A Korean Wedding

Our Korean friend Saeyeon got married last weekend and we had the privilege of attending her wedding. It was in a Catholic church and wasn't really a typical Korean wedding, but it was still a really cool experience. Saeyeon goes to our church and was in our community group last year and has been helpful to us in all things Korea, especially as we had questions while getting adjusted to being here.

Can you tell we're looking forward to spring?

Community Group girls: Marie, Me, Laura, Emma, Nicole

Saeyeon and Mike

Matchy matchy.

In Korea they take their wedding pictures weeks before the ceremony. The bride wears several different dresses, and generally doesn't even keep the dress she wears at the wedding!

Snow Day!

We got our wish - a SNOW DAY!

I had checked my school email several times last night before going to bed, but finally decided to just be okay with having school. Justin and I had just gone to bed and were almost falling asleep when his phone rang, and it was a co-worker who Justin had talked to on the way home about wanting a snow day today. All I could hear was, "Check your email! No school tomorrow!"

I quickly checked mine and then started getting texts from several people at school - all with the same reaction. Laura even called me screaming with excitement!

My assistant told me yesterday that this was the most snow there has been in Busan in years, and we have even more this morning.

 

 

Winter Wonderland

For all of our Midwest friends and family, this post may be humorous to you. We know that many of you have been through blizzard after blizzard this winter, but in Korea, we're not used to snow at all. Many of our students have either never seen snow or have only seen it a few times, so it's really exciting when we get five minutes of flurries. That has happened few times this winter, but really nothing to get to amped about. Today was a different story, though.

When I woke up today I checked the weather and saw that it was going to be rainy all day. Again. Justin left for school before me and quickly called to let me know that it was actually snowing, not raining. I went to the veranda to look outside, and sure enough, huge snowflakes were falling, but were only sticking up in the mountains. I thought, well, that will last five minutes.

WRONG.

It snowed ALL DAY. Big, wet, snow. But still, snowing all day here means there is hardly anything sticking on the ground. I took this picture from my classroom of the playground!

 

Laura and I on our way home from school.

 

Before I go on too much more, I had one of those "I think I've been in Korea too long..." moments today. Not in a bad way. Since I was prepared for rain today, I left the apartment with an umbrella. Apparently being in Korea for 18+ months has taught me to use an umbrella in the snow. I got about half way to school before I realized what I was doing. Rest assured that as I put down my umbrella, I was now the only one on the sidewalk without an umbrella. One of our co-workers did the same thing, but she used it the whole way to school anyways. HA. TIK (This is Korea)

Normal view out of the apartment....

 

Today's view

 

Normal view from the other side of our apartment

 

Jangsan Mountain...what we are used to seeing every day at breakfast...

 

This is what I saw after school today. Notice how there is NO mountain...

Normally you would be able to see BFS in this picture - not today.

Snow-covered sidewalks

 

With the way this winter has been in the Midwest, we have ben very thankful to be missing it. I was surprised to be excited myself to walk home in the blustery snowstorm today. It was wet and cold, but beautiful. The joy in my student Lydia's eyes as she saw and touched snow for what I am pretty sure was the first time today was so fun. We are finding ourselves praising God for a cold, snowy day.

 

I pray you will all enjoy the last bits of winter - it sure does make us appreciate the warmth so much more, doesn't it?