Pictures

The links are to the connecting blog posts. I know you can scroll down but still...

Pictures from graduation and last week stuff.

Pics from Boseong

On Movies and Brothers

Ok, last weekend I saw Wolverine (even wore my X-Men shirt). Loved. Tonight, I saw Star Trek. Loved more. There was one downer to both movies: no brothers.



My family did not start going to movies until The Lord of the Rings came out. The first theatre I was in was in FL and in the scene at the end of Fellowship of the Ring when Aragorn cuts off the orc's head a little boy yelled out "WOA!! He just cut off his head!!" That now gets said everytime we watch those movies together.

Now our whole family was very familiar with the stories before the movies came out; Dad had read them aloud a few summers previously when on a family vacation and we had the BBC dramatization on CD's. So leaving the theatre we began discussing. Things we liked, things we hated, things that were "interesting" and so on. This is something that continues to this day. We've been to movies with friends and leave talking about it. Our friends usually think we are nuts. We don't nitpick or criticize usually, just talk about details and lines and stuff. We remember lots.

Wolverine and Star Trek are totally movies we'd go see together and talk about. My guess is that Joshua would like the first and not the latter. I think. But I could be wrong. But I think Benjamin and I would pretty much see eye to eye on both and we'd most likely talk Joshua around (he tends to be a purest). I totally missed that last week and tonight. I walked home from the theatre tonight and had to have the conversation in my head. I realized that the drives leaving the movies are some of my favourite memories with my brothers. Can't wait to make more once I'm back!!

Another post with lots of links (9 to be precise)

As previously mentioned I was in Chicago for New Years. It was much fun. I had missed having conversation that was worth having (more on that later). On Friday Rebecca and I went into downtown Chicago and ended up at the Art Institute of Chicago. We just kinda randomly went in and got more culture than we were expecting. Or at least than I was expecting. I had no idea that I was about to see American Gothic, La Grande Jatte, a Jackson Pollock, or Lilies, or VanGogh or his room or other things. It was cool. I like unexpected things like that. I love that Pollock piece. I hate American Gothic. It's depressing.

I got a new CD in Chicago: Casting Crowns Lifesong. I had heard it before but it had been a while. I forgot how much I loved their songs. Especially "While You Were Sleeping", "Praise You in this Storm" and.....ok, I like them all. I need their other CD now. Not their live one. I'm not sure why artists put live songs on CDs, or why they put out live albums. It's annoying. Not that I have an opinion or anything.

The best part about being in Chicago was the talking. Rebecca picked me up and we went to dinner where her boss joined us. We talked for about an hour or even two over some great pizza. The conversation ranged from tattoos to music to drinking to Bibles to mutual friends. Her boss is on the board of BJU and despite what that might make you think he is a very balanced person. I mean, who do you know that would somehow discover who the top CCM artist was and seek to listen to them? Then when we were talking about them (Skillett, whom I have heard of but never heard) there was no "I can't believe a Christian would listen to that." kind of attitude from him. It was a genuine curiosity as to what is so appealing about them (and others like them) to people. After we left Rebecca and I walked to her place (Itasca, the 'burb where she is, is teeny and charming) and continued the conversation until 1:30am. This time we added such things as Eschatology and if the Kingdom of God is on Earth yet or not. There was lots of talk about the baggage that often comes with being in certain sects (for lack of a better term) of Christianity. I hate that where I currently am I am made to feel that such things as my Church attendance, the music standards I have, books I might read and other superficials determine my spirituality. The Bible says you will know me by my fruit and especially by my love. Not by if I drink, read Harry Potter, wear pants to church, listen to various CCM artists or other stupidity. Total tangent: you ever notice that the World does not judge your Christian-ness based on all that but that many Christians in Fundamental circles do? The World does not care if you claim to be a Christian and drink or don't drink. They wanna see you act like it and Christians sadly don't often act like Christians to one another. I'm tired of being judged. It would be nice if more people were like Chuck (Rebecca's boss), when we were talking there were things it was clear he did not agree with us on but you could tell he was not, in his mind, questioning our spirituality, or worse, our salvation.

