We officially made it to Auckland bright and early this morning! Its about 60 degrees here...quite the change from Seoul summer weather. So far I've noticed some differences:
1) People here dress normally
2) People here are uber-friendly
3) People here speak English (PTL!)
4) People here eat a lot of Kebabs (there are Kebab restaurants EVERYWHERE)
5) Though bigger than Koreans, people here are generally still smaller than North Americans
6) People here don't stare at me
Also in the Incheon Airport as we were getting ready to leave Seoul, we saw:
1) Japanese Olympic Sumo Wrestling Team
2) The one - the only - BOBBY KNIGHT (probably coming back from the Olympics...he was carrying golf clubs with his buddies); I wanted to ask for a picture but there were a lot of chairs in the vicinity and I was fearful
So far, so good here in NZ. We'll be traveling around here until the 8th of September, when we fly to Sydney.
Before I close, I would like to mention that our Backpackers Hostel is smack dab in the middle of the "Korean" district of downtown and that this Internet Cafe is also a Noraebang. Oh Korea - I tried to escape you, and yet you follow me even here.
Hope all is well - miss you guys!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Oh what a year...
I'll be leaving Korea on Tuesday! I can't believe as of Sunday I've been here for a WHOLE YEAR! How did I survive?
ONLY (and I mean ONLY) by the GRACE of my LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.
This experience wouldn't make sense any other way...and it would be completely devoid of the life-altering meaning that it now carries. This year wasn't a job, it wasn't a trip and it CERTAINLY wasn't a vacation (haha).
It was a MISSION.
Korea refuses to leave you unchanged; it demands adaptation, perseverance, flexibility and humility. I feel so different than when I started. As much as I came to carve out a life for myself here in the big city, it was God who carved me into someone who is more me than I've ever been.
Whereas I used to brace myself, panic-stricken, in the back of the cab for the inevitable result of my driver's seeming "recklessness", I now shout at him "Ajoshi! Ka juseyo! Bali bali!" which means "Old man (polite term)! Drive! Hurry hurry!"
Whereas I used to go white with fear at the mere prospect of having to communicate with someone who most certainly didn't speak English, I now understand that, just like spiders, they're probably just as scared of me as I am of them. And I realized that a little humility goes a long way.
Whereas I used to turn up my nose at the mere idea of "fermented cabbage", I now eat kimchi like its going out of style, and seriously fear for my digestive system's health without it.
Whereas I used to "know" that God was with me, I have spent the last year learning that He is always there.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." ~ James 1:2-4
To my new Seoul family, to my church, to my students, to my fellow teachers and co-workers, to those who have helped me, encouraged me, taught me, corrected me, loved me -
I will miss you so much. I love you and I'll see you again, perhaps in more beautiful world than this one.
To Korea -
Kamsa hamnida ^.^ Jeonun chamchi kimbap eol joa hamnida. Mashi sseumnida.
ONLY (and I mean ONLY) by the GRACE of my LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.
This experience wouldn't make sense any other way...and it would be completely devoid of the life-altering meaning that it now carries. This year wasn't a job, it wasn't a trip and it CERTAINLY wasn't a vacation (haha).
It was a MISSION.
Korea refuses to leave you unchanged; it demands adaptation, perseverance, flexibility and humility. I feel so different than when I started. As much as I came to carve out a life for myself here in the big city, it was God who carved me into someone who is more me than I've ever been.
Whereas I used to brace myself, panic-stricken, in the back of the cab for the inevitable result of my driver's seeming "recklessness", I now shout at him "Ajoshi! Ka juseyo! Bali bali!" which means "Old man (polite term)! Drive! Hurry hurry!"
Whereas I used to go white with fear at the mere prospect of having to communicate with someone who most certainly didn't speak English, I now understand that, just like spiders, they're probably just as scared of me as I am of them. And I realized that a little humility goes a long way.
Whereas I used to turn up my nose at the mere idea of "fermented cabbage", I now eat kimchi like its going out of style, and seriously fear for my digestive system's health without it.
Whereas I used to "know" that God was with me, I have spent the last year learning that He is always there.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." ~ James 1:2-4
To my new Seoul family, to my church, to my students, to my fellow teachers and co-workers, to those who have helped me, encouraged me, taught me, corrected me, loved me -
I will miss you so much. I love you and I'll see you again, perhaps in more beautiful world than this one.
To Korea -
Kamsa hamnida ^.^ Jeonun chamchi kimbap eol joa hamnida. Mashi sseumnida.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Another great spa experience!
Last week I redeemed my birthday present from Rach (a gift certificate to a spa in Itaewon). I couldn't decide between a massage and a pedicure...so I wound up splitting the difference and getting a foot massage. This experience was interesting, ranking on the interesting scale somewhere between the acupuncture incident and the Hong Kong acupressure massage incident.
