Korean Home, Noodles, and a Date

Lots of things have happened in the last day or two...

I met Ian's mom and dad, and had a really great conversation with them! It was really nice to be invited into a Korean home. His mom was really easy to talk to, and has such a passion for serving and pleasing God. It was a humbling experience to meet her, and yet such a blessing to be encouraged to continue pursuing God and His good pleasure. She was very giving, and I came home with probably 10 pounds worth of food and clothes more than I came with: things like toothpaste, a scarf, kimchi, and ramyon. Ian and I went on a night hike around the base of Suraksan, and it was so fun! We had no flashlights, but used the moon to guide us on the trail. I was so surprised to see people still hiking along with us!!

I was introduced to a new Korean food: Kimchi Mariguksu 김치말이국수. It's basically thin, long noodles in a kimchi flavored chilled water soup. It's the most delicious noodle dish I've ever eaten in my life!! Yum, Yum...
Monday, Jamie called me and asked me out for a movie and dinner. Classic American date, but I was so thankful to hang out with her after not seeing her in a long time. There were no good English movies playing, so we saw a new Korean movie that's had really good reviews recently. I was so nervous that I wouldn't understand anything and that I'd sit there bored the whole time. But I was more than wrong. It was a really great movie called "Good Morning Mr. President", and it was about people who were Korean presidents one after each other, and how their lives influenced the others.

The first president was an old man who won the lottery and had a hilarious personality. The second president was a young man who had previously known the 1st president's daughter. He had a rare blood type, and while in office gave an old man his kidney. He started big changes in Korea, standing up to the American bully of a president as portrayed. The 3rd president was a woman whose husband had a hard time relating to her as president. The connection between all 3 presidents was that when they had a problem, they consulted the chef who had a simple and unbiased mind. I really enjoyed the movie, and hope to see more Korean movies in the future.

I was surprised how much I understood, and what I didn't know, Jamie was helpful in quietly explaining.

Dad's Visit

Hiking
Some ladies we met and had snacks with on our hike. They helped us find our way down.
Uncle Kim, the security man!
My Korean "mom" :) She owns and works in the restaurant behind us. in the picture.
Picking out hamsters
Here they are :)
Our tall ice cream cones while shopping downtown
Out for dinner with my "Korean Family"Korean "mom" and her daughter!

Dad came to visit for a total of about 8 days while between business trips! What a blessing it was to see family and get some encouragement to "keep going". We did lots of fun things together like hiking, playing cards and games, shopping, and talking. I was happy to introduce him to my students, and they were really pleased to meet him as well! I was also really excited to have dad meet my "Korean family" from the Kimbap Restaurant. We ended up going out for dinner at a really nice restaurant together. And I met their daughter!! What a pleasure to meet her :)

October

Sorry for not writing in a long time. Work has been really stressful this last month, and I wanted to be sure to share positive thoughts on this blog...So...

Update: Nothing much has been happening in my life in particular. I'm learning to trust God in whatever situation that I'm put in--good or bad. I know that God has a good plan for my life.

My Korean "mom" from the kimbap restaurant gave me 2 huge bags full of grapes that her parents grew on their farm! It was so neat to have those. I was talking with her one afternoon, and her husband came out with hiking clothes on and pulled me after him to go hiking together. It was really fun! At first I was a little nervous because he speaks almost no English at all, but we just walked a little ways and ended up playing badminton the whole time. It was so fun! I don't think I've ever really played on a real court with real equipment before! I was surprised how quickly I picked it up...

At work, my students had midterm tests, and they all did really great! I was so proud of them!! My best friend at work, Bryan, left to go back to the States, and that was really rough. I'll really miss him. But I know that his choice was best for him. I just hope that God sends us a good teacher who can be my friend. Supposedly we're getting a woman from America in a month or so!

