Thoughts & Things From South Korea

October 2020 pumpkins in South Korea! Wow. What a crazy few months we are about to experience here! The last week or two has been full of my Google Photos saying, "Look what you did on this day 1 year ago, 2 years ago, 3 years ago!" October is full of all the fun fall activities and Google is making sure that I not only remember what we've done in the past but feel also feel a bit homesick at the same time while I think about the festivities we are missing out on. For the last several years my family has attended The Bhurd Family Pumpkin Patch event and many members of our family bring their kids to pick out pumpkins, eat Dunford donuts, and hot chocolate or cider. My phone is full of these picture memories which is shortly followed by Brandon and I's first time carving pumpkins together in Cedar City at the Inn and our last couple of years of painted pumpkin attempts.  Some of those awesome memories. Carved pumpkins at The Inn 2017, Jurassic Park & the Kraken 201...

I am here to share Nacho's story. For as long as I could remember I've always wanted a cute little kitten for Christmas. Once Brandon and I settled in at our new house back in South Jordan we brought Dory into our home and I was so excited to finally experience a pet cat after never being allowed one while living at home. Brandon and I loved having Dory at our home in the one year before leaving for South Korea. Even with Dory in the picture though, I still pictured that tiny little Kitten in a Christmas box under the tree, a dream I've had for several years.  Some of our last pictures with Dory before leaving Fast forward a few months and we were finally settling into our new home here in South Korea. I'd been feeling a bit lonely and was missing Dory insanely. There is a huge problem with stray cats here in South Korea so I was constantly being reminded that there were cats all around me but none waiting for me when I got home. Brandon and I talked a few times about w...

Last week was filled with the highest highs and the lowest lows. Friday 10/09 was Hangeul day (celebration of the Korean writing system) so it was the last day off we had for a very long time. Coming back from vacation the previous week was very hard as it usually is following a great vacation and I also really struggled to connect with some of my classes again. The day to day life feels normal to me now and I'm relatively comfortable living here except for the challenges of teaching. The older kids seem to hate my classes and this is very challenging for me! The work itself aside, this was another exciting week. On Friday morning we headed out on a 6 am bus to Jecheon. The bus schedule there was a bit awkward so we spent a few hours walking around Andong while we waited for our final bus to leave after 10:30 am. While in Andong we did get to try a much-anticipated restaurant, Lotteria. We were told it was like the Korean McDonald's... however we were very misleading and it was...

To Jeonju! This week we traveled to the city of Jeonju for our Chuseok holiday. We both worked on Monday/Tuesday and left for Jeonju first thing on Wednesday morning. We made plans to meet up with 3 other EPIK teachers that all work in Gyeongbuk province and we met most of them in our orientation in August. Jeonju is a far journey and it took two bus transfers and over 5 hours to get there.  We all arrived around the same time and headed over to our Airbnb together. We unloaded our things and headed out to walk around and see the Hanok Village. We were lucky to find a nice and clean place to stay for a pretty reasonable price and were just a minute's walk away from the edge of the village.  Within the first hour or two of being in town, we found another EPIK teacher who is placed in a different province but we'd had an opportunity to meet and talk with her a bit at orientation. She had made the trip to Jeonju on her own so we were excited to turn our group of five into six for...