Not much new going on here. We went on a field trip to the Children's Museum a week ago. It was extremely interactive, and there were over a hundred GDA kids running around everywhere. Everyone had a lot of fun, and was thouroughly exhausted by the time we got back to school.

Last weekend I had my students write an essay about thier dad for homework. They don't have Father's Day here. We celebrate Parent's day in May, but they had some interesting things to say. Here are a few of my favorites:

"What I love about my father is that he buys me toys"

"I love him because he does whatever I want on Saturdays and Sundays."

"He has a sweet heart ad I pray to God to be gentle and kind."

"I love my father's power."

"There are no ways that I love him, I just love him"
"I like my father when he s sleeping because he looks funny.....I can surprise him when He is sleeping. I can wake him up with a trumpet."

"My dad really does love me and has me smiling always."

"But my dad is fat. I want my dad to not be fat."

"I like to read Greek and Roman myths with my dad" (keep in mind that these kids are 5)

" He loves me, and he likes me too!"

"Sometimes his voice is very very very very funny, and somimes his voice is scary."

And as a teacher, my favorite was:
"I want to go camping so now I am so tired taht I can't write any more sorry."

I am really missing being home for the summer. I wish that I could be spending my time with all the neighborhood kids by the pool. I miss having a bike and going for long bike rides. I miss evenings out on someones front stoop having drinks and just chatting. I miss taking walks with my mom every night.

I love everyone back a home a whole lot. I wish I could be there.

DMZ

Yesterday I went on a tour of the Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) on the boarder of North and South Korea. (Sorry Grandma, I know I told you that I would stay away from “The Line,” but it was completely safe, and I am still alive.) It was a great experience that I am glad that I did, and I learned a lot from it. We had to meet at the USO office in Seoul by 7:00 in the morning, which meant I had to be up by 4:30 to go running, and travel into the city.

After the 45 kilometer ride to the border, our first stop on the tour was the Joint Security Area (JSA). We had to transfer to military busses with military guides. We were briefed about the history the JSA, and the rules that we would have to follow. It was raining that day, and umbrellas are not allowed in the JSA. I assume they have that rule so that both countries will be able to watch the other without having something blocking their view. I was glad that I had worn my raincoat (thanks Kim for such a great Christmas gift), something that the other people I had gone with had neglected to do. There are a few buildings that are half in North Korea, and half in South Korea. The one that we went in is visited by tour groups from both countries. While in that building, we got to stand in North Korea. The door that lead to the North Korean side was guarded by and South Korean guard, called a “rock,” who doesn’t move from his stance, and is extremely intimidating.

Next after the JSA, we went to the third tunnel. South Korea has discovered 4 tunnels that North Korea had tried to dig themselves a hidden route to Seoul. The third tunnel is the one that got the closest to Seoul. When it was discovered, North Korea covered the walls with a black paint, and claimed that it was just a coal mine. There isn’t even coal in the area, so that was completely ridiculous. The walls are still black in some places, which one of my coworkers learned the hard way after getting black crud all over his hands. We have to wear hardhats when we go in because it was low in some places. This was one of the times that it was kind of nice to be short and get to laugh at all my tall friends who had to walk the whole time hunched over.

We then visited an observation point with a ton of those pay binocular things. We could see the North Korean village pretty well with them. It was kind of funny, because you are not allowed to use your camera past a big yellow line, which is impossible to get pictures from when standing behind it. Everyone lined up holding their camera as high above their head as they could. There were two soldiers that were making sure that no one took pictures. Many people snuck pictures in anyways without getting caught, but I saw at least one camera confiscated and all the pictures deleted.

Our last stop was Dorasan Station. There is a commuter railway that goes a few stops into both North and South Korea that is ready to begin service the moment of reunification. It was really cool because we ended the tour with somthing that was a sign of friendship between the two countries rather than opposition. I didn't even know the railway existed before yesterday.

This is the tollbooth that people used to be able to pass through to get to North Korea. There is a factory just north of the border that South Koreans could work at up until about 2 weeks ago. Now only trucks with materials and finished products that are goint to or coming from this factory can pass through the booth.

