update... sorry it's been so long!

Family and Friends, how are you all?!?

I am now in Suwon, South Korea, which is about an hour out of central Seoul. It is a great area of the city and the people are just as friendly here as they were where I lived last week. I am living with a wonderful young family with three kids (ages 3, 2, and 10 months). The husband works for a German company and actually speaks English quite fluently. Last week I struggled to communicate at all with my host family so it has been great these past two days to have an English-speaker in the family. I also have two of my teammates with me this week which has been fun.

I have realized that the Korean food is much easier to handle this week since I now recognize most of what I eat and the tastes are familiar even if they are not my favorite. We had 16 new teammates join us from the States this past weekend and I already feel like I'm adjusted here and I'm sympathizing with them, remembering how it was my first few days. It's nice to be the experienced one now...

The Korean countryside is beautiful. I have been surprised how much of the time I feel like I am back in the States except that I can't read the signs. The city is just as developed as ours are, including the huge digital screens on the sides of buildings that flash advertisements and such. There are Starbucks on every other city corner, and other little coffee shops on the corners in between. There are 7-elevens everywhere as well as Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robins more frequently than we have in America.

Teaching has been wonderful. I so love my children, and I realize how much I look forward to working with them in my career someday. It is definitely challenging to spend three hours each morning teaching an English class to kids who may or may not understand what I am saying, but I do my best to speak S-L-O-W-L-Y and V-E-R-Y S-I-M-P-L-Y! Last week I had a class of 12 kids, all age 6-8. This week I have a class of 30 students, ages 8 and 10 (the 9-year-olds are in a separate group for some reason...), and they wear me out!!! They are great, though, and they give me lots of love when I'm not telling them to L-I-S-T-E-N and L-O-O-K A-T M-E (with hand gestures and everything!)!!

I have been having a wonderful time and have loved getting to know my teammates. This evening several of us hung out on the front steps of the church for a while and sang songs with a teammate who knew several songs on the guitar. Some of the random "chill" times have been my favorites! It also makes me miss my friends back home, however, and I love to think of you all.

I hope you are all doing so well, and I hope to hear from you soon. Feel free to write me here or to write me an email at hofediddy@yahoo.com. I check my email almost every day and love to hear from people at home. May your week be filled with God's joy and love!

p.s. Happy Birthday, Abby! I love you, sis!

I enjoyed shrimp tonight...

Well, tonight I enjoyed shrimp for the first time ever. I'm not willing to say "I like shrimp" yet, but tonight was a good start. I certainly have not gotten over the whole seafood thing yet... too many eyeballs staring at me, tentacles in my bowl, and raw fish jiggling around, but the shrimp was okay.

Sorry this one is short, but a friend of my host family just stopped by to meet me and hopefully speak a bit of English! :) Hope you all are doing well, and I will try my best to write again soon.

Life here is certainly interesting to say the least, but I am alive, healthy, happy, and filled with the Lord's strength!

Love you all!!

At the end of Day 2

Wow. I have been here only two full days and it feels like I have been here for at least a week. In fact, we haven't even begun working yet! The ESL (English as a Second Language) Camp starts tomorrow morning and will go from 9-5 everyday. I will have a class of 15-20 students this week all by myself and will be running a 3-hour-long class teaching English. Then I will help with two or three other classes in the afternoon until camp is over. If you're looking for things to pray for, you can definitely add my new teaching adventure to your list of requests!

Korea is amazing. It is a first world country and I am realizing that people's lifestyles are really quite comparable to ours in America. The differences include very narrow streets with many cars!!!, a very confusing language, and some crazy food! I was served toast with peanut butter for breakfast this morning and have never been so thankful for food I like! We have had lots of rice, LOTS of kim chi (spicy cooked cabbage... look out!), excellent beef and pork, a little fish, some seaweed, and the list goes on. Nothing is familiar though... I can say that with some confidence!

The house I am staying in is very nice. The family has given me my own bedroom with a bathroom connected, and they are very generous. I have a hard time communicating with them, but we laugh a lot at the language barrier and do our best at acting stuff out. There is a 27 year old girl here who speaks some English and she is able to help me out some. She actually gave me several pair of earrings last night that she designed herself!

Anyway, enough about me... I hope you are all doing well. I would love to hear from you! I have internet access for this week at least, so let me know how you're doing.

Miss you all!

45 hours to take-off

I'm writing this partly to be sure I know how to use this program before I leave.

As a side-note for anyone reading this, I will have my phone with me in Korea for emergencies and so that I can occasionally let my parents know I am still alive. Keeping my phone on while I'm there, however, means that I will be charged international charges for any calls and/or text messages I receive while overseas. I am asking that people please rely on this blog or on email to communicate with me rather than calling or texting me. Thanks for your consideration in this.

Please consider me in your prayers over the next month and a half as I will be stretched mentally, spiritually, and even physically (I'm not a big fish eater! - yikes...).

Much love,

Karissa

Korea - here I come!

I leave in less than a week for Seoul, South Korea. I am getting so excited for the adventure that lies ahead, though I feel completely unable to prepare for such a foreign experience. I covet your prayers in this time as I prepare physically, mentally, and spiritually for this trip. I will be teaching English and introducing our Western culture to many children, but most importantly, I will be looking for any opportunity I get to talk about Jesus and share His love with these beautiful people.

Thanks for your support and encouragement! Thanks also for your investment in this opportunity for me to be a part of the expansion of God's Kingdom here on Earth!