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!