up late, but made a good day.....

we missed breakfast this morning.  paul misset the alarm clock, so we got up at 11:30.  i had veggie spring rolls and a pineapple shake for breakfast by the pool instead.  we decided to lay low and take it easy.  paul and i wandered around the area near our hotel and found a vietnamese restaurant to eat at.  i, again, had some veggoe spring rolls and he had fresh spring rolls and a hot pot.  it was fun and an experience.

then we went back to the area near the night bazaar for massages.  we had aromatherapy oil massages for an hour.  it was good.  then we headed back to the hotel in a tuk-tuk which is a motorcycle with a backseat for two.  it was fun.  

we met matt and cameron and planned our evening.  we went back to the night bazaar to eat and do some shopping.  then we went to the saturday market.  that was different and seemed much more local than the night bazaar.  many more thais.  it was fun.  we made some purchases and wandered the streets before making our way back to the hotel.  we had some late night fruit shakes, chatted, and then turned in.  

again, i must say that i love thailand.  why do you ask?  the shopping of handicraft goodies, the flavors in the food, the lovely thai people, the bustling, small city, the lively vibe this place has......i could go on and on.  oh, i forgot to mention the incredibly cheap massages.

more shopping....

yesterday we went back in to the city center in the evening for some dinner and, of course, more shopping.  we had dinner at this fusion kind of place.  they had thai and western.  i don't know why but i ordered a cheeseburger which was a disappointment.  argh.  i did try a new thai beer though, leo.  it was ok....i think my favorite thai beer so far has been singha, pronounced sing.  it is good and has a nice flavor. 

after dinner we went down the street for some banana roti and chocolate.  it is like a bready dessert that has banana and chocolate cooked inside.  it was yummy.  then the shopping began.....i bought some more thai pants ann shorts.  i love them.  they are like wearing pajamas!!!  i also got a few other trinkets inlcuding a handmade table runner that i want to hang on a door in the apartment.  at the end of the shoppping i also got my favorite treat---sticky rice and mango.  yum and it was only like a dollar.  things are cheap here and i love it.  this place feels so artsy and cool all the time.  all the goodies are authentic and very bohemian.  love it!!!  

we met the boys and made our way back to the hotel.  we rode in a truck that has an open air covered back.  it was a little shady last night as the truck we were sounded like it was going to shut down at any moment.  it was an experience though.  woo hoo!!!  

we slept well and are now onto another day of experiencing chiang mai!!!  i hear thailand a lot.  

day 2....so far.....

paul and i slept in and then ate breakfast downstairs at the hotel buffet.  it was good.  thailand has regular, normal bacon.  yeah!!!  it was fun to have some since korea does not have it.  we ate lunch with matt and cameron at a little thai place near the hotel.  i had red curry and it was yummy.  the best part was the steamed rice that came in the shape of a teddy bear.  yes, teddy bear!  i took a pic for you, katie.  then we went out for massages.........one and a half hours worth for only 17 US dollars.  crazy!  it was amazing and we both enjoyed it very much.  after our massages we went back to the hotel to find matt and cameron who were finishing up their music stuff.  for the next two nights we have moved to another hotel on the other side of the city.  it is near the chiang mai university and a fabulous place.  like a little thai resort tucked back in this wee neighborhood.  our room is amazing and the lady at the desk said we got an upgrade from superior to deluxe.  it is great.  so we are just relaxing and having some down time before we go back out for some dinner, shopping, and whatever else we find.  

have i mentioned that i completely LOVE thailand???  well, in case, i do.  

Chiang Mai---day 1

WOW, WOW, WOW!!! we arrived in chiang mai this afternoon and got a taxi to our hotel. sweet! they upgraded us to a suite b/c the place is full. there is a huge light festival going on today.......we decided to talk a walk down the street and happened upon matt and cameron. could not believe it. it was great....had a coffee and chatted some before returning to the hotel. then we just hung out, did some worship with the group, and then went out on the town.

we ate dinner at this chain like thai place. i had curry and paul had favorite soup like stuff. it has coconut milk and lemongrass. it is good, but a little spicy for me. then we went to the night bazaar. a little overwhelming at first......i did not know where to start. i knew what i was looking for, but it was hard to decide. so many choices.......cameron helped me choose some thai fisherman pants. i got 4 long pair and 1 short for about 15 US bucks. it was incredible. i also got a cool bag that is very bohemiam looking. i love it!

then we walked toward the river for some light festival action. the sky was lit up with lanterns. it was really beautiful. we watched people set them off and also let candles go on the water. it was so pretty. lots of fireworks too. we walked to a coffee shop and sat outside to take in the sights and sounds of chiang mai. lots of people are out for the festival and setting off loads of fireworks. it was nice to spend time with matt and cameron. we had fun catching up and sharing what has been going on in each of our lives for the last year and a half.