First of all, I don't know what to think during a massage. I cannot shake the feeling that this experience is, in fact, weird. I mean, I just met this person. Don't know their name, where they're from, if they're licensed, if they've ever spent time in the clink, nothing.
And if the weirdness isn't enough, I feel uber-pretentious the whole time. Like "I have enough money to pay someone to rub my feet" which to me no amount of money should justify rubbing someone's stinky smelly feet (not that mine are like that...mine are quite nice actually). I just want to apologize the whole time.
So on this particular occasion, the foot massage seemed like a good idea. That is, until I remembered that I am quite ticklish. But of course by that point, it was far too late to do anything about it. On top of that, it HURTS when someone presses on the bottom of your foot! I literally spent an hour trying to stifle the laughter/screaming that was trying to shimmy its way from my brain out my mouth.
For the record, I have never, ever walked out of a massage thinking "Wow - that was so relaxing!" I usually walk out limping and whimpering like an injured animal. Geez - last week my wrists were stabbed repeatedly with needles and it didn't hurt half as much as that.
Also got my travel shots a few days ago - Typhoid and HepA. HepA made my tongue go numb and Typhoid made every muscle in my body feel like I got run over by a bus. The doctor suggested I get malaria pills but I told him that a few years ago I got bitten by a spider and felt this tingling powerful feeling and since then I've kind of felt...superhuman...so I didn't think malaria would be a problem. Actually I've just heard terrible things about them, and I've done research and I don't think I need them. Please pray I don't get malaria.
Leaving Korea in 11 days, God-willing! CRAZY!!
First of all, I don't know what to think during a massage. I cannot shake the feeling that this experience is, in fact, weird. I mean, I just met this person. Don't know their name, where they're from, if they're licensed, if they've ever spent time in the clink, nothing.
And if the weirdness isn't enough, I feel uber-pretentious the whole time. Like "I have enough money to pay someone to rub my feet" which to me no amount of money should justify rubbing someone's stinky smelly feet (not that mine are like that...mine are quite nice actually). I just want to apologize the whole time.
So on this particular occasion, the foot massage seemed like a good idea. That is, until I remembered that I am quite ticklish. But of course by that point, it was far too late to do anything about it. On top of that, it HURTS when someone presses on the bottom of your foot! I literally spent an hour trying to stifle the laughter/screaming that was trying to shimmy its way from my brain out my mouth.
For the record, I have never, ever walked out of a massage thinking "Wow - that was so relaxing!" I usually walk out limping and whimpering like an injured animal. Geez - last week my wrists were stabbed repeatedly with needles and it didn't hurt half as much as that.
Also got my travel shots a few days ago - Typhoid and HepA. HepA made my tongue go numb and Typhoid made every muscle in my body feel like I got run over by a bus. The doctor suggested I get malaria pills but I told him that a few years ago I got bitten by a spider and felt this tingling powerful feeling and since then I've kind of felt...superhuman...so I didn't think malaria would be a problem. Actually I've just heard terrible things about them, and I've done research and I don't think I need them. Please pray I don't get malaria.
Leaving Korea in 11 days, God-willing! CRAZY!!
Flying Seoul-o
I am so proud of myself that I thought of that clever title. As of late, my English is disappearing faster than the Statue of Liberty on a David Copperfield prime-time special. My friend Jung-mi says that Korea brain-damaged me. Other people are starting to notice. I gotta get outta here!!!
I'm in my 2nd week (of 3 total) of vacation. Except for a few days scattered throughout the year, this has been my only real down time. It's nice to have most of my days free. People have been leaving sporadically, and now I'm down to a few precious friends on my speed-dial. Hil is gone, the Crews are gone, Jen and Jeff are gone to Mongolia, Becky, Vanessa, Ali, Will, Ruda moved to Ilsan (so he's basically left the country), and Katrina and Rach were in Hong Kong this week (they're actually stuck in Macau right now...prayer for their safe return before their visas expire on Monday would be greatly appreciated).
My life is like a reality show where one of my friends gets voted off every couple days.
I've had some good times of prayer as of late. I think God is teaching me how to pray...I used to be all intellectual about it. Now that my big words and intellect have taken a holiday, I can't hide behind them anymore.
Something else I discovered is praying out loud. I've always been a proponent of verbalizing thoughts...in your head everything is so nebulous and hard to pin down. Something I learned in DC this summer was how to journal my "self-talk" in moments of anger or pain. If you've never done this, I encourage you to. "Core lies" you believe about yourself will manifest themselves onto the piece of paper where they're much more easily dealt with than when they're swimming around willy-nilly in your head. Don't knock it til you've tried it!
Currently reading "The Reason for God" by Tim Keller. Excellent read.
