October 8 Update

Our e-mailed update from October 8, 2005

Greetings Friends and Family!

My goodness it has been a while since our last update! I have not yet learned the discipline of keeping up with this, so please bear with me and my sporadic tendencies! With that said, hello again from South Korea! Though we are half way around the world, all of you are never far from our minds and hearts.

October in Gwangju is apparently the most beautiful time of year and so far that has certainly been true. The weather is lovely, pleasantly cooler than the summer but still warm and sunny every day. The big blue skies really show off the beautiful mountains that surround our city. If you look carefully, you can see the many ancient temples nestled on the peaks. In a recent beautification project, flowers have been planted EVERYWHERE downtown. They are sprouting from around the fountain in the middle of the traffic circle, growing from pots lining the walls of the subway entrances, and in big pots in front of most stores. They are absolutely beautiful!! Yesterday as I was walking from the school I passed an older gentleman who was pulling a cart overflowing with flower pots and I had one of those “I know why I am here in Korea” moments. It is strange to see all this planting going on in October where back home I am used to seeing everyone pulling up their yards in preparation for the frost!

Jon and I recently began twice-weekly Korean classes and are gradually (very gradually!) learning Korean. So far I almost know the alphabet and some basic letter combinations. It’s so strange being back at such a basic level of language learning, sounding out words step-by-step. I feel like I am back in Kindergarten! Tomorrow we are learning some basic phrases for shopping so that will be really helpful. I know how to say “how much does it cost?” but I have no idea what they are saying when they answer me! There are about 6 people in our Korean class and we have a really awesome teacher who is so energetic and speaks excellent English. Hopefully, by the end of the class we will have a lot more independence to communicate with people.

Jon’s classes are still going really well. At the beginning of this week there was a big shuffle of classes to accommodate new students and the loss of a teacher so Jon has brand new grade 4’s and 5’s. They have never had a foreign teacher before so they are still a little bit afraid of him, but they are gradually opening up. I get to meet them for the first time today so that should be fun! Jon also got a new grade 6 class from a teacher who left and they are a very advanced and smart class. We are going to be able to do a lot of supplementary stuff with them to really challenge their skills. Right now the middle school students are writing midterm exams so his grade 7 and 8 classes are really small or nonexistent. He has been able to come home early a few times this week and that is always a treat! When he just has 2-3 students it doesn’t make sense to continue on with the curriculum so he has been playing games with them and yesterday he took them out into the neighborhood to tell him what some of the buildings were in English. Next week we have a day off because all the middle school students will be gone – what a nice treat!

Two weeks ago was the Gwangju International Day. This is an annual festival that brings together all the foreigners in Gwangju in a celebration of the various cultures, food, and native dress. I had NO idea there were so many foreigners in Gwangju! To quote an article I read about the day, “have they been hiding out in some top secret foreigners tree house club all this time?” There was representation from countries like Pakistan, Nepal, and the Philippines. It was an incredible day! We actually made it on TV. They did up a news segment about the festival and Jon & I made it in a couple of times! (You can actually watch it on the internet – let us know if you’re interested in seeing it.)

Jon and I had a friend who was competing in the talent show and she won the audience choice award! Rachel did an awesome job of singing, she has an amazing voice! We were also excited because they had a flea market which was our first garage sale-esque exposure since coming to Korea. We bought some books for 500won each (about fifty cents!) that we have almost finished already. It was also a great time to talk to people from all over the world, as well as Koreans who speak English. We met a brother and sister who invited us to come to their church, they are our age and we really hit it off so we definitely want to do that with them.

Most things are going really well here. We’re starting to get into a good schedule and we are starting to feel more and more comfortable with our lives here. At the same time, we are also feeling the distance between us and our loved ones. It’s very difficult trying to live a life in Korea while having left one behind in Canada.

Something that has been of great encouragement has been the trips to Costco that we have been taking. There is a Costco in another city about two hours away from us. We have taken a couple of day trips over there to pick up such essentials as cheese, tortillas, oatmeal, soup and a couple other tidbits. It’s funny the things that make such a big difference.

(From Jon) And also a big thank you to everyone who e-mailed in a greeting for my birthday! It was very special and it meant a lot to me. It turned out to be a great weekend.

That’s about all for now. We love you all and miss you terribly. We LOVE getting e-mail from you, even if it’s just the “boring everyday” stuff. It helps us feel that much closer to you all.
Bye for now!

Jon & Emily