now we are back at the hotel and all pretty tired. matt and cameron have to lead worship again tomorrow. i think paul and i are going to dabble in thai massage. it is crazy cheap and they have recommended a place. cannot wait!

i am in love with thailand. it is such a festive and colorful place. the people are beautiful and friendly. we have enjoyed it so much in the little time we have been here so far. it is really incredible. i keep telling paul that i could live here. :)

we are here.....

we arrived in bangkok at 1am local time. we found a hotel to stay in for about 6 hours for some much needed rest. the hotel was nice and a good price. they also shuttled us to and from the airport which is always pleasant. we slept well and had a good breakfast this morning for free on the hotel's outside patio. the weather is great here! breakfast was simple, but good---eggs with toast and a slice of ham. some spam sausages that paul and i avoided.

paul is struggling with a cold/simus stuff. he has the sniffles and sinus headaches. argh. he is a tropper though trying to be pleasant even though he feels bad. we had meds with us that he is taking for relief.

we have been in thailand for that long, but we love it. we hope to come back and spend more time in bangkok since we are only passing through on this trip. it is such a great place. the people are friendly, the scenery is pretty and real, and the food we hope to find is amazing.

we are currently in the airport waiting for our flight to chiang mai. since we are gold fliers with united we get the lounge perks here which is super nice. there is not much in the domestic terminal other than the lounge. we have had some fresh, tropical fruits and espresso since we have been here. paul is trying to get some work done while we wait on his laptop.

i am excited to see matt and cameron and be able to catch up with them in such a beautiful country.

i am taking pictures and will post them when we return home on monday morning. :)

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Paul and I are off to Chiang Mai for a long weekend with Matt and Cameron!!!

Prayer Request needed....

I interviewed for the elementary art position yesterday. It went well and I know that I can do the job well. I am excited about the opportunity. I am hoping that it all works out that I can teach art, but at this point it is out of my hands. Please pray for me and the art position. I won't know anything else for a week.

Pedi-Egg Report

70 US cents well spent! Heels are on the road to recovery......probably need a few more scrubs with the egg before they are totally renewed, but it is amazing how well the little thing works. everyone should buy one. i would even recommend it at 9.99 USD which i think how much i saw them for at bed, bath and beyond when i was in the states this summer. go now........treat yourself!!!

more photos added....

check them out folks.....
click on my photos on the right....
fun shots!!!

xo
mandy

reason #126 that i love living in korea.....

shopping on the subway!!! paul and i were on our way home from ceramics on the subway when a subway vendor made his way to the middle of the car. yes, he was selling pedi-eggs! i could not believe it. i laughed. i tried to take a pic of him and his cart, but they did not come out. i did buy one though. i heard from TLC that it rocks. she loves hers. the only thing is i only paid 1,000 korean won for mine. with the current exchange rate i paid only 70 US cents for the pedi-egg today. yes, only 70 cents. BARGAIN! TLC eat your heart out. :) i cannot wait to try it out. totally a highlight of the day!

aaahhhhhh........

i went to a ceramics class today and it was amazing. everything my artsy being needed. paul and i left early and explored the area near the studio. we had lunch at the coffee/cafe place. the food was ok, ambience was cool, and the cappuccino was great.

i found the class through one of my student's moms. she teaches ceramics in the after school program on thursdays at SFS. when i found this out, i almost attacked her in the hallway with questions about art and classes. she emailed me this guy's information and about a month later here i am. class one behind me with two coffee mugs and three small elephants made. it was so fun and i had a great time just doing something artsy.

after class i met paul in a coffee shop and then we explored some for dinner. we chose a pizzeria paul read about online. pricey, but good.

it was a great day!

what a weekend.....

this weekend paul, jessica and i went to passion! it was awesome! friday night we left right after school and made our way across seoul to the olympic park where the event was. paul has a friend who hooked us up with wristbands for free. the musician for the night was chris tomlin and louie giglio spoke. the focus of the weekend was grace. louie's verse was 2 corinthian 5:21. it was good. the target audience for the passion tour is college students, so he spoke to them. i still got a lot from the talk. he used the analogy of regular TV and HDTV. how most people are watching regular TV with their faith, but when you understand grace with your heart life becomes like HDTV. it was good stuff. the worship was amazing. it started at 7:30pm and ended around 11pm, and we did not get home to the apartment until midnight-ish.

