Blogger's Guide to Earth

Persecution

2009-01-07T09:16:00.004-06:00

Julia and I receive the magazine "Voice of the Martyrs". It is a powerful magazine speaking of the persecutions of the church all over the world. I was reading this morning and praying for my brothers and sisters and I thought about how we don't see too much persecution here in the USA. Then I started to think about how maybe what the USA has is worse in some ways. We don't have it worse physically. We are not tortured or beaten for our belief in Christ.
So how could it be worse? I think we are slack in our beliefs. Our freedom gives way to apathy and laziness. Many Christians don't pray or read their Bible. In places where there is persecution people will travel for miles on foot to read and worship with other believers in secret. There is no messing around in many other places in the world.

I have shared the gospel with a friend of mine from an Arabic nation. If he becomes a Christian and goes back home he could be killed. What happens in the USA? People pray a prayer and then thorns grow up and kill them. (Matthew 13:7) In the west the thorns are subtle. In North Korea the thorns have guns, fists, and prison camps. Here thorns have fun distractions that get you drunk and take your eyes off Christ; they lull you to sleep. Also, the thorns here are tolerance that attack the very fundamental core of what the Bible teaches.
A person in the USA professes faith in Christ and then gets lulled the sleep with all the toys of this world. In many other places people cry out to God to strengthen them against the persecution they endure. They depend on God everyday. We in the west need to do the same thing, but we need to pray that we don't get caught by ipods, youtube, and Desperate Housewives. I don't think people realize how toxic their lifestyle are. If people are believers they often take part in activities that retard their walks with Christ.
Let me give an example. Many Christian brothers and sisters love to watch movies. Who doesn't? Often in those movies sins that God hates are being glorified. If you say something to them about it they get defensive and say that your heart is "soft" and that it doesn't bother them. If the one Christian's heart is soft then what does that make the others heart?
This happened to me. I was watching a movie with my wife and she did not like it because it was very cavalier about sex. She was right. I could have done two thing. I could have said, "Oh you are too sensitive, it wasn't THAT bad." Or I could have, and did, repent and say, "You are right I should not have watched that."
Too often I harden my heart to things like that. Praise God for my wife!

Here is what the Bible says about having a hard heart.

Romans 1:21
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore s God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

I Thess 5:19 "Do not quench the Spirit"

So I want to encourage everyone to look at what they are doing. Are you justifying watching, listening, doing things that God hates and saying "These are holy" when they are not? Repent and turn to God. Pray like your life depends on it. He is your loving Father if you are his son or daughter.

Ok Ok Ok

2009-01-05T10:06:00.003-06:00

So I have been told by my friend Jared, to update my blog. So a lot has changed since I blogged last. For instance I am married...and have been for over 4 months. Hmmmm yeah I guess it has been a long time. So what I want to do today is discuss the possibility of moving overseas at the end of 2009. Crazy as it sounds that is probably what we will do. If you want to know more please give me an email or comment below.
So that is a big update right? I will try to do more this week. I will leave you with a great video that will make you think.

Jet lag

2008-07-26T04:38:00.002-05:00

Well I have been home for two days, and this is my third night. I slept well the first two night but night three I am blogging at 4:40 AM. Of course this is after being up for 2 hours and 40 min. So what does one do when jet lagged? Well he watches cable until he decides that it is all crap! Then he makes himself a sandwich..... I have not had bologna in a long time. I also read this ridiculous article about John McCain logging on to the Internet for the first time. Talk about lame, this article made me sad. I think it was attempt to say that McCain can be in touch. It actually worried me. I mean who cares about John McCain going onto map quest? I personally think it makes him look way out of touch because he is going to such lenghs to look in touch. Should I get excited about that? Meanwhile Obama is flying around Europe like some kind of rock star. Where is the news about Ralph Nader? Yes that is right I am probably going to vote for Ralph Nader. I was supporting Ron Paul but he pulled out so I think Ralph Nader might be my new candidate of choice. When I told people that I was voting for Ron Paul they asked me why I would "throw away my vote?" First of all it is mine to "throw away" secondly why is it being thrown away? Isn't voting about choosing the person you think would do the best job? I think so. Maybe it won't count for much but at least I am voting.
You really should check out his policy. From my view point McCain and Obama aren't that far apart in regards to their policy. Ralph Nader is a lot different. Check out this website it shows the differences between the canidates.

