Flying to America via Japan

So Sunday, May 31st 2009 I woke up to find our apartment cleaned up and ready for us to leave. Matthew had stayed up all night to finishing cleaning and packing for me because I was still recovering from my appendix surgery. I have the greatest husband.



Joony, one of Matthew's students came to say goodbye to us at the school and Ruth and Cleo with Pastor Kim took us to the airport. Ruth and Cleo came because Pastor Ryu and his wife were also flying to America, but they were doing recruiting. So Cleo and Ruth went to see them and us off.

Yes, I am wearing a dress on the airplane. A dress and sneakers because I couldn't bear the thought of wearing jeans the whole airplane ride back, since my surgery still made my stomach sore.

Pastor Kim, me, Ruth, and Cleo. We're so awesome.

Pastor Kim, me, Matthew, and Ruth.

We had a snack as we waited for Pastor Ryu to come and then we all said our goodbyes and headed to the plane. Our goodbyes were almost over, but since Pastor Ryu and his wife were flying on the same plane to Japan we had one more goodbye left.

This is our last picture in Korea.




This is Korea from the airplane, our last glimpses of the place we called home for about 10 months.

Traveling, especially by plane is very weird. It's almost like time travel or something because you get inside and then after a period of time you can be somewhere completely different.

The flight to Japan was short and then we said our last goodbye.

We were ready for some hellos!

Looking at shops and watching tons of people go by with face masks.

We had a 8-9 hour layover in Japan. So we tried to find some places to sleep, especially since Matthew hadn't had any sleep. We got some French fries from McDonald's because we were starving. Somehow our vegetarian meals had not been ordered. Then walked down until we found some empty chairs.

Storing our bags underneath I laid on the chairs and Matthew lay on the ground to keep the bags against/with us at all times.

Matthew woke up before I did. We wrapped the jackets around our heads to keep out the light and then Matthew gave me his jacket because I was so cold.

Peaking out of my cave.

This is money we got in change. We could use the US Dollar but we got change in the local currency.

It so happens that we went to sleep by Starbucks and were really excited because they had one veggie sandwich! So for our mid-day snack we had half a veggie sandwich each....

And white chocolate mocha....mmm. My favorite.

Then Matthew tried to throw paint on me and got the whole place messy!

So we decided to get more French fries because we were still hungry and weren't sure about the meals on the long flight.

This was a banner by the McDonalds, it showed other cuisine we could dine on. We chose McDonalds.

This was the awesome waiting area. There were regular seats in the other areas but this was where we decided to wait because it was more comfortable and I could lay down. This is also where they had "art" splattered on the walls. It was colorful and pleasant to be around.

After eating, waiting, sleeping, eating, waiting and more waiting we finally got on our flight to America.

We were going home.

Final Goodbyes in Korea

This post is a bunch of final goodbyes and pictures of people that are so dear to us.



This is at my favorite restaurant. A bibimbab restaurant and we met Judy and Karen there to eat for a lunch. Matthew and I both taught Judy (tan shirt) and I just taught Karen.




We were near to the hospital and so Judy and Karen said they would help me to bring cookies to the nurses who took care of me when I had my operation.

It turned out that it was a good thing they helped me because the nurses had rotated to a different floor. And this way they were able to translate my thanks and give them the cookies I'd made.




At first when the nurses saw me they thought I was sick again! But once everything was explained they agreed to a picture.





This is the hospital at Juan station. Sixth floor on the tall side. The emergency room is the low building to the right with red on part of the sign.





After leaving the hospital we all headed to get dessert. Judy wanted to take us to a fruit drink place but we couldn't find it. So we went to a gelato/waffle place. The waffles were so good...best I've ever had. The restaurant had salt and pepper shakers that were filled with chocolate and mocha powder. We had a P shakers and I told them that P was for pepper and the other one would have S for salt. (In Korea they don't have salt and pepper shakers). So Karen went and checked out the shakers and so there was a S and P.




This is Karen, she is about a year younger than me and she really connected to me in class. She is a sweetheart and even came to my last vespers program so she could see us one more time.

They gave us Korean magnets and a doll for me that was dressed in a Korean traditional hanbok. They did that because they knew I had wanted a hanbok but hadn't bought one.

Judy helps out every week to make cookies and do other activities with refugee children from North Korea. She was a very sweet and giving lady.

