Prayer Requests and stuff

A few specific prayer requests to keep in mind: - I have a friend from Church, English name Juliet, who is one of the clearest English speakers and just a very open, real and friendly person. She's very outgoing and involved in a lot of ministry at the church. She is married with two young sons. Unfortunately, her husband is not saved. She comes to church with her sons without him. That's not an easy situation at all. Her sons will ask her why he doesn't come. Their family could use prayer. - Also, one of the boys that I met at the English camp was killed the week afterwards while he was swimming in a river. His family is part of the church and I'm sure they're going through a tough time. - Many of my students have issues that could use prayer. Maybe I'll just focus on a few classes at a time. Two classes who are at a similar level have several kids with major attitude problems and some family problems I know about. They are my "Gogo 3" classes. Some names: Tommy, Jake, Terry, Jackes, Billy, Scott. - And my roommates and my relationships with them and our other friends In other news... One more day of classes before vacation. Now we're going to try heading off into a less well-known area of Korea just North of where the National Park is. We have no reservations or anything, just a map and a phrase book... should be an adventure! We're hoping to see Soraksan later in our vacation when it's less crowded (hopefully!). And I forgot this from the food list: -seaweed-- both seaweed soup, and dried sheets of it to wrap around rice

Eleven....

Today marks one month of being in Korea. :) This past weekend was super hot and muggy. It didn't help that I ended up walking all over Dangjin. Both Saturday and Sunday I had events at church and hung out with friends from there afterwards. We'd try to find different places to go that had AC--restaurants, nore-bangs, the library... On Saturday Jane and Rainy and I went to a nore-bang. Just us three girls in the middle of the day. We sang more sappy songs than we usually do when we go in the evenings with a large group. Good bonding, though. On Sunday at English service they asked me to come up and help lead a new song. After that everyone kept complimenting me and stuff. It was nice, but kinda embarrassing... I found a book of Korean worship songs that they have and was looking at them with a woman named Sarah. There were many that are popular song in the US, too. I have high hopes of doing more of them at service. I guess Sarah is involved with YWAM's DTS in a nearby city. Very cool. Now it's back to the regular week of teaching. This upcoming weekend is the beginning of our summer break. We have off until Wednesday. Because this is one of only two breaks we have during the year, Tracy and I are trying to make the best of it and travel somewhere else in Korea. Our plan is to go to Soraksan, the most popular national park in Korea. It has incredible mountains, I guess. We'll also do some exploring on the coast near there. It's on the eastern side of Korea, opposite of where I am. However, finding accomodations that are anywhere near reasonable price may be difficult. We've already discovered that the youth hostels near there are completely booked for all 5 days, so now we're attempting to reserve a campsite and stay in a tent. If that doesn't work we may end up arriving there and having to find something then. This is the busy season for any tourist spot in Korea because so many people are on summer vacation. Unfortunately there isn't anything we can do about it because it's our only vacation as well. So, we'll make the most of it. Every night a truck drives down our street spraying some sort of pesticide. It looks like some sort of chemical weapon rising up from the street. We always run around frantically shutting windows when we hear it coming... It's somewhat strange because it doesn't seem like it must be very healthy. Generally Koreans seem very health-conscious. Lonely Planet says that they have more health drinks than the rest of the world combined. There are a lot of them. It also seems that everyone knows what is health and what various herbs, etc are good for. For example, Saturday afternoon I was introduced to cold noodle soup and bean noodle soup. Both are unlike anything I've eaten in the US. The Koreans I was with kept telling me how the bean noodle soup is very healthy--especially for women. Then that evening we ate a type of chicken soup (with an entire small chicken in each bowl, stuffed with rice) and found pieces of ginsing in the soup. We were told that it's very healthy for you, although it tastes bad. However, you don't want to eat it when it's hot outside because it makes your body heat up. Interesting. Also, when I was waiting at the bank to open an account my first week here, they gave me a little bottle of some sort of vitamin C drink. Tastes just like the chewable children's vitamin C. And don't forget kimchi!! It's supposed to be very good for you and even keep you from being sick. Apparently researchers are studying whether it may have been the reason SARS didn't hit Korea... Somewhat strange food I've eaten thusfar: -quail eggs in soy sauce -raw crab -octopus soup -numerous forms of kimchi -a whole chicken in one sitting -cold noodles -red bean pastry -dried squid -fruit loops with fruit, milk and cream -pizza with corn on it -clams and snails that I watched die -a sort of large radish that is served in more forms than you can imagine

