you know those kernels of corn that are left at the bottom of the popcorn popper after all the rest have popped? those 7 kernels that swirl around and around and around and are still circling aimlessly hours after the other 335 have jumped from the popper and made their home in the bowl awaiting outside? i've always felt sorry for them. i remember watching them spin as a kid, always hoping that one more would make it out before dad flipped the switch. i still leave the popper on minutes after i know it's a hopeless case, wishing to be proven wrong by that "POP" of one more kernel.

i mean, who wants to remain a tiny brown kernel when they could turn into beautiful white fluffiness? i don't know firsthand, since i've never been or even talked to a popcorn kernel, but i'm pretty sure that sitting at the bottom of a popper time after time until someone decides to empty it into the garbage isn't every popcorn kernel's dream. when it is finally their turn to leave the mound of other kernels to actually enter the popper, i imagine they expect great things. and after making it in, they spin with everyone else -as fast as they can, waiting for the second they will make their great jump into the bowl. how disappointing it must be for those who never make it?? they must feel like something's wrong with them. that they didn't try hard enough. that their chance to shine (in this case, pop) is gone.

ok, i think i've taken this far enough. now you know the thoughts that wander through my head while i'm making a snack to go with my movie. until next time's deep thoughts involving food -i'm signing out.

don't surrender your loneliness
so quickly.
let it cut more deep.

let it ferment and season you
as few human
or divine ingredients can.

something missing in my heart tonight
has made my eyes so soft,
my voice
so tender,

my need of God
absolutely
clear.

(shams-al-din hafiz, 12th c. persian poet)

there is much missing from my heart these days. elizabeth's hugs. jayne's faces. lucia's singing. mcdonalds in the morning on the way to an adventure. elizabeth tickling me. dancing with penguin class. singing "bye bye see you tomorrow." reading on elizabeth's bed. asking, "what day is it today?" dinner and cards at jayne's flat. elizabeth's voice. movies on don't go. jayne's cuddles. catch phrase. peanut butter cookies. ediya coffee on fridays. etc. etc.

there is also much that helps to fill in those holes. dutch blitz with my sisters. cribbage with rach. soren's singing. reading books to haddon. meeting nate's girlfriend. mom's amazing cooking. dad's insights. uno with ben. editing kaleb's papers. "hammock talks" with rach. singing and cuddling with my sisters. piano playing. my own bed. vanilla lattes with poppa chuck. rock band with the girls. etc. etc.

but the holes are still there. i sit here on my comfy bed in a house full of love and warmth and still miss the hard beds and heated floors of korea. i don't enjoy loneliness. but i want to be soft, tender, deep, in my need for God and people. toward that end, perhaps i'm in a good place. right now it feels a bit like i'm putting on band aid after band aid in vain trying to stop gushing blood. i know the holes will eventually get smaller. and smaller. but here's the thing -part of me doesn't want them to. what do i do with that?

i don't do goodbyes. i just don't. i think one thing that really points to there being more besides this life here and now, is how temporary things in this world are, and how eternal we as humans are built. we're not made to say goodbye. it's not a natural thing. we crave stability and permanence and security and routine (elizabeth keeps throwing them out and they're right on the money, so i'm putting them down). we also crave adventure and change at times, but i think these are more fleeting pursuits and after chasing them for awhile, we revert back to the longing for stability. in a perfect world, there would be no goodbyes. but i hate to break it to you, this is not a perfect world. and goodbyes come with the territory -that doesn't mean i like them though. every bone in my body screams at me that this is not fair! this is not the way it's supposed to be. and it's true, it's not. i don't do goodbyes.

(i don't think this thought process is finished, but i'm done for now).

how are you supposed to hug a child you've hugged everyday for the past year for the last time? what are you supposed to say to a 5 year old girl who, when you say that you're leaving, says, "but teacha, i'm sad?" how are you supposed to look into the overflowing eyes of a child and say "i'll see you again," knowing you most likely won't? what do you do when your boss stays out of the teacher's room all day because she starts bawling every time she sees you? what do you say to a child who says, "but why teacha? don't you love us?" how do you eat with friends with whom you've shared most every meal over the last year for the last time? how do you hold a friend whose arms have been the things holding you together, and know it will be a very long time before you hold them again? how do you watch your kids smile and wave to another teacher? how do you let go of a child who won't let go of you? how do you smile and say everything will be ok with tears streaming down your face?

