How Many Feet Do I Have?

My latest fleet of boys in Muscial Theater probably have terrible blisters at the moment. There are two weeks left before production night and I am making them rehearse for hours on end. Dancing REALLY is the best exercise. :-/ My leg muscles are sooooo sore right now. We are finally getting control over our feet and brooms though - even though it feels like we all have one too many feet at times and someone still seems to get a good bonk on the head with a broom head. :-) I am sure boys are wondering what they got themselves into at this point as I must seem relentless to them..."yes teacha we know, agaaaiiiiinnnn"...I just figure if you're going to do something do it to your best ability. :-) So they are dancing and dancing and dancing and singing and singing and singing. HOWEVER, we have had some kinks. When I arrived back at school on Monday I was told that the school was afraid of putting everyone in the same auditorium due to Swine Flu. As you know we do have it in the school and I have a big bottle on alcohol stuff that I bathe myself in between classes of touching the boys or walking the hallways. I'll probably die from alcohol poisoning before I die from Swine Flu. Anyways, this means that now we have to learn to do everything on a much smaller stage where the play can be televised from. And the boys now have to learn to project their voices because of no mics. They are pretty much scared. The high point to this is that I can get the boys to carry the props a much shorter distance instead of across the soccer field to the gymnasium, and "items" around the school will be missing for a much shorter period of time before people notice they are gone. As you may recall me telling you previously, Koreans are obsessed with mirrors, so they have HUGE mirrors in the schools, all over the place. I have found these extremely handy for using as walls on the stage...and the plants and trees through the school I plan on building a forest with on one part of the stage. However, I am NOT going to ask anyone for permission. That would be opening a WHOLE can of worms for the Koreans - they would have to go find the oldest most authoratative person in the school to ask permission from (I keep telling them it's me) - the heiarchy thing. So basically I just tell my boys to take the things and then hope that nobody notices until we are finished or otherwise I will have someone ask "teacha Daci, where all da mirrorsa gone? An where you getta all da foresta stuff? someone noza you got it?" Anyways, it should be very interesting to see how it all comes together by next week. :-) ...after almost 3 years they know who to come looking for when something is missing. :-)

Here is a picture of my latest home project - brewing vinegar water. In Asia, for a refreshing summer drink we drink vinegar water. It is flavoured vinegar, very concentrated that one puts into a glass of water. I put about a tablesoon. Some people like it stronger, but basically I don't like curling my eyelids so I stick with a small amount. Since I was drinking it like no tomorrow I decided to search on the internet how to make the stuff. I found a good recipe and bought myself some fruit, mashed it in a sealed container and then covered it with apple cider vinegar and let it brew for about 10 days, after which I boiled it in my rice cooker to steralize the stuff, and walah I now have a long supply!

Well, I will run, I have about an hour left before the day ends and I have to punish some boys for being naughty. They know that I won't cane or beat them like the other teachers but I make them clean with me which seems to be a fate worse than death by the way they react. Korean kids aren't really that hard to control because they are controlled by family still and intense guilt about losing face for themselves and their families. You can tell them they are bringing shame on their family and they will pretty much hang their head. I am very colourful in class and remind them sometimes that if they ever put their head down on the desk or are naughty it will result in "certain death", and then if anyone is ever naughty all the other boys will start yelling, "teacha! he is interested in certain death! certain death!" - becomes like a scene from a Roman ampitheatre. But since they know I am fair and kind, in their minds they pretty much got it figured that "certain death" is associated with a bottle of windex and a cloth.

Okay, have an absolutely wonderful week! Lots of love,d :-)

Pics:

1. Pearl after she wakes me up at 5:30am. The best alarm clock in Korea. She is only faithful to that time though because she knows I will hop up and make her a little beef strip for breakfast.

2. Harvey the heavy sleeper.

3. Brenda and I went to Lotte World. Kind of like Vancouver Playland under a roof, except for this cool sculpture fountain area.

4. The brew. This one is grape vinegar but I am doing lemon next.

5. Here is a pic from the assembly. Sunday morning was a test of faith. It rained and rained and rained. Plastic EVERYWHERE.

Every Cent the Delegates Saved, and Every Sacrifice They Made Was So Appreciated.

