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Stuck in the car in traffic... a great opportunity to bust out the camera! for silly boards... and random signs... why not a bulldozer? my pops and my sister busting butt in capoeira!

Why I love my grandma

Why I love California

The back of my dad's car was a perfect little cave to sit in while I watched the sun set over the ocean... And it sure was a beautiful view!

Ingathering

This weekend was blast from the past. Growing up in the Jews for Jesus community meant that I got to go to an annual family camp called Ingathering. Each year for 4 days, a bunch of Jews for Jesus people go out to the gorgeous Santa Cruz mountains and have a time of worship, fellowship, and in good ol' Jewish style, noshing (that means eating). I haven't been since high school so when my dad invited me to join him for the camp this weekend, I jumped at the opportunity. It was definitly a trip. I got to reconnect with some people I hadn't seen in over 10 years, and I got to meet new people who richly blessed me with sharing part of their life stories. I've begun to see how the Lord has changed me over the past year. Coming out of that depression, spending half a year in my own solitude, it left me much more comfortable with spending time alone. I find myself more willing to listen to people, less needing to react to comments that I don't agree with. Don't get me

Some goodbye photos from Korea

My amazing friend Betsy. We went out with James, Jonathan, and Chris for some beer as a celebration of my finishing my job and Jonathan starting his. My last night in Korea, out with a bunch of friends. Here we have Jeff and Joanna- two of my favorites! My "husband" Chris with a pretty mirror I gave him. This photo makes me giggle... At my goodbye party, everyone playing a game... but not me... :)

Top Ten reverse culture shocks

I've been in the states for almost 24 hours now. I've cried on and off for the past 48 hours. I feel like this huge welt of sadness is sitting under a very thin verneer of "ok"ness. So whenever people ask me "How are you doing" or "How was Korea?" they scratch a hole and I can feel tears well up in my eyes. Anyways, the last 24 hours have been a shock to the system, so thought I would share with you some of the fun reverse culture shock I've been experiencing. In the last 24 hours, these have been my biggest shocks: 10. How open and spacious the skyline is. 9. How empty the streets are 8. On one block I passed a young black woman, a latino couple, and an old asian man. 7. People keep making eye contact with me 6. I’ve had to stop myself from saying “annyeonghikaseyo” and “kamsahamnida” 5. Everyone around me is speaking English or Spanish 4. I can buy all the most awesome food all the time!!! 3. I don’t know how to pack a purse for the day. What

Leaving Korea (a long debrief)

Yesterday marked another big transition in my life. I moved away from Korea. Those of you faithful readers can attest to my consistent mixed feelings toward the country. Those confusing feelings were only heightened as I left. When I first arrived in Korea, I was grateful to be in a country full of strangers. I relished my time away from any semblance of reality. I just wanted to be alone and Korea was the perfect place for that. And God used that place to heal me from some major pains and to draw me close to Him. By January, I was feeling a little more ready to face the world. And it was at that time that God led me to Covenant Church. My first Sunday there was like a breath of sweet fresh air. I knew that I had found my “home” in Korea. Sure enough, things moved quickly from there. I found myself delving deep into relationships with people there. And even thought I had spent the last 6 months avoiding all relationships, I loved it. The church was growing. When I first came, there wer

Hellos and Goodbyes

I realize I haven't written on here for over a month. As I have mentioned in the past, during times of transition in life, or any intense life action, I can't bring myself to blog. These times are usually too intense to write a post that resembles any reality of my life. I am leaving Korea in 18 days. I knew this time would come. I spent most of the year though, thinking that I would be rejoicing, anticipating, and relishing this upcoming departure. But as my time in Korea is coming to an end, I instead find myself sad. For those of you who knew me when I left Chile, this is nothing like that. My sadness over leaving Chile was more of a heart wretching sadness. It felt much like a break up. This isn't near that. I still don't love living here. I still feel like a fish out of water in Korean culture. But it is my home. It has been my home for over a year. And it has been a place of healing for me. Coming here alone, and leaving here alone, I can look back and see the Lor

Teachers Beware

The title of this post doesn't refer to the dangers of teaching children. No, I am refering to the dangers when teaching the Bible. James 3 says, "Let not many of you become teachers, my brothers, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment". Basically, live up to what you preach. Thank God we preach grace and mercy, not our own perfection. Still, I am reminded of this warning as I face a night of disappointment. Yep. Today was just one of those days where the reality of singleness hit harder than usual. I was struggling through this, praying that God would meet me in this moment. That's when I got home and read an email from a guy asking if I would be interested in setting up his friend with mine. My heart sunk. His friend was one of those guys that you meet and are just so blown away by their love for the Lord. And you hope somewhere in your heart that you get a guy like that someday. It's not that I was so madly in love with this guy, but it was just

let's go!