This week, my dad came to visit!! We had fun hanging out downtown and spending lots of time together. More to come on that with pics later...I'll try to keep this updated more often...Thanks for bearing with me :)

Chuseok Weekend

Today is Chuseok, a Lunar Festival Holiday, similar in celebration to American Thanksgiving. It's a big family day, so listening out my window, it's pretty quiet. Not much going on outside. Many families have a big lunch and dinner together as well as paying respects to their ancestors.

Since Chuseok falls on a Saturday this year, we got Friday off work! It was nice to have a day to relax and choose to do what I wanted. Of course, I love hiking, so there were 5 of us all ready to go...ended up being just 2 of us, but that's ok. Juny, who I went hiking with, is a friend and student of Brian (my coworker) and works in the English Zone, so I've gotten to know him a bit too. It was really great getting to have lots of time to talk together. Turns out he likes a lot of the same things that I do! So that was pretty cool. Plus, he was a huge help and encouragement on the hard trail we chose. We had a really awesome time hiking!! We scaled rocks like lizards, climbed down steep hills with ropes, and got lost on our way down (hmm...why do I always get lost when going down??...). But it was a great time!

After getting home, we went out for chicken stir-fry which was really good (but spicy). I then had about an hour to clean up and get ready for the next part of the day...going to meet Heesung!!
Heesung had invited me over to see what a typical Chuseok meal was like. Because it's a big family holiday, I was able to meet some of his family which was pretty cool. His brother was there from China, he had an aunt, uncle, and cousins, and of course his parents. It was really, really neat to see a Korean family together. Obviously people are people, and we all are the same. But culturally, I was honored to be invited into their home. His 13 year old cousin speaks really good English, so we hit it off pretty well. For dinner we had boiled beef, kimchi that his mom made, japchae (sweet-potato noodles and vegetables), a soybean stew, and lots of fruit. It was neat to feel like part of their family, very comfortable people to be around. I hope that when I have people over that they feel natural around me as well.

WanSeok / The Flu

Last night, WanSeok and I got together!! I'm so happy to be friends with such a great guy!! We met at the subway right before a huge downpour. On our walk to the restaurant, it started raining so much that we had to duck into a store. That store happened to be a place where you can get pictures taken. It was fun to do that and have pictures to remember our time together. We ended up getting umbrellas to finish the walk, and he surprised me by taking me to a really neat Iranian curry restaurant in a little, tiny alley. The alley opened up and the inside of the place had an amazing atmosphere. The curry was super hot, but we still enjoyed our time talking and catching up.

After dinner we walked around a nearby park where we heard some live performers. We decided to check it out, and as we got closer, I recognized the singing. It was a Christian song! He recognized it too, and wanted to sit down to listen to the music. I was so happy that we could do that together! He's not a Christian, but he knew the words to some of the songs, so was able to translate some of the Korean songs I didn't know. It was a great end to the night!!

At KBU, there are 3-4 students who have the swine flu. Everyone is intensely afraid of getting the flu, so everywhere I turn people are sanitizing things and using hand cleaner. I guess that's probably a good thing. They shut the school down for 2 hours this afternoon to sanitize with a fogger. It looked and smelled just like the stuff for fogging a field to get rid of mosquitos. We had to teach right after that, and it was like talking/teaching in a cloud. I can't imagine that that is super healthy either...Hmm...

On the way home, I was thinking (usually not a super great thing to do when alone) about Korea. My emotions are usually pretty stable. Not too much of a swing up and down, but since I've gotten here, I can't seem to control it. I have super great days and then not so great days, up and down, back and forth. I hope things stabilize soon. Then I got run over by a bicycler...I'd better pay more attention to where I'm walking than think about things while walking :)

Pictures

WanSeok and I out on the town last night!!
Hiking with Daniel and Jinsu last weekend
Happy 21st Birthday, Bible!!
Beautiful Bongsunghwa
1st room service ever ordered in my life (on my own)!! Kimchi soup and veggie side dishes. Yum...

Week/end

Almost every day I stayed until 8/9pm talking with students, eating dinner, talking with other teachers, correcting papers, coming up with school plans, etc. All things I really love doing, but I think I need to slow things down a bit this next week.

