The "August" Edition: Back to School

Picnicking by the river

Welcome back, faithful readers! We're here today to share the highlights from our first month of school with you.

Our fridge is mold-free, school is in full swing, and the weather is bee-yoo-tee-full!

As you might recall, Joy is teaching high school this year. Her badge about sums it up: "Joy Parkhurst - High School Math/Spanish/Journalism." The most common response to seeing Joy's job description is, "Wow. That's a lot. What don't you teach?" The answer to that question, of course, is Physics. That's Bennett's job.

Ben Horne speaking at Lock-in

So, how is Joy liking the change to high school? She loves it! Although she misses the fun of working with 4th graders, she's really enjoying what she is teaching, and she loves working with the high schoolers. She hasn't told them that she uses some of the same strategies she used with her fourth graders with them.

For example...
Monday, 7:50 a.m. - E Block: Math Lab

Situation: Students walk into class looking like a pack of zombies after the weekend, stare blankly into space, do not respond to stimuli.

Response: Mrs. Parkhurst greets class loudly, walks through rows, and tells students to stand up behind their chairs. "Ok, everyone! I'm going to give you some directions. When I say go, do ten jumping jacks, hop on one foot five times, turn in a circle three times, then give two people a high five. Go!"

Bennett está asustado. 

Mrs. Parkhurst loves seeing her tenth-grade boys hopping on one foot and snickering to start the morning.

In Spanish, Joy enjoys playing "La Maestra Dice..." (The Teacher Says...) with her students to wake them up and review various words and commands. Other fun highlights of teaching Spanish: teaching the class a lesson on the verb "decir" using an adaptation of What does the fox say? (¿Qué dice el zorro?) and writing funny stories to help students to practice reading comprehension (i.e. Bennett, the responsible teacher, meets a lion in school and runs away.).

We don't really know what this is.
We think it might be a loom of sorts.

Journalism takes the most up-front planning, but Joy is learning a lot! In Algebra I, Spanish, and Math Lab, most of Joy's students are freshmen or sophomores, but in Journalism, the class is evenly split between juniors and seniors. The start of the year has been filled with lessons on journalism in history, the ethics of journalism, and what makes something newsworthy.

Meanwhile, Bennett has two brand-new physics classes to teach.  This brings his schedule to one section of precalculus (he's had three previously), two sections of regular physics, and one each of AP Physics 1 and AP Physics C.  This has led to multiple déjà vu experiences:
"Haven't you guys already learned this?"  "No."  "Oh...well...it must have been another class..."

Traditional Korean sleeping mat
A.K.A. "yo"

Korean darts?

In any case, physics is a lot of fun, and teaching more classes of physics means smaller class sizes, older students, and more opportunities for great quiz questions:  "Mr. Parkhurst gets really mad when Fred talks back and throws him out the window with an initial velocity of..." or "A velociraptor is chasing Grace with a speed of..."  Bennett also gets to do labs more often, which is exciting :)  You know...for nerds...like him.

This year does require a bit more work for Bennett because of the new classes, but it's more a matter of rearranging and re-pacing things he has already done than creating things from scratch, so there's still plenty of time for him to tease his wife.

We're both enjoying working with the same population of students this year, and a few students have the great privilege of learning from both Parkhursts in one day. A few weekends ago, we had the opportunity to work together for two "extra" events.

On that Friday night, Joy shared her testimony at the high school lock-in. The theme for this year is "Be Sure," and the lock-in introduced this idea to the students that attended. The focus of this year's chapel times will be helping students to develop confidence in what they believe.

Kimchi pots. We see these everywhere.
Want to know more about them? 

Korean warrior Bennett

After a late Friday night, Bennett headed out on Saturday afternoon for the annual Senior Retreat. His weekend was filled with swimming in the stream, hiking the mountain, capture the flag, and some good conversations with this year's seniors. Lots of fun and exhaustion all around. Joy joined the group for the Sunday hike, but didn't stick around for the Monday morning events. She even missed her husband's rise to victory as the YISS Staff Chubby Bunny Champion. But alas, she had class to teach.

Bennett and Joy in traditional
cardboard cut-outs.