First time in LA

2008-07-23T01:25:00.002-05:00

Yes I am finally back in the USA! It has been a LONG journey. I have had two 7 hour layovers. Yikes! So I had to get the Tmobile day pass for 9.99. So now I am blogging about how terrible LA airport is. At least the terminal I am in. It is pretty run down.
It is weird being able to communicate with everyone around. I am used to being in public places expecting that I cannot communicate with people. So strange.....it is good to be home....I think. Actually I really miss my fiancee. That is the main reason I miss the USA. It has been far too long. We will be married soon. Just 24 days and I will be married! I am so excited but it is hard to think of it now since it has been so long since I have seen her. If you have not RSVPed get busy. :)

Farwell Korea

2008-07-18T12:07:00.002-05:00

So it has been months and months since I last posted and my reason for that? My blog has rated about zero on my priorities. It is currently 2:00 AM and I just finished scrubbing my bathroom. I can't sleep. I think it is because I am so excited to leave Korea and see my fiancee. I miss her a lot! I am excited to go home and start my new life. I have really enjoyed my time in Korea and I am really glad I came. I am going to miss a lot of things.
I am getting married in 29 days. I am so excited to get married. It is kind of scary to think that I am making a decision that will affect the rest of my life, but at the same time I cannot wait.
So goodbye Korea, I will miss you but I am ready to head back to the USA.

The Jew

2008-05-10T06:10:00.002-05:00

Today was a fine Saturday filled with sleeping in, talking to my fiancee, working out, eating a wonderful dinner, and running into one of my students. I saw my student and we started to talk. She was very excited because she was going to see her boyfriend the next day. She told me that she was going to the jew. I could not get what she meant. I asked her several times to repeat where she was going until she said I am going to see the animals. I said ohhhhh the zoo. Wow, I felt bad. Maybe we will have to spend some time on the letter z in class.
This week some American students from Mississippi State University came to Catholic University of Daegu. It is very strange because everyone seems to be going bonkers for these people. They are like superstars. All my female students are lusting after the guys and all my male students are lusting over the girls. It is crazy. My female students were actually jumping up and down at one point because the MSU students were walking toward them.
In other Korean craziness. Korea is currently mad cow crazy. I read the newspaper yesterday and there were like 5 or 6 articles about mad cow disease. This is in one newspaper. That seems really strange. I did not read the paper today but I would hope that there wasn't that many stories in it. The reason everyone is crazy about mad cow is that Korea just recently started importing beef from the USA. That is it. Now everyone is worried about mad cow.
Finally some really good news. Yes, better than going to the jew. My lovely fiancee is coming to visit me in Korea. She will be here in about a week! I am so excited and I cannot wait.

Not too busy

2008-04-21T08:20:00.003-05:00

I have not posted in a while and I am not sure why except that it is not a priority. I guess I have my head in the clouds most of the time thinking about my fiancée. Right now she is in Germany so with the time change it makes it very difficult to talk to her. The wedding planning seems to be going well....I guess I am not sure if I have any comparison, but it seems to be going well. Have a lot of things to be thinking about like where we will live, what job will I have. Things like that so prayers would be nice.

My job is going well. It was a little rocky at the beginning of the semester, but it is better now. The campus looks great! They have a lot of spring flowers on campus and it is beautiful. One of my coworkers will be having a baby so that is exciting too.

The best thing that has happened this month would have to be finding a new church. I found a new church a month ago and it has been fantastic. The church that I was attending I didn't like very much, because of preference mostly. This new church has been a huge blessing. I feel very much at home. I wish that I had found it when I came to Korea last year. I am sure when I leave in July that I will miss them. It feels strange but I will have to mourn the fact that I am leaving Korea. I have made myself a home with many new friends. I would say that my close friends all live in the USA but I will miss these friend too. Life is a lot different for me here in Korea. I don't have as much to worry about. For instance in the US I have lots of little expenses, but here in Korea I have zero bills to pay. ZERO! It is crazy. I use a cell phone but it is a prepay and I hardly ever use it. The only thing I buy is food for the most part. The food is wonderful too :)

Certainly things are often more difficult to do sometimes. Traveling can be a hassle but I use public transportation. It is a blessing most of the time. Sometimes I feel torn in two. At the same time I have "I don't like Korea days". I said earlier that my job was a little rocky at the beginning of the semester. Back then I would have loved to head back to the USA and never come back.

