Grace

Even though Shadow died today, God gave me grace throughout the day. He gave me great/interesting things to keep my mind occupied, and I am so thankful for that. I don't think I've ever had this full of a schedule without feeling stressed out. Instead, I'm loving ever moment of it.

So this morning I brought in chocolate covered strawberries and potato chips (the chips I stuck in the fridge beforehand, so they weren't that good...but the strawberries were delicious!!), and everyone loved them. Because I had given something to them, they obliged me by standing around and talking with me for a long time. It was so nice to catch up with the office people. I really enjoy getting to know them more.

There were SBS (a Korean tv station) vans and busses everywhere on campus today, so I figured I'd check that out too, and turns out that SBS is shooting a new tv drama (similar to American soap operas without the romance overkill) taking place partly at our school!! How cool is that??!! Well, at least one episode takes place at KBU :) It's a graduation scene, and there were tons of cameras and high tech stuff laying around unattended, so I didn't feel guilty looking at it up close. Pretty neat! I'd never seen such equipment in person before. I've seen it on tv, but not like this.

Because of the olympics, my online tv viewing has been pretty much shut down, so it's been pretty boring around school for all of us with nothing to do. Lots of card games and online music listening. But today we got a few of those shows back. So that was nice.

I did taekwando for an hour and a half as usual, and figured out how to correct what I've been doing wrong. I knew something in my kicks didn't feel right, and I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what it was that was wrong. But when the grand master held my legs and Chris my shoulders and the master moved my legs physically through the positions they should be in, it was amazing what the difference was! I finally got how it's supposed to be. I guess if you don't feel it, you'd never know it was wrong. He was so surprised that I said my legs or muscles didn't hurt, so that's when he figured out I must be doing something wrong :) Haha :)

After taekwando, I went to the famous kimbap restaurant to see my Korean mom, and she called me in saying she was making a wedding soup for us. Aww...it was so sweet! So we had the soup: basically thin spaghetti noodles in a dumpling-flavored water soup. Bland, but with homemade kimchi!! Yumm!!! I love kimchi :) I'm definitely not a Minnesota girl anymore...

At the restaurant, I was eating with the worker women, and a guy came in who I've met there before a few times. He's nice, but talks a lot with little/broken English. It's cute because he tries so hard, and he's one of the few Korean guys who I've met over 21 who don't drink/smoke, and he's a Christian. I'm not attracted to him at all, but he's just one of those guys who stand out because of those things. Anyways...so we were talking, and he was telling me about how he has a kidney/liver/something problem and he's really sick and lost a lot of weight. Then he proceeded to tell me that he has no girlfriend, and that I am going to be his new American girlfriend. Clearly meaning girlfriend not in the seperate "girl" and "friend" sense of the word. I laughed really awkwardly and told me I was really busy (which I am...), but it was nice to hang out with him at the kimbap place every so often when we happen to meet there. Then another guy in the restaurant started talking to us, and he spoke perfect English. He introduced his name as Danny, and helped a lot in translating between this other guy and my Korean mom. It was great! He said he had a family of wife and children, but that he'd like to buy me a coffee if I'd sit with him for a bit so he could practice his English. I had nothing better to do, and after saying "ok" my Korean mom scolded me!! At first I was embarrassed, but then it was kind of cute and funny. She's started hounding him in Korean, and he was really nice about it saying that he didn't mean anything, just that he wanted to practice his English--because he had a family it was nothing. After laughing a bit, she said "ok", smiled at me, and scooted us out the door telling me to come back afterward.

So Danny and I went to a coffee and bun place around the corner from the shop and talked about lots of fun things. Mostly Korean and American differences. That's how most conversations usually go the first time you meet Korean people. It's good though because it gives each of you a sense for how much the other knows about your own culture. We talked for maybe an hour and then he went to go home (he showed me pictures of his kids and wife, and I know it was absolutely nothing personal meeting with me...0% and I'm good at reading people...plus my Korean mom approved after she questioned him for a good 10 minutes or so!!).

Back at the kimbap restaurant after meeting Danny, I sat down and laughed a lot with my Korean mom. Mostly about the guy who told me that I was his "American girlfriend". Her husband had a friend in the restaurant, so it was just the 4 of us--really comfortable. I like that. He spoke great English, so I talked a ton more with my Korean mom and dad, and he translated. I take every advantage of people who speak English in the store to translate, because I love my Korean parents so much but have to have such simple conversations with them because of the language barrier. It's frustrating, but it makes me appreciate nights like tonight when I can have full, deep conversations with someone translating. What a precious opportunity. As we were finishing up, the man introduced himself (funny it was at the end) as Philip. I was pleased to meet him and asked if either the Korean mom or dad had an English name. They didn't, and it was so sweet that my Korean mom asked for a name in English!! She'd never asked before, so I was excited to give her the name Grace. She's a gift to me from God. A gift that I could never have thought of asking for and probably don't deserve. I've had 2 people who have been real gifts to me here who are women, and both of them I got to name. Guess what I named the other girl? :) Grace also. It's the first name that pops in my head for people I'm thankful for. Even though it's kind of an older American name.

At the end of the night, I swept the floor for her as a thank you for the noodles earlier and for talking. That was my day...