Whew! We're almost done with this month's novel...
This week has been one of our favorite weeks of the school year so far. Korea is celebrating Chuseok (Pronounced something like 'chew-sock'). Chuseok is traditionally a harvest festival, and Korean families celebrate by gathering together to eat and (potentially) to honor their ancestors. Want to learn more? Click here! We've spent the 5 day weekend cleaning around the house, hanging out with friends, picnicking by the river, and visiting a Korean folk village. We'll be back to school tomorrow for a long two-day week of work. ;)

Some things that are on their way...

• Staff Retreat - We will be heading down to the beach (maybe) in a week and a half for our annual Staff Retreat. Ah...Relaxation...We always like getting out of the city. 
• Life Study Groups - We'll be leading a small group during chapel in the month of October on the topic of "dating relationships and marriage."
• High School Retreat - We might be joining the high school retreat toward the end of October. 
• Decisions, decisions... - We're praying about whether to go on a Spring Break missions trip with the high schoolers again this year. We're also praying about what to do for the 2015-2016 school year. We'll be giving the school our decision sometime around the end of November. You can be praying with/for us in making those decisions. 

And that's that! Stay tuned for the next edition of "Days of our...", I mean, wait...never mind. 

Fun "Ingrish" pictures: 

Hm...is it supposed to say that?

Why yes, I would like the "body sliming care."

The Rest of the Summer, Back to Korea, Mold, and Jet Lag

Rain is falling outside of our window as we sit on our couch to write another life update from Korea. Bennett is only half-awake right now, having taken a "short" afternoon nap to tackle his jet lag. Joy was supposed to wake him up at 2:00, but she wasn't "mean enough" (Bennett's words) to do it and let him sleep until 3:00 instead. Oops!

We're here today to tell you more about our summer vacation.


First of all, it was great! All around, we had a wonderful time visiting with friends and family around the country, and we finished the summer feeling refreshed and ready to come back for another year of school.

Here are a few highlights from the second half of our summer in the States:

1. Michigan - Lounging on the beach by day, playing games by night, and cleaning up every type of dog-made mess known to man. 
2. Little Cousin Visits - A few of Bennett's cousins (all of whom are middle school girls) came out to stay at the farm in Illinois for about 2 weeks. The house was full of laughter and fun and perhaps a bit more mud than usual. 
3. Hanging out in Illinois - Hiking, disc golf, board games, a guys' night of video gaming fun, a visit to the Field Museum, deep dish pizza, Jessie's birthday celebrations...Good times all around!
4. A Long Road Back to Florida...With a Few Stops - First stop, Champaign, IL, Bennett's college stomping grounds. Second stop, Johnson City overnight (Thank you, Sidney!) Third stop...Congratulations Ross and Abby! This couple met at the same training that WE met at 3 years ago. They were married at a farm near Boone, North Carolina with cows mooing in the background on July 26. On the day of the wedding, we were busily hunting for an open tire repair shop given that we had just discovered one of our tires was leaking! We were thankful to finally find one Clark's Auto that was open until 4:00 on Saturdays. They fixed our tire, we rushed back to the hotel, and we hurried to get ready for the wedding. Thankfully, we arrived just a few minutes before the ceremony started. We are thankful for God's kindness to us in his timing and provision. He takes good care of us on the road. :) 
5. One Last Visit - After a full day of driving on Sunday, we spent Monday unpacking and repacking for our Tuesday flight back to Seoul. We did manage to squeeze in some last minute visiting with grandparents and Joy's cousins, Scott and Ashley, who also live and work overseas. What a treat! 

Last night, we arrived back in Seoul after a very, very long day in flight. Long lines greeted us at the airport, and we were more than ready to hit the hay when we got back to our apartment. When we reached our apartment, we discovered that our power was out. Further investigation revealed that someone (probably our well-meaning landlady) had turned off the main breaker, helping us to start a mold colonization in our fridge and freezer. Yuck! This morning, while cleaning out the colony, we got a real-world lesson in which foods are mold's favorite mediums. For example, frozen fruit is an excellent breeding ground. Mold also loves Tabasco and BBQ sauce. On the other hand, ketchup was less appealing. We didn't dare open the whipping cream. If you're ever interested in learning more about mold and its lifestyle, you can follow our example in leaving food in your un-powered fridge/freezer for a few months. Very enlightening. 

