Merry Christmas from Daegu!

We wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone who reads this blog a VERY Merry Christmas and a blessed holiday season!

Sarah decorated our apartment for Christmas!

This year was Sarah and my first Christmas ever away from our families, and Christmas in Korea was certainly an adjustment for us. Thank God for the community of friends we have come to know and love here, as being near to others is such a valuable part of this holiday and time of year.

Our Daegu friends (L-R: Fraser, Tom, Ann, Sarah, Jen, me, Soo Yean, Chris, Sydney, Kat, & Tyler)

Sarah and I were able to host a group of our friends on Christmas Eve for a very fun and festive Christmas party extravaganza.

Tom & Chris decorating Christmas cookies

The afternoon and evening were filled with plenty of fun things, not to mention some delicious food (honey baked ham, pesto pasta, 7-bean chilli with pineapple, mashed potatoes, buffalo chicken dip, etc.). We had a lot of fun things we did, including a white elephant gift exchange, baking and decorating Christmas cookies, doing a Secret Santa gift-giving time, and watching "A Muppet Christmas Carol".

Christmas cookies from our Christmas Eve party

On Christmas Day, I woke up early and cooked Sarah a traditional American Christmas breakfast- A broccoli and cheese omelette with crispy fried bacon and orange juice. We then got our day started by reading the Christmas story from Luke 2:1-20 and taking time to pray and remember why we celebrate this season.

Next we got to have a special Christmas just the two of us, taking time to give each other gifts and celebrate the blessings we have as a married couple. You can see several photos below for some of our "highlight" gifts.

I got Sarah the book "Pyongyang: A Journey In North Korea" by Guy Delisle

Sarah bought me some nice-smelling cologne

I bought Sarah a matching hoodie and sweatpants "Chick Chick" outfit...haha!

Sarah bought me a Cleveland Indians hat to represent my hometown team in the U.S.!

After that we spent a few hours Skyping with our families back home, and then it was off to church for a Christmas service and dinner.

We hope that everyone back home had an equally relaxing and blessed Christmas weekend, and we truly wish you all the best as we look forward to the start of 2012.

Love and blessings,
Brad & Sarah

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...in some ways

The lights are all around us here, and the feeling in the air is that it is most definitely the Christmas season, but only recently... surprisingly.

Sarah and I in front of the huge Christmas tree near Duryu Park in our neighborhood

Sarah and I were not to sure what to expect around the holiday season, as it is both of our first Christmas away from our families and a hard time of year (especially) to be away from the ones you love.

 Sarah and I enjoying some warm holiday drinks at a cafe downtown

We've really enjoyed walking around downtown in Daegu, looking at all the Christmas lights, and even becoming a little nostalgic about things as ridiculous as the commercialism of Christmas. It's amazing what you appreciate when you're away from home, even the least favorite parts about the holidays. Haha!

It had only recently started to even feel like winter here in Korea. In fact, last week I went on a mountain hike with my students, and I didn't even wear my jacket. It felt like fall!

A few of my 3rd and 4th graders on our climb up Apsan Mountain last week

School has been busy for the both of us the past few weeks, as we've been simultaneously wrapping up our school years (Korean public school end in December and begin new in March) as well as preparing for our winter English camps, which are a whole different beast of their own.

I just had my last English festival for the school year, and this time around our kids put on an English song festival. My students, grades 3-6, picked a wide variety of English songs to perform. From traditional Christmas music to pop songs like Justin Bieber, The Backstreet Boys, and The Beatles, I was incredibly moved by the amount of time and effort they all put into their performances. Their English was incredible, and the artistic talent is also evident among so many of them.

Some of my 6th graders performing "Party Rock Anthem" at this week's English song festival

Sarah and I have both been fighting off the recycled colds that seem to bounce around our friend circles and our schools, and in so many ways it feels like another holiday winter as many of you might find back in the states (except for the fact that everyone hear speaks another language...LOL!).

