Ko-Rea-Tae-Kwon-DO!

It seems like it has been forever since we last blogged. Sorry for those that check regularly (cough cough Brittany Williams cough cough). A lot has happened in our life and we have remained fairly busy.

First off, two other couples and us have started taking Taekwondo. Taekwondo originates in Korea and many of our students have been taking it from an early age and could for sure kick our butts. We take Taekwondo 3 times a week (as well as having Korean class 1 night a week) so our week nights remain full and active. I think that that will help our weeks fly by pretty fast! Taekwondo is awesome, but sometimes I wonder if, in fact, we are really in a boot camp. Our Taekwondo Master works us out pretty hard. The 1st 20-ish minutes of class is INTENSE stretching and there have been many times when I sit cringing waiting for Austin's body to pop loudly or just break in half. Our 2 instructors laugh often at my not-so-flexible husband and are desperately trying to make him as limber as can be....baby steps, baby steps! The next bit of class is usually hard core work outs, anything from various crunches to sprints to partner wheelbarrow! Hah, that one was fun. The last third-ish of class is actually learning the punches and kicks and practicing our loud grunts every time we strike a pose. I would say, Taekwondo makes you feel like you are ready to go kick some serious butt and take on the World. We will let you know if that happens :)

Thanksgiving-Korea Style was spent at the Seaman's Club, a restaurant right on the water by the port of Busan that caters to the US Navy. When we pulled up to the restaurant I was actually informed that we were technically on US territory and it kinda gave me warm fuzzies inside. We had a Thanksgiving Buffet full of turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, salad and apple and pumpkin pie! It was surprisingly really good and for sure hit the spot after 3 months of Korean food. We celebrated the fact that there was NO Kimchi at all on the buffet and would have gotten mad and protective of our holiday food if there were! We were with one Korean lady and she was like, "Where's the Kimchi? I need Kimchi!" and we all just laughed. Koreans eat Kimchi at every meal and are taught from an early age that it is one of the healthiest things that they can consume...in actuality, it's sick and tastes like sour trash. For the non-Kimchi connoisseurs, the dish is fermented cabbage or radishes seasoned with onions, garlic, horseradish, red peppers and ginger. In general, Thanksgiving was yummy and fun but it definitely made us miss home knowing that our families were celebrating it together in either New Orleans or the Schauers' South Texas deer lease.

This past weekend was our friend Mara's Birthday celebration! Her Birthday was on Thanksgiving Day so her boyfriend, Drew, decided to surprise her with one of her good college friends coming in from another Korean city (Daejeon) and a bunch of people meeting at a bar to give her a quasi-surprise Birthday Party. We had a great celebration full of Long Life Bar (with its neon lights, drink coolers and sporadic techno-esque musical light show), another random bar and an end-of-the-night commencement at a Noraebang. A Noraebang is a modern must-do in Korea that entails a bunch of friends going into one room that has couches, disco balls, tambourines and a Karaoke system and singing their hearts out to whatever song they want to. The hits of last night were: Baby Got Back, Layla, Get'n Jiggy With It, Since You Been Gone, Wonderwall and many others. For some of us it was our first Noraebang experience, but we enjoyed it so much there are sure to be many others.

We are looking forward to our Winter Break starting December 22nd where we will have about 5 weeks off! My parents (Lauren's) are planning on visiting at the end of January and we are going to travel to Thailand with them.

Pepero Day

celebrating Pepero Day- the mature way

So on the glorious day of November 11'th in Korea the natives celebrate "Pepero Day," which is a Valentines-like celebratory day. Here is the description by Wikipedia (don't we all love good 'ol Wikipedia?)

Pepero Day is an observance in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day. It is named after the Korean snack Pepero and held on November 11, since the date "11/11" resembles four sticks of Pepero.^[3][4] The holiday is observed mostly by young people and couples, who exchange Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts. Lotte denies starting the holiday and instead states that they noticed a bump in Pepero sales around November 11th and after continued popularity they decided to then encourage the holiday with special gift boxes and other promotions.^[2] Some consider it to be a contrived holiday and some teachers have encouraged children to exchange healthy snacks to help combat obesity.

