The big office move

Well, the day has finally arrived. It's moving day for our Adult Textbook Office, as well as for the other two textbook offices on campus. We first hear about a possible move back around the end of January. A man came into our office one afternoon and talked to my Korean coworkers. When he left they told me that we might have to move because Kinderest (the preschool/kindergarten program in the building next door to ours) was needing more space and wanted to expand into our building. At that time the man said that either our office or the one below us, the Junior Textbook Office, might be moving to give Kinderest more space. A week or two later it was confirmed that one of the two offices would indeed be moving. And another week or two down the road it was decided that both our office and the junior office would be moving out of our building and into a new one together. Finally we heard that all three textbook offices, Adult, Junior and WinPlan (for high school students getting ready for school tests and entrance exams), would be moving and merging into one conglomerate office. Needless to say, none of us in the ATO liked this news. We all love our small third-floor office with it's floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors facing the southwest. We love the closeness we feel when we're all working together in the same room. We love the view. We love our worship times where we feel safe to share our thoughts, concerns and problems with each other. We love the quiet and solitude of working in a four-person office.

The Adult Textbook Office 

My cozy little cubicle, inherited from my friend Renee

The view from our office looking toward the hospital

The view from our office looking toward the Academic Office/church and the Language Institute

But, no matter how much we love our little office, the final say was made by someone who didn't ask our opinions in the matter. So on Monday and Tuesday we began packing up our many textbooks, deciding which ones to keep and move with us and which ones to recycle. Honestly, the past two days were the worst ones I've experienced in that office, mostly because of the numerous people popping in and out, all talking as loudly as they wanted and not realizing that some people (me) need a nice quiet atmosphere in which to work. Yesterday morning I was the first person in the office and snapped a few pictures of the mess so far. I was also the last person to leave at night and I took a few more, the final pictures I'll ever take in that office.

Packed boxes everywhere

Stacks of things to be recycled or thrown out

Empty bookshelves

My poor cleaned-out cubicle and desk

Our office has a very major deadline for a project that was initially supposed to be completed at the end of December, then got pushed back to the end of February and now is staring us in the face at mid-March. My two other coworkers (the third one finished working at our office at the end of February) helped to move the office today, but I'm working at home, desperately trying to finish the Teacher's Manual for the Elementary Level of the Jeju Project. I heard the moving trucks start up this morning, but didn't make it outside in time to snap any pictures, but I did take a break around 2 p.m. and walked up behind the Korean church to find our new office. What a shock! It's bigger than our old office, but not by very much. I have no idea how three offices and 20 workers will ever fit in there! I'm sure it'll work somehow, but it sure wasn't in working order this afternoon.

Our new building (we occupy the top floor, while there are guest rooms beneath us)

Our tiny new office

The ATO area of our new office (front three desks)

MJ, the head of the ATO, in good spirits despite a hectic move

So there you have it, our move as documented as I could achieve. I'm really sad to leave our old office, not only because of the coziness and comfort, but because of the memories and the wonderful worship time we had there. I'm wary about trying to work in an overcrowded and potentially noisy office like the one we've moved in to, but I'll make the best of it. Maybe I'll even make new good memories there! Even so, I'll miss you, old third-floor office. Thanks for all the good times you gave me during these past two months!

Christmas and Boxing Day

Our Christmas was enjoyable and relaxing! We especially loved being able to celebrate together for the first time ever! It sure beats only being able to chat on Skype... Christmas evening we had Fabrice over for a Christmas movie (Elf!) and then he took us to a department store, La Galleria, not too far from our apartment. We enjoyed the views from the eighth-floor balcony, browsed through a completely Korean bookstore (not my favourite type of bookstore...all the covers looked so appealing, but I couldn't understand one letter...), and ended up in the basement eating amazing American food!

