Least exciting post yet...

Ummm so this was the highlight of my week. It's very sad. This was the only thing noteworthy enough to take a picture of this week. You might be thinking to yourself, "but Ashley, this is just a picture of bowls of water..." However, these bowls were my only means of having a "hot" shower for about 3 days this week :) Apparently in Korea if you don't pay your gas bills they shut off your gas... hahaha. Who knew?? Basically, my roommate thought the bills were coming automatically out of her pay check, but surprise! They weren't... thus we were without a stove, heat, or hot water for a couple of days. Then.... on Friday, our internet got cut off! hahaha. We also weren't aware we hadn't been paying this bill! We kept getting letters with April's old roommate's name on them, so we assumed they were her cell phone bills... but no, no, no... those were our internet bills. I feel like a true poor person this week... our gas and internet got cut off because we weren't paying the bills. Ooops. Who knew? BUT we got it all paid for and taken care of, so everything should be fine now. We still don't have internet, but luckily someone else in our building does, without a password, so I'm just mooching off of them. Haha.

It was a short week at school this week due to home visits on Thursday and Friday. I didn't go on Thursday, and stayed in the office with the other English teachers. It was a much needed day to get caught up. I am proud to say I am 2 weeks ahead in my lesson plans! Thank goodness. Hopefully this week will be much better planning wise since I got ahead.

Home visits on Friday were a wonderful experience. We left about 8:30am and returned at about 6pm. Me, a pre-k teacher, and a pastor visited 11 students homes on Friday. Basically, we went in, there was a lot of Korean spoken (obviously), a lot of fruit was eaten, tea or coffee was served, the pastor would pray for their family and children, and then we would move on to the next student's house. We spent about 30 minutes in each place. It was really neat to see how the kids live, and to see the insides of many Korean families homes. I found it really interesting... somehow I didn't see it being appropriate to take pictures though! haha... so sorry there's no photos to share!

Friday night I went to dinner with Cameron at a really yummy spicy chicken food place. It's so good! We tried to go see a movie after that, but we missed it and the next one started too late, so we just went to the grocery store to get some things and called it a night.

Sat I cleaned my apt hard core. It was pretty disgusting, especially the bathroom. After the fun filled day of cleaning, I went to the boys apt and made them dinner. I made biscuits, chili, and brownies. Unfortunately I failed miserably at the brownies and basically wasted one of my precious boxed mixes, but every thing else was really yummy. After dinner, Cameron and I went to see Slumdog Millionare. It was fantastic, and I would recommend it to everyone!

The boys are still as busy as ever, but I got to see them more this week, so I was grateful for that. Anthony is still sick, so please pray for him.

I miss you all very much. Please eat some Chili's chips and queso for me... and get a Sonic Diet Coke for me... haha.

Sorry this was a pretty lame post. I'll try to have a more exciting life this week :)

Mark this day... I FINALLY had one good day at school!

This is one of my students working hard on a "G" worksheet. We were studying the letter G, so we made glasses to help them complete their G worksheet. They were so cute, but hated me taking pictures, so these are the only ones I was able to sneak...

Some more of my students... from the left it's, Joo Ha, Justin, Joo Eun, Jin Hee, and Kyong Yoon.

This is Joo Ha, Justin and Joo Eun. They're so cute!

This was in the menu at our favorite burger place, Krazee burger. They're the closest you'll get to an American burger here. Yummy.... we went here to celebrate April's birthday.

Sorry Cameron. Haha.

Me and Anthony and the birthday girl

This is the inside of Krazee burger. I love it.

April's cake and coffee.... Hans cakes=AMAZING

April, Erik, and Anthony at the coffee place

Cameron, me, Rury, and April just before cake time!

The amazing cake! This was probably the best cake ever!

Rury, April, and Erik.... the cake was so yummy.

We went to costco.... and this was by far the best purchase! hahaha. I have to really give myself limits with these! haha. I promise one of those tubs is Aprils!

April's most valuable purchase... Costco is the only place you can find Dr. Pepper

The best day! I got my package from Mom and Dad!!! So exciting!

The amazing stash of goodies that was in that small box. Amazing packing job Mom! I got my Northface jacket (yay!), UNDERWEAR (this was soooo needed), cookie and cake mixes, biscuit mixes (can't wait for these), and the best thing: CONFETTI CAKE!!!!! I'm definitely saving that one for my birthday!

The amazing Samgupsal we had for April's birthday, Round 2.

Andy!

April, Hyun Jung, and I

Cameron and James.... don't be decieved... this isn't the same night, Cameron just really likes his new giraffe sweat shirt. Good thing I convinced him to buy that! haha :)

The goods! Yummy... I think all of you back at home would like this

the group (minus James... he was out side) April, Hyun Jung, Me, Erik, and Andy. Also, minus Anthony... he is really sick. Pray for him!

Narae, Cameron and Hyun Jung at the coffee place we went to after dinner.

All of our cell phones are friends :) haha

Erik's coffee. So cute.

April's 2nd birthday cake!

Cameron. I love your giraffes. So cute.

April, Me, James and Andy...

