#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 74 - Holiday

Today at 4:30 pm I began a six day weekend :-). That makes me happy. The fact that I spent the first hour of that weekend at school finishing a small project to get a tiny bit ahead of the game is neither here not their. 

Also today I saw the game dodgeball for the first time. Interesting. I don't ever remember playing that game as a kid. We were more interested in games like tackle bull-rush. 

Here is a pic of my kids. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 73 - Tuesday.

Not sure how to take a picture of this, but the thing that made me happy today is that I'm finally caught up at work. I went home today with everything I needed done by the end of today completed. 

It's such a nice feeling. Especially since I've felt continually behind the eight ball in the last few weeks. 

Starting tomorrow I can start to get ahead!!! 

That is an even better feeling!!!!!!!

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 72 - Toast

Monday - it's really starting to become difficult to find happy things to talk about. Not because I'm sad but because I'm trying to talk about something different everyday. But I think I've said that before ...  ;-)

However something that has been making me happy recently has been the fact that I've found a faster way to get to work. Now I can get there in less than 30 minutes. Before it's new route my fastest time was about 45 mins. 

Even better, right next to the place where I transfer from the bus to the train their is a Toast Stall. That is a stall that makes and sells Toast. 

Toast is basically an egg whipped up with some sliced cabbage and other mixed veggies and fried as a fritter. This is then slapped between two bits of lightly fried bread accompanied by ketchup. And if your Korean there will also be a generous sprinkling of raw sugar along with the ketchup. As a foreigner I skip the sugar ... 

Toast is another of my favourite street foods, one I shall have to be careful not to indulge in too often in the next few months or I'll break my tight coming-back-to-NZ-and-Oz budget. 

Here is a picture of making toast. 

And here is a picture if the finished thing. 

Stole them both from the internet. I really got to remember to take more photos.  

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 71 - Nothing

Sunday; my happy thing was staying home all day!! I don't know how long it's been since I had a day where I didn't catch a bus or a train or a taxi to some where. 

Sunday I didn't go anywhere - except the corner shop to buy rubber gloves and vinegar. Cleaned in some obscure hard to reach places and found three ugly fat spiders. Thankfully the vacuum cleaner was close to hand do I sucked them up and left it running until I was positive they could not crawl out again - ever!!!!

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 70 - HouseWarming

Sabbath was a happy day for is many reasons. 

First, it was Sabbath. Don't really need another reason to be happy. 

Second, I spent the morning and afternoon at church with my friends. 

Third, I had my housewarming party with my Korean friends. It was so lovely to see everyone altogether. Only one friend was missing. 

Not sure why everyone looks so stern since we had such a lovely time. Starters with snacks at my place, and my homemade hummas was enjoyed by everyone. Snacks evolved into an impromptu picnic, complete with newspaper for a table cloth when Jessica brought one if my favourite things, 부추전, to add to the party. Then we went out for the rest of dinner and dessert. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 69 - Just A Happy Day

Friday, nothing startling happened, nothing out of the ordinary. It was just one of those lovely generally contented days. 

I went to my friends house in the evening for Friday night Bible Study. Since it was just the two of us he put on a video.  It really was interesting - or at least the first few minutes were ... I went to sleep on his couch and woke up again as the credits rolled. 

Still it was a happy day. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 68 - Feet Up

We've been studying circulation in the last couple of days at school. Today I got the students to do an experiment where they measure their resting and active heart rates. 

Resting heart rate requires the students to keep very still for 2 minutes. 

This is how one class chose to relax...

Funny thing is they all felt guilty doing it, and worried the Korean teachers would see them. So I don't think the pose was a restful as they imagined. 

Another nice thing was having a twenty minute chat with a lonely young man on a bus. He's ethnically Korean but grew up in Australia. He's back in Korea to study but feels like he doesn't fit anywhere. He's not exactly Korean, but he's not really a foreigner either. If you feel inspired please pray for Han. 

All up it was another happy day. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 67 - Today's Happy Thing.

Today's Happy Thing is easy. Spending three hours with my best Korean friend!!

We ate Shabu Shabu for dinner. 

Here is a link to information about Shabu Shabu. http://crazykoreancooking.com/recipe/korean-style-beef-hot-pot-beef-shabu-shabu

And here is a picture - stolen from the internet because I forgot to take one when we were eating. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 66 - Not Dying.

