Our First Visitors!

The week following our Ski Trip my brother bought tickets for him and my sister-in-law to visit just two weeks later! They spent about ten days with us.  We visited some of our favorite spots but also discovered several new things in Busan that have now become favorites. We saw temples, went hiking, walked through markets, ate lots of delicious food (Korean, Vietnamese, Brazilian, Japanese, and American), and spent a lot of time just hanging out and talking. It was such a blessing to be able to show them our life here. I don't think I've spent that long with my brother since he moved from Upland, and I'm so thankful for the time that we had with them.

At Busan Aquarium

Octopus, anyone?

At APEC - great views of Haeundae, the ocean, and the Diamond Bridge

One of the most beautiful places I've been in Busan - Haedong Yonggungsa Temple

 

Sunset from Dalmaji Hill

Looking back at Haeundae Beach

View from our hike one day

Marine City at sunset. 

Aquarium Field Trip

We both had field trips to the Aquarium this week! My kids, especially Timothy, were looking forward to it all week. I just had to share Timothy's "YAHOO!!!!" video. I tell everyone about how adorable he is, so enjoy! Check Facebook for the video with all 3 of my kids...for some reason I couldn't get it to upload here.

Muju!

Our ski trip this weekend was fantastic! It has probably been one of our favorite weekends in Korea. We spent 2 days with amazing friends, surrounded by God's beautiful creation in Korea, and got to ski a lot! As always, these pictures do not do justice to our experience, but enjoy a glimpse of our trip!

The whole gang - Justin, Megan, Laura, Nikki, Mike, Natashia, Elise, CJ

Don't we look excited for our first real run?

Actually excited for our second time around!

The view from the bottom of the mountain

With Nikki after we survived another run!

In the 3 blue coats - Nikki, then Laura, then Megan

In order to get to the easiest run, we had to go down a harder one to get there. It was slightly terrifying at times. But we made it!

Justin on the ski lift

View from the top of his run

So Long, January.

I apologize for not posting sooner. We are back in the rhythm of living in Busan, and while nothing too big has happened recently, there are a lot of exciting things coming up!

Justin is up to 20 students again in his class - he had just gotten down to 18 again and was loving it. Thankfully, one of the new students speaks perfect English. We also were both able to take our classes on field trips recently. Justin's class went Ice Skating at Shinsegae (the world's largest department store!), and my class went to a place called Kidsland that had dozens of those Moon Jump inflatable jumping things...it was so much fun!

Things with Church are going well! We are starting a new Community Group (Bible Study) at our house this week. We previously hadn't been going to one, so we are so excited to have one now, and we are especially excited to be hosting it. Our Pastor, Dan, will be heading it up for the first little while, and Justin will eventually be taking it over.

One of my most recent excursions with my friends included a Noraebong, which is basically Karaoke without a whole bar full of people watching you. These places will rent our rooms that have booths and a flat screen tv up front with microphones. You go in with your group and just do Karaoke with them. Apparently they also have rooms like this for the Wii, screen golfing, and probably many more things.

In the next few weeks we have a lot of adventures to look forward to. After this week, we get Monday and Tuesday off for the Lunar New Year. We will be spending two days skiing with 6 of our friends from Church at the Muju Resort. Then just a few weeks later we'll be heading to Boracay in the Philippines for Spring Break. Our good friend Laura will be joining us for most of the week, and I'm so looking forward to seeing a   life-long friend from Upland who lives there!

We pray that you are all doing well! Be checking back soon for an update on our Ski Trip!!

Busan Aquarium

The day after Justin got offered his job in Korea, I found the Busan Aquarium on a tourist map. I almost immediately looked it up online and have been wanting to go ever since. With the craziness of first moving here and school starting, we hadn't make it there yet. Thank you, Justin, for taking me there for my birthday on Saturday! While the Aquarium is smaller than most of the ones you would go to in the States, it is extremely well done. We even bought season passes so that we can take everyone who visits us!

Welcome to the Busan Aquarium!

I forget what this guy is called, but he is supposedly the most attractive fish in this family. I can't imagine what his relatives look like...

Penguins!

Snake-Neck Turtle.

This crab can grow to be 12 meters wide!

One of our favorites. 

Rock fish

Some kind of eel that burrows in the sand. 

Dory!

So pretty!

Shark tank = amazing

This tunnel was AWESOME!

Baby whales!!!

We stepped out of the aquarium to a beautiful day on Haeundae Beach.

"Grilled" Pizza

Last Summer our good friends Cody and Sarah introduced us to Grilled Pizza, and we spent the rest of the summer making it with other friends and family, becaused we loved it! We have come up with our own Korean version of grilled pizza, and it is quickly becoming a tradition in our home. Enjoy some photos of what it's like to "grill" pizza on a Korean stovetop with two burners, a huge skillet, and virtually no counter space.

Letting the dough rise on the heated floor 

A few toppings

More toppings...getting the pizza ready for round two of cooking

The pizzas cook on the left burner. Ghetto, I know.

There and Back Again

The last several weeks have been a whirlwind as we finished up school before Christmas, travelled home for break, and have now begun school again. I'll do my best to quickly recap these weeks.

The last week of school before break was a good one - well, as good as any week of school before Christmas can be. We each wrapped up projects in our classes, watched some wintery movies, and pretty much just survived the week. I only had one student the last few days, as everyone was sick, including me. I had to miss the Thursday before break due to a 103 degree fever (ick). All in all, it was still a good week.

We headed back to the US on December 15th with our good friend Laura. Our travel began with extremely thick fog - some flights were cancelled, but thankfully not ours. We arrived in Los Angeles on December 15th (yes, the same day...it's crazy what a 17 hour time difference and 15 hours of travel time can do) and spent a few days with my brother and sister-in-law. It was a great few days with them of relaxing, eating homemade pizza, steak, s'mores, and pancakes. A perfect way to start our vacation.

On December 19th we left for Indiana. It was so wonderful to be with our families again and to celebrate our nephew Caleb's first birthday with everyone! Although we stayed pretty busy while home, it was very relaxing to be in the comfort of our "homes" in Indiana with family. We ate our favorite foods, spent time playing games, catching up with friends and family, and talking about life in Korea. We got to see extended family for a few days and made a trip to Illinois for a day to visit Justin's Grandparents.

While we were able to pack light going home - only 1 suitcase and 2 carry-on bags - that of course was not the case coming back to Korea. We filled our bags with food we had been craving, an air mattress for guests to sleep on, and and wonderful mattress topper that has made our bed here infinitely more comfortable (Thanks, Andrew!!).

We are now on our second day back to school. It was definitely tough to start again, but it is also nice to be back in a routine and to see our kids and friends again.  It was so fun to walk into church on Sunday and be reunited with our wonderful friends. We really feel as though this is our home now. We had a fantastic time in the States and already miss our friends and family, but we also love our life here and are so blessed to be here.  Thank you all for letting us share our life here with you - whether we saw you over Christmas break or not. You are all a blessing to us.

More to come soon as our adventures in Korea begin again!
Happy New Year!

Psalm 121:8     The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.