In Loving Memory of Apple...

I am heartbroken this morning...


I woke up, excited to play with the bunnies, and opened their cage to find that Apple was laying in a sprawled out position. I was immediately worried, as I had never seen her lay like this before. I watched her breathing begin to slow, so I picked up an old t-shirt and swept her up into it. I noticed at this moment that she had broken her neck. (I think she had probably tried to jump out of her cage and landed on her neck...) I knew at that moment there was nothing I could do but hold her and comfort her until she passed.

I held her, talking sweetly, and petting her soft fur, for about 20 minutes, and then she passed, in my arms. I miss her terribly this morning...

Korean naval ship sinks...

Many of you probably haven't heard... or if you watch the international news, you probably have... A South Korean naval ship with 104 crew members sunk last Friday near the border of North Korea. 58 people have been rescued to date, leaving 46 dead in the fridgid waters. Apparently a South Korean vessel fired at an unidentified vessel towards the North. It hasn't been confirmed yet, but the teachers at my school seem to believe it was torpeedod (sp?) by North Korea.


All that to say, the entire country has been mourning the sinking of this ship and it's deceased crew members. They have cancelled festivals throughout the country in order for "a proper mourning" to take place. It's almost as if they punish themselves in a way... Korean's mourn for months, and sometimes years, over things like this, much the way we in the US mourned over the happenings of September 11th. The teachers at my school (myself included) have been wearing these pins on our sweaters, which are written in Chinese, but mean that "I am very sad."


Today is a very sad day in Korea, because the searching for the 46 missing soldiers will stop and a ceremony commemorating their lives will take place. Every school in Korea, at 10:00am this morning, had a moment of silence... Sirens roared throughout the city of Busan, reminding people of this sad occasion.

It's a sad day today...

I came to school this morning and Ella told me she had sad news... Kristen (one of my closest 6th grade students),'s mom died this morning of liver disease. What's even more devastating is that her dad passed away a year and a half ago, and she and her sister (junior high age) are now all alone. My heart is absolutely breaking for her today, as I'm sure she's heartbroken and scared... Kristen, who's Korean name is 유라 (pronounced Yura), is such a sweet and happy girl! I hate to see this happen to any of my students, but especially her.

She is always with me, but hates to have her picture taken... so this is an old picture that I took last year. Tomorrow, Ella, Lee (Kristen's current teacher) and I are going to attend the funeral after school. If you are a person who believes in prayer, please pray for this sweet girl and her sister!

Who's that?!

Yesterday, I was looking at old pictures of Indonesia on my work computer, and one of my students was standing over my shoulder, looking with me! She saw this picture and immediately asked, "Alexis, Is this your mom?!" hahahahha!

Is your neighborhood this safe?!

My neighborhood is REALLY safe in Pusan, but I would still never, ever, ever, let my 5 year old daughter walk home from school alone, in the dark, on a busy street!

Seriously, Where are her parents?!