Monthly Archives: August 2012

10,000 Reasons

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Encouragement is a beautiful thing. I mean think about it, no one ever hates to hear “You have great style”, “You are always so happy and I love it”, or “Thank you for being a good friend.”

When it goes above the simple compliments (though— don’t get me wrong, I still love those), and into a statement that shows the person has taken time to actually think about what they are going to say before they say it… it can change your world.

Words have power— use them wisely. Use them well. And THANK YOU to everyone who has been giving me so much encouragement this week. I am so blessed for the sole reason that I never lack love, it’s incredible.

The song that I have been playing on repeat this week:

 

I never thought I would teach Kindergarten.

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Ever.

But… Here I am. My third year teaching (fourth if you count teaching English in Korean public schools, but I don’t–exactly— count that), and I find myself leading a group of kinders and first graders.

The start of the week was TOUGH. But the more I prayed, and the more prayer I received… well it’s the end of day four, and I still have energy! The past three days even thinking about composing a blog post was… impossible.

You can’t leave kindergarteners alone… did you know that?! Like… ever.

I have one girl who never wants school to end. “Awwww, I wish we could stay longer!” Just about the cutest freaking thing EVER.

Yesterday we had elementary chapel for the first time (well, duh— this is week one), and the vice principal was teaching the three omnis. He was on the word omnipresent when he asked all of the students, “Where is God?”

Without any hesitation one of my first grade girl’s points to her chest and calls out, “In our hearts!”

Just about the cutest thing EVER. I mean I have said that twice now… but man oh man, little kids are CUTE. And my class students are the stars of the school, everyone loves them, everyone says hi to them in the halls. I am tempted to let other teachers just have them for a little while, but no one has gone for that yet… What? They think they are so cute, why not hang out with them for seven hours (okay, I still think they are cute).

—- I wrote that blog post yesterday, and today I was able to take my camera with me on my walk home and capture my new neighborhood. The walk home from work is surprisingly green. I love it, especially the big garbage/trash dump area.—-

 I was taking a very non creepy back shot of two of my new co-workers, when the new roommie wanted in on the picture taking action. Hence, the two above photos… and then we ran into the adorbs newly engaged couple pictured below!

Nothing beats a walk home full of flowers, tires, trees, and trash. Aaaaah, Korea. 

 

I am not the biggest pet fan (we all know this), but this leeeeetle dog was pretty cute.

How is your walk home?

 

Falling in Love with Detroit (this is not a joke).

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Just before coming back to Seoul, South Korea for my fourth year abroad (still finding that one hard to swallow— wow!), I discovered Detroit for the first time. After 27 years, and growing up on the west side of Michigan for the first two decades (plus change), I have never been to downtown Detroit. At this point in Michigan’s history, most people would say that, that is a good thing. I can now say that I wholeheartedly disagree. I fell in love with the big D.

My brother and sister-in-law, and sister and brother-in-law, all live near Detroit… but not actually in it (my amazing sister-in-law was just telling me that her and my brother have had many conversations about moving into downtown, because they love it).

Darla decided to take me and my youngest sister, Grace, on a fastwind tour during my one full day on the east side of Michigan. We started at the Motown Museum. Darla was ashamed that she had lived in the area almost her entire life, and had never been. Do you know Motown? Because I, was not aware of its history. This was by FAR, the coolest museum I had ever been too, and Glenn- was the BEST tour guide (notice all the CAPS). And guess what? The museum is in Detroit. Go there.

After Motown we hit up lunch at this great cafe… (it was delicious and very reasonably priced, I could barely finish half of my burger! and the sweet potato fries that came with it, oh my)

With our stomaches incredibly stuffed we started walking towards the river, and since pictures are worth a thousand words (as they say)…

 

 

 Once we got tired of walking (aka had to run back to our car before the meter ran out) Darla drove us around to more cool places, and I took pictures from the car, or jumping out of the car, etc… I am a dare-devil, just gotta get that shot!

Funny story about this next picture, apparently these two restaurants are on food channels all the time. Two brothers wanted to open up Coney Islands… Only not together!

They are both still in business, haha. Here are some shots driving around, I could do a post just about all the beautiful churches I saw.

 Imagine this next structure in its prime. This is the old train station for Detroit. People are trying to get funds to restore it, while others want to tear it down.

Darla had another idea after our photo shoot on the go, she decided to take us to The Heidelberg Project (which I had no idea existed), I am so glad I do now. It was incredible (check out the story on the link).

 

 Once we were there, they asked us if we wanted to help freshen up the sidewalk art— before Grace and I could really respond Darla had a paintbrush in her hand and was ready to go! Now we can say we painted at The Heidelberg Project, I feel so cool.

  

Looks like Detroit still has a heartbeat after all, you just have to feel for it.

the choices we make

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I realize I have not been the best blogger this summer. (And gosh darnnit— I have so many great stories and pictures to share!) I just love this site, it helps me keep track of my life. I started blogging for my family and friends back home to be able to keep tabs on me… so I guess when I come home— it is easy to take a vacation from writing posts as well. It also doesn’t help that my parents live in the MIDDLE OF NO WHERE, and have the slowest internet IN THE WORLD (not entirely true, since they have graduated from dial-up).

I am composing this post almost entirely for one person—me. I want to look back and remember this particular summer… because it has been a really tough one. It has been full of love and laughter, brimming up and spilling over every second of every day, which is what makes it even harder. I have to leave. To say good-bye to some (I fear my dog won’t make it another year) and see you later to most. Again.

I love my community it Korea. I do. But I don’t want to go back. I don’t know if it is all the weddings (fifth one this Friday!), or the fact that my family is giving me a rough go of it for choosing a life abroad, or the fear of diving into what feels like is going to be my first year of teaching all over again… This summer went by so fast.

I love my family more than almost anything in this world, second only to God. The desires I have to make the change I want to see in the world come from God and God alone. So even though I make the choice to live abroad year after year, God is the one guiding my path.

I have to take the steps though.

I could choose to stay in Michigan, to be with my family every day. But it wouldn’t be the best path for me. So I choose the harder one, because in the end, I will make a difference.