Anyway, a guy in Rebecca's church had a New Years Eve thing and she and I went. It was lots of fun (2 Baptists, 7 PCA's/4 lawyers, 2 engineers, 1 teacher, 1....I can't remember what he did, and 1 construction project manager). Again, conversation ranged all over; misconceptions we had as kids, things God did for us in the past, things we were hoping for in the future, things pertaining to the South, music, TV, baggage again...I could keep going. There was lots of laughter. Especially as the night wore on. But again, the conversation is what made it great. It was fun yet saddening; I had more/better Christian fellowship in those seven hours than I have had in the last year. I don't fit the prescribed Christian mold here. I do what I am supposed to do contractually but it's hard not being able to be myself and share opinions and thoughts that I know people will disagree with and we can still go away with respect for the other person. And despite the assurances from some that I am never judged there are times when that is certainly not the case.

I just don't know about next year. There is one thing and one thing only keeping me here: these students are my life right now and I can't imagine leaving them. But another year of the above? I don't know if I can do it. There are times I feel as if I'm going to have a break down. Also, to be dead honest, as much as I blow it off I do indeed want to eventually get married and the fact of the matter is: the likely hood of finding someone here is pretty slim at best. (Don't worry, I'm not going to come back to the States just to find a husband. I do want to get married but it's not a priority yet.) Having students ask me on a weekly basis when I'm getting married does not help matters. Don't get me wrong, being single's cool; I doubt I'd be here if I were married and I know I'd not have have some of the opportunities I've had were I married. It's just...

All of this stuff I've given to God. These are just some things that are in my head about all of it. I'm so glad God is in control!!

Ok, wow, this post took a totally different direction than I was originally going. I've never ever posted anything like this I don't think. Whatever, first time for everything.

On Fractals

I'd have a hard time explaining a fractal; the closest I can get is that basically its a pattern that repeats itself in a limited space, getting smaller the more it repeats. But it's so much more than that. Look at wikipedia for a better explanation. I really don't care how you explain them; I love them. There is something about them that draws me into it. It's like I can feel whats going on.

DeviantArt has some great pieces you can get and I really like Nicholas Rougeux's stuff. Some of his stuff almost makes me want to cry. I just wish he'd not put the titles on the works; to me, these speak for themselves. Oh, well, doesn't make them less beautiful. One day I will purchase some of them. When I have money and a place to put it. The latter is more the issue than more than the former is.

The Soundtrack Makes the Movie!

Jessica has her Lit. Classes make videos at the end of the semester. They choose a story they read for class, and act it out. This is my boys' video. I think I want the soundtrack. If you're a facebook reader go here to see it.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Ok. I'm good.

Singapore

Ok. I've been a slacker not posting this and as its the weekend I have no excuse.

So our flight was 7:30 from Seoul and we landed at 1 am. And it was raining. We got through the airport stuff and caught a cab to our hostel. It was pouring rain and our cabbie told us that it was the start of monsoon season (everyone in Singapore speaks English). Both Jessica and I were thinking "Oh great! it's gonna rain the whole time we're here!" It actually did not thankfully! We eventually got to our hostel and slept. We got up around 9 that morning and left about 11 (Jessica takes a while...). Not knowing the area, nor having a map we wandered to a grocery store that for the life of me I can't remember the name. (In short, I called it "Fresh Face" once, cuz I had forgotten the name. That annoyed Jessica, so for the rest of the time I called it "Fresh Face." So now that's all I know it as.) Anyway, we got breakfast and directions to the nearest bus stop and made our way, via double-decker bus, to Orchard Road. Apparently Orchard Road is the place to go in Singapore. I saw nothing too special about it; it was a road with lots of malls on it. Let me say now that there is nothing to see in Singapore. I mean, Korea has palaces and gajuhbillions of years of history and stuff, China has a Wall etc...Singapore has...merlions (more on those later) thats the only thing to see. Apparently the main draw to Singapore is shopping. Now, it does have some cool archeticture....Ok...back to Orchard Rd, which had a bunch of malls on it. I was not too impressed. Jessica and I are cheap shoppers so we got nothing other than a cup of "Devil's Brew Coffee" which was lovely and strong (it stood up and saluted in the cup as Rebecca would put it). Starbucks was $7.00 SD. Um, no thanks. Then we decided on Little India.