Sarah and I are still putting together our vacation plans for this January, when we'll have about 2 1/2 weeks off for winter break. Our plan is to travel to different parts of Korea and explore other parts of the country. We're both very excited about this!

One piece of advice to people planning to come over to Korea and teach. Travel around Asia is not as easy or cheap as it is in other parts of the continent. Traveling to Japan, China, and even Vietnam can run you hundreds upon thousands of dollars for flights and accommodations, not to mention food. For China, it costs $150 just to get a special Visa to travel their during your break.

We've found that the most popular travel destinations for ESL teachers are Thailand or simply to stay put and travel around South Korea.

More to come in the weeks ahead, and we'll be sure to give you all another update on or around Christmas Day.

Until then, God's blessings and peace. Enjoy the season, and stay warm!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This past weekend, Sarah and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving away from family, as well as our first ever Thanksgiving in South Korea.

It is true what they say that being homesick and missing your family is so much more evident and profound around the holidays, and it was definitely an adjustment for us.

This holiday in particular has unique difficulties with it, as Korea doesn't recognize or celebrate the holiday (seeing as it's somewhat America-specific...he he he!). Therefore, you don't see or hear much about it anywhere, on top of the fact that we all had to be at work that day teaching...which makes it especially hard.

Turkey Bowl 2011 in Daegu, South Korea

Thank God for good friends here in Korea, because we had an absolutely INCREDIBLE Thanksgiving weekend, certainly the best it could have been in light of not being around family.

We began the Thanksgiving weekend on Saturday by playing an early morning pickup game of flag football at Duryu Park with a handful of our friends. My team dominated, naturally, with a 110-55 victory...it was quite the high-scoring game!! Haha! Definitely a fun tradition back in the states that we were able to bring to Korea and add a little piece of home to around the holidays.

Our Thanksgiving feast!

After working up an appetite, Sarah and I headed over to Camp George military base on Saturday afternoon, where we gathered with a handful of good friends to have a Thanksgiving potluck meal and spend time hanging out, playing games, and of course...watching football!!

Football!!! Hallelujah!!

We were able to enjoy all the usual fixings around the Thanksgiving table (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, green bean casserole, apple pie, etc.), which featured a very unique sweet potato recipe that included walnuts and bananas....YUM!  

 Thanksgiving 2011 with friends at Camp George in Daegu

As this time of year always reminds us, we have SO much to thank God for this year. From the good friends we have here in Korea, to the amazing support and love of our families back home, not to mention the ability to have community with people from all over the world (in this melting pot known as Korea), there are endless and abundant blessings in our lives to be counted (not to mention food, clothing, shelter, money, etc), and Sarah and I are truly humbled by all that we've been blessed with.

 Happy Thanksgiving! (L-R: Jen, Ann, Sydney, Tom, Lisa, Sarah, me, Kat, & Chris)

From Daegu, South Korea, we wish all of you a blessed Thanksgiving season!!! God bless!

Royal Gardens, Temples, and Kite Flying

This past weekend Sarah and I took part in a trip sponsored by the DMOE (Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education) to the incredibly beautiful Gyeonju province of South Korea.

A beautiful pond in Gyeonju near the site of the royal burial grounds

Gyeonju is approximately an hour drive from Daegu and is basically different in every way, shape, and form. It is a very wide open, nature-filled, tree covered, open fielded, temple laden town with access to deep woods, mountains, and beaches near the East Sea. There are very few buildings and life moves a lot slower than the metropolitan areas.

The trip was two full days with an overnight stay in a really nice hotel by the mountains. The DMOE had a full schedule prepared for us, and we were able to partake in so many different activities including kite flying, soap making, cloth rubbing, a concert of female musicians playing Beatles songs on traditional Korean instruments, a morning Taekkyon martial arts class, a tour of an opened above-ground royal tomb, several Buddhist temple tours, some delicious meals (including French toast for breakfast and the best bulgolgi I have eaten yet in South Korea), and a late night lantern walk through an ancient royal garden.

