Delayed Reports...

Hi everyone! I know that I haven't updated in awhile, and mom says she's going "bonkers" waiting to hear about Jeju-do... I'll get to it. Really. I'll even post some pictures. Currently, though, I've got this "distraction" here that I'd rather spend time with than the computer... But, let me tell you about our last day in Seoul- last Monday (Sept. 19). We left our backpacks at the hostel so we wouldn't be bogged down. Then we went to this really cool looking building we had seen to try to get to the top. There was a restaurant there, so we went up and looked out the windows. Even the bathrooms had huge windows looking down on the city. The view would've been better if it wasn't so hazy. After that we ate at Pizza Hut (hooray for real ham and pineapple pizza!), and headed in the direction of a traditional folk performance that was supposed to be happening because of the holiday. It was a bit of a walk to get there, but we saw some neat fountains and things. Unfortunately the show really wasn't starting until much later, so we didn't see anything there. Then we grabbed our packs from the hostel and stopped off at another part of Seoul to seek out the Hard Rock Cafe. Jason bought a t-shirt, and we saw another branch of that mexican restaurant. We ate dinner there. The area is a really modern area of Seoul. Barely looks like Korea. I guess it's an expensive part where all the movie stars hang out and such. Anyway, chips and salsa were nice, but the food didn't taste like American Mexican food. They put their own Korean twist on it. Oh well. Still a good experience. Oh yes, and the other exciting thing was buying a rainbow colored umbrella from a man in the subway :). From there we went to the bus station and headed back to Dangjin. We were pretty well exhausted from the weekend. There was a LOT of walking involved. It was great to explore the city together, though.

Seoul Food

We're in Seoul. One day left. Here are some highlights of what we've done so far:

• Some palace which if I told you the name, you'd forget it anyway (but, it looked like Mulan or something out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).
• LOTS OF WALKING
• More lights than Vegas, but more overwhelming 'cause you can't understand 'em.
• Jumping across a four-lane intersection on the white stripes (like Buddy the Elf).
• Going to the biggest church IN THE WORLD!!!! Note: If you go, be sure to take pictures before they put up the "No pictures, please" sign in the foreigners' section ;).
• Experiencing the joys of staying at a run-down hostel that, according to the Internet, won some award for being the "best foreigners hostel" in Seoul in 2001....
• Going into "the bowels of the city" over and over again to ride the subway
• Eating at a nice Italian restaurant that had no smell of Kimchi whatsoever. (Asssahhh!)
• Watching an incredible percussion show performed entirely on kitchen objects! Very, very animated and very, very entertaining, and very, very Asian. :)
• Eating waffles.
• Eating Subway, surrounded by foreigners
• Free samples of fried squid from a street vendor
• Starbucks- just the smell, and then Jason sweet-talking the manager into selling him something that isn't normally for sale... and then she even wrapped it up all pretty and gave him a free gift!!!!!!! (Jason felt kinda guilty afterwards...)
• Pagoda, Pagada...
• Aren't subways ingenious?
• Walking down city streets that were quiet and abandoned because of the holiday. Unfortunately that meant no Mexican food because many restaurants were closed, too.

Ok, enough Internet. Time to go add to the list!!

A Distraction :)

Anyong Haseyo! Jason is here, safe and sound. I cannot express how wonderful it is to have him around! This morning we went running together where I usually go. It went so much quicker :) Getting to the airport went really well. O Kwang Hwan and his daughter were great, although they spoke very little English. We made it to the airport in plenty of time, and even had a chance to stop at a McDonald's to eat. Just a little taste of Western food once and a while is nice :) Needless to say, I was SUPER excited the whole time, and when I knew the plane had arrived and he was in the country, my heart really started racing. It's been great to show him around here and see his reaction to all the things I'm already used to. I'll try to get him to share some of his observations here sometime.... Ok- Gotta go have some more quality time! Sorry if I'm really slow in posting or emailing you back these next 3 weeks!

