French Toast Revelry

I am a firm believer that sometimes you meet people in your life that make a world of change. The encounter in which you come across he or she can be big [complete with fanfare or lack there of] or it can be the simplest of meetings. In the shower this morning, people started to come across the forefront of my memory.

Conversing with people in a widespread graveyard over backrubs and ice cream.

Chasing girls throughout my college campus just to have a conversation

Rehearsing speeches in front of friends in order to sound more "enthusiastic"

Pouring my soul out to loves over a simple dinner of spaghetti

Sipping tea in a vacant living area about life stories

Sitting upside down on a curbing under the safety of an umbrella

Praying for God's intervention and guidance

Crying to a Aaron Shust song when you realize He came through

Sitting frustrated at Toccoa Falls on why God didnt see eye to eye with you

Now it was time for french toast

The Turnstile

People that I have come across in SoKo have constantly told me that one of the downfalls of living here is that people typically leave in a short period of time. In the time [3 months] that I have been here, I have seen about 6 people leave and return to their hometowns [Tonita, TaLeah, Rhonda, Kyle, Chris, and Jo]. Its hard when you have come to know these people and establish a support network of friends and acquaintances in a foreign place...it sometimes makes the bad days bearable.

The trend here is for the average person to grow apart from their friends and family back at home but I have tried my hardest to stay connected. Regardless of where we all come from, I have started to make relationships that are beyond compare. You fight for the things you love, right?

The students here keep me motivated to stay connected and they teach me the value of relationships. The kids embrace me each day and show their affetion by simple signs: stickers, hugs, and notes on the dry/erase board. Most of them do not have a strong connection with their parents beause of the strong urgency to be successful and to "keep up with the Kardashians."
Dads work from 9 til midnight and seldom see their kids outside of the given weekend.

There are times where I start to think, kids are alright. Then they start to act like fools...and we're back at square one

Pilgrimage

Well its about mid-week here in SoKo and I am contemplating things over a nice bowl of oatmeal and a banana smoothie. There are many changes coming up this week and I find myself sometimes unable to get excited about Japan in my near future.
Our school has been giving me new tasks and responsibilities, which sometimes can be daunting. I am starting to wonder if I can get enough sleep before this trip.

May Day

Sometimes I am wondering that I make too many plans.

Modeling

Who would have thought that in the middle of a normal routine- you would get pegged as model material. I was sleeping [so drained from the work day] on the bus and heading out to meet my buddy Dustin. The only thing that you can picture at this point is that my head is propped against the window and am tuned out to the world with my IPOD going. I jumped off the bus, late for my meeting [typical], and was poked by a Korean girl around my age.
She politely informed me of who she was and her intentions from the start. She was looking for an American model for her website, which consists mainly of mens modern clothing. We exchanged numbers and she was off.

Not too shabby I would think.

Burned Out NOT Bummed Out

Who would have thought that I would ever like cooking? I remember the first time I hung out with Nick Duke in Augusta, I realized it IS possible for a guy to enjoy cooking and not be completely...how do I say this...a pansy?
I have been eperimenting with some knowledge that Sweet T and my mom gave me on cooking and its been going fairly well. Until today.

I tried out my crockpot for the first time today. I looking up this marvelous recipe online for chicken stroganoff. This morning, while making my oatmeal, i prepared the marinade for the chicken. It would bathe and relax in this marinade for hours while I was at work...in the crockpot that is. When I got home from work and a swim at the gym...disaster.

Next time, of fearless cookers. Remember to always ask a korean which setting to put a crockpot on. Dont rely on your gut for this. It only speaks and understands English.

Omelets for dinner again.

Having My Cake and Enjoying It

I am sometimes finding these days that this phase of my life is unable to fit in a category. I want to say this is a period where I am just vacationing--but arent you supposed to be taking some R and R? Maybe my personality refuses to let me get away with that. Just like a vacation, I have gone to a sometimes "exotic location" and am doing a little more shopping than I am accustomed to. In other aspets- this is a learning period for me.

