Celebrating Christmas

Hello all,

Ugh... I just wrote a blog and went to post, but it didn't work, ugh... So I will write a short message again. Christmas for me was simple, it is celbrated tha same as valentines day here. Nothing big, although, we do get the day off work. I celebrated it with my emploeyer here in Korea. We drove to a place called Najang sa, a fameous national park here. It is four hours from Mokpo and after one hour and a half we turned around because the weather was not good for an outing such as the mountains. The good thing about turning around early is that I had the chance to drive, Yipeeeeeee. I was so stoked. Since we didn't go to thte mountain we decided to go to a local history musem, it was ok. At least I didn't spend Christams alone.

As for Christmas Eve, the school does something called English Market. We decorate the office up like a store with items for the students to buy such as penciles, paper, food, and other items that children find interesting. With so many students it gets alittle crowded so they line up out in the hall, very exciting and I find that is the time to really get to know the students on a more personal level. It was fun.

After work my employer took me out for steak, it was good, but not the same without some A1 on it while it is cooked. lol Well that was how I celebrated Christmas. I will post a couple of piuctures from the English Market. Cheers and love all of you... Merry Christmas Everyone, Happy Birthday Jesus....

Prayer requests.

My health has been goos so far, just some migrains, pray that I stay healthy

I am starting to feel lazy and want to slack off, pray that I don't.

Experience culture

Hello all,
It is friday and I am glad it is friday, although I am not as tired as I was last week. Last weekend I had the awesome experience to go hiking at one of the tourists attraction here in the south of South Korea. We went hiking, I can't remember the name as I am told many words in Korean and forget a couple minutes later. lol I will eventually remember more. The hike was a short hike, maybe six miles, but it was almost straight uphill. Very rocky and by the time I was less than a quarter mile aaway from the top we had to turn around and go back as we were losing daylight. The hike was very painful for me because my knees were swelling from the rocks. It was ok, but I had to go slower so that is the main reason why we didn't reaach the top. We will do it next time and I will put up pix.
Work is work, but there have been some improvements. I was frusterated with the curriculum and was afraid to talk to my employer about it. Eventually I was soooo frusterated I talked to him and he seemed to understand. I was so grateful because he tries to improve himself to serve his employees. We discussed changes that I can make that will enhance the curriculum. This was the first week that I had that freedom and it has been a little crazy. I think once I find that happy medium place I will be able to fly and enjoy the culture more. Please pray that I can come up with good lessons that will meet the students needs, also for patience. Some of my first classes are kindergarten and first grade. I like these students, except the language barrier is making it difficult to give instructions, so I seem to lose my patience more. Pray that I learn Korean quickly so that language barrier will be less. Yesterday was a perfect example, I lost my patience and it wasn't a pleasant class. I will keep working on it.
Culture is something here that is completely different than America, but close enough to Japan that I have not experienced culture shock. In fact I love the life style and enjoy the food. There is so much respect that I feel it every where, the only think I am not liking is all the staring. I know and understand that I am different from everyone and at first it was ok, but now I just want to hide. I am tired of people staring. I hope I get use to it.
Well that is it for now, next week being Christmas I am sure I may have to wait until the next Friday. Cheers all and love you Reha

Exhausted...

