Korean Heating Sucks

As I read my gas bill for this month I realized that gas is way to expensive for not heating my house properly. So the way that heating works in most Korean houses is that the floor is heated through hot spots under the flooring. There is no vent to circulate the air, the floor just gets hot. And boy does it get hot. My house takes forever to get warm and that's when I crank up the heating, but then the floor is so hot that if you stand in one spot for too long your feet feel like they are burning. So if I have the heating at 23 C then the air temperature will get to about 20 C, but then you have to deal with the cement walls. The cement walls never get warm, so the house always feels chilly.
So seeing my bill, I decided that it was time to get a little heater to use instead of using the gas. I hope that this cuts down on the gas bill so that I don't have to pay nearly half as much. Electricity seems to be so much cheaper so I hope this is the best decision. I also think that it will heat the air and make the house much nicer for being in.
You know what's really crazy is that my bathroom has no heating at all. So it's always cold, unless I'm having a shower and then it gets warm. So going to the bathroom in the middle of the night is a wake up call because it's so cold.

Snowball

Lately I was able to capture Snowball in some very cute pictures. She is so funny when it comes to pictures. She will actually sit and post for the picture. When she sees the camera she gets herself ready for the picture.
The picture on the left is of Snowball in her Korean hanbok.
The picture on the right is another picture of Snowball with her hanbok on.
On the left is Snowball with an empty canister of candy. She just loves to play with anything she can get ahold of.

Activities with My Classes

So, the month of December has been filled with little projects that I've done with some of my classes. The first one was banana splits with the class that I used to have a hard time getting to talk. The text that I am using had an article on different kinds of banana recipes and I asked the students which one they would like to try, they said the banana split. So the next class I got everything together and we made banana splits. A bunch of the students actually didn't come the day we made the banana splits, which was a little disappointing, but okay because all the more for the students who were there.
This is the class enjoying their banana splits.
Another activity that I was able to do with the students was to make airplanes. In their text book they had to make an airplane and I made it into a little contest to see whose airplane would drop the fastest and whose would drop the slowest. The students, a low level class, enjoyed making the planes. I took them outside the class to the stairs and I had them drop their planes down the stairs to see whose would be the fastest and slowest. It was a good lesson for them.
This is two of the boys experimenting, in the class, with their airplanes.
The last activity that I did this month was a Christmas activity on the Friday before Christmas. With my elementry students I taught them 2 Christmas carols and then we made Christmas cards. I taught them Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. They had never heard Frosty the Snowman before, so it was a little difficult for them. They enjoyed the songs all the same. The Christmas cards that the students made were really good. They have a great imagination.
This is some of the girls making Christmas cards for their family and friends.

The Opportunity

In my Christmas post I talked about how my friend, Johnny, had to talk to me over lunch. Well what we talked about is the up coming ministry at the church. He asked if I would help him with the English service for the teens. I told him I could help as much as possible, but I'm not a pastor and can't do preaching, but can give a little message from time to time if needed. I was told that he wanted to get the teens interested in English through learning about God. I thought that was really cool because that is pretty much what God has called me to do.
So we talked a little about what would happen and when the services would be. Johnny would like to have me help with the pronunciation of the English service, to make sure that what is said is good English and that the way that it is said is right. He wants to try and use quiz games as a way to get the teens speaking. There will be worship songs sung in English and the sermon will be spoken in English. I think it will be good for the teens and also for me because then I can be involved in the church and also get some English service out of it.
So starting, hopefully, February we will have English services 2 times a month, the first and third Sundays of the month.
Please pray that all goes well and that I can help in any way that I can without getting burned out between teaching at school and helping with the English service.

