KNOCK KNOCK!!

Yes, there's no rest for those construction workers who must begin the rock breaking tap dance at 7:15am even on Saturday and Sunday! Of course, since it's right outside my window, I get to enjoy the dance instead of some silly sleep I thought I wanted.
Here's a little taste of this high quality performance:

Gimme A Break!

I sit here Friday night with a full 9 day Chusok break ahead of me and lots to write about the past few weeks behind me… so while most of you sleep, I’m just starting to tap this keyboard silly!

A Busy Rest

When Koreans work—they work long and hard. When Koreans play, they do the same! What I thought was going to be a very quiet week spent at home with a few trips into Seoul to explore has become a major social itinerary with trips, dinners, and plans almost every day! It’s probably just as well—the construction out my back window is into the rock pounding stage again and after a week of it, I want to escape whenever possible!

So far, I think I’ll take part in a hike up the mountain in my back yard, going somewhere in Seoul with a few of my new pals from church, a fun trip to Seoul Land for the whole English ministry congregation on Chusok day, a progressive dinner with all the teachers who are staying here over the break (strictly B.Y.O.Chopstics ), making a Korean dinner with our Korean school cooks for our Korean church friends, exploring and shopping with Sylvia, and maybe pricing out a cell phone and a guitar. Oh yeah, and I need to catch up on grading, new curriculum, lesson planning, grout scrubbing, and correspondence… hmmmm I may need a vacation after this vacation!

Divine Appointments

I’ve had the joy of God’s perfect planning and timing this week. Being in the “right place at the right time” isn’t always just coincidence—it’s too perfect for that. Who knew that my friend would need a friend to lean on, an ear to listen, and some reasoning conversation after we had already planned to hang out together?

Who knew the next day I’d knock on a door asking for a fellow adventurer for the evening, only to find another friend sick and wishing for a humidifier (one of those things the paperwork said I’d needed to bring since you can’t get them here, but really they’re everywhere and I was grumpy that I wasted the space!) and some sinus meds—I just happened to have them in my apartment. I almost never knock on her door, but this day I obviously needed to.

Who knew my friend down the hall would need a clean-up buddy when a freak-candle accident shattered her glass table top and sent sooty ash and smoke all through her apartment?

HE KNEW!

Sometimes it’s just fun stuff that hits at the right time… a bike ride along the river in perfect weather and a camera to catch some highlights. I spent too long enjoying the scenery so that the sundown mosquito clouds along the river chased me off the path and back into the streets of town near where I live. As I moseyed along the back streets (yes, it really is safe, I promise!) I stumbled on an impromptu market just setting up stalls selling everything from huge slabs of dried seaweed/kelp to pajama sets. I found a cheap shirt, bike gloves (so much easier on the hands), and a vendor who didn’t speak English, but was quite proud of his California driver’s license =)

Basically, I was the only Westerner at a Korean block party with families kicking back to enjoy some dinner, shopping, and conversation with the neighborhood. I was welcome to wander through, but they didn’t make a big deal out of my being very out of place. Camaraderie is the only way I can describe the mood there—I wasn’t a part of it, but they didn’t let me ruin it either. The mystery, wonder, and magic of it was heightened by the twilight hour and the knowledge that I may never stumble on it again.

I Found a Home!

After a less-than exhaustive (but plenty exhausting) church search, I’ve found a place to belong. One of the teachers here belongs to a church that has welcomed her and become family— so I went along last week to check it out. In fact, she had heard about Onuri (the church I found online) and wanted to see what God was doing there too; so we made a day of it: Seoul Light and Salt Church in the morning and Onuri in the afternoon with a big subway ride in between.

To relieve the suspense for any of you with weak constitutions: I’m attending Seoul L&S Church. Now, back to the story…

Sunday morning we walked and bussed the 20 minutes to Sue’s church and I found that I had been right there one Sunday solo-exploration morning on my bike, but you would never know that it’s a church because it’s a sky scraper like all the others around it. The church is HUGE with thousands of members in 4 services on Sundays, but the English ministry is much smaller with about 100 people in service. The great thing about this ministry is that it is run by Korean nationals and over half of the congregation is Korean English speakers/learners, so the culture is intact. Everyone was very welcoming (they have newcomers come up front and sing a song to them—happily, I was not the only visitor!), very diverse (Filipinos, Peruvians, Americans, Canadians, etc.), and very REAL. We stayed for the study group time after service—who knew Purpose Driven Life would follow me overseas!—and then stayed for lunch. This huge church opens up the cafeteria and feeds everybody! Eating is a major social activity in Korea and so we fellowship while breaking rice and noodles together =)