Ancient temple gazebos in the Royal Garden in Gyeonju

While all these activities were fun and culturally educational, the highlights for me were definitely the lantern walk in the royal garden, the Beatles songs on traditional Korean instruments, and flying kites on a beach by the East Sea.

Performance of Beatles songs using traditional Korean musical instruments

Both Sarah and I agreed that Gyeonju has been by far our favorite place to visit and explore so far here in Korea, and its beauty alone is worth the trip. We will definitely be going back sometime in the next few months.

Kite flying in Gyeonju

Word to the wise for all the EPIK folks who currently live or will be living in Daegu- take advantage of the trips that are put together by the DMOE. They are always well-organized, all expenses are paid, and the DMOE really works hard to make a memorable experience for its employees. They’re the best!

Sarah and I next to the pond at the Royal Garden

Beautiful Busan

One of the things Sarah and I always praise Daegu for is its accessibility as a metropolitan region. In addition to be an accessible province in and of itself, it is also extremely close to many other exciting areas in South Korea. One of them is the coastal province of Busan.

Me inside a fish tank a Busan Aquarium at Haeundae Beach

Busan is a little over a 1-hour $10 roundtrip trainride from Daegu. It's located on the Southeast coast of Korea, and is known for its beautiful beaches, massive seaport, fish markets, and incredible nightlife.

This past weekend was Busan's annual fireworks festival, and a bunch of us went up for the weekend to enjoy the festivities. In addition, we also spent the day walking around the Busan Aquarium at Haeundae Beach (definitely recommend this as well!).

2011 Busan Fireworks Festival at the beach

This exhibition of explosions and loud noises is not your average fireworks show (sorry, 4th of July), and it is certainly not for the faint at heart. :)

We arrived at the beach around 3:00 in the afternoon, which I would recommend to anyone going to this festival in future years. We were able to secure a front row spot on the sandy beach and had some of the best seats in the house when the official show began around 6:00.

The only complaint was the excessive rain and overcrowded vibe. People come from all over Korea (and other nearby regions) to watch this firework show, so you can imagine the insanity (just think New York City during an Apocolypse...haha!).

All in all though, it was an INCREDIBLE weekend and worth every minute waiting on the beach and every drop of rain that fell on us. Put this in your list of "to-do's" if you haven't already!

Happy birthday, Tom! (Tom & Lisa)

It was also a great weekend in that we had the chance to celebrate our good friend Tom's 23rd birthday (he's a youngin!). It was a fun combo of festivities and a great way to hang with friends.

Expanding My Horizons

Last night I had the incredible opportunity to perform a short acoustic set at an art exhibition in downtown Daegu. The artist was Shin Moon Kwang. She is a well-known painter here in Daegu, and last night at the event she had the chance to display some of her work for colleagues and local critics, and she even received a special award for her outstanding work.

I was asked to perform a short set at the gallery. I was personally invited by her daughter, YoungJi Nam, who is the CEO of a music company based in Korea and Japan known as Gummi Bear Productions. She is a really cool gal!

It was an incredible opportunity to perform in front of some well-respected people in Daegu, as well as a great chance to experience the local art, sample some traditional homemade teas and desserts, and just be in the midst of Korean culture. I felt very humbled and extremely honored.

KPOP Extravaganza!!

Last night, Sarah and I had the opportunity to attend the 2011 Asia Music Festival, where the top performers from several Asian countries (including Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan) come together for a slew of performances. It just so happened to be in Korea this year, and it just so happened to be hosted at the World Cup stadium right here in our hometown province of Daegu.

                                      One of the new KPOP bands that were debuted at the festival

EPIK, the organization we teach through, treated us to VIP tickets to this insanely awesome concert. Our seats were incredible too!


