Staff Retreat with CCA

So I know I've written 3 posts today, but I actually had time, and wanted to get completely caught up on my blogging. Last week from Sunday to Tuesday we had a staff retreat with all the staff members of CCA. I was as excited as I could possibly be about a school function, but was grateful to be retreating rather than working! I had very little expectations since last years retreat was horrible, but I really hoped that this year would be better. In my review meeting at the end of last year, I had told them about my experience with the retreat being the only English speaker in my room and unable to understand/speak Korean, and they listened! This year, they put all the female English teachers together in 3 rooms. They mixed us all up so that we weren't with anyone from our minis, so that was also exciting because it meant that we got to get to know some English teachers that we might not get a chance to spend time with otherwise.

Day 1: We got there and went straight to a dinner place at the retreat center. Next, we went with our teams and put our stuff in our rooms. As soon as we got settled, we went straight to our first session. Caroline graciously translated for me, so I was able to understand what was going on :) I actually really enjoyed the speaker this year... she was lively and engaging as opposed to the most boring man ever last year. Each session we had worship too. We sang songs in Korean and English. I really love the sound of worship happening in two languages simultaneously. It just reminds me that the Lord is all knowing and so intimate with all his people no matter what language they speak! Then we went to our rooms and got to know each other a bit, and went to bed around 12am.

Day 2: We woke up and had breakfast together (all the teams brought their own groceries with money the school provided us for meals) and then went to the morning session at 9am. Amy translated for me for the rest of the retreat and did an amazing job. After the session it was free time! So I chose to ski, I mean how could I pass that up?? Lift tickets, ski rentals, and pants rental only costed me about $45. It was amazingly cheap fun. I mostly stayed with Caroline who was snowboarding, but we ran into Daniel about halfway, so we stayed together the rest of the day. Daniel encouraged me to do some of the harder slopes, and I actually did it! I was so proud of myself. I think I'm finally becoming a decent skiier (sp?). We saved a really challenging run for last, and I was really nervous. However, I actually managed with ease... I can't say the same for Daniel, he was tumbling down the mountain about halfway through! haha. But he's much more daring than me, always trying a new trick or something. All in all, it was a fantastic day! That night we had another session, and then I hung out in Erin's room until about 2am. Eeek! I was so tired the next day...

Day 3: basically we just had a morning session and then hit the road. We stopped at a super nice rest stop on the way back to Suwon and had lunch there. We got home about 3:30 and I went right to my bed for a 3 hour nap. It was wonderful :)

Here's some pictures from the weekend...
The view from our condo :)

more views from our balcony...

The inside of the chapel we had our sessions in

playing some kind of game to see who could not have any reaction by being flicked in the face... so interesting...

Carolina on the ski lift!

Me on the ski lift!! It was sooo fun!

Daniel putting his board on at the top of the mountain getting ready to go down...

Caroline ready to go down the mountain... this was our favorite run.

Daniel and Caroline on the ski lift going up the mountain...

An easier hill, but it got steep towards the bottom. Still fun though... lots of people fell on this one though because it was the only somewhat beginner coarse, so it was hard to dodge the unpredictable...

At the top of the mountain!

The scary slope part one...

The scary slope part 2...

Woohoo!

I ended up having a really great time, and got to know some more people better. It was nice to see all the staff out of their element and just enjoying themselves. I am SOOO grateful to Amy for translating for me for most of the weekend. It's such a gift to be able to translate simultaneously like that, and she was awesome. It's a really difficult/frustrating feeling to not be able to understand most of the time, and she gave me the greatest gift of being able to understand! God was able to speak to the speaker, then to Amy, then to me. I'm so grateful. I know it must've been really hard to talk for those lengthy 3 hour sessions, so I'm really really appreciative. I learned a lot of things, but the most important one being about acceptance. Basically you never know where people come from or their previous walks of life. All people really want is to be loved and accepted, and God calls us to do just that. I DEFINITELY needed to hear that, so I'm thankful that God used this retreat to teach me.

I'm looking forward to the new year at CCA even if it has been extremely difficult already.

I met all my kids and their moms last week during our kindergarten orientation, and it made it all finally feel real. I'm a homeroom teacher. Same 22 kids all day. I can't wait. Plus, I got all the cutest kids :)

Today is Stephanie's birthday, so HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY STEPH!

We have Monday off thanks to Korean Indepence Day or something along those lines, so I'm excited for the break. Then the kids come for real on Thursday! AHHHH am I ready??? I hope so!

This is a video of Daniel and Caroline boarding... Daniel is in the brown jacket and Caroline in the bright green. Enjoy!

I hope you all have the most wonderful week! I haven't done any lyrics for a while, so here ya go:

Nothing Left of Me: Joel Engle
(Listen HERE sorry the video is kind of weird... but that was the only one there was)

Your sacrifice is brokenness
A heart that's full of
Tenderness come and break me Lord
To seek You in Your righteousness
To find You in Your holiness
Come and take me Lord

That I could learn to trust You
In every way to love You
Strip away all that remains
for Your glory and Your
Name 'til there's nothing left of me
Burn the kingdoms I have made
that You would shine
And I would fade 'til there's nothing left of me
'til there's nothing left of me

Your Spirit is the only One that can conform me
To Your Son let Him move in me
Your grace is written deep in me
You've signed my heart to purity with Your holy blood