So a quick piece of good news... (btw- sorry for the ridiculously long posts recently. It's like binging and purging. I don't write for a week and then I get it all out in a long post!) My boss decided to give us an extra day off for the upcoming Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). So that gives us a total 6 days off (including the weekend) so I'm gonna head on down to Thailand for a little vacation! Yep. Random you think? Well, out of every country in Asia, Thailand is one of the only ones I really want to see. I didn't have a huge desire to see Japan or China, but LOVED spending that time with my parents. So now, given the chance to do anything for those 6 days, Im heading down to southeast Asia. My brother is in Singapore and I'm hoping he can join me in Thailand for a few days (I think it's gonna happen!). Somehow this turned into the summer with random trips around Asia with various family members. Now I just need a trip with my sister. So.. stay tuned... Sept 1

A quick hello...

Hi friends, Thanks for coming back again and again even when I take a week to post anything. The previous post was quite dramatic and I have good news, things have calmed down a bit since then. No more emotional breakdown at work (at least I'm not the one having them!) I've made it to Friday night and I actually found myself breathing a prayer of relief as I walked into my apartment after a long day at work. Thank you Lord for sustaining me this week. I spend most of my time thinking that I am the one who sustains me. I think that I have so much energy and I can spend it on certain things. But this week was a testimony of the foolishness of such thoughts. I couldn't have gone through this week were not I sustained every moment by God's grace. This week was a fairly normal week at work- a hectic frenzy of joy and frustration all mixed in with whining and laughing. But in addition to my normal teaching schedule, I have been blessed beyond measure to teach a 6 week course

Tears and fears at work

(warning this is a long one, but there is some good news at the end.) I have mentioned in the past that my kids tend to cry. Korean boys seem especially vulnerable to this tendency. But today it was my turn. Yes, for the first time in my 11 months working at my school, I burst into tears today. It was a combination of many things. First, it is just one of those "a little more sensitive than normal" days. Also, it's the fourth and final week of intensives. This means I work a solid 9 hours a day tuesday to thursday, and mondays and fridays are a nice long 11.5 hour day. It's just a little too much. Also, last night I had a nightmare involving some of my students. In my dream, they were out of control and my boss was getting mad at me for not being able to control them. So all that led into today. I was toward the end of my 9 hour Wednesday and it was time to teach the class that had been starring in my dream last night. I was a little tense about it since really this c

Becka's Pancakes

I made some yummy pancakes this morning and I thought I would share them with you. Well, not really share, but at least show off the yumminess. Want the recipe? Too bad. It doesn't exist! Naw, I don't really like to follow recipes and it's hard to really follow recipes here since there are no measuring cups or anything (it's really because I am too impatient to measure stuff!) So I can tell you what I added up, and maybe if youre feeling adventurous, you can throw the stuff together and make your own version of my pancakes. What to use: some flour (but not much, maybe half a cup) some oatmeal (another half a cup or so) some museli (don't even try to ask where I found this stuff here, or how much it cost) a little brown sugar (depending on how sweet you want it) a dash of baking powder and baking soda a tiny bit of vanilla extract (thanks Ashlee for sending that over!!!) and finally, add how ever much milk you need to make the pancake mix the right consistency) Put

doubts and fears

I felt a tinge of doubt today. I went out to explore a part of Seoul that I haven't been to yet. It's the neighborhood near Ehwa Women's University and from everything I've heard about it, I knew I would like it. So I set out for the hour long trip out there around 4pm, hoping to escape the worst of the afternoon heat. It was still pretty hot outside when I arrived but it was such a pleasent day with so many people out and about that I nearly forgot about the oppressive heat. As I walked around the neighborhood, I was filled with a soft sadness that I will be leaving this place in 10 weeks. The truth is that I have found parts of Korea that I love and I will mourn losing them when I leave. That made me think (and don't get upset grandma!) that maybe I would be happier staying in Korea. Won't I miss those parts of Korea when I am in Chile? Won't I miss the coffee culture? The way they have lot's of cheap places to get cutesy stuff? Won't I miss the fo

CONGRATS TO MY FAV!