Taking a quick subway ride we wandered around Little India mainly looking at the saris and punjabi suits and enjoying the smells. We found a shop and I immediately was spoken to by a beautiful punjabi suit. It was a purply-bluey colour and I bought it almost instantly. It needed to be taken in a little so we left to find lunch. Jessica found herself a punjabi suit while we were out then we found a place to eat. We got chicken masala which was lovely except that I'm pretty sure that there was a chicken head in the food. It was covered in sauce and I was alerted to the possibility of it being a head when I bit down on what I think was the beak, Needless to say I did not examine it closely to see if my suspicions were confirmed and put that aside. Apart from that the meal was excellent. Then some more wandering where I found a sari ($10 SD) and a few "Indian Slips" (light cotton skirts you wear under the sari) to wear as regular skirts. Then back to the shop to get my suit. There was no one in the shop and Linda (the Indian lady working there) wanted to know what we had gotten. She was impressed with my sari and even showed me how to tie it going so far as to sew the pleats.

After Little India we decided to go to Chinatown. Which was just like China. Only the people were less pushy when you were in their stalls. I saw nothing in particular but Jessica eventually got a few of the Chinese-style dresses. They have a temple there "The Temple of the Tooth Relic". It's Buddhist and we did not get to see the relic, that area had already closed. We never did figure out what exactly the tooth relic was. It was interesting because it was the first time I had been in a non "Christian" place of worship. There had to have been hundreds of thousands of Buddha's there. One room alone had 10,000 of them. Was very sad. We ate dinner in Chinatown at a random little place where the guy was very talkative. He wanted to talk about the presidential election but it was clear he knew nothing about it other than the fact that there was a new president in America and that it was something more to it than America getting a new president. He also knew that "no one" liked the current president. (Note about Singaporeans: They are all very nice and everyone wants to know where you are from. I mean Koreans do to but everyone asked us. I'm sure the fact that there was a common language had something to do with it and if the Koreans spoke more English they would be asking more too.) By that time it was late so we took the bus back to our hostel. I had very very dirty "urchin" feet at the end of the day. They were also sore. I had worn flip-flops (like a moron) so my feet hated me. I remember thinking "I should not wear these." as I was putting them on then thinking "Naaa. I'll be ok" HA! Wrong.

Next day was Malaysia. We took a subway to a bus stop and the bus took us right through the border. We were just planning on wandering about and seeing what we saw but a guy came up to us and said he would show us around. He found us a cab and went with us to a mausoleum, mosque, palace and an area where the houses were up on stilts. I could tell Jessica was a bit nervous about it but for whatever reason I was not worried. The ride ended up costing me about $180 SD (I did not make Jessica pay). I'm almost positive I got ripped off but I don't really care. Otherwise I'd not have been able to see the things I did. Jessica was very nice to put up with me. I could tell she was not exactly impressed with the cab ride. I bought a large scarf and a mumu-dress thing that I can wear with a belt and it won't look so baggy. If I decide to wear it in public. Once we were back in Singapore we decided to go back to Little India and Chinatown. Jess got some more saris and I another punjabi suit (this one black and white. more casual than the first). This time Linda showed Jess how to tie her sari. Then in Chinatown I got a Singapore-batik mumu thing similar to what I got in Malaysia. Jessica got a few other things but I can't recall what other than a white embroidered dress. Again back to the hostel where my feet were again hating me. I wore crocks that day but as they had holes my feet still got dirty. And they were still very sore.

For our last day we had made facial appointments at a spa thing. There had been a promotion in the subway and for $20 SD you could choose one of three services. Jessica and I chose the most expensive one (worth $250 SD) and dragging our stuff with we found our way to the spa. We still had some time once we got there so we did more shopping and when it was time we headed back. The facial was lovely. We both fell asleep (it took about an hour). Then we dragged our stuff to the river area and found the merlions. Everywhere you go in Singapore there are merlions...merloins merlions merlions. And once you see the actual merlions: there are two. One ginormous one and one "baby" one (like 6 feet?). I mean, they are cool. Don't get me wrong. But I was expecting something a tad more. Oh well. As we were walking we got some cool pics. Then more walking and picture taking and finally we decided to head to the airport. We had about two hours at the airport and we putzed about and finally left Singapore about 11:30 and landed in Seoul at 7 am on Sunday. It was 9:30 when we got home and I promptly went to bed and slept till 12:30. When I got up I did nothing but sit at the compy until 6 when I went back to bed till 6:30 on Monday morning.

