seoul, suwon and beyond

I'm not sure where to begin. The last few days have been full and wonderful on so many levels. I will do my best to communicate what these last few days have been like.

Saturday afternoon we took the subway from Migum Station to Gangnam. There we met Hoon and Leigh. Hoon studied in the US at North West Missouri State. Just when you think the world is so big, you find out, maybe it's not as big as you thought. We have friends in Columbia and Kansas City who know Hoon. They introduced us through Facebook--yep, it's true. Hoon lives in Korea and was kind enough to spend the day with us in Seoul. It felt like we had known him for a long time. All of us enjoyed the day with them.

Back tracking a bit. While we were waiting for the subway at Migum, a very kind elderly man began talking to us in English. A lady also walked up and began talking to us in Korean. The kind gentlemen translated. They were very sweet to the kids and kept smiling at them and making gestures of just pure delight in just seeing them. It was so sweet. They were very concerned that we were going the right way and wanted to help us in any way they could. When the subway arrived we all got on. There was little space so we had to stand shoulder to shoulder with everyone around us. The elderly woman stood with us. The entire time, smiling and patting the kids. Zach didn't mind but Lia, well, let's just say she was not at all happy about the kindness of the woman. Just as we were approaching the stop to meet Todd, she got into her purse and gave Zach 10,000 won--which is almost $10. I was stunned and tried to say, "please, no, you keep." she insisted. I was about to cry. Why? Why would she do that? We thanked her in Korean and stood there stunned by her warmth and generosity. I'm still overwhelmed.

Back to our day in Seoul with Hoon and Leigh.

We have not done any site seeing since we arrived in Korea. Today was going to be our first big adventure into Seoul. Hoon thought it would be great to visit one of the ancient palaces and we agreed.

Chang Gyeong Gung Palace was built in 1484. During the Japanese invasion of 1592 the palace was burned down and rebuilt in 1616. The architecture and landscape are beautiful. It was wonderful to walk the grounds of the palace and imagine what it must have been like when the King lived there.

From the palace we went to an area called Insadong. It's a popular tourist spot. There was a festival on Saturday and the kids had a lot of fun playing traditional Korean games and painting face mask.

We then headed back to Gangnam to enjoy a yummy Vietnamese meal with Hoon and Leigh. The food was so good. Zach even tried friend rice with crab.

It was a full day but we had a lot of fun.

Sunday was also a really great day. After church we watched some friends play soccer and then headed to lunch with Scott and Dionne Husted. Scott and Dionne have been here for 5 years teaching at Big Heart Christian School. They are a wonderful couple and quickly becoming dear friends here in Korea.

We have wanted to enjoy some Bulgogi--korean bbq so we traveled to old town Suwon. The city is surrounded by a wall--not the great wall but a pretty massive wall. It's beautiful. Suwon was a fortified city. Whenever Seoul was under attack the King would be transported and kept in Suwon. We were hoping to take a walk around the city wall but the rain kept us away this time. I think we are going to try and return when the leaves start changing colors in October.

A little side note that I think is funny. The tag line or motto for Suwon is, "happy suwon!" It's on a lot of buildings and just made me laugh every time I saw it.

Lunch was not a disappointment. Delicious.

One thing that I enjoy about meals in Korea is that they are very community oriented. Everyone shares. It's great. We ordered our bulgogi, cooked it on our small grill at the table and feasted. Most meals are served with many side dishes--we had a table full of side dishes. rice, two types of Kimchi, cabbage salad, macaroni salad, soup and bean sprouts. the meat and various sides are then wrapped in a lettuce leaf and enjoyed. All healthy and very tasty!

Today is Monday. It has again been another lovely day but I will save that post for another time.

My heart is full today. I'm grateful for God's provision for our family and that He hears us when we call to Him. He is good and kindest person I know!

She has swine flu

Today was a lovely day. The sky was blue, the temperatures in the high 70's--signs that Fall is soon coming. After spending the morning inside, I decided to take the subway to Jeongja to enjoy a cup of tea on the rooftop patio at Mosaic Cafe. They serve traditional English tea--it's so delicious.

For the past couple of days I've had a dry cough. Nothing serious, just annoying. It feels like I have this constant tickle in my throat.

As I step on the subway, the tickle in my throat starts bothering me and I began coughing. I continue coughing to the point that my eyes began to water and everyone in the subway car is nervously looking at me. I don't think they were worried that I was chocking, I think they were worried that I might have swine flu.