Another day for lunch Eunice (middle) took Kelly Ann, Matthew and I to lunch at Pizza Hut.

Eunice was in my second religion class and it was that class that really made me search out and plan for my religion class in a new way. They were all so eager to learn.

This is after we ate. Eunice was close to both Kelly Ann and myself and together we watched Eunice grow in her relationship with God. I ask you to pray for her because I don't know how she's been doing and miss emailing with her. I ask that you would pray for her to seek God more and more.

This was one of my classes and they wanted to treat us to lunch that last week as well so they took us to VIPS. It had a great buffet selection and they were really nice to take us out. As you can see there was only one guy but they all studied hard and I'm sure they will continue to do well.

This is the 5th All Day club taking us out to Ashley's (one last time!) for lunch.
Back row: Patrick, Sunny, Emily, Estelle. Front row: Veronica, Kelly Ann, and Claire.

Awesome Pastor Kim, our driver and Pastor.

More van pictures!

At Ashley's. This was the blue room. By the time we'd left we'd eaten in every room there. We ate there a lot. Now being in America, I might miss it every once and a while. =) Matthew knew this group better than I did because he had the chance to work with them more because of scheduling.

This was supposed to be our crazy pose shot...but it's not so crazy. =)

These pictures were from Saturday after church.

Carl and Tom.

A church member, Lynn, and in the front are Sarah and Thomas.

Claire, Patrick, Emily, Henny, Estelle, and Sunny. 5th all day club.

Junior teachers: Joanne, Amy, and Eileen.

Junior teacher Coco, and the choir leader for our Christmas music program.

Junior teacher Kelly.

4th All Day Club members Abe and Brian!

Eunice and her children John and Cherry.

Audrey, a former all day club member. I never taught her but we all became friends through out time there. She was really sweet to Mama when she came to Korea.

This is Orion, his wife May and their son Thomas. They are both junior teachers, but when we came to Korea Orion was working in China as a undercover missionary.

After church Paul and Mary came over to say goodbye.

They were some of our dearest friends.

After those sad goodbyes we had to go and do our saddest goodbyes...to the other foreign teachers. We had become like family and now were leaving.

Leilani gives Matthew a dirty look for leaving.

This is a terrible picture, but it's what we have for the last time.

Solomon, Leilani, Grazania, Kelly, Cleopatra, Ruth, and the new teacher who had come to teach our classes.

We ate together, had fellowship, shared a prayer and a hope and said goodbye. It's easier to type it now than it was to live it then. They were our home away from home. Mixed emotions were everywhere. It was a crazy time.


Then we went home and packed...

SDA Language Institute: Last Week

Here are some pictures from our last few days and our last classes.





My classroom. I shared it with different teachers but mostly Coco.

Matthew's classroom, that he shared with May.

One of our wonderful Jip-Suneem (I'm sure this is not the correct spelling) who would clean our classrooms.

Tea. It was so cool looking but tasted mostly like Dandelions.

My last class, that I only got to teach for about two weeks.

Staff meetings! Left to right: Jane, Solomon, Kelly Ann, Cleo, Connie, Ruth, me, Pastor Kim (you can only see his tie). Awesome, awesome group of people. We were so blessed.



Here are some pictures of our students. We miss them and pray for them daily, those in the pictures and all those we ever taught or came in contact with. May God work in their hearts daily. It is my dearest prayer that we will all be in heaven together someday.

Matthew's early am class.

This was supposed to be my class, but since I had surgery Matthew taught them the whole time until we left. Another am class.

Afternoon junior class.

More junior students!

Mr. White the teacher

Teacher! Teacher!

Yay for more junior students!

One of my junior classes. The boy to the left of me (blue shirt), and in front (black shirt) and the three girls to the right, I had in a couple classes. They were typical teenager students, quiet but really great. In the term before they had me sit down and eat duk boki with them. Duk boki is a thick rice noodle with spicy sauce. They were funny when they had me sit and eat with them because they didn't know what to say but they wanted me there. It's a great memory.

Steven and Tommy more of my crazy students. =)

Tommy, Steven and the two girls on the right, Annie and Lily I had taught for 6 months before and then was really blessed to have the opportunity to teach them again for 2 weeks before I left.

This little girl would always say hi and wave to Matthew and an occasional hug. She brightened up his day on a daily basis.

Evening junior students.