how do you say goodbye?
how do you hug for the last time?
what do you say when you know you probably won't meet again in this life?
how do you deal with being replaced?
how do you live without people who have been your life?

i have no idea and i don't want to know, because it feels incredibly wrong. but it's happening.

pain is a weird thing. we go to drastic measures to avoid it, we usually do our best to keep from causing it, and we still find ourselves suffering from it daily and hurling it at those closest to us over and over again.

it's kind of funny to me how we go through life trying not to step on people's toes -whether it's the person in front of you in line at the grocery store or your best friend -in general, we try not to hurt people. one of the first things we learn as kids is not to hit other kids. as we get older, we find out we're capable of more -teeth leave a pretty good mark and knuckles can leave an eye black and blue for days. but there's another kind of pain we're capable of inflicting. "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." i'm not sure how long the gap is between when we learn that rhyme and when we learn that it's a lie. but it seems that not long after we're running to mom with, "he pushed me," we're going with, "she called me a toadface." (i made that one up).

i don't think it's funny that we try to avoid hurting each other. but i've been thinking -how much pain and hurt is actually unavoidable? inevitably, we're going to hurt each other. and is it such a bad thing? sometimes, yes. but hurt also brings growth. and pain reveals depth.

i'm not saying i think we should go out of our way to hurt people. but i don't know if avoiding pain should be our main concern. if we truly care about someone, we want to see them grow and become the person they are meant to be. a painless existence doesn't bring this about. this year especially, i've realized that my closest relationships aren't those i tiptoe through leaving a trail of flowers and candy. they are the ones i stumble into, fall over in, get back up again in, trudge through, skip through, fall over again in, and end up leaving mostly mud mixed with tea and bits of chocolate (on a good day). these lines made me think:

this is how it works:
you're young until you're not,
you love until you don't,
you try until you can't,
you laugh until you cry,
you cry until you laugh.
you peer inside yourself
you take the things you like
and try to love the things you took
and then you take that love you made
and stick it into some
someone elses' heart,
pumping someone elses' blood
and walking arm in arm
you hope it don't get harmed,
but even if it does
you'll just do it all again.
(regina spektor, "on the radio")

we're not going to avoid hurting each other no matter how hard we try. intimacy means vulnerability and being willing to let someone close enough to hurt you. you can't keep at a distance from people just because you're afraid of hurting them, or vise-versa. true, there will be relationships where the pain you cause each other will not match the joy you receive. and there may even be times when you don't even grow from the hurt, so really they haven't benefited you at all. but i'm convinced it's not a waste. every relationship is bound to teach us something -about ourselves, about each other, about the world, etc.

i don't want medication,
just give me liberation,
even if it cuts the legs right out from under me.
don't give me medication,
i want the real sensation,
even when living feels just like death to me.
(derek webb, "medication")

i don't know about you -but without pain, i become numb. when things are going really well, i start to lose feeling and eventually i lose touch with what it means to be human. being alive doesn't mean always being well. either that, or being well doesn't mean enjoying a peaceful, joyful existence ALL the time. sometimes, we're going to hurt. sometimes we're going to hurt so bad we just want to stop feeling altogether. but that wouldn't be living. we all know that without pain, we can't know joy. it's the same in relationships. without letting ourselves be hurt, and allowing ourselves to even hurt others at times, we can't know the joy buried behind the pain. i wonder how it would be if instead of watching out for each others' toes, we were looking into each others' eyes, returning their smiles, exchanging words that cut through all the superficial hogwash and get to the heart.

i just wonder what it would be like if pain wasn't our worst fear.

all these dates have been bouncing around crazily in my head, so i'm going to write them out in an orderly fashion in an attempt to ease my brain.

oct. 31 -last day of work
nov. 2 -leave for beijing
nov. 6 -leave beijing for bangkok
nov. 10 -leave bangkok for one of thailand's islands
nov. 17 -leave bangkok for home (bangkok - seoul, then seoul - seattle)
nov. 18 -HOME

then i'll be spending the next month and a half at home (and in places nearby) being with everyone i've missed over the last year.

