Story Time

Hello!

I’m sorry that it has been so long since I have last written! This has been a crazy month! We have started our new kindergarten classes, which has begin with new expectations for us and much more to do. There has also been a recent addition to our little family, our friend Aaron that we went to college with arrived here at the end of February and is teaching at the same school as us. Now where do I begin… I will start with a story

Since we arrived here we have been eagerly anticipating the emergence of spring…  And finally near the beginning of March we would have days where the sun was shining and it was warm. Warm as in, you would still have to wear full coverings with mittens but with the sun out you didn’t feel like if there was a sudden wind you would die from your flesh freezing. And so on a glorious Sunday afternoon we decided to go rollerblading with two of our fellow teachers (they are from Canada). Now Canadians don’t mess around… They have been ice skating/ playing hockey since birth… or close to it…  So they know how to rollerblade… Now Elena on the other hand had never rollerbladed before in her entire life. (Warning! Rabbit Trail! For those of you out there who are wondering, “Where did they get rollerblades from?” Well, let me tell you… When a foreign teacher leaves their apartment to return home they leave a LOT of stuff behind for the next foreign teacher that will take their place and be occupying their apartment. When Elena and I moved in we threw away SO much stuff that had just been accumulating over, I don’t know, however long… But some of the things that were left here are a pair of rollerblades, a full set of pads (wrist guards, knee pads, and elbow pads), a skateboard, a guitar with broken strings, towels, dishes… and sooo much more. So we kept what we wanted and threw out the rest and that is the story behind the story) Thankfully, there had been enough rollerblades left over the years that we all had a pair blades… Elena was padded up and we were headed to the river. Korea has a ton of rivers throughout it and since their culture is really big on remaining physically fit there are bike/walking trails along the rivers. They are really nice. Now, to get to the trail that was an adventure in itself because we had to go down a hill to get there, but that’s not the point of the story… The point is we made it to the trail and we had been rollerblading for a bit and Elena was doing stupendous! She hadn’t fallen and all was well. Well, as we are blading along we see a hill coming and Elena had been over a few by now and she had conquered them all, she had learned how to use the brake and she was doing pretty well. So I am alongside her and we arrived at the top of this hill and I told her ‘it will be fine’, ‘I got you’, the normal things… So our arms are linked and we both had our brakes on as we are heading down the hill and all is going really well and as we start edging toward the bottom I tell her she needs to take off her brakes because we needed to. There were too many little things on the walkway and if our brakes hit one we could fall… Well, she says, “No!” and I keep telling her, “Elena! You have to! Take off your brakes!” “I CAN’T! NO!” is what she keeps telling me so I take off my brakes and as we are going she gets off balance and straight dives like Superman into the air knowing that she had her pads on and should be fine. Now, while she has made this conscious decision that she will be fine, I am thrown of balance and the force of her flinging herself into the air threw me backwards and as she is skidding forward, like Superman, thoroughly enjoying herself, I might add, I fall on my solidly on my right cheek… And by that I don’t mean the cheek that is on your face. I land directly on my butt.  And everyone that is around us gasps not knowing what to do… Then Elena and I started laughing… Elena came out without a scratch and I had a gross bruise on my butt for about two weeks! And that is the story of us rollerblading! J It’s a good story, I know… 

 Now that story time is over I’ll catch you up on everything else that has been going on… I LOVE my kids! They are fantastic and they have captured my heart. That doesn’t mean it is easy everyday but I definitely am enjoying teaching a lot more! I have a new kinder class and they are the really little ones so they barely know any English, but they love to laugh! I love that laughter and smiles can transcend even language barriers. It’s one of my favorite things! I love making my kids laugh! So classes are going really well and I feel that overall I have a lot more control over the classroom. I also feel more confident in the subjects I am teaching and how I am teaching so that has been a real blessing. 

I got tonsillitis earlier this month and I currently have a cold… So I making sure that I am taking my vitamins regularly and trying to drink a lot of orange juice. I think it is my kids though… Someone is always sick, it’s just a fact.

Spring seems to have finally arrived! So that has been super exciting! I don’t feel cold all the time anymore and today I actually felt hot for the first time since I have been in Korea.  I have also made a new resolution to get out more. To live. To explore. To have some adventures, make some choices, ya know? I think that it is definitely a good thing.

Our church family has been a real blessing as well. Being a part of the worship team has been one of the best things for me. I love singing and being able to use my voice to worship our Lord. It has also been awesome to have made friends here. The majority of our friends from church are the worship team and they are all amazing people and I love getting to know them all more. They are all really gifted musicians as well so it has been amazing being able to learn from them.

I miss everyone from home terribly… But that is to be expected… I had a good cry the other day as I watched Little Women… I can never hold it together when Beth dies! I just can’t get past it… But it needed to happen I needed to have a good cry… So yeah… That’s about it… Life is going well…. I would love to hear from you all if you ever get a chance… Love you all and I will try to update my blog more regularly… Oh, and Elena posted some videos of us on her blog so if you want to see them her blog is elenajoy.wordpress.com. Talk to you all later J

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