Buan with Kelly

I went to Buan on my first motorcycle trip with Kelly. We had so much fun and I great time was had by all. When we went to the beach the first day it was low tide so the shore was very dirty and muddy. I was so disappointed that I had driven almost two hours to see such an ugly sight. The first place we stopped to walk on the beach I did find a live sand dollar that was really cool. Before we headed back we took a short walk and I stumbled on this old love motel.

I went exploring while Kelly stayed on the ground. If you don't know what a love motel is it is exactly what it sounds like. It is a place where men and women go during the day to have affairs. In Korea cars only have a combo of 4 letter or numbers on their license plate so it is very easy to memorize. So they hang these shades to make it harder for people driving by to see the license plates of the people who are using the love motel. At night the love motels are usually empty and very cheap to stay in. I had my first stay in a love motel on this trip. Here is the circle bed I stayed in.

One of my students also lives in this very small town we visited. He took us out for dinner. This place had more side dishes than any place I have every been to. It was awesome so I thought I would take a picture. After dinner we decided to take a few pictures of this huge town. We decided to walk home with our helmets on. It was great fun.

The next morning I wondered to the market for some fruit. I couldn't resist taking a picture of these awesome mannequins They spared no expense here! A butcher shop with the meat hanging in the open is very common here especially in the market. Don't worry I have never bought any meat from a market butcher. If you think this is weird you should see the fish!

When we went back to the ocean after a morning of lounging around in our room the water was beautiful. The pictures do not do it justice. We also saw some very old ships. One of the ships even had a dragon head on the mast.

Trip to the Zoo

My class took me to the Jeonju Zoo last term. I had a lot of fun. Zoos here are very different than in America. The animals are in a very small cement cage with usually only food. The zoo does not at all try to provide a natural habitat for them. This is the second time I have been to a zoo here and no matter how big or small the zoo is it is still the same. The cages are very dirty and very bare. The admission price is very cheap. This zoo it is less than a dollar. I wish they would charge more and take better care of the animals.


My Class Picture



Me as Marilyn Monroe!



A place to sit and chill

Craziness in a Restaurant and on the Motorcycle

Kelly, Megan, and I went out on Friday night. Here are a few pictures of us hanging out at a restaurant. Megan and Kelly's favorite past time is to make fun of me so they can sit at a restaurant all night long just to harass me!

Kelly and I

Megan and I

Kimchee and Tofu

Here is a picture of us coming home! Friday night I meet up with Megan and Kelly. I wanted to see if we could all fit and we did!!



Megan, Kelly, and I

"Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will."
Ephesians 1:4-5

An Excerpt from "Do You Think I am Beautiful? By Angela Thomas pg. 46-47

You and I have been made by God, for God. The part of us that aches to be filled is the soul, and your soul was made for His presence.

By design, the fullness that we long for will never be found without the presence of God in our lives. Not just a nodding presence, mind you, but an intimate, personal relationship. A living, vital exchange of love and mutual pleasure. This is not a casual glance toward spirituality. What I am talking about is a yearning that takes us beyond shallow religiosity and into the depths of pursuing the God of all creation....the Holy One...the Lover of your soul.

God did not mean for the canyon inside your heart to remain empty...that is the place He has planned to fill, to make whole, with His love.

But God also made us relational. We have been made to long for others, giving and receiving love and intimacy. It's just that we have lost perspective. We've misunderstood the design. Wholeness comes from God, not from any other relationship or thing or feeling. Don't get me wrong. Relationships, things, and feeling are great. As a matter of fact, they can be wonderful. It's jut that all by themselves, they will never fill you up, they will never be enough to make you whole.

Remember? You have been made by God, for God, and apart from Him there will always be emptiness in your soul.

____________________________________________________________________________________

I have been struggling with this very thing for a month or more. I have been feeling God is far from me and that He had forsaken me. I finally revealed my struggles to a close friend and she challenged me to once again spend time in the Word and meditation even if I didn't feel like it. I came across this in my study this morning and it spoke to my heart. God desires and longs to fill the empty place in my heart. I must seek after Him and only Him and He will fill my soul up. Praise the Lord!!!

An Amazing Gift

I received this E-card received from my church in America last week. I am unable to express in words the gratitude I have for their gift of $3500. I served at Emmaus out of love for my God and the people there. I believe the Lord has blessed me with the gift of giving and it brings me joy to serve others.

I used the money to pay off one big credit card and two smaller ones. I am slowly working and paying this debt off. God has been good and blessing me beyond my need! We serve an amazing God!

Ths One's for You Pastor Bll

I was told I needed to write more in my posts. I made sure to write a lot and explain everything in the post below! Happy reading.

Jeonju Cultural Experience

This Saturday I experienced some Korean cultural. I went to a planned event just for foreigners. We experienced all the main aspects of Korean culture. The first thing we did was learn to use the traditional Korean drums the Janggoo. It was very difficult but fun. You know I don't have any rhythm so that is what made it difficult.


There were about 30 or 35 foreign teachers there. I have not seen any or met any of them since I have been here. I think they are hiding! I knew 5 of the 30 or 35 teachers because we all came from the same school or my church. It was funny because we all pretty much stuck in our small groups from our schools. I think Korea is rubbing off on us. Koreans don't mix with people they don't know unless someone they do know introduces them. It is an interesting part of the culture.

Next we experienced a tea ceremony. It seems that everything is steeped in their religion here. The instructor told us that we would experience the tea with all 5 senses.


We would use our ears to hear the water pouring, our eyes to see the color of the tea, we would touch the warmth of the pottery, and smell as well as taste the tea! We were suppose to put away our cameras because we would interrupt the ceremony, we didn't listen. I think it was mainly because we didn't believe in the spiritualism of the tea ceremony or it could be we were all foreigners wantign pictures to post on our blogs! The lady even told us that we couldn't wash the cups or pot with soap because it was alive and we would hurt it.