What an exhausting week. I have found that I am busy, but not as busy as I thought in the beginning. Near the end of this week my brain would not let me rest and could not get any sleep as I was thinking about the curriculum here. I was not pleassed with it and was concerned about my ability to teach students well. I have found I like to do my job too well, I am learning to relaax on the lessons, but I still require much from my students. There is deffinantly a language barrier, but it is ok as the students are becoming more use to hearing me speak English. I have found this week more exhausting because it seems all I do is work because I do not get any preperation time, so I end up taking my work home with me. HUH...
Also, my employer keeps asking me to do errands so I do not get to sleep, but these errands need to be done with me as they pertain to my being in Korea. I am super excited that it is Friday because I will be able to rest over the weekend, somewhat. Yesteeeerday I was treated to dinner as a celebration and welcome dinner with all my coworkers and employer. Afterwards we went and did karaoke. It was fun, but since I haad a long day on wednesday and a then a longer day yesterday, it was hard to keep awake. I am feeling the ffects of being overly busy. It seems that everytime I think I will get a small break it is filled with either the desire of people wanting me to hang with them or I spend half of it teaching my employer English. It is almost too much. I am currently a little upset with myself because I should be more patient with my emnployer and try to understand where he is coming from, but I don't think he tries to undeerstand where I am coming from. I think in time I will have some more breathing time. Please pray that I can get some rest and find some breathing room. Everyone here is in awe of my prescence and I am not use to it. I am now seeing the annoyance of popularity in being fameous. Pray that I learn to deal with it and move past that frusteration so I can enjoy my time more. I am sorry that this blog is more serioous, but I have been forwarned that certain things will happen, it seems I am dealing with other things that I was never forwarned. I still love being here... Cheers everyone, I am supre tired and forgot my glasses at home so I need to appologize for any misspelled words. Love you all. Reha

Getting Use To Routine!!!

Wow!!! I can't believe one week has already gone by. There has been lots to do and not enough time it seems. I work from 2:10 P.M. to 7:20 P.M. I have twelve different lessons to teach and a total of 23 different classes. Some classes I have twice. This past Monday I started my job and was very nervous. Once I started teaching all my training took over and got lost in my teaching, the time flew by quickly. At first the students weren't sure about me teaching them, but after a few classes had me, all the students loved me and couldn't wait to get to my class. I have a few classes that are challenging, but I will be able to meet the challenge once the students get use to me.
My coworkers are fanstatic and treat me very well. I have more classes than any of them because I teach all of their students where they each have three to four classes, the same classes. They too are excited to work with me and often ask me questions about English, whether it be articulation, cutlure, or syntax. There is one coworker that I have grown close to as she lives near me and we take the same bus to and from work. She speaks English well and helps me with my Korean. I love spending time with her. My employer is also good to me. He gets me anything I need and makes sure I eat everyday as I do not get a break like the other teacher. They also realized I love coffee and are always offering me coffee, lol. Today my employer bought me a washing machine and tomorrow will help me buy a cell phone, I am very happy :). He has also invited me over to his house for dinner because last week he had to cancel.
My appartment is getting things that it needs very slowly. My coworker and I have been going to this shopping store called Emart, to get supplies or when I need food. It is less than a five minute walk from my house. Emart is like Costco, except there is no pizza, but has a food court with Mcdonalds and other Korean food places. Very Good to eat. I have not had any trouble eating Korean food, in fact I love it very much. There is a lot of variety and different kinds of food, similiar to America. Things like Mexican and Chinese(surprise, surpise), Tiwanese, Etc... Hey little bro, when you come here you will like some of the food. Some of it is very spicy, while other is very bland. There is something for everyone.
Well, I guess that is it for now. I will do my best to keep this updated, but as I have not found an internet cafe yet and have been checking internet at work or my friends house can be diffcult. There is one thing I do ask, I have been having difficulty with finding things I need to teach, such as markers, stock cards and othere things. Please pray that I can find what I need to do my job well. Also pray for my health as it is now very cold and it seems everyone is getting a cold. I think that is it for now. Love you all and miss you. Please leave me comments, they are encouraging to me. P.S Today was our first snow!!!

Here at my new home...

