New Year, New Post, New Resolutions

This is a little weird to write because most of the people that read this are people I've spent the last two weeks with. None the less, this was something I wanted to do while on Christmas break.

I've spent the last two weeks here in Iowa for the holidays. I feel like after the fall I had, it was the right thing to do. Yeah, it would be nice to be in the Philippines right now diving and meeting some locals but family and friends are impo

rtant! I've seen lots of people while I've been here, driven lots of places and the thing I like the best, made some great memories. That is way worth the trip. As my friend Colleen said, the Philippines will always be there, your family won't be.

Last weekend I had the chance to reflect on my life in the past year. I actually shared a little with the church about what brought me to where I am and wha

t I've been doing since I left Iowa. I got to share my Korea story. I've already shared on here but that reflecting that I did made me realize something...my life had changed RADICALLY in the last year.

Last year at this time I was working in three different schools, had 800 students and had to commute almost 2 hours daily, lived at home with my grandparents, had a small social circle but wanted more, had half a relationship with a guy and was just wanting more with my life. I'm not saying that I was depressed, sad, emo or that

you should feel sorry for me. I just wasn't where I wanted to be in life. Once I realized that God had been holding out until I realized that I needed to do something for myself and fulfill a ten year dream of mine, my life did a complete 180. If there was a monthly dialougue from me about the last year, this is what it would look like.

January- CRAP. Why hadn't I thought of moving overseas sooner? Am I really going to do this?

February- I guess I really am going to do this. But asia...again? I left it in God's hands and this is what he gave me so it must be where I am supposed to

be.

March- There is so much to do to move overseas. I swear if I have to explain it to one more person, or answer the question of "So, South Korea huh?" I am going to scream.

April- Life is awesome...but I still have 800 students. I still have to write report cards, handle teaching 34 classes and have a life. I'm glad I found Bethany and Josh to hang out with.

May- My birthday present from Bethany=red hair. I don't recognize myself in the mirror. This is going to make me stick out even more in Asia...I'm not sure I want that. School is almost out...I still have to do report cards.

June- SCHOOLS OUT! I'm going to miss all the free hugs from the little kids.

JULY- I can't shop and pack anymore...I'm so tired of it. Mom got a pool, we like to lay out while floating on our tubes. Going away party was great. Sad my parents won't be there to see me off at the airport. HATED my brother for not driving me to the airport.

August- So, I live in another country and am pretty cool. Things feel good.

September- Cross country, lesson plans, moving in, building my second family, air conditioning. I am busy but I love it. Thinking about coordinating for our school wide fundraiser, DONGDAEWON. Volunteering for the fundraiser, realizing I am going to North Korea.

October- This is going to be a crazy month! Guam f

or cross country, 20 hour turn around then North Korea with the foundation. Super stoked!

November- Back from North Korea. Need breathing room, don't want to gush about it 20 times a day. I just want to be. So, Allison and I are going to Beijing for Thanksgiving. In CHIIIIINA. GREAT time in Beijing!

December- Feeling better about my NK trip, loved getting dressed up for the faculty Christmas party. I love all my sisters at the school. Glad we can make memories. Realizing this was one GREAT year.

So, there it is. I can only hope that the next year proves to be even more exciting. I can't help but think that my life has changed so drastically in

the last 12 months that it might not be done yet. Who knows what this year will hold. I hope and pray that I will continue to be blessed.

What's your new years resolution?

Kris10

Not yet...

Hey all! I know that some of you are wondering when I am going to post on my trip to North Korea. I will post about it, but not yet. I am still trying to digest the trip and get a good grasp on things. It was a very emotionally exhausting and hard trip to take. Therefore, I want to make sure I am in the right state of mind before I write about it. Just know that I am back safe and sound and am trying to rest up before my first full week back at school in 3 weeks! Wow! I am excited to see my kiddos! Much Love!

K

Going to the most reclusive country in the world? Count me in!

I'll get back to the subject line in just a minute but first let me say... I've become one of "them". What a horrible thing to have happened. I've become someone who doesn't update their blog! And, to think, I was getting such good praise for it. Well folks, let me tell you about life here as I hope it might give you a glimpse as to WHY I haven't updated (aside from the forgetfulness and procrastination...).