According to one story, Pepero Day was started in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero".^[5]

Austin and I were showered today with Pepero sticks from our students, but don't worry we won't eat them all at once because my co-teacher made sure to remind me, "Lauren, don't eat all of those or you will get very fat!" Thanks, Young Jin, for reminding me of that!!

more Pepero fun

our many Pepero presents...such a cash cow for the Lotte company that sells these yummy sticks.

And just to keep you on the edge of your seat, Austin and I (as well as 4 of our other friends) begin taking Taekwondo classes this Monday!!! Woooooo. Yes, that's right. We are turning Korean. Everyone has told us that if you are in Korea, you MUST take Taekwondo so we will update more (with photographic evidence) when the time comes.

Until next time, stay classy US of A

Korean Quarks

Today, as well as everyday, I have been amazed by the number of extremely silly things that Koreans do (while thinking it is totally normal).

Korean Culture = Paradox = any person, thing or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature (thanks, dictionary.com).

For your enjoyment, please read below and feel free to laugh because I chuckle under my breath daily:

1. Recently in Korea it has gotten verrry cold, verrry fast. The winter is obviously approaching, which means heavy jackets, scarves and those hand warmers (yano, those square hand-held paper things that have the self-warming rock-type things in them to keep your hands warm during the winter? On a rabbit trail, the only memory I have from those until now is from Junior Cheerleading (Ponderosa Cowgirls) competitions that always seemed to be extremely cold. With our side pony tails, fire-engine-red lipstick and navy and white uniforms, we always used those hand warmers during the long day of competition!!!) Korean schools, yet, still leave all of the windows open (with cold gusts of wind coming into the classroom) Why, you ask? My friend Haley informed me it is because they think the open windows will "let the swine flu out."

a. This is funny because I didn't think that the flu would just let itself out like a house-guest.
b. The open-window perdicament means that the children and teachers are forced to keep their heavy winter jackets on during all 8 hours of school. I asked my co-teacher why the heater was not on in the school. His response: "Heaters? In school? That's crazy!"
c. The flu-letting-itself-out-open-windows, in my opinion, is going to make more children sick from the cold than the swine flu ever had the chance of doing.

2. After 4th period today (right before lunch) my co-teacher said, "Lauren, aren't you dizzy?" I got rather confused and then replied, "Well...no. Am I supposed to be?" For the record I think he meant 'are you dizzy?' but he then proceeded to tell me that he is very dizzy and needs nutrients in his brain. I suggested that maybe he was dehydrated since that could lead to dizziness and he rarely drinks water. He looked at me like that was the craziest idea ever and then proceeded to smack his head repeatedly with an empty water bottle and told me that he thought that that would make his head feel better.

We then arrived into the lunch room and he noticed that today for lunch we were having a brothy vegetable noodle soup rather than the typical protein dish, rice and kimchi. He gasped, "oh no!!! I need rice in my brain to make me less dizzy!" I kinda chuckled and then said "You know what? In the US many people do not eat white rice because it is a simple carbohyrdrate and they think it will make them fat and not give then as much nutrients as a complex carb." His response? "Why, that's crazy! Rice is the most nutritous vegetable there is!!!!"

haha. I have to laugh again as I type this.

3. Back onto the topic of the Swine Flu. (which Koreans are craaaazy obsessed with) Many Koreans (children in school, teachers, people on the street, etc.) wear face masks very similar to the ones that doctors wear while at work. Some are the typical solid blue or white, but the best ones are "designer face masks" that the children wear that have an animals face on them, usually with the ears protruding off of the face mask in a 3d fasion. They are crazy about the kids not getting swine flu and being very sanitary in all aspects of life, however, many things they do totally contradict that:

