happy birthday!

happy birthday, dad!

each year i think i am more and more impressed with all you have done for us kids. being here in korea as a 20something in a country that is foreign to me (you know, in a figurative sense), i don't know how you did it! you have become a successful business owner, a hard worker who doesn't complain at all---i really have no recollection of you complaining at all about work, and a loving dad. thank you for everything you have done and i hope this year is especially rich with blessing.
i love you!

also, happy birthday, suzanne!
she is turning 39 and looks great! :D suzanne, you are a blessing to us in so many ways. we cherish your love, generosity, energy and sweet spirit. i can close my eyes and think of you and your home and feel all warm and cozy and it makes me miss you all the more. love you so much and pray God does great things in your life this year. love you!

UPDATES!

i'm very ashamed to see that my last post was in... (gasp) July! and it is now November. tssk tssk on me. i'm sorry, friends.

i will try to be better about my posting. things here just seem to be busier and crazier than ever.

here are a couple quick news updates:
-pete and i went to hong kong for labor day weekend. it was a food fest. we walked all around the island, took the metro and snacked on all kinds of delicious and strange goodies. we had a total blast. hong kong pretty much rocked our faces off.
-school has started! i have 19 little darlings and they're just as funny and cute as can be. i'm praying for a smooth, calm school year. let's hope my six-year old friends take it easy on me. : )
-pete is almost finished with his online Masters' degree! Soon he will be separating from the military and applying for a job as a teacher. we are excited about this new chapter ahead of us and look forward to the possibilities!
-i've been hosting a womens' bible study and co-leading it with some good friends. we have about 15-20 women who are involved and we seem to have a strong showing each week. God has really blessed this group and our studies together. We just finished the book of Hosea--it was really good and challenging. i'm also leading a bible study with my co-workers once a week. it's a place where we can all meet together to talk about the gospel (mark, mainly) and share our perspective. i've loved it. anytime i get to talk about the gospel is a blessing.
-lastly, i MISS you. every. single. one. of. you. (whoever you are)

i have some funny posts and will try to keep you updated. if not, please bombard my facebook or email with threats or something... :D

a VERY overdue post. i'm so sorry. : (

here is a post i wrote this summer on my way to maui to meet my sister for a little vacation. it was glorious. the trip there and back was an adventure. read all about it...

airport musings. august 2011.

The only thing separating me from paradise is a “minor maintenance issue on the aircraft” that seems to be more major than minor. I’m sitting at Incheon airport and the jovial captain gets on the intercom to announce the problem with a shiny grin. He passes off the walky-talky to his Korean counterpart for a translation. The guy announces pretty much the same thing, but in Korean, but the biggest difference between the two different announcements was the response. When the shiny grinned captain finished his less than pleasant announcement there were a few heads that drew back, some gentle sighs, but an overall sense of, “well, guess we’ll just have to wait. Nothing much we can do” kind of mood. When the less jovial Korean man made his announcement the passengers started to swarm the counter with looks of disgust and major frustration. If I didn’t know the little Korean I do, I would have thought he announced something more along the lines of, “I am the cause of your delayed flight. I thought it would be cute to push all the shiny buttons in the cock pit and now I am enjoying watching you all suffer”.

But man. I’ve never been in a riot before and I thought I was about to witness one. It was a series of unfortunate events: it was late (probably way past many of the angries’ bedtimes), everyone was hungry and anticipating a meal, the flight was delayed and it just kept getting pushed back later and later. Recipe for disaster. I think if the counter were not there to separate the airline staff from the passengers someone might have swung for a punch. I didn’t really enjoy any of this rioting since I was tired and had acquired a learned helplessness. It didn’t seem fair to yell at the staff who had little to do with the aircraft itself and hey, it’s life. Things like this happen. Of course, I didn’t have a tight schedule or big event I was flying in for. Perhaps if I did I might have been among the angries and had some indignation to yell into the air while beating my chest.