I don't have swine flu. Just in case you're worried.

I was trying so hard to stop coughing but I just couldn't. I was so glad that my ride was going to be short. I raced off the subway and headed straight for the vending machine to get some water.

I coughed most of the walk between the sub station and Mosaic. Thankfully, when I arrived I had finally overcome the tickle, wiped away my tears and ordered my tea.

My time at Mosaic was good. I enjoyed reading and writing in my journal and then had some great conversations with two missionaries who are heading to Nepal in a few days and a pastor who has lived with his family in Korea for the past 5 years. Both conversations were encouraging on so many levels--family, living cross-culturally, community and parenting. Grateful.

Another bright spot of the day. Zach had a good day. The past two days have been good. A boy at school even asked if he could come over to play--that's huge for Zach.

Today was also a day of progress: we have a new toilet, we received our resident cards so now when Todd gets paid we can get a bank account and lastly but so important, we should have cell phones by Friday.

Today was a good day in Korea. Today I really liked Korea. :-)

Pictures

If you would like to look at pictures of our time here in Korea, please check out flicr. I've set up an account and it's much easier to view pictures from the flicr site rather than try to post so many on the blog.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimmersphotos

Month in Review

We have been in Korea for one month. I'm not sure where the time has gone. We still have so much to learn about this country, it's culture and people. We are grateful for this incredible experience. There are certainly highs and lows but we are excited to see how are time here unfolds.

In no particular order here are a few thoughts about our first month here.

1. We're missing Mexican food--isn't that funny?
2. Mac n Cheese is a good thing. It's not to be found in Korea.
3. Missing those wide open spaces of Kansas and Missouri--that said, we do love looking out our windows and seeing the mountains.
4. We like Korean food--even Kimchi. The only thing I have not liked was this seaweed soup that had the strongest taste of anchovies. I could only bear one bite.
5. Learning the language is important and challenging.
6. We walk a lot--and it's a good thing.
7. Skype is a huge gift.
8. It's best to grocery shop for two to three days. It's too hard to carry everything home on the bus or subway.
9. Sometimes taxis won't pick us up. If I can capture this on video, I will.
10. There are no motorcycle laws so people who drive them are a little wreckless--fyi--lookout when you are on the sidewalk--it's not illegal for them to cut through.
11. Signs. Signs. Everywhere. Signs.
12. Position & Title are important.
13. Koreans are very proud of their country.
14. People tend to throw away perfectly good furniture.
15. Football season is here and we can only see highlights on espn.com.
16. In all the driving madness we have only seen one accident. The two drivers were arguing and pointing and neither was taking fault--one of the wives even joined in. It was really funny.
17. Annyong haseyo--hello! (there are different greetings to say to younger and older persons--it gets very confusing)
18. komapsumdida--thank you!
19. Korea is beautiful.
20. People have been very warm and kind to us.
21. Todd loves teaching. It's a lot of work but he's doing very well.
22. Community is extremely important. We desire to create that here with others.
23. We love our family and our time together has been extremely precious.
24. We have a lot more of Korea to explore. We haven't even been to Seoul.
25. This list has become really long. If you're still reading--I'm impressed.

Happy Birthday, Lia!

Lia turned 6 years old today! We tried to celebrate a little all weekend. Saturday we met two of Lia's classmates, Ocean and Sky, along with their Mom, Terra (who is also Zach's teacher) at Mosaic, a local English Cafe. We sat outside on the rooftop patio, sipping tea, eating cookies and chatting. It was nice for Lia to have time with two little friends and for me to have some Mom time with Terra.

Today, we again visited Life Church and then had lunch and cupcakes at home. I picked up cupcakes in Jeongja yesterday and a cute little cupcake shop. Lia didn't want us to sing to her because she thought it would be too loud so we sang quietly and she blew out her candles.

This year will be full of many new adventures for Lia. I'm looking forward to watching her grow and learn and I'm praying for strength to love and teach her as we live our adventure here in Korea.

It's been awhile since I shared moments that we seem to have every day with Lia--here are a couple:

Todd and I moved the couch out of the kids room. Lia insisted on helping but the couch is too heavy and we were working with limited space. She crossed her arms, stomped her feet and yelled, "you guys never let me lift heavy things. i can lift heavy things with one arm!"

"you're not my dad and mom any more!"

