For a time of reconnection all of the RAs went ice skating on Friday night. That means not just the ladies who I get to see at a weekly meeting every week but ALL of the RAs from all over campus. It was quite entertaining, especially because over half of the crew had never done it before. I, on the other hand, had just gotten my skates sharpened over break and was feeling rather confident on the ice. In fact, while we were taking this picture (well, attemping to at least) one of the other RDs would continually run into one person to see if he could knock down all of us. Well, silly him tried to knock me down in this picture, no budging for me. To follow he made comments about not going after "Minnesota" when he was quickly shut down and reminded I was WI not MN! It was definitely fun had by all!
Ice Skating
For a time of reconnection all of the RAs went ice skating on Friday night. That means not just the ladies who I get to see at a weekly meeting every week but ALL of the RAs from all over campus. It was quite entertaining, especially because over half of the crew had never done it before. I, on the other hand, had just gotten my skates sharpened over break and was feeling rather confident on the ice. In fact, while we were taking this picture (well, attemping to at least) one of the other RDs would continually run into one person to see if he could knock down all of us. Well, silly him tried to knock me down in this picture, no budging for me. To follow he made comments about not going after "Minnesota" when he was quickly shut down and reminded I was WI not MN! It was definitely fun had by all!
South Korea Summary
I didn't manage to get as much computer time, much less blogging time, as I had anticipated. Our days were a little more packed than they had been on our last trip and internet was a little more scarce in Mokpo than it had been when we were in Seoul the last time! So now that it is long overdue, here is a brief summary of our trip!
A group of 15 of us from Grace went to Mokpo, SK to teach a five day English camp to native speakers. It was quite a challenge because we obviously don't know the language and the students knew very little as well. One of the rules of the camp was "No Korean" so that in and of itself posed great difficulty!
I taught 1st and 2nd graders which proved to be the best group to work with. Unlike the others I didn't have many discipline problems and was able to goof off with the students more than just classroom things. Everything we learned was turned into a game at some point to help the students understand more English and the repetition seemed to work great. The favorite game in my class was most definitely duck-duck-goose! Brought back some memories of playing outside in PA, standing up, when the electricity went out during a visit to the Lasts! (remember anyone!??)
Much of the rest of our time was spent with our host families. I was paired with a girl from our team named Leah and she was absolutely wonderful. I was a little nervous at first because I didn't know her at all but it turned out well in the end. There were actually only two girls on the trip that I actually knew on more than just a name basis so I didn't have many expectations for who I would be paired with. Our family was the Jeong's. They were wonderful as well. Fortunately, our family was well off and we were one of few pairs that actually had beds to sleep on! Also, in our favor, they hosted one of the Korean assistants for the camp and we in turn had a translator during our time there. This definitely helped in connecting us with our family even more. It was very difficult saying good bye!
As expected I think the biggest challenge, aside from the language barrier, was the food. They ate much of what we would consider weeds and not a whole lot of meat. There were bean sprouts, seaweed, fermented cabbage (called Kimchi), and other undechiperable plant type things. As far as meat was concerned we were lucky to get some duck or pork. The noodles in this picture that our host brother is eating are black, in cold water with ice, and cucumbers. We couldn't handle eating much but he loved them!
A really neat place we visited was called Capstone. It was on the sea in Mokpo and was just a pretty site to see and take pictures. The two ladies I am with on top of Capstone are Vimbi (on my right) and Joy (on my left). Vimbi is a missionary from Zimbabwe who works at the church and is one of the coordinators for the English camp. Joy was an assistant teacher and now a great friend. If there was only one reason why God allowed me to go back to Korea again it was to meet her. She will forever be a friend now. I am so blessed to have met her, no doubt!
To come back to Seoul in order to catch our flight to Chicago (12 hours striaght on the way home, 14 on the way there) we took the bullet train. Much to my surprise you definitely don't feel like you are going as fast as you are. We were traveling at about 200 miles per hour if my conversions are correct from metric. There was no pull on your bodies and it was the smoothest ride I have ever had. A Korean tradition is to eat roasted (or hard boiled) egg on the ride and drink the Korean version of Sprite. Can't let traditions die!
We spent the rest of the time in Seoul doing pretty much all the same things I had already done during my visit the last time so I didn't take any pictures for this round. Still fun to do again though! Thank you all for reading this ridiculously long post and for your thoughts and prayers throughout my trip! It was a blast!!
A group of 15 of us from Grace went to Mokpo, SK to teach a five day English camp to native speakers. It was quite a challenge because we obviously don't know the language and the students knew very little as well. One of the rules of the camp was "No Korean" so that in and of itself posed great difficulty!