Now, I love Korea and I love Koreans. For goodness sakes, I am Korean! But man oh man. Koreans are not patient people. They aren’t the ideal traveling partners. They like to rush, push people out of the way, cut lines---things my first graders have to change their light to yellow for… I have grown quite accustomed to this “me first” attitude I have observed over the time I have spent in korea. In fact, I have had a few pushes through a crowd or jumped a line (something I would have NEVER done before, but in korea it’s fair game). And flying with Koreans is maybe the worst. When boarding a plane you’ll hear the flight attendants say, “first class passengers, then those sitting in seats 1-15 please board” inevitably you’ll see a swarm of Koreans walk up to the counter pushing their boarding pass, totally disregarding the staggered process. Or my new favorite is when the plane has landed and is pulling up to the terminal. Flight attendants always make the generic announcement, “ladies and gentlemen, we have just arrived in whatevercity and need you to stay seated until the captain turns off the fasten seatbelts sign.” That’s the Koreans cue to unhook their seatbelt, stand up and start to get their baggage out of the overhead compartments with much urgency and frequently, knocking their bulky suitcase into the unfortunate passengers' shoulders sitting below the compartment. Then when you watch the flight attendants they start yelling out and motioning, “please sit. Please wait! Please sit! Wait! Sit! Wait!” Meanwhile, her hands are pushing down in the air like she’s playing an invisible game of whack the beaver. Don’t get me wrong, Koreans are some of the smartest I know. I am sure some of this rushy-rushy behavior is in part to the language barrier, BUT I think it’s also a mixture of impatience, and Koreans’ uncanny ability to flex the rules to do what works for them.

Needless to say and nearly six hours later, we boarded our repaired plane and were on our way to paradise. Things seemed to calm down as soon as everyone got on the plane. It was quiet and peaceful. It’s amazing what a box of juice and some sleep can do for a case of grumpies. : )

After all, we were on our way to HAWAII...can't complain.

Among some of the really fun things Susan and I were able to do:

I arrived one day earlier than she because of the considerably cheaper fare for a Wednesday rather than a Thursday. I got a rental car and drove to our condo. I pretty much crashed shortly after I got there. I bought dinner, went to a grocery store, then watched a little American tube (which was glorious, by the way) and hit the sack. The next day I picked Susan up from the airport and greeted her with a tuberose lei. It was pretty fun!

Here are some things we were able to do together:

* Lay out and swim at Kamaole II beach.

* Snorkeled at several locations and saw beautiful coral reef and colorful tropical fish

* We swam with a sea turtle!

* Ate LOTS of good food. Some highlights include: excellent sushi, sweet & juicy mango, banana macadamia nut pancakes (need I say more?), mushroom ravioli, and the list goes on.

* We made an early morning drive to haleakala volcano to see the sunrise. It was 3am, freezing cold, and breathtakingly beautiful.

* Shop! Nothing better than shopping with your sister.

* Got tossed around in the waves at Big Beach. the waves were so powerful they snapped my sunglasses in two. and i'm sure my wipeouts looked awesome to the tourists who happened to be walking by.

It was really amazing. The whole trip was so relaxing. The only stress we had was narrowing down our dinner options. It’s also great to spend time with my sister and have lots of time to talk about life, memories and tell funny stories. can't wait to have another sister vacay! : )

boracay in july (part III)

one thing we didn't expect when going to boracay was all of the vendors asking for your business. if i got a quarter every time i heard, "sir, mom, eyeland hope-ing?" (i loved their accents)... one of the first guys we met on the beach was a young guy named Jay-R. He was a young, lively guy who sprung out on us like a cheetah looking for something to eat....literally. i think he came out of the bushes. ha. anyway, he gave us the whole speech, something like: "sir, mom, eyeland hope-ing? I give good price. discount. i give very good discount. 3000 pesos. ok? no? ok. 2000 pesos. good discount. ok?" we smiled and said, "we're not sure...we haven't really planned anything yet." Jay-R came up to us again and said, "Alright, I give more discount. 1800 pesos for a two hour sail. and helmet diving." pete and i looked at each other. we were weak, sleepy and way too tired to try to resist Jay-R the cheetah. we shrugged our shoulders and said, "ok. we'll think about it." Jay-R kept insisting we give him a time to meet. "meet me here at 12:00 tomorrow. promise? ok? make me promise?" we agreed.