a. My co-teacher just cleaned all of the tables and all of the classroom with a dirty towel with a bit of water on it. He excused himself to wash the towel and I asked where he washes it. He said, "in the bathroom, of course. I sprinkle some water on it!" So, now the kids will be touching and working on totally dirty and NOT sanitary tables tomorrow!
b. In Korean bathrooms, you are not supposed to put toilet paper down the toilet. Instead, there are waste baskets next to the toilet that you simply drop your used t.p. in. These absolutely disgusting pieces of toilet paper might not aid to contracting the Swine Flu, but it is just downright gross.
c. Also in the bathrooms, we have bar soap to clean our hands with. Something about everyone in the whole school sharing the same bar soap does not make my hands feel clean...and they don't believe in paper towels because it will pollute the country so the kids walk out of the bathroom and wipe their hands on their pants, their shirts or their friends. Hello nasty.

That is all that has happened today at school, but I'm sure there will be even more before this beautiful Thursday is over!

Until next time, take care friends and family. We miss you all dearly.

Namhae, Schnamhae

Hey friends and family, we hope each of you are doing so well and enjoying the growing excitement of Thanksgiving and Christmas in the oh-so-wonderful US culture! We are really starting to feel the sadness of being in Korea over American Thanksgiving and Christmas...that was probably ushered in with the missing of my cousin, Meredith's, wedding and my Granddaddy's 90th birthday party. Signing up to spend a year in a foreign country, however, guarantees that things will be missed back home, but plenty of new memories will be made.

Speaking of which...

Austin and I had the brilliant plan to have a relaxing, peaceful weekend in the small island town of Namhae. It is southwest from where we are now in Yangsan and is connected to the mainland by a really sweet bridge. We took a bus from Busan to Namhae on Friday night and then a taxi to Sangju beach (which is one of their top things to see on the Namhae website!). We unloaded ourselves from the taxi, took several looks around and realized that we were not on a hoppin' beach but rather in a depressing ghost town. There were several motels that we spotted, but only one with the lights on and any sign of human life in it. We were starved so tried also to find a restaurant to grab a quick dinner only to realize only one restaurant was open. Their specialty, you ask? Raw fish. yum. We talked them into giving us Ramyeon (Korean version of our cheap Ramen noodles...they are cheap here as well and pretty much bear the same stigma) and the owners showed us upstairs to their discrete motel that was actually rather nice. We enjoyed being able to lay in bed and watch tv (the only English was sports, which we were totally game for) since our apartment does not have cable set up. Our land-lord told us that we could not set up cable television unless we could promise to keep this lease for 3 years -- sorry, bucko...no TV in our apartment it is. And for what it's worth for Namhae, I'm sure you are wonderful and quite fun in the summer, oh Namhae.

Austin and I woke up the next day optimistically thinking that the experience the previous night of Ghost Town, South Korea was just an illusion and that in the morning there would be more activity. After walking around the beach and surrounding beach area and seeing appx. 10 people Austin made the executive decision to grab our things and return home. For those questioning our judgment and thinking that we are sissies, you're probably right. At the moment of depression we didn't care, though. I mean, 10 people in a whole village, really!?!? So we tucked our tail between our legs, boarded the bus back to Busan and smiled as we entered back into our gigantic city :)

Saturday night Austin and I had the perfect "us" night by going to a yummy Western restaurant (Book&Beer) and shared skewers of peppers, onions, shrimp, salmon, etc. We then did what we do best: coffee shop it up and enjoy the relaxingness of sipping a latte and reading.

On a super positive note, because of our earlier-than-expected arrival back into Yangsan, we got to go with our good friends Paul, Bertha and baby Sonya to a great English-speaking church in Busan. It is called Antioch International Ministry (AIM) and has English-speaking Christians from all over the globe...America, Korea, Philippines, Africa, Japan, etc. The church also holds a Chinese and Japanese service at the same time as the English service but in a different part of the building. It was so refreshing for us to be able to worship and be in a community of believers that we can understand and fellowship with. Thank you, God, for that blessing. AIM is about an hour away from Yangsan, but way worth the travel to get to be with other believers.

That's all for our at-times-dismal and sporadic but fun weekend.

