| Team Gandie | Adventures in Learning to Love

making deals with God

I looked at the tentacle pinched between my chopsticks. I silently promised God that I would eat every grain of rice served to me from that point forward - if only He would make all of the octopus on my tray evaporate...

Seems my bargaining wasn’t too persuasive.

What I wish my "school lunch face" looked like, and how our "school lunch faces" actually look

But I suppose if choking down cafeteria lunch is the biggest challenge of our jobs, that must mean we have pretty great jobs.

Andie teaches at two elementary schools, each about a half hour bus ride from the city where we live. Andie’s main school, Pyungchon has about 70 students. Her second school, Ungsan has around 120 students. Andie teaches kindergarten-6th grade at both schools and she mostly teaches her classes solo. Her favorite part of her job is teaching the 5th grade students at Ungsan, who always seem excited to be in English class and have even invited her to play badminton with them after school on Fridays. She also enjoys quiet mornings of lesson planning in her classroom at Pyungchon that overlooks a large reservoir.

Andie's main school and the lake she can see from her classroom.

Halfway up the mountain near our house,
you can see most of Yesan behind us

Garrett teaches at Guemo Elementary school, just a short walk from our apartment. Guemo Elementary is the largest elementary school in Yesan, with about 700 students. Guemo is situated in the center of Yesan’s “downtown” area, providing a nice view of the city from Garrett’s classroom on the 3rd floor. He teaches 4th-6th grade with a different Korean co-teacher for each grade. Along with his 4th-6th grade classes, Garrett teaches an after school class of ten students Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, as well as an adult’s English class on Thursdays. These classes have proven to require a little more creativity in lesson planning but have also provided space for Garrett to really get to know the students who attend. Garrett’s favorite part of his job so far has been seeing a particular lesson actually go as planned in the classroom. This hasn’t happened every time, but it’s made the classes where the students really connect with the material that much more rewarding.

This morning we attended our third Sunday at Yesan First Methodist Church with Yellow. The more we get to know Yellow, the more certain we are that we met the Korean “Mother Teresa”.

Garrett just finished reading C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, in which the closing chapters feature a simple woman, considered by all to be a saint. She is being parading around by the company of those she knew on Earth. The protaganist in the story asks the Teacher, “Who are all these young men and women on each side? ... What are all these animals? ...”

The Teacher responds,

“Every young man or boy that met her became her son... Every girl that met her was her daughter... Every beast and bird that came near her had its place in her love. In her they became themselves. And now the abundance of life she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them.”

This is Yellow. Since our first Sunday at Yesan First Methodist, Yellow has introduced us to every elder, the senior and associate pastors, their wives, and we’re pretty sure she even made us official members (our first Sunday).

Enjoying lunch with Yellow, her family,
and our translator after church

Yellow, and the church as a whole, has done so much to welcome us into their congregation. Every Sunday they have provided us with headphones through which one of the kind elders tries his best to translate the service for us. They've provided us with a Korean-English hymnal. They have even invited us to eat lunch with them after the service.

Many years ago, Andie’s mom learned a simple, yet profound prayer:

“God show me that you are with me and deeply connect me to your people.”

We've seen this prayer answered for us here. May this prayer also bring comfort to you, wherever you may find yourself.

Field Day

Coppee and Church-y

1:35pm Thursday September 5, 2013 – Roughly twenty-five minutes until Garrett’s first teacher’s English class. After a busy morning of teaching 4th-6th graders, he is frantically prepping materials for 9 adult beginner English learners.

Garrett - “Helen, is there a place I could make some copies?”

Helen - “No, I am so sorry. The school only has iced coppee.”

Garrett - “Oh, no no, I think you misunderstood. Umm. Is there a copy machine were I could make copies?”

Helen - “No, we don’t have any coppee machine. I know you love coppee. I love coppee too... You know what I will do? For you, I well tell Hye Yong, who is in charge of the funds, that the school should buy a coppee machine – from Garrett. Yes. I will do that. Now, I can make you an ice coppee? Yes, I will go make you an ice coppee. Wait here…”

We have postponed writing this blog – because we knew it had to be honest. And honestly, we’re in the “frustration” stage of culture shock.

Andie knows once she sees the cow head,
she's almost to the bus stop

We really like what this great blog on the stages of culture shock said, “culture shock is walking out the door, being greeted by a neighbor and wanting nothing more than to shout obscenities at them.”

