Where Did April Go?
























































Me looking creepy with my flashcards





















My little kid class











Summer and I have awesome nails










There's a community of North Korean refugees at our church. They made lunch!! You're looking at rice porridge, kimchi, sundae (sausage cooked in pig's blood and wrapped in intestines), and variations of rice, tofu, spam, and squid











OWW these cute shoes.










Steven and Martin



Meagan is sitting beside me and she thinks I'm doing my report cards. Actually, I'm sitting on the floor intermittently picking at my dark blue nailpolish and bobbing my head to the Lady Gaga she's playing.

I discovered G-Market last week and ordered three pairs of heels for about $30. Shipping was free. They ALL came today. Unfortunately, the satin bright turqoise ones are so small that I'd have to amputate at least one toe to wear them comfortably. I tried wearing them a minute ago when I was dancing to Billy Idol but it was really painful. So, the debate remains: spend another $10, or try to send them back (NOPE, too complicated), or give them to my friend (Jamie, that would be you- Meagan said she doesn't like pointy-toed shoes)- interrupt- I've been caught.

I got a FANTASTIC box from my parents today. THANKS MOM AND DAD! Here, I'll list the contents: jello pudding mix, ranch powder to make dressing, packs of macaroni and cheese cheese, Lucky Charms, the Gone with the Wind DVD, bronzer, Haribo gummy bears, Jelly Bellies, vanilla body spray, a huge Time magazine, multiple bags of coffee, MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC!! AHH!!!

Time to hang up my laundry. I might not bother with these report cards until tomorrow morning.

There are a lot of other things I could talk about, like how the weather's getting warmer, or how I'm carrying around flashcards to learn Korean, or how I had my first pseudo-conversation with my little-kid class this morning, or how I lost my voice again, or how pretty the cherry blossoms are, but... I'm really distracted.

I think I had too much sugar. I think it was the gummy bears. The sticker on the bottom of my water glass says "Bulgaria." Speaking of that, WE FOUND THE FOREIGN FOOD MARKET TWO WEEKENDS AGO. Have I written about that? I don't think I have. I don't think I've mentioned how magical and amazing it was. How I've almost consumed a block of cheese as big as a car battery, how I ate Pad Thai four times for lunch last week (yep, found some sauce to straight up make it), the amazingness of fresh basil, the oatmeal I've been eating almost every morning. It was a dark Saturday night, and we were in Itaewan (the haunt of military boys and grungy English teachers, most disillusioned with Korean life and escaping to a little multicultural world). Although Itaewan is surrounded with barbed wire and riddled with belligerently drunk 20-something's, it has incredible back alleys filled with restaurants from every country. Tapas from Spain, gorgonzola pizza from Italy, basil chicken from Thailand, curry from Pakistan, kabobs from Uzbekistan, roast chicken from France, naan from India... so we had Thai for dinner. AND THEN. We found a little grocery store labeled "Discount Foreign Food Mart." I won't waste your time talking about it. I'll just tell you that it was a good 10 minutes before I got within two yards of the door. That first 10 minutes was an overwhelming period of time where I considered if the oatmeal on the top shelf was worth $7, and then plotted how I would reach that top shelf, and if I should ask in Korean to the busy middle-eastern man ringing up things behind the counter, or just grunt something awkwardly in English. The story ends with me holding a very full basket, and discovering the same oatmeal in a reachable position four shelves over.

I'm thinking to myself, what questions do people ask me? Now is the perfect time to answer those questions, considering I am nonverbal. AHH. Today, I realized the power of nonverbal communication. Meagan reminded me we only communicate 10% verbally. I realized this when I was listening to a story from one of my students today, and in the midst of his passionate recitation I considered the fact he was only saying "I'm..." followed by crashing sounds and violent hand motions. It is from parodies like this that I comprehend bike accidents, spaceships blasting off, and hamsters fighting each other. It is from sentences containing as few words as "Me is..." or "This-uh" that I gather that students were screamed at by their parents for missing more than 1 question on a test, or went to a baseball game Sunday, or played video games all weekend. I have to remind myself to correct them, because after a couple months or so, you develop this odd form of communication that works just fine, but is not English.

