Dan is becoming more artistic with his photos.

It's been a while. Apologies - but we have been busy and time has really gone by! Life is good, and we really enjoy Korea. There is a lot to experience in this country, and we are glad to be here during a time of growth. Lots of things are happening and being built - especially around our area. We have become accustomed to most of the experiences that would be considered culturally different, which is why I guess my writing has been less and less. There is less of a "shock value" to the stuff that we do and see - which I think is a good thing.

You will be happy to know that winter has arrived - well...what I consider to be winter. It consists of temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius and wearing sweaters and closed toe shoes. I think it is cold. Dan thinks it is nice. I am a wimp. Needless to say, the cold weather is fast approaching. Scary!

We have enjoyed a bit more of the Korean culture and visited a Makkeolli Town in a city near Gunsan. Makkeolli is a rice wine and tastes sweet but has a strange gritty texture to it. It looks like milk mixed with Sprite and is served in massive gold tea kettles. We visited a Makkeolli restaurant, and like all things we have experienced thus far, we got much more than we imagined. It is customary in Korean restaurants to buy the main thing of a meal, and everything else comes as a free side dish. For example, buy the beef to grill for your meal and get 30 side dishes along with it. So in a Makkeolli restaurant - buy the wine and get a 3 course meal. This meal was a little less than desirable and Dan and I had to force some of the "food" down. We were a little concerned about what we would do if the live, moving octopus that was on our neighbor's plate was served to us...but luckily, our waitress noticed our Western heritage and I think she knew better than to give us that.

Some of our new buddies in Makkeolli Town. They helped us get back to the bus station.


A drum beating competition that we luckily ran across one day.

We had a Halloween party at school this past Friday and enjoyed games, food and an extreme amount of candy. Apparently the teachers from last year did not dress up in costumes, so when Dan and I showed up as pirates the students were pretty excited. Who knew that a fake mustache and cardboard swords would be so thrilling?!? Until next time...and I promise to write sooner.


The younger students playing mummy wrap race. Hilarious.


The older students testing out their cup stacking abilities at the Halloween party. The only games that I could come up with were teamwork and leadership games - pretty boring, but they worked out okay!

Love, Rachel and Dan.

9 weeks...

9 weeks and counting...doesn't seem like that long, but as you can imagine, super very many* things have happened. (*Our students use "super very many" in any combination and order to describe things that are great in number. The phrase can be used for a wide range of topics, from an amount of money to the amount of intelligence one has. For example: "I am super very genius boy" is quite common. Hilarious.) The Korean adjustment process has come into its final stages, and we feel comfortable in most situations. We order food with confidence and ease (it may only be the same 2 dishes every time, but it feels good), we have become more accustomed to the stares in the street and the supermarket (except the ones from the older generations...they should know better), and we even freely welcome Korean lessons from our taxi drivers. Everything is going well, and school is progressing.

When we accepted our job positions in May, we weren't fully sure of the set up or the details of the school or the position. I haven't explained anything about our jobs yet, so will give some quick details. We work in a hagwon which is a small, private language academy. Korean students go to public school in the morning until about mid-afternoon (the older students go till about 5). They then go to various hagwons - there are English, Math and Science - to supplement their public school education. Some students are in a classroom from about 8 am to 10 pm. Needless to say, they are very smart...but this also has its negatives as well, especially when you are trying to teach the intricacies of the English language. I have included some photos of our students. As you might know, Dan and I are the only foreigners at the school, and the other three teachers are related. We work with Jennifer (our boss), her sister and her sister-in-law. It is a very nice environment, and we are enjoying ourselves.


These are our younger students - they are 10 and 11 years old in Korean years...making them about 8 or 9 in our years.


This is Jack. He likes to take our pencils and bite/lick the erasers and shove them in his nose and ears. He has super very many of our pencils.


The peace sign is very popular, making an appearance in all photos no matter sex, age, weight, height, marital status, or religious belief.


This is Nina, she is 7 in Korean years so about 5 in our years. She is wearing her P.E. uniform.


I love these colors.