There are a lot of things I have taken for granted: family.
I have started to hear a lot of stories about broken families who just fight to make it work in the grimmest of lights. Mine, while I thought we were just lucky to escape the rough-times, had to fight to stay together. Acceptance and unconditional love. AND lots of food :D

Somthing I am trying to question is a letter I recieved from Augusta State saying that Ive been denied acceptance to their Masters Program. Is this God's way of sealing the fact that I was meant to come out here? Perhaps I would have stayed back at home knowing that I could go to grad school. One question that I have contemplated ove rmany cups of Lake Taboe Coffee at my kitchen table has been: what comes after Korea? Do I just allow myself this one year experential year before reality begins? OR am I for the first time in my life starting to understand what reality truly consists of-

Constants: bills, unmotivating conditions at a workplace, never having enough money to do everything
Spices to Life: Treating people special, going nout of your way for someone, talking below surface level, experimenting in the kitchen, being at home and reading in your boxers. Its the small things really

"This isn’t the time to make hard and fast decisions, its time to make mistakes. Take the wrong train and get stuck somewhere chill. Major in philosophy ’cause there’s no way to make a career out of that. Change your mind. Then change it again.

So make as many mistakes as you can. That way, someday, when they ask again what we want to be… we won’t have to guess. We’ll know."

Busan Pusan Beach

Busan Beach Weekend Baby!
I think it was meant for me to be born at the beach.

Carribean Bay

Carribean Bay was supposed to be a rainout but the Lord had other plans I suppose.

Cowpies at the Supermarket

Birthdays are always my favorite. While my birthday fell on Monday this year, nobody can celebrate on a weekday- ESPECIALLY IN SOKO. ON Friday, the kiddos at school found out my birthday was coming up and there were rumors that they were going to bring me something. Nice sentiment but we cannot recieve gifts at school. This could end up being a good or bad thing.
TO make matters more interesting, our school was hosting and English Camp Sleepover at our school. All of the English teachers [with the exception of Tia, KT, and I] had to spend the night at our school with the children. The only reason I was off the hook was that Sue, our SUPERvisor, said I could make breakfast. Since me coming to Korea, I have begun to break free in the kitchen arena. Mind you, most of the time I have no eartly idea what I'm doing, but Im starting to experiment. My favorite thing to cook is breakfast [thanks to Big Al]. On Saturday, I told the teachers I was going to serve them pancakes [cafe blueberry/ balsamic choco banana], fruit, french press, and juice. When I got home, I started my normal routine of just relaxing and settling in before I started the massive cookoff.

Its so nice to have a long ethernet cord. I skyped with Tonita while I cooked pancakes. Nice to have someone "in the trenches" with you while you cook. I must have cooked between 30-40 pancakes that evening. No worries. Brianna gave them her seal of approval.

Christian and Kris came over that night from Daejeon to spend the night and spend the next waking moments with me. Little did I know that we would have so much fun together and stay up til about 4 in the morning. We had a blast playing card games and watching modern family. Just good to be around family friends once again.
THe next morning, Saturday, I had to hot foot it to school [with 3 hours sleep under my belt] and leave Christian and Kris asleep in the bed.

I was surprised to see all of the teachers who stayed overnight at the school to be fairly chipper. The pancake breakfast went over well and I was pleased to see them indulge and not leave a crumb behind. There is nothing worse then bringing home leftovers >.<
We all cleaned our share of the office and rushed up to our stations in the "American Village." Different parts of the Korean Kindie were divided into numerous stations that are in America: telephone, supermarket, airport, hospital, etc. I was teamed up with Brianna to conquer all that is the supermarket. For some reason, my body decided it was best that I lose my voice fairly early in the day and that for the remainder of the presentations at the supermarket- I would sound like a 85 year old smoker. Bliss.

Once the camp ended and we pushed the kids back to their parents, it was off to venture at CARRIBEAN BAY [the largest water park in Korea].