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
Monday, October 10, 2005
Monday, October 03, 2005
The People of MunHwa
Here is a group picture of most of the MunHwa staff. It's a fairly old picture but I (Jon) just recently got a digital copy of it. It was taken at the "Welcome to MunHwa" party held for Emily, Tyrone and I. There are people from the English school and the math school here. The English and Math classes are held in two seperate buildings, so I don't know any of the math teachers, but I will introduce you to the people that I do know.Anyway, from top left, is Harland (a Canadian that has lots of experience in Korea and teaching and is a very kind man), two math teachers, Gumi (she's very nice and helpful), Ms. Woo (she just got married yesterday), Mr. Moon (whose classroom is next to mine), and Mr. Kong (the owner and director of MunHwa Math & English school - my boss). The next row is Jack (Michael's son - he was just visiting at the time), 4 people from the math school, Eun Gyung (another wonderful person who is very good at explaining Korean to English speakers), Tyrone (a really fun guy - he started at the same time as I did) and myself.
The front row is Mrs. Kim (very friendly, but I don't see her much), a teacher from the math school, Michael (a Canadian whose classroom is on the other side of mine - a wonderful person), Emily (my incredible wife) and Mr. Lee (the administrator of MunHwa and a good friend who helps us out with anything we need, from immigration to broken toilets).
That's the MunHwa crew! Actually, there's a couple of people missing, but that's just about everyone. I can not believe how great everyone is and how wonderful it is to work at this school. God has blessed Emily and I beyond anything we could have ever dreamed. This is fantastic!
Monday, September 12, 2005
September 12, 2005 update
September 12, 2005
A long due hello to friends and family!
I know that it has been a tremendously long time since our last update from here in Korea. I find that we are daily settling into a routine and sometimes I forget that life wasn’t always like this! Nevertheless, I hope that this note will serve to bring you up to date on all the happenings in our life here.
September began with the return of Jon’s normal school schedule, a welcome blessing to both of us. Jon now works 4-9PM Monday-Friday. I am still helping out at the school as much as I can. I recently completed the editing of the school’s newest textbook which will be published soon. I also go into the school most Fridays to teach and supervise Jon’s classes as he does individual speaking tests with the students. I try to plan a fun or different activity for them after they are done writing their exams. Recently we have made birthday cards for “teacher Jon”, watched a short movie and written a summary of it, played games and had good conversations. Jon has wonderful students and they are really starting to warm up to both of us. Jon has gotten into a really excellent routine with planning and evaluating his lessons. He is very creative and seems to have a very holistic approach to teaching.
Our school has really been amazing in all aspects. Before coming to Korea we heard a lot of horror stories about unfulfilled contracts, accommodation nightmares, salary discrepancies etc. We have been blessed to have not experienced anything like that! The director of the school, Mr. Kong is a really amazing guy who treats us very well. Jon truly looks forward to going to work every day and the environment in the school is always positive and a real team setting.
As for me, while Jon is at school I have been keeping very busy. Running a household here is a lot of work! Laundry must be line dried and usually ironed, garbage has to be separated into various recyclable products as well as compost, groceries need to be purchased from various market vendors and small stores… the list goes on! I really enjoy it though. It is nice to experience life at a slower pace then my Edmonton days and I am building some great relationships with people in our neighborhood. I also have been making time to go on long walks every evening, really exploring our neighborhood in all directions. With that and helping with marking and lesson planning I keep very occupied!
Last week I was able to take in a festival at our local park. I was buying bread from the bakery and I heard live music and decided to check it out. To my surprise, our little badminton court had been taken over by a huge stage and tents. From what I could gather, the festival was for the reunification of the two Koreas. I was DEFINITELY the only foreigner there, but that hasn’t stopped me yet! I got to see some amazing Taekwondo, as well as traditional Korean drumming, children’s orchestras and much more. Some highlights included a Buddhist monk coming up on stage to dance with kindergarten age students, and a 10 year old boy that did a “Napoleon Dynamite” dance. It was totally awesome! If you check, there are some pictures of this fun night on our blog page.