I'm happy to report that I succeeded at not dying today too. Quite happy about that. Also happy about the fact that I didn't have to try very hard due to the fact that I'm feeling quite a lot better. 

Another thing that makes me happy is my nice shiny sink! Thank you FLYlady. So glad I found you all those years ago. 

Here is a picture of my kitchen bench and sink. 

And here is my stove top. 

That is my entire kitchen. 

This apartment is not much bigger than my bedroom in my old house on Walkers Rd. Sometimes it's hard to remember that I ever even lived all by myself in a three bedroom house on a quarter acre block. But I actually don't miss it - except for the roses - I love my teeny tiny hobit hole. Will post a video sometime soon. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 65- Caring Advice

Currently I'm a bit sick. To the point that today at school I set my kids work and then sat at my desk and tried not to die. Was quite successful at the not dieing. 

Anyway my kids were quite concerned and kept asking me if I was going to the doctor. When I told them I wanted to go to a traditional Korean doctor who deals with herbs rather than western drugs they got quite excited and started giving me their best advice about which herbs I should take. 

The general consensus was for ginseng. Which we all agreed tastes like dirt. Several of them even drew me pictures (reminiscent of the photo I stole from the internet below) on the margins of their note books to check that I knew which herb they were talking about. 

They are 10 and 11. So cute!!! And nice to know they care. 

PS I'm starting to get better now, so don't worry. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 64 - Another Adventurous And Happy Day

Today began with another adventure on a bus. Was going into Seoul to meet a friend. And was not paying attention to my buses again. Jumped on at my normal stop, the one that takes me to work, and heads out of Seoul. Didn't realise I was going the wrong way for a good 10 -15 minutes. On the plus side I did discover a cute little town that I want to go back to and explore more fully. 

When I finally met up with my friend she took me to her Korean Culture group. This is a group of ladies who meet once a month to practice traditional Korean Culture. I got to be part of the tea ceremony and to listen to my own personal concert of High Class court music. Was very interesting. And I sang them one verse of Pokarekare Ana. 

Afterwards we had dinner at a lovely semi traditional restaurant. 

All together it was rather an unexpected treat. 

This is the traditional house where the meeting was held. 

And here are the ladies and the tea ceremony. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 63 - Friends, New and Old

Spent Sabbath with my lovely friend Luleka. Wonderful time chatting and catching up. She has decreed that I must wear a dress for her wedding. And is even proscribing the style. Lol, I told her I shall wear it just for that one day and then put it in a box. So she better take a photo to remember such a momentous occasion. 

In the evening we went out for dinner with one of her friends and his friend. Lots of interesting conversations. 

Then walked along the river. 

Another happy day. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 62 - Happiness is ...

I know I'm behind on the happiness file again.

Saw this lovely plant in a flower shop

I briefly considered buying it as it reminds me of home very much. But if decided against that course if action since it would be condemning the plant to a painful and protracted death. Will just have to find some cut hydrangeas to bring home and enjoy for a guilt free week instead. 

Also I went to the big big supermarket near my school. There I found a lady selling these. 

We had a long long chat. She is a Korean who lives in California and she is starting a business importing avocados to Korea. She was selling them for the best price I have seen in Korea 2000won per abaca do. I wish her luck, and I hope she is successful because then I can get avocados reguarly. I refuse to pay the normal price of 5000won each. 

At the end of our conversation she gave me a hug. I realized I've been missing hugs. So look out my friends I plan to hug you all much more often. 

Happiness is the small things in life. 

Between The Happys: Should You Stay On The Boat?

Here in Korea there has just been a major tragedy with the sinking of a ferry that was travelling between Jeju Island and Incheon City. Over half of the people on board were high school students.

Here are a couple of links to news articles: CBSNEWS BBC

And here is an article that someone posted on Facebook. It's very thought provoking ...

The Sinking of Sewol ... by anon.

A Korean newspaper clip said that:
-----------

"An onboard announcement telling passengers to stay inside the ferry Sewol as it sank off the coast of Jindo Island, South Jeolla Province, appears to have reduced passengers’ chances of survival.


Video clips taken by the survivors show that onboard announcement repeatedly told passengers to stay inside, despite the vessel continuing to tilt."
----------------------

It's big question for many of us, including me, who despite the danger of dying in a sinking boat, warns them to stay and not to leave. There is ample time for them to be saved.