Cross country. Yes, it takes lots of time. Yes, it is COMPLETELY worth it. I love coaching. The team is doing great and feeling great. I truly believe that cross country is such a great sport simply because of the camaraderie that you build with your team. It was the same exact way in high school when I ran it too. I loved it because we had fun. We don't chase after a ball, we run, and talk with each other and share in the joy and in the pain. We don't say "open" or "pass" to each other we say "nice job" or "keep running hard, you've got this!" This is one of the reasons I love cross country. But back to the point, it has kept my BUSY! After school and the last month of Saturdays. On top of that, I am leaving tomorrow to accompany the trip to Guam for 5 day. I'm not really sure that can be counted as work but if THEY say so... For those who don't know, my family and I did live there for awhile. Somewhere between living in Japan and Washington. Growing up when I went through my "list" of places I've lived, I would sometimes get a puzzled face when I mentioned Guam. What is this place? Where is it? It's a US territory? Shenanigans.

School. Okay, so I only work 80%. I tried to stay away from school during my 20% off. That worked for a few weeks. Then, somewhere after Chuseok break, I realized it's nicer to go in early and just get things done. I don't worry about it after school and I can take my time. If something else comes up during that time, then I can deal with that. I kind of enjoy my unpaid time at work now. So, I'm spending more time at school. But, I am feeling a lot better about teaching here. I'm feeling like I can handle it now...aside from telling my students that a 6B pencil is the lightest...no dummy...it's the darkest. I bet my teaching partner thinks I am an idiot sometimes. I just haven't had to deal with these things in a few years with teaching in country schools and elementary so I need to be reminded about simple things like this :)

Friends. Yes, contrary to what my brothers mean ex-girlfriend once said, I do have friends. I love the fact that I get to spend so much time with people I love. It's great knowing I always have someone to hang out with, go out with or talk with. This school is amazing for that. Not to mention, I do try to keep up friendships at home as well, so I do spends lots of time trying to do that.

Last but not least, Dongdaewon. Dongdae who??? Let me susplain things here... Dongdaewon is a tuberculosis clinic in North Korea. Dongdaewon is also a MAJOR fundraiser that Seoul Foreign School does every spring. All schools participate and thousands upon thousands of dollars are raised for medicine for the patients at this particular clinic. The clinic is run by the Eugene Bell Foundation, which supplies Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) meds to people in need in North Korea. They are the only NGO (non-governmental organization) that does this specifically for MDR-TB patients in North Korea. The UN provides regular TB meds to NK's (north-koreans) but about 1-2% of patients in those clinics have MDR-TB. Naturally, some strands of infections are resistant to drugs, hence MDR. So they stay and take the UN's meds again and again. Each time, hoping for a different outcome, hoping to be better. Soon, these MDR-TB patients start to build up in clinics, and they start to pass their germs around. Lots die, some live for years with the infection, some give up hope, return to their families and spread the TB even more. So, fast forward and now MDR-TB is a problem in North Korea. I can't be too political about it, but most of us know that low immune systems from hunger, etc. doesn't help. So, Eugene Bell comes in and sets-up clinics for MDR-TB patients. Patients are tested every 6 months to see what their infection is resistant to and every 6 months they get a different box of meds. People donate the money for this. It's about 3-5,000 USD to save a life and help them. Without Eugene Bell, these people literally die. The meds are saving lives Before, Eugene Bell did all TB but MDR-TB has become a thing they needed to persue, so they are currently refocusing towards just MDR-TB. It has been a problem because it's much more expensive to treat. Thousands of dollars more...

So, in comes my story... At the beginning of the year, it was announced to faculty that a new coordinator was needed for this fundraiser. I initially really wanted to do it. What an experience that would be! Saving lives. I didn't want to get in over my head, so it fell out of my mind. Flash forward a month and my principal sends out an email of extra-curriculars. I see that the high school still needs a dongdaewon divisional rep. I talk to the other teacher doing it and she said the spot was filled already, but I should think about doing the coordinator spot because it still wasn't filled. Huh, I was pretty sure I had seen that in the prayers for the week too. So, I thought about, and set up a meeting with the head of school to talk about it. He told me about it, I thought it would be great. He also mentioned that I could go to North Korea with the foundation. Only problem, I had to pay....