Envelopes

Random Korea observation: There is no glue to lick on Korean envelopes. I didn't know if it was just the envelopes I had or what, but then I had some American stationary for one of my classes and they were disgusted by the idea of licking the envelopes! They were like, "Teacher, what does it taste like?" and were horrified that it just tasted like glue! Anyway, it's just amusing what little things can be so different. In other news, there's not much going on this week. Just teaching. Yesterday (Wednesday) Tracy and I went to the market and I got to practice my Korean numbers. We bought some produce and I got a really good deal on a cute skirt. Today we made french toast. It was deliciously non-Korean. Korean food really isn't bad, it's just the absence of some other foods that is sad. We were watching a movie last night and the actress was eating some chicken sandwich from a fast food joint or something. Normally that wouldn't look appealing, but my roommate and I both mentioned that it looked good :)

Church Website

Look at this: Dangjin Church

Mud Festival, Etc.

This past weekend was the busiest few days I've had since arriving in Korea. It also included the three earliest times I've gotten up since being here :) Here's the full story... Saturday morning we (Tracy, Cori and myself) woke up at 6 am and left our apartment at 6:50 in order to make a bus we thought was leaving at 7:20. We took a taxi to the intercity bus terminal, got our tickets without a hitch, got on the bus......and sat there...for over 30 minutes. We still aren't entirely sure what happened... perhaps the times were off or maybe they cancelled the earlier bus, or maybe the bus driver just didn't want to leave. We were a little worried that we wouldn't make the bus at our transfer point. Eventually, though, we drove off, getting out of cement and out to where we could see the hills and the fields of rice and other crops. The thing about taking a bus, however, is that there are many stops along the way. There were at least 6 stops on the way to Daecheon beach. One of the stops was where we switched buses. In spite of our late departure, we made it in time to get the early bus there. That bus took us to our destination--Daecheon station. Even though that is its name, the station is actually located in Boryeong, 15-20 minutes from Daecheon. Once we got off the bus, Tracy and I needed to use a restroom. There wasn't one in the bus station, so we decided to try to find one at a nearby restaurant. We pulled out the trusty Lonely Planet Phrasebook and went straight to the dictionary in the back for the word "bathroom." After asking and just getting a very confused look and gestures indicating upstairs I realized that we had made a stupid American tourist blunder. In looking for the word we wanted, we looked at "bathroom" rather than "restroom" or "toilet." We were asking for the room where you bathe, not the room where the toilet is. They aren't the same word in Korean!! So, I felt pretty silly :). From there we grabbed a taxi to take us to our hotel by the beach. It's a very built up area with TONS of hotels and seafood restaurants and bars and such. We knew we were getting close because we drove along a street that had banners for the mud festival every few feet. Because of the festival, all of the lodging in the area was charging double the normal rate. So, for a less than clean room with a double bed we paid approximately $80 (80,000 won). After a quick change of clothes we got some bimimbop to eat and headed to the beach. We were about 3 kilometers from where the mud festival was taking place, so we walked along the beach (me totally enjoying having my feet in the water and sand!) to get there. We had arrived on the first day of the festival (it runs for a week), so it seemed that people were just getting there. The closer we got, the more people we saw walking away covered in gray mud. Eventually we found where the source of the mud was. There was a big stage set up, and many inflatable games and pools around with mud in them rather than water. Our first stop were the tables that had basins of mud, paint brushes and mirrors where you could cover yourself with the soft, gray mud. Once we were covered, we went up the stairs to where more events were taking place. We watched an obstacle course for a while and then got in line to go down the mud slide. It was a bit of a wait, and once at the top we waited some more for them to bring more mud. When they had made it sufficiently muddy we slid down--Tracy and I together, head first! If I thought I was covered before, I was wrong. The slide bumped me up to a whole new level! At that point music started on the stage. We watched a couple middle-aged white guys play other bands' songs (Matchbox 20, John Lennon, Simon and Garfunkle...), and then it started raining. Tracy and I were already chilly from the mud and the breeze, but the rain made it worse. After looking at some vendors booths, we rinsed off in the