What if they had been warned earlier to leave the boat? Is it not the duty of those who have knowledge about the ship to help to get out of it?
Who will not feel bad or even angry about it?

But before we condemn those people who made that announcement, let us take in another point view.

This sinful world is no different than ill-fated Sewol, and there are people in this planet need to be warned that this world is in a sure danger of sinking to destruction.

Will my actions and words to my fellow human beings declares that there is no danger to stay here in this world, and its okay continue to pursue or own dreams or personal ambition, accumulate wealth without considering that everything that we physically owned here is just temporary and soon will be gone?

Is it not the duty of a person who profess by the name "Adventist" to warn
the others that there is an "end" to come and placing our priorities in getting comfortable in this world will brought us into doom?

The people in the world are perishing and the consequences are irreversible and eternal. Let this event serve as one of the numerous reminders for us that we need to made that "announcement" - that there is a Savior who is waiting for us to rescue from this world sinking in sin.

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself." Eze. 3:17-19

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 61 - Spring Smells

Yesterday most of the tests I graded talked about the beauty of spring flowers. Today I found a lilac tree. Lovely to look at and even better to smell. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 60 - More Grading

Finally finished marking students English tests. Here are a selection of answers - the ones that made me smile. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 59 - Jesus is Coming

One thing that makes me happy is that I know that one day soon - very very soon - Jesus will come in the clouds with all His angels to take the people who believe  in Him back to Heaven. And the devil will die!!!!!  I can't wait until my struggle with temptation is over!!!!

Today all over Facebook are pictures of the blood moon from last nights eclipse. 

Three times in the Bible the prediction is made that just before Jesus comes the Moon will become as blood. I think this fulfills that ...

Joel 2:31 

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Acts 2:20

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:

Revelation 6:12

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

My prayer is that when the day comes I and all my friends will be ready and eager to meet Him. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 58 - Grading

Grading tests is NOT my favourite activity!!!!! but one thing that made me happy on Monday is that it finally seems to sunk with my students that snakes do in fact have a backbone. 

We've been studying classifying animals, in their homework almost all of them said snakes were an example of an animal without a backbone. Wrong!!!! 

It's true what they say, a picture IS worth a thousand words. One snake skeleton picture later and my students all proclaim that snakes have backbones. I taught them something. ^^

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 57 - Just A Delightful Day

I had to go back to Itaewon today to pick up the shoes I ordered last week. While there I decided to check out the High Street Market to see if I could get Weetbix. They didn't have any. ㅠㅠ But, going up the stairs to the shop I saw this poster ...

 

And this ...

Both of which made me rather hopefully!! 

Inside I found these... 

And ...

I only brought one if each - and I virtuously shared the LnP. 

Then I wen to a friend's Birthday party. There was ice cream cake. Here in Korea ice creak cake is sold with dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) to stop the cake from defrosting while you carry it home. All being nerdy types we most positively had to play with the dry ice once the cake was in the freezer ...

I discovered that the dry ice carbonates the water used to make it 'steam/fog' and that is quite tasty. 

And then after cake and pizza I ditched the party and joined three other friends for a delightful evening of girl talk. And I learned four new Korean words. 

   천천히 slowly

   끔찍해 terrible 

   이상해 strange and bad

   완전 ... 해 very - more slang than 마니

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 56 - Pure Pleasure

Sabbath, my happy thing for yesterday is easy to pick. Actually I have three happy things. 

1. Sitting on the steps in front of my church singing hymns in the gathering dusk with my friends. We even sung some Christmas carols. 

2. A deep study of God's word with those same friends. 

3. Finished the evening with a wonderful massage - best I've had in Korea - organised by one of my lovely Korean friends. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 55 - Same Same

It's getting difficult to figure out what to put here for my happy day challenge. Not because I'm not happy but because as I am getting into a routine at my school the things that make me happy are also becoming routine, and I am endevouring to find something different to talk about each day. 

This post is for Friday, two days ago. And really truly nothing new and exciting happened. But lots of things made me happy. 

1. I had a perfectly lovely day at school, taught some of my students how to play pea-knuckle aka thumb wars. Then I taught them how to make it multi-player, three or four people involved in one battle, or one person playing two games at once, one game on each hand. 

2. I saw a kid walking on tip toes who was literally on the tips of his toes. Never seen that before - he was trying to be sneaky and he actually moved just like pink panther on the cartoon. I almost laughed out loud - which would have totally destroyed his sneakiness. 