All in all it was a fun trip. The weather was hot and sticky (it was the tropics after all) and the hostel very bare-bones. But when all you need is a bed and shower who cares? It had airconn too!! A perk!

I took over 350 pics. And someday I might get them on here...

Nothing too exciting going on

I mean, last week we lost a total of 4 students but that's about it. They all withdrew to prepare for Korean college. At least that's what Esther did. The Jun brothers are kind of lazy and I know have been looking for a reason to leave for a while. Priscilla did not like our rules, that much has been clear for a while. Don't get me wrong, I liked all the kids who left but at the same time...

Oops. I so totally lied. There is too something exciting going on:

I'm going to be an AUNT!!

My sister-in-law is expecting and due in May. Which means May is a big month for them; Benjamin turns 25 on the 4th, he also graduates with an M.Div. on the 9th or something like that, and obviously a baby. EEEEEEEEEE!!

Long time no post

I'm sorry I've been a posting slacker. But maybe this post will make up for it? There are lots of pictures at the end!!

School has been going quite well. The most interesting thing has been Pirate Day (which was Friday). High School does not do too much but we had the kids playing a game during times between classes. They had to steal gold coins from each other. Each of the three was worth fifty points at the end of the day. We also gave points for dressing up and best-dressed boy and girl. The winning homeroom gets Krispy Kreme doughnuts on Monday. Linda's homeroom (grades 10 and 12) won, having 150 points. My homeroom was on my naughty list. We had zero points. There was also supposed to be some "kidnapping" of students during two hours but it only happened once. Over all it was a fun day. If nothing else, I got to wear pants to school. (=

Classes are going well. We've gotten a few more students. We're running out of lockers. Which is a good thing I guess. I think the number of students lurks around 120. Chemistry is plugging along. The second test had more of a point spread (only one student got more than 100% this time). Many students though have more than 100% in the class; I've given many opportunities for bonus. The kids are doing a pretty good job of paying attention but the sound from the projector we use is terrible, even with the addition of speakers.

Next week I start tutoring two students. It's four days a week for any general tutoring they might need. I'm planning on using that money for traveling. The teachers are wanting to go several places this year. Tentative plans include Singapore, Malaysia, North Korea, Australia, China and maybe India. Not sure how many of those I'm going to do but it will be as many as possible.

Last weekend was Chuseok. We had Monday and Tuesday off. Chuseok (if you cannot recall) is roughly equivalent to Thanksgiving but with more of a pagan connection (ancestor worship and the like). Because it's a heavily traveled time we teachers don't do too much. The biggest event was Linda, Jess myself and two others going to a Brazilian churriascaria restaurant. Second time I've been to one. Luuurrve those places. Pics are at the end of the post.

Friday night I went to Jessica and Linda's place for brownies and a movie. After, Linda wanted to know if anyone wanted to go to Dongdaemun. Dongdaemun is known for it's 24 hour shopping. It gets its name from a gate that is close to the area. Not to be confused with Namdaemun which burned down this past February. We got to Dongdaemun around 11 p.m., met up with a girl from church, and left around 2 a.m. There is nothing special there regarding merchandise but it's still fun just to wander around knowing it's so late. I got a pedi-egg. Again, pics at the end of the post.

Mac is still sick. He's had the sniffles and some other troubles for a while so I finally took him to the vet. He has a bit of a fever. I was thankful, the total cost ought to have been 25,000 won but the vet did one of the exams for free so it was only 15,000 won. Today I had to take him back and he gave me another discount, so it was only 12,000 won this time.

Pics from recently are below.

