Where to begin?
I am officially an old women - having passed the quarter century mark on January 23, 2012. Seoul was great... I went with my friend, Maria, who is a boarding Specialist on our campus - and we traveled amazingly together! In bed every night at a reasonable hour... up early enough for breakfast and coffee... and the rest of the time was spent browsing shops and eating delicious foods! We met up with our dearly missed Korean Business staff friend Julianne, who has relocated back to Seoul, for an evening of scrumptious Italian supper, a stiff drink at a jazz club, and a club experience that went from sweet to sour within the 3 minute span of Baby Got Back.
Great Birthday weekend in Seoul!
An amazing vacation was cut short with the reality of a huge week for Service Leading approaching quickly. I stayed up until 1:00am a few nights and was awake before 4:00am on other mornings of the week leading up to the Service Leading Trips. If you know me, you know that I make sleep a priority above most things - with that being said... Our Service Leading Week kicked off with a presentation for the week’s assignments to our middle school students. We led 48 6th and 7th graders to Thailand! (We had 3 passports left on buses and recovered, as well as students wander about looking for food so that we had to radio their names to not miss our flight on the first day of travel... Yes, It was going to be a LONG week!) We also had an international trip for 35 of our 8th graders making their way to Cambodia. The remaining 110 Middle school students stayed on Jeju Island to serve locally...
Visiting a Thai school located out in the farmlands of Lampun
I must say that having been deeply involved in the process of planning these trips has been one of the most difficult tasks I have been faced with in my professional career. Not because of the amount of work to plan out the trips and activities... but working in a country where you do not speak the native tongue just makes it really difficult to have organization of the usual details that would typically be known inside and out by a coordinator. Instead, I have been working with 2 of the Korean business staff to book planes, schedule buses, engage the local community, and plan out the day-by-day agendas. While many of the steps were done last minute, including sending out information to our faculty leading the trips - I guess I was sort of expecting these challenges as this is our school’s first year, I mean, “We are building a school!” ;)
No matter the process leading up to this “Service Leading Experience”, many of the faculty and staff stepped up and contributed to making the program a successful one. Big shout out to the trip leaders, as well as the ENTIRE faculty that remained o Jeju Island. Your flexibility and excitement throughout the week was appreciated! Here is a music video that Michelle, Emily, and I made for Tim’s Service Leading Jingle he created for the kick-off. Enjoy!
If you are interested in our Thailand experiences - and would like to see some updates, photos, and videos of our children in action, please go to http://www.g7sl.blogspot.com/ or http://www.g6sl.blogspot.com/ For me personally, taking time to reflect after visiting some of the Service Sites our groups attended, I was reminded where my heart lies - and that is serving those who are the Least, Lost, and Left Behind. Do not get me wrong, I LOVE my students at KIS as if each of them were my own - and it feels even more so with boarding students who you continually come in contact with outside of the school hours - but I am starting to really miss the energy back in Third Ward. No matter, I am gaining TONS of experience at KIS and having fun adventures along the way...
Zip-lining for 4 hours...!
And now, I am back on Jeju... After a week in weather requiring nothing more than a thin t-shirt to soak up the sweat from treks in the sun... It has snowed more here on this island over the past 2 months than what I have personally experienced over the course of my entire life. With my winter clothes collection consisting of articles purchased from Texas and Florida, I have become an expert in layering shirts, scarves, and socks to make my quick commute from the school bus to my classroom each morning as pleasant as possible. I cannot wait for the warm to return to our little island on the south coast of South Korea!
BRRRRRRRRR!
To wrap things up and quickly take things back home...
I am so very proud of a fellow Seminole who bleeds Garnet and has a heart of Gold. Congrats, Rueben Stokes, on your successful campaign and new position for the 2012-13 school year. Florida State University will continue to be in good hands for another term :)
Something super cool - I have reconnected with one of my best friends up through my early teen years - Trey Bryan. Homeboy is a professional artist! And it sounds as if he might be able to make his way over to Korea in the future :) Looking forward to catching up and possibly having a travel partner throughout Asia!
Signing out...
The next semester begins officially this Wednesday, and I will be adding a class to my schedule - Presentation and Performance. I was offered the chance to teach as a Specials teacher next year (focusing on Presentation and Performance, Public Speaking, and possibly Debate elective classes) and I am jumping on board and looking forward to diversifying my teaching experience.
Praying that all is well back home. I am going to start getting into the heavier research of inner-city boarding schools that already exist, both in the USA and internationally. I figure I have had enough time to settle in and it is about time to get my grind on!
In a spirit of continual service,
~Sara