Things are like that with me and Martin. I don't think I've mentioned how obsessed I am with Martin. He's 5. He wears a gold chain with an elephant on it, refuses to take his bag off somedays (I guess he really gets into the student thing) and understands my English just fine but only speaks to me in Korean. He lets me pull him on my lap when he's being rowdy during rug time (the time where me and nine 5-7 year olds say our names and how we feel while sitting on a blanket). He pulls on my skirts, my jewelry, and my stockings (good for you Martin- you know the word "stockings" as you try and rip mine), and today during a large-letter small-letter alphabet matching game he looked up at me petulantly and told me in Korean that he didn't study English. I told him in Korean that he had better study English. He grinned and nodded. Martin's mom isn't around so he lives near his friend Steven, and they usually come into class with matching jackets or bags. Steven likes to sprawl across me with his head in my lap (great way to see how to pronounce things), and yesterday an indignant Clint (also adorable- he has hair like a chia pet and teeth that stick almost straight out- but no worries- there are braces on them) pointed down at him. They get irritated with each other for not paying attention, which works great for me (I often look over to see the three girls in the class with their fingers over their mouths in the "shh" position, Christina sometimes calmly saying, "pleasebequiet"), so I looked down at Steven. Once I got past his cute grin, I noticed that he had both middle fingers stuck up proudly in the air. I made a shocked face and pushed them back down. He stuck them up again, giggling. At this point Clint was losing patience. We finally got Steven's fingers down and resumed the lesson, which was probably on the "How is the weather today" part. They usually respond with, "TUESDAY!" or "I FEEL CLOUDY!" None of them can get enough attention. My hands are literally full. So are my arms. So is my lap, at times.

Oh HOW can it be almost 2. OOH. MEAGAN JUST PROCURED A JAR OF NUTELLA FROM HER BAG. Excellent. Too bad I only have vegetable crackers. WAIT, the bananas. The Nutella was another thing we found at the discount foreign food market. Which, I didn't clarify earlier, is not discount.

SO SATISFYING.

What is Jesus teaching me lately? That I should be generous instead of selfish. But actually though, there's not a lot of "should" stuff going on with Him right now. On Sunday my preacher said that he wasn't any better of a person than he was 10 years ago, he had just learned to be more obedient. I was reading 1 Corinthians the other day and in chapter 1:7, it says "Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed." There's other good stuff around that verse but that one verse is big enough to give me something to think about for awhile. I don't lack anything. I don't lack anything musical to lead worship, or anything to show my friends that Jesus loves them, or intuition to help my students, or the faith that God will provide money to pay for next year (I decided to go to Charleston and do a ministry internship with college students)... seriously though I don't have any of that stuff. I can barely play a bar chord, I make kids cry, and it's like trying to break a brick wall to save money and pay for student loans. But I don't lack any spiritual gift WHAT?!? My life doesn't feel spiritual at all. I struggle to spend time studying the Bible, I don't have many people that I talk about "how things are going" with Jesus, I worry that I'm doing everything wrong (with money, time, my messy apartment, my messy classroom)

Meagan just told me that snake soju is real. Soju is Korean vodka, and you know what snakes are. She said her student showed her a picture of it today, apparently he makes it with his grandfather.

Maybe I'll be waiting on God and trying to walk with Him at the same time forever.

Wait actually I think I should mention that my life is really spiritual. HAHA. Actually my coworkers and I are being really tested because my work treats us really poorly. Each week there's some new shocking news. I won't bother to recount any more of it (although today it was especially alarming- it involved the impending crash and burn of the academy), so there's this test of what attitudes we will have, what we will and will not talk about, and so on. I kind of blocked that part out, I think. God is teaching me to look through rose-colored glasses, actually, to glue some rose-colored glasses to my face. BING.

Let's end this with an excellent quote from Jasmine's grammar test.
Q: Which foods do you think are very spicy?
A: I am chicken foot.

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