Boxing Day (December 26 for those of you who aren't familiar with the Commonwealth holiday) was literally boxing day for us. We started to pack up our things and do a final cleaning of our apartment. In amongst the cleaning we also managed to find time to take Fabrice out to Toujours, a local patisserie and coffee house, for his birthday. Tuesday we continued packing, cleaning and moving furniture back into the rooms we found it in and today our apartment is empty of all our items (except the row of suitcases standing near the door) and ready for the next set of Seocheonan institute teachers to move in. We'll miss living in our spacious apartment and walking through the now-familiar streets of Cheonan, but we're excited for our 5-day sightseeing vacation to Busan, a city in southeastern Korea. Next term will be very different for us, but I think it will be good, too. Please pray for us as we move and begin a new chapter of our lives in South Korea.

Finished Christmas calendars (we managed to find them in the international aisle at E-Mart)

Eiffel Tower & Ferris wheel in front of La Galleria

Hedge bunnies

Smurf village (with oddly-sized animals)

La Galleria looking up from the ground floor

La Galleria's changing light walls displaying Christmas trees and snow

Christmas-themed blueberry cheesecake from Paris Baguette

Scrubbing the cupboards
(That purple bottle is the best all-purpose cleaner I've ever used! Sadly I can't read the name...)

The line between scrubbed and unscrubbed...

Jonathan vacuuming 

Tourjours bakery below, coffee shop above

Interesting coffee descriptions... (we decided to stick to hot chocolate and herbal tea)

Coffee beans on display

The infamous Kenyan coffee (refer to menu above)

An improvement on the traditional North American right-side-up Christmas tree 

Fellow Seocheonan teachers outside Tourjours - Fabrice, Ali & Jonathan

Neat circular walking bridge around a large intersection

View from the top of the walking bridge

Suitcases lined up ready to be shipped to Seoul while we head to Busan for the rest of our term break

Last picture of our apartment as we walked away to catch a taxi to the KTX station

Thoughts on moving

On Mondays I like to begin my classes by spending a couple minutes asking my students about their weekends. This Monday after all my religion students told me what they did on the weekend one student asked me what I did. I excitedly told them about my first trip to Seoul. They were interested to hear what I thought of Seoul and were delighted when I said that I thought smaller Cheonan was much more to my liking (although I will never be able to think of even Cheonan as a small city). Then one of my students, Linda, said, "Did you go to Seoul to see where you'll be living next term? You're moving there when this term ends, right?" Linda is in my religion class at 10 a.m. and then moves over one room at 11 and takes Jonathan's religion class. She answered my unspoken question before I had time to ask it. "Jonathan mentioned that you were moving there last week," she told me. Yes," I replied to her questions, "we're moving to Seoul once this term is over." I told my other three students that I would be taking over my friend's job in the adult textbook office at the main institute in Seoul once she leaves to go back home. "No," Neo said when I concluded my story, "you can't leave so soon. You just got here!" Other students chimed in about how much they would miss me and I said the same back to them and assured them that Jonathan and I plan to come back to Cheonan once in awhile whenever we have weekends off and that we will try to visit them when we are in town.

The next day in religion class, when I asked for prayer requests or thank yous, Neo piped up, "My request is that you will be able to stay here in Cheonan." He had been my only student the first day of religion class until more students joined our class the following day. How in the world could I tell him that working in Seoul at the textbook office was my choice, not something the institute was forcing on me? How could I admit that before I even left the U.S. I wondered how I would get through two months of teaching before I could begin my "real" job? I stumbled through some sort of answer and we had prayer and started our lesson for the day. But while thinking about the simple and heartfelt prayer request after class, I realized that I'm really going to miss all my students and especially my religion students. Religion class is much more relaxed than the English classes. There is time to really get to know the students, really learn what they think about the material they're being taught. I have learned so much from them, about spiritual matters, everyday life and Korean culture. Although I'm looking forward to beginning work more in my field of study, I was startled to discover that I think I'm really going to miss teaching. I'll miss getting to know my students, learning about their lives and being able to encourage them and have them encourage me as we go through our daily trials. 10 a.m. religion class, thanks for being the best religion class I've ever had and for teaching me so much in only two short months!