3. I found a shop that is open when I catch my bus in the morning which sells  김밥 (Korean style sushi which is called kimbap) Guess what I'll be having for lunch fairly reguarly. 

4. Enjoyed a Friday evening opening Sabbath with a couple of friends. We listened to a sermon from YouTube (http://youtu.be/lumpoXQBmSk) about how God was evident in the Second World War. 

5. Had fun with my classes at school. 

6. Enjoyed chatting with my coworkers and getting to know them better. 

7. Loved the fact that Friday heralds Sabbath!!!!!

For a picture here is 김밥. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 54 - Clay

Today my after school class of grade ones were making things with clay. One of the students gave me this, saying with a big smile, "Teacher, I made you." 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 53 - Pardon?

A lady I saw on the bus was wearing a shirt that proclaimed, "KEEP CLAM AND CARRY ON." I took a sneaky picture. 

Brief moment of amusement in another happy day. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 52 - Things in Pots

I always find it interesting to look at the plants people  choose to put in pots here in Korea. Fairly frequently I will find some plant leading a pampered life in a pot that is considered to be a weed and is routinely destroyed back in NZ. That always amuses me. 

Check out pot number two. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 51 - Thinking About God, Life, Work and Marriage.

Thinking deep thoughts always makes me happy. And right now they are coming at me from so many directions. 

In my new job I have three foreign coworkers who I work closely with and all of them have challenged me to think in new ways. 

I'm currently reading Ezekiel with a friend that is challenging me to think more deeply about prophecy. 

The thinking I want to talk about this evening comes from the book I'm reading at the moment, Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. 

There was one line that I read this evening on the subway that jumped out and bit me on the nose. It crystallised a lot of thoughts that have been coagulating in my head for the last couple of years. 

I think that the very last bit describes many Christians. I know it has described me. They/I want a God who tells them/me exactly what to do. 

   "Do this job." 

   "Marry this man." 

   "Go there."

   "Don't do that."

But totalitarianism is not God's style. He believes in free will and freedom of choice. Something I have found very frustrating in the last two years. Suddenly I had too many options and it felt like God had stopped talking to me. He wasn't giving me any clues about what to do. While I just wanted to know the one 'right' thing to do. 

It resulted in eight months of unemployment while I waited for God to tell me what to do and He didn't tell me anything. Until eventually I rather guiltily accepted a job out of desperation, and I had no idea if that was the job God wanted me to be in or not. 

Now I think their never was just one 'right' thing to do. Their were many options and I could choose the one that I fancied the most. 

My thinking is that in the Garden of Eden God could have given Adam and Eve a very long list of things that were permissible/advisable/expected to do. But He didn't, instead he told them one thing not to do and said in effect "Anything else you can do or not do as you choose/prefer/fancy, just don't eat the fruit."

Or at Mount Sinai God could have given the Isrealites many long lists of things they should do, things that were permissible/advisable/expected to do. But He didn't, instead He simple gave them a short list - ten things - and said "Anything else you can do or not do as you choose/prefer/fancy, just keep my commandments."

Or apply that to my life today.

At the end of December I was looking for another new job, I felt kind if evil because I didn't wait for a sign, but I was in a position where I couldn't wait and I felt like God wasn't talking to me again. So I choose the one I have now by myself. It meet all my conditions; no Friday night or Sabbath work, in Seoul, good money, provides a new challenge, and gives me a week off to go back to Oz to work on my Masters. 

But the funny thing is, now that I have this job, I honestly believe that this is where God intended me to be all along. Everything is too perfect to have come about by chance. And there have been confirmations since I started working that this is the job God planned for me all along. And I chose it myself. 

I made sure I followed God's commands about keeping the Sabbath and I held on to the other priorities that were important to me personally and God honoured that by setting things up in advance so that I could get exactly the job I chose. 

Now project that into the future with another of life's big choices. To marry or not to marry, and/or who to marry. 

My thinking has changed quite a lot recently. Instead of waiting for God to send a bolt of lightening and say "Marry him," I am now thinking that I will make my own choice. 

God had given us ample directions in His Bible of the kind of spouse we should look for. I can take those directions, add to them my own personal preferences - I'll publish that list another day - and then weed through the potential victims and eventually make my own choice. 

