From Jeju back to the States in T-Minus 2 months! 

Warning: thoughts are all over the place through this post... My mind struggles synthesizing 2 months worth of life...

She is running

A hundred miles an hour

In the wrong direction

She is trying

But the canyons ever widening

In the depths of her cold heart

So she sets out on another misadventure just to find

She’s another two years older and she’s three more steps behind

~Casting Crowns

I listened to this song on the van ride to school a few days back, and I must say, the last line in the first verse really had me thinking. By the time that I head out from my tenure in South Korea, I will have aged by at least two years... that is a fact. What is not for certain though, is what I will have gained during that time (other than length of my hair!). 

Short "Apple-top" Hair for a class skit - I am suppose to be a student!

(Ok... so it isn't our real hair... it is for dramatic effect - WIGS) !!!!

Thinking back over the last 8 months, I think that my learning experiences can most easily be categorized into three compartments: Professional life, Personal life, and Spiritual life...

Professional Life:

My friendships and relationships with the Korean Staff members is already starting to deteriorate, and I think a lot of it has to do with the language barrier. I thought that it would be so easy to pick up on the Korean language moving to a country where everyone is speaking it - but I was wrong! Close to 70% of my waking hours are spent on campus, where the school-wide rule is “English Only”. So as far as being immersed within the language - well, it is the absolute opposite! I am more often reminding students to not speak Korean than I am asking how to say a familiar English phrase in translation. I am also to experience the cultural differences that I was working to dismiss during my first few months here... People getting fired with no warning for using informal language - Changes being made simply because someone higher up in the hierarchy thinks their outside perspective is more accurate than those experiencing the changes being made - Requisition lists being altered without consideration of those submitting requests. It has become more difficult to deal with the lack of my many American comforts that I often took for granted as the days go by.

On a more positive note - we had an All-Staff party, where our foreign faculty and the Korean business staff came together for food and fun. No work - all play! There was a talent show, and many people came prepared to try and earn the grand prize of 300,000 won! We all had a blast watching creative performances and eyebrow raising moves come to life on the stage. 

As for in the classroom... I was observed this past week - first time I have had someone in my classroom all year. I was worried that the students would act strange since they are not used to having additional adults in the room, but they behaved beautifully - asking the same humorous and thought-provoking questions that would arise during any other typical Presentation and Performance class. The conference on the observation went well - really, more of just a dialogue between myself and the Dean of Academics. I am extremely excited to take on the role as Presentation and Performance / Public Speaking teacher next year... This class in incredibly fun and watching the students grow in their confidence and comfort is truly satisfying. Plus: I have WAY too much fun creating examples of what is expected in different activities! (see the lipsync video that Emily and I made below for a laugh! haha!) Check out our class website to look at some of our student's classwork! www.jejupresentations.weebly.com!

Service Leading is slowing down for the remainder of the year, with only 2 Service Leading Friday’s left for our students to participate in. This past week, I got out the application for teachers interested in serving as “Destination Leaders”... in other words - the organizer and point of contact for our students international service trips that they will be going on in the spring of 2013. It is pretty exciting that we have such a head start as compared to this past year, when I had not even been selected as the Service Leading Coordinator until October, and trip leaders were not selected until mid-November. I have a feeling that the whole experience this time around will be much smoother, less stressful, and easier to reflect and reminisce on! Serving in this position has opened my eyes to a lot of the inner-workings of KIS and the leadership team. Now that I have a comfortable understanding of what is expected of me in this position, I hope to be able to bring the program to the next level this upcoming year.

These pictures were taken at a Nursing home just a few kilometers down the street from our school. We were asked to come with a song or two prepared, but when we arrived, they just wanted our children to sing on the Karaoke machine! OOOOO Koreans and their Norre Bongs !

Adventure day just passed, and an adventure it was indeed! It was raining pretty hard outside, and the bus driver pulled into the harbor parking lot to drop us off. Would not have been a big deal except for the fact that the parking lot was far from anything else and was full of dump trucks and cargo crates! So, our adventure quickly turned into an afternoon completing a scavenger hunt of activities, watching a movie that many students had read the book for - Hunger Games, and eatting lunch at Emart. Upon arrival back to the school, advisors opted to skip the “presentation of learning” and work to bond more with our students through some fun competitions - human pyramids and dances! Overall, everything pulled together for a successful afternoon of fellowship. (check out our little class website for more fun pictures! www.ourkisfamily.weebly.com) 

Personal Life:

Since I last wrote, I purchased a car... Korando (Korean brand) and choose to drive to school on occasion. It is an oldie - stick shift and deisel (cheaper than gas in Korea) but still WAY expensive, at a little over 2000 won a liter ($2.00 a liter). I hope to use my new means of transportation to become a little more adventurous on the island rather than limiting my weekends to walking along the shopping streets and visiting coffee shops! 