For those who have not received it yet and were wanting our address here:

Austin and Lauren Schauer

Gyeongsangnam-do, Yangsan City, Mulgeum-eub, Beom-eo Li,

Namyangsan Heights Vill #404, South Korea, 626-814

Heart and Seoul

Facelift? Yes, I decided we needed a little spicing up to our blogging life (although Austin doesn't contribute and thinks blogging is lame???). I figured bamboo was fitting, as we are in the land of much bamboo.

For the Choesuk weekend, Austin and I joined two other couples (our Canadian friends, Danielle/Mike and Mara/Drew) for a fun-filled trip to the capital of South Korea and the 2nd most densely populated metropolitan area in the World, Seoul! We took the KTX train (the really fast train) to reach the entire opposite side of the country in only a mere 2.5 hours...about the distance from College Station to Austin!! It is crazy how small this country actually is, but rather exciting because that means that we can easily explore other cities during a regular weekend.

With many of the 10,000,000+ Seoulites out of the city, (for Choesuk, the families all gather together at the paternal grandparents home, no matter where in the country that might be) us 6 were able to maneuver to city with more ease than if the entire population were present. We have heard from many people that the city was totally dead when we were there, so I can only imagine how many more people and how much busier it has to be! Starting our days at about 9 am and ending close to midnight or later each night attributed to tired feet, full stomachs and happy SEOULS!

What did we do and see?

- the famous Yongsan Electronics Market (the largest electronics market in Asia) where you can pretty much find any electronic good you could ever want. Our friend Mara was the biggest spender here, buying a zoom lens for her Nikon DSLR camera.

- the Korean War Memorial. We spent about 2 hours only on the outside walking around before realizing that it was too late to make it inside...that will definitely be a must-see on our next trip. Koreans are very proud of this museum and flock here often to remember Korea's history

the front of the War Memorial

the many different types of planes and machinery used in the Korean War

A Republic of Korea plane

The type of weapon that Austin's Grandfather used in the Korean War

- Myeongdong Shopping Area...so fun and busy, busy, busy!

A store strictly selling cell phone accessories! So Korean!

- Namdaemun Market, (the largest traditional market in the country) where Austin caved and finally bought his sought-after man-purse (he will kill me when he finds out I called it a man-purse over the internet for all to see!!!).

- Itaewon area (the "foreigners" area of Seoul due to its close proximity to the US Army Base). We ate Mexican food here, but it was not too authentic, so that made us have to go get more the next day :)

- Gyeongbok Palace (the largest palace in the country) was very pretty and traditional. We were smack dab in the middle of the city, but felt like we were totally removed and in a very peaceful area.

A cute little boy wearing a traditional hanbok outfit!

- Insadong Market area is where we stayed AND spent much of our time. Insadong is known for its traditional pottery and handmade gifts. There are also cafes and shops lining all the streets that all have a warm, European-like atmosphere.

- Sinchon area...mainly just the ON THE BORDER for steak/shrimp fajitas, guacamole and margs!!! Muy Bien :)- Dongdaemun Market that has some of the best clothes shopping deals in the city

Overall, we covered a lot of the really interesting and exciting sites to see in Seoul, but there are sooo many more things that would be a thrill to see and do. We are excited for our next trip to the big city :)

Our First Day of School

After laying out our "first day of school" outfit and our leather patent shoes last night, Austin and I survived our first days of school as Elementary School teachers and even have a few funny stories to document.  But first, here is a run-down of our days:

Austin: At 9 am in the morning, Austin was the guest of honor at a school-wide assembly in the gym. He had to give an introduction speech and broadcast himself to the whole school. At 9:50 he sat in the "teachers meeting" = eating apples and drinking green tea! From then to 11:50 he sat in HIS OWN classroom on HIS OWN computer and did nothing. After the 11:50 class he had lunch consisting of: rice, some kind of soup, cold noodles, kimchi, and hard egg casserole (?). From then until 3:30 he, again, did nothing. Then, until the end of the day (at 4:40) his Korean co-teacher gave him a lesson in Hangul (the Korean language).