We are really enjoying our bible study group and have lots of fun together. Last week we all went to a Board Game Café as well as too a movie at the international film festival. We also play games after bible study most weeks. It has been a great way to make good friends, both with foreigners and Koreans.
This past weekend we went to Seoul to celebrate Jon’s birthday. We left very early Saturday morning to catch a train for Suwon where we went to an amusement park called Everland. Everland was basically a big Disneyland knockoff which was fairly amusing. They had all the details down right to the “Global Village” ride, which was eerily reminiscent of “It’s a Small World” at Disneyland. Almost the same music. Same boats. Same creepy dolls moving back and forth dressed in cultural garb…. There must be some kind of copyright infringement going on there!!!
We had a great though and braved lots of scary rides. We went on a suspended roller coaster (the track is above you) and that was our most favorite. They also had an electrical parade; again not unlike Disneyland ( the parade was really good though. We stayed the night at a hostel right at Everland and in the morning headed into Seoul.
Sunday morning we went to church at Yoido Full Gospel Church, the biggest church in the world. There are 800,000 members!!!! It was a crazy experience. They have I think 7 services every Sunday. We were given headphones so we could hear a live interpretation into English of the whole service. They were interpreting it into 9 different languages!! Unfortunately, we didn’t actually hear Pastor Yonggi Cho preach, he of course does not do every 7 services!! It was still a really amazing experience though!
We also went to a market in Seoul that has been going on for 600 years. It was huge and full of every kind of good you can think of. It was a maze and a little overwhelming but cool to see. We had a great time in Seoul but it made us very grateful to live in Gwangju. It was so crowded and busy all the time and Gwangju is much more laid back. Plus, it feels like we are getting a more “authentic” Korean experience here. People in Seoul seemed a little more aloof and cynical, where as in Gwangju everyone is friendly and open. It felt good to come home!!!
Well this is very long already so I won’t say anything more today. I hope that this finds each of you well and we would love to hear from all of you. Getting email from home always brightens our day!
Love always, Jon and Emily Reesor
A long due hello to friends and family!
I know that it has been a tremendously long time since our last update from here in Korea. I find that we are daily settling into a routine and sometimes I forget that life wasn’t always like this! Nevertheless, I hope that this note will serve to bring you up to date on all the happenings in our life here.
September began with the return of Jon’s normal school schedule, a welcome blessing to both of us. Jon now works 4-9PM Monday-Friday. I am still helping out at the school as much as I can. I recently completed the editing of the school’s newest textbook which will be published soon. I also go into the school most Fridays to teach and supervise Jon’s classes as he does individual speaking tests with the students. I try to plan a fun or different activity for them after they are done writing their exams. Recently we have made birthday cards for “teacher Jon”, watched a short movie and written a summary of it, played games and had good conversations. Jon has wonderful students and they are really starting to warm up to both of us. Jon has gotten into a really excellent routine with planning and evaluating his lessons. He is very creative and seems to have a very holistic approach to teaching.
Our school has really been amazing in all aspects. Before coming to Korea we heard a lot of horror stories about unfulfilled contracts, accommodation nightmares, salary discrepancies etc. We have been blessed to have not experienced anything like that! The director of the school, Mr. Kong is a really amazing guy who treats us very well. Jon truly looks forward to going to work every day and the environment in the school is always positive and a real team setting.
As for me, while Jon is at school I have been keeping very busy. Running a household here is a lot of work! Laundry must be line dried and usually ironed, garbage has to be separated into various recyclable products as well as compost, groceries need to be purchased from various market vendors and small stores… the list goes on! I really enjoy it though. It is nice to experience life at a slower pace then my Edmonton days and I am building some great relationships with people in our neighborhood. I also have been making time to go on long walks every evening, really exploring our neighborhood in all directions. With that and helping with marking and lesson planning I keep very occupied!