If I do this prayerfully, and with a heart that is willing to back away from a potential candidate if they turn out not to meet God's standards, then I believe that God will honour my choice and will be active in revealing the true character of any man I am interested in. 

And in the end it will turn out that the man I choose is the same man God was planning for me all along. 

So thinking some big thoughts. And I'm really happy that God is into freedom and choice and is not into totalitarianism.  

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 50 - The Smell of Happy

This morning I thought I knew what my happy thing today was going to be. My friend was going to come visit me and teach me how to make 호떡 which is one of my favourite foods here. And I knew we would talk and talk and talk :-). I was planning that for my reward for a morning trip to Itaewon to buy clothes and shoes. Rewards are always needed for that activity since I hate clothes shopping and I hate shoe shopping and I hate Itaewon. 

Sadly it was not to be. My friend had to cancel. So then I was left wondering what my happy thing was going to be. 

I prayed for a quick trip to Itaewon and that I would find all the things I needed straight away. The first clothes shop I went into had two pairs of black trousers in my size. (Perfect except they are about six inches too long. Koreans believe that common myth that big size means extra tall.) and the shop had two blouses in my favourite style. One silver greyish and one black and white. I'm happy. Then the first shoe shop I went into had a black pair of summer shoes I can live with, but they were a bit tight. The man said "I can have another pair made for you - wider."  So the shoes were sorted too. 

While I was in Itaewon I dropped in to the big English second hand bookstore. While I was brousing the shelves I saw a girl come in and breathed deeply of that musty old book of our that always fills second hand book stores then she said to her friend, "ahhhhh, the smell of happiness." Which I thought was a perfect description. I only bought three books. 

After that for my reward I went and joined some friends at the Cherry Blossom Festival. One of my friends heard someone say, "There are more people here than cherry blossoms." I know it's not true but it sure felt like it. 

After that I went back to Itaewon. But this time I went to the one place I actually like. An Irish pub that makes food like home. My friends really enjoyed it too. 

So while it wasn't the happy day I had planned it still turned out to be a happy Day. 

PS sound this really cool statue too. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 49 - Happy Sabbath

Today is Sabbath. Enough said. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 48 - I'm running out of titles for all this happiness...

Yesterday was another happy adventurous day ^^. 

Stopped for my favourite street food and there was an icy wind blowing. The lady who runs the stall invited me in - and gave me fried potatoes as service. So I sat in her tiny box behind the counter with her while she cooked my toast. 

This picture shows the kind of stall it is. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 47 - Another Happy Day

I really have nothing to tell you tonight. My day was quite ordinary. I woke up, spent time with my God, went to school, came home, cleaned. Prepped for tomorrow and jumped into bed. Lights out in three minutes. 

A perfectly ordinary contented happy day. 

I think honestly that happiness is not the things you do or have, it's not the people in your life. It's not your job, or your internet connection, your clothes or your bank account. It is an attitude, a choice and a trust. 

I trust God, I know that whatever happens to me does not matter. It might be unpleasant and uncomfortable but It will work out to be the best thing and I will one day thank God for it. So because I trust God I choose to look for the good in every circumstance, to look for the things I can thank God for. Which results in me walking through life with a habitually happy attitude. 

It's all based on knowing the Promises of God and knowing that God always keeps His Promises. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 46 - A Litany of Happy

1. I amuse my self reguarly by walking around shops saying things like "if I was a Velcro dot where would I be? I don't know why but that always makes me smile. As it turns out if I was a Velcro dot today I would be hanging on a hook near the ribbons and elastic. 

2. I found these, Koreas response to the hamburger. 

Instead of  bread you can get molded compressed rice. 

dreee

3. Divine Appointments: I was waiting at the train station when a familiar looking lady walked past. I suddenly realized she was one of my students from the first time I was in Korea. So happy to find her since I lost her number. I've been praying I'd find her ever since I got the job in 중계. 

Very Happy Lady Here. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 45 - I can't think of a good title ...

As almost always my happy moments revolved around people today. Mainly. However I'm not going to tell you about them. ^^ 

Instead I will tell you that I felt inordinately happy using my new vacuum cleaner for the first time today, while cleaning my hobbit hole. Never thought I'd see the day when vacuuming could make me happy, but there's nothing better than using a dustpan and broom for a year to make you appreciate vacuuming. 

It looks similar to this. A DustBuster type machine on a stick to make a small upright vacuum cleaner.