So, teaching wise this week was better for all of us I think. The start of the week was HORRIBLE, but Thursday and Friday were great days. I finally just cracked down and had a zero tollerance policy with the kids, and it really helped. I made new rules and behavior charts, and I think they just needed the structure. Hopefully this week will be really good. It's a short week next week, we only have school Mon-wed because Thurs and Fri are home visits. Every teacher in Kindergarten goes and visits every student's home in their class. This way they can be more aware of the child's home life and how their parents are, which can definitely help in the classrooms. I will go with one of the teams each day. I think it will be a great experience, so I'm excited. I'm more excited that it just means planning 3 days next week!!!! haha.

Love you all very much!

-Ash (cameron and anthony too)

Oh, teaching how you kill me

My yummy dinner that I made last week. Pretty American I would say... haha.

Anthony and our friend NaRae at Karaoke (I know, yes we went again)

Me and NaRae! Thanks to her I got a cell phone this weekend!!! She saved my life!! I finally feel connected to the rest of the world again!

Woohoo! Karaoke again!

I don't know why they look like that ?

This is when we went to Seoul yesterday (Insadong to be exact)

Anthony and Ken at a tea place we went to

Cameron and I at the tea place...

This was some kind of furry looking candy that we bought off the street. I felt like I was eating a little furry animal, but it tasted like some kind of peanut butter or something.... I actually liked it, minus the texture.

Anthony being a creeper... as usual. I don't think Ken even knew that Anthony was doing this. I think that hook is some kind of back scratcher or something....

Cameron trying on some very "Korean" glasses. These are very popular here... even if you don't need glasses, just wear them without prescription.

I don't know?? this was so random...

Cameron was a little tall for these ceilings! haha!

The piano road!

Our dinner... some kind of spicy chicken something... It was pretty good. I didn't really love the noodles though... they were slimy and gummy

Our friend Lisa who lives in Seoul... and teaches at CCA

Seoul station where we took a train back to Suwon.

Well everyone... I completed my first week of teaching. Let's just say it wasn't easy at all. My kids are crazyyyyyyyyyy. I pretty much wanted to cry after all of my classes because my kids are just running around and won't listen to me. Hopefully this will get better as time goes by and they get used to me and going to English class. I also have no Korean teacher in the class with me, so there is no translation, and no one to help with discipline. Goodness, I hope next week is better.... please pray for me!!!! I now have to go write a zillion lesson plans, I'm way behind! Love you all and miss you lots!

Also, for those who check my blog for updates on Anthony and Cameron, they are doing really well, just staying VERY busy!!!

Please keep praying for all of us as we adjust to our crazy kids and schedules. Pray that we will be wise in our decisions, and that we will have the energy to persevere through the week! Lastly, I want to leave everyone with an encouraging verse a very dear friend reminded me of today:

Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He has made everything beautiful in its time..."

급하게 가지 않아도 되요 (I'm in no hurry )

This is me with all the Kindergarten teachers after our entrance ceremony. Most of them are in school uniforms for a skit they did, they don't normally dress like that! I'm pretty easy to spot in this crowd right? haha

I don't know if anyone remembers Dunk-A-Roos, but this is the Korean equivalent, and I am so happy! They're so yummy!!

It snowed here last week!!! So crazy. It snowed really hard too, all morning. This is at my school, all the kids walking to class. The area in the background is our prayer garden.

This is my school. I just realized I hadn't put up any pictures of where I worked, so here it is... I love it! I'm on the first floor. This is the new building, there's another one behind here. This building is K-2, and the other building is grades 3-9.

This is my apt. building... I'm on the 5th floor at the top. Very exciting.

This is the kindergarten office at school where I work.

This was a yummy ice cream cake someone brought to our English Teacher party this weekend. Somehow I got nominated to be the Social Director of all the English Teachers. So, this was the first party I planned. We had a pot luck dinner at one of the teacher's houses. It was pretty fun I would say for our first party.

This is some of the English teachers at the party... about 5 people had already left. Starting from the left, it's Caroline (Kindergarten), Me, Marianne (1st and 2nd), Sarah (1st and 2nd), Krista (kindergarten), Cameron, Anthony, and Ken (middle school). Also, Sarah's husband, Micah (5th and 6th) was taking the picture.

This was after Korean class on Sat. Starbucks are few and far between here, so we stopped to get some, and take a picture.

Erik and I on the bus ride home from Korean class. It was about an hour away.

Later Sat night we met up with a Korean friend from DBU, and this is us on the train going to her hometown, Anyang.

This is Hyun Jung (Sarah). We met her at DBU, and it was so fun meeting up with her again!

Where we hung out in Anyang!

Cameron, Hyun-Jung, and I in Anyang.

We had some of the best Kalbi (Korean beef) I've ever had. It was sooo good, and really cheap too. We ate sooo much, it was a little ridiculous.

Cameron and I at dinnner. Look how awesome I am with the chop sticks! haha.

We met some of Hyun-Jung's friends at Karaoke!

I'm not sure what we were singing at this point, but it was fun!

The whole group after Karaoke!

This is Suwon Station at night! So pretty!

In other news, I start school tomorrow, so I'm very nervous/excited about that. I'm looking forward to finally be able to get in there with the kids and teach. However, after my Korean class on Sat, now I know what these kids feel like, so I'm going to do my best to make them feel comfortable. I had such a hard time in the Korean class, it was so fast and overwhelming, I want to make sure I don't do that to my kindergarteners!

And lastly, I'm afraid I'm becoming transparent. I frighten myself every time I look in the mirror because i'm SOOO WHITE! My skin misses the warm Texas sun!

Love you all and miss you lots!