A Little Late: Thanksgiving!

There's just too much to cover. We had our first real snowfall, which was pretty huge. So was Thanksgiving, mom and Dart visiting, not to mention stuff about Plus Academy... this may take more than one blog.

Here, let's start with Thanksgiving.




Here's a shot of most of the crowd. All told we probably had about 45-50 people show up, and at least 6 were attending their very first Thanksgiving. That was, for me, probably the coolest part of the whole thing.





Here's one of the buffet tables. There were about two and a half of them. I was really impressed with some of the stuff folks came up with. We did it pot luck style, which was good, and then bought some fully cooked turkeys. Bonus: we totally swiped that orange bowl.




Speaking of turkey, here's Dart and I tackling one of the birds. That big bag on the right is the other one. We didn't know it at the time, but the birds were fried. It made sense, seeing as we bought the turkeys from a Popeye's Fried Chicken on the military base. I love fried turkeys, by the way. The white meat stays so juicy, it's amazing. I've never been particularly skilled in the turkey carving, though, so Dart had to give me a hand. FYI: A fried turkey is still really really hot.




This is me with Corey, one of the owners of RMT. You can't tell it from this picture, but he can be one intimidating guy. Something about the eyes... anyway, he's normally really a nice guy, and, as I think I mentioned before, gave us the room to use for free.




Here's one more group shot. Jesse, on my mom's left, and Angel, on her right, are both from South Africa. Marika, holding the turkey wing, is from Australia. They were some of the Thanksgiving rookies. Marika, by the way, ate that wing. Needless to say, she's awesome.

I'll toss in a slide show, cause I'm just that nice of a guy. All told, it was an amazing success. It lasted 6 or 7 hours, and I took home tons of leftovers, including a huge bag of leftover turkey and an entire apple pie. It's amazing how much I rule.


Ok, even out the good stuff and the bad stuff. We'll knock out Plus Academy stuff next, then we'll see if I have time to move on.

Things are going from bad to worse from a job standpoint. Here's a pretty good example.

Jen got a really bad sore throat, to the point where she was so swollen she woke up unable to breathe for a moment. She was ok, but went to the hospital the next morning. She called in and told Yoon (the manager that deals with all of the foreign teachers for all Plus branches) and Yoon asked her to still teach her first two classes. Jen agreed. Yoon thanked her, and told her she'd contact our supervisor, Sonny, and let her know. So, Jen taught the two classes, and went home.

Two classes after that I walked into the teachers workroom. This room is shared by the foreign teachers and the Korean teachers, and there are often at least a half dozen students coming and going as well. As I walked in Sonny was talking with 4 little Korean students. Sonny looked up, saw me, and proceeded to start reaming me out demanding to know where Jen was. I mean raised voice and everyone staring.

Personally, I was baffled. I've been here for over 7 months, coming up on 8. After all that time, how can this woman not know who I am? Doesn't she know I'm Al Sterling?

Anyway, I somehow not only managed to restrain the urge to help her exit the office via the window, but kept my voice down as I said, "Not in front of the students," It may have lacked Sonny's volume, but the intensity seemed to get my point across.

Fast forward to the end of the day- Sonny meets with me privately to discuss Jen. I take the opportunity to explain that if she ever yells at me like that again, I will yell back.

For the record, no one ever called Jen. At any point.

There are a few other instances like this beginning to creep up, and the next semester is shaping up to be an ugly one. Luckily, at that point we've only got 4 months left.

Our travel plans have adjusted as well. Instead of flying from Beijing down to Sydney we're going to just backpack from Seoul to Sydney. Has a nice ring to it, dontchathink?

Anyway, the other idea tossed into the mix is this whole "work" thing. I'm keeping an eye out on what is happening in the world of Youth Ministry, and there is a church or two that I might even apply to. Trouble will start when they want me to start before I'm planning on being inside of 4 or 5 time zones- then the question becomes what to do. Cut short the contract? All told, it'd cost us almost $7k to leave even a day early. Cut short the travel? It's a once in a lifetime chance, not bloody likely. Have to pass on the job? There is a finite number of jobs that will work, and the process to get hired is measured in months. Oftentimes, like 6 of them. But that's what would likely give if I couldn't talk them into giving me some more time.

This is all a snapshot, of course. Jen and I discuss it constantly, exploring the different angles and debating the pluses and minuses of each approach and idea. Mostly, though, I figure God will handle it. He seems to have most of this stuff figured out, so I'll assume he can handle this too.

Ok, it's getting late, I'm gonna wrap up. I'll try to get another blog up before the end of the week, but no promises.

-Al & Jen (But mostly Al)