ocean. From there, Tracy and I chose to head back to the hotel to clean up and warm up. On the way back we saw some cultural performance on a stage and ate a hotdog. After getting clean we went out to find a coffee shop. It started raining more, but we found a fun place where we could see the beach while sipping our (overpriced) coffee. While we were there a parade came by with people in various cultural outfits. From there we continued back toward the festival to pick up a couple souvenirs. On our way back to the hotel in started raining harder. We were tired of being wet and cold, so stopped under an awning to wait it out. Well, it didn't show any signs of stopping, so we continued on, grabbing a cardboard box to hold over our heads. That was pretty amusing! We got a lot of stares :) Eventually Cori and her friends returned from the festival and we all headed out to find some dinner. We ended up at an open-air seafood restaurant. Unfortunately none of us was very good at Korean, so we didn't know what we were ordering. It turned out to be a variety of shellfish--clams, snails--that were dumped right onto the wire grating over hot coals at our table. We were told that when they opened up they were ready, and if they didn't open up, they were bad. That was an adventure! Unfortunately it wasn't very filling and it was pretty expensive. So we left unsatisfied. At this point our group split up. Tracy and I went to find more food while the others went out to continue their night of drinking. We went to Can More, a Korean chain that sells various dishes involving fruit. I've been to the one in Dangjin twice for fruit loops with fruit, milk and cream (called "Wildshing"). Tracy got fruit spaghetti, I got ice cream, we both got hot cocoa, and we filled up on the toast that accompanies the meal. Once our tummy's were full we made the wet hike back to the hotel to hit the sack. This time we bought a $2 poncho to share between us (there was a lot of extra money spent on the weekend compared to what we had budgeted, so we wanted to make sure we had enough to get back and eat breakfast the next day). We planned to leave early Sunday, so went to bed when we got back to the hotel. On Sunday Tracy and I were on our own to make it back to Dangjin. We managed to find a city bus to take us to the intercity terminal, and while on that bus a friendly Korean guy started chatting with us to practice his English. He ended up being super nice and communicated with the people at the terminal to get us directed to the right bus to take. We had an extra hour before the bus left, so we went down to a convenience store to grab a bite to eat. The trip home was uneventful--I tried to sleep most of the way. As we were getting off the bus in Dangjin, I noticed that a girl who got off with us was a girl I had met at the English service at church the week before! She was happy to see me and I invited her to accompany us to our apartment so I could throw on church clothes and come with her to church. We made it just in time for the service to start. After English service we sat around chatting for awhile and she started teaching me some more Korean. Then Benjamin (the African preacher) and Brian (his real name is something I always get wrong in Korean) and some other people wanted to go hang out. So we got some lunch (kim bop) and then started exploring Dangjin. One by one people started leaving until it was just Benjamin, Brian and myself. They showed me around some parts of Dangjin I hadn't visited before, we stopped for ice cream, we came back to the apartment and got Tracy and Joe and went up to the park (Namsan) where we sat and talked for a long time, and then we went out for some dinner. The whole time it was great to just talk to people and get more insight into Korean culture from both of the guys. I also found out about the other foreigners that live in Dangjin. Apparently there is a pretty good-sized population of Indonesians who are involved with the factories in the area. They are cheap labor here, and many are illegal immigrants (hmm... sounds strangely familiar to the U.S....). There are also some Philippinos who work as English teachers, and German engineers. Crazy. I was also recruited to help out with an English camp the church was running for kids on Monday. Because I was a last minute addition I didn't have many responsibilities, but I did help out with the English songs and taught them, "Praise Ye the Lord, Allelujah" (you know the one where you sit down and stand up when it's your side's turn?). They thought that was just great! I had to meet at the church to leave at 7 am, so it was another early morning. I went to work after the morning at camp, so by the end of the day yesterday I was exhausted. I slept harder last night than I have for a long time. I doubt I even rolled over!! Whew! That was the past few days! Now Tuesday is already over and tomorrow is the halfway point of this week! I've added pictures of it to my yahoo album. Enjoy!!

