Howdy!

Hey -

I apologize for the extended absence, for some reason, Blogger locked me out of my own account ("How rude!" as Stephanie Tanner would say). Not only was I unable to view, update or edit my own blog, but I was unable to read anyone else's...so I've got some reading to do. But first, let me tell you about my latest adventures here on the peninsula known as Korea.

Bible Study has been going really well. We're studying Romans and its INTENSE! We're each doing it chapter-by-chapter and preparing in our own unique ways. I think I've been Nav-brainwashed because I can't seem to do anything other than inductive studies - I just LOVE THEM! We're actually using NavPress studies for the next round which starts in January (we'll be going through Hebrews). God has been revealing things to me lately about His Word and has allowed me to view things in a new and exciting way...sometimes its so intense that I for an instant get a glimpse of understanding, and then have to try to get back to it and can actually feel my brain doubling back on itself trying to understand, and I have to stop whatever I'm doing to concentrate really hard. Its really awesome, and I don't know how to really explain this phenomenon accurately, but yeah...anyway... :)

I got a Korean cell phone (with my friend Ruda's help) on Saturday...now I just have to figure out how to use it...

Yesterday I did something I never in a million years would've thought I could do. And why I ever wanted to do it is beyond my comprehension, but I did it. And I'm very proud of myself. So what earth-shattering, mind-boggling event did I participate in yesterday?

I went to the "Doctor Fish".

If you're not Korean or familiar with Korea, you probably have no idea what Doctor Fish are. Well, buckle up, because here we go:

The Doctor Fish cafe looks like any other posh Korean cafe - expensive coffees and teas, coffee table books about Leonardo da Vinci, fake fireplaces, comfy chairs, elaborate architecture and so on. But at the Doctor Fish cafe, for a small fee (think about $3), you can go out onto the rooftop terrace overlooking the neon-lit neighborhood, rinse off your feet, wrap yourself in a (fake) Burberry fleece blanket and soak your feet in a nice, big pool of warm water, decorated nicely with ferns and flowers, and let thousands of small fish eat the dead skin off of your feet.

NO. JOKE.

Now, as many of you know, I have had a fish phobia ever since I can remember. I don't like aquariums, I don't like eating fish, I don't like the smell of anything fishy, I don't like fishing, shows about fishing, or talking about shows about fishing. I don't - like - fish. So I really can't explain why exactly I decided to put my feet in a tank full of them. Perhaps peer pressure. I kept thinking of the irony that I spent almost every summer of my life at some lake trying to avoid this very situation, and now I was paying people to let me do it. I think I've officially lost it.

I almost had a panic attack when I got to the tank. Now keep in mind, these fish are very small. Like minnow size. And so slowly, I put my feet in, hoping against hope that having the dead skin eaten off my feet was a pleasant if not a nonexistent feeling. But it wasn't. I don't know exactly how to describe it...it kind of feels like a bunch of cats licking your feet. At first it tickled like you wouldn't believe, and the tickling sensation soon overwhelmed my mental powers of denial that were keeping me calm and cool...my thought process went like this:

"It's okay, just put your feet in slowly, don't squish the fish DON'T SQUISH THE FISH, oh my gosh, how awful would that be to smash one on accident, with its little fishy guts, what would happen to his family - OKAY KEEP IT TOGETHER JESS - right, slowly lowering feet, oh htis isn't so bad, okay they're swarming, it tickles a little...okay it tickles a LOT, calm, collected, I'm fine, everythings fine I - OH MY GOSH MY FOOT IS COVERED IN FIIIIISH!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!". Repeat that cycle 4 or 5 times, and that's roughly what happened.

The good news is that Randi took a video of some of the experience and posted it on YouTube. So, for your enjoyment, I give you this glimpse of Dr. Fish experience - only in Korea!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sBxamr1HX-8

Apparently there's a place where you can do "whole-body" Dr. Fish. I'll be going there never.

That's about it for now, I'll post some pictures soon. Hope you had a Happy Halloween!!

Jess