email that made for a good post (its kindof cheating I know)

HelloThings are going really well. Work has been hard the kids get better and then regress into madness. This morning was particularly draining. I have a student who seems to want to push me at every step. And the worst part is that he can't speak much English and so he talks back in Korean and the other kids laugh. It's quite frustrating. Anyway the afternoon went much better.
last night I hung out with Chunghee Lee, Kenny Lee's cousin. He's a really neat guy we went for an amazing dinner and then wandered around Gungnam O, he showed me a lot of cool places my favorite being the batting range on top of a store parking lot. we were cracking balls in a batting cage while people are getting into there cars five feet below. Only in Korea.
There is just so much to see and hear and do. Getting food has been the hardest thing. I can see why being in a place is the fastest way to learn a language. there is so much that is necessary and ordinary that I can't accomplish with ease. However the food, when it comes, is amazing. Last night we ate a Beef sum Gap salle (spelled horribly) . There's a little bbq and coals in the middle of the table and a long tray of different greens. You fry the thinly sliced beef marinated in a garlic sauce and then wrap it with greens and Kimchi and a soy paste and garlic clove and other unknown things and then stuff the big package into your face. it is great social eating. We also had some Soju Plum wine which was delicious. After dinner we cleared our palettes with cold noodle soup, not my favorite.
I think I am going to use some of this on my blog I just don't feel like having to write about it all again. Anyway things are good I do miss being at home. I miss you and I am sorry that I can't be there to hang out with Rue and Asia. I miss the quiet and the clean air. And quiet glasses of wine and books, and newspapers that I can read.
I will talk to you Soon. I can't get a phone until I have my papers and I can't get my papers until I go to japan and I can't go to Japan until Dordt sends me a new transcript that has an official seal over the flap. I told them to put a wax seal on it next time...chuckle headed honkies.
anyway. I am going to watch the Hockey game tonight so don't tell me the score. In Fact NEVER TELL ME THE SCORE. Or talk about the score or make reference to the score. we watch the Canucks games about 24 hrs after they happen.
I love you and will write soon
Love Joshua

Seoul Weekend

I spent the weekend discovering the city and my neighborhood. There is a bar called the Rocky Mountain tavern where I can watch the Canucks games They play them the day after so if you've seen the final scores don't tell me without asking if I've seen it. I watched the game there on friday and then went out with a bunch of people that I met there. then I watched the dissaster of a game there last night. I will be there to watch it on tuesday night. On saturday I had quite the experience I had to get groceries. The format of the store is familiar but nothing on the shelves is. IT took me about two hours not because it was hard but because I really enjoyed wandering and loking at all of the weird things for sale. so many odd veggies and strange meats and animals. Yesterday was earthday I think and I watched barbra walters talking about the rape of the oceans. This is in evidence here. tanks loaded with all kinds of live fish. and clams, crabs and everything else you can think of. It is scary to think of the quantities disappearing everynight on Seoul dinner tables.
Anyway on another note I went guitar shopping. I guy told me about this place that is built over a street in Jung no sam ga where they sell guitars. The place was three stories high and filled with about 300 hundred musical instrument vendors. all kinds of instruments and thousands of guitars. Some really cheap and others fairly normally priced. But the sheer scale that they do things on here was astounding. I didn't end up buying a guitar, but will soon.
Saturday night I went with Reuben and scot and their wives out to this club where their friends were playing. It was a recording studio/ club two bands played the one was a Krazy Korean rock band full of whats becoming typical antics for Koreans which is nutty by american standards more on that later. The other band was a great folk band. the players were all americans that have lived here and speak fluent Korean their lead singer was a Korean girl named Sonny. since everything was in Korean it was hard to follow the lyrics. We all went out after to a wings place. It was great lots of Korean to talk to. Then there were two strange personal connections. The First was that Jon Plantinga came to hang out with his girl friend we had a great time hanging out and catching up I don't think Ive seen him since I was 15. The other was that this girl sitting next to me told me that she knew about Dordt college. She is Korean but grew up in LA. She knew Grace Yoon really sweet Girl that went to Dordt who I went to a conference in Seattle with. It was very bizarre and cool.
Anyway this is an excessive blog. Who reads this much
no camera = no pictures
Ill get one fear not

Day Two

So I have a class of Kindergarteners all morning. From 9:30 till 2:30. There are eight children in the class and only one of them speaks english at all. I spend my day singing songs like "head and shoulders" and "I had a little Turtle, his name was tiny tim" They particularly enjoy the part about the bubbles because bubble sounds like some other word in Korean which they are unable to explain to me. They are very cute and loaded with energy. Yesterday was a day spent laying out the classroom ground rules. They were aweful. Students yelling and jumping on tables. After I yelled they decided they liked happy Mr Joshua better and were mostly good for the last five minutes of the day. It is very difficult to get ideas across and so I do a lot of song and dance explaining with hand gestures. They are at least entertained for a few minutes. But it requires a lot of short activities.
Today went very well the seemed to come in with a desire to only see happy mr. Joshua. They were almost good all day. After lunch they have liquid sugar for blood and it is hard to get their heart rates down. One child is a bit of a mad man and gets a look in his eyes every once and a while and stands up and sits down making crazy faces. we will have to work on that.
They have made beautiful pictures of turtles and fish.
Anyway Korea is crazy besides the crazy kids. Yesterday evening I walked around my neighborhood. Everynight the place is crawling with people dressed to the nines driving swanky cars and drinking Soju. There are massive neon signs everywhere and livliness that is not found in much of North America. People work all night it seems. Not just people like architects who put in long hours. But mechanics have there shops open late and handymen can be seen putting up awnings at 11 o'clock at night. It is totally bizarre.
Anyway I will post pictures when I get a camera and give you more of a taste.
I love it.

Wet Feet

So Im here
I now reside in a city of many milions of people that stretches as far as the eye can see, if it could see for the smog. Actually I have not found the air that bad, though there are a lot of people around wearing masks. I have a beautiful sunny classroom in a quaint school in the wealthiest area of seoul known as Gangnam. I am overwhelmed by all the new and strange experiences. I feel powerless as a language minority and look forward to learning to speak it. Dinner was my first experience with Kim Chi. I loved it.
I will get some pictures and more posts soon

Korea

about time!!!

sheesh that took me a while

so if word has not leeked your way let it be known officially that I am moving to Korea. It thoughted to mi self, self yer a goo teahcer go an teahc those Koreens sum englishing.

I am leaving on saturday morning and will be there for a year. Its all happening a little fast but thats the way i like to do things. anyway never fear there will be many more posts coming so stay in touch, and remember Jesus is alive here he is on sunday in Sanfransisco taking out the garbage. My brother Rueben took the photo. feels kinda like the sasquatch photo.