Most of my friends who are at my university seem to be in Korea for the long haul. They are settling in. My friend Jason is getting married to a Korean woman and he is getting a poetry book published her in Korea. Yes it is in Korean. I have a goal to learn another language well. I kinda gave up on Korean because of I am getting married and moving back to the States. I want to learn Chinese.
Ok I am starting ramble on and on. So this must be a good time to stop.

Crazy People

2008-03-20T10:21:00.004-05:00

Koreans are crazy about learning English. I have slowly come to the realization that Koreans spend so much money on English and education in general. There are statistics of up to 40% of Korean families' salary goes to education. If you think that is excessive it is. What ends up happening is that you have people who speak really good English working at Dunkin Donuts. Good for me bad for them. I have had several instances where mentally handicap people have come up to me and started speaking English. On Monday a man walked up to me and I could tell he had some kind of mental disability and he started asking me questions. He asked me, "Where are you going?"
I said, "I am going to exercise."
He replied, "Oh you are fat."
I responded with, "That is why I am going to exercise."
The exchange went a little longer than that but I walked away thinking, "Why do even mentally handicapped people in Korea know English?"

I feel like I am going crazy myself. I am trying to help my fiancee plan our wedding and it is difficult being so far away. I wish I were able to take a more active role. I do help with decision making and some communication, but she is doing all of the footwork. Thankfully her mother lives near and is helping her.
Julia really is an amazing woman. I am so blessed! I can't seem to talk with her and about her enough. We talk via Skype, so we get to see each other by webcam.
Later

Yes I am engaged.

2008-03-16T04:55:00.003-05:00

I have not blogged in such a long time and I feel kind of stupid for not writing this before. As of Feb. 22 I am engaged. I think most of the people who read this blog know that, but I felt like need to publish it on my blog. It is on facebook so how much more official does it have to be? So here is a picture of me and Julia the day after we got engaged. We took some pictures after we got engaged but we were both very tired and our pictures show it. If you want to know how it went I will give you the short version. I asked her to marry me and then she said yes! We have decided to get married August 16 so mark your calendars. We will be posting more information on this site. http://forrestandjulia.googlepages.com
We are not 100% sure where it will be but it will be in the Cedar Falls area. I am the luckiest guy in Korea. I am also sad that I am in Korea, because I miss my fiancée. I will be ok once I get back July 22. So there is the update. A very big update if you didn't know it.

Going back to Korea

2008-02-21T11:33:00.003-06:00

Well the vacation is nearly up. I am heading back to the Republic on Tuesday afternoon. Truthfully I am very excited to get back to work. It is really great having such long vacation but to tell you the truth I should have been more structure so that I could have actually gotten something done besides having fun and growing a beard. Those are both worthy endeavors but I think I could have done a little more. The best part of being back would have to be spending time with my girlfriend Julia. She really is an amazing woman. I will miss her so much. I am torn. I feel genuinely excited to go back to work because I like my job, but I want to be on the same continent as her too. What is a guy to do?
I will try to get a pic up of me in a beard for all to see. Vacations are a great time to cultivate one's facial hair....except for the ladies. Also it should be known that I have shaved a woman's face before......that is kind of awkward to write. Should I erase it? Well I guess that is a great way to end my blog.

In the states

2008-01-28T14:57:00.000-06:00

I am back in the states and I have taken a nice vacation from blogging. I think it is time to blog again. It is really good to be back. It is like I did not even leave the states in some weird way. The best part of being back is not the abundance of beef or the bounty of English, it is seeing my girlfriend Julia! She is great and if I wrote all the reasons why it would take me too long. Why would it take too long? Well my battery on my laptop will run out soon that is why. ;)

I arrived in Minneapolis January 18. It was great because Julia picked me up and then we went to IHOP for lunch. Actually IHOP wasn't as good as I thought it would be. After that we spent time with some of my friends in Minneapolis Sam, Amanda, John, and Stephanie. On Saturday we went to Mankado to visit some of my South Korean students. That is right my students from Korea in Mankado. They are now exchange students. Here is a photo. I miss my teaching already. I really enjoy my job. It is so interesting and I learn as much or more than the students I am teaching.

That brings me to the end of my battery and thus my blog. So in conclusion vote Ron Paul for President in 2008!

Historical Nativity

2007-12-25T17:28:00.000-06:00

Go over to www.str.org and check out their recent podcast. In this episode of Stand to Reason Greg Koukl interviews Dr. Paul L. Maier about the historical nativity. It is very interesting! Check it out.