Hi hi everyone! Yesterday ended our International District Convention here in Korea. As mentioned in the headline here, it was so much appreciated that the delegates came. There are about 40 of us here in Korea that appreciated them even more than anyone else. That is how many true foreigners there are in the English congregations here for the whole country, brothers and sisters that don’t speak Korean. All of us would tell you that even though we are very happy with our decision to come here and support the foreign needs congregation, it has not been easy – in fact to put it in perspective, it is pretty much the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest with a 300lb man hanging off our ankles.  We know that Jehovah will help them make adjustments to welcome foreigners into the English congregations but the changes are slow and sometimes it is almost overwhelming, so when all the native speakers showed up from Canada, the U.S., and Australia, we really felt that Jehovah had heard our prayers. After the sessions, us foreigners commented to each other that we didn’t realize how it was going to affect us until we stood shoulder to shoulder singing with our brothers and sisters that totally accepted us. Every hug that we received, every smile, every conversation we had, just meant the world to each one of us, and we really wish we could personally thank those delegate brothers and sisters for coming. Many of the delegates said they thought their visit to Korea wasn’t much, but they never considered how much Jehovah was using them to encourage the small group of foreigners serving in the country. Words cannot express how much it meant to us. :-) I personally felt like I was given an unexpected treat everyday. First, I couldn’t believe my eyes when Rex Shin stood before me. Wow, I couldn’t hug him any faster. He was so encouraging. And being a Korean that lived here before, and now in Canada, he was able to offer some encouraging words about being part of the congregation here, and also just having him say that he understood how hard it must be for us due to culture and the role that plays in the congregation, really meant a lot. Then I had a really special treat – I met Hans and Minerva Pintar, my CO and his wife from when I was a teenager. It was choking for me to see him because when I was sixteen he took me aside at my Kingdom Hall and said, “you know I see big potential in you for serving Jehovah. I can see you doing big things for him.” Those kind words stuck in my mind over the years, and I thought about them often. It really is so important what we say to the young ones in the congregation. :-) Then finally I saw a dear old friend that I never thought would go abroad for a convention, or for any reason, so I was so happy to see that person at the convention – very encouraging....and surprising. I was also impressed by seeing ones like Wes Pisoni that after all this time are still abroad working and helping out, and loving it, even though they are far away from their original friends and family. Really good examples. Here are some pics I hope you will enjoy: 1. This is Estelle’s mom. Her and her husband left New York to pioneer in the Dominican Republic. She gave us a lot to think about, as it is so cheap to live there and the service work is wonderful. 2. This is my favourite pic of the entire convention. Matt looked so wonderful in this hanbok. And for the first time he dumped us. He was so excited that other foreigners could understand him. Actually, Matt is our best student in the Kingdom Hall. He takes every opportunity to try and speak English. Brenda and I are pretty much corrupting him though. At some point he will hear a talk about how bad sarcasm is, and the brother will give an example, and Matt will say, “that is bad sarcasm??? I heard sister Darci say it at least 100 times! Bad…baddddd…baddddd.” ;-) ...in other words if you see me on the other side of A that will be a testimony to you as to the depth of Jehovah's mercy. :-))) 3. This brother was ultra funny and cool. He is originally from Canada, and his wife and him now are living in China, so one day he dressed as a cowboy – hat and all to represent Canada, and the next he dressed as a Chinese peasant farmer. His suitcase must have been huge even for the hats he was wearing.  4. I also like this video of everyone singing at the end. These were the Canadians waving goodbye. The group with the coolest objects though were the Philippine brothers and sisters who had long skinny snake balloons to twirl in the air.

5. Langley-ites reunited on the otherside of the world.

Lots of love to everyone,d :-)ps., Harvey and Pearl are doing good. They gave me the big sad eye thing each morning as I left for the assembly, but were the absolute best welcome party givers when I arrived home late each night. :-)

Today is D Day!