Lauren: At 9 am in the morning, I had to report to the "broadcasting room" and sit behind a wanna-be news anchor set to introduce myself to the whole school over the school-wide broadcasting network. From 10-1, I had 3 back-to-back classes of 5th graders where I shared my Powerpoint on my life, family and hobbies. My lunch consisted of: rice, some kind of soup, sweet and sour fish, leaves with anchovies in them and kimchi. [Note: we no longer feel bad for American Schools' Cafeteria Food] Since Koreans do not use knives and I was having a hard time cutting up my sweet and sour fish, I asked my co-teacher (Young Jin) how to cut my food. He, then, leaned across the table and started cutting all of my food for me with his chopsticks! After lunch, my co-teacher and I had two more classes followed by reading a book for an hour.

Funny things said today by our kids:

little girl to Lauren about Austin's picture: 

"He has a lot of hair on his face. Is he your grandpa?"

little boy to Austin:

"Do you like your wife?"

little girls about picture of Ella: 

[giggling among girls]    

Lauren: "What are you laughing at?"      

Little girl: "She wants to eat your dog!"

Lauren: (wants to punch them in the face)

little boys to Lauren:

"How much do you weigh?"

little boy in the stairwell to Austin:

"You look like OBAMA!"

little boy in the hall to Austin:

"You look like BRAD PITT!"

We are now taking a vote on which one YOU think Austin looks like...please respond with a "comment"

Our First Place!

Our bedroom. Those back doors lead off to a porch/laundry room.  During the winter you close the suction doors and summer you leave them open.

Our Kitchen!  It is a great space with a stove, microwave, fridge, countertops, plenty of storage and table and chairs! Very modern looking with these bamboo-type floors!

Our bathroom. Restrooms in Korea do not have a special area for the shower. As you can see, the shower is in the room and has not raise in the floor to retain the water. Therefore, the water from the shower goes all over the whole room...not their smartest decision.

This is what it looks like when you walk in. Stairs on the right lead up to a 3-4 ft. ceiling loft area (we are using it for storage).  Straight ahead is our bedroom, with the kitchen straight ahead and to the left. Bathroom at 9 o'clock and entry way (for shoes...Koreans don't wear their shoes inside their home) at 6 o'clock behind us.

Apartment, Hanguel and Outback!

You were going to get a quick tour of our apartment with some picture that I took, but this computer is taking forrrrever, so that will come soon!

Our adventures in Korea have continued to be new, different and very eye-opening (We Americans sure do have a way of thinking that everything we do is correct, even if we love to think that we are open-minded).  After talking to our parents on Skype yesterday morning, (yahoo!) Austin and I ventured over to a Christian church that was down the street from the little bakery we were sitting at…yes, Koreans surprisingly LOVE their baked goo

ds AND they don’t have any funky fish products in them, unlike most of their foods.  This bakery’s name was ‘Paris Baguette,’ which makes me laugh really hard because about 90% of the people in our city do not even know what “Hello” means!  There are some random shops with English names that for a second makes me excited to think that there are English speakers, then

 when I remember the situation we are in I get very confused as to why they would name their shops with English words.  Continuing with that thought, I have yet to see one Korean with a t-shirt with Korean writing (hanguel)…yep, all English.  I want to go up to them and say, “I’m sorry, do you e

ven know what your shirt says?”  It confuses me. 