So I prayed about it over the weekend. Sure I could do the coordinator job, but I really wanted to go to NK to see what we are raising money for so I could be more passionate about it. I didn't think I had the money. Soon enough, I felt God telling me to go and trust Him about not having the money. It would come. Has it come? Half of it. I'm still praying about it :)

Here I am one week away from going to North Korea. I will be gone one week. During my time there we will be traveling around to the clinics and taking spetum samples for the patients next rounds of meds, weighing people, giving them their new meds, etc. Medical humanitarian work. Great work. Life-changing work. Amazing work. My dongdaewon team got together and decided to raise socks for my trip too. Sock to give to the patients that is! So all the schools here on campus help a sock drive last week. It has been AWESOME to see what can be done in a week! Wow! We will have enough socks for all the TB clinics Eugene Bell supports.

For my trip north, I would love to have your prayers, thoughts and wishes for a safe, meaningful, GREAT trip to North Korea. I pray that God will use the delegation in great ways. I am so excited to see how our money can directly save a life. WOW. I'm sure I will have plenty of stories!

So, that's been my life lately. Cross country, school, friends, Dongdaewon. What a great combination :)

Getting used to the city... but still miss all that corn and blue skies!

I am super tired right now and ready for bed, but I am going to suffer through for all my fans out there. I feel like it has been awhile since I have written. School has gotten underway and so has the lovely workout routine called Insanity. It is a crazy cardio and strength workout that about 10-15 of us teachers do at 5:45 in the morning. It is great to get a good workout in (and trust me...it is insane, just youtube it) and it is also great to share the hurt and soreness with fellow teachers and friends. As my friend Misty put it, it has built a little community up. When one of us doesn't go, usually an email is sent out saying they are sorry. We all feel responsible for the group and we don't want to disappoint each other. Between school, that and coaching and running cross country in the afternoons, I am usually wiped out by the end of the day.

Last week we had class retreats. I was lucky enough to share a senior homeroom this year, so I got to go on a two-night trip. Whoo hoo... it was fun, just overwhelming. We went to a camp outside of Seoul about two hours. It was up in the mountains and it was gorgeous. It was so nice to be out of the city and in fields again. Made me a little homesick. That night (last Saturday) Colleen and I went out in Itaewon and tried to do a little shopping. I think the emphasis needs to be on tried because all the clothing stores have VERY small sizes. So, the only thing I ended up getting was a t-shirt from North Face. Bummer. That next morning, before church, we took a bus to go to Costco. It was raining when we left but it looked like things might clear up....boy were we wrong. We get outside with out huge carts of food and it was POURING. Needless to say, no cab wanted to pick us up, especially with all our stuff so, we waited for 45 minutes under a little cover area while the costco traffic man hailed us a taxi. Craziness... Sunday night the school took us out for a very nice traditional korean bbq dinner. It was delicious!

Fast forward a few days (and I am now no longer writing this at bedtime, but instead on Saturday afternoon)... Wednesday rolled around and so did the word typhoon. Now, last time I was in a typhoon I was 3 or 4. All I can remember was my brother leaving me at the neighbors while the power was out and falling asleep from crying so hard. That was also 23 years ago, so I'm not exactly sure on the details, but it kind of scarred me. No, I have no fear of storms, but that's just the memory I associate with asian storms like typhoon and monsoon. So this massive storm hits on Wednesday night and when I woke up on Thursday morning it was still going strong. I tried to go out on my balcony to see how strong the winds were but the door flew out of my hands and I was pelted with rain so I quickly ran back to my bed and skipped my insanity workout. When I awoke just a half hour later, I found out that school was cancelled. I'm used to snow days, not typhoon days. The typhoon left just a few short hours later but the damage was enough to close down the city. Lots of subways weren't able to work and trees and limbs were down. I spent the day doing errands and then hiked up the mountain with Misty. It turned out to be an amazing view! The typhoon cleared the smog and the sun was out and you could see for miles! WOW.

This morning I woke up at that ungodly hour to do insanity early so I could hit up the flower market with the other high school art teacher, Rosalee. The flower market is in Namdaemun. This is a more tradition market area with different shops and stalls with good wholesale prices. I would love to spend the day there but after flower shopping, we had to get those babies home! I can't believe how cheap the flowers were. Two bunches of lilies, sweet peas and these weird brain looking flowers for 12 bucks! Just got back from the art store and am going to make dumplings at Colleens house tonight. Great weekend so far!

