Live Taste Test

Sadly, my initial thoughts were shortly lived. About 5 minutes after chewing it turned to the pasty like substance normal gum turns after chewing it for hours. And it had no flavor. boo...

Conclusion: Chewable upon necessity, however not preferred over the gummy awesomeness of Stride, 5, Orbit, and their tasty brothers.

First Few Days at A-Class

Hello there friends!
First week of work and i'm sitting in the office on my first break! Breaks are nice. I'm sure once i have classes i will not be using this time to write a blog, but for now... i'll use the time i have! Communicating with everyone back home is quite the task, and im trying to figure out how to do it best. I think this blog will work out nice for the details/pictures (which i'll post soon!) !! :)

Let's see. Yesterday was my first day at work and it was GREAT! Met Sione, my principal, and he is wonderful! Very helpful! I shadowed a lot of the teachers and got to meet a lot of students, which was also great. The kids here are very high energy and like to have a good time... which is nice! I feel like my classes are going to be more like camp rec time meets English, meets elementary carpet song time. ha! : ) It's quiet funny at times! I think i will enjoy working with the older ones... they can understand more, and talk more freely! It's nice when you can talk to them about stuff they like and not have to teach them "firefighter" or "dog". Important words, yes. Exciting... not so much!

Well... that's A-Class so far! I believe i'll be taking over classes early next week... which is quick. But surprisingly i'm not too anxious. However, I do function pretty well under stress. ha! Actually this transition has been very peaceful! At times i was a little scared to venture out... but Korean folks are so nice. In between my broken Korean (which is really only two phrases) and my sad attempts at signing and pointing... i seem to get what i want! Minus the green tea latte, bulk amounts of shampoo, apple smelling body soap... yea, besides those things, i can usually make a good purchase! haha :) It's fun! It's also given my a really good understanding of how people feel when they move to the states and cannot understand. Man.. it must be hard. Especially considering Americans aren't always known to be the most helpful or patient folks! Though i do think we trump on pedestrian right of way-- it's dangerous status walking around here!

Some of the translation things are SUPER funny!! I just love it!

Here i am!

Well friends... i am here! Sitting in my apartment in Sanbon, Korea! Arrived yesterday evening and have spent today trying to be normal! I'm just a little off kilter. But i guess such is expected when you move to another country! ha. fancy that!

A few highlights of my time thus far:

- The teachers who i will be working with are amazing! So helpful and super sweet! They're great! Had lunch with them today, which was a huge blessing.

- Made my first solo trip into the city. Successfully exchanged some money. Bought some shampoo. Actually ended up with three bottles of it. Some communication issues in thinking i was buying both shampoo and conditioner. Nope. Shampoo anyone? ha! Great city... looking forward to exploring more.

- Had one amazing piece of toast today. Inherited a toaster from one of the teachers. And in the kind stash of some food items my school provided i had some bread and peanut butter. Crunchy peanut butter. Yup! That's right... awesome. For those who know me, you know i love crunchy peanut butter. On toast. Let's just say the bread her is lovely! Ahh... only thing it was missing was some apple butter. ha! Next shopping is for some real food.

- I removed one nasty pair of purple swaged, tassel clad nastiness of curtains our of my window. That made me happy! : )

ok. off to sleep a bit!

blessings!

more to come soon!

5 days!

Hello there friends! I sit here rocking to some live Jason Mraz goodness and in front of me is a pile of madness I plan to take to Korea. I've entered the packing phase and let's just say... i hate packing. I like organizing things to leave here, and i'll love unpacking when i get there. However, packing my life into two bags, 100 lbs, to include not only the essentials but the items i won't be able to find in korea...it's not a task for the lighthearted! : )

But things are going well. This week has literally flown by! Seeing a bunch of people and running a lot of last minute errands, etc. Today i'm off to the Apple Store to get my computer looked at. It's struggling.... so hopefully they'll be able to give it a little life! That would be awesome. Then family time! We're rocking the Korean BBQ tonight! Should be fun!

This morning i was delighted to open my email and find my plane ticket! 11:50 Wednesday morning i shall be departing frrom LAX for my year of adventure in Korea. Which is AWESOME! I'm getting super excited! Like so excited. So excited i don't know a better word for it. (so i'll continue to use excited until i make up one.)

A few huge blessings in the past few weeks:

• A random man in Starbucks taught me how to say thank you in Korean. (kam- sa- ham-ni-da) I think that will be a critical phrase in my first few hours there! Awesome.

• Sione, my principal is going to provide me with a cell phone! Awesome.

• Jugie bought me two Korean dictionaries. One pocket size (i'll be carrying that one in my purse) and another big guy! I'll be using those for sure! Awesome.

• I won't be having to stay in a Korean hotel for few nights before my apartment is ready (typical of most situations having to do a teach switch) but i'll be staying with the teacher who's place i'll be taking. I'll get go follow her around for a few weeks and get acquainted with my new home. Such a blessing! Awsome. to the max!