     Back to the church topic:  So Austin and I mosey on down to the church (the only reason we know it is a church is because of the large cross at the top of the building- everything else in Korean) and walk

 in only to be stared and pointed at by all of the people in there!  It was like they had never seen an American before.  There were four little girls who were probably about 7 years old that continually ran up to us, giggled and said “helllllooooooo!” They were the cutest things ever and it made me w

ant to adopt a Korean baby (Austin and I decided they are some of THE cutest babies out there!)  We were welcomed by two women who grabbed my (Lauren’s) arm and led us into a fellowship/community area.  The assistant pastor then came and sat with us and, amazingly, spoke excellent English.  He wanted to know everything about 

us and was totally amazed that we had only been there three days and were interested in finding a church.  This man (his Korean name translates to David) had been a missionary in the Philipines for 18 years and was pretty much fluent in both English and Filipino, as well as Korean.  He to

ld us all about the church, told us he would love for us to attend their church and informed us that we are the only foreigners to have ever visited!  We went upstairs for their 3 pm church service and were amazed by the hospitality.  They had us stand up at the beginning and the congregation sang a welcoming song to us, complete with hand mo

tions and all!  At one point, they waved their hands in our direction to demonstrate them sending blessings and welcomings our way.  The assistant pastor gave us ear phones for us to listen while he translated the events of the service.  We watched a special kids’ performance and listened to the telling of one of the church missionary’s trip to Ezra, Jordan.  It’s funny…we American

s don’t really think about Christians from other countries (especially Asian countries) being missionaries and going into other lands to share the gospel.  I realized how narrow-minded we can be!  Our first Korean church experience was so interesting bec

ause neither of us have ever felt SO welcome at any church and only ONE person could speak to us in our language.  Hmmm…

    So today Austin and I sat down at our kitchen table and really tried hard to learn as much of the Korean language (Hanguel) as we possibly can.  We began with learning the alphabet (hanguel characters) and then attempted to learn the words.  It is tricky, this language, because it is a double 

whammy- first learning a totally new alphabet that looks nothing like ours and then having to learn new words.  While reading Hanguel I feel like a first grader sounding out the c

haracters slowly.  It taked five minutes to read one sentence and even after that, I still have no idea what it means!

This is what we have learned so far:

 

Hello: an-nyoung-ha-se-yo

Goodbye: an-nyoung-hi-kye-se-yo

Thank You: kam-sa-ham-ni-da

I’m Sorry: choe-song-ham-ni-da

Dog: kae

Chicken meat: tak-ko-gi

Beef: soe-go-gi

Year: hae

This is my practice sheet:

 

Lastly, today we went with our co-teachers into Busan (Pusan, either spelling) to get our Alien Registration Card (ARC).  You have to have one of those if you are staying in the country longer than 90 days…and to set up internet, cell phone and a bank account! The ARC card was simple to apply for, but we don’t get it for 10 more days (Bummmmmer).  Buuut, after we did that they took us to Hyundae Beach, which is the most famous beach in South Korea.  It is on the outskirts of Busan and has tremendous views of the city, Japan Sea and mountains. We walked along a pathway and onto the beach and saw many a grandma doing sit-ups, jogging and stretching! It is amazing how active everyone is here.  Hyundae was beautiful and we are planning to go back…the real news from that trip is that we saw: OUTBACK, STARBUCKS, PIZZA HUT & BENNIGANS!!! I thought Austin was going to cry he was SO happy.  So it looks like we might be making a quick subway trip to Busan when in need of some back-home-cookin.  Busan was definitely refreshing because we saw many foreigners, most of the signs has English translation and the before-mentioned American cuisine….All I want to find now is a yummy salad bar!

 Grandpa working out (Note: his wheelchair is next to him. Don't worry, he only needs that to get around.)

For now, An-nyong-hi-kye-se-yo!

Hello, South Korea!

What to even say about all that happened within our last three-ish days being here in South Korea..so much!

We arrived in Seoul, but due to a delay getting off the ground in San Fran we found ourselves running (literally) around the Seoul airport trying to go through customs, grab our bags and make it on our domestic flight to Busan.  After sweating from head to toe and being thoroughly tired from carrying 4-50 lb bags, we missed our flight and were stumped at how to remedy the situation with only a few people being able to speak minimal English.  A morning flight and a free hotel room later, we crashed for the quick sleep before waking up the next morning to fly to Busan.  We had a ten o'clock Orientation meeting in Gimhae (a nearby city) and met both mine and Austin's co-teachers who will be by our side for teaching for the next year.  On our drive from that meeting into our new city where we will be living (Yangsan), my co-teacher, You Young Jin (who speaks remarkable English, praise God), told us that he is a Christian and enjoys going to church and that he has been praying for us.  He was not aware that we were married or only 22 and was expecting some shady, crazy American couple, I assume.  He threw his hands up in the air when we told him that we are also Christians and that being here to serve the Lord is our first priority---I thought he was going to cry he was so happy....as were we.  God has surely blessed us with You and we are very excited to have a wonderful friendship with him over the next year.  