After a wonderful lunch, we made our way to Onuri -- this church was even huger than the morning one and the English service was probably about 1,000 strong in a big auditorium with an amazing light/sound system, mission statement banners hanging up front, and BIG music. It was polished, trendy, and void of Korean influence—I actually forgot I was in Korea for a while! Even the Korean leaders up front had no accent or Korean worldview. It’s an active church ministering to the community in mighty ways, but it’s not for me. Since I live and work in a fairly sheltered American/Western environment, I’m not looking for that in a church. I’ll attend closer to home (fewer excuses on a busy weekend =), get involved in this body of Christ reaching out to the community (it’s very alive and small, so it’s easier to get into ministry and quite necessary & expected!), and maybe go to Onuri for events and a good USA fix sometimes (like Christmas time =)

Things happen…

If you’ve never spent time in a culture operating in a language you don’t know, here’s an idea of a few things that can happen:

• Just because you’re in a Costco and the package looks like bacon, that doesn’t mean that it is. I now have a very large quantity of uncured, completely plain, thick-sliced piggy in my freezer—pork fried rice anyone?
• Usually labels include some kind of picture to aid the shopping process, but once you get it home, 2 spray bottles may look quite similar. One of my favorite shirts needed a shot of Fabreeze-equivalent spray after living in my mothball-essence wardrobe, so I grabbed the bottle off the counter and gave it a few squirts… not Fabreeze. style=""> I hadn’t noticed how similar the tub&tile bottle and label were to the Fabreeze bottle and label until the scented spray came out in a foam that smelled amazingly like bleach which is exactly what the cleaner smells like… tie-dye is not becoming on a dark button-up blouse!

So, we live and learn, spend money on accidental purchases and unintentionally weed out the school clothing simply by not understanding the language

Field Trips!

Last week we went to Lotte World-- basically a little Disneyland place here in Seoul.

Each class is supposed to plan a day trip to bond and have fun as a group; I’m an adviser for ½ the Senior class. The junior and senior classes picked the same day and same place, so it was an even larger group bonding (though most of the time we were all on separate rides or eating lunch in different places =)

This ride was a distinct experience!

I sat in chair with a shoulder harness, we were raised partway up the column and then let go in a free fall.

An amazing thing happens: an uncontrollable fear seizes your mind and every rational thought is pushed aside by the assurance that you're about to die. I knew that I wouldn't fall out, I knew that the ride catches you before the ground is even close, I knew that I wouldn't puke, and yet, I felt like feel in water (my true irrational fear). After the first plunge, there was no more fear, it was just fun, but the I-just-cheated-death rush doesn't leave right away even though it was fake =)

So, Thursday I was gone from school all day getting my adrenalin fix, and the next day I left right after lunch for our first Speech&Debate meet! I got to judge the events too. The meets cover Friday afternoon through the evening and all day Saturday. Then with church on Sunday, my weekend was almost gone before it even started! So much for all the grading I've got piling up.

ThanksThanksThanksThanksThanks...

My friends and family took on the task of filling a provisions wish list this week =) There are a few things you just can’t find here (Doritoes, Reese’s, vanilla…) and a friend of mine from SURGE who is coming to Seoul in the near future offered to bring a care package for me. So they scrambled to put it together and I’ll have some fun stuff to unpack in October sometime. Thank you everybody!!

Better Than Nothing?

2 more days of school, then Chusok holiday-- a week off in which I WILL catch up on this blog! For now, a simple hello and a picture of me and Barbara (with whom I have shared custody of the bike) at our favorite Korean pancake restaurant:
Coming soon to a blog near you:

• the church news (you can check out the new link in the right-hand column of this page)
  
• Lost in translation
• more pics
• Speech&Debate
• Lotte World amusement park
• Various Chusok holiday destinations
• etc
  

More than just pavement

Good intentions. That's what I had all last week as I stockpiled the various snippets I wanted to spill out in my blog-- for now, we will still have to deal with a little splurt of news and reviews to await the real writing to come. Life is quite life-y right now. As I'm sure many of you are finding with the start of school and the end of Summer, new projects taking the place of the almost-finished ones, and even the sun is turning against us with fewer hours of light!

