Aloha

We've been in Hawaii for just over a month now. And we love it.

Jesse was able to secure a job even before we left Canada as a Japanese speaking Segway Tour Guide. Basically he takes Japanese tourists on tours of Kailua beach and the local nature conservatory on Segways. Essentially his job is amazing. http://segwayofhawaii-kailua.com/index.php

I was also very fortunate with my job search. I got a job the second day we were here as a waitress for a restaurant called A Cup of Tea. It's basically a Victorian style tea room. The job is simple with the great perk of all the tea I can drink. The down-side - I have to wear a mop cap.

The next week I also got a job at Mu'umu'u Heaven - a ladies fashion boutique that transforms vintage muumuus into modern dresses. The store is extremely green; recycling and re-using almost everything. The definite perk is that I get to choose a new dress off the floor to wear each day I work.

We are living with our friend Jenny Rawlings and her family . Jenny was my roommate at University and is one of my dearest friends. We planned to just stay here for a week or two until we got organized but then we loved it so much we decided to stay. There are 7 of us in the house now; The Rawlings, us, and two other renters. It sounds crowded but we haven't felt cramped in anyway yet. We are so blessed by them and their hospitality.

In true Meeting House Lover fashion we started a Meeting House Home Church a few weeks after we arrived. We are excited about the possibilities...

One of Jesse's life dreams has been actualized - he's in a band. He is the keyboardist and back up singer for the band Hollow Spheres. They are a relatively new band but are gaining momentum. He has 3 gigs in the span of 2 weeks! I went to his first concert last Wednesday and I was/am so proud of him.

He also plays pick-up soccer every week. Although he is busy, he is loving life.

I am ashamed to say we have done few "cool"things since we've been here. I guess we've been working too much. We did go snorkeling the other day just down the road. The visibility wasn't great but we saw loads of fish and 3 turtles. The turtles we awesome. One of them came really close to use as if to check us out.

For my birthday, we went on a sunset cruise in Waikiki. And I've done one hike up to a waterfall.

I think that is the full update. I will try and post-more regularly and even include pictures.

Love and Aloha

Saijo

After a 12 hour drive down from Tokyo, we arrived in our new town, Saijo, on the island of Shikoku. We are working with the Saijo Alliance Church. What makes this place particularly special is that Jesse’s grandparents co-founded the church when they were here as missionaries in the 1950’s. In fact, the same Japanese pastor (Misaki-san) that worked alongside Grandpa Town is the same man we will be working with as well. As you might imagine, he is an elderly man (80 years young). Despite his age, surviving both stomach cancer and a stroke, he is remarkably genki (healthy): it obvious where he gets his strength from. We are excited to work with a man that has so much experience serving God. His description wouldn’t be complete without acknowledging his other half; an adorable woman with such a contagious chuckle it resolves even the most awkward of situations.

We are living in a cute one story house on the church property (Misaki-san's house is also on this property). Already we feel so blessed that God has provided not only shelter but also a dishwasher and heated toilet seats. Our house is on a hillside with a great view of the mountains and when the wind blows from a certain direction we can smell the ocean.

As we mentioned in one of our last post we will be teaching English classes at the church as a way of building new relationships with those in the community. Our classes most likely will not start until March, so we have lots of time to prepare. In the meantime we will be assisting with Sunday school and other youth programs that begin. We will also spend these next few weeks building relationships with other church members and our immediate neighbors. I’ve already made a few batches of cookies in order to meet the neighbors.

On the side, we are hoping to get to know the other few foreigners in the area and potentially start a Bible study with them as there are no English services in the area.

Although we haven’t had that active of a time here I did manage to break my toe. As those who have broken bones in less dramatic ways would understand, I would like to say it happened while I was doing something either heroic or at least adventurous. Unfortunately, the first bone break of my life happened when I stubbed my toe on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I am fortunate that it is just my toe. Needless to say, my movements have been limited lately, however I am able to walk around slowly with out crutches after only 4 days.

