Activity Day - Decorating Easter Eggs

On Tuesday I was able to do an Easter activity with my classes. My mom had sent me some egg dying kits, chocolate Easter eggs, and Easter candies, so it was a nice little treat for the students. It was supposed to be an all academy activity day, but there was some trouble with the eggs breaking when they were being boiled.
Anyways, I was able to give 4 classes a taste of what children get to do before Easter, decorating Easter eggs. It was a little difficult to explain how to do the egg decorating, but eventually the students got the idea and had fun decorating. Of course there were a couple of students who dropped their eggs and ended up with a cracked/broken egg, but other than that the eggs turned out great.
On the left is a picture of Emma dying her egg all pink.
On the right is a picture of Sam (white jacket), Tom, Iris (stripped shirt), and Maria, dying their eggs. Iris is trying to dye her egg two colours by holding half the egg in one colour and then after letting it dry, putting the other half in a different colour.
On the left is Ted drawing a picture on his egg with the stencils and markers. Joseph is watching him.
On the right is Chris (on the left) and Luke showing off their eggs after finishing their decorating.
On the left is a picture of Jessica (on the left) and Maria showing off their two coloured eggs.
So overall, the day was a success and the students had a great time.

Hadong Trip to See the Cherry Blossoms

On Saturday I was able to take a trip to a smaller city more out in the country where I could see the cherry blossoms. I went with some of the people from church. We took a train to the small city of Hadong. The train was packed with people and we had to stand because there were no seats to sit on.
This is the group of us at the train station in Hadong.
When we arrived we walked to the bus station because we had to take a bus to the village where the cherry blossom festival was taking place. We found that when we arrived the bus was packed with people and we had to wait for another hour to take the next bus. It was going to be one busy day for people because the weather was great and the cherry blossoms were out. When the next bus finally arrived we found ourselves standing again because the bus was packed with people. The bus ride was about a half an hour. We ended up getting off a little early because of the traffic going into the village was so crazy. So we walked into the village, which was about 15 minutes or so.
This is us walking across the bridge to get to the village.
Once we got to the village we stopped for some lunch. Then we made the long walk down to the next village a 4 km walk. I was tired to begin with because of getting up so early, but by the time we reached the next village I was exhaused. The walk was really nice though. We got many pictures and had lots of fun doing it.
The picture on the left is the street that we walked down to see the cherry blossoms. There were so many trees and so many cars. The traffic was crazy. It's a good thing that we walked.
The picture on the right is a very nice picture showing the mountains that are all around the area that we were walking.
The picture on the left is a picture that I thought was a very fun picture of some of the church friends that I was with.
The picture on the right is a picture idea that I thought would look really great and so I put it into existance and it turned out amazing. I'm very happy with this picture of me.
One last picture on the left was very cool when I saw it but didn't quite turn out when photographed, but you can see it a little. If you look closely you can see the cherry blossom pettals in the air just above the ground. The wind was blowing in a way that the pettals looked like a little tornado.
Once we got to the second village it was time to head back. I was so tired. We ended up waiting and hour for the bus because of the traffic. We actually did get to sit on this bus, which was nice, but other people had to stand because it was so full. The trip back to Hadong took over 2 hours because of the traffic. We had missed the last train by about and hour and a half. So we took the bus home. Overall, the day was a good day and I got great pictures and had fun.

Alphabet Fun With the Kindergarten Class

This week I was able to have some fun with the K class. The director's wife decided it was time to have fun with play dough. So we made some homemade play dough from flour, water, oil, and salt. We added grape juice to make a purple colour, hot chocolate powder to make a brown colour, and green tea powder mix to make a green colour. The students thought it was fun and also funny. Then I had them make different letters of the alphabet. It was good fun for them and they enjoyed playing with the homemade play dough.
On the left is Min Jae with his letter A. This is the director's son. He makes me nervous at times because I don't know what he tells his parents about the class. I always hope that he says good things about the class because I wouldn't want to get into any trouble. He also doesn't have the ability to sit still for very long, so it's a constant struggle to get him to focus on what we are doing in class.
On the right is Min Jin with her letter B. This is a new girl to class as of this week because one of the boys told his mother that he was bored in class and wanted to do something else so he left. She is very quiet and a little shy, but I think she won't be for long.
On the left, below Min Jae, is Joung In with her letter B. This was the girl who cried the first time she saw me. Her mother said that she was scared of foreigners. Now she is used to having me around and she likes to play little games with me and show me things.
On the right, below Min Jin, is Sang Min with his letter B. This boy is a little trouble maker at times. At times he makes little Joung In cry because he teases her. He is just full of mischief and you can see it in his eyes when you look at him. I have to keep my eye on him because of this.
On the left, below Joung In, is Gyoung Min with her letter B. This girl is so smart, but she is very quiet and I can hardly hear her at times. It's also hard to get her to smile, but when she does she is so pretty.