Our international district assembly starts today. It is a little scary at the moment though because it is thundering and pouring outside and we are going to be in an open air stadium. :-( But I have my tent-tarp outfit to throw over myself...and three other people if need be. I am not sure of the ducky rain boots but if the water keeps running in inches I may have to wear those too and put the shoes in my case. Not quite the glamorous outfit one envisions wearing to an assembly but we knew it was rainy season during the assembly far in advance and would have to prepare for anything. Last night I told everyone about how I attended the Vancouver International as a kid and it also started to rain like no tomorrow, and the brothers stood at the entrances to the stadium handing out black GLAD garbage bags for everyone to wear. Oh boy, now that is a picture I wish I had. :-) Anyways, last night Brenda and I invited delegates to come to Dr. Fish for a kick off evening. Nothing like having your feet nibbled on by baby pirhanas to get you relaxed for a convention. We didn't know who was going to come, but Matt her and I went and enjoyed an ice-cream and coffee, and finally two brothers from New York walked in. We had no idea who they were but one was from Patterson and the other downtown, and then Jeremy Applestein walked in with a couple Austrailian sisters, and then Estelle and her mom who pioneers in the Dominican Republic walked in, so we had an EXCELLENT evening togather. I have to say it was the PERFECT way to start the assembly - just lots of visiting and meeting new ones. Estelle and her mom popped over to Thailand last week to visit the congregations and work in service and were soooo impressed. Now Estelle says she is anxious to go back there. Apparently there is a new English group formed in Pattaya, down south, and they need help because there are so many foreigners to reach there. Beautiful area too.

Well, I better run, I need to go stand at the window, stare at the rain, and figure out my game plan.

Love to all,
d :-)

Swine flu shut down my school!

The boys were yelling in Korean: "yay for swine flu!" Since they go to school every day of the year this is an unheard of holiday for them. I would be totally excited too. :-) Actually, inwardly I was yelling "Yay for swine flu!" too. But being a teacher it's probably not a good thing to run down the hall saying that. :-/ Anyways, now I will make a little plan of stuff I can get done tomorrow. :-)

We went to a wedding last week. The brother is from San Francisco area, a gyopo (Korean raised overseas), and the sister was from the West Congregation. It was AWESOME. They had the wedding in SF and then had a reception over here. They played a video of the wedding for the Korean brothers and sisters to see. It was so funny to see peoples' expressions when they saw the brothers and sisters in America dancing. They would never be caught dead dancing here. Jason's parents basically sent him here to marry a traditional Korean girl, and he found a really nice one. Made me feel a little homesick for once when I was watching because it reminded me of some things we do in the West that are just normal for our culture: the bunny hop, the polka, rock dancing, and waltzing. It was just such a fun evening.

My boys are practising their hearts out for our big play. It has been quite the challenge getting them to learn to dance with the brooms. They were swinging every which way at first and I think we all were afraid that someone was going to get brained. BUT, this last week they got the footwork down and the brooms are going all the right direction now too, so with one month to go I think it is all going to come together. I went costume shopping last week and bought things for the set too, so I think the boys are getting much more excited now that they can get more into character during practise.

I included a picture of the locks of wishes. Koreans bring a lock and put it on the fence with a wish written on it. They also do the same thing with certain forests. They bring a rock into the forest with a wish written on it and leave it. Unique. Sometimes it would be interesting to find out how certain traditions started so many years ago.

Anyways, I hope all of you are having a great week. :-) I will tell you all about the International Assembly next week after it is all over.

Have a wonderful wonderful weekend!

Love,

d :-)

*ps. Harve and Pearl are doing good. Pearl is still healing but is making good strides.

Playing A LIttle Catch Up

This has been a busy month but I thought I would take a moment to catch everyone up on what is going on around Korea. :-)

First I thought I would attach a video of morning exercises. Everyone does this. The beginning of school, or the beginning of the work day. If you go into Homeplus in the morning all the employees will be lined up doing this before they start work. They chant and follow the head person exercise.




Also, this last weekend we took a day and went to Namsun Tower which is in the centre of Seoul area. I think the best part for me was going to Namdaemoon Market. It is the largest market in Korea, so lots of deals to be found. :-)

Here is a picture of the menu in one coffee shop. In the specialty section they have Cancer au Lait. It helps to have a sense of humour living here because their are ALWAYS either mistranslations of words or funny grammar errors. A person can either get riled up that that Koreans are mutilating the language...as some do here...or just laugh about it.

And lastly, here is a picture of Vancouver and how close it is to Seoul. Don't worry I know that I am blurry in the picture, but believe me I look better that way on this particular day, so I included it. :-)

Okay, everyone have a wonderful month. We have our CO this week, and then the international at the end. Should be very interesting.

Love to all, d :-)

ps. Pearl and Harvey are doing great.

The Skinny White Dog is Doing Great!

This has been a torrential rain weekend, so I have been pretty much holed up. Brenda came over and we had a good time visiting but I was wondering if I would be able to get out the door for the meeting today. Well, it worked out good. Brenda had an idea to ask Mr. Kim to come pick me up in his taxi and then scoop Brenda and drop us both at the hall. It was perfect. The rivers and canals were all overflowing but we made it there fine.