New Edition to My House

One thing in Korea that is interesting is how large items (couches, chairs, cabinets, etc.) are disposed of. When Koreans don't want something in their house they just put it out to the side of the street. Usually they have to go to the city hall and get a special sticker to put on it to have it picked up. The thing is that if you want something you can just take it. People throw away really nice cabinets and shelfs all the time and I had been looking for a new cabinet for my house because I lack shelving and space. So I had to find the right one to fit into my house.
The opportunity came along one day a couple of weeks ago when I found the perfect cabinet for my house. Just to make sure I was allowed to just take something I consulted my director and was told it was okay to take it. So that night after teaching, I went and got the cabinet. It was a heavy cabinet, let me tell you, and I had to carry it to my house by myself, as there were no people around to help me. I carried it about 100 feet or so to my house and it took about 15 minutes to get it to my house because it was so heavy.
Anyways, after I got it all cleaned up and moved things so it could go into it's place, it actually looked great. I was so surprised that it fit so well into my house and made things look great.
This is my new cabinet all set up with my Christmas tree. It's so perfect for my house.
The only thing about the cabinet is that it has windows on the doors and when Snowball walks by it and catches her reflection she gets a little angry. It's sometimes very funny, but mostly annoying because she can't calm down for a while afte she sees herself.

My Christmas in Korea

One thing about Korea that I really don't like is the fact that Christmas is not a big holiday here. It's hardly even recognized as even existing, unless you go to church. Sure you can find some things in E-Mart or other stores, but it's not much and pickings become slim. Last year I was able to buy a small Christmas tree and some nice ornaments to decorate it with and so I put that up this year again.
This is my Christmas tree with a couple of presents under it.
So Christmas Eve was a pretty big deal at church. In the evening there was a special service around 7:00. We sang Christmas songs, there was a little sermon, and there were a couple of performances by different groups.
After the main service there was a young adults fun time. We were to each bring a small present for a gift exchange. I got some chocolates and a bookmark from the Christian bookstore. The time was filled with all sorts of games. The first one was a game where we were put into 4 different groups. We chose a leader and then it was a sort of rhythm chant were you would say a group's name and how many times they were to say their name and then pass it onto a differnt group. For example, if my group was chosen then we would say our name 4 times and then the leader would say someone else's group name and how many times they were to say their name, 1 up to 4 times. The game stops when someone messes up the rhythm, then it starts over again. It was very interesting.
Another game that was played was persimmom seed spiting. Each team group chose one person to represent the team and they each had to spit the seed as far as they could.
Another game was where the team had to try and have so many people stand on a piece of newspaper. The first time was a full sheet of newspaper and 10 people standing on the paper. Next the paper was folded in half and it was 8 people, then it was folded in half again and 5 people had to stand on it. Then it was folded in half again and 4 people had to stand on it and then it was folded one last time and 3 people had to stand on it. My team got the first 2 and then we couldn't do it. Some of the teams had some really small girls and so they went on people's shoulders. It was a fun game.
Finally, after the game was the gift exchange. It was nice. I got a foot scrub thing, very useful. After that the young adults had a traditional Korean food to eat and then they went caroling to Christian's houses. I left before the food because I wasn't going to be able to eat it because it had seafood in it. I was also tired.
Christmas day I woke up and opened my presents and Snowball's presents and then got ready for church. It felt pretty much like every other Sunday, except for opening presents. Chruch service was okay, nothing too special, except for singing Christmas songs. I was going to go home after first service because I wouldn't have been able to eat any of the food at the church for lunch and I didn't feel like being depressed over not being able to eat the food. I was just going to go home and not eat anything special, but one of the people at church, English name Johnny, asked if I would like to go for lunch because he had to talk to me about something. So we went to a Japanese restaurant and I had a pork cutlet with cheese and some nice soup. After having lunch and talking Johnny and I went back to church. I was going to go home after lunch, but Johnny said that there was going to be special music in second service, so I stayed.
Second service was good, though I didn't know most of the songs. The group that sang were very good.
After second service I went home and watched some of my new Lost season 1. I got a phone call about 2 hours later and Johnny asked me to come to the church for a special meeting for what we had discussed. I was a little reluctant to go because I was tired and just wanted to stay home, but I went anyway.
It ended up being a dinner out to discuss the up coming year of what would be happening in the church. I didn't eat very much because the food wasn't exactly what I like. It was a shabu shabu sort of idea only with duck meat. I found it was a little spicey and there were too many little bones in the soup. The vegetables that were added were pretty much leaves from different plants and I didn't really like them that much. So I ended up sticking with a couple of side dishes that were offered and ate only a little of the soup. After eating the meeting started and I pretty much just sat there for about 2 hours and didn't understand anything. It was a little boring and went on for too long. After the meeting ended I went home.
So that was my Christmas. I have to work on Monday, no extra holiday here in Korea. It's a little disappointing, but next year will be better, I'm sure.

