Jangsan Mountain

For our first day of our break we took a 4 hour hike up and down Jangsan Mountain.  I'm not sure why it has taken us so long to make it up there, but I am so glad we finally did! The view from the top, as well as from several stops along the way, was amazing.  We also encountered some fun things along the way, including a temple and several "Physical Parks" which are outdoor stretching/work out areas within the park. Enjoy the pictures!!

The beginning of our hike

The reservoir at the base of the mountain

Physical Park

Tiny glimpse of Busan

Buddhist Temple

Chuseok Gifts

This weekend begins our first Korean Holiday experience - Chuseok.  It is basically celebrated like we would celebrate Thanksgiving, and we even get Monday-Wednesday off school next week! It is also very common to give gifts for Chuseok, so below are some of the gifts that Justin got from his students and their parents this past week.  They range from yummy kiwis to Armani shaving cream!

Gift-wrapped Kiwis!

Yellow Kiwis from New Zealand

Armani Shaving Cream

Fruit Basket

Baking Adventures

We have used our new convection oven several times already!  We love it! We went shopping for baking supplies, and that alone was quite the experience.  Buying things like yeast, baking soda, coca powder, and pizza sauce was not as easy as you might think.  The aisles aren't exactly organized like we are used to, so for most of the items on our list we ended up translating them in our Droid's Dictionary, and then we showed it to a worker and they helped us. The packaging is even different, so I am including pictures of that as well as pictures from our first batch of brownies!

Baking brownies!

This is how you make spaghetti with two different sauces on only two burners. 

Making Garlic Bread

Cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and yeast, from top to bottom

3rd Week of School

Despite having a short week at school this week because of the typhoon, it sure felt awfully long.  Justin is still getting over the lingering parts of his cold, and mine came full force early in the week.  We are doing better now, but it makes the days of teaching seem longer, that's for sure.

There really isn't a whole lot to report from this week.  We had friends over Friday night for pizza and games and had a great time! Saturday we got to Skype with both of our families, and after that we made a Costco run.  We finally broke down and got a convection oven, and then we also found a Crock Pot! YAY!! We are so excited to be able to cook with a bit more of variety.

The most exciting part of the week, though, was probably on Friday when Justin got his Alien Card! That means we can now get a bank account, and then internet, and then he can get a phone.  It also means that I can now apply for my dependent visa! All great news!

We are looking forward to this coming week mostly because at the end of it, we get a 5 day weekend! The following Monday-Wednesday we don't have school because of the Korean holiday Chuseok.  It's celebrated kind of like Thanksgiving - meaning that families get together the same we we tend to. It doesn't mean the same thing though.  And we hear that the streets will be bare and that a lot of stores will be closed those days.  We are actually going to be on a church retreat for a few days during that time, so we are extra excited!

I'll leave you with a picture that I took out of our veranda Friday night.  I love our view!

Apartment Pictures Take 2.

Since we had school off due to Typhoon Sanba, we spent Monday deep cleaning our apartment.  We reorganized and spruced some things up a bit. We thought it was time that we show you the updated pictures of our apartment including some of the newer purchases and additions to our home.  Enjoy!

Our kitchen complete with a new table! 

New table!

 

Office

One of our favorite parts!! It is even dry-erase!

Our bedroom with the "new" dresser that we acquired.

Spare Bedroom

Entertainment center with new TV. 

Next mission: Find a new entertainment center.

We have been reminded recently of how blessed we are to have this wonderful 3 Bedroom apartment provided for us by the school.  We really couldn't ask for anything better! We have enjoyed making it feel more like home today.  Back to school tomorrow, but YAY for only a 4 day week thanks to the typhoon! It really didn't do much again - at least not that we could see.  Sure it was incredibly windy, and it rained a lot, but it wasn't very exciting at all.  

Pray this week goes smoothly and more bumps get worked out.  We are all ready for a "normal" week, whatever that means.  We only have two more weeks of school until our first vacation, so pray that we keep going strong these next two weeks.  I am also starting basketball practice this week, so pray that my energy keeps up with me and that it is more fun than work! Justin is getting over being sick (he missed a half day of school), and I just have a scratchy throat - so pray it stays at that.  

We are continuing to enjoy getting to know people at church and spending time with them.  We go out to lunch after church with a big group each week, and we have LOVED that.  It doesn't hurt that we have eaten at a Mexican restaurant the last two weeks.  I could probably eat there every Sunday and never complain.  Just like home! :) 

So to say the least, we are blessed.  And it is wonderful.  We hope the weather really clears up soon for a while (it has been very rainy this last week) so that we can go on some hikes and see some great views of the city.  It is finally cooling down here and staying cool, so we are looking forward to seeing more! 

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts! We miss you and love you all!

Typhoon Sanba

What do you have in Korea instead of snow days or fog delays?  Typhoon Days!

Typhoon Sanba is nearing Busan, and as a safety precaution, BFS has cancelled school for Monday.  While we are still just expecting heavy rains and lots of wind, our school bus routes are more than just your average bus ride as they can be near 2 hours for some students.  With that in mind, ownership has cancelled school.  Unfortunately we are also supposed to stay indoors all day, so that will make for a longer day.  But who doesn't love a 3 day weekend!

You can keep track of Typhoon Sanba on Wunderground and we will try to keep you posted as long as we can get some internet and if there is anything worth updating you about.

Our Healthy Charcoal Mattress

As we were changing the sheets on our bed today, we took the time to finally read the stickers/labels on the bed.  We found them funny enough to share with you all.  In case we haven't told you, Korean mattresses are not exactly the most comfortable.  Our mattress is actually more of a box spring.  By more of a box spring, I mean it is a box spring.  Below are the stickers we found today.