on saturday we left home at 7AM....yes, we got up early and made the trek across the city for day. the morning session began at 10am and the doors opened at 9am. we had to wait in line and then find seats. matt redman led the worship and the speaker was francis chan. he is from LA. it was good too. the verse here was from ephesians. he continued to speak about grace. that session ended to break for lunch. we had korean hamburgers and hung out in line. we were anxious to get better seats since the david crowder*band would be leading worship. i was pumped. jessica and i were the first ones in our line. they finally opened the doors at 1:30ish and jessica snagged fourth row seats this time. YEAH! the worhip was AWESOME! i love the crowder band. they are even better live!!! francis chan spoke again. about mid way through all three of us hit the wall......we were exhausted. totally worn out. after the second session there would be a longer break for dinner and we would need to wait in line yet again. so after discussing options we decided to head home. we got to see all three musicians and hear some good teaching and we all needed major naps.

it is amazing the movement that the passion tour has become. here are some things i made note of that louie giglio talked about---

• the college students and church in paris, france need major prayer. there are 700,000 university students in paris, but only 1,200 students came to the passion event. pray that God will use people to spread the good news there boldly.
• pray for tokyo, japan.....this is where the passion tour headed today. part of the passion deal is the people there pray for the next city on the tour. the interesting part about ours is the history between korea and japan. many koreans do not care for japan at all. this was a huge request for the koreans to pray for the japanese. so please pray for the koreans here, and the japanese students who will attend passion on the 12th and 13th.

it was a great weekend and i feel encouraged. it was so good to be able to worship and hear good stuff. here are some pics....

chris tomlin leading worship

louie giglio and his translator, benjamin

matt redman leading worship

paul and me

jessica and me in front of the stage

david crowder leading worship

david crowder's guitarist, jack parker, playing the rhodes piano....so fun!

Photos....

i have added photos to my flickr page...........check them out.
click on the "My Photos" to the right in the links section........

decisions, decisions....

the time is here to decide what we will do next year......stay? move?

after exploring some options to move to budapest, we have made the decision to stay in seoul another year. i sent out two letters with my resume to schools in budapest, but the doors aren't opening like i thought they might. we are okay with that and thought this might happen. we had decided to just put the idea out there and let God do the rest.

as of now, i am still seeking the art position. i am not sure what will happen, but would ask for prayers on this. i am okay with teaching fourth grade again, but would also enjoy trying art for a change.

at the moment, i am also kicking around the idea of working on a master's degree. there are many reasons, but need to lay some things out on a timeline to see what that looks like over the next year that we are in seoul. sfs will help with the tuition which is also something to consider. it would be a masters in instructional media (basically, techie stuff in the classroom). the program is online through wilkes university in collaboration with discovery education and would be 30 hours.

so much is going on...........school has been busy and i have been trying to figure much out in my head about what is next for us, me and paul. i am sorry that i have been out of touch with many of you. hopefully that will change soon........

manila...

was good. the flights to get there were a bit nuts, but overall the trip was good. we arrived friday around noon and went straight to the hotel. it took about forty minutes by taxi. we got to the hotel and checked it out. we were both pretty tired, so we rested for a bit before venturing out. the area where we were staying is in the "suburbs" area of manila. there are two major shopping malls there. we went to one first, walked around, and then had italian food for dinner. paul and i were skeptical, but food choices are mostly chain restaurants. on the whole it does not feel very foreign at all. most folks have said they try hard to be western. after dinner we took a jeepney to the other major mall. this jeepney ride was an authentic filipina experience for sure. the other mall was better, but still quite western feeling and built like a giant maze.

saturday i had the workshop and it was so good. maggie moon, the presenter, used to work for teacher's college reading and writing project in new york at colunbia university. last summer i was suppose to go to a writing teacher's workshop there, but ended up having to change plans. over the course of the two days i felt energized and so encouraged as a teacher. great stuff!

saturday night we took a taxi an hour across town to meet vicki. we met her team mates for the race and had vietnamese for dinner. then her team mates went to wander for about twenty minutes while we caught up with vicki at the coffee bean. it was good to see her, hear about the things she is struggling with and celebrating, and get to catch up some. it was way too short, but great.

sunday night after the course paul and i took a taxi into an area called makati. more huge shopping malls. we had a great dinner at a swanky kind of restaurant and then spent the rest of the time walking the malls and checking stuff out. our flight did not leave until 12:30 so we had some time to meander. there was a GAP with normal sized clothes. it was fun and i did walk around taking it all in. i got some shirts. fun! then paul and i both bought some shoes....very fun! they are sandals that look like shoes....never seen them before. paul needed some new ones and i wanted a pair too.