At school one of the high school girls told Lia that she is "very cute!" Lia got mad at her and said, "no, I'm not!" She later told us that she doesn't like to be called cute or pretty because, "I'm beautiful!" Agreed.

Soup

It is an absolutely beautiful day here in Bundang. It's been a day of quiet and rest for me. It's a day I wish to give Todd. Todd has been very busy with school and would enjoy a morning to just sit, enjoy a cup of coffee and read a book. Perhaps we can give him that Saturday morning after he's slept in. He is working very hard and enjoying being a teacher. The kids, of course, like Mr. Stewart and he enjoys them as well.

I have been wanting to try soup from a local soup/mandu shop in our building and finally made my way today. The soup was good but different than I had expected. Watch the video. I've also posted a few pics.

A friend from the school has given me several resources to help me learn Korean. One of the books, "You can learn Korean language structure in 40 minutes" should be fun. I'll let you know if it works. Zach told me this week that he didn't think that I should learn Korea because we will probably stay more than a year if I do. I don't what things will be like a year from now but knowing some Korean today would sure be nice.

Kim off to the Hair Salon

Do you understand English?

I was sitting at a local restaurant downstairs this evening people watching. Mandu is similar to a Chinese dumpling. This particular restaurant only serves soup and mandu and their mandu is de-li-cious!

O-kay back to people watching.

As I sat at the window watching the buses and people pass, I notice that several people pass me with small dogs. Now don't even go there . . . these are pets, cute, sweet, lovable pets--they are not used for meals. There is also a pet store/vet office in our building and we always see cute little dogs visiting.

We are not going to get a dog but if we did, I started to wonder if the dog would understand English. I seriously laughed out loud thinking about this. It would be hilarious to see how a dog would respond to commands like, sit, fetch, down. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks like this. Perhaps I'm just entertaining myself thinking of goofy things. I'll let you know if I get a chance to experiment.

Today was a lovely day. I was able to talk to friends in KC this morning and then I enjoy breakfast with some pretty fantastic girls that I've met through a new friend. It was wonderful to hang out with them. I'm looking forward to more time together.

We've had a restful day. It's so good to have Todd home. He's exhausted from the week but really enjoyed the time away with the other teachers and students.

We are grateful that Anne, Lia's teacher is out of the hospital and healing very well. It's really a miracle of grace that she is home now. She may be at school this week so my substituting days may be over for awhile. :-)

The weather is cooler today. I hope it means that fall is soon coming to Korea!

We continue to battle the leaking toilet and now have a new battle, leaking sink. I really don't know when these two items will be repaired but they assure us they will be. We are trying to stay flexible and remain positive.

really long video

The kids wanted to video our subway trip home. I am unable to edit the video so there are sections that get pretty loud as the subway picks up speed. The kids love the video and want me to post it, so I am. It's almost 7 minutes long. That's long. Hope you enjoy.

I was able to substitute again today for the 1st and 2nd grade classes. We had a much easier day. Consistency is the key! It's always the key but when you throw in language barriers, little boys with a lot of energy and cute smiles--consistency is a must!

Lia has made some friends with some of the older girls (4th and 5th grade)--they just love her, think she's adorable and she of course loves all the attention. It's fun to see her so happy. The days are long though and she's pretty tired at night.

Zach has still been observing and taking things a little slow. That of course is fine--this is a pretty big change. Today at recess Zach decided to join in the basketball game that was being played. It made me so happy to see him playing hard and having fun. There are many frustrations due to language and culture but you can play a game of basketball and all those things seem to fade.

Todd returns home tomorrow! Yay! It's been strange not having him here. We miss him!

Kia, Hundai, Lexus?

It's been a wild and crazy week. Todd left today for a three day retreat to the mountains with the high school students. I must admit, I'm jealous. I'm sure it's going to be a wonderful time away and I'm looking forward to hearing about it when he returns. So the kids and I are on our own. Our first evening is going well--let's hope it remains that way when I say it's bedtime.

Sunday evening we received an urgent message to pray for the 1st and 2nd grade teacher, Anne. Anne is Lia's teacher--she's a super lady and wonderful teacher. Anne just graduated from college and moved here for her first year of teaching. Sunday evening Anne had an accident with boiling water that has left 2nd degree burns on her stomach and inner thighs. She had to be hospitalized and is receiving treatment for these burns. I've spoken to her twice on the phone and though this is an extremely difficult situation, she is doing well and is in good spirits. Praise God. Please pray for her when she comes to your mind. She is very anxious to get back to school and do what she came here to do!