Happy, yet disappointing news for us though. Jason and Sophia and their daughter Sophia, the only other foreigners in the congregation are moving to Estonia! :-( Cool for them because they have wanted to make the change to work in that territory for a while now, but we will miss having other foreigners to talk to.

Well, nothing else exciting. Pearl seems to be healing fantastic, and we got good news from the lab - the tumour biopsy came back benign. The vet was very worried, as I was too, so this is really great news.

Other than this, everyone is gearing up for the international assembly. One of the young brothers is playing host and is VERY nervous about his English, but I and Brenda we would sit with him and his guests at the assembly to help out. Should be fun for all of us! :-)

Anyways, everyone have a wonderful week. Lots of love, d :-)

Pearl is hanging in there.

Just wanted everyone to know that Pearl is hang'n in there. She had her major surgery today. The vet had another vet come in to assist him with the operation. They said they had to go quite deep to get the tumor out, so she will feel acute pain for a bit. Anyways, after when I arrived at the hospital I could see her crying something awful. The vet told me that she had been crying a lot due to the pain and they considered giving her opium, but were hoping to stay away from that. Anyways, I could see her in the incubator crying, but when she saw Harve and I walk in the door suddenly she went quiet and hasn't yelped since, so I am thinking some it may be physical, but the little monkey-butt was probably just traumatized to wakeup finding herself hooked up to tubes. She's kind of immobile laying here right now, but I am hoping by tomorrow she will have a bit of an appetite and be on the road to recovery. She is bandaged from neck to tail so may qualify for the ugly dog contest but I am just happy she made it through this part. Okay, have a wonderful week. Lots of love, d :-)

Weird Meats of Other Cultures

Well, this year Korea has seen some huge price hikes for food. Apparently, next to Japan is the most expensive in the world for general groceries. Which is why most average Koreans eat out here, because is it pretty cheap. I like milk and try to limit myself to 1/2 gallon a week because it has now risen to $5 for a half gallon. When I first came to Korea, a bag of candy (tootsie rolls) was $8.50 a bag. Now I pay $12.50. This is a big thing when you are a teacher and use a reward system. :-/ However, as long as a person isn't a big meat eater one can still eat well. It is just a bit of a shock to see things rise so much. Although, I did find a cheap meat for Harvey and Pearl. This week in the store I found a tray of meat with a chicken picture on the front and it was only $3 for the tray. They looked like kidneys or livers, and were cheap, so I thought I would see if they would eat them. The name of the meat was written in Korean so I ripped off the label and took it to work with me to make sure it was liver or kidney. Anyway, the office people all screwed up their faces because they said it was a tray of chicken anuses. Creepy, but apparently they roast them on skewers and make into a snack-like meat cookie. To me they look like a sand dollar with a hole punched in the middle. Anyhow, I have no plans to eat them myself, but Pearl thinks they taste divine. So, at $3 a tray they will be the new dinner meat for H&P.

Well, we had Sports Day at the school, and I was in the three legged race. My student and I came in third, which I thought was pretty good, as I thought we were going to take a dive at one moment. I included a video here of the boys doing the traditional Korean race of running across the backs. Kind of thought it would be fun at a congregation picnic. :-)

I am nervous right now because Pearl has a big operation on Friday to remove her tumours. Even though the vet thought they may be benign the tumour specialist he consulted with said they must come out right away so that they don't turn bad. Anyway, he is going to give her special coagulant shots 24 hours ahead of time to minimize bleeding, so hopefully that will help. The good part is, is that the boys are writing tests for 5 days so I can stay home with the little monkey and rub her ears and make her lots of fattening food. :-)

Everyone is doing well in the congregation. Getting geared up for the international. One of the foreign brothers working in the factories got his finger ripped off. In his hospital ward every man in his room has had either their hand or finger ripped off at work. They are all factory workers. He will stay in the hospital until he is all healed. I met a factory worker on the subway that had three fingers ripped off in a cookie machine. Factories here can be pretty scary. :-(

Other than the above we have been taking some wonderful long bike rides. Brenda bought herself one of those folding bikes and it is great. Seems like a regular mountain bike but it folds up quick to go in a trunk...which comes in handy in Korea for taxis. :-) Anyways, we have seen some beautiful scenery the last couple weeks.

Okay, have a wonderful week. Love to everyone, d :-)

Identity Theft.