We can play charades with the best of them, however, we are constantly being misunderstood – and we don’t have a clue what is being communicated at least 97% of the time.

One of Andie's Kindergartners
showing of her traditional dress.

Every time we buy something, we hope desperately for a register with a monitor that displays the price – otherwise we’re left handing them Korean won until they nod their head that it is enough.

We peak through restaurant windows, looking for some indicator that they might have an English menu inside, or at least pictures that we can point to.

We get lost at least once a day, totally unable to differentiate one street sign from another (Ok, this is more Andie; Garrett not so much… and actually, this happened even before we moved to Korea, but anyways…)

Students run up to us at every moment of the day shouting “Teacher! Teacher!” and then continue in some quick hodgepodge of sing-song syllables, looking at us expectantly as we just smile and think, “Look, you're really cute, but I haven’t got a clue what you’re trying to tell me”.

Now, we’d be lying if we said we haven’t found any comforts. There are three things we’ve found Koreans love: coffee shops, ice cream, and pizza; all of which we know how to order just fine.

Bingsu is a popular Korean shaved-ice dessert that we've discovered and LOVE

We’d also be lying if we said every interaction was a miscommunication.

This week Andie asked Yellow, the music/art teacher she shares classroom space with, “Are you a Christian?” pointing to the translation on an English to Korean app.

Upon realizing what Andie was asking, Yellow exclaimed, “Yes, yes, yes!”

Before Andie could finish getting out the words, “Me too!” Yellow grabbed both of Andie’s hands, started rubbing them and saying “Church-y, church-y, my church-y you come?” Andie, nearly in tears, told Yellow she would love nothing more than to go with her to church-y.

So tomorrow Garrett and Andie will go to church-y with Yellow.

We have continually found hope in that, though we are strangers in this land, God is with us and is ever present in the life of the Church here in Korea. And although we feel disconnected from the people of Yesan, we, in some mysterious way, are connected to the thousands of our brothers and sister in Christ who live and worship here.

Through that short interaction with Yellow we are reminded that we are members of the Body of Christ, a very global body that spans all generations and cultures, a body that transcends time and space.

Each time we see a neon-red cross atop a church building here or a wooden cross on a back wall at a family owned restaurant, we find comfort knowing that we, through God’s grace, are connected.

It is our hope and prayer that throughout our time in Yesan, we become a part of this vibrant community both spiritually and socially.

(Stay tuned for our next post with a more in-depth explanation of our jobs, daily life at our schools and photos of our apartment.)

Snail Town

It is rather telling that our third learned Korean phrase (following “hello” and “thank you”) was “ppalli ppalli” – quick quick.

We have only been here for a week but we can already tell – time passes fast in Korea.

Everything seems to happen fast here.

In 1998 there were 300,000 foreigners living in South Korea.

This week at orientation we’ve befriended EPIK teachers not only from the U.S. but Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Together we will join the collective 1.4 MILLION non-Koreans who are now calling Korea home – a home, by the way, that consists of roughly 50 MILLION people all in a land area equivalent to the U.S state of Indiana.

"smoke monster soup"

With full days of lectures and university cafeteria meals of kimchi, rice, some variety of pork and what we’ve lovingly named “smoke monster soup” – we look forward to evenings when we can visit the on-campus convenience store and buy something sweet for our American sugar-addictions.

Nothing out of the ordinary for two QuikTrip loving Midwesterners – BUT – in Korea the first 24-hour convenience store wasn’t opened until 1989. Today the country has over 20,000 convenience stores

Not impressed?

that’s 2.3 stores opening

every day

365 days a year

for the last 24 years.

We have only been here a week – BUT we’ve

– learned how to break a board with our fist during a Taekwondo lecture

– learned to read and write basic 한글 (a.k.a hangeul, the Korean alphabet)

– already acquired an addiction to the glorious Korean snack that is Choco-pies

– visited a palace, eaten a traditional bibimbap meal, watched traditional Korean performers, and toured the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History

Yeah. Things happen fast in Korea.

That is, until this afternoon.

Post lunch, the minutes crawled by. We attempted to look engaged as the last of our class gave their condensed lesson demonstrations. Even the finest of highly intonated, energetic teacher voices couldn’t keep our minds from wondering to the fateful meeting that would happen later – the revealing of our placement schools.

