July 14, 2005 update

Greetings friends and family!

I (Emily) have arrived safely here in Korea, thanks to all of you who prayed for us, your prayers were certainly felt! My journey here came off without a hitch, as all of my various airport transfers; customs, baggage checks etc. were seamless! I encountered an abnormal amount of air turbulence on all of my flights so I was feeling quite sick when I finally arrived here in Gwangju but other than that I arrived in one piece as did my entire luggage.

I have adjusted well to the 15 hour time difference. It helped that I slept very little on any of the planes so going to bed when I got here was no problem!! I have been here in Gwangju now for 4 days and it really is an amazing place! It is also wonderful to be reunited with my beloved husband and to put late-night long-distance phone conversations behind us for a while!

From where I am sitting right now, I can look down over our balcony and see the Market below us where there are many stalls with fresh produce, fish, household goods, eggs, and of course – Kim chi!!! In the distance there are mountains all around, not like the Rockies but very green and lush. I also see row upon row of tall apartment buildings, and 16 churches!!!! All in all quite a different view that what I am used to, it is a lot to take in all at once.

We have spent my first few days here with Jon showing me around our neck of the woods here. We have gone out to eat Korean food twice now, and also to a nearby pizza and pasta place (one of very few places you can find cheese in Korea). Today we also went to the immigration office with a man from the school so Jon could pick up his resident alien card and I could apply for mine as well as for my spousal visa. Pray for the safety of my passport, it has to stay at the immigration office for a week while they process my visa and that always makes me nervous!

Prices of things are remarkable here. Yesterday we bought 12 red peppers for $2.50CDN! At the Lotteria, which is kind of like McDonalds, you can get really good ice cream cones for $0.30! Juice is also very inexpensive as is clothing.

The Korean people are very kind and respectful. We are definitely two of VERY few white people in this neighborhood but everyone is very nice. Sometimes people do laugh at you, I have no idea what at, more then likely I am doing something strangely! It is strange and hard not knowing the language, especially because people generally don’t get it when you don’t understand so they just keep talking to you in Korean. We are beginning to learn how to read the letters though, which really helps in figuring out what things are.

On Saturday all of the staff and spouses from Mun Hwa are going on a quasi field trip to Mudong Mountain, which is near here, so I am looking forward to that. We may also go to a Nori-bong, which is kind of like a karaoke bar I think.

Anyway, we love and miss all of you and appreciate so much your emails, please keep them coming. We definitely want to stay in touch with all of you as much as we can. In the mean time, may God richly bless every one of you.

Love always, Jon and Emily Reesor

Email: jonreesor@gmail.com

emilyreesor@gmail.com

Phone: 011-82-62-651-8941