jan. 4 -europe with lizzie (we'll be backpacking around germany, prague, switzerland, austria, france, england, ireland)
feb. 11 -home again home again

after that -your guess is as good as mine. i'll be living somewhere with someone working at some place. at the moment, ideas include puyallup, portland and bellingham. but we'll see.

yesterday one of my girls pointed to my arm and said, "teacha, you have white fur. and i have black fur." =) soooo funny. i'm going to miss my kids immensely.

last weekend was chusek (thanksgiving) here in korea, and due to this lovely holiday, we got monday off school. we were determined to make the most of this 3 day weekend so we (actually jayne) rented a car (complete with a navigator), packed it full of stuff (mostly bedding), made a stop at costco for snacks and drinks, and headed north. it was our first camping trip of the summer -our first time being surrounded by hills and trees, laying out on the sand, roasting hot dogs over the fire (actually a grill), swimming in open waters...but it wasn't our first time getting sunburnt and mosquito bitten. and it certainly wasn't the first time elizabeth, jayne and i have spent wonderful hours on end together.


like i said, we brought lots of bedding.


our lovely campsite on the beach -talk about riverfront property.


note our use of chopsticks as skewers. brilliant, eh? also note my position -i've got the asian squat down pat.


our own secluded beach.


waking up to hot chocolate, oatmeal, and sunshine. what more could one want?


we moved to the shade after getting burnt to a crisp.


monday morning came and we weren't near ready to leave.


but we had a visit from a korean soldier (while we were making eggs for breakfast) who informed us that our lovely beach was scattered with land mines, (apparently we were a little too close to the north korean border) so we had to make our exit. he was super nice and even helped us carry all our stuff up to the car.


how were we supposed to know it was a "warning: danger" sign rather than a "welcome: lovely beach" sign? whoops.

all in all it was a most wonderful weekend. you never know what to expect on adventures like these -but think how boring it would be without things like visits from korean soldiers. the countdown continues with only about a month til we're done! thinking about all that has to happen between now and then is crazy overwhelming, so i'm consciously choosing to fill my mind with other things. i'm excited x100 to come home and be with everyone i've missed for the last 11 months. but i'm also terribly sad at the thought of leaving behind the kids and friends that have been my life for the last year. i guess that's life as we know it -bittersweet.

i've meant to put pictures up for the last several months...so here goes.


rachel and nate and lizzie's brother, matt, came to visit in june!


best friends reunited.


getting thrown in the river at the korean folk village.


a day at everland! the happiest place in korea.


jump!!


rach and i outside "our houses" at cheongdeok-gung palace.


a day at caribbean bay.


making spider hats in class! they loved it!


4th of july party! we had a little too much fun planning/making food...we were eating leftovers for weeks.


at a mud festival! this is before we got to the mud part...


and this is after!


happy happy playing in the mud. i felt like i was about 9.


we played in the ocean for hours. later we found out the obnoxious screaming sound from the shore was a tsunami warning. oh right!


home for a quick week at the end of july!!


this is happiness.


the whole family went for a day to silverwood. fun fun!


i'm very white. either that, or carrie's very tan.


cool sisters with cool bags and cool shirts and cool hats.


fun with the little boys.


haddon boy.


at the dmz between south and north korea. at this moment, we're in north korea! ahhh!


lizzie makes friends with a soldier.


making play dough with our kids! they thought it was the greatest thing ever.


our first barbecue of the summer! on a sidewalk out behind lizzie's house. (after we got kicked out of the public courtyard we started out in).


jayne's amazing kebabs!


going river rafting!


fun on the boat! the river was really high because of the "chinese rain." (china seeded the air so it would rain and clean out their air for the olympics, so south korea got torrential rain for a couple of days. thanks china!)


after the ride -we made it alive and, apart from a bruised chin and cut toe, well.


sunday afternoon tea. (once again, we had too much fun planning/making things and ended up with enough treats for at least another 30 people).

well there you have it. my last 3 months in pictures. this is our first summer as "adults" with real jobs that go right through the summer, but we've managed to act like kids the majority of the time. =) we're at 2 months and counting!! october 29th will be a sad, sad day. yesterday was my last day with one of my classes because jayne is taking over and i'm getting a new class, and apparently 3 of my girls cried all during their next class after they found out. aww. mostly, they are 1st graders who cry at anything, but it's nice to know you're loved.

that's all i've got for now. peace and joy from my side of the world to yours.