Our internet was playing hide-and-seek when we arrived, but it came out of hiding soon after we called our provider. And that brings us up to the present. The rain has stopped, the sun is shining, and the fan is blowing. We have a few more days of summer vacation before we have to report for "duty." Please pray for us as we prepare for the new school year - time management, loving our students, and depending on the Lord day by day. 

We love you all and look forward to our next visit to the States! 

With love,
Bennett and Joy

We're back! + FAQs

Dear Faithful Readers,

We’re back! We know it’s been a while since our last blog entry, and we could make a bunch of excuses about being busy and why we haven’t written…but, instead, we’ll just thank all of you who are more faithful to read our blog than we are to write our blog.

This blog entry is full of FAQs we’ve been getting from people across the country this summer.

What are you doing this summer? 

Our summer started with a 5-day layover in San Francisco. We had a great time exploring the city, visiting Yosemite, visiting Alcatraz, and hanging out with some fun friends and family. During our stay, one of our taxi drivers told us about his former life as a Sherpa in Nepal. It was a great time to relax after a busy school year.

Following our vacation in San Francisco, we took a long* flight to Florida, where we spent time with the Pitcairn side of the family (minus Caleb). Bennett was thrilled to be in the States to see many of the World Cup matches. We also celebrated our 1^st anniversary on June 22^nd! (Best year EVER!)

We are currently in transit, making our way from Florida to Illinois. We’ve already made a few stops in Florida to visit more friends and family, and we are currently enjoying some time in Tennessee before we make our way to Michigan for some time at Bennett’s favorite beach (He finds the icy cold lake water refreshing somehow. “None of that icky salt,” he says). Today, we took a beautiful hike up the side of a mountain. We both got a little bit sunburned ("It's good for you," says Bennett. False...) 

 

We’ll spend some time in Michigan before heading to the Parkhurst homestead to spend time with the Parkhurst side of the family.

To finish the summer, we’ve got a wedding to attend on our way back to Florida. We jet off to Korea again at the tail end of July.

How was your year?

We had a full year. There were some challenges, as well as many great blessings and experiences. One great part of the year has been building community with friends in Seoul (in and out of school), and we also have had a great year to grow in our friendship in marriage. One of our biggest challenges this year was figuring out how to balance investing in school, church, new friends, old friends, family, and each other. This is still a work in progress, and it’s something you can pray about with us in the year to come as we continue to determine how to best serve God with our time.

What are you teaching now?

Good question! This past year, Joy was teaching 4^th grade. However, next year, Joy will be moving up to join Bennett in the high school! She will be teaching Spanish 1, Algebra 1, “Math Lab” (individualized math help for students in Algebra and Geometry), and Journalism. Yes, she is excited about it1 Yes, she sometimes feels nervous about it. We’re both really looking forward to working more closely with the same general group of students. Joy is also excited to get to use and maintain her Spanish in the upcoming year.

Bennett has some changes, too, but nothing so dramatic. Bennett has been teaching 3 sections of Pre-calculus and 2 sections of Physics (1 AP). Next year, Bennett will be developing 2 new Physics classes, for a total of 4 sections of Physics and 1 of Pre-calculus.

How long will you be in Korea?

Another good question! And the answer is…we don’t know yet. We will definitely be there for this upcoming school year. You can join us in praying about what to do next. We will be making a decision by around November/December about whether to return to Korea for the 2015-2016 school year.

Do you like living in Korea? Do you like Korean food?

Yes and no, and yes and no! We do enjoy living in Korea. We love our school, our community, our students, and, of course, bulgogi! That being said, we don’t love “big city living.” There is lots of air pollution in our concrete jungle, and we miss open skies and a little more green. We also miss many of our friends and family members, and we wish we could be in 50 places at once to get lunch with everyone or play a game of cards.

We have tried many different Korean foods! We like many of them – kimchi, bulgogi, Korean pancakes, Bip bim bop, etc. We also dislike many of them, namely dishes that are heavy on the squid and fish-food flavored entrees. We have yet to try (and probably won’t) the live octopus or dog soup. Neither sound particularly appealing to either of us…

Babies?

Not yet! We’ll keep you posted! J

So that’s that!

Thanks again for keeping up with us via our blog. We really love sharing life with you, even when we don’t live in the same neighborhood (country, continent…you get the idea!).