Week Three

Teaching seems to be getting better overall. It's still quite draining, though. I'm just getting used to having a full-time job and the energy it takes to keep kids engaged, I think. Tuesday was the worst of the week again. Thursday is a close second, I think, just because it is the longest stretch of classes with no breaks. Next week I'll have two more classes added to my schedule because they have to split up the adult class (it's grown too big). It seems like I've gone back to the school life of living from weekend to weekend. At least it makes the time pass somewhat quickly :). This coming weekend I'm accompanying my roommates to a famous mud festival here in Korea. I guess tons and tons of people went last year, including thousands of foreigners. Should be interesting! Here's a website for it: http://www.mudfestival.or.kr/english/festival/festival1.php Tonight we had some friends over and made spaghetti. It was nice to have some "western" food. I like the Korean stuff, but I like a variety :)

Umbrellas

It's rainy today. Not surprising, because it is, after all, the rainy season. So it is not unusual that everyone I saw walking was carrying an umbrella. What is strange to my "western" upbringing, however, is that Koreans (specifically the women) are almost just as likely to be carrying an umbrella on sunny days! In Korea, as in many parts of Asia, it is considered beautiful to have very white skin. Darker skin is associated with outdoor labor--farming, etc--which I guess associates you with a lower class. It's quite hilarious to see all the whitening creams that are sold here or how ridiculously white the models on tv appear. In the U.S., we buy tanning creams, go to tanning beds, and models are perfectly bronzed. Beauty is all in the eye of the beholder, I guess. Maybe I came to the right place with my tan-resistant skin..... ;)

Church!

I had plans this morning of getting up early enough to explore town and choose a church to attend today. But I got up a little late. So, at about 11:00 I headed toward two large churches that I knew started at 11. I saw a bunch of people with Bibles walking, so I followed them. I ended up at the Methodist church in town. It turns out that it is the largest church in Dangjin. So, the service was quite full, and I was escorted to guest reception afterwards. It turns out that they've just started an English speaking ministry!! So, I met people involved with that who took me to the church cafeteria for lunch, and then to the English service at 1:00. That service is quite small, but totally better than nothing! The man who preaches is a Kenyan who is just in town on the weekends. The only other foreigners are a Chinese couple. The rest are Koreans just practicing English. So, I made some new friends!! They were very excited to have me. One girl in particular I will probably be in contact with. She is a tutor and is willing to help me with Korean. In fact, they were all very willing to help me. I hung out with them for a while after church, just talking and stuff. It was soooo nice :) I've also offered to bring some more English songs for the service. They currently have a very limited number :) They're excited about learning new songs, too. Fabulous!

The Second Week

Well, the rest of the week went much better than Tuesday. And this week went much faster than last week--that is a good thing. I guess the classes were just better, or maybe I was just feeling better, or maybe it was the phone calls to the US, or maybe it was all the prayer support, or maybe a combination of all of the above. The most exciting news of the week is that the internet works in our apartment and I even got Skype to work! That means I can talk to people from "home" as much as I want! I already talked to Laura for a good long time. Today, Tracy, Sue and I went to Waemok to see the sea :) There is an abundance of seafood restaurants there, complete with people standing outside trying to get you to come in. We enjoyed walking down the beach, collecting seashells and watching the tide come in. I added the pictures to my Yahoo album. Click the link in the previous post.

Pictures!

I finally have internet in my apartment. However, it is not on my laptop yet. Instead, I'm using a somewhat slow desktop that has been provided for us. But I still took the time to upload some pictures. You can see them here.

Teaching, Trials, Truths.

