Hello, Spring.

Spring has come to Korea, and actually it's almost over. Although I am sad to see it go so soon it has been absolutely wonderful to make its acquaintance. After such a long, cold winter it was glorious to watch the outside world burst into greens, pinks, purples, blues, and reds. The days have gotten longer, the world has gotten greener, and Korea became a much happier place to exist in.

We have the great blessing of having a large window in our living room, and a decent view from it:To the right is our place of work, the Pyeongtaek Youth Community Center (what a great commute we have); to the left is a large community garden all greened-up with spring; and straight ahead you can barely make out the silhouettes of large apartment buildings in the distance toward the ways of downtown.

And so, the spring has brought the green, the beauty, and a joyful kick in the pants for me; but as the humidity kicks in this week I realize that spring is running its last leg. As the humidity rises I must bid spring goodbye for the sticky clutches of another sweltering Korean summer. With the humidity, the summer also brings our last semester on this teaching contract. As of this week we have completed our third semester teaching English here in Pyeongtaek. It has been a wonderful and awful adventure these last 9 months. I hope that our reward for "sticking" it out this summer is the promise of a visit home to the States in the early Fall...

Goodbye, Spring. Hello, Hope.

어버이 날

In about one hour it will be Friday, May 8th 2009 here in South Korea. May 8th is Parent's Day in Korea, or 어버이 날 in hangul (Korean). They don't celebrate a Father's or a Mother's day separately as we do in the West, but a joint celebratory day in honor of parents. I've learned from my students and my Korean "mom" Joanne that children traditionally give carnations to their parents on 어버이 날 morning and sing them love songs. Since John and I cannot be near our dear parents on this day of honor to give them carnations and sing them songs, we put together a slideshow to honor them and show them love. Mama D, Mama-zoub, Papa D, and Papa-zoub: WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU SO MUCH. Happy Parent's Day to the best parents out there.