Last week I was able to take in a festival at our local park. I was buying bread from the bakery and I heard live music and decided to check it out. To my surprise, our little badminton court had been taken over by a huge stage and tents. From what I could gather, the festival was for the reunification of the two Koreas. I was DEFINITELY the only foreigner there, but that hasn’t stopped me yet! I got to see some amazing Taekwondo, as well as traditional Korean drumming, children’s orchestras and much more. Some highlights included a Buddhist monk coming up on stage to dance with kindergarten age students, and a 10 year old boy that did a “Napoleon Dynamite” dance. It was totally awesome! If you check, there are some pictures of this fun night on our blog page.
We are really enjoying our bible study group and have lots of fun together. Last week we all went to a Board Game Café as well as too a movie at the international film festival. We also play games after bible study most weeks. It has been a great way to make good friends, both with foreigners and Koreans.
This past weekend we went to Seoul to celebrate Jon’s birthday. We left very early Saturday morning to catch a train for Suwon where we went to an amusement park called Everland. Everland was basically a big Disneyland knockoff which was fairly amusing. They had all the details down right to the “Global Village” ride, which was eerily reminiscent of “It’s a Small World” at Disneyland. Almost the same music. Same boats. Same creepy dolls moving back and forth dressed in cultural garb…. There must be some kind of copyright infringement going on there!!!
We had a great though and braved lots of scary rides. We went on a suspended roller coaster (the track is above you) and that was our most favorite. They also had an electrical parade; again not unlike Disneyland ( the parade was really good though. We stayed the night at a hostel right at Everland and in the morning headed into Seoul.
Sunday morning we went to church at Yoido Full Gospel Church, the biggest church in the world. There are 800,000 members!!!! It was a crazy experience. They have I think 7 services every Sunday. We were given headphones so we could hear a live interpretation into English of the whole service. They were interpreting it into 9 different languages!! Unfortunately, we didn’t actually hear Pastor Yonggi Cho preach, he of course does not do every 7 services!! It was still a really amazing experience though!
We also went to a market in Seoul that has been going on for 600 years. It was huge and full of every kind of good you can think of. It was a maze and a little overwhelming but cool to see. We had a great time in Seoul but it made us very grateful to live in Gwangju. It was so crowded and busy all the time and Gwangju is much more laid back. Plus, it feels like we are getting a more “authentic” Korean experience here. People in Seoul seemed a little more aloof and cynical, where as in Gwangju everyone is friendly and open. It felt good to come home!!!
Well this is very long already so I won’t say anything more today. I hope that this finds each of you well and we would love to hear from all of you. Getting email from home always brightens our day!
Love always, Jon and Emily Reesor
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
The Call to Melons
Hey everyone! Jon here. This is my first official blog post.
When I first arrived in Korea everything was still new and a little foreign (okay, actually a lot foreign). I was in our apartment just relaxing when I heard a voice on the street coming through what sounded like a world war II speaker.
Not speaking Korean, I was worried it may have been a demand for all foreigners to immediately report outside the apartment building or a warning about a natural disaster or something like that. It also sounded remarkably like the call to prayer that you hear in Muslim nations.
It turns out that there are just a remarkable amount of people that sell things out of the back of trucks and they drive around using loudspeakers (not very good ones) to hock their wares. They normally sell food type things (melons, cases of little dried fish, onions, or garlic) and occasionally other things like knives or sunglasses.
The Muslims have their call to prayer, the Koreans their call to melons.
When I first arrived in Korea everything was still new and a little foreign (okay, actually a lot foreign). I was in our apartment just relaxing when I heard a voice on the street coming through what sounded like a world war II speaker.
Not speaking Korean, I was worried it may have been a demand for all foreigners to immediately report outside the apartment building or a warning about a natural disaster or something like that. It also sounded remarkably like the call to prayer that you hear in Muslim nations.
It turns out that there are just a remarkable amount of people that sell things out of the back of trucks and they drive around using loudspeakers (not very good ones) to hock their wares. They normally sell food type things (melons, cases of little dried fish, onions, or garlic) and occasionally other things like knives or sunglasses.
The Muslims have their call to prayer, the Koreans their call to melons.
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