I taught 1st and 2nd graders which proved to be the best group to work with. Unlike the others I didn't have many discipline problems and was able to goof off with the students more than just classroom things. Everything we learned was turned into a game at some point to help the students understand more English and the repetition seemed to work great. The favorite game in my class was most definitely duck-duck-goose! Brought back some memories of playing outside in PA, standing up, when the electricity went out during a visit to the Lasts! (remember anyone!??)
Much of the rest of our time was spent with our host families. I was paired with a girl from our team named Leah and she was absolutely wonderful. I was a little nervous at first because I didn't know her at all but it turned out well in the end. There were actually only two girls on the trip that I actually knew on more than just a name basis so I didn't have many expectations for who I would be paired with. Our family was the Jeong's. They were wonderful as well. Fortunately, our family was well off and we were one of few pairs that actually had beds to sleep on! Also, in our favor, they hosted one of the Korean assistants for the camp and we in turn had a translator during our time there. This definitely helped in connecting us with our family even more. It was very difficult saying good bye!
As expected I think the biggest challenge, aside from the language barrier, was the food. They ate much of what we would consider weeds and not a whole lot of meat. There were bean sprouts, seaweed, fermented cabbage (called Kimchi), and other undechiperable plant type things. As far as meat was concerned we were lucky to get some duck or pork. The noodles in this picture that our host brother is eating are black, in cold water with ice, and cucumbers. We couldn't handle eating much but he loved them!
A really neat place we visited was called Capstone. It was on the sea in Mokpo and was just a pretty site to see and take pictures. The two ladies I am with on top of Capstone are Vimbi (on my right) and Joy (on my left). Vimbi is a missionary from Zimbabwe who works at the church and is one of the coordinators for the English camp. Joy was an assistant teacher and now a great friend. If there was only one reason why God allowed me to go back to Korea again it was to meet her. She will forever be a friend now. I am so blessed to have met her, no doubt!
To come back to Seoul in order to catch our flight to Chicago (12 hours striaght on the way home, 14 on the way there) we took the bullet train. Much to my surprise you definitely don't feel like you are going as fast as you are. We were traveling at about 200 miles per hour if my conversions are correct from metric. There was no pull on your bodies and it was the smoothest ride I have ever had. A Korean tradition is to eat roasted (or hard boiled) egg on the ride and drink the Korean version of Sprite. Can't let traditions die!We spent the rest of the time in Seoul doing pretty much all the same things I had already done during my visit the last time so I didn't take any pictures for this round. Still fun to do again though! Thank you all for reading this ridiculously long post and for your thoughts and prayers throughout my trip! It was a blast!!
Safe and Sound!
We're here safe and sound! A little tired but it worked out just right to avoid most of the jet lag. We have meetings all afternoon today (Sunday for me, Saturday for you) and tomorrow. Then we begin teaching our English Bible Camp Tuesday through Saturday. Prayers would be appreciated!
Team Blog
I plan on doing some blogging on my own during my trip to South Korea in a few days but there is also going to be a team blog if any of you are interested in visiting it while we're gone. Thanks for all the prayers thus far...keep 'em coming!
http://gogracecollege.blogspot.com/
http://gogracecollege.blogspot.com/
Forgotten Camera
In leaving early from school to avoid the snow storm (and avoid it I did...thank goodness!) I managed to forget my camera. Thus, no updated posts because I have no pictures to go with it. Ridiculous I know but I'm a picture and words person!
Luckily, Abi is letting me borrow her camera for my trip to South Korea in a few days, that should help!
Luckily, Abi is letting me borrow her camera for my trip to South Korea in a few days, that should help!
Skating at Millennium Park
My roommate, Michele, made some not-so-secret plans for a few friends and me to go to Chicago this past Saturday to celebrate my birthday. Sadly, it didn't work out for too many people to come but the smaller group made it fun! We went to Ed Debevic's for lunch when we arrived in town (after a long time of searching) then over to Millennium Park to enjoy the Bean and some ice skating. Ridiculously enough we stood in line for two hours before the gang was able to get their skates...luckily I had brought my own. After that we skated for about an hour before returning back to campus. I apologize for how blurry some of these pictures are but we were in motion and my camera isn't cool enough to take those shots!
Deck the Halls
Every year our Student Activities Board puts on an event called Deck the Halls where we are supposed to decorate our halls in the most overdone way as possible with basically no budget. In an attempt to over do it with too many lights and other things we made our building look pretty instead. Oh well!