We were able to see tons of KPOP bands perform, including BEAST, Super Junior, U-Kiss, Girls Generation, and Miss A...to name a few. 

Miss A performing at the festival

They kick of the first 30 minutes of the show by debuting their newest up and coming KPOP groups to sort of jump start their careers. Some were good, some were horrendous! One of the groups is the first photo shown above.


The rest of the night, the well known acts take turns coming out and performing 2 or 3 of their most popular songs. For people who get bored watching long sets of one artist or group, this type of festival is very entertaining and keeps you interested throughout. 

BEAST, one of Korea's most popular KPOP groups at the moment...they were VERY entertaining!

My favorite performance of the night, however, was by a Korean musician named, simply, Lisa. She performed a folky acoustic set (comparable to Colby Calliet) and even did a cover of "Tick Tok" by Ke$ha and "Run" by Girls Generation. Lisa was an incredibly talented artist who knew her way around a guitar, had a remarkable live voice, and played with a full band, something we fellow musicians are especially impressed by.

My favorite performer of the night, Lisa. She freakin rocked the house!!

All in all, this is an experience anyone living in Korea has to experience at least once. Whether you like this kind of music or not, it is incredible to experience something that is central to Korea's entertainment business and pop culture. 

Sarah and I, glowsticks in hand, ready to partaaaaaay!

Check out clips of all the live performances from the 2011 Asia Music Festival at our video blog website, www.youtube.com/epik4iners !!

English Festivals: The Devil is in the Details!

This week at school was our English Festival for grades 3, 4, 5, and 6. The kids spent about two weeks preparing their acts for the festival. Students were allowed to choose their groups as well as their performances, in the context of the theme: theatre and music.

Believe it or not, this is Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother :)

Most of the groups in every grade chose to do skits, mostly fairy tales and obviously tailored to their age groups and English speaking levels. The large majority of them were terrible and the kids were not that into it, but there were some great acts. Hard to say it was worth the time and effort put into it, though…unfortunately.

It was a busy few weeks for us as teachers, and when it concluded this afternoon, we were VERY relieved and ready to get back to our normal lesson planning.

An incredible 6th grade rendition of Mama Mia...eat your heart out, Glee!

Some of the memorable skits including a boy dressed up as Cinderella, a 6^th grade group’s rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and an unforgettable final performance from a group of girls who did an incredible rendition of Mama Mia (see above photo) that put the Glee cast to shame!

Open Mic Night!

This week included an incredible and pivotal moment for me here in Korea. I was finally able to get out and play a set of my original music at an open mic night.

We discovered this place in downtown Daegu called Urban Lounge Bar & Live Club. It's a basement club in the middle of downtown that is owned and operated by this guy named Philan. He is a really REALLY cool person and incredible sound engineer. I was blown away by the sound quality and atmosphere of the club. One of my favorite places I have ever performed at, no exaggeration.

If you are a musician in Daegu and are looking for a place to play music, Urban is the place to be! They have open mic night every Wednesday evening from 10:00 p.m. - 4:00 a.m. Just show up, sign up, and play. I was able to do a 40 minute set. It's very accomodating and there seems to be a really good consistent crowd.

There was also this really cool Korean duo who performed right after me (see picture below). They played this style of music that was like a fusion of emo and folk. It was INCREDIBLE!! I really enjoyed hearing other musicians too, and what a great place to network with fellow artists!

I was also so very humbled and deeply grateful for the number of my friends and fellow teachers who came out to support me and my music. It was truly a memorable night not just because of the opportunity to play music, but the chance to spend time with so many of my friends here and to know how much they care for me.

All in all, I'd say it's been a GREAT week so far!

All of the Lights!

This past weekend Sarah and I, along with our good friends Jen and Tyler, hopped on a bus and went out to the province of Jinju for the 2011 Lantern Festival.