With love,

Joy and Bennett

Fall Leaves and First Snow

The Parkhursts have been enjoying a change in season here in Seoul. Although the cold is not a welcome house guest, the leaves' changing colors make the city look warm and bright, even when it's not actually so warm or bright. Recently, we were discussing this question: "Will there be seasons in heaven?" What do you think? In other news, we enjoyed our first snow the other day! It wasn't the coldest day we've had, but at the end of the school day, in the middle of 4th grade's Social Studies lesson, big white flakes started filling the courtyard. Needless to say, the students' focus quickly shifted away from "society" and "identity" to SNOW!!! We went outside to enjoy the falling flakes for a few minutes before the end of the day. It quickly became apparent that, from Kindergarteners to Seniors to teachers, everybody loves a little falling snow. None of it really stuck, but it was a fun midweek treat. 

We hope you're all staying warm, wherever you are these days. We're a little jealous of the Floridians we know. It looks like you may have a cold front coming through...We imagine the drop to 70 degrees may be a shock to the system. That being said, we're also looking forward to a warm Christmas in the Sunshine State, though Bennett keeps protesting that "it should be COLD on Christmas!" This Christmas will be about palm trees and making a sandman at the beach instead of his usual chilly northern holiday. 

With love,
Bennett & Joy

A Photographic Month in Review

It's been a busy month here in Seoul! It's hard to believe how much time has passed since our last update, and how much has happened since then. The month of October was packed to the brim. We celebrated our birthdays, celebrated Korean culture, raised money at our school's annual "Walk-a-Sock-a-Thon," took a 4th grade field trip, finished the first quarter, held parent-teacher conferences, started meeting with our GWAM missions team (and started leading an Elementary after-school program with that team), played some ultimate frisbee, had Elementary Spiritual Emphasis Week, and saw our first 4-D movie together! Fall is in full swing, and the weather is getting CHILLY! Joy is loving the fall colors but is wishing for Florida temperatures...Today the temperature in Seoul is 41 degrees - the temperature in South Florida is 80. Bennett is making fun of Joy for being a Floridian, but is secretly bundled up under a blanket right now.

The following pictures capture just a glimpse of the fun we've been having here:

Mrs. Parkhurst's 4th graders brought in pictures of themselves around the world to illustrate the 5 themes of geography. Our students have been from Jordan to California and just about everywhere in between!

For Celebrate Korea Week, our 4th grade parents planned a special day of learning about hanji, a traditional Korean handmade paper. Learn about it here.

The room parents also brought in traditional Korean shoes...

...and we made our own rice snacks.

These little dried fish are mixed into the rice snacks. Joy was a little skeptical when she saw the eyes, but after sampling them agrees that they are pretty tasty.

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art. A team of high school students came to demonstrate their abilities for our Elementary students. Can you do a back flip while breaking 3 boards along the way? Pow! Pow! Pow! They can!

Our annual Walk-a-Sock-a-Thon allowed our students to learn about child labor around the world while raising money to support the International Justice Mission's efforts to end child slavery. Students collected 100KRW coins (the equivalent of dimes) in socks. The challenge? To have the HEAVIEST sock! The heaviest sock this year was 11 kilograms! To kick off the walk-a-thon, students aimed emptied socks at their team's bucket to see who could catch the most.

Parkhurst, Jr. is our class pet. He sits at students' desks with them on their birthdays to celebrate the special occasion. Want to learn how to sing happy birthday in Korean? Click here!

We were excited to receive some birthday mail!

Our birthdays are on October 1st and 4th, and we had a day off of school on October 3rd. It was fun to get to celebrate together. For Joy's birthday, we went out to dinner at Wang Thai and then explored a few bookstores...

This little bookstore is packed with stacks of used books. What a treasure!

For Bennett's birthday, we watched a volleyball game at school and came home for brinner...pancakes and...uh...bacon... Oops.

Mrs. Parkhurst's class made her a GIANT birthday card! 

So you want to see the world on a dime? Come to Ainns World in Seoul!

4th Grade enjoyed exploring famous world landmarks in miniature at this unique amusement park. 