After arriving in Yangsan, we visited both of our schools and met with the principals

and administration. The schools here are ultra-modern and really different from what

we are used to in the States. Everyone here highly respects their elders, which was very

apparent in meeting each of our principals. You can tell that they are highly respected.

Later, we found out where we were going to live (It is AMAZING...pictures to come!) and

then they even took us to get brand-spanking new furniture...I mean new bed set,

memory foam matress, dresser and a really cute table and chairs! We were absolutely

shocked and tried to explain to them that we didn't need anything super nice and that

the cheapest furnite would do. They were NOT having that and wanted to make us feel

as welcome and spoiled as possible---it sure worked! We also got a basic medical

checkup and were pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness and efficiency of the hospital!

Yesterday, Austin and I got the chance to walk around the city of Yangsan and feel

out where we will be living for the next year. The city has about 250,000 people in it and

is definitely the size that you can wrap your arms around and feel at home. On the flip

side, very very very very few people here speak English and we have only seen 3 non-

Koreans (besides us) since we have been here. We definitely did not realize how lonely

it can be to not be able to easily speak to people. The language barrier is tiresome and

quite frusterating, but we are going to channel that into learning the language as best

we can (Korean study session will ensue after I am done blogging!)

In general, we are very happy to be here safely and have been blown away with the

way that the Lord already has his hand on us. From a great place and brand new furniture,

wonderful hospitality and warmth from the people, You being an active believer and Austin's

computer being fixed solely by God (so that we can now keep in touch with home), we are

feeling very blessed and watched over. We know that He has us here for a sure

reason and are praying that He use us in whatever way He desires. We are going to

be praying, praying, praying and believing in advance that He will answer those prayers.

"I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ any by the love of the Spirit, to join

me in my struggle by praying to God for me." Romans 15:30

"..On Him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, and you help us by 

your prayers." 2 Cor. 1:10b

Please be joining us in praying for our ministry and conquer of the Korean language!!!

HGTV gives me house-fever

So, for our last month post-Honeymoon and pre-Korea Austin and I have been wonderfully living in my wonderful parents' wonderful condo (did I mention it is really wonderful?)  It is, naturally, our first time to live together and we kinda feel like a little family with us and our little Ellie.  

Here is a sample of our daily itinerary:

- Wake up around 10 am

- Make coffee, eat cereal and read for about an hour

- Go on the boat, go to the pool, do crafts, play Wii, etc.

- Make lunch

- Continue to do things mentioned two posts above...

- Make dinner

- Watch HGTV and laugh at how ridiculous our life currently is

But, what HGTV is doing to us is making us want to buy a house.  We talk about what we do and don't like, talk about how we would decorate it, how dumb the people are on it, etc. I am also now a member of a MLS listings website....why?  Because I have THAT much free time to look at MLS listings that we will not buy.

...Someone should remind us that to buy a house, one must have money......sad.

"What are you doing over there?" - Austin

"Blogging...because I'm a blogger now." - Lauren

"What could you possibly be blogging about...we do nothing all day" - Austin

I guess I'll give this a shot!

So we have never blogged before, but with our big adventure to South Korea coming up in less than one month we figured we would get our act together and start this blogging schpiel.  We are very excited about moving overseas in only 21 days, (wow!) but we (okay, really just me... I won't include Austin in this) am really getting nervous and scared. I guess it really has to do with just the fact that it is so unknown. We have never traveled abroad nor do we know the language of the country we are about to move to!  I know when we get there it will all be awesome, though!  

Korea, get ready for us!