A New Friend

I should have posted this one 2 weeks ago when I met my new friend, but it just occured to me now to post it. Two weeks ago I got a phone call from my friend, Young Ho. I had not spoke with him in such a long time because I changed churches and he also has been busy with his new wife. Anyways, he called me up to ask if I would like to meet a new foreigner. I said sure because since Susan left in August I haven't had any foreign friends. So that day I went to meet this new girl, Naomi, at E-Mart.
Apparently she was in Seoul teaching, but had a really bad experience with her director, worse than I had, and quit. However, she didn't have any money because she ended up having to pay back a whole bunch of money to this director, so she needed to find another job. She found one here in Jinju and has been here for now 1 month. She's having a better time now with this new teaching job.
So we went out to a coffee house and chatted. She's a very nice girl from Ireland. She goes to church, but I'm not really sure of where her relationship stands with God because she grew up in the Catholic church and going to a Catholic school. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the Catholic church, it's just that she refers to Christianity as 'religion' or she refers to me as a 'religious person' not as a Christian. I'm not sure that she has a personal relationship with God, but I'm sure I'll find that out as I get to know her more and hang out with her on weekends. She did ask me how to find a verse in the Bible, which I was happy to help her do. I hope that we are able to have more chats about God and if she doesn't have a personal relationship with God, maybe God will use me to help her to have a personal relationship with Him. Please pray for this and for me.
Anyways, it's nice to have someone I can call up on the weekends to do things with, who speaks fluent English. There is nothing wrong with calling up my Korean friends, but it's not the same as speaking with a fellow 'foreigner'.

Spring is In the Air

Spring is finally here, not that we had a terribly cold winter or anything like that here in Korea, but it's nice to have the warm weather here. In Korea you can tell it's spring from a couple of signs.
The first sign is that the air in the house is colder than the air outside. Funny as it sounds, it's very true because the walls are cement they don't allow the warm air in. It will take about another month or so for the air in the house to feel the same temperature as the air outside during the day.
A second sign is that the cherry blossoms are starting to come out. In the past week I have seen the start of little pink buds on the trees. This is very nice cause it gives some colour to the brown dullness.
A third sign is that the magnolis flowers are out. The big white flowers are so nice to look at.
A fourth sign is that you can wear a long-sleeved shirt outside during the day time as the temperature is usually 15-18 C. It's so nice to be able to get rid of the sweaters and the heavy winter coat. Along with getting rid of the winter coat and sweaters I have also been able to put away the heavy blankets. It's nice also to get a gas bill that is much lower because I haven't had to turn on the gas as much. I'm all about saving on money.
A fifth sign that spring is here is that the students have a harder time sitting still in class because they rather be outside than inside learning English. They are also more talkative in class, but not in English, in Korean. It's harder to keep them focused at times, but that's ok because they are in a better mood most of the time.
A sixth sign is the yellow sand. This is something that blows in from China every spring. It's a pain because it's everywhere. You can sweep your floor in the morning and by the time you come home in the evening there will be a yellow sand on the floor again. It's all over the cars, all over the house, and in the wind. You have to be careful on windy days because the sand blows into your eyes and it's quite painful. The problem is that you can't actually see the sand so you don't know that it's in the wind until you get it in your eyes.
A seventh, and final, sign is that I feel more positive. The winter can be so dull and boring because I can't go out as much, but now that the weather has gotten nicer I have more of a reason to go out. I think I also feel good about getting rid of the heavy clothing that makes me feel twice the size that I really am.