Koreans say the darndest things

2007-12-21T20:41:00.000-06:00

I have a group of friends that I hang out with on Sundays. One of those friends is Mi Young. Mi Young works at a university near mine and her English is quite good. One thing she tends to do is speak Korean while she is speaking English. So she starts out in English and ends up in Korean. Sometimes this is ok, because the context helps me guess what she is saying. Other times I just nod my head. Last night I ran into my friend Mi Young in downtown Hayang, it is not a big town so it is not unusual to run into people I know. We decided to go to our favorite coffee shop and talk. We were talking about gold tooth fillings. I have noticed that a lot of my students have gold fillings, and I told her I noticed this. She promptly told me that only old people have gold fillings. To which I replied that one of the coffee house workers has gold fillings and she is 22. Then she looked me in the eye and said, "Exactly!"
Her reasoning was in no way sound, but I was amazed at the argument. I just smiled and nodded. It was great. So now you may be asking yourself why am I writing about this? Well I thought it was funny but now I want to try this type of arguing.
1. Make a statement
2. Someone gives a counter argument against statement
3. Say "exactly" as if counter argument works for your statement
In Mi Young's defense she probably misunderstood what I was saying but that doesn't make it any less amusing. When learning or speaking a second language you are bound to make mistakes in fact people misunderstand people who speak the same mother tongue.
My language learning is slow going. I learn Korean words here and there but I can't say I am learning a lot. I know how to order food, and let's be honest it is the most important. Korea is very English friendly compared to other nations. If I were to say here for a couple more years I would take some language courses. I might consider staying but right now I am leaning towards heading back to the USA in July-ish.
Right now I have started a winter English camp. It is a lot more intense than my regular teaching. Some of the expectations are a little crazy. We are supposed to teach content type classes like how to give a speech in English. The problem is most of the students are low level and so we should be teaching them reading, writing, listening, and speaking. I am blessed because I get to spend more time with the most advanced students who are very conversation worthy. Two nights ago we went out for some food and had a wonderful time. Plus Korean food is great! It is also generally more healthy than American food.

Back from CHINA

2007-12-15T08:03:00.000-06:00

I got back from China last night. I was there for 6 days. I have been there before but I think Korea had erased my memory. For some reason I thought it was going to be like Korea but with Chinese people. Well folks China is China with Chinese people. I flew into Beijing and took a two hour drive to Tianjin. On the ride I slept a little bit, and I also observed the the countryside. I was amazed. It was like I forgot everything. China is fast becoming a powerful nation but it is still a third world country in most respects.
Even though I was shocked I had a wonderful time with great friends. I had tea with my Chinese teacher from three and half years ago. That was wonderful catching up. I ate lots of tasty food and I played lots of games with Joshua. Joshua is the eight year old son of my friend Jim. My last night in Tianjin we played computer games and lots of Attack Uno. We probably played over eight games and I won once. I was powerless to beat him. I was humiliated. Having an eight year old school you is humbling. It was a lot of fun too. He is an adopted Chinese boy. It is interesting to watch him interact with Chinese people. We had a great time.
I also made it to a market and bought some gifts. I went with my friend Jennette. She is a retired housewife and she can bargain like nobody's business. I would sit there in awe of her skills as she artfully dropped the price down by a 1/3 of the original price. She was out for monetary blood. It was great. It is a wonderful gift to be able to travel so much. To see the rest of the world puts a lot of things in perspective. I take a lot of things for granted that most of the world fights hard to get or tries to get. There are a lot of other interesting things I did, and if you are curious about them drop a message. Tomorrow I hope to add a few pictures.

Great Music

2007-12-15T07:54:00.000-06:00

I stumbled upon a wonderful website that musicians may like. It is an online hymn book. You should check it out. "Reformed University Fellowship" RUF sponsors the website . Their goal is this, "Our hope is to help the church recover the tradition of putting old hymns to new music for each generation, and to enrich our worship with a huge view of God and His indelible grace."
I have been listening to their music for over four years. It is rich and beautiful. They are coming out with a new CD soon and it will be great! You can sample the CD on their website.

