Korea is just oozing of kindness

I forgot to post something on Friday so here goes. I am currently teaching summer classes at my school and my poor colleagues have been roped in to co-teach with me. For most of last week, I had the privilege of working with Min Sang for the first time. We had such a great time in my class (or at least I did)! It was great to see someone who truly loves the children and just had fun with them no matter what. It's funny how sarcasm is also the same no matter where you are by the way...So on Friday I decided to let the students watch Toy Story 3 as a treat since they have all be immaculate perfect all week. At least that was my plan. Of course the movie wouldn't work on Korean computers. Min Sang tried fixing it for 15 minutes and then all of a sudden he disappears...he finally came back after what seemed like an eternity and behold, he has a whole new computer tower. He took his own computer and switched it with the one in my room. It didn't work. As if I didn't feel indebted enough, I help him return his computer after our day was done and he kept saying he would do it himself. I insisted. Then I found out why he kept saying I didn't want me to help him. His class was (no joke) 100 yards from my classroom. My school is so big, but I didn't realize how much bigger it is inside the building. After I helped him, he proceeded to thank me for letting him be in the class with me for the past 3 days. What?!?!?!!! He was such a heaven sent during those pass few days and he made me see teaching through a new set of eyes. He was such a blessing to watch with the children and I have no doubt in my mind that he is going to make such an impact in those children's lives. I kept thanking him over and over, but even then I don't think I could ever express how thankful I was. If this world was filled with teachers like him, the world would be filled with children who truly enjoy learning and will in turn, will want to make a difference in this world.

Next..Tonight I went grocery shopping. And there's something you have to understand about shopping here in South Korea..They don't give grocery bags away like they do in America. You have 3 options: pay for every single bag, use your own environmental friendly bag or you can use the boxes that the products were shipped in. I never had problems shopping before..I always managed..that is until tonight. I had managed to buy about $100 worth (which really is not a lot groceries compared to what you can buy back home, but I usually buy them on a need to basis). Imagine how much groceries you can buy with that money back home and divide it by half. It's still a lot.  I decided the best was to box it up. I knew there was a boxing station right by the exit so I decided to just go with that. Problem: no medium/large sized boxes. There was an elder man cleaning the trash who observed me with such a wonder..he was probably thinking how idiotic this foreigner looked trying to see if she can fit her groceries in small boxes..I finally turned to him and motioned of what I thought was the universal sign of 'big' and he pointed at the other boxes and I said 'No'. He said something to me and walked off...I wasn't sure if he meant to follow him or to go inside to the other station (all the way to the other side of the store). So I go inside and went to the other station and found boxes large enough for my things. I come back out a few minutes later and I walked pass him..He pointed at the big box he got and had put on the table. The poor guy went all the way back to the stock room and got me a box. I felt so awful. I gave him an "I'm sorry I can't speak the language and I'm an idiot, but thank you so much" look. I hope he understood that.

Well, that's it for now. I will now enjoy my teriyaki chicken that I managed to put together :)

Thankful.

So I realized that I'm a horrible blogger. I wish I was that type of person who is very diligent in keeping an updated blog, but I'm not. It's always either I don't have anything to say or I have too much to say that I need to keep it to myself. But here goes an epiphany..I'm going to post every single time someone blows me away with their kindness in Korea. Now I know that might sound idiotic, but Korean people really do blow me away with their kindness. People in America aren't THIS nice to strangers, yet alone..a foreigner who doesn't speak their language. Don't get me wrong, I do think American people are friendly..especially Texans. We just have that southern hospitality...but the type of kindness I've experienced here is the type of kindness that does not come naturally to most Westerners. After a few posts..you will see why I feel it's necessary to say these things..plus..there's nothing like being thankful to keep the spirits up and be reminded how blessed we are:

-I have a student that was in my 4th grade class (who I thought was not very fond of me) and is now in my summer class. He's adorable, but I haven't really bonded with him as much as I have with the other kids. As I was gathering my things today after dismissing them...he comes up to me and says "Wendy sim (abbreviation for teacher)" and gives me a can of cold coffee. He actually went and bought me coffee. How crazy awesome is that?! I really hope these kids know how much they mean to me and that they make my day.

-I needed to buy matches because I've been gone for too long from my apartment..therefore my gas range stove has decided that it can fire up on its own. So today, I went to my corner Family Mart to buy some. I awkwardly look around (people staring at me cause I'm a foreigner is something I'll never get use to), but to no avail. Thank goodness for internet access on phones. I quickly typed in "matches" on google images and showed it to the owner. She told me they don't have any then she bent down for what seemed like 2 minutes..found her personal box of matches and just gave them to me. Seriously?!?! Koreans might not think anything of it, but each time someone is kind to me here..it's the equivalent of going above and beyond in America.

--Last, but not least..I thank my Savior for continually putting people in my path who make me want to become a better person. I was really starting to doubt if extending my contract was a mistake, but things like this continually makes me thankful and realize how incredibly blessed I am.