the next day we met Jay-R at the agreed upon location. he introduced us to the captain and owner of the sailboat we would take out. when we walked up to the boat there was another young guy jumping in and out of the water getting the boat to the dock for us. he was soaking wet and wearing whitey-tighties. i diverted my attention to taking pictures of the boat....must...avoid...eye....contact...

and we were off. the sail was dreamy. the water was a gorgeous shade of aqua, clean and glistening in the sun. the sailboat was lovely with lots of character, a cool shade of orange, white sails, named after the owner's son, and it even had a flag with michael jackson's picture. it was great.

while on the boat, jay-r was hoping to have some bonding time with pete.

JR: So, sir, do you like cock-fighting?

P: Uh, no. I haven't seen a cock fight before.

JR: (disappointed) Do you want to go to a cock fight? (getting a little excited)

P: No, sorry. I don't think it's my thing.

JR: (disappointed) Do you like to drink? Go to bars? Do you drink a lot?

P: No, I don't drink a lot. I just have a drink once in a while.

JR: (triply disappointed) (*crickets*)

haha. it was funny.

we got to a dock in the middle of the ocean where they have helmet and scuba dives. we were briefed on how to helmet dive and went 4 meters down. they put a gigantic white helmet on your head that weighs over 15 pounds. then you walk around the ocean floor. it was pretty cool because you can breathe normally and don't need a mask. we were underwater for 25-30 minutes. it was fun, but after about 10 minutes i was ready to go back to the top. the reef looked a little bare. it was strange being underwater and breathing through my nose. i couldn't help but sing "under the sea".

boracay in july (part II)

we got to our resort to be greeted by warm, smiling young women. an equally warm and kind woman approached us with some freshly squeezed pineapple and mango juice. yum. i liked the place already. our room was beautiful (and cheap, might i add!). we were hungry so we decided we would go look for something to eat. we stumbled across a breakfast buffet on the beach, took a look at it and weren't too impressed, so we decided we would just sit and order from the menu. it was a yummy breakfast and we ate while listening to the crashing of waves. it was all very surreal. after our meal i realized i didn't bring enough pesos with me. i was short 200 pesos (about $5). pete spoke to our waiter and asked if we could bring the rest of the money to him later. he was very gracious about it and said it was no problem.

we were really tired; we didn't have our swimsuits or sunblock, so we took the time to just crash in our beds, hoping we would have our luggage by the time we woke up. the baggage attendant said we should expect our bags by 12:00 noon. by the time we got up from our nap it was 4pm. we thought it would be good to call the airline. the ladies at the front desk called several times only to hear the busy signal or no answer. by 5:00 i was thinking our bags were taken by pirates. soon after we called the airline for the 9th time, i heard a loud buzzing noise. i looked up and saw a young man carrying my bag on his shoulder and rolling our suitcase (very loud wheels) toward us. the noise from our loud suitcase never sounded so good. i started running toward the man. i could have kissed him!

we wasted little time. we got our suits on and went for a swim.