(Let me apologize in advance if this post sounds overly negative. I'm in a pretty depressive mood. I'll do my best to remember the positve, too...) On Sunday my co-worker picked me up for church. Her church and house are about 15-20 minutes away from where I live by car. It was really neat to be able to see what looked more rural--rice fields, hills, trees, grass... The church building is fairly new--it was just built last year. As you enter the building, there are shelves where you leave your shoes and you use slippers they provide to wear upstairs in the sanctuary. In Korea it is very common to remove your shoes. Any house or traditional Korean restaurant has a very clean floor because it is where you sit. The church was very small and made up of mostly older people. Therefore, very few people were able to talk to me. Well, I take that back--they could talk to me, I just didn't understand them. But, they were friendly--especially the pastor's wife. She knew a little English and just kept holding my hand :). After church I went to my co-workers house for lunch. She still lives with her parents who are very involved at the church. Her mom made a great Korean meal for us, but they kept apologizing for not having much food!! It's so funny because there were two hot dishes and five or six of the regular cold dishes on the table. In the U.S. that would be a lot of food. Sunday afternoon I went out with the roommates and their friends from around here. This consists of other foreigners and a few Koreans who are exceptionally westernized. I prefered the company from the day before, I think... That night I needed alone time, so I headed back to the apartment while the others went out. Monday I got up early, did some exploring (I heard a cookoo bird! Did you know there's actually a bird that sounds like those clocks?? I had no idea!), emailing and laundry, and went to my first full day of classes. It went well. I have all the good classes on Mondays. I was thoroughly exhausted by the end, though. Today was pretty bad... I woke up with a major case of the blues (missing a certain someone). Tracy and I went to explore the market--that was a high point. I saw live octopi and squid and crabs, and what I think was a kumquat tree, and dogs being sold for eating, and lots of fish and fruits and vegetables. We bought a watermelon in celebration of the 4th of July (even though its technically the 5th here...). At school I spent a long time preparing for my classes--I have four in a row. I thought I had done a decent job, but by the time class started I had started developing a headache. In all four classes I had trouble keeping order and using the entire 50 minutes. Even the class that is usually good was rambunctious today. I was so frustrated. It adds to the problem that I don't know what the kids are saying when they talk to each other--are they explaining what I'm saying? Are they talking about something completely different? Do they understand me? Makes discipline tough too, because I don't want them to be punished for something they just didn't understand... I already feel like I'm out of ideas and energy and I have a whole year at this job! Honestly, today I thought, "There's no way I can make it a year." But there is..."I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," right? It will be a struggle, though. Going through refining fire HURTS! I feel like whining, "NO! I don't wanna!!" Elisabeth Elliot has been an incredible resource to help me get my perspective right. She doesn't let me wallow in self-pity (even though I often want to!). I brought both Passion and Purity and The Music of His Promises with me. I've found the chapter entitled "What to do with loneliness" from P&P extremely appropriate to my situation. Here are a few challenging quotes from Music of His Promises: "Real trust yields utterly to the One trusted. All desire is turned over to that One, believing His ability to manage, control, and finally to accomplish what is best." -pg. 9 "The problem [you] desperately [want] solved is God's means of getting [your] attention--not necessarily that He may reveal its solutions but most certainly that He may reveal Himself to [you]." -pg. 13 Yesterday I read a Bible passage that seemed like a good challenge for the year: "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light." Colossians 1:10-12 Lord, this is what I want to do this year--bear fruit in whatever good work You set before me, grow ever closer to You and understand You more, be strengthened by Your power to complete what you've called me to, patiently enduring this year and the trials that come my way, and always thanking You joyfully. No amount of tribulation can overshadow the blessings You bestow and Your faithfulness. Well, this post was more personal than usual. I had originally planned for this blog to be more of a log of my cultural experiences... But, this is what I'm really experiencing.

One week down...

As of tomorrow (Sunday) evening I will have been in Korea for one week. This week has gone by surprisingly slowly. The other teachers assure me that it speeds up from here on out. We'll see. There is so much to learn and absorb. I'm pleased with how my friendship with some of the girls has developed. One of my roommates has been travelling a lot, so I still don't feel like I know her that well, but it will come I'm sure. I think it's good for me to learn to be real friends with non-Christians. They don't have a problem with my faith, and I feel comfortable enough talking about it with them. It was exciting for me to discover some similar tastes Tracy and I have--we're both big musical fans and can sing "Singin' in the Rain" tunes together :) The first day of classes went relatively well. I did, however, make a student cry in my first class, and had the wrong information about which lesson to prepare--oops!! And then in the second class I sent two boys to the corner. I stood my ground with them, though, and didn't give in to their pleadings to not go. Maybe that 6th grade class paid off ;) I finished the day with the adult class that had many more students than I was expecting. The whole hour was spent with them asking me questions about myself and showing them pictures. Today I slept in super late (it was good to catch up on sleep though). For lunch we had three of our Korean co-workers over for lunch. They had prepared some fabulous Korean food for us and we thoroughly enjoyed sitting and chatting with them for several hours. They stayed with us the rest of the afternoon and then we went to a Korean restaurant for dinner. This evening we are having a large party to wish three foreign teachers "goodbye" (one that I'm replacing, and the other two from a different school in town). There will be a lot of drinking, but another girl who's visiting from out of town isn't a drinker either, so we're planning to go get some coffee to drink :) Great news: I've discovered that a couple of my Korean co-workers are Christians!! I'm going with one of them to her small Baptist church tomorrow. Even though I still won't understand what's being said, at least I'll be with someone who knows who I am. I'm so thankful to know who some Sisters in Christ are. It is such an answer to prayer and a very tangible reminder of God's faithfulness.