Shopping at Insadong

Dinner at TGIF

Brazilian Food

Late night shopping

Voting and Fountains

I've been asked several times who I'm going to be voting for (or at least rooting for) in the up coming election. The answer is no one because I. Really. Don't. Care. I like what Obama says he has to offer but something about him gives me the creeps and as a general rule I'm not impressed with McCain. I was equal parts impressed and unimpressed with his announcement this week. To me it seems like he just wants his slice of the "History-in-the-Making" pie. Yet the little I read about Palin seems promising. Can we write in this candidate?

Another cool video. I had to go to Fukoka (where this one is) two years ago to get my visa, and I did not see the fountain. Bummer.

Travel Adventures

So after several days in China and two more days in Korea I'm back in the US. China was actually more fun than I thought it would be. Initially I was just along for the ride, mother being the person who wanted to go.

We hooked up in China with a friend whom we've known for several years. Kim has lived in China for about 5 years and she was a wonderful tour guide. After we checked into our hotel (and had issues with them allowing Kim to stay with us. She ended up staying with a friend about 10 min away) we went to Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City. We also ate Peking Duck in a restaurant that seemed like it was in the middle of rape-and-pillage-village but in reality was in an old part of the city. The duck was quite yummy. Between the Forbidden City and the duck we wandered and found this long street where people were selling various forms of street food. We tried starfish (not so yummy), snake and sea mushrooms. The snake was ok; just rather salty. We also went to Starbucks where I got two cool travel mugs. That was Tuesday.

Wednesday we went to the Great Wall (the Ba Da Ling section) and wandered for about three-ish hours. We went to Starbucks there as well and again I got another travel mug, this time with the Great Wall on it. Then we went to the Silk Market (so named because, though it sells many things the focus is silks) where I discovered that I rock at price bargaining. For instance: a guy wanted about 1,900RMB for a pair of pants (over $100). I got them for about 80RMB (less than $10). I think he was crying as I left. But here's the thing, they won't sell it to you if they won't make a profit so I did not feel badly.

Thursday we went to the Temple of Heaven and to the Pearl Market (similar to the Silk Market, only Pearls). At the Temple of Heaven there is a park where the Chinese people get together to hang out so you can basically see the Chinese in their daily social-ness. The Pearl Market was fun. I got some nice pearl sets. My other fun story happened here: there was a shirt with Korean writing on it at one stall. I liked it and just for fun asked what the writing was. "It is Chinese. It says the name of the girl and where she will eat dinner." I was like "No it's not. It's Korean. You lie." I walked away to the cries of "You are right! It is Korean! Come back: good price!" I did not go back but did eventually find the same shirt again. They got the language right that time and I got the shirt for 80RMB (they wanted more than 550RMB).

The Pearl and Silk markets are fun but you have to be pretty focused when you are there. There is tonnes of stuff and every vendor is shouting at you as you walk by "Lady! You want silk? Chinese shirt? Good price! Lady!" Some of them even pull on you and if you walk into their stall and don't buy anything they try to physically hold you in.

Friday Mum and I were pretty much out of money so we decided to go to the airport early and see about getting an earlier flight. We got there about 10 and were told no can do. Well, our flight was not till 6:45 that night so we just chilled at the airport and when we finally checked in and boarded we ended up sitting on the tarmac for three hours because of weather. So we finally landed around 1 in the morning. The ATMs were closed and all I had on me was 45,000 won (about $45) which was not enough to get us home (a 2 hour drive) but I finally found a cabbie who agreed to that price. I told him where I wanted to go and the guy next to him told him as well. I also pointed on a map just to be sure. Well, he did not take us there. He took us somewhere totally different and still made me pay. I was trying to communicate with him and he was being a jerk when a lady cam to help. She tried to get him to do what he agreed and he would not, then he tried to tell the people who at this time had gathered around that he had not been paid. (This is all going on in Korean but I cold understand most of it) I went to pull the money out of his pocket and when he realized that, showed that I had indeed paid. By this time I'm crying because I was so frustrated and tired and a guy came up who spoke English! He was able to find me an ATM and a nice taxi driver. He told the taxi driver to give me the day rate and he did! It was still another 40,000 won but whatever. We finally got home at 3 am.