Well it appears that I am now an Engineer in the UK attempting to scam people out of a lot of money in Canada. I was notified this weekend that someone, or group of people, have somehow stolen my passport information and am offering people a luxury condo in Toronto. Anyways, the RCMP are taking care of it, but it is stressful for me because there appears to be several people that have been requested to send their money to a bank account. Just hoping that it is all recoverable. In the meanwhile, my passport has been canceled. They will put a rush on it so that I can have one fast, but if does make me feel a bit stressed because the North are making big threats right now. Even though I am hoping I will never have to use it, I still have an evacuation bag packed. Anyways, hopefully everything will be resolved by the weekend. It doesn't surprize me much though that someone got my passport info, because I have had to make so many copies of my passport page for immigration here, and so many copies for the Ministry of Education. I will be much more protective of who gets those copies in the future though.

All else is well...kind of. Pearl has more lumps, so we are monitoring her right now. Hopefully they are benign. She will have a biopsy next week. The little terror is full of energy though, barking her brains out at the neighborhood children, so I take that as a positive sign.

Last night a group of us went to see the Night At the Museum movie. It came in English so it was a treat for us. Fun. Funny though that the Koreans laughed at different parts of the movie than the foreigners. Just different senses of humour. ...Getting into the movie was a story in itself though. I sent out an email telling everyone to meet at 5:30 for the 5:40 show. Well that deadline came and went without everyone there and all the seats were selling fast so we decided on the 6:30 show. Mmm... Over here all movies are assigned seating. Once the seats are sold they are gone gone gone. So Brenda and myself arrive and say we are going to buy our tickets along with another sister from Seoul. There is only 45 minutes left before the show. I suggested everyone do the same...but left it up to everyone to go to the wicket. The Koreans stood discussing for the entire 42 minutes HOW they would get their tickets (what method). This is no exaggeration. Too many details to include here. But Brenda and I were kinda in a state of disbelief. At 6:28 they are running to the ticket booth in a frenzy because they realize they may not get in and there are only 8 seats left in the entire theatre. :-/ Anyways, we learned a lesson that when we go to movies here with groups we will tell everyone that they are on their own in getting their tickets beforehand, and then we'll just all meet up AFTER the movie. Because they are so group oriented and concerned with heirarchy of who gets to make the decisions it is very hard for them to get things done sometimes.

Okay, have a wonderful week. I will tell you all about how the passport ordeal turns out next time.

Lots of love, d :-)

PS. Two pics are attached. A kimchee pot garden in the woods, and second is a navy ship..two of them...heading toward North Korea when we were out in the ocean fishing.

We Had Such A Great Time Fishing!!

Here are some pics of our fishing trip. It was so much fun! There were about 20 on board I think. Here is our group. Mr. Kim, our taxi driver, Brenda, Gina, and me. Gina was the killer fisher of the day - getting 5. It was so funny though. All the Koreans had these high tech rods, with digital readers, and hydraulic winding, etc. - nice expensive stuff. Then there was our group. We were fishing using 8 x 6" pieces...just like the Mexicans use. We would drop our lines off the edge of the boat and then when the captain rang the bell we would yank it in like crazy. Anyways, guess which group caught the most fish???!!! Yes, a good lesson for us - you don't need fancy stuff to get the job done. Eventually one Korean man put his high tech rod away and grabbed a small slab thingy too, and was catching more fish with it also. Anyways, it was an awesome day.

The other item we did this weekend was attend Claira's wedding. She was introduced to her husband one month ago. He seems like a really nice person though. I have to say though, I LOVED their wedding place. This is exactly what I thought a wedding place should look like. It was kind of a combination of Arabian Nights and the Grace Kelly wedding. I had never seen a place like this before and thought is was exquisitely beautiful with fresh flowers and candles everywhere.

Well, Pearl has become the kujo of our lane. She figured out how to get high enough up to see out the window and now it is her own personal perch. She terrorizes all the children as they walk past the window. The high point is that I doubt if anyone will ever break into my place, when they see little "white fang" acting neurotic in the window daily. Anyways, her and Harve are both good deterrents. Harvey just basically sits beside her and looks at everyone, but he has a big head, so I think that will scare people too. Even though there is very low crime in Korea, it is always good to be on the safe side.

Okay everyone, have a wonderful week! Lots of love, d :-)

ps. Brenda and I had to take pics of the hats we see most common on the streets here. The one that I am modelling is intended to keep all sun off the face. It feels like wearing a welding mask to me, but Korean women seem to love it. :-/