Boracay in July

pete taking a break from the top chef masters marathon we had going in manila airport

Peter and I had the amazing opportunity to go to Boracay for our Fourth of July weekend. The water was clear, blue, warm and absolutely beautiful.

here are some things that happened during our trip:

Boracay is accessible only by boat, so it takes some energy to get there. First, we flew from Korea to Manila. To save some money we bought plane tickets that had a long layover, so we ended up staying in the Manila airport from 12 midnight until 5:30am! it was kind of crazy, but we had fun chilling on the airport floor watching Top Chef Masters. Once we boarded our flight in Manila we landed in Caticlan Airport. Shortly after landing one of the baggage attendants told the passengers that none of our bags were loaded on the plane. what!? they said we all needed to fill out a form indicating what our bags look like, what's inside the bag and what hotel we were staying at so they could deliver our bags to us. i was so sleep deprived at this point, someone could have leaned over to tell me my bags were stolen by pirates and i would have replied, "cool. good for them." anyway, i start to fill out this pretty sketchy form while imagining some random strangers loafing through my luggage to find the dvds and snorkel gear i listed on my form. haha. so nuts.

we completed the form and handed it off to the baggage attendant (who looked like he was still in the 8th grade). it didn't seem to promising, but we walked away with faith & hope that we would be reunited with our swimming suits and snorkel gear.

from caticlan airport, we took a van to the jetty port where we got on a boat to boracay island. from there we hopped on a golf cart type van to our hotel. no cars are allowed on the island, only small buggies or motorized vehicles, so most people get around by bicycle, walking or tricycles. it was really interesting seeing the island and the people hanging out, walking in the streets. i enjoyed looking at the little markets and huts selling bunches of bananas and mangoes. we were going on hour 24 of little sleep and traveling so the ride to our hotel was blurry for more than one reason, but a lovely, colorful blur. : )

(our boat, the smaller one in front is what we rode to boracay island)

FREEEEDOM!

(this was a blog i meant to post a few weeks ago....)

why, hello, summer vacation. i thought i'd never see you.

school is officially out for summer and i am loving it! I am on day 3 of my vacation and it feels super! poor pete is still working hard..but soon we are going on a trip too! we found out that pete can go out of country for his four day weekends, so we are going to (drumroll) BORACAY, Philippines! woooooo! if you want to know more, google image "boracay" and be prepared to fall in love with what you see. we are hoping it will be rain free as it is their monsoon season, but even if it does rain we will still be on vacation! : )

here are a few little updates/stories i've been meaning to write down:

my students participated in an art gala showing off all of the artwork we have done this school year and famous artists we studied. my students were the "art curators" and were responsible for walking around the "art gallery" and offer insight about the work that was hung. they were dressed up and looked adorable. it was really cool to overhear my kiddos say, "this is a pichoo of a famous ahtist named georges seurat. his famous painting technique was pointillism." another favorite line my kiddos said was, "this is vincent van gogh. he only had one ear and he was a little bit crazy." love it.

peter placed first in the local golf tournament for Area IV of Korea! He won first place last year also, so the fact that he won two years in a row is pretty awesome. He was actually tied with another player and had to play some extra holes for a sudden death. Pete made an amazing chip and put and claimed victory. i'm very proud of him.

pete took me to a concert in seoul to see sara bareilles! it was awesome. we went to hongdae, which is a trendy college town. it was kind of crazy because we just went to seoul for the night of the concert and took a bus back to osan where we had been staying. javier dunn opened for her and was wonderful as well.

and here are some pics of us from the last few months.

i want to get better about posting...

hi friends!

i'm very sorry i've been such a slacker poster. well...a lot has happened since our last post.

1. Dash is here! Dash is pete's dad. He's in search of an English teaching position. We are enjoying our time together very much and it's been great to have family here.

2. Peter is no longer a lieutenant, but a captain! He is carrying on the Watt tradition of having a Captain in the family (his grandfather, uncle and now him!). I am very proud of him. Pete's dad was there at his promotion ceremony and I was able to pin on his new rank of Captain. I know he is doing a really awesome job and I am so thankful to God for how He has blessed us.