Me and my cup of green tea! I am not a huge fan of green tea but the ceremony was fun.

We each got a chance to be the host. It is actually very difficult. Yo have to remember a certain order to do everything. Here are the steps in brief.

1. Pour water from a tea pot into the white bowl with the spot

2. Pour the water from the bowl into each cup. You start with your cup first and then go counterclockwise warming each cup. You start with your cup first because it will get colder faster.

3. Then you place tea into the pot. You then pour more water from the tea kettle into the white tea pot.

4. While the tea is steeping you pour out the water from the tea cups into the grey bowl. Starting with your cup first to keep the others as warm as long as possible.

5. Then you pour a small amount of tea into you cup to check the color. If the color is okay then you start pouring a small amount into each cup.

6. After that you pass each person a cup starting with the oldest to the youngest. This process begins the next time you want have another cup of tea.

I liked the ceremony but I prefer to boil some water and throw a bag of Lipton in a cup. If I am feeling a little wild I use Celestial Seasonings Nutcracker Sweet Holiday Tea!

We were also able to take part in a traditional wedding. I did not volunteer but it was fun to watch.

The final thing we did was make the famous traditional food for the town I live in. It is called Jeonju Biminbop.

This is what the final product turned out like. We had our own "Jamie Oliver" pictured above.

Not sure if you noticed the raw egg in the picture up top but Claudine and I could not handle the raw egg that was "suppose" to cook with the hot rice. We fried our eggs and made our own version of the famous Jeonju Biminbop.

Easter Sunday

On Sunday we had a joint service with the Chinese Fellowship. We had a sermon which was translated by Chloe. She is 17 and knows English, Korean, and Chinese! We also played games and had a wonderful dinner together. Here are a few pictures.

A Picture for my Parents: Cast Your Vote

I chose number 3. Thank you to everyone who helped in the decision.

My mom and dad have ordered that I send them a picture when I am dressed up. If you know me I do not like to dress up. I wore a dress to church on Easter Sunday. Here are a few pictures I took. Please cast your vote on which one I should send to them parents.

If you don't really like any of them that is okay too! I can try again at another time.

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

Decorating Easter Eggs

On Good Friday Kelly, Megan and I decorated some Easter Eggs. I was suppose to help but I had a migraine and I fell asleep on Megan's bed. Here is a picture of their wonderful eggs though!

Cherry Blossom Festivel

On Saturday I went to Gunsan with my pastor's family and Claudine. We had a blast and here are a few pictures from the trip. This is the town that my pastor's wife, Sunny, grew up in. My Uncle Eldon was also stationed here in the 80's. It is a beautiful place and I am looking forward to my week off to explore more of Korea.

Chrery Blossoms

Here are a fe pictures from around campus.

More Cooking Classes

Aren't these guys cute? They couldn't wait for th cookies to bake!

Blog Change

Many people are having problems viewing my blog so I have changed it back. If I get any weird things from students again I might be inclined to change it once more.

John Piper in South Korea

I was in a bookstore at a bus terminal in Seoul over vacation and I saw 4 different books written by John Piper. I was shocked and excited at the same time. If I ever reach a point where I can understand his writing while I am in Korea I know exactly where I can go to get one of his books! I thought some of you from Minneapolis might find this pretty interesting.

Cooking Classes

This week I am baking or cooking with all of my classes. Each class got to chose what they wanted to make. I will be making biscuits and gravy, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, Italian chicken and potatoes, and Spaghetti. Here are a few pictures from my first day of cooking.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone said I was crazy to bake with my kids class. I have 10 kids ranging in age from 9 to11. They were so good. They did a better job at baking than my adult class! There peanut butter cookies were great too.

Yellow Dust, Cherry Blossoms, and Spring

You might be curious as to what yellow dust, Cherry blossoms, and Spring have in common. For the last two week I have been sick with a sinus infection and a terrible cough. I went to the doctor after being sick for a week. He gave me some medication but it didn't help. After staying up all night Friday coughing I went to another doctor Saturday morning with my pastor's wife as my interpreter. This doctor knew what he was doing. He did a chest x-ray to make sure my lungs were okay since I had been coughing for so long. My lungs were okay for now. He said I might be developing asthma, I sure hope not.

Now for the yellow dust, Cherry blossoms, and Spring part!! Every Spring yellow sand comes from the Gobi desert in China and covers all of Korea. It is so bad at times the entire sky is yellow. It was like this yesterday but I did not have my camera with me! The dust is so bad you can taste it when you are outside.

In addition to the yellow dust Korea has many Cherry trees. The Cherry trees were planted in Korea during the Japanese invasion. The Cherry blossoms are beautiful but they wreak havoc on your allergies. In the picture below you can see the Cherry blossoms as well as the haze from the yellow dust.

Blog Change

Some of you might be wondering why I changed my blog to invited readers only. Today I received a comment on my blog from one of my students here in Korea. I realized that I don't want just anybody reading what I write or seeing the pictures that I post. I do realize that it will limit people that I have lost contact with from stumbling onto my blog but it will also keep everyone int he world from reading what I write. I am going to try it for awhile and see what happens. If you have any complaints please let me know.

Boesung and The Green Tea Plantation

The tea grows right on the mountainsides.

Check out my ears!!

A picture perfect entrance to the green tea fields.

The Walker Hill Hotel in Seoul

Sorry it has taken me so long to update the rest of my vacation but the term started very busy and it is only getting busier. But in three short weeks I will be on vacation again. My dad went to this hotel when he was stationed in Korea in th 70's. I think it has changed a lot since then. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like now.