Once again, my family is anxiously waiting the arrival of another baby girl - this time, it's my brother Gabriel's turn. His wife Tanya went to the hospital about 3 hours ago and recieved the epidural shortly thereafter. Currently, she's about 5 cm dialated and the doctor broke her water, so now we have to wait. I'm excited to see the new addition to our family - which seems to be growing bigger by the day! :o) Meanwhile, my father is proudly holding my other niece Carolina, (Anita's baby) and is having a great time with her. Dad is of course sick with Alzheimer's disease, but nonetheless, seems to know exactly what to do with her. He is very careful with her - holding her gently, and often rocks Carolina to sleep. Although he doesn't know who she is, he still takes great care for her and enjoys playing with her. I wonder what his reaction will be when he sees Gabe's baby - he'll probably cry and laugh like he did for Carolina's birth! :o) Baby Carolina is a wonderful blessing, and I know that this other new bundle will be as well.

I can't believe that I've been home for a week already - time has flown by! I've had a great time with my family and seeing my friends. I was especially excited to meet my new niece Carolina, who I'd seen in pictures, is even more adorable in person. I've spent every day playing with her, changing her diapers, giving baths, and enjoying her sweet smiles.

Time's tickin' away at me so I'm gonna get going - lots of people to see and many things to do! :o)

Homeward Bound

It's crazy to think that I'm only 4 hours away from boarding the plane to fly home. I've been here for 8 months, and it's hard to believe that I'm on this side of the countdown. When I first came, I wasn't so sure how these long months would go for me - whether I'd survive or not! :o) All of that is about to be put behind me as I enjoy some time with my family, friends, and LOTS of Taco Bell! lol! :o) I told my roommates to be prepared for a much fatter Esther when I return. I'm planning to be eating in every restaurant that I've been craving food from for the last 8 months - not to mention deserts like cheesecake, key lime pie, and many others! It will be nice to recharge my body and mind so that I can come back and continue my work here for the remainder 4 months.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Christmas Carolina
(My sister Anita's baby)

So my Monday is almost over - they're always the hardest day of the week for me. I've been up noodling with my grades, trying to get them finished up by tomorrow. It's such a relief that all the tests and quizes have been graded and scores put into the computer - that's the most annoying part of this job. But now, everything is in and tomorrow I will teach the last lesson for this term. We still have classes on Wednesday, but we're not teaching a lesson - it's party day! :o) It's doesn't always seem like a "party" because at the end of the class time is when the students find out whether they passed or not. So that kinda puts a damper on things, but what can ya do? I'll be happy when this is all over and I'll be on that 17 hour plane ride back to the Mother Land. :o)

We finally have furniture... and a TV?

As of Wednesday, we received our couches that we've been waiting for since arriving in Seoul 2 months ago! As much fun as it was to sit on the floor, we were more than happy to welcome the delivery men. They happened to arrive the same day that our TV arrived. We bought it on Tuesday and have been anxiously waiting for it. :o) Life without tv - what a concept. So what else could I do but hug this box of joy?! :o)

Showing some love to our new tv - gotta make it feel welcome. :o)

Yay for our couches - also a bed. Anyone wanna come over to visit me? :o)

Christmas Party

The Main institute hosted their annual Christmas party for all of the foreign teachers Saturday night. At first, I was tempted not to go because it's SO cold outside and I've been avoiding excursions involving having to be outside for longer than aprox. 6 min.(walking time from home to my institute) which basically means, I've been hybernating for the last month. However, I did make the trip(about 45 min. by subway) due to the gentle nagging of my roommates. :o) j/k. It turned out to be not so bad... lots of food - Lasagna, veggies, and pumpkin pie. After dinner, there was about 2 hours of random performances by the Korean side mostly, then about 45 min. of performances by all the different countries represented by the foreign teachers here in Korea. It felt like an eternity, but the finale made the whole ordeal worth it. We each recieved MP3 players - not bad, eh? :o)

It was really nice to be reunited with the teachers from my old institute in Kwangju and others that I'd met during my first week of orientation back in April. Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year, so it was nice to have an early celebration. However, it will be even nicer to go home for the festivities with my family - a little over 1 week to go!!! :o)

Children from our Junior English Program
playing the Korean traditional drum

With Shennoa, one of the teachers at my institute.
Yeah, I know - loser with the antlers... :o)

Yay for snow! It finally began snowing here Saturday evening around 6pm. I had just woken up from my wonderful Sabbath afternoon nap, when I looked out the window and thought it was extremely foggy. But as I got closer to the window, I soon saw that it was snow. I haven't been outside all day today to take any pictures because it's SO cold. There was still snow everywhere tonight when I was on my way to class - some of it had melted causing the sidewalk to be iced over. Needless to say, walking to class was quite challenging - trying to keep myself from slipping and falling on my butt! They say here that once the first snow has fallen, the temperature drops even more. That, I'm not looking foward to, but indeed it has already become much colder. So the question is, will I survive the winter here?? :o)

No furniture? No TV?

That's okay, we have a Christmas tree!!

Being a huge fan of Christmas and lights, I bought a tree this afternoon to grace our apartment with some life and color. We still have our fingers crossed when it comes to getting some furniture!


It's not a big tree, but it certainly does the job. :o)