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.