It was a long day, and I was exhasted by the time I got home, but I am so glad that I went.

Yeah for Korea who won their first soccer game in the World Cup yesterday!

Happy Fathers Day Dad and all the other dads out there!

Long, Eventful Week

It has been an interesting week. On Sunday, my pastor announced the next mission trip to Nepal, where our church runs a children's home and does a lot of outreach work. I have always wanted to go on these trips, but my school doesn't give me time off for something like that. The next trip is over the week of Chuseok in September. My school happens to only have one day of class that week, and it will be the first week of my new contract after I resign, so I thought I had a chance of getting that day off. I set up a meeting with the director of the school for Tuesday, but my supervisor said that there wasn't much chance of me getting it off because it would be a day that everyone would want off, and it wouldn't be fair to the other teachers. I ended up going in to the meeting with guns loaded. I told him that this day off was important enought to me that if I couldn't get it, I wouldn't end up resigning my contract. He gave me the day off, and even offered me a raise for my next contract! I was so excited that I could barely get out the door of the meeting room without breaking into a huge grin and jumping up and down with joy. So... In september I will go to Nepal for my mission trip. We will spend one day at the children's house, call the RANCH (Remote Area of Nepal Children's Home) and the rest of the time we will be treking in the Hymalayans to isolated villages delivering medications and testing water. I can't even tell you how excited I am about it. Check out the website: http://www.mountainchild.org/ if you want to know more about the cause.

Next thing that made this week interesting for me: On Monday morning I woke up sick. Monday is an awful day to wake up sick, because you have the whole week to endure. I would much prefer to wake up sick on a Thursday or Friday. By Wednesday afternoon I was feeling better, but once my body was better, I completely lost my voice. I couldn't talk at all on Thursday or Friday. This meant that I had to carry a bell to class with me to get my kids attention. On Thursday morning when I first couldn't talk to my kindergarteners with any real voice, when I "whispered" to them, they whispered back. It was really cute. As of now (Sunday night) I am close to being able to speak normally again, but don't know what is going to happen to my voice after ten hours of teaching tomorrow. And I HAVE to be able to talk on Tuesday, because the parents of all my kindergarteners are coming in to observe a lesson. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Last interesting thing that happened this week. One of my supervisors' father passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in his sleep on Wednesday night. It was completely devistating to everyone because we are all pretty close. My supervisor lived with her parents, so it was her and her mother who found him on Thursday morning. Tradition here is that there is visitation for three days after the death and before the funeral. They have it in a part of the hospital. The family has to stay there the entire time. They even sleep there. It seems to me that not being able to be in the comfort of your own home after the death of a loved one would just make it so much worse, but my Korean friends say that it helps distract them a little bit. (How does living at the hospital distract you from a death?) After school on Friday all of the staff went to visit them. (Yes, we all arrived in a GDA school bus.) Each person has a room for visitation (I'm pretty sure the body isn't in it) with flowers and pictures piled up. When you go in to pay your respect, you take off your shoes, then go put a flower on the little table thing. Then you bow to some guy who is in there, who I have no idea who it was. After that, you go accross the hall and sit down for a snacky type meal. I guess the tradition is to eat and talk and pretend that you are happy when you are in there. We didn't go to the actual funeral, but frankly the visitation was enough for me. For all of you who still have a dad (or mom or sibling or anyone you care about for that matter) living, make sure that you tell them how much you love them.

Dont have any pictures from this week, so I'll go to my backup plan, because I always have more pictures of my class to show!

Yoo-Jin and Emily are taking "love shots" of milk. I'm not sure where they learned this, but it is a common event during snack time now. On the right, my kids are playing with the "guitars taht they made for a science experiment.
Jun is showing one of his arts and craft projects on the left, and Tommy is modeling his shirt with the incorrect English on the right. (Grammatically incorrect English is a pretty common thing to see on signs, shirts, and product packaging here)

Quote of the week: I was teaching about silent letters on Thursday, when I had lost my voice. I explained in my whisper/frog voice that "A silent letter is when you say the word, but don't here that sound" One of my kids responded with "Like you teacher!"

Tune in next week, for what I can almost promise will be an interesting one!