Time with the Towns

Well, we’ve been in Japan for just over a month now. We spent the majority of the month with Jesse’s parents in Tokyo and up at their cabin in Nagano. Although there isn’t any snow in Tokyo there was plenty up at Nagano.

One of our good friends, Tim, suggested that we all build an igloo and sleep in it as a way to remember this Christmas break (so it doesn’t blend in to all the others). Jesse and I jumped on the idea and the very next day we began. I had built and slept in an igloo when I was in middle school so I was declared the experienced builder. I’m not sure if I really knew any more that they did. We worked all day (with a short nap after lunch) and were able to complete it just before dark. As it was New Year’s Eve it was decided that it would be fun to bring in the New Year in the igloo. I wasn’t up for a night in the cold, but Jesse, Tim and our other good friend Nick had a great time.

Thailand

On our way to Japan we spent two weeks in Thailand. After being in Korea it was a very nice change of pace. We spent the first week in a shared villa, on Ko Samui Island, with Beth (my mom) and Melani (my sister) and Chris (Melani’s friend). The villa was a great place to relax and update each other on the past 4 months of our lives.

We rented scooters to bum around the island. Jesse and Beth particularly enjoyed the scooters. One afternoon they took off for a joy ride – only to discover the map they had wasn’t quite accurate and the official detour routes included steep gravel hills and sketchy looking paths. Fortunately they arrived safe and with just enough gas to make it home. Needless to say it was good mother-in-law son-in-law bonding.

Another afternoon we decided to do the touristy thing and go hiking through the jungle on elephants. Jesse and I love elephants. It is an amazing sensation to feel their muscles moving under you while sitting bare back on their necks (we sat on a bench on their backs for the majority of the trek).

After Beth, Melani and Chris left Thailand, Jesse and I took off for another island (Ko Phangan) that was recommended to us by our seat neighbor on the plane to Ko Samui. I had wanted to make a tentative schedule for the week while we had Internet access on Ko Samui but Jesse discouraged me – saying we’ll just figure it out when we get there. We took the ferry across and arrived well after dark. Our plane neighbor had recommended a particular beach to us, so upon arrival we sought out a taxi that would take us there. The taxi driver seemed to be charging way too much so we went looking for another taxi only to find out that they had all gone because no more ferries were arriving that night. We decided to get a cheap hotel by the ferry port so we could get a taxi early the next morning. Let’s just say the room was cheap for a reason – it was clear the sheets hadn’t been changed in a while and the walls were quite grimy.

By this point I was quite frustrated and blaming Jesse thinking that if we had planned better this wouldn’t have happened. Nevertheless we decided to go for a walk to find some food and backpackers information centre that we say advertised on the ferry. The backpackers’ information centre was great! Jesse was thinking about getting his PADI while we were on the island and the attendant was incredibly helpful. By the time we left her office Jesse was booked into a 3 day course starting the next day with transportation to the other side of the island where the diving school was. We realized then, that if we had made plans in Ko Samui we would have gone to the other beach that was in fact very expensive and difficult to get to. Instead we got a great deal on a scuba course and free transportation to the beach. I apologized to Jesse for being upset that we didn’t plan and learned my lesson that sometimes things do work out with out a plan.

Leaving the information centre we went looking for dinner. We came to a cute whole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant. As we were looking through the menu before committing to enter we were reassured by an Italian gentleman leaving the restaurant that the food was delicious and tasted authentic. We were convinced and he was right.

We got picked up at 8am in the morning, Jesse went straight to dive centre while I walked along the beach looking for accommodations for the 3 nights we were planning to stay at that beach. I eventually found a quaint little group of bungalows (North Beach Bungalows) 20 feet from the ocean for $9 a night. The place wasn’t that fancy and there was no hot water but the view and the atmosphere was unbeatable. The first night we ate the North Beach restaurant where we discovered our Italian friend from the other night was staying in these bungalows as well.