Notice the grammar and spelling in this picture.

Doesn't it look comfy?? 

This is how much give it has (or lack of give) when Justin pushes down as hard as he can.

I couldn't get this one to rotate.  Still funny.

We have enjoyed a pretty relaxing Saturday after doing some work this morning and going on a trip to a local Teacher Supply store to grab a few things for projects this week.  Enjoy your weekend!

Philippians 4:4     Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Construction Site

We just had to share this video.  I am sure that it breaks every code for construction work, but this is what we saw outside Justin's classroom window one afternoon.

Shinsegae

After working all morning, we decided to spend the afternoon at Shinsegae (pronounced "Shin-say-gay"), the world’s largest department store.  This place is absolutely massive.  It is over 500,000 m², making it nearly twice as big as the Mall of America.  It has 10 floors of merchandise, and like 4 floors just for a golf driving range. It has absolutely everything.  There are clothes on every floor, including the brands Calvin Klein, The North Face, H&M, Gap, Nike, Adidas, Puma, Crocs, Armani, etc.  It also has 2 food courts, a grocery store, a food market, and an entire E-Mart inside.  The food court has Burger King, Baskin Robbins, Dunkin Donuts, KFC, and several other Korean/Chinese/Specialty restaurants.  I think we went up and down the entire place twice just making sure we covered everything.  There’s a mattress section, a bookstore, a movie theater, an ice rink, appliances, accessories – basically, there’s everything you could ever think of and more, including a Sky Garden on the 9^th floor.

One of the best parts is that as a Foreigner you can take your passport to the Information desk and they give you a coupon book.  Then before you leave, you take back a receipt, and they give you a free tote bag! There is no limit to how many you can get as long as it is on different days.  And since Korean stores don’t give you bags with your purchases, these tote bags come in handy pretty much every day. 

There really isn’t a whole lot more to say about this place, because the pictures really do say it all.  Enjoy!

Welcome to Shinsegae! This is just the entrance! There is an entire Subway stop that comes out in this store.

This shot is not even from the top floor!

Touch screen wall by the movies

View from the Garden on the roof

Other view from the garden

The Sky Garden

Our big purchase - two books that were wrapped like this by the cashier

Ice Skating Rink

Another view of a small portion of the store

Korean Chinese Food

After our long, but successful first week of school, we headed to the Subway to go to John and Katelyn’s house (friends from church) for dinner.  What we weren’t expecting was the Korean Cultural experience that we so wonderfully were treated to.  For dinner, John called in an order to a Korean Chinese restaurant.  Apparently the Koreans say they do Chinese food better than the Chinese do.  We were so impressed with his ability to actually phone in an order and then were equally impressed when the right food came.  What we weren’t expecting was to receive our meal on real plates.  What is that? They told us that after you finish eating, you put all of your plates back outside your door, and later on someone will come back by to pick up your dishes.  Again, what?? So of course we ask how much the delivery charge is, but it’s free! It’s the same price to eat in the restaurant as it is to get it delivered and picked back up.  Unfortunately, we are not advanced enough in our Korean, seeing as we don’t even know how to say our address yet, to order food over the phone.  Something to strive for, though. 

The food was very good, too.  We had Sweet and Sour Fried Pork and several different sauces to dip it in.  There were also noodles, fried rice, and mandu, which is a sort of dumpling.  Koreans LOVE their side dishes, so we probably had close to 12-15 dishes for 4 people.  Everyone then just dips their food in the same bowls.  It was such a treat to have something other than chicken for dinner!

We are so excited to have made these friends here!  They live almost an hour away, but it was well worth the trip, and really it didn’t seem that long at all.  We were sad that we left our camera at home, so unfortunately there are no pictures to document this excursion.  Next time!

Meet the Teacher Night

All in all, Meet the Teacher Night was a successful night! I don't know why we keep getting nervous for things when they all turn out so well.

The first part of the evening was spent up on the "Sky Garden" (aka the roof) with snacks.  We mingled with each other and a few parents for a while and then headed down to our classrooms for presentations.  Since I only have two students, it was pretty simple for me.  Maria's Mom doesn't speak English, so she came in with a translator and just looked around for the most part.  Jade's parents, who I had already met, came in for about 10 minutes or so.  We just chatted and I explained our daily schedule and toured the room.

Justin's was a much busier night because he has so many students.  We are beginning to wonder if they will somehow split the class if it gets any bigger.  BFS generally has very small class sizes, so his class of 21 is pretty uncommon.  He is hoping to get some of the bigger furniture moved out because there is not much space left to move around. A lot of his parents were worried about the class size, but other than that, it went well!

Below are a few pictures of our rooms that are set up for the parents to see along with a few projects that my kiddos have completed.

Nursery School with some art hanging

Jade's projects

Justin's classroom

First Day of School Picture

Take a look at our picture before our first day of school!  We have indoor shoes and outdoor shoes at school, so take special note of our "outdoor" shoes we wore.  Because of this, we ended up taking all of our dress shoes to school so that they can all be "indoor" shoes. We're actually breaking the rules in these pictures because Korean Homes are "No Shoes" homes as well (except for slippers or bathroom shoes).  We do follow that custom in our home except for the occasional last minute item that we don't want to take our shoes back off for.  

Check out the school website for our biographies and photos that have now been posted.  Notice our extra round faces that were so graciously "touched up" by the photographers.  These photos also appear on our school ID's that we have to wear all the time.  When we got our pictures taken, the photographer didn't know what to do with my wavy hair, so he made me comb it out before he would take the picture.  Something so simple turned into a very interesting experience and outcome!