The 2011 Jinju Lantern Festival, located on and along the Gamsung River 

This festival commemorates the ancient lantern lightening custom used by Koreans in the Imjinwaeran War of 1592, when Japan invaded Korea by attacking the Jinjuseong Fortress in a very famous historic battle. It is also a time to commemorate and remember those who served and died during this fortress battle. The lanterns carry individual wishes and float along the Gamsung River and are also hung along the riverside.

Entrance to Jinjuseong Fortress in Jinju

Jinju is a beautiful area of Korea (personally one of my favorites so far), and has a wonderful history. Its large market area is definitely a good tourist stop, and the food there is also pretty incredible.

We were able to find a motel room that comfortably suited 4 people and was only around 15,000 won per person (or about $15). The bus ride roundtrip was also only $17/person.

Tyler, Sarah, and I walking down one of the lantern halls down by the river

One of the most exciting parts of living in Korea is the ease and affordability of travel and exploration.

Floating lantern replica of Jinjuseong Fortress

I have also been told that if you take part in only one event/trip during your entire time in Korea, the Jinju Lantern Festival every October is one of the greatest highlights you'll have. From my own experience, I definitely agree!

The Bad Week

They said it usually happens around Christmas in your first year teaching overseas, but I definitely had my "freak out" week a bit sooner than many. While many people have had their issues adjusting to a new culture, new food, new lifestyle, new langauge, and an all-around new way of doing things, my biggest struggle has actually been with the people I am working alongside at my elementary school. The country and culture itself is fascinating, and I truly LOVE it here!! Work it seems...ain't so great at the moment. The people at my work are not bad people inherently and my issues have not been related to culture so much as they have been towards the all-around lack of communication, assistance, and effort being put in to an average day of work by my main co-teacher and the immediate surrounding staff. She is a sweet lady and a very nice and social person at times, but she has very poor communication skills (and I don't mean in terms of language/dialect) in the sense that she does not share things with me and does not inform me of things, and several times I've ended up teaching a class solo because she has shown up to work an hour or so late. It figures that I would travel to the other side of the world and end up working alongside the one lazy Korean in the country, and the one that reminds me most of the people I have struggled working alongside at several jobs back in the states. In addition, due to my co-teachers overall lack of communication and attention to details, I was paid a week late, and the only reason the issue was even resolved was because I eventually had to get help being paid from another nearby elementary school. Otherwise, I may never have gotten paid. I still haven't received the full amount of my first paycheck, but I'm choosing to be thankful I have any money at this point. The biggest roadblock I hit this week was that I was told by my co-teacher that I am no longer permitted to lead-teach any classes or plan the lessons, and that I now have to serve as the assistant to my co-teacher, the same way I mentioned above who has issues with responsibility. It wasn't for anything I did or didn't do. It was just a decision that was never passed down to me, and I had apparently already done above my pay-grade in the classroom. Now all of this above may sound (and basically is) a mental vomit of a terrible week in the life of someone living in Korea, but I certainly hope I don't give off such a negative vibe that people think I'm starting to hate being here. It's not that at all. I LOVE KOREA!  What all this above has taught me is humility and patience, both of which I would be lying if I told you I have attained from all of this, even as I type this. I have learned that an English teacher overseas needs these two qualities to survive, to remain sain. Otherwise, you will expect way too much and be way too disappointed. The moral of the story- "go with the flow". This was actually the first English phrase I taught my co-teacher when I arrived here, and now it is my daily motto for life as an ESL teacher. You're not going to have everything fall into your lap, and many times this job will disappoint you, even crush you. The question is- what do you do to get back up and how do you respond? You're not going to be the world's best teacher, and you're certainly not going to Robin Williams your Korean school Dead Poet's Society-style! :) If you keep things in perspective and allow mistakes to be made by both you and others, you can grow in immense ways and learn more about yourself than you ever really cared to. The bottom line- you're going to have a week like mine. You're going to scream and curse and want to rip your hair out. You're going to want to quit the job and grab the next flight back to your home. Don't. Don't give up. Don't give in. Do exactly what you expect your students to do every time you step into a classroom- LEARN.