While Jesse went to his Scuba classes I lounged around in the hammock and walked along the beach. On Jesse’s third and final day I joined him for his final open-water dive. The visibility was a little poor but there were hundreds of fish. There was even a little chimney you could swim up though if you aren’t to claustrophobic. By the end of the day we were both convinced that we need to do more scuba diving.

We loved the bungalow so much we decided to spend the whole week there. The beach is actually part of a fishing village, which was actually great as it didn’t feel too touristy. We got several Thai massages and ate some great food.

There was another popular beach near by that was only accessible by foot or by boat. Feeling adventurous we decided to take the hiking route. Unfortunately we somehow got on the wrong path and what was supposed to be a fairly simple hour and fifteen minute hike was in reality a three and half hour up and down the mountain hike. Thankfully we were able to hitchhike a ride back on a boat with another group of tourists.

All in all our Thailand experience was awesome. We highly recommend it.

Next Stop....Japan

As some of you may know Jesse and I were planning on heading back to the States so Jesse could attend seminary this January. That idea was brought on by the potential scholarship available to Jesse through his dad's work. To make a long story short, Jesse is no longer eligible for the scholarship. This was disappointing news but it seems God has a different plan for us.
Shortly after the door closed (temporarily) on Seminary, Jesse received a random email from a lady at his parent's church in Japan. She was asking if we knew anyone who could go be missionaries at a Church in Japan, who was in desperate need of English teachers. (English lessons is a great tool for the church to build relationships with others in the community) It didn't take long before we started seriously considering ourselves for this position.
There were so many things for us to consider in the decision. Here is a glimpse of our process.

• The pastor of the church only speaks Japanese, so the teacher/s would have to know Japanese. This isn't that common and Jesse is fluent.
• We kind of want to have some clue about where we might "settle down" before we have kids. Japan is an option so I would like to see what it's like to live there before we test it out with a family.
  
• We feel that we're only serving ourselves here in Korea. Serving God and people is very important to us and we don't feel like we are doing either here. Both Jesse and I studied "helping" fields (Psychology and Human Services) at university because we knew that our professions had to be that which served others. I admire people that can serve others and God regardless of where they work or what their job is. For us it needs to be obvious or week after week goes by and we realize we are living solely for ourselves.
  
• The position primarily involves teaching English classes but we are given a lot of freedom to build community using our gifts and interests. Jesse is thinking of maybe teaching music or voice or developing himself personally as a musician. I can teach art classes or start an art club. One suggestion was a cooking class, neither of us really cook but we could learn along with them.
• We will be close to Jesse's family (around an hour away), which for Jesse has been 6 1/2 years since he lived in on the same side of the globe.
  

At this point we are planning on starting in December. We still have to figure out the visa situation but we are confident this is where we are supposed to go so something will work out.

A few of my favorite things

I keep meaning to share about the everyday details that make up our experience but to be honest they aren't that interesting. We wake up we eat breakfast (usually cereal) we walk to school. We teach kindergarten in the morning. We usually eat lunch with the kids sometimes we go out. We teach elementary school in the afternoon. By 7pm we're exhausted, we get some food, usually at a restaurant then head home to watch a movie or just chill. Most weekends are spent hanging out with friends who like us are teaching here in Korea.

One pastime worth mentioning is the Jimjalbongs (sauna and bath houses). I love these. These bath houses are everywhere in Korea. We have discovered at least 4 in a 15 min walking radius from our apartment. Although they all vary is size and appearance they are all very much the same.
When you go to these establishments first you take of your shoes and place them in a free locker. Then you change into these "uniforms" an oversize t-shirt and shorts provided for you. When you enter the main communal area you will usually see people sprawled out on mats watch TV. You will also notice several smaller doors all along the perimeter walls. These doors lead into different types of saunas including, a salt room where the ground is covered in large chunks of salt similar to sand; a charcoal room where the walls are covered with charcoal; "the human oven" which I call it which is usually a smaller room that is so unbearably hot you can only crawl in stay for a few moments and crawl out. To balance your experience there is also a cold room complete with a snowman. I don't really like the cold room, by the time I'm out of the sauna and walked to the cold room I'm already cold enough to head back into the warm one. These facilities usually have a workout gym, Internet cafe, arcade room and more. Families will come to these places and spend the whole day.
When you are finished in the communal area or just tired of wearing your sweaty pajamas you can go to the gender segregated baths. (I can only report about the women's side, things may be different on the men's) As you enter you will notice several rows of women seated in front of a shower scrubbing themselves with rough clothes. They attempt to remove all dead skin cells from their body before entering the baths. You can even pay someone to scrub you, similar to getting a massage. When you are completely clean you wrap your hair up in a towel and may enter the baths. Similar to the saunas there are many different baths of varying temperature and type. Some of them have herbs or minerals added. There is usually at least one jet bath and one absolutely freezing bath. Unlike the cold room, I love the cold bath - going from the super hot bath to the freezing bath is such a great feeling. That just about sums up the jimjalbongs.