One place I ventured out to recently was a Chicken Galbi shop - here are the before and after pictures. 

So yummy, So spicy!

Another place I went one Sunday, with Joe and Leigh Anne from Houston, was to the Cherry Blossom Festival. I wish we had these beautiful bushes in the southern part of the US! Breath-taking...

I am thinking about the possibility of purchasing a house over here in Jeju for a few reasons. Reason #1: I miss my dogs - but in order for me to bring them over here, I would need a place with a yard - and as of right now, there are only 3 houses on Jeju for rent (no exaggeration!). So - in order to get a yard, it looks like I would have to buy. Great lengths for something so little, you say? Well, Reason #2: Jeju also happens to be HUGE in tourism, as there are probably more buses and taxis for tourists than cars and scooters for locals. So, this could be a neat opportunity for an investment!

As of this week, I officially purchased my ticket to come back to the States this summer! I thought that I could go a full year without seeing the fam, but I think that if I push my way through the summer, the first semester next year might be a bit miserable. So, I will be making my way back to Florida July 2-31, where I will get to hang with mom and dad,  see my brother and Riley, and relax on the beautiful East Coast beaches :) Hoping to make my way up to Tallahassee to visit a few college friends, making pit-stops to meet some new Babies that have come into this world since I relocated! Then, I will be off to Houston for my last week, checking in on the church family, the dogs, and the house. My excitement and anxiousness about moving back to Houston with the possibility to bring a boarding school continues to be a pick-me-up on my tough days... 

Spiritual Life:

Lacking tremendously. I have been unusually unmotivated to locate an English church over here, and have not been in the word much. Please pray that I get right when it comes to getting to know HIM. This weekend, I went to a service with Leigh Anne and Joe (who I met up with in Houston before we all relocated over here)... I pray that this will be the start to continual time in the word and surrounding myself with people of like minds and hearts.


Counting down the days until I see you!
xoxo from Jeju,


~Sara

To Chiang Mai and Back

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!

Click here to see me Getting my Grind on in Thailand ;)

In a spirit of continual service,

~Sara

5 months down - 18 to go...

Traveling back home for the holidays was a dangerous decision, as I was confronted with the comforts of good food, amazing friends, and a loving family.

U.S.A – Houston and Melbourne:

My first 9 days were spent in Houston. Stephanie was so kind and generous in opening up her house for me to stay in for the duration of my vacation. First full day in, I got to attend Sunday school, Church service, and even share a ministry moment! I was going off of about 3 hours of sleep over the previous 45 hours and a bunch of us were heading back to be celebrate Staph’s 26^th birthday over omelets and mimosas… I ended out crashing after an hour of hanging out, but following a quick powernap, my jetlag subsided and I was good to go for the rest of the trip!

With cold and rainy weather, I was limited in my outings, but was able to share friends company in some of my favorite places including El Tiempo, Empire Café, The Galleria, Discovery Green Dog Park (with Lucy and Diego!), The Molina’s – the incredible family that is fostering the pups, Central Market, Huynh, Shula’s, and a Christmas eve Church Service… is it bad that most of those places involve great food?

On Christmas day, I went to Church and spent the rest of the afternoon with the Barnes'… we line-danced and celebrated Christ’s birth through the evening – I loved hanging out with the crew, Nana, and Papa! Never a dull moment with this family!

Next morning, I made my way to Melbourne, Florida to spend 4 days with my mom and dad. The weather was beautiful; in the high 70’s with sun. Once again, the trip revolved around good food and fun times with the family. High lights include Doubles Hoagies, Da Kine Diego’s gringo sandwich, moms Greek Meatballs and Fried Chicken… yum! I ran over the causeway a few times, and really enjoyed the serenity of our location overlooking the river.

Nothing compares to a Volley Sub at Doubles!

Home sweet home in Florida

I also made my way over to Orlando, by invitation of Stephanie Shumate, to help cheer my Noles on to a victory!

My last day and night in the USA was spent back in Houston. I got to hang out with Heidi for the whole day – which was great! She headed out to a wedding, and I spent some time with Jane at a coffee shop and said goodbye to the pups for the last time for a while (18 months…!). I was planning on going out for New Years Eve… but ended out calling it an early night, recognizing I had to be at the airport by 4am.