I can't believe it, but Friday marks mid-quarter here at school (that's right, we've been at it for 5 weeks!) which means more grading, progress reports, and unit plans due throughout the week. For these and many other little reasons-- like dishes, laundry, etc.-- I don't have time to blog the things I'd love to blog now....

• Bug bites! All over my arms and legs and I've only seen ONE mosquito in here!
• The weather has cooled dramatically almost overnight (hence, the open window that let in the hungry bug), and now my commute of 100 feet can be accomplished without sweating buckets!
• Looks like Bali, Jakarta and various island hopping destinations in Indonesia will be the target for Christmas vacation for Sylvia and I!
• I got my 10# box I mailed (ground snail mail) to myself the day before I left for Korea! It was full of notes and letters from all my dear friends who have encouraged me over the years (some notes as far back as high school =), my flannel sheets, hiking boots, a tool kit and a potholder! What fun to unload it all and read the letters again; however, it backfired a little bit because reading them made me miss you all even more!
• Took a tour of bookstores on Saturday. One used bookstore-- all in English! I bought an Anthology and am now feeling like a real English teacher again. A gigantic bookstore where I was shopping with 3 billion of my closest Korean friends =) The first Starbucks since I got here ($5 frapacinno!!) and the opportunity to use a coin-0p street-side toilet.
• A dinner party Sunday night at a fellow teacher's place rounded off the weekend (Thai food, and lots of laughs, mmmmmm)
• The rock-breaking equipment has finally stopped its one-note-staccato week-long symphony! The silence is wonderful!
• I've finally perfected the art of skillet toast (lacking toaster oven, toaster, or oven with a broiler) and it's delicious!

All in all, life is good. Teaching is hard. Cable has American movies sometimes. My students are great. I wish for more than 24 hours in a day, but have managed to sleep enough anyway. Still looking for a church. I'm taking my vitamins, eating all manner of foods without problems, drinking plenty of water, and showering regularly =)
And seem to only write in lists...
I should soon be able to gain some time for blogging, mailing, and generally catching up; but if not soon, I'll have a whole week off at the end of September for Chusok (Asian Thanksgiving) and that will be a welcome respite!
g'bye for now...

How Time Flies!

Yet another of life's ironies: The times when there is the most going on, there is the least amount of time to write about it

This week has been so full, but good.

• Had my first kinda homesick day-- VERY tired after school, and every little thing seemed so much bigger because all of you are there and I'm here. Took a nap and that took the exahsted/hopeless/pity-party edge off, but I do miss you guys-- your pictures on my wall don't quite take the place of actually seeing you in person!
• Getting a better handle on the learning levels of my students and some idea of how to progress through our material.
• Got my checking account, spent big money at Costco to outfit my place a bit more (3 cheers for swiffers, syrup, honey, and of course, the big bag of croutons )
• Took a yoga class from one of the teachers in my building. Oh My! It was SO relaxing, but my muscles were quite aware of the work they had accidentally done while I was relaxing!
• Rode the bike a whole bunch this weekend (about 10 miles all together) and hopped off the bike path to explore some areas in Uijeongbu and Seoul-- again, so relaxing on the bike path!
• Went to Yangsan-- the electronics center of the universe! This place was amazing with outdoor stalls and shops selling cheaper-than-normal computers/parts/cords/DVDs/stereos/cameras/mp3s/TVs/etc. and then a 9 level indoor electronics city lighted and sparkling everywhere like a jewelery store, but the cases were full of cutting edge cameras/mp3's/cellphones/etc.
• Baskin Robbin's ice cream-- yum! (all you "chocolate peanutbutter" 31 flavors fans will understand my sadness-- they don't have it here)
  
• The work continues on the mud-slide hill right out my wall of windows, but now, they're getting started on the basketball court they plan to put up there and having to break through rock to flatten the area. This translates to a constant, pulsating, staccato pounding all day from 7am-7pm! It fades into the background, but makes us all a little jittery and edgy by the end of the day.
• Had 2 co-workers over for dinner last night-- quite fun cook for other people and just hang out for a while =)
  
• Gonna be late for school if I don't scoot, so I'll update again when I can

Love you all!