• Also got another email saying the ladies would meet me with soju and boraebong. (Korean booze and karaoke.) For those who know me.. i could make some money doing this. I feel like there are quite a few people would pay to see me do karaoke! haha!
  

5 days and counting. More to come soon!

10 Days...

Kind of like running, baking provides ample opportunity to think. I appreciate that.

Amidst the 1/2 of cup of such and such and the beating well of this and that, thoughts, seemingly countless, unrelated, though sometimes huge life thoughts fill my mind. I don't really work any of them out entirely, but somehow their stresses are released and life just seems a little sweeter for a while.

Well that's if your baking cookies. If i were running, i could just keep running until sidewalk ran out or until I solved the world's problems. Until now, my legs and lungs just seem to give up right before I solve world hunger or perfect hovering air plane blueprints... but I'm working on that. But this whole predicament works out quite nice. You see... I bake and all these thoughts surface. Then when I'm done baking, because you always, eventually run out of dough and they do finish baking at some point, you still have things to work out. So you go running. And run off all the dough you ate. It's a pretty nice system.

Ok. Back to the point of this blog. I'm leaving for Korea in 10 days. Yes. 10 days. And as i write this... the pressure is mounting. The thoughts are countless and sometimes overwhelming. Holy toledo. My emotions are kind of like those awesome cans of fruit cocktail. That tab on the top is so luring. You pull it back thinking something will explode out of it, but then all you get is a little "pshh" of air. Not as exciting as you thought. So you look in. You know what's in it... but when you pull a bite out, you're not real sure what kind of fruit it is, but you eat it anyway. Kind of like a surprise every time. Yea... that's about right where i am. A little fruit salad in heavy syrup. Actually no syrup. That's just sick.

So, I'm super excited!! There is so much is ahead for me! This is an opportunity of a life time. Literally! And I'm so blessed to be able to go! However, what i am leaving behind is also big! And getting bigger every day. And that makes me a little sad. You see, I've had to come to balance living the life God has given Sarah and being in the lives of people God has called me to. That being my family. My friends. The people God has called me to love who don't know him yet. And while it would be easy to live on the sidelines... God has not called me to that! He's called me to play! To go big... and then go home! And that excites me! If i wait for life around me to slow down before I start living mine, I'll be 90 and wondering what happened! I'm not about that! When I'm 90 I hope to, Lord willing, be sitting in a rocking chair thanking Jesus for the full, vibrant, adventurous, life changing life he gave me to live! That's no sideline kind of life if you ask me!

Don't be fouled. I'm plenty scared. Plenty anxious and nervous, and all other kinds of emotions that keep you from eating normally and make you bite the inside of your cheek profusely. BUT... I'm excited for what the Lord has for me in Korea! LIKE SUPER EXCITED!! Which makes all else doable! (And the promise of Skype. Free face time with my loved ones! YES PLEASE.)

So... these emotions I speak of, I can't really label them. It's kind of a sweet mixture of it all. But it's good, really good, even when I don't know what the heck is happening or what is going to happen!! 10 days and counting down. I'm sure more is to come on this blog in the near future. You see when I'm stressed i not only cook, and run... i write. : )

And i just wrote a blog about emotions and canned fruit cocktail. So be prepared.... who knows what's next.

Awesome.

How about some pictures...

Here is my school!

A-Class

This made my heart happy!

Watch Out for the Truck

It's been a while. I apologize. I committed to keep this guy updated, and well... I'm a slacker! But you still love me! And probably don't even care!

SO....

I got hit by a truck last night. Not literally. HAHA... : ) That would have sucked, no? Morning headlines read, "Ambitious Dreams of a Local Woman, Headed to Korea, end. Culprit? A darn cabbage truck." Oh the irony of it all. Thankfully it was a figurative cabbage truck. (Actually just a truck. Forget the cabbage.)

Anyway, it finally hit me that in less than two months will be leaving for the biggest adventure of my life (thus far!). I got to thinking about all the relationships that will change and all that will happen while i'm gone. Sadness overcame me, and yes i cried a little bit. But, even in the midst of all of that i am still filled super full with excitement! I know awesome things are yet to come, but it's still a little bittersweet.

As far as the process, i'm in the middle of "Hurry and Wait". I'm waiting for word from the Korean Parliament. Once i hear from them, it's party time. The madness starts and things will start moving super fast. I'm bracing myself! I will soon know my departure date and will be booking my flight. AHHHHHH..... super exciting! Pray that i would have peace in the middle of this whole process. It's a little nerve-wrecking at times.

So, when i know more, i'll be sure to update! Until then... i'm waiting. Spending time with people. Going through my crap. Watching out for suspicious cabbage trucks. And trying to figure out how to do life overseas and be present in people's lives here.

More to come soon! Thanks for following!