A moment of Silence

2007-12-04T08:24:00.000-06:00

I am losing weight and feeling great! I lost another kilogram in Korea! They don't measure things in pounds here. So I could weight the same as when I left in the USA, but I am certain I have lost multiple kilograms here in Hayang . I am really excited, because I have been working out now for three months. Last month is when I really started to see a difference and it only makes me more excited to continue exercising. What has been a huge blessing is having a split shift. I work in the morning for one class and then at night I work. During the day I work out and then I read and study the Bible. I could not ask for a better time. Well I could ask but I don't know if I would get it. What would be great is if all my friends and family would move here! Doesn't that sound great? Well I am really missing a lot of people back home. I only have about a month and a week before I head back home, but I think it will be a long month.
Okay I take that back. This month I will be in China for one week and then I will be teaching an intensive winter English camp. I am sure it will go fast, and be lots of fun. I am going to China to visit some friends and eat some great Chinese food.
Later
FD

My students!

2007-12-02T05:31:00.000-06:00

I love my job! I am really thankful for the last three months because I have had a great time working in Korea. So I thought I would share a little of their creative genius or 천 재 in Korean. This video is one of the final projects I assigned one of my classes.

Also I am including a picture. That is right a picture of me and one of my students. This is the first picture anyone has seen of me in Korea. I hope you like it. In the picture I am with my student Ji Hong. Ji Hong presented in front of 100 people for one of her finals. I was the MC of the night so that is why I am dressed up.

The pose we are doing is an ancient Korean pose.....or not. It is a pose Koreans do when they know they are good looking, or something like that.

Mirror Mirror

2007-11-27T08:33:00.000-06:00

I am currently sitting in my room being self reflective. It stinks when you don't like the reflection so much. The Lord couldn't come any faster. Which is interesting considering I was thinking about how I like to retreat because I have been confronted with my sin. Is my desire for Jesus' second coming or is it a form of escapism? I hope my desire is genuine. At the same time I am comforted. I have been studying Romans 5 this week and it has been good. Here is a snippet.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

It is interesting looking at this word shame, I heard a great example (Thank you Mike). When you put your hope in something false, and it becomes apparent that it is false, that is when you feel shame. Similar to a kid that wants to order a sweet toy in a magazine or off the back of a cereal box. The kid saves money, or proofs of purchase, to get this toy. All along the kid is dreaming of how much fun it will be to play with this toy. Except when the toy comes the cruel realities of a cheap plastic toy come crashing out of the mailbox. The toy of course is no good. We then feel ashamed because we missed placed our hope. Christians can rejoice though, we have not put our hope in some magazine, cereal box, made in China, while supplies last God. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that God is true! So I will endure hoping for character, which produces hope, a hope that I can stand ON because of the grace I stand IN.
Right now my feelings scream "Scum", but regardless of what my feelings say, my standing is in Christ. I am a justified scum.

Kimchi woes!

2007-11-25T05:56:00.000-06:00

Today I ate too much kimchi. I am now in pain as my stomach pays the price of it insatiable love for kimchi. Right now I am in agony but tomorrow I will forgive kimchi and we will be great friends again. Korean food is soooooooooooooooooo good. I love it so much. It has a lot of personality. Keeps your mouth guessing. Koreans do tend to love squid and other fun sea creatures. I try to stay away from that. I was born in Iowa and I prefer animals from the sea of the prairie.

Korea is still great! I have been here for 3 months now. My coworkers told me that the three month mark is generally difficult for people. I think I already faced my difficult time, or maybe I know I am going home in less than two months.

Shotgun Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T02:49:00.000-06:00

No Turkey for me this thanksgiving. Instead I spent the holiday with two other Americans, two Canadians, and an Aussie. Of course the only ones celebrating Thanksgiving today are the Americans. We went to a restaurant called VIP's. It is a family style restaurant with lots of western food. When I first started looking at the food I entered some food lusting like trance. I was soon shocked by the fact that the food was not good at all. Oh well I at too much anyways. If it was actually as tasty as it looked I would have eaten a lot more. Thanks to Julia we all no what happens then.
I do wish I was at home today because of how the Muller side of my family celebrates Thanksgiving. We of course eat all the normal food but afterwards we go outside and shoot 12 gauge shotguns! Yes there is nothing quite like it. binge eating topped off with high caliber dessert. Sounds loud and tasty to me.

Krazy Korea

2007-11-11T06:58:00.000-06:00

My title in no way reflects the way I really feel about Korea. I just thought the alliteration sounds fun! I have been in Korea now for over two and a half months. It is strange because this week I will be buying a ticket back to the states. The ticket I have booked is for the 16th of January until the 28th of Feb. Yep thats right a month and a half of vacation! That is one of many. I had a week in October and I will have a week off in December and then a month and a half in January-February. My second half of the year will be a little more difficult. I will only have a month and three weeks of vacation. That is like a whole week less than I had for the first half of the year. YES! I love my job. Aside from the sweet vacations I really do like my job. My students continue to be great. Class is fun and I like my coworkers.