Ok, so this isn't actually us. But, we did really go to see a 4D movie! Last night, we watched Thor on the big screen. Our seats vibrated and moved side to side as Thor fought off the bad guys, we felt air zip by our ears as a spear narrowly missed us, and we occasionally got a sharp kick in the back when someone went down hard. Oomph. It was a fun experience.

We hope you enjoyed this brief taste of our life in Seoul this month. 

We are excited that Christmas is on its way and that we will get to see some of you then! 

With Love,
Bennett and Joy

I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free.

Psalm 119:32

Almost October

Scrambled Eggs and...er... "pancakes"
Guess who made each entree!

We can't believe it's almost October!

Our days are packed here, and the past month has flown quickly by.

In addition to everyday life (grocery shopping, cleaning, teaching), since our last entry we have...

1. ...started school! Progress reports come out next week, and it's hard to believe we're already halfway through the first quarter. We're both enjoying our classes. Bennett went on the Senior Retreat and enjoyed spending time with his students (as well as winning a game of capture the flag!). Bennett has also been discipling 2 of his students and is enjoying the time he gets to spend with them outside of the classroom. Joy has been working hard to get the ball rolling in her 4th grade class this year. Although it feels like a lot of work (and it is), she is enjoying getting to know her energetic, "adventuristic" students. Some 4th grade favorites include...a Korean show called "Running Man," Sideways Stories from Wayside School, the class llama (lovingly named Parkhurst, Jr.), recess (of course!), Pokemon, and all the Percy Jackson books they can get their hands on. 
2. ...taken a trip to the beach. A few weekends ago, we climbed on a bus and rode to...the beach! It was time for Staff Retreat. We enjoyed playing games, climbing on rocks, eating melon pops, and relaxing with our coworkers. Joy also enjoyed beating Bennett at foosball. ;) 
3. ...started playing frisbee. Here in Seoul, there is a fairly large (mostly) expatriate community of Ultimate Frisbee players. Bennett has been playing with the league for the past 2 years. Now, the Parkhursts are taking on the competition together. Our team has a jaw-dropping 0-4 record so far. 



Poor translations make us laugh.



4th Grade's growing list of "Ways to
say Said" - This is just from ONE DAY!

4. ...celebrated Chuseok. This week, we've been school-free since Wednesday as Korea celebrates Chuseok, which is a Thanksgiving-like holiday. Seoul has been a little quieter than usual. The Parkhurst family is enjoying an extra long weekend off. Yesterday, we got out of the heart of the city to take a hike. We packed a picnic lunch and, after a steep uphill climb, ate PB&J in the protection of a fortress wall. 

You can drink fresh water from the mountain streams here!
Neither of us braved the communal cups though...

In other news...the weather is cooling down. It's still pretty warm day-to-day, but it's starting to feel more and more like fall. The air is getting drier, and the temperature is dropping. We leave the windows open and a few fans on to move the cool Korea air around our apartment. Ah...

Last week, we started working through a Bible Study about life in a pluralistic society which covers Joshua, Judges, and part of Daniel. The focus of the study is idolatry. Yesterday as we were hiking, we came across a Buddhist temple. We were struck by the sadness and emptiness of idolatry in its traditional forms as the golden idols in the temple reminded us of Israel's worship of the golden calf. God continues to teach us how much we need him, and he continues to show us how much we rely on our own strength instead of trusting him fully. 

Koreans go all out.
Almost every hiker on the trail was fully
prepared with backpack, boots, and
walking sticks. 

Please pray for us as we continue to build relationships with our students this year. Pray that God will open their eyes so that they can clearly see his character. Pray that we will be faithful in serving him, filled with love for our students, and increasingly dependent on him for wisdom and strength in every situation. Please pray with us as we pray about how to invest our time this year. We have the opportunity to help lead a GWAM (Guardians with a Message) trip this Spring Break, and we are praying about whether to lead a trip and which trip to lead if we do. A major factor in this decision is Joy's level of busy-ness in the classroom. We want to take advantage of the opportunities God is giving us to serve, but we also want to be balanced and wise in how many extracurriculars we take on. 

No invaders spotted yet...

Thank you for your prayers and for your friendship to us. We miss being with you in person, but we are so glad that we get to share a little bit of our lives with you through this blog. Until next time...

Happy Chuseok!

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. -John 15:5

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. -1 Corinthians 3:6

P.S. Look what made it to Korea!
A little taste of home...