becka lippy

downtown Kyoto at a shrine, with beautiful lanterns the deer in Nara loved my mom and followed her this is my favorite dollar store in Korea evidently is also in Japan we stumbled upon an amazing cemetary, it was quite serene and seemingly reverent, that is, until I found this one grave with some not so reverent gifts left for the dead next to a HUGE pagoda My mom taking photos of flowers a beautiful stream along the philosopher's walk in Kyoto Is kissing the dragon sacreligious? tehehe. My beautiful mom with her green tea ice cream My breakfast on the flight- YUM!

My heart broke today. One of my youngest classes is filled with six incredibly sweet girls and boys. They are precious and though their English is really low, they try so hard in class. Recently they like to test their strength against mine by all of them holding the door closed when I come to start class. If all six of them are holding the door closed, I usually can't open it. But one of them, an adorable boy named Hyun-sung sometimes joins my team and pulls the door open with me. Once the doors opens, the kids scream and giggle as they cling to my arms and hug me. This usually takes up the first five minutes of class. It's not really English, but its adorable. Well today, after all this happened and I finally got them settled in their seats, I realized I forgot their tests in the teachers room, so I went out to get the tests. When I returned, Hyun-Sung was sitting with his head on the desk. I thought maybe he was playing so I passed out the tests and then sat next to him and

I checked the weather last night.... temperture: 86F, "feels like" 91F Humidity: 86% How is that even possible? (and all I can do in response is smile)

This week is the birthday week for two of my friends, Jonathan and Brittany. Since I wasn't sure what to get them, I decided to put my supreme domestic skills to work (once again, that's sarcasm folks!) I decided to make some charoset for Jonathan since he loved it at Passover and to take some extra to Brittany's party. Also on the list to make: some cookies for the birthday peeps, some hummus for Brittany's party, and there was a special request for brownies. Here in Korea, most people don't have ovens. Not even in real homes. I am blessed to have a tiny toaster oven in my apartment. A friend had me store his stuff while he was in Canada for a month, and when he came back, he took most of his stuff but never came for his toaster oven. This was six months ago. So I try to take full advantage of the toaster and bake banana breads or cookies whenever I get a chance. The problem is that my toaster is SO small that it can only fit a few cookies at a time. So when it co

This post is dedicated to Sarah for her encouragement to keep writing. Love you friend. I don't know how I ever complained about weather before. The weather here in Seoul is more humid and hot and muggy than I could have imagined. I actually started to laugh out loud today as I was walking home. It just seemed so ridiculous to me, the air being so hot and humid. I laughed. One of the ways I have learned to deal with the air here, besides persistently wiping my face and neck with my handkerchief, is to keep my ipod securely in my ears at all times. For years I have been a fan of a Cuban hip hop group called Orishas. I totally recommend them to anyone and everyone. They are the best of latin music and hiphop married. I have even found a Spanish radio station on itunes that I play while I am at home (sitting under my blessed air conditioner!) Somehow, listening to the music, I can pretend I am in some latin country, where women wear long bright skirts, fruit is exotic and fragrant in

Well, first, I have to say a HUGE congrats to Jungmi and Will who got engaged last week. Will is one of the interns at our church and man oh man when that guy preaches, all of us are so moved by the reality of the Gospel. Jungmi is probably one of the most grounded women I have met here. She is an incredible catch and I am so excited for them. ps- their children will be incredibly tall seeing as both of them TOWER over me. For my birthday Mary took me out to breakfast in one of our favorite neighborhoods. It's called Hannam and I love it because it's the closest thing I have found to the atmosphere I loved at Sunday brunch in the Village. On a tiny strip of street there are situated various restaurants and cafes offering mostly American brunch and Mexican food (hence my love for the area). Mary and I head there most Saturdays. After grabbing lunch, we settled ourselves on a patio of a particular cafe. It's over priced lattes aren't amazing, but we sit there for a solid