Bonus question: who knows the name of these brain flowers?

PS- Somehow the pictures are backwards in the chronological order thing...

Sweet Peas?

Gotta spruce up the john somehow :)

Pretty lilies

Brain flowers

Namdaemun when it wasn't crowded

Misty and I on the top of Ansan Mountain (behind the school)

Another shot!

The gold building across the river is the 63 building-lots of cool things in there like Sea World

If you spot a blue building that is by City Hall

Looking east and a little north

Pagoda smiles!

We had no idea what the green spikey things were but it looked like a dandelion that you would blow on

Pre-sweat

Typhoon damage

Bulgogi dinner sides...yum!

More yumminess

Self-portrait

North Korea is somewhere this way

The most patient model ever...

Traditional Korean bedding on the retreat. I don't have a blanket so I had to bring my moms quilt...

Night View of Seoul

Life goes on

So here's where I am going to go philosophical. Get ready, hold on and strap in. I made a big realization today... Life goes on without you when your gone.

Maybe this is the first step into getting comfortable with my new home. I don't expect life to not go one without me but it's a realization that I needed to make. My decisions can have a big impact on peoples lives, but it can also have a very little impact. Sure, people miss me (ummm...who wouldn't :) just kidding...) but it doesn't change their day to day activities. It's hard to call someone who is 14 hours ahead of you and lives in a different country code. Physical distance can put a mental distance on relationships. Gone are the everyday, "this is what happened" and they are replaced by "I'm safe, I'm happy and that's about it". I think anyone living overseas understands that it's hard to explain your daily life to people on the other side of the world. It takes lots of explaining and by the time you are done, the story you wanted to tell seems like an exhausting task.

So, life goes on. People have arguments, start relationships and live. One way to bridge the gap of communication is to have a blog. There are no time zones with blogs because I post when I can and people read when they can. There isn't a cat and mouse game of when are meeting on skype? So...that was my thought. In no way is it a negative thought, it's just a realization. I can no longer stop by mom's house on the way home from school or see family friends in the grocery store. Now, my life here is that, just my life. The spiderweb of familiarity is gone and is replaced with the web of SFS. I love you all and hope that you continue to update me a little on your lives back home. I don't want to be a complete stranger when I come back! On a side note, I do have a skype account (kris10coffelt) and my phone number is 82-2-338-1326. Oh, and my address is Kristen Coffelt Seoul Foreign School 55 Yonhi-dong Seoul, South Korea 120-113 :) I love mail, even if it's just a letter, photo or card!

In other Seoul news...school started. Kids here are very different than those back home. They listen, answer questions and do their homework. Oh and the best part...they have respect. It's a dream here. Cross country started already too and I can feel the shin splints forming... stupid body. I got a massage last weekend that was so rough that I bruised, went to a great church this morning with wonderful, friendly people, made a solo taxi journey to the store and back, had mexican food and margaritas, ordered pizza, ate kimchi, dumplings, octopus and so many other things. Last night Misty and I hung out and took some pictures from the roof of my apartment building at the seoul skyline. Sorry the pictures aren't better. Oh, and am planning on Beijing during thanksgiving. Can someone say great wall?!?!?

Love you all,

K

Countdown in less than 5 days...

Let me first say that moving to a different country and getting ready for the new school year is a bit difficult... or maybe the better word would be... overwhelming. It's hard to remember to get your school stuff ready when your still focused on getting the apartment ready and realizing that you just moved halfway around the world. I miss my cat (and I guess my family and friends too but they aren't as cuddley and soft).

Went to E-Mart yesterday for the first time with Colleen and Tish (Colleen's penpal from the school). We had a blast! 9 floors of Korean target! We started at the top with a little dinner and then proceeded down the escalators with our carts. It wasn't even as crowded as Costco was last week. It was a little crowded when we got to the third floor and the grocery part of the store started. I got some sushi from there and ate it for dinner tonight, it was decent! I didn't know everything I ate, so if you can tell me, maybe you'll get a prize.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the cute fish soy sauce bottles that came with the sushi

In other news, I finally got my apartment almost done! I only have a box going the school and a box going to the dump to get rid of! WHOO HOO. Two weeks later....or almost two weeks. Ha, it is a good feeling. Now, I can more properly focus on school. Enjoy my apartment! Love you all!

K