3. I went to Seattle for a week in April for my spring break! I was able to see my lovely sister, explore one of my favorite cities, eat, shop, eat, and eat some more. I will hopefully post some pics soon.... I am not one of those people who upload the photos from the trip they just returned from the day before. I'm more like one of those people who post some wedding photos online five years later....wha? (yep. i did that) anyway, the trip was amazing and was just a perfect little shot of americana that this homesick girl needed. i went to target, trader joes and hit all of my favorite little stores. my suitcase was packed full of good food and some cute tops. a successful trip.

we are still having a good time here in korea. spring has sprung. the azaleas are in full bloom and the trees are growing their new green. i feel as though this is one of the most challenging times i have had in my teaching career so seeing the beautiful changes around me is refreshing and reminding me of how God makes things new. He doesn't leave us in a place of darkness or emptiness. Sometimes it takes a little while, but eventually he leads us out where the ash around our feet turns into something lush and beautiful.

heeey!

hi friends.

it's been a long time. i feel like i am often commenting on how busy and crazy we've been and, well, busy and crazy we have been. : )

work has been challenging for both of us and it is also teaching us a great deal about ourselves. i'm learning a lot about how to be a good teacher and love my kids well. it's been somewhat of a draining process, but i have learned a lot! there have been a few teary-eyed drives home from work as i am trying to slowly peel away the heaviness of the day. i'm thankful that pete is such an excellent listener. he's been a big comfort and encouragement to me.

we're still really enjoying our time here. just so you all know, korea was not at all affected by the tsunami and earthquake in japan. let us not forget to lift that country up in prayers--for the people who have lost loved ones and the people who are working to rescue and find those who are still lost.

when watching the news of the earthquake and tsunami you are very quickly reminded of how small we all are. in an instant, we could be swept away, crushed, gone. it makes you feel a bit powerless. weather is one of those things we can't just wish away or pay money to avoid. it comes and goes as it pleases, disregarding your wishes for it to stay away for your outdoor party you've been planning for months. it's a reminder to us that sometimes we just have to surrender. in a world of control, this is hard to digest. we can gain control by buying just about anything we want: sex, we can change our gender, buy a new nose, flatten our stomach.... but even a billionaire can't pay to have a snowstorm delayed so he can fly out for his vacation. maybe God uses weather as a reminder to us that we cannot control everything, that there is a bigger picture outside of our agenda. i am not supposing the tsunami came because God was trying to teach someone a lesson, but i simply mean it is one of the remaining things in life that can't be avoided or turned off...it forces us to slow down, to take a look around and think about more important things in life. we see the bigger picture a bit better and it helps us to relax our clenched fists a bit.

we're still alive!

sorry i've been absent for so long....we are still here and alive!

i'll be posting more soon....

xoxo p&s

more classroom funnies

• one of my students spent a good 30 minutes on his journal entry to draw a very detailed picture and wrote at the bottom, " I am awesome." He proudly read his journal aloud to his classmates. Very shortly after journal time Mr. Awesome tripped on his shoelace and hit his head on a chair leg landing him a bruise shaped like a long, red line on his forehead.
• funny journal entries from my little guy Simon: "last summer i went to the most amazigst country in the whole universe." (when i asked him what country this was he said, "florida.") another entry from simon: "i went to taco bell and aeted a taco. it was the bestest thing i ever tasted in my whole life!" (can you tell he's an enthusiastic boy? i told his mom that if she took him to florida and fed him taco bell he may just keel over from an overload of euphoria)
• another one of my charming students has come to school the past 4 days wearing one glove. i asked him why and he just shrugs and says, "i dunno. i just got one glove." i guess one warm hand is better than none.

happy new year!

things i'm thankful for in 2010...

• my sweet husband has moved back to daegu! it's so great being able to say goodnight and good morning to each other without having to say goodbye for a while.
• we were able to pay off all of our debt this christmas. we are officially debt free!
• our trip to hawaii was pretty amazing. i will never forget it and i still dream of those beautiful waves and mountains. *sigh* hope to get back there again one day...
• all of the dear friends i've made or the friendships that have grown stronger this year
• my adorably cute students who kept me laughing every day and helped give me a good night's worth sleep during the week... : )
• skype! it's been such a great tool for staying connected with our dear family. it is almost as good as seeing you in person. : )

what blessings have you had this past year?