“Anduh Reeeeya – Pyeongchon Elementary School, Yesan, Gareduh Reeeeya – Geumo Elementary School, Yesan”

With a fervent fist bump we celebrated both getting an elementary school – exactly what we’d hoped for – before frantically scanning the tourist map of Korea we’d brought to locate where we’d be spending the next 12 months.

In the ultimate game of “Where’s Waldo”, our eyes scoured the map for Yesan. We’d already memorized the names of the big cities in our province and knew the icon identifying a metropolitan area. This was taking too long – where the heck was Yesan? And that’s when we saw it.

A snail.

In the dead center of our province Chungnam, an icon of a tiny orange snail next to the words “Yesan”. Using our 6^th grade geography skills, we referred to the map key.

Snail = “Slow City”

Using our iPhones, we referred to Google. Yesan, South Chungnam Province is Korea's sixth and the world's 119th "slow city."

"Slow cities commit to preserving the natural environment and traditional food production and ways of life while pursuing sustainable development”.

So, maybe not EVERYTHING happens fast in Korea.

Tonight, we look forward to the unexpected surprises that await us in snail town.


Andie's fave Korean snack "chocopie"

Bibimbap at the Korean House with fellow EPIK teachers

Moving

1:18pm Saturday August 17, 2013 the well dressed stewardesses of Asianna airlines brought around warm wet towels, even to us guests sitting in coach. Receive it with two hands, I thought to myself. Bow your head.

“Annyeonghaseyo”

Oh crap. That was hello.

I meant “gamsahabnida”

I’m not sure if the towels were just for our hands, but it felt good on my puffy eyes – red from little sleep plus the tears of goodbye after hanging up the last phone call to my mom at the gate.

Garrett squeezed my hand hard.

It’s happening.

We’re really doing it.

We’re moving to freaking Korea.

Armed with a bag of mini-oreos, teriyaki beef jerky, and an iPad with 8 episodes of Breaking Bad – we had more than enough to keep us occupied.

They served us 2 large meals, plus a small sandwich in-between. The first meal we had a choice between beef and potatoes or a traditional Korean food bibimbap (mixed rice with vegetables).

Of course we chose the bibimbap – complete with a tube of chili paste.

Turns out, 14 hours is a long time for your emotions to fluctuate. We ranged from giggles of excitement, to moments of panic flipping through our Korean language dictionary trying to learn Hangeul (the Korean alphabet) before we landed, to peaceful moments of looking out the window with a true sense that God had already gone before us and Christ was with us now.

The flight went fast.

We’d landed in freaking Korea.

For seven years running Incheon International Airport has been rated the best airport worldwide – and deservedly so. We landed, de-boarded the plane, and made it through customs in 18 minutes flat.

We got our luggage, exchanged our US Dollars for millions of Korean Won, purchased new SIM cards for our iPhones, and bought fruit smoothies at a shop playing Hall and Oates “You Make My Dream’s Come True”.

We felt excited again.

We found the booth for EPIK teachers and were checked in by the same sweet lady who’d conducted our Skype interview months ago.

We stood around waiting for the next shuttle and eyeing who we assumed to be other expat teachers when all of a sudden we heard a mob of screams and shouting in Korean. I turned to see 200+ people running through the airport – and coming directly for us.

I panicked.

Convinced it was either a terrorist attack or zombie apocalypse, I dropped my bags ready to run for my life.

That is when I noticed everyone screaming was carrying a camera and madly snapping pictures. The crowd was primarily female ages 15-35. Their shouts weren’t shouts of terror but raving accolades. We stood our ground and directly in front of us passed the object of their desire, a 6 foot supposed K-Pop star wearing sunglasses and a backward baseball cap being shielded by 3 bodyguards. We still have no idea who he was, but he passed maybe 2 feet in front of us.

Welcome to K-Pop country.

We boarded our shuttle with about 20 other EPIK teachers and made the 1.5 hour rainy journey to our home for the week – the 2013 EPIK orientation at Daejin University.

"Its so freaking hot in here"

Unfortunately we spent the first night and half of our first day without knowing how to work the AC in our room. Our first Korea fail.

Thankfully some friends who will also be teaching in our province were kind enough to show us how to work it.

Our first full day passed quickly. Between scheduled activities, we spent a lot of time touring the campus – which is home to the Daesoonjinrihoe temple built in 1969.