Lucy and Diego "Rinche" 

The Trip Back to Jeju:

And let me tell you, it was hard to get back on the flight, but with students in mind, I grabbed my bags and was on my merry way… Merry until I hit Newark and got the email from my father that stated my flight from Beijing to Jeju had been cancelled… yes, that is right… not delayed but cancelled! He booked me a flight at 9:45pm from Beijing to Seoul, which would land right after midnight and where I would have to switch international airports using a 45-minute shuttle bus, and then catch a flight at 6:30am from Seoul to Jeju.

I figured that paying a little extra to stay the night in Beijing and fly directly to Jeju to the island rather than fly to Seoul would be worth the cost, a decent night sleep, and time on the Internet to let everyone know I was alive and well. So Suun, the man who was helping me at the airport, told me he knew of a great 4-star hotel at a reasonable price that would have all the basics I would want. He hailed the free shuttle, which should have been first clue as to what the airport would be like. As we were driving to the hotel, I literally pictured myself in the white van that is seen during the 2004 movie Crash – where the Vietnamese family is held captive and released into a Los Angeles China town in the final scene.

As soon as I walked up to the front desk, a bellboy came running over to show me a room. I quickly smiled and stated that as long as I had a clean bed and wireless internet, there was no need for me to view the premises before paying – I had been officially traveling for 26 hours at this point with maybe one solid hour of sleep on the plane. Oooops – my lack of patience and assumption that all would be well was a mistake! Upon first glance, the room was ok. It was poorly lit but had a bed, a computer and a TV. It wasn’t until the door was shut that I quickly realized the floors hadn’t been vacuumed in at least a month, the bathroom was obviously unsterilized, and to top it all off, the Internet did not work.

Comet and a sponge anyone?!     :(

Lets jump forward to the next part of my traveling adventure… When I finally arrived to Jeju, I hailed a taxi to my apartment off campus. Finally, home! 1605… beep beep beep. Hmmm… I must have pressed it wrong. Lets try again. 1605… beep beep beep. After 45 minutes in the hallway, awaiting our Business staff to find the new code, I entered and started unpacking my belongings from the trip. Anxious for a hot shower, it was 15 minutes before I realized that there was no hot water! Hahaha… Seriously? So, I caught another taxi and made my way down to campus, took a long shower, and called it another early night. Jetlag? Haha… jetlag had NOTHING on this trip!

All of this madness during the trip back to Jeju made it so hard to return with high spirits – that is, until I saw my students. These children are people that I have an opportunity to help mold into our future global leaders. And some of our students probably WILL be leaders within their communities, sooner than we think!

Since arriving back:

A lot has happened this past week and a half since we have been back in school. Here are a few notable events:

• ·      Anti-Bullying Campaign

Wristband campaign "I pledge not to bully - Together is the best"

• ·      Service Leading Preparation for the Trip in a month!

Planning for the trips on and off the island have been a humbling challenge for me since returning. Having to coordinate communication between business staff, trip leaders, and the faculty has not been an easy task… But, we are well on our way to a week of Service Leading for our students – either in Thailand, Cambodia, or on our Jeju Island. (See Service Leading Lou-Anne for more on that… and yes – that might be my chin)

• Had some legit Raw fish... some of it was still moving when it came out on the plate! 

On north shore of the Island - talk about Fresh!

• Emily's 28th birthday. 

Ice-skating party!

Next big event will be next Monday for 2 reasons… On January 23, it is the Lunar New Year – the Year of the Black Dragon. I will be traveling to Seoul to spend some time with Julianne and other KISers. Ready for this?!... Double cool – it is my birthday! The big 2-6. 

Prayer Requests:

After a brief conversation with a friend in Houston, he made this comment that has been repeating in my head over and over for the last few days…

“...I miss you. I feel like there was a side of you that I never got to know that, in the end, was your best side. We never talked God or Jesus and your faith is your light.”

Man… that hit home – HARD. Please pray that I have the guts to share this part of my life that I too often leave covered for fear that I will ostracize people before building up a relationship. I think that humans are more resilient and less judgmental than I often give them credit for! And since I do believe that part of the reason that I am half a world away from so many of my comforts is to 'work to make disciples of all nations'.

Well, it is about time that I sign out. Missing the U.S.A. already… maybe I can see some of my fellow Americans this summer – I hope to make it to the Olympics in July/August. Please pray for some of my friends working to qualify in Track and Field: 
(Erison – Dominica, Ngoni and Bryan – Zimbabwe, Cedric – Switzerland, Destiny and Craig – U.S.A.) and check out this old photo. I was in London in 2005 in Trafalger Square when they announced that the 2012 Olympics would he held in London… full circle!

XOXO from Jeju,

~Sara