Korean Baseball is the Real Deal

Last night we went with a group of friends to our first ever Samsung Lions baseball game in downtown Daegu. The Lions represent the province of Daegu in an 8-team Korean major league.

Needless to say, baseball games in South Korea are an incredible experience in and of themselves for several incredible reasons:


1) Tickets are dirt cheap! We paid 7,000 won per person (which is approximately $7) to get in. Cheapest baseball game I've ever gone to.


2) Seats are on a first come, first serve basis. This is something we didn't know this past outing but something we will definitely take advantage of in future baseball outings. 


3) Food and beer is cheap! It's literally chump change to have a classic baseball meal during the game. For a delicious hot dog, a huge bag of Sun Chips, and a can of beer, I paid 6,000 won ($6 in American money!!!) It's absolutely absurd how cheap this outing was...especially for how much fun we had!


4) There is non-stop fan participation/entertainment. During the entire game, there was literally a guy (who played the role of a Korean Ryan Seacrest) basically doing different chants and songs to get the crowd pumped up and into the game. They have cheerleaders and dance teams and mascots that rival the ones in the MLB. It's literally a tecno dance party combined with good ol' fashion baseball!!


5) The Samsung Lions are INCREDIBLE! Currently in first place, we were fortunate to watch the Lions play one of the last 3 games of the regular season and pound their opponents 10-0. 

All in all, this is an experience I would take way more advantage of in the 2012 season this upcoming summer. 


To all my fellow Clevelanders, I also found out that Ryan Garko (who played for the Indians in the mid-2000's) was recently cut from the Samsung Lions. What a fall from grace!


If you enjoy baseball, this is a must-do outing!!!

Jesus & Pasta

One of the things that I am learning quickly here on the other side of the world is that it can be very easy to lose faith, struggle with God, and watch your spiritual life go to crap...even when everything else in life is great, possibly even better than before.

The reason I believe this happens is because of how much effort it takes here and how intentional one has to be in their spiritual discipline.

Korea is a very social environment, and there is very rare moments in life these days where I find myself alone, much less alone with God. When these brief moments do crop up, I usually find myself checking my Facebook page, getting caught up on e-mails, or sitting here typing a blog just like I'm doing right at this very moment.

In America, a spiritual life and faith-based discipline is difficult, no question, but here in Korea the training wheels come off very quickly. Because there are only a handful of English-speaking church services in the entire province of Daegu, the church selection is very limited. Unlike in America, we don't get the luxury to analyze whether or not we enjoy or relate to the sermons being preached, we can't much criticize the worship style or format we encounter. Our brothers and sisters in faith whom we come across in the church won't all rub us the right way, and we don't have the ability to isolate ourselves from them or pick and choose who we associate with and worship alongside and still expect to have any type of Christian community left.

And as depressing as everything above sounds, I love it! It's not easy right now, and I'm definitely not happy with how my faith has sort of been on "sleep mode" since I got here a month ago. However, the opportunity to grow seems so much more available in the midst of this hardship, and the beauty of diversity and the complexity of fitting into the church body reminds me much of how the Bible depicts the early church being. It wasn't a bunch of people who all thought the same way, had similar personalities, liked the same things, had the same color skin, spoke the same language, and had the same style of worship or understanding of God. The reality is, they had to make it work. They had to try that much harder. They had to discipline themselves that much more maticulously to be both in community and alone with God. I've never had more respect for the early church than I do at this moment, and I'm saying this as I try to lift my heavy leg back up onto the stirrup. I'm not even back on the horse yet. :)

There is such a beauty to behold in the idea that being the church has to be intentional, being alone with God and in the Word is a real-life discipline, and making the effort to grow spiritually could never be more challenging and self-sacrificing. There's a comfort in knowing that church (much like life) is tough, that Rob Bell and Francis Chan (and all the amazing spiritual voices in America and other Western cultures) aren't here constantly babysitting my infant faith. I'm excited to start the growing pains.

