Our home

So, a lot of people have been asking us "How's your apartment?", "What does your place look like?", and "Are you still living in the hotel?"

For our family back home, here are some pictures of our house, at least from the outside.



This is the front of our house. Most houses have a big old cement wall wrapped around them, to prevent people from breaking in, as well as providing protection from cars, as our little door to the house is in the street. Very common in Korea.



This is the gate to our house. It's actually 2 smaller doors built into 2 larger doors. Hard to explain, but the bigger doors are bolted down into the ground (for security), so we walk through the smaller doors to get into the "yard". The doors are smaller than us, so we have to duck through in order to get by. I'm used to it now, so I don't hit my head anymore.



These are the stairs connected to our house outside. Behind the stairs is our storage area, where we can easily fit our luggage and things. This is very nice so we don't have to keep it inside our house. No basements or attics here. It would be stacked against a wall, or take up part of our living space like last year...

The stairs lead up to our....




Rooftop! It's nice. We have a clothesline, a beautiful view of the mountains behind our house (a 5 minute walk), and when we experience spring and summer this year, it'll be one of our favorite hangouts. But for now, it's a little chilly.

So yeah, that's our house, at least the outside of it. The size of our house is about 12 pyoung. I have no idea how big a pyoung is. I asked, but could not get a response. Pyoungs are what carpenters and architects used to measure by, before everything became square foot, or square meter. Either way, our apartment last year was about 4 pyoung, so there ya go.

Hope all is well everyone! It's snowing here again today. 3 days last week, and then today. Too bad none of it is sticking.

- The Harkins

Big Bowling Party with Sarah

Because of the cold weather, Sarah had to end the season for Jindo Middle School's English Running Club. But she ended it with a bang. She threw a party for everyone at the local Bowling Alley, and it was a good time.

Sarah wanted to give a little something special to everyone, so she made a lot of photos, and even some shoe-shaped bookmarks to give to them. It was very sweet.

The teachers, their children, and the students really enjoyed the club. So they have all promised to start it up again in the springtime.

While bowling, some of the students and teachers asked for some tips. One of the local bowler pros was there, and demonstrated the "perfect" throw for everyone to practice. Sure enough, about 10 or so people tried it, and bowled very well.

Sarah and I both scored under 100. :(

But it's ok, we had a lot of fun.







Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We miss you!

- The Harkins

Thanksgiving Day With Troy's Workshop

Yesterday, I had my normal 3 hour teacher workshop. The teachers that I work with every week, along with a few others, meet with me and we talk about a lot of issues using only English. The idea of the class is to increase the English abilities of the Korean teachers here, so they can use English more effectively in their classes.

Since Thanksgiving is this week in The United States, I decided that for our workshop, the teachers were going to help me prepare a Thanksgiving meal. Together we made a wonderful feast. We had such a nice time making it together, and it was also very delicious!



Happy Thanksgiving everyone back home! We love you and Miss you!

- The Harkins

THE ULTIMATE RETURN TO GWANGJU!

Ok, here's the situation. Within 1 month, we will have to say bye to our friends Fred, Brian, Emily, Steph, Andy, Aja, and Howard.

Howard, actually, already left 2 days ago. Three more will be gone in a week. The other 3 by Christmas time.

So what did we do for that? Well, had some celebrations of course. This past friday, Sarah and I had the day off from school to attend a teacher's meeting in Gwangju. After the meeting, we met up with a lot of our friends and went to the foreign bar "Speakeasy" downtown, one of our hangouts last year.







Brian and Andy put on their last music performance in Gwangju. Brian plays guitar very well, and Andy has been playing the violin for over a decade now. It was great watching them play together on stage.

The next morning, Sarah and I saw all of our friends from Namhae: The Rileys and the Furlongs. We did some wall climbing in Sangmu, and then headed downtown for.......

Pictures!

Almost everyone that we have become friends with, minus Mel and Jules (we miss ya!) that are still in Korea came out for this. There was about 30 of us. Alan masterminded the photo idea. We all walked into a photo place downtown, and got a big group shot together. It was really beautiful. After it was all said and done, everyone got a big photo to take home.

We all went out for Galbi (juicy rib meat) and went to this bar called The Egg Bar. We call it the Egg Bar because one of the free appetizers you get is a sizzling hot plate and some eggs. You can fry the eggs right there in front of you on the hot plate.








The next day, we hit the Underground grocers (now above ground) and had some McDonald's breakfast as well (Bacon Egg and Cheese McMuffins here!).

It was one of the most perfect weekends we've had in Korea. And it was sad to say goodbye for now to our friends that are leaving...

But, they will all be in Jeju next year! Jeju is about a 2 hour ferry ride from Jindo. It's the large island resort in Korea. We feel very happy that they will be back, as we can all continue the journey we've been on together for over a year now.

We'll miss you guys, but we know we'll see you again!



- The Harkins

"Happy Birthday Sean!"

Our friend Sean is a little secretive about his birthday. Or, at least, we thought that. He told some people the end of the december, but wouldn't give a date. I heard from a friend through one of his students that it was 2 fridays ago. Well, I was wrong, but that didn't stop us from having a birthday party for him anyways. Even though it wasn't his birthday, we made it his birthday anyways.

The cake, the treats, everything you need for a good birthday. He got a big laugh out of it. And well, if he would have told us in the first place when his birthday was, then he wouldn't have gotten this birthday surprise.

- The Harkins

Sarah has a super fast Running Club

Throughout this semester, Sarah has been having an English Running Club every Monday and every Wednesday. But now that it's colder, it is about to come to an end.



She had a lot of her teachers and their children, along with some of the students come out every time and run with her. It is a really neat program. Sarah had them stretch using english words, then do fun runs and different types of exercises. She really enjoys doing the English Running club, and when it warms up again, she'll start it up for all the new students coming into Middle School.

Sarah's teachers really love having her at Jindo Middle School. They appreciate all the extra things she does, such as this English Running club. I was only able to come out to the running club once, but I had a lot of fun doing it. Maybe next year, I'll get to do it more as well.

- The Harkins

Troy and Sarah Teach English Town?!?!

English Town is this place in Jindo where twice a year, a specific class from one of the elementary or middle schools here come to visit and practice their english speaking abilities at a restaurant, the post office, the doctor's office, on an airplane, at the bank, and at a store.

There are so many props all over the place here. It's pretty funny watching the students try and use their English over fake money, or if they have a broken arm.
Sarah and I both taught the Restaurant area, where we had students practice ordering different kinds of food, as well as taking turns at serving the food. There was fake food on all of these plates. It looked so real though, and the students put their fingers on it all.





I got to go once with my Seokgyo Middle School Grade 2 class. Sarah had a whole week with her students from Jindo Middle School. Since Jindo Middle School is the largest on the island, she has many grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3 classes.

Here are some pictures.







We will get to do it again next year too.

- The Harkins