history class. outdoors.

I had history this weekend.

History of Korea at the Korean Folk Village. A different experience in the winter. Seeing life in the coldness of Korea in ancient times of winter. burrrr. fires around. dances for farmers. acts for children. and food for all.

we ate at the food court, and luckily we were able to find a room inside. warm on the floor.

I skated like old times with a board and picks into the ice. It was pretty with a little snow around too.

Kyoung Bae helping Jane swing.

"Oh dear!" Karla.

Then we learn of the Korean jjimjillbang, aka sauna. its a big social thing here. very nice and warming, except the cold room. But its very much a spend the day at the jjimjillbang.

Then on Sunday Jane and I journied to the DMZ. learning more about Korea. and its history. its a very young country, and as you might know, the only country left in the world with a DMZ and is still divided. On days like the Lunar New Year up and coming everyone spends time with their families, people go to a village near the DMZ to bow to their ancestors of the north. Korea, the Republic of Korea or South Korea, has no natural resources and needs to import 100% of energy, electricity, etc. They have mother of pearl, amatheyst and 2 other things. and Samsung and Kia.

So if the 2 separate countires would join again, South Korea would have cheaper access to fuel, etc. They could also take a train all the way to Germany, and now they can't. We visited the last train station of the south, and hopefully the first one to the north someday. Its all ready and waiting.

around and about and back again.

yesterday we took the kiddos to the art musuem and the Gyeonggi-do musuem. very interesting to me as an art lover. but I think it was over the kid's heads. all in English with a group of 2o kids ages 7-10 about Paik Nam June a very contemperoary artist... it was hard to understand all about him and be interested in him for the kids. but thats okay. I learn. :)

Nadine... one of the afternoon 8 kids. We made God's Crew bracelets from an old VBS kit.

Karla's class.

talking at the musuem

nieve.

it snowed today.

but most of it melted by 4pm.

it looked glorious this morning.

almost melting...

teaching.

Teaching is going well. Tomorrow we will take the kids on a field trip to the art musuem and the Gyeonggi-do Musuem. We are in the 'state' Gyeonggi. -do means state. and we will learn about the history of Gyeonggi.
Everyday we have a bible lesson with the kids, we make a powerpoint with pictures and words to follow or find on online.
Then we teach Reading and Writing and Speaking and Listening.

Then we have a snack, I say to the kids "Enjoy your snack." and they all shout it back.

Games are fun to play with the kids, educational games. And a music chairs on Friday. I play "Go Fish" with my afternoon class because it is small. Karla made game pieces with sentences on them of bears doing things, ie "The bear is putting on his socks." So the kids can practice formal sentences and asking questions. They love it. I call it "Go Bears."

Back to prepping for my afternoon class tomorrow because we have no field trip for them. I think I will make a scavenger hunt around school so they can have some enjoyment.

Its is 12* F today. Its better to say in F than C because C would be below 0. oye.

Its forecasted to snow on sunday. I hope it does.

Happy Korea.

My apartment on LTU camps. Mine is upper left corner. I have a roommate now, Melinda. She is President Park's daughter's roommate in college. They came back to visit for 1 month and she has been staying there and we are roommates now until Jan 15. We have a little christmas tree provided by the Park family to celebrate the season for longer. Its nice to have lit up in there.

Little kids have the cutest hats to stay warm.



On saturday we went to Seoul Tower. I am with Jane Moody and Karla Konrad in this picture. They are the other teachers along with Robert.

There is a curse on the place because it is high up and a nice tourist spot or a date spot. And when people go there on dates there is a curse that they will break up. So if they go up together, they take locks with them to lock their love. Or you can buy one for 5,000Won.

I looked for english words and found a few. It was pretty and colorful.

After walking down Seoul Tower I bought some cotton candy.... in a cup.... and ate it with a fork. How odd.

Flowers for sale.

We went to Deoksugang Palace in the middle of Seoul. I play tour guide for this one!

I was VERY bundled up.

Prettiness in the palace.

We went to International Lutheran Church in Seoul on Sunday. This is Melinda, Karla and Jane.

After church we went to the National Korean Musuem with John, who we met at church.

Kangnam at night, in Seoul.