i just sat on "don't go" (my lovely green couch) for a couple hours and wrote letters. yes, real letters, with a pen and paper and everything. there is something wonderful about writing on a physical piece of paper to someone. don't get me wrong, i find email as amazing and necessary as the next person, but i think letters are far superior in every way.

before my writing spree, i finished a book -"song of solomon," by toni morrison. amazing, but disturbing and a bit depressing (for starters, the book begins and ends with suicide). but this is no surprise with morrison. i can't say i liked it as much as her others, but i think i need to give it some time. i love it when novels are so wrapped up in culture and history and family that they can't help but hit home as if you were reading your own grandmother's diary. i'm not a stickler for realism in art, i believe it's definitely a place where fantasy and idealism should be welcomed because sometimes it's one of the only places we can find that kind of hopeful optimism, but i certainly appreciate art that reflects reality in all its raw beauty.

just a few days ago i got back from a most wonderful week at home. it was a piece of peach pie after months of bran muffins. in other words, it was amazing. pictures to follow. peace.

here are a couple of videos of my kids for your enjoyment. i've been thinking about how much i'm going to miss them lately...which has brought out the camera in hopes of saving their sweet faces in my memory for posterity.

this first one is of my kittens -one of my kindy classes. they love to sing during art and this particular song, "how many buses," is played over and over at their request.


this one is one of my elementary classes -which i affectionately refer to as my angel/devil class -having fun introducing each other. they are little angels...but can quickly turn on you if you're not careful.


here's a thought from what i've been reading:
"in varenka [a girl who lives entirely for others] she saw that it was only necessary to forget oneself and to love others in order to be at peace, happy, and lovely. and such a person kitty wished to be."
-tolstoy, anna karenina

i really need to start telling more of the stories of everyday life here in korea. so here's a start.

every time i go to the grocery store, the lady asks me (in korean, of course) if i want a bag, and since i'm normally only buying a couple of things (namely milk and eggs), i've gotten used to saying aniyo(no) without really thinking. but last night on our way home from school, our list was a bit longer and included 2 big bags of potatoes. i absentmindedly told the lady i didn't want a bag, she looked at the amount of things we were buying, looked at elizabeth, and proceeded to load the groceries into elizabeth's arms. elizabeth panicked at first because she really didn't think it was all going to fit -but apparently that lady knew what she was doing because it stacked up just fine, thought a bit precarious! it wasn't as funny for lizzie, but i sure enjoyed it.

then yesterday when i was walking to the subway, i ran into (quite literally) one of my girls from school in an alley. i found out that she lives hardly a block from me. she was playing soccer with her brother and cousin and when i tapped her on the shoulder, she turned and gave me this huge smile -"hello teacher!" she was so excited to introduce her brother and cousin and it was really fun to see the neighbors watching us amazed as donna burst out in english like she owned the language.

one more story. so later that day i was at the foreign food mart. i had been standing in line for a while and i was a bit frustrated because the guy at the counter was helping a man who'd just walked in before those of us waiting in line. when it was my turn, i laid out my items on the counter and instead of adding them up, the guy turned around to look for something on a shelf. after a minute, he turned around with a capri sun juice drink in his hand and stood there putting the straw into the drink. seriously -he thought this was a good time for a snack break? ok, i was annoyed. but that's as far as it got. after poking the straw into the drink, he handed it to me and said, "try this." i was floored. here i was was getting mad over having to wait an extra 2 minutes to be helped, and he was just smiling and treating me like a friend. i walked out with my drink wanting to be more like that man behind the counter.

i just finished my first real "teen drama" novel. i missed the whole teen genre boat when i skipped from the "anastasia krupnik" series and "the boxcar children" mysteries to "lord of the rings" and "jayne eyre." and since then, my ever-growing reading list (mostly made up of classics) has kept me from being on board with any current bestsellers. after finally reading the harry potter books over the last few months and hearing stories from lizzie about how intensely exciting it was to be reading them, along with the rest of the world, when they came out, i decided i wanted to know what that was like. so when the "twilight" series started popping up all over the internet and what not, they caught elizabeth's and my attention and i decided this was my big chance to be in on the current excitement. the package from amazon finally got here during lunch last week and i tore into it and started the first book as my kids were finishing eating.

