scott did not have an umbrella because it was accidentally taken by one of the students at his school the day before. Also we found out that the rain jacket that Scott bought from H&M, was not actually water proof. Needless to say Scott got very wet. It continued to rain hard most of the day making it hard for us to really do anything or see much. We were able to grab a decent lunch at a Thai restaurant, hang out at a coffee shop, and buy some books from an English bookstore in the foreigner section of Seoul. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing in our nice hotel room; one of the few highlights of the trip.

The next day was extremely humid. Our only goals for Sunday were to go to Seoul tower which shows you a great view of the city and get some Mexican food from the foreigner part of town. It should be mentioned here that Amy started getting sick on Friday and had a nice cold during this trip. So we set out for Seoul Tower via subway, got off at the correct subway, and continued to walk. Unfortunately Seoul Tower is located on a hill in a large park that has twenty foot high walls surrounding it, with no visible entrance that Amy or Scott could see. With it being so hot and humid and Amy not feeling well, we gave up frustrated and hungry for Mexican food. We were disappointed once again as the Mexican food was sub par. We ordered enchiladas and what we got were not enchiladas. After that we decided to give up and catch the earlier train home.

Of course we did not budget enough time to get back to the hotel grab our bags and make it to the station in time for the train and we missed it by one minute. It was either wait another couple of hours for the next train or take the express train which was a little more expensive. Scott decided to take the express train, but in order to take that train we had to go to another station to catch it. We got our tickets and waited for the connecting train to come. However, it came late and by the time we got to the station the express train was leaving. So we marched up to the counter and tried to tell the ticket counter attendant in very basic English what happened. As result of our efforts we got only half of a refund and had to pay for two more tickets. We finally got on a train headed towards the direction of home. We arrived in Busan found out no trains leave from that station going to Ulsan, so we took a subway to another train station waited another hour and finally got on a train going to Ulsan. After an hour and a half train ride we made it back to our apartment in Ulsan at 11:00.

All in all it was a terrible trip, but we definitely learned a lot from the experience.