Saturday we slept in (duh) and got more of my packing done. Then one of the sectaries from school took mum and I out for dinner. It was at this amazing buffet that had all sorts of fresh foods. So. Good.

Sunday was church again and our monthly church lunch. It was even more special because our pastor and his wife who had been gone for the past year were back. Then home for more packing and cleaning then off to meet a teacher from the school who took us out to eat again. This time it was a multi-course Korean meal that was (as just about all Korean food is) excellent!

Monday our flight was at 11:10 so we left Bongcheon at 7 am with Linda whose flight was at 11:30. After at stop in Japan we landed in Minneapolis at 11:30 in the afternoon. Not too much jet-lag yet but I've been back in the US just over 24 hours so we'll see how it goes.

I updated the pictures on my page if you want to go see!

Much goings on

So Mum got here last Tuesday night. Wednesday we went to the 63 Building and took a cruise on the Han River. Then dinner with the teachers and church. Thursday was a shopping day and we went to Insadong where you can get lots of distinctly Korean things (and several things that are not Korean yet sold to the foreigners because it looks slightly Asian and therefore most don't know the difference.) Friday we went to a jimjilbang (public bath). It was wonderful; very relaxing. I don't recommend you go if nudity bothers you. Yes, the genders are separated. Saturday we went to a palace, a park and a stream. The park we found by accident. Sunday was Church and some packing. Today (Monday) is more packing and some errands to get ready for China. We leave tomorrow.

I put some pictures together of what we've done so far. They are not in order (and I could not get them in order no matter how I tried) but I put the day the picture was taken under it.

The Largest Church in the World

Since coming to Korea many people from the US have asked me if I have attended "that really big church". I had been wanting to since I knew I was going to be here but never had the chance. Jessica had also wanted to go. We decided last week that today would be a good day. So after going to our Sunday school we ducked out and went to the Yoido Full Gospel Church. YFGC is apparently the largest church in the world, with an estimated membership of over 800,000. It's Pentecostal. We did not tell anyone we were going as we did not want to cause a problem. Not so much "better to beg forgiveness" as much as we did not want people to think something that was not the case or, frankly, to judge. Anyway, we got there about noon and were told that the next service (4 of 7) was starting at 12:35. So we went to their bookstore for a few minutes then back to find our guide so we could get a seat. The 12:35 part was a Praise and Worship service and the actual service started at 1. The P&W service was much more conservative than I expected. I mean, there were still drums 'n' stuff but the general style was very similar to the youth group I attended when I lived in Atlanta. The service it self was quite conservative (we had headphones for simultaneous translation), we said the Apostles Creed, and the songs were mostly hymns with the final song before dismissal being "The Lord's Prayer". The sermon itself was neither good nor bad (theologically speaking); it was more of a motivational speech to "Have faith, have faith, have faith." It was not even a man-focused "You need to have faith so you will have a better life." thing. Just...have faith. Very weak. I'm sure some things were lost in the translation. It was neat because the Pastor Emeritus (Yonggi Cho, the man who started it) only preaches one service of the seven and the one we attended was the one he preached. They had a time of public prayer (like a minute max) where I'm sure people were speaking in tongues but there was no thrashing/falling in the aisles the way some people try to portray that kind of thing. Also, there was a time of healing, again, nothing crazy going on, just odd. He had people cross their hands over their chests (like they do with dead people) and then he went through a bunch of ailments and said that people were healed from them "People with nose problems, you are healed; people with eye problems, you are healed...."etc. Again, no one in the aisles or whatever. There was also a time when, during prayer, he had people who "did not have faith when they arrived but had faith now" to stand and he lead them in a prayer and they all got saved. At least thats what the goal was. But there was no gospel presentation before that. Then a song and we were out. Below are pictures (duh). It was a neat experience but makes me even more thankful for good preaching when I get it.

Media of late

So I ought to be finishing the Biology exam review sheet but can't make myself do it. So I'm doing this instead. Oi. I can't get motivated. Only 7.5 days left of school.

