It's Monday morning, 11 am. Troy just got done with his first class of the day, his "Peter Pan" class. Sarah doesn't start until 11:20. We had a wonderful week last week.

Sarah had a nice birthday. She got a new umbrella and some house slippers that match her polka dot rainboots. Also, she received some new stationary (Sarah loves stationary). It's great, there are all of these little school supply shops for kids, and they have notebooks, stickers, pens, pencils, little toys and calendars, and they are all brightly colored. Nothing really like that in the states.

Troy, too, celebrated his birthday. Sarah got him a Kendo sword (even though he wanted a pet turtle) and a Rubik's cube. The Rubik's cube has kept him busy ever since he got it. He has it almots figured out.

We had a day off on Wednesday for a holiday, so we went downtown (shinai-ro) and saw a movie and ate Burger King with one of the other teachers.

Saturday, we went rock climbing with one of the couples, Mark and Clare, who also teach at our school. Even though we didn't climb really high, we enjoyed it and want to take it up as a hobby while we are out here. Troy didn't have shoes that fit him, so he climbed barefoot. Needless to say, he got only 3 feet off the ground. Sarah needed some help as well, so Troy pushed her up the wall.

The biggest thing we have done is that we have found a church! One of the other teachers, Sharon, has been going to this church for a long time now, and we tagged along with her last weekend. Well, we went again yesterday and now Sarah sings in the choir and Troy does the powerpoint slides for the songs every other week.

Well, it's time for more class now. We hope all of our friends and family and our dog are doing well back home.

Take care!

- Troy and Sarah

Our First Week Teaching Korea

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Hello everyone!


We just finished our first week of teaching! Hooray for us. The week went by so fast, we can't believe we've already been here a week. Everyone has been so welcoming and our coworkers even threw us a welcome party.


The kids are really very funny and they keep us laughing all day long.
Some of my kids call me "Giant Teacher." Sarah had them pick out English names and some wanted to be called, "Madonna" or "Shaquille." We've been getting cute little presents from some of the kids, like fans, notebooks, or candy.


Yesterday was Sarah's birthday and I got her an umbrella and slippers that match her polka dot rainboots which she wears quite often here. (It'll rain until mid September) For her birthday we went downtown with an other couple here and explored the "Underground Grocers." It's small grocery store run by two Canadians who are "purveyors of all things NOT KIMCHEE." It's not a blackmarket store, but a grocery store in the underground level of the shopping complex.


We uploaded a few pictures of our cozy little apartment and a picture of the city we took while we were on a short hike. (Sarah thinks she might have poison ivy again) So next time we're going completely covered with pants and longsleeve shirts.
But aside from that, we've had a nice week. Our apartment is a five minute walk from our school, the grocery store, and our small shopping district. Downtown is a fifteen minute taxi ride and it cost us about $3.00.


Tommorrow is my birthday!!Hooray!! Not sure what Sarah's doing for me, but I've been hinting for four or five turtles. (They live in colonies in the wild).

We hope everyone is doing well back in the states and thank you for your warm thoughts, Uncle Paul, Kuya Todd, Aunt Karin & Monica, and Tom Pflederer.

Love,

Troy and Sarah

Hello from Gwangju!

Annyong Haseyo!

We have arrived in Gwangju, the City of Lights. Our flights were on time but after we arrived in Seoul we found out they cancelled the 10:30p bus to Gwangju. We stayed in a nearby hotel and rode the bus in the morning.

When we were walking around the airport Troy was bombarded with guys trying to get us in their taxi. But we found the government sponsored tourist information booth and they helped us out.

Our apartment is about 550 square feet. The good news is that we can clean it in about half an hour top to bottom. Food is pretty expensive here, a half a chicken costs about $4.50, but it turns out that we're in a really expensive part of downtown. So we're going to hop on a bus and look for the Bigmart, we hear it's like a walmart. Our boss is really nice and the other teachers have been in Korea for a few years. (We hope that they like us) That's all for now, we don't want to overload you with our blog right away! We love you and miss you here. We start training tomorrow, hooray!

- Troy and Sarah