Sorrow and Friendship…

This has been a sad week, but as is always the case, a liberal dose of blessings were mixed in for comfort.

Early Monday morning (in Korea) my Gramma passed away (in Canada). I’ve been hesitant to post any Blogs since then because words always seem to fail me when the subject matter is important or emotional. Gramma was 96 years old and spent the majority of those years praying constantly for her family. She lived a full life, and brought abundant amounts of joy to a whole whack of people. I love Gramma dearly, and will always be thankful for the love and support that she bestowed liberally on her massive family. I’m going to miss her alot.

I know that many people around the world were praying for our family. Thank-you. I can’t speak for others in my family who were far away from Gramma when she died, but I know that although I felt the distance, I never felt alone.

On Monday, my friend Kyung-Min called to say he wouldn’t be able to come visit me on Tuesday as planned. However, shortly after he heard about Gramma, he changed his mind, and travelled for several hours after finishing a 16 hour shift so he could “be a consolation” to me. He was a consolation and a blessing to me.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and words of support and encouragement.

More Politics, and some explicit language…

Now that my e-mail is up and running again, and I’ve plunked myself down to make a new entry, I’ve realized that not much has happened in the past week and a half.

Due to pronunciation difficulties, I had more then one student remind me that they wouldn’t be here on Thursday because it was “Erection Day”. Yes indeed, it’s a national holiday. I let the prununciation slide. I had enough trouble trying to distinguish between “Mother-in-Law” and “Mother-in-the-raw” during our unit on families. Anyway, from what I can gather, the election went well, and shows stong support for the Impeached President. Also, the number of women represented in the legislature doubled from the last election. One news item that followed the election was something I’ve never seen in the west….they had a graph illustrating the age groups of the newly elected legislators. Only in a country where age distinctions are still so rigid would this be necessary.

This coming week is Midterms. It’s so nice to be on this side of the desk at this time of year! I’m giving speaking exams in class all week, then have to proctor written exams on Saturday. Some teachers grumble about having to proctor exams on a weekend, but I’d much rather be giving it than writing it!

Oh – And I have my vacation schedule now. I’ll be in Canada from Mid-July to Late-August. I’ll be hitting Victoria, Vancouver, Regina, Moncton and Ottawa. (Not necessarily in that order). If you live in or near any of those places and want to buy me dinner (I’ll settle for a coffee) let me know.

Spring is in the air…

It’s Spring. Farmers are preparing their fields for planting. The entire campus smells like a port-a-potty for cows and sheep. Ugh.