A Blessing Called "Moon"

Sometimes people are put in your path that you just know are a gift from God and a reminder of His care for you. "Mr. Moon", a gentleman from church, is one of those. He has such a loving and friendly spirit. He's been wonderful to me since I first got here. We really connected over that song I sang a few weeks back. I know he loves Jesus- you can just tell by his joy and love for others! As you know, Jason's coming TOMORROW (and I'm MORE than a little excited!!! :-D)- Mr. Moon is opening his apartment for him to stay there, all three weeks that he's here! Then, when I had a big problem finding a way to and from the airport to pick J up, Mr. Moon went out of his way to call other people in the church who might be able to help me out- and he found someone! The whole time we were looking he could tell I was concerned and said "Don't worry, it'll be ok." He's definitely my father/uncle figure here :). The other cool thing is that the man who's my ride to the airport has never met me before, but he's doing it anyway. Gotta love the international body of Believers, looking out for each other no matter where they're from or if they know you or not. This is how it should be, anyway. This weekend I did the church thing on Saturday and hung out with friends from there for most of the day (norebang, dinner, etc). I also went to the young adults group again that night. The speaker seemed longer than usual, but part of that is because it's entirely Korean and we're sitting on the floor :). Today I went to 9:00 service for a while, and then to the library for a program I had promised to be at. This time we went out to the country again- first to make a craft out of rice straw, then to make pottery. It was a good event. However, the people there can be really pushy. Especially to us white foreigners. They don't give the Chinese or the Philippinos near as much attention. That drives me crazy. And they try to help us too much with these projects. I found myself trying to escape to be near the Chinese- they were allowed to do things on their own! Seeing the master potter work was incredible, though. All the Biblical references to God being a potter came to mind. It was soothing just to watch him work. This evening was girl time. The roommates and Jane and I went out for dinner, and shopping, and ice cream/coffee, and picked up a couple girl movies to watch. Good times. Tomorrow's work again. BUT, tomorrow's also Monday, and we know what that means! It's crazy! Jason's on his way here right now! I apologize in advance if there is a lack of blog entries in the next few weeks. I'm gonna be a little busy :).

Photos

I forgot to mention that my pictures are up from the adventures of last weekend. Click on the title to see them. View at your own risk- not for weak stomachs! ;) There are also now pictures of this past weekend and the area just outside of the city where I go running sometimes in the album called "September." Plenty of flower pictures :)

4 boys, 4 puppies, 4 Korean women and a Miguk

Another week of teaching has passed. This week we completed a term, so this week we are beginning new books in most of the classes. Our schedules were also supposed to change, but mine is almost exactly the same. I just have one class 3 times a week instead of twice. I'm excited about the change in curriculum, though-- mostly, anyway. It will be nice to have new books and most of them have more material than the ones I was using. Thus, I won't have to come up with as many ways to fill the time. Saturday after Bible Study, we ate lunch at the church cafeteria. There is always free lunch on Sundays after 11:00 service- usually just a simple soup, rice and kimchi meal. But today there was a wedding, so this was a feast! If you ever visit Korea, I'd recommend finding your way into a wedding dinner. There's so much great food to try. The main dish was a noodle soup that is traditional wedding food. Most of the mazillion side dishes were out of the ordinary for typical Korean side dishes. Of course, there was kimchi, but you're not Korean if you don't eat that! Anyway, I ate a lot :) Then, Juliet wanted to show me her new house. They'll be moving there sometime at the end of this month from the apartment they're currently in. It turned out to be quite the excursion, complete with another friend and her two kids. It was nice to get out to the country--no traffic noises, fresh air... There were 4 puppies there, and the 4 little boys had a great time playing with them. They had a blast with everything- rocks, sticks, bugs- you know, little boy stuff! A couple other Korean women showed up as well, and they chatted for a long time in Korean. I was pretty tired because I hadn't slept well the night before, so I retreated to the car for a good long nap. The night was pretty laid back- tv, dinner, talking. It was nice. But, the littlest boy was ready to get up bright and early, so we didn't sleep in much. Such is the life of a mother. Sunday was pretty typical- went to Korean service, then lunch, then English service, then out with a bunch of friends. We went to the sea, but just walked around a bit and came back. It was still nice. Oh yeah, the unusual thing was after lunch: Benjamin, Juliet, Sue and I went to the Red Cross to invite foreigners to English service. They have a dinner for foreigners a few Sundays a month, I think. Well, it turned out to be almost all Philippinos, and almost all men. Being the only white girl there, and with blondish hair besides, I got a LOT of stares. It was pretty uncomfortable. Hopefully some good with come of it. I finished the weekend watching a movie in the apartment. Gotta get some down time to just relax once in a while :).