Elite class. This helped Matthew remember why he wanted to teach. Great group of students.

Two of our wonderful junior teachers, Joanne and Joy.

Matthew's religion class.... This just makes me laugh. I taught all of them in different classes before too, they're great. Yool, Margiela, and Jinny.

Party day food. Dr. You actually had some yummy stuff! And we're pretend it was healthy.

Am adult students

Working hard...or at least pretending to for the picture! (This is my classroom)

Religion class party day. I was overwhelmed by sweet gifts even though I'd only been their teacher for a short time.

Religion class. Back row L:R- Suru, Theresa, Esther, Sophia, Allie, Me. From row L:R- Joy, Matthew, and Mike. God please grow in their hearts.

My last vespers talk, two days before we left.

This is Matthew and Sonia. She said that the teachers at SDA had an influence on her spiritually and made her want to get to know God more. We are humbled and yet amazed.

It is our prayer that the seeds we planted, by the grace of God, will grow in the Holy Spirit and we'll all be together in heaven.

Videos from Everyday Life

If you can't see the videos try reloading your screen.

This is just one random day where Matthew was going to cook me breakfast and we found out that our eggs had become frozen by our frig.



Our last week we were giving things away to people (whether they wanted them or not!) and here we are off to give Ruth and Cleo some stuff. We're just a bit silly.... ^_^




Sorry that this video isn't longer, but this is Jemulpo Shopping where we did most of our shopping. See all the Ramen noodles?



This is Jemulpo Station, which is across the street from Jemulpo Shopping. Imagine that!




This video is a tour of our apartment on our last night, as we cleaned up. It's a little over 5 minutes, but if you want to see how our apartment was, then you can enjoy. If not, that's okay too. =)




Saying goodbye and packing are exhausting.

Misc Everyday Things

Our last days in Korea were getting warmer and it was nice to see different splashes of color amidst cement. These rose bushes were my favorite though.





This is the stairwell at Cleo and Ruth's apartment. The picture doesn't do it justice but it's about 1 inch from Matthew's head to the ceiling. He really had to watch his head when we went there.





One of the many driving sales people. They had speakers that blasted what they were selling. Only problem is if you don't speak Korean. It is a kind of useful though if you knew what it was and they were driving around.




This is Jemulpo Station. It was only a short walk from the school or our apartment to the station. It was really convenient for many reasons. It helped when we'd get lost and just say the name of our station to someone or a taxi driver. We always knew if we could just get here we'd be okay.

Across from Jemulpo Station was Jemulpo Shopping. We did most of our shopping here, E-Mart and two produce stands. This was the dried seafood section. Notice Matthew's face for our feeling on the yummy-ness of this food.

This is our wonderful fruit lady. She's the one who came and brought me the fruit and flowers at the hospital. We went to say goodbye to her and brought her some gifts. We all shed tears and "I love you"s. It is amazing how we barely exchanged any words but somehow we exchanged hearts.

This is just a sample of a very common (and annoying) occurrence. This little "junk mail" ads would be hanging on our door, or magnetized to our door. Usually they were all meat ads but this one had a pie looking thing with fruit.

I took this picture on one of our last days of moving. This is how they move from their apartments and it was interesting to have them moving and realize that soon I'd be moving out from my apartment as well.

One of our last days was a crazy rush to try and get to the bank and settle sending money and closing our accounts and so we got pizza for our lunch to be quick. This was our cheap pizza. It tastes different than ours. I think it's the sauce, but I actually think I enjoyed it by the end of our time in Korea.

It was the quick bake kind of pizza but it was cheap and quick, so it worked for us.

This is our beloved Korean Exchange Bank (KEB). They were really great and always seemed to be on top of things and know how to deal with foreigners and their accounts. It made it a lot easier for dealing with bank things.

I just had to take at least one picture of the heels in Korea. I wish I had a while string of them to show you but I guess this is enough. The girls wear them All The Time. I don't know how they do it. They are high and look painful but they do it.

This is the Incheon City mascot. A bunny? An alien? You pick.

Even on the last days we had to wear our masks to keep us from the yellow dust but in the mornings we still woke up with sore throats and stuffy noses. We were ready for clean air if nothing else!

I know this was a random mix of things but I just wanted to put them up and they were things from our everyday life other than school. I hope you enjoyed it.

(Videos from Everyday Things to be posted later)