One of the best pasta dishes I've EVER had!! Thank you, Alban!!

On a much lighter and completely separate note, this week Sarah and I had the most INCREDIBLE Italian food I've ever had at place by Duryu Park called Alban. I'm not even exaggerating. I had this diced chicken pasta with spicey marinara sauce and sweet garlic bread (YES, SWEET GARLIC BREAD!!!). I want to apologize to all of my Italian peeps, but Koreans cook one of the meanest and most delicious dishes of pasta I've ever had. My good friend Drew corrected me though in that my wife's chicken pesto pasta is actually the best Italian dish out there, and I humbly stand corrected- Lebanese people cook the meanest and most delicious pasta on the planet!! Thank you, Sarah!

We have Korean friends...FINALLY!! :)

Don't ever let anyone tell you that a 2-day week of school is easier than a full one. Heading into our first class of the week this past Thursday, Sarah and I thought the Chuseok break would make for an easy week shortly before another weekend. Oh, how we were wrong. 


It turns out that when you have less time at your desk in a week, there's less time to prepare the lessons and therefore much more to get done in a much shorter period of time. Nevertheless, We both rose to the occasion and gave 110%, only to fall face-first into our beds much of this weekend from exhaustion. I was also able to hand out my first punishments to some bratty 6th graders this week, something that I am learning very quickly that many public schools here are not very familiar with. Punishments as consequences for misbehaving in class is not popular at my school, and therefore was very shocking to receive as a student. Nevertheless, it was almost immediately easy to see that discipline and punishment go a long way in keeping these kids in check. I am also in the midst of planning and organizing a week-long English Festival in October, something I was told about only days ago. However, I'm excited for the opportunity and am grateful for the responsibility being entrusted to me. Being an ESL teacher is a fun exhausting job. It's hard but the hard is what makes it great (a little quote from a great movie called "A League of Their Own"...thank you, Tom Hanks!)


Earlier in the week we had a chance to go to our first movie in the downtown Daegu theatre. We saw "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (which p.s. was AWESOME!!) and got a little taste of Western cinema. The nice thing is that all of the American films are in English with Korean subtitles. This was great news to discover, as I am personally anxiously awaiting the release of "The Hunger Games" movie this summer!! :)

Go see this film!!

One of the things that Sarah and I have been really wanting since arriving to our new home in Daegu is Korean friends, people our age who live in Korea, speak both English and Korean, and most importantly are fun and cool people who we enjoy being around. It's not that we don't love our other friends here (because they are our life support here, believe me!), but we were so excited when this week we were finally able to hang out with several of the native Korean teachers and just have fun in community with them.

Out for food and drinks with our awesome group of friends!!

We definitely hit the jackpot in this regard! This past Friday we went out with Sarah's good friend and co-teacher Sue and our other new friend Fintan's co-teacher, a really cool guy named Steve. We first went out and had some delicious Korean veggie pizza and rice wine, and then it was off to karaoke at one of the coolest and most affordable Norabongs I have ever been to. We spent 2 good hours singing English and Korean pop songs, singing and dancing our butts off, and just having a good time with quality friends that make up our diverse group of awesome people!!! :)

KARAOKE BABY!!

If I could give any relevant advice to new English teachers living in a foreign country, it is this: Be intentional about being in the midst of the culture you are in. It is very easy to make friends only with other Westerners, go to Western places, do Western things, and stay inside an American bubble on the other side of the world. All of these things are important to have because they give you a community of friends and support, but at the same time, you have to find ways to try new things, meet people different from you, and experience life in new ways. The bottom line- find time and opportunities to do both! Enjoy them both! Appreciate them both! BUT above all- DO BOTH!