Korea still continues to be great. I can into new situations often and it is a lot of fun! I am meeting new friends and I finally decided on a church to attend regularly. I still miss my family and friends and I really look forward to seeing them but at the same time I am very content.

Back by popular demand!

2007-11-06T06:05:00.000-06:00

I am sorry I have not blogged for so long. I have been lazy in my blogging. I have done a lot of interesting thing in the last few weeks. I went to a city called Busan a couple of weeks ago. There was an amazing fireworks display, and I enjoyed it with over a million Koreans on the beach. I went to visit a friend whom I went with to elementary school. It was a great trip because I met several other people from Iowa too. We had a great bond and lots of fun.

This past weekend I went to visit my former roommate TJ. There was some difficulty, but overall it was great. I wish that he would have taken a job near Daegu but it is not too difficult to go and visit him. I have also realized that I don't like Seoul. There are soooooooooo many people. It is an interesting place but I would never want to live there.

I have still been searching for a church. I have visited four different churches and I think I will end up in the first church that I visited. In Korea there really is not too many choices. It is a "beggars cannot be choosers" type of issue. I have also started a Bible study with one of my coworkers and his wife. That has been challenging and a lot of fun.

I have been learning a lot here in Korea. I have learned that I enjoy teaching English. I really love my job, and I think I am a good teacher. I have a lot more to learn and my job really isn't too difficult. Many of my students will be leaving at the end of the semester. I know I am going to miss them. I am also learning how to cope when moving to a foreign place. I have become more introverted in some ways. I don't mind being along like I did before. It has given me a lot of time to be more thoughtful. I am studying the Bible a lot here and it has been great. It has me thinking more about getting some seminary education. Since I enjoy teaching and I love God, maybe I should put those together. This would be a part time thing while I work. I have no desire to goto school full time again.
Any way there is some current thoughts and I hope to get some pics up soon.

Ghost riding!

2007-10-29T08:23:00.000-05:00

I am sorry it has been so long since I updated my blog. I would like to say I have been busy but I have not. In fact to prove how much time I have I will present a video that I found on youtube.com.

Next time you have free time type in ghost riding, and you can spend tens of minutes watching people do stupid stuff.

FD

Free stuff

2007-09-30T08:19:00.000-05:00

I have been in Hayang Korea for over a month now and I thought I would write you and give you my highlights. First I will talk about the free stuff. The great thing about being a foreigner in a small Korean town is that businesses will randomly give you things. For instance I went to a chicken restaurant last night and they gave me a free 1.5L coke! I have gone to one coffee shop three or four times and almost every time the woman who owns the shop gives me some free food or an extra drink. I go there for Korean lessons. Last time I went she said that I was very handsome. That doesn't feel so bad :)
I am making new friends, Korean and western, and I enjoy it. Of course I miss my friends back home but I really can't do anything about that. If anyone wants to visit me I would have no arguments :)
Hayang is a small town for Korea but small town Korea is very different than small town Iowa. The population is over 26000. It takes me 7 minutes to get off campus where there is a road with many different restaurants and other entertainment establishments. Honestly it is not very clean in Hayang, and it smells most of the time.
The food is great and for the most part not very expensive. If I eat cheap I can usually eat for $3.00. Nothing like China where I could eat for a quarter and have left overs.
We just had a big holiday called Chusoek. It is Korean thanksgiving day. So I had three days off! I went to Seoul to visit friends and meet a new baby named Josiah. It was great time full of fellowship and fun.
Teaching is going well. I really love my students and I really like my job....so far. If you have any specific questions please leave a comment. I will try to take more pictures also.

Learn English and exercise

2007-09-14T19:28:00.000-05:00

I have been in Korea for nearly a month and things are going really great. I am meeting lots of new people, making new friends, and loving my job. The only problem is that I miss family and friends, and I have no fellowship here yet. I will in a week because I am going to visit some of my friends in Seoul next Saturday. So for this blog post I added some pics of my classroom.
It is a Classroom office combination.

I know my classroom looks boring, but if you were in it you would know that it is a fun place.

Since this post has pics about teaching I thought i might show you one way the Japanese teach English and stay fit.