Substitute Teacher
Monday morning I left for school with Todd and the kids and became the 1st & 2nd grade substitute. I'm posting a video of thoughts from that day.

I was unfortunately sick Tuesday and unable to help out. Today the elementary had a field trip and I wasn't needed. I'm back on board for Thursday and a half a day Friday.

The kids are incredibly cute but very mischievous--mostly the boys. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or discipline them. It was a fun and exhausting day.

At the end of the day, this isn't on the video, I was talking to the kids about where they live. One of the boys asked what kinda of car I had, it went something like this:

Boy: "Teacher, what kind of car do you have?"
Me: "I don't have a car."
boy: "In the US, do you have a car?"
Me: "I did."
Boy: "Kia? Hundai? Lexus?"
Me: "No, American car?"
Boy (shocked): "No Kia, No Hundai, No Lexus"
Me: "nope!"
Boy: shook his head and sighed.

I did laugh out loud.

What the Pho?

what's up with kim?

Some of you blog readers may have noticed that I changed the blog title. Here is how most conversation go after I've introduced myself:

me: "Hello, my name is Kim."
Korean friend: "oh, Kim! you have Korean name."
me (with a smile): "yes, I have Korean name."

Kim, Kimchi, Kimbap

At the school Todd is teaching at there are several Mrs. Kim's--although it's their family name, not their first name--I think half of Korea has Kim as their family name. Kimchi, is a dish served with almost every meal in Korea. Kimchi is cabbage that has been fermented in a spicy sauce. It's actually pretty good. Kimbap is similar to a California Roll. There are many Kimbap shops along the streets. I tried my first Kimbap last week-it was really tasty!

I changed the title because I thought it was a bit more clever than "Stewart Family News"--maybe it's not as clever as I think but I think it sounds a little more interesting!

Observations

Familiar

Two years ago when we moved to Kansas City a trip to the grocery store brought up strange and funny emotions in me. When I went to Hyvee for my first shopping trip, it wasn't like "my" Hyvee in Columbia and so I wandered somewhat aimlessly around the store. I was sad. Nothing was in the right place and I didn't have my shopping rhythm. O-kay, to some that may sound crazy but it's true.

Familiarity.

Most of us probably like when things are familiar. It makes us feel safe when we can count on things being a certain way. The way that's familiar. The way that makes us feel comfortable and not vulnerable. One definition listed in Websters Dictionary is; free and easy.

Free and Easy.

My first trip to the grocery store here in Korea was far from free and easy. I felt lost the entire time we roamed the aisles and the kids kept asking, "what are you looking for?" I was looking for anything--familiar. I found pringles, frosted flakes and apples. Other items I had to go by the picture on the container. Thank goodness most items have pictures.

It's most important to maintain a flexible attitude and embrace the process of learning. This is an adventure. Even simple trips to the grocery store.

In one of my post I mentioned, Helen. Helen has her own food shop in our building. Helen has been such a huge gift to me. After a week and a half of trying to communicate about the toilet we made progress yesterday. The toilet has to be replaced but thank goodness the issue has been resolved--thanks to Helen!

Helen and her family lived in Moscow many years ago. When I was visiting with her yesterday she shared how vulnerable she felt during that time--she didn't speak Russian or English. She feels compassion for me, knowing the challenges that come living in another culture. I'm grateful that I've met Helen. She has been like manna from heaven--provision from the Father.

My goal in the next week is to find out how I can learn the alphabet. I think that will help me in the process of learning how to communicate with those I meet. I'm starting to feel comfortable saying hello and thank you. Simple and yet difficult.

Leaning into grace.

Big Day

This morning we were all dragging as we got up for the day. Lia was especially tired. She insisted it would be best for her to sleep and try school again tomorrow. Eventually, we got her up, dressed, fed and off to catch the subway.

After two days, we can say that Lia really likes school. She's made friends, she loves her teacher and she has something to do! :-)

Lia was tired this afternoon. It was almost dinner time and I was doing all I could to keep her awake at least one more hour. Please! That's when I found her all snuggled up with big pink, in bed. Nooooooooo!

"Lia, don't go to sleep, it's dinner time."
"Mom, I'm so tired."
"You can sleep right after dinner."
"Mom, please. I've had a really big day!"

Thirty seconds later, she was out! She's just too cute.