August

 Craziness. In about a week we will celebrate 6 months in Korea. 6 months of adjustments and challenges for sure, but we are in a good place to celebrate the journey God has taken us on here in Changwon! We just returned from our first VACATION, which couldn’t have come at a better time for Traylor and I. A whole week of not being known as Hannah Teacha, and all the responsibilities that come with it! We started our vacay with a “Farm Stay” for the weekend with our church and then hopped on a plane and headed to Tokyo! Just a short, two hour flight and we were in a completely different country and culture. More on that in a bit.

August has been full of adventures in itself. I survived my first haircut in Korea. I’ve been trying really hard to grown my hair out, and was worried that they would give me the “Korean bob” like this:

..but I was pleasantly surprised when they did a great job.

The farm stay we did with our church was a ton of fun. We stayed in this cabin-like house ,where we slept on mattress pads on the floor and made “American S’Mores” and ate Korean BBQ. It was fun showing the Koreans how to do S’Mores, but the BBQ was equally as tasty. They showed us how to make traditional rice cakes, where we had to smash huge piles of steamed rice with a sledge hammer! Pretty awesome.

Great friends from South Africa

Making Rice Cake

Strong Boy

Strong Girl : )

Korean Style Sleeping
Midnight Choco Pie snack ; ) 

This month I witnessed my 4 year olds speaking in English to each other all on their own during a break time. They can definitely form sentences and understand almost everything I say, but they don’t typically speak English to each other on their own. Even though they were arguing about how many people can be at the sink to wash their hands (ha!), they were speaking ENGLISH to each other and that made me happy. Next month we will start introducing “sight” words and get them on the reading track!  Unbelievable how much they’ve learned in just 6 months.

Field Trip Fun!

TOMS

Sweet Chloe

Fun Glasses

This month I celebrated a friend’s birthday party with my first trip to a “Norebang” – or “Karaoke Room”. It was the BEST! Any song you’d ever want to sing, complete with disco balls in an individual room for you and your friends.  

People have started asking us, “What’s next?” since we’re reaching the half way point here in Korea. Our contract ends at the end of February, so we’ll need to start looking at what we’ll do after this year within the next few months. We have the option to stay if we’d like. Or—we could go home, or teach in another country.…ect. The options are endless and we would welcome your prayers. One thing we know is that God WILL make His plan known for us. Would you pray with us?

And now quick rundown on our fantastic trip to Tokyo! My AMAZING husband, as many of you know, is quite gifted at finding incredible deals. Well, he landed us a pretty amazing hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo, with the most amazing view of the city. We loved the cleanliness, friendliness and eclectic city of Tokyo. I loved the fashion and ramen, and seeing such a clash of old and new. Tokyo is obviously a world class city, that reminded me often times of parts of NYC. Then, you thrown in Japanese culture and history in the middle of the city…so awesome. Here are a few highlights!

Imperial Palace

View from our hotel!

That's all for now. We love you and miss you!