Another enjoyable event is going to the Galbi restaurants. This happens to be a particular favorite of one of our co-workers and as a result is the location for many group dinners. Many of these restaurants are completely open to the street so as you walk by you see dozens of people huddling around tables with a huge elephant trunk looking device hanging in the middle of them. They are huddling around a BBQ/grill type thing in the middle of the table and the elephant trunk is the ventilation system. You typical just order meat (either beef or pork) they in turn bring dozens of little dishes to fill your table. Along with the obvious - kimchi - there is a communal soup, an egg omelet type dish, at least two types of sauce, lettuce, garlic and radishes. When the meat comes you place it on the grill and cook it yourself. When it's done you take a piece of lettuce, spread some sauce on it, add a clove of garlic and a piece of meat to the lettuce, roll it up and pop the whole thing in your mouth. It's actually quite delicious. I would like to believe that the one-to-one ratio of lettuce to beef evens out the large quantity of meat consumed.

And so it begins...

Here we are in Korea. I can't believe we've been here six weeks. There are many stories to share already but I will jump right into the best to start.

Last weekend Jesse and I decided to go to the coast to celebrate our one year anniversary (one week early) before it got to cold. We were planning to spend a romantic weekend on the beach. Of course we made no plans we just jumped on the train and were going to figure it all out once we got there. Unfortunately there were not seats left on the train so we had to sit on the floor in the refreshment/arcade/karaoke (yes they have karaoke on trains) car. Shortly after we departed two foreigners (Simon and Jose) walked past to get some drinks. On their return past us they stopped to chat. turns out they were heading to the same area for a friends birthday. the birthday girl however had missed the train but her dog hadn't (another long story).
Simon and Jose soon invited us to take the birthday girl and her boyfriend's seat on the train. After chatting with them for a while they invited us to join them on a small island of the coast that boasted great secluded beaches. It didn't take much to convince us.
We spent the first night in the Picaso Love Motel, sadly the hotel room was bigger and nicer than our entire apartment. The birthday eventually showed up making the group a total of 11 people.

There were 2 Canadians, 1 Kiwi, 1 Chilean, 1 Brit, 1 Brit/Italian, 1 Moroccan, 1 Greek, us American/Canadian and 1 Australian.

The next day we caught a 7:30 ferry ride to the island. A sweet Korean man met us at the ferry terminal to take us our hotel. Our hotel was seconds away from a virtually private beach.
We spent the weekend riding waves on blow-up whales, swimming, playing soccer, eating delicious BBQ and laughing. We even got to experience a very bizarre food collecting technique. There are these incredibly phallic shell fish/muscles hidden in the sand. If you poor salt over the whole they have dug in the sand they will pop up and if your quick you grab and pull. You can boil these and they taste delicious (like oysters) although the males in the group did like the appearance and were turned off.
On the way how we experienced on of the most crowded trains I have ever been on (topped only by a Tokyo train during rush hour). People were lined up down the isles of the seating area and crammed in every corner and space in the refreshment cart. A sharp return to the reality that we are still in Korea not some exotic island country.
All in all a great weekend. Not the romantic getaway we had planned but that just gives us an excuse to try again this weekend.