Korea has a national holiday, Chuseok, coming up this next weekend, and it's a big family. So we get Friday off!! I don't know what I'll do for 3 days, but maybe I'll start writing the midterm exam and try to get into Seoul.

Even though the week was long, it was filled with pretty exciting things. I went out with Jamie and Bible to Mr. Doughnut, a doughnut chain here, and it was fun to be together just hanging out. Then it was Bible's birthday on Thursday, so Jamie brought in a cheesecake, and we sang her a song and drew a cartoon person and flowers on the board. They both sang in chapel this week, so I was really excited to be able to listen to them and see a few other students perform as well.

This weekend I wanted to go hiking, so Daniel (a student of mine) and one of his friends joined me for a climb up Suraksan. We ended up taking a new trail up to the top and it was super easy!! Either I've become a really good climber in the last week (which probably isn't the case) or this will be a great trail to remember for future trips up. At the top we stood up on the highest rock and sat for about an hour just enjoying the view and talking. The way down on the other hand was another story. We took a "wild" trail, which was basically carved by rain water that had run down over the years. Parts of it were almost straight down and we had to slide down on left-over ropes from previous climbers. A little scary, but mostly fun and exciting. It was our adventure that I couldn't duplicate again if I tried...We even saw a squirrel which was pretty cool. Not a ton of wildlife that you see every day.

We topped the night off with some pizza and promises to go hiking again together soon! Pics soon to come (hopefully after getting a stronger internet connection early this week...)!

Namsan Tower

I mentioned a while back that our program directors took us out for dinner in Seoul and to Namsan Tower (the highest point in Seoul) for an evening together. It was very beautiful, and we had a really fun time talking and getting to know each other better. Well, today I was so happy to see the pictures for the first time, and I'd like to share some of them with you!!

Better

Thanks everyone for your kind words and thoughts. I'm feeling much better now after a weekend of much needed rest. I think that sometimes too much stress can be not good for our bodies...If you think of it, please pray for my students. Many of them are having difficult life circumstances that need a lot of prayer.

I can't believe that I've been in Korea for over a month already. It feels like it's only been a few weeks!! I'm surprised that there haven't been too many instances of "culture shock", but I'm happy for the peace and enjoyment God has given me so far. I have joy knowing that this is where God wants me to be.

I look out my window today and see the sun shining through the bright green tree leaves. The air is cool but refreshing. I love being able to wear a sweater and be comfortable while enjoying the weather. This morning, I was able to watch a soccer game outside the window and smile at the laughs of the children walking by. There must be a special activity going on today, because all of the children are wearing traditional Korean outfits (brightly colored flowing dresses with big bows down the front and headbands of red and blue).

I haven't been able to take pictures lately, but hopefully I'll get that going again soon and post a few pics of campus and other things around the area. Ah, something interesting happening in Korea now is "yellow dust". It's basically sand from China blowing over and hovering in the air around Seoul. My location doesn't have much at all, but lots of people have started wearing masks. What I found really interesting is that Australia is having a "red dust" storm right now!! It's the first in their history, but it's making everything in the air look red. Very interesting. Yellow dust is nothing in comparison with this...Check it out!!

Sick

I was looking forward to hiking today all week long...and when I woke up I was really sick T_T (Korean crying face). I always hate letting other people down, but I couldn't go hiking even if I wanted to. I'm so, so thankful to have had a cell phone so I could call though!! Right in time...

Later this afternoon I felt a little better, so I went to return a few movies I'd rented last night from the movie store. It was really great to go there yesterday. The guy speaks really great English, and they have quite a few English movies. Maybe not a ton, but probably 20 newer movies maybe 3 or 4 months old.

I pretty much laid around the apartment all day, but that was probably a good thing considering I wasn't feeling good. I did get a little cleaning and lesson preparation done though. I think that'll be a huge help for starting the new week Monday. I'm hoping to start and maybe finish my Linguistics reading for Hamline tonight too...Lots of plans, but maybe I'll just head to bed early. Who knows...