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.