i have to say i'm a bit disappointed. but i'm not sure what i was expecting...i knew they were popular with teens...i knew all the characters were in high school...i knew the main character was a vampire. it's not that it was bad -i'm just used to more. it's just that i didn't believe this book. i didn't really care what happened to bella and i didn't feel like my life would end if bella and edward weren't able to break through the human-vampire blockades and be together forever. i don't think it's just that this is more sci-fi/fantasy than i'm used to...i was completely swept into harry potter's world of witches and dragons, no matter how fantastical. i cared whether hermione and ron were on speaking terms, i cried for dumbledore, and i debated extensively in my head over whether snape was good or bad, feeling that it was terribly important. this is what i'm used to -i'm used to being invested in what i read -being unable to tear myself away from the character's situations, agonizing over their happiness, and feeling like i've lost a significant relationship when i finish the last page.

oh i do love books. just writing that makes me want to be reading "anna karenina" right now. i have the next two books in the "twilight" series sitting on my shelf...but i feel no need...this is nothing like finishing the 6th harry book and rushing off to itaewon to find the 7th. ironic. i kind of feel like i should finish what i started, though, eventually. maybe when my reading list runs out? uhm, i don't think i'll ever see that day. i would like to be on the bandwagon when the next harry potter comes around, though...so if you're on it, please tell me and maybe i'll join you for a detour. until then, i'm sticking to my list. there's a reason they're called classics.

it's been entirely too long since i wrote...what can i say? i've been busy? yes, but no, that's not it. i'm not sure what it is. but a letter from my gramma reminded that people actually read this, and where there are people involved, i aim to please. haha. actually, that's not why i write at all...probably the furthest from it...i definitely write because i like it. selfish, i know.

so much has happened!! i don't know where to start. i finished the harry potter books...we went to a lantern festival...we made pottery...lizzie and i made shepherds pie in the toaster oven...jayne and i went to busan...we got a new little girl named swan at school...rach and nate came to visit...i had my first cinnamon roll in 7 months (incredible)...lizzie's brother, matt, came to visit...we went to the korean folk village and left our mark...we went to a nareebong (kareoke room) and us girls wore the shortest skirts you'll ever see me in...the new coldplay album came out...we went to everland, the happiest place in korea (think disneyland)...we had a 70's party...we got a couch!!...rach and i found out that although store front windows make it seem like there is a massive excess of cute clothes here in seoul, there are actually only a few pieces worth buying...i got very used to having a roommate...lizzie and matt discovered japan...jon foreman finally brought summer 'round...after one more vanilla latte, i dropped rach off at the subway...matt is on his way to the airport as i write...and lizzie and i have empty houses once again. to be quite honest, this is the closest thing i've ever felt to abandonment. ironic, because i'm the one who left home in the first place. it still doesn't feel right that your mom, best friend, brother should leave you behind in korea.

only 4 more months though!! (as of july 1). and those 4 months are going to be filled with wonderfulness -a waterpark, a mud festival, a WEEK LONG TRIP HOME!!!, a dmz tour, going up down escalators, etc. etc.

since i'm so behind, i thought i would post a bit each day...rather than submerge you head first. so here are some pictures and stories from may.


just one of the many kinds of lanterns we saw at the buddhist lantern festival in downtown seoul.


lizzie and i got our very own lanterns! mine was compliments of a nice old man and lizzie's was compliments of the side of the street.


a stop at baskin robbins was a must afterward...we missed mom's alien. (our favorite kind of ice cream here in korea).


we went to the science museum and got to make pottery!


spending some time with trent.


the sun, coffee, falafel, and good friends make for a wonderful afternoon.


jayne and i get out of the city and spend the day in busan (a coastal city south of seoul) with cindy and big tiger (our bosses).


jayne and cindy attempt the "titanic pose" (we're still not really sure what exactly that is...)


ice cream on the boat ride!


jayne and i soon decided the top of the boat was much more exciting...these are the "5, maybe 6 islands" (yes, that's the real name).


we try the titanic pose again...


ahhhhhh...the sweet taste of freedom (or something like that).


cindy and i at a buddhist temple right on the coast.


cindy and big tiger. awww...how cute.


making chinese lanterns with piglet class. fun times.

well that catches me up through may. however, it's almost july so there is much much more to come! stay tuned. peace.