Gonna continue cleaning/packing/pulling my hair out now! :)
I'm in my 2nd week (of 3 total) of vacation. Except for a few days scattered throughout the year, this has been my only real down time. It's nice to have most of my days free. People have been leaving sporadically, and now I'm down to a few precious friends on my speed-dial. Hil is gone, the Crews are gone, Jen and Jeff are gone to Mongolia, Becky, Vanessa, Ali, Will, Ruda moved to Ilsan (so he's basically left the country), and Katrina and Rach were in Hong Kong this week (they're actually stuck in Macau right now...prayer for their safe return before their visas expire on Monday would be greatly appreciated).
My life is like a reality show where one of my friends gets voted off every couple days.
I've had some good times of prayer as of late. I think God is teaching me how to pray...I used to be all intellectual about it. Now that my big words and intellect have taken a holiday, I can't hide behind them anymore.
Something else I discovered is praying out loud. I've always been a proponent of verbalizing thoughts...in your head everything is so nebulous and hard to pin down. Something I learned in DC this summer was how to journal my "self-talk" in moments of anger or pain. If you've never done this, I encourage you to. "Core lies" you believe about yourself will manifest themselves onto the piece of paper where they're much more easily dealt with than when they're swimming around willy-nilly in your head. Don't knock it til you've tried it!
Currently reading "The Reason for God" by Tim Keller. Excellent read.
Gonna continue cleaning/packing/pulling my hair out now! :)
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Dinner
-Whole grain crackers with peanuts and toasted sesame seeds-
-Peach yogurt-
-Special K Red Berries-
-Soy milk-
-Toasted seaweed-
This might be the greatest meal ever...only thing missing is kimchi.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Typing at last!
So I am lazy. BUT there is another reason for my recent negligence in updating my blog and or contacting/replying to emails. In short, my duh-duh-duh-Dell is on its last leg. The top row of keys mysteriously stopped working around the middle of July and have failed to revive themselves. This leaves me without crucial letters, and though I tried copying and pasting, that will erode your sanity over time.
So finally today I just went out and bought an external keyboard. It was only 10,000 won (approx. $10) and it has all the Korean letters on the keys as well as English, so its definitely unique. Maybe it'll help me remember how to read Hanguel (Korean writing). Prooooobably not though.
I've been teaching at an English camp for two weeks now and its been a blast. I'm teaching at a neighboring school, and it hosts kids from 5 different elementary schools in our area. So, I've gotten to know a lot of new kids and gotten to spend some extra quality time with the kids from my school I taught all year. One of my favorite kids calls himself "genius", though he spelled it wrong on his camp application, so his English name tag says "Jenius". Oh the irony. He's a cutie.
Today we took them to Seoul Land, which is an amusement park south of the city. Seoul Land reminded a lot of Fun Spot Amusement Park and Zoo back in Angola, IN...though maybe slightly bigger, a lot safer, and WAY more hyperactive children. The kids got to ride the rides for a couple hours, we went on a 3D movie adventure ride where there were 3D butterflies, asteroids, and sharks (during the shark part I screamed like a girl and hid behind Heejin, one of my 5th grade students). In 3D, there is nowhere to run. Or swim.
I ate lunch with my coteachers - they're all terrific people. I've had limited meaningful interactions with Koreans because my school is nearly devoid of English-speakers (though you quickly find out that a lot can be said through warm gestures and smiling...my nickname at school was "Miss Smile", or "Mee-suh Suh-mah-eel" as they would say). At this camp, there are some wonderful people I can actually communicate with. We were all lamenting today about the fact that I'm leaving and we won't have enough time to get to know each other better.
God is changing my heart regarding how I feel about Koreans. Granted, there are still things at the societal level that really bug me, but when you look at just one Korean, instead of the whole mass of them, you get a much clearer picture. On the whole I'm very glad to be going home, but there are very specific things I will miss, including the chance to invest more time into these women.
In other news, Hil and the Crews are leaving in 2 days. Hil will be taking her month-long vacation in America before returning to Korea on the 23rd of August. I'm leaving the 26th (tentatively - the school system I work for...yeah...we'll leave it at that) so I'll see her before I leave. The Crews however, will not be back until September, so I must say goodbye to 2 people who mean a lot to me on Saturday. This is an excerpt from a blog I wrote back last August:
"Yesterday I went to church and it was really neat to worship in a different country. We went to an English speaking service and the worship was so...genuine. Everyone seemed so sincere. It was a breath of fresh air. Hil and I decided we want to start a Bible study, and there are a fair amount of other Christians here, so we might meet up with them. There's one really nice couple, Nate and Jessica, who seem really interested."
God is so amazing. What I didn't know then was that this mere idea of starting something to fill our spiritual needs would grow and grow into a community of believers learning to lean on the faithfulness of God together as one body, in the midst of struggling to survive in a foreign nation. We started with 6; we've ended up with 20+, with about an equal number who have moved on throughout the year. We never asked or claimed to be shepherds, but nonetheless the sheep started coming. And the ministry has not been easy; it has been attacked multiple times and has experienced setbacks because we listened to people and not to God.