There are some people in life that you just know are special. People who have made such a difference in your life that you couldn't imagine how you would have survived various seasons of life without this person. Michelle was that person for me throughout seminary. Our two years in seminary together taught us the necessity of preaching the Gospel to each other each day, literally. We met on the porch of Machen Building at Westminster Seminary and a beautiful friendship bloomed into what now can only be described as a sisterhood. We have laughed together, cried together, and lived together. We kick each other's butts when we are being stupid and we love to cuddle on the couch and watch movies together. So I'd like to take a chance to say CONGRATS to this wonderful woman on her recent engagement. As the two of us have walked along a long path of broken hearts and crushes dreams in the world of romance, I rejoice now with my friend. Her fiance, Ernest is an awesome guy (I'

Student Sweetness

There are many approaches to teaching. I was raised with the attitude that learning was fun and over the years as I have developed my teaching style, I've tried to keep that attitude at the forefront. I know I'm not supposed to have favorites as a teacher, but I do. I have many favorite students, there are honestly some great kids in some of my classes. But one of my classes in particular is full of wonderful students. The class is called C3 and it's a group of girls, all around 6th grade. They are just great girls. In that class, there are a few girls that stand out, and there is one girl who I have to admit, were I to choose a favorite, she would be it. Her name is Jennifer Lee. She is just an awesome kid. She works hard, is self motivated, never puts others down but encourages the other girls to do well. She's wonderful. So today in class I mentioned that most teachers are only here for one year. She raised her hand and asked if I was going to stay for only one year.
Earlier this week it was Chris' birthday. He turned the big 30 and Jonathan and I decided to throw a little surprise party together. It took a ton more energy and time to do it than I expected, but in the end, I loved making my dear friend's brithday a memorable one. Betsy and I cooked and cooked and then experimented with some more cooking (which FAILED horribly!) Some of our cooking tools We let Chris decorate his own cake... and eat some of the frosting... and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be an awesome mom for 8 year old boys. And now some photos from the rest of the party...

a "heart" update in Korea

I guess it's time for a little "heart" update. The truth is, there isn't much to tell. I feel my desire to get married getting stronger and yet more controlled as I get older. I know, I'm not that old yet. I'm 27. But as my mom so graciously pointed out to me recently, that was the age she was when she got married. Thanks mom. It's interesting being a single woman here in Korea. It seems like most younger girls have boyfriends, and the older girls are desperate for one. Unlike the states where there is a valid "singles" culture, there is none here. It is really awkward if you don't have a significant other. People will often ask you why. People will speculate about what's wrong with you. And then they will offer to set you up on a blind date. Going on blind dates, so-ghe-ting as they call it, is one of the most popular ways to meet potential boyfriends. There is a cultural expectation here that women get married by the time they are 30 (

Getting personal with Luther

Sorry for the lack of posting. I am in the heart of intensives which is like the being in a deep dark pit of screaming children and crazy curriculums. Mondays and Fridays I end up at work for about 12 hours and Tuesday to Thursdays round out to a "normal" 8 or 9 hours each. Basically, Im pretty exhausted most of the time. But in the madness of the time, I get to realize some things about myself. One of the best realizations has been in the relm of theological nerdiness. I don't want to go into details, but I have come to the conclusion that I might have some personal issues with Luther. Yes, the issues may have begun in dry academic theology, but I being too much of a girl have to go and take it personally. The feelings are similar to those I might feel toward a girl in my social group who slighted me. Only, this is a guy from hundreds of years ago, and the slighting was all theology. Luther went to great places theological places, and he led the way in some wonderful the

Some China Photos

Japan in photos

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!