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