Well, I made it to Korea. I was starting to think that I wouldn't be able to make it, but with much anticipation and a fourten hour flight, four hour bus ride I made it. When I arrived to Mokpo' the very first place I went was McDonalds, surprise, surpirse. :) It was actually better than the one in America. Afterwards I took a short ride to my new home. It is cute and quant. It is a studio style place, but the bathroom is a seprate room and the kitchen is seperated by sliding doors. I love my apartment.
My employer is also very nice. He and his wife work at the school together and seem to be a great team. They have treated me better than gold and make me feel wanted and welcomed. They have made and effort to make me as comfortable as possible. For example they allowed me to call my family for Thanksgiving and told me to talk as long as I wanted. I didn't want to abuse their hospitality and giving spirit so I tried to make all my calls short. They have even invited me to their house for dinner tonight to meet their family, I am very excited.
Before I can teach I need to be cleared with immigration, luckily everything is cleared and am now just waiting for the actual visa. This means I can start working on Monday December 1 or for all of you Sunday. I have been looking throught their lesson plans and have made many suggestions and my employer loves my teaching style. This makes me so pleased because I know I fit well here.
Today I spent time at the school and looked over lesson plans. While doing this, students would come in and watch me as I was on the computer. It feels wierd to be the center of attention. Their curiosity is amazing and encouraging, some like to show off how much English they know and then try to challenge me to see how much Korean I know. Well, it ends up I know very little at the moment and try to teach me things. I think it is amazing. Of course I like to awe them with the little bit of Korean I do know, such as hello, sorry, and Thank you. I have more, but am not comfortable to use them yet.
This is my update for now, but you should know I have only been here two days and still have to settle in. The things I still need to do is change my money in to won, open a bank aaccount, get a cell phone, and go to the store to buy things I need. I will have more for you next week and maybe some pix. Love all of you and think of you often. Thanks for your support. Cheers

Before I leave

Well, I would like to start that I am not a very good blogger, in fact I have never had a blog before, so, this will be interesting. As to my departure, it has been delayed. There was some paper work mix up and took an extra week to take care of, but things are back on track. Today I just received an email saying that my paper work has been sent to the visa consul and it will take two weeks for me to get a number. Once I get the number than I need to visit the Korean Consul here. After that has been taken care of I will be leaving.
Honestly, all this being delayed has been a blessing in disguise. I still have time to spend with my family and finishing preparing resources for my move. On the other hand, I am anxious to leave to start my new life. I am at the point that I can't prepare for the culture anymore because now for me to really experience it, I need to live. I am a little apprehensive now that I am waiting because my mind keeps wondering off on what I will miss, or what I may not like. I am still excited to go and am looking forward to do what I love to do, teach.
Ok, so this is my first real blog and I hope it wasn't too bad, haha. I will try to keep everyone up to date when I find out more. Thanks for you support and all your prayers, I couldn't go with them.
Prayer request
My anxiousness stays minimal
My health
Speedy process for Visa
Motivation to get everything done
Love you all Reha

Hello to all...

Hello to all who are interested in helping in Korea. Some of you may know me from church, but most will not. I am a member of Calvary Church and have been for more than fifteen years. I grew up in the church and worked in the childrens' ministry until it was time for me to move out of town to go to school. I attended Fresno State and received my Masters in Linguistics just recently. Now that I have finished school I am off to teach in other parts of the world. Since I was small I was often jealous of the missionary kids who grew up in different countries. I did not know it at the time but God was preparing me for something bigger than I had ever dreamed of until just a couple of years ago.
Now that I have finished school and have a certificate to teach all over the world I am on my very first adventure. I will be living in Mokpo', which is out in the country. The school I will be working at is about 45 minutes away by bus in Jeollanam Province, Youngam County. I will be teaching around five classes of 8-12 students that range from grade levels of kindergarten to eighth. School starts at 2:00 pm and ends 8:00 om. This is an after school program that is for most of the students that attend the school.
Now, if you are reading this blog you are intersted in what I am doing in Korea and how things are going for me. Preparing for Korea has been pretty easy up to this point, but I am starting to pack and am having a difficult time packing the right things. I am packing for two years and that is why it is difficult, but I am also sending some to Korea.
Why am I telling you this, because I have a hope that you will be interested in connecting to Korea yourself through me. I will be setting up some connection points and how you can connect with Korea and impact them. Keep posted and you will find out more after November 10.
Miss Reha
PS. Prayer Request
Learn the language quickly
Understand the does and don't of Korea
Health
Safty for travel
I do my job well