we took a taxi to the airport and then waited for the flight. we did not know that we had to pay 750 pesos to leave the country?!?!? what?!?!?! yes, we had to pay to use the airport. we did not know this before so we ended up being without any spare money to do anything after we went through immigration. no cash machines and lots of stuff to do, but we could not. we sat and waited for two hours.......argh! it was tough. the manila airport is by far the lowest grade of airport we have traveled to so far. we made it back to seoul monday morning and got home just around 7:15am. we both quickly went to bed as we were exhausted. slept most of the day and then got back to life..........

here we come manila....

paul and i are leaving for manila in the philippines in the morning. i am attending a teacher's workshop there on saturday and sunday about balanced literacy. paul is going with just because. i am excited.....i love to learn and also we get to see our friend, vicki. she just started her year of world race missions and she is working in manila at this place called Kid's International Ministries. the school has many ties to this ministry and she is there. it will be great to see her and catch up. i am interested to see what manila is like and visit another country. my list of countries visited keeps growing. it is so fun! definitely a major bonus to teaching overseas.....all the travel!

so much has happened....

things that have happened this month---

• paul played an open mic here on campus at the coffee shop....it was awesome!
• had back to school night and went techie with it....was able to make all documents and slide shows into pdf files to place on classroom page....woo hoo!
• tara leigh cobble came to korea as the speaker at our faculty retreat
• sally, paul's mom, came to visit us. she had a blast and enjoyed her time here.
• went to gyeongbok palace for the day of chusok for a picnic with paul, sally, and our friends the craigs.....the day was a bit hot, but fabulous.
• did lots of shopping with sally
• hurricane ike hit houston....bummer!
• paul and sally went to the DMZ
• my high school friend, christina, and her husband, tim, had their triplets on the 18th---wow! gretchen, charles, and michael are here and cute!
• i turned a whopping 31 years of age...........had a great birthday celebration with friends at our apartment. pasta, salad, and homemade bread with tiramisu for dessert....it was so yummy! we also played Wii.......laughed my head off playing the ravman: raging rabbids game. wow!
• my kids had a surprise party for me at school......roses and a donut cake. it was fun!
• my nephew, josh, turned 13....cannot believe it!

today is friday and i am thankful for that. this week has been tough.....really tired and had a grumpy attitude about school. i am hoping that some rest this weekend and just hanging out will help me to change the outlook.

we have some big decisions to make in the next few weeks. please pray that God will make it clear what we are supposed to do. i have been praying for a big, bright orange and yellow neon sign. :)

the kitties are well. lounging, napping, eating, and snuggling as usual. they have a new "tree" to lounge on thanks to our friends the dornbachs. :)

the weather has cooled down in the last day or two which is nice. i love it and last night we opened all the windows in the house. it was cold, but so cozy lovely. paul and i both love the chilly weather.

enough to make my day....

i love my kid's honesty. no inhibitions or filters! it is great. so i got my hair done a few weeks ago and the next day i went to school. my kids had the best comments....here are two of my favorite....

• "nice dyes, mrs. f!"
• "mrs. f, you look like a rock star!"

they are great kids and i really have enjoyed getting to know my kiddos this year. we have a lot of fun and laugh a lot together.

the intimate details matter to God....

We went to the beach this weekend for the SFS Faculty Retreat. Tara Leigh Cobble was the speaker and it was awesome! Gosh, she is great. Paul and I enjoyed hanging out with her and listening to her rock it. What a great weekend.....I feel like God used TLC to speak to me this weekend. To be more intentional in my relationship with Him. To paraphrase some of the talks by TLC, I need to talk to God, know His voice, and be intimate with Him. He is not just worried about the ultimate, but also He worries about the intimate.....how do I seek Him daily and in all my decisions and thoughts??? Trusting Him is our gift to Him....knowing that even if things seem impossible, that if God wants that for us, He will make it happen. He is like that........He is the "local" in my life that knows everything. I just have to talk to Him and tap into his resources. With all that, I am adjusting the way I look at my life and through how I live......I am going to be sure not to go on auto-pilot, but to actively live with God.

tuesday.....

i cannot believe that it is already september. crazy how the time flies. this week is already hectic for me as i prepare for back to school night on wednesday. there just does not seem to be enough time in the days this week. we have something after school everyday, and they are things i cannot not go to. i was up late last night finishing up the newsletter i make. it is over the top, but i like it and really enjoy doing them. i was quite stressed about it, but paul helped me. i love my husband.....have i mentioned that before?

we had a low key weekend which was nice. one of the highlights was going to see a movie with paul on sunday. he really wanted me to see the dark knight in the theater. i was resistant, but he won. it truly is an amazing film and heath ledger's performance is stellar! if you have not seen it, you must. i highly recommend it.