But He has been so faithful. In ways that our lack faith could not predict. In ways our nearsightedness could not foresee.
God's will is a beautiful thing. Amen.
So finally today I just went out and bought an external keyboard. It was only 10,000 won (approx. $10) and it has all the Korean letters on the keys as well as English, so its definitely unique. Maybe it'll help me remember how to read Hanguel (Korean writing). Prooooobably not though.
I've been teaching at an English camp for two weeks now and its been a blast. I'm teaching at a neighboring school, and it hosts kids from 5 different elementary schools in our area. So, I've gotten to know a lot of new kids and gotten to spend some extra quality time with the kids from my school I taught all year. One of my favorite kids calls himself "genius", though he spelled it wrong on his camp application, so his English name tag says "Jenius". Oh the irony. He's a cutie.
Today we took them to Seoul Land, which is an amusement park south of the city. Seoul Land reminded a lot of Fun Spot Amusement Park and Zoo back in Angola, IN...though maybe slightly bigger, a lot safer, and WAY more hyperactive children. The kids got to ride the rides for a couple hours, we went on a 3D movie adventure ride where there were 3D butterflies, asteroids, and sharks (during the shark part I screamed like a girl and hid behind Heejin, one of my 5th grade students). In 3D, there is nowhere to run. Or swim.
I ate lunch with my coteachers - they're all terrific people. I've had limited meaningful interactions with Koreans because my school is nearly devoid of English-speakers (though you quickly find out that a lot can be said through warm gestures and smiling...my nickname at school was "Miss Smile", or "Mee-suh Suh-mah-eel" as they would say). At this camp, there are some wonderful people I can actually communicate with. We were all lamenting today about the fact that I'm leaving and we won't have enough time to get to know each other better.
God is changing my heart regarding how I feel about Koreans. Granted, there are still things at the societal level that really bug me, but when you look at just one Korean, instead of the whole mass of them, you get a much clearer picture. On the whole I'm very glad to be going home, but there are very specific things I will miss, including the chance to invest more time into these women.
In other news, Hil and the Crews are leaving in 2 days. Hil will be taking her month-long vacation in America before returning to Korea on the 23rd of August. I'm leaving the 26th (tentatively - the school system I work for...yeah...we'll leave it at that) so I'll see her before I leave. The Crews however, will not be back until September, so I must say goodbye to 2 people who mean a lot to me on Saturday. This is an excerpt from a blog I wrote back last August:
"Yesterday I went to church and it was really neat to worship in a different country. We went to an English speaking service and the worship was so...genuine. Everyone seemed so sincere. It was a breath of fresh air. Hil and I decided we want to start a Bible study, and there are a fair amount of other Christians here, so we might meet up with them. There's one really nice couple, Nate and Jessica, who seem really interested."
God is so amazing. What I didn't know then was that this mere idea of starting something to fill our spiritual needs would grow and grow into a community of believers learning to lean on the faithfulness of God together as one body, in the midst of struggling to survive in a foreign nation. We started with 6; we've ended up with 20+, with about an equal number who have moved on throughout the year. We never asked or claimed to be shepherds, but nonetheless the sheep started coming. And the ministry has not been easy; it has been attacked multiple times and has experienced setbacks because we listened to people and not to God.
But He has been so faithful. In ways that our lack faith could not predict. In ways our nearsightedness could not foresee.
God's will is a beautiful thing. Amen.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Infinite Challenge
Here's a bit of Korean culture for you...this clip is from the extremely popular Korean game show/comedy "Muhan Dojeon" ("Infinite Challenge" in English) featuring my favorite soccer player, Thierry Henry.
"Infinite Challenge has been reported as the first "Real-Variety" show in Korean television history. The program is largely unscripted, and takes a similar form to challenge based Reality Television programs familiar in the West, but the challenges are often silly, absurd, or impossible to achieve, so that the program takes on the aspect of a satirical comedy variety show, rather than a more standard reality or contest program. To do that, as the 6 hosts and their staff continuously proclaim, the elements of this show are the 3-Ds(Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult), which is the greatest on Korean television program." - Wikipedia
"Infinite Challenge has been reported as the first "Real-Variety" show in Korean television history. The program is largely unscripted, and takes a similar form to challenge based Reality Television programs familiar in the West, but the challenges are often silly, absurd, or impossible to achieve, so that the program takes on the aspect of a satirical comedy variety show, rather than a more standard reality or contest program. To do that, as the 6 hosts and their staff continuously proclaim, the elements of this show are the 3-Ds(Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult), which is the greatest on Korean television program." - Wikipedia
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