Children's Program at Church

So one Sunday at church the children, ages 4-5, put on a special program that included some dancing and short plays. For each of the performances there were different costumes. It was quite the show, very well done for children of that age. One of the great things about the program was the 2 English songs that the children did. One of the songs was the 3 Little Ducks song. The children were dressed up as little ducks and they did a dance to the song. It was quite cute.
This is the children doing the duck song/dance.
The other song that they did was a rainbow song and each of the children were dressed as a colour and sang the song What Makes a Rainbow. After the song played on the tape, each of the children then said the words to the song. They did really good, especially the children who had to say 'indigo.' I was quite impressed.
Here are the children doing the What Makes a Rainbow song.
One of the plays that was cute also was the seed growing play. Each of the children were dressed as a certain element needed for the seed to grow. There was water, earth, sun, and prayer. It was so cute and each of the elements gave a piece of themselves to the seed by taking it off their costume and sticking it on the seed.
A very cute dance that the children did was a traditional Korean dance. They used little drums and were dressed very cute.
This is two of the children doing the traditional Korean dance.
Overall, it was a great little program and I could see that there was a lot of work put into putting this together and performing it.

Snow

Excitment filled my school today as children came in to class telling all the teachers that it was snowing outside. It was very exciting for the students and also for me. It lasted only for about 2 hours or so on and off and it only dusted the ground, but it was great! As I write this there are very small traces on the ground and on some cars left, but there is still a little snow. The thing is that Jinju doesn't get snow. I was told that the last time that it really snowed in Jinju there was a couple of inches on the ground and it was bitter cold, this was about 3 years or so ago. So when it snows in Jinju it's quite the thing.
I have to say that it doesn't seem like a true winter without seeing snow on the ground. I actually feel it's really winter now that I've seen some snow. I would really like to see lots of snow on the ground, maybe about half a foot or so.

Activity Day at School

So every month, or almost every month, we have a day of activity for the students. Some of the things that we have done are a games day, a movie day, and a food day. This activity day was a food day. We decided that we were going to make pancakes with the students. It was going to be on the last Friday of the month of November.
The only problem with the whole thing was that we didn't have a proper recipe for making the pancakes. I only found this out the day that we were making the pancakes or else I would have found a recipe on the internet. Anyways, it was trial and error for the first few classes. I had the first class of our youngest and lowest level students. It went okay, but there wasn't enough sugar added and not enough milk. The students enjoyed them all the same though.
This is the youngest and lowest level class enjoying their pancakes.
The second class that I made pancakes with were older and a higher level of English. We changed the recipe a little, but since the class was bigger it still didn't have enough milk and it took a long time to sift the four because there was so much of it and the sifter was not very good. The students had a good time with it though.
This is the second class, that I made pancakes with, mixing the batter for the pancakes.
The last class that I made pancakes with, we had mastered the recipe. We joined two classes together and so it was a little easier to do things. The students really enjoyed this batch.
This is the third class, that I made pancakes with, cooking the pancakes.
All in all the day was successful and the students had fun and made a mess with their toppings. I had brought in some real maple syrup that I had found at a grocery store on one of my trips outside the city. I think that they enjoyed it.