So it's been a while...

A long time since the last post, and lots has happened since then. So we shall have a quick and dirty update.

Christmas was good. We saw both of our families via webcam, which was decent. Not quite as good as being there in person, but about as good as it can be. We opened our presents Christmas Eve and I (Jon) preached at church Sunday morning. We then went out for lunch with friends and proceeded to cook Christmas supper and do a gift exchange with more friends. It was a good ol' Korean Christmas.

New Years was also a blast. We stayed in Gwangju this year (last year we went to the east coast to watch the first sunrise of the year) and it was celebrated in grand style. We went out to this really nice Italian restaurant (Italian food and fried chicken are remarkably popular here) and then went downtown. We watched some fireworks (really cool), set off some of our own (also very cool) and had a really great time. Then we went back to our friends house, talked, watched a movie and crashed for the night.

January 2nd, I had a camp that lasted for two weeks. It was from 9:30 until 11:50 every day (not bad hours, if I do say so myself) of 20 grade 5 students. They were from all different schools and their English was generally the best, or their attitude was amazing, and that' s how they got into the camp.

In short, it was fantastic. I had an incredible time teaching the kids and it didn't even feel like work. Well, the 60 page lesson plan (single spaced) I had to write ahead of time felt like work. The camp itself, though, was incredible. I had so much fun and the kids were just gold.

Today was the last day of camp and Emily also finished all of her IBOLT assignments yesterday. With our work behind us, we cleaned the apartment, packed our suitcases and we're ready to hit the road! Tomorrow, we catch the 9:00 bus to Incheon (the international airport just outside of Seoul) for our flight. We're really looking forward to this holiday.

So no pictures for a while (until we get back from holidays) but perhaps a post or two in the meantime.

Later!

MySpace

So I recently checked out some of my friend's pages that are on MySpace. I was thoroughly unimpressed. What the heck is MySpace, anyway? You go to someones page, but all it has is comments and pictures from other people. I don't want to read other people's comments - I want to see what the page owner is up to. If you want to read what that person wrote, they have to have a blog. Is a blog is the 8 track player of this day and age? Am I behind the times?

Maybe I am a generation behind everyone else on the internet. Or maybe I just don't have the apparently common desire to read what everyone else says to someone. It's like listening to their phone messages. Or reading the text messages on their cell phone. Or listening to half of a conversation on the bus. There's no context, and not really any appeal.

If you can explain to me why MySpace is fun, I'd love to know. Or, maybe it's not fun. Maybe it's the "Emperor's New Clothes" for the next generation. It's only cool because everyone else says it's cool. Maybe they're just waiting for someone to disagree, so they can too. Maybe it's the reassuring feeling of having 96 close and personal friends, seven of which have posted recently so you feel like things are really warming up.

I just don't get it.


Merry Christmas!

Come Again?

Whenever I teach a class, there are certain students that I can count on to know the answer to most questions. They are naturally bright, admirably disciplined, or a combination of the two. Whichever it is, they can help the class (and me) get out of a jam when no one seems able (willing?) to answer a question.

There are other students in every class that tend not to pay attention. Occasionally, if said student is not paying attention, I will ask them the next question in order to reinforce the fact that they should listen in class. This generally works and I find it to be a rather effective technique.

Last week, such a situation happened. I was merrily teaching away (as is my habit) when I happened to notice that a student was (somehow) not engaged in the lesson. How could this be? To remedy this disturbing occurrence, I simply asked him the next question (the nature of which eludes me at the moment). For the sake of the story, let's say it was "What is your favorite holiday?"

His surprising response, which stumped me completely, was "May I burp?"

I stood there for a second. I was trying to figure out some way that "May I burp?" could be related to what I was saying. Students aren't normally so random. I was about to ask for clarification when another student piped up.

"He means 'Excuse me.'"

Ah. Right. Excuse me. Repeat the question, proceed as usual.

UNESCO and Christmas

Last night Emily & I went to the 10th Annual Family & Friendship Night, put on by UNESCO. UNESCO, in case you are unfamiliar with it, is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The name comes from the first letters in United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization. Basically, their motto is something like "Since war starts in the minds of men, it must be in the mind of men that the seeds of peace are sown."

The essential goal of this organization is to keep peace by helping different countries see each other as people with their own distinct culture and not as problems. If you can see a different country as people like you with a different culture, peace and understanding will be the result.

I'm not so sure I agree. If all people from every culture are willing to get along, you could likely work out some sort of functional relationship. The problem comes when people unaccustomed to compromise enter into the whole international relations field. That's just asking for problems.

For example, one nation (which I shall allow to remain anonymous) presented their flag and described their nation as "the super hero of the free world." Boos ensued. A comment like that does no one any good, and just aggravates problems that already exist.

Other than that, it was fun to see the different nations, languages and traditions represented. Our friend Matt did a couple of Christmas songs solo on his guitar, and he did well. The food was late, but (unfortunately) the dinner was pushed back nearly an hour due to thing after thing going late.

In other news, we have our Christmas tree and Christmas lights up in our apartment, as well as some miscellaneous decorations. 'Tis the Season!