Several of us went to see the new Indiana Jones on Friday. It was...good. I think. I still can't decide. I don't want to give to many details but; really now? It's been some time since I've seen the other movies so I'm going to have to re-watch them (then the new one again) before I make my final decision. It feels like, intentional or not, the movie is a throwback to the b-movies of the 50's (the time in which the movie takes place), silly monsters, bad accents and everything. If that's the case it's a great movie. If not...I just don't get it. It did not seem very "archaeological" to me. I mean, it was still Indiana Jones (with the silly one liners including the ever present "I've got a bad feeling about this."). I loved Shia Lebouf. And the sword fight was fun. Currently it stands as a 7.5/10.

I got an audio book this weekend "Blue Like Jazz" by, I think his name is, Donald Miller. So. Good. It's basically a bunch of essays a guy has written about Christianity. Real, lived Christianity. None of the mystic "You need to have faith/love/joy/insert other 'need' " stuff. Just how Christianity lives out in your life. How often do we hear "It's not a religion, it's a relationship."? But we often focus on the vertical relationship to the detriment of the horizontal relationships. Yes, we need to have a relationship with God but we also need to have Christ-like relationships with others. Even non-Christians! He gets a little too social for me at times but I love it. If "fundamentalist" Christians would do some of the things he talks about it would turn Christianity on it's head I'm sure. I highly recommend it. And $100 says that one "scene" he talks about happens at the Wilds of the Rockies.

Ok, I'm going to go finish this review sheet (I think. No. I am. Therefore.).

Friend of Seoul

Seoul is getting a new representative emblem. The old one of the tiger, according to the article was not being utilized to its fullest so through much process they settled on the Haetae, a tiger/dragon creature that guards the gates to one of the palaces in Seoul.

Two in a row!

Last week was a nice week. We had a 4 day class week (Friday was a teacher work day) and on Thursday we had a field trip in the afternoon. This week will be equally nice. The kids will be testing, so as far as actual teaching goes I'll be teaching roughly half the week.

Our trip on Thursday was to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. I'm sure it would have been more interesting had the displays been in English but as they were not I was not to enthralled. But it had potential as they also had extensive stuff about the history of Christianity. The whole week the teachers had been reminding the kids what time they had to meet us after lunch (we let them go do their own thing). If they were late they got detention. Well. Ummm. After all that, the teachers were the late ones. By like 5 or 10 min.

The Scrolls are at the War Memorial Museum for about another month. I was not able to take pictures inside but the exterior more than makes up for it. The last picture is the only one I was able to take that had any relation to the Scrolls.

And for those of you who were concerned about my lack of food from that last post: I got paid last Monday and promptly went shopping.

Breaking News!

The most signifigant national treasure of Korea burnt down last night. The teachers were there at the beginning of the school year.

August 2007

Explaination of the gate:
"This was the main gate in the fortress wall of Seoul. It is also called Namdaemun (Great South Gate) as it is the southern gate of the capital city. It was first constructed in 1398 and was rebuilt in 1448.

The gatehouse which measures 5 kan (a kan is the interval between pillars) in width and 2 kan in depth is a wooden structure built in typical style. It is the largest city gate in Korea. There are some conflicting theories about the authour of the characters on the plaque hanging from the gate, but it is recorded in an old text called Jibongyuseol (1634) that they were written by Prince Yangnyeong.

The painted wooden ceiling.

February 2008

Christmas Mini-Vacation

Wednesday Merilee and I went to another part of Seoul for a few days. We decided that since it was our vacation we would take taxis everywhere. They are very cheap and it made us feel more like we were vacating. The hotel was ok, not as good as I thought (hoped) it would be but it was still nice. The worst part was the rock hard bed. The view of Lotte World was lovely. Thursday we wandered around the Olympic Park Sculpture Garden and a few other places then Friday we went bowling with one of the other teachers at one if the army bases. It is very interesting being in a country where they still have a strong American military presence. We get the basic AFN (armed forces network) chanel here and it's neat to see the armed forces from their point of view.

Suwon Folk Village

Yesterday several of the teachers got up early and went down to Suwon (about an hour south) to see the folk village they have there. For those of you familiar with The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, or Colonial Williamsburg it's basically the same thing but for Korea. It being a holiday the village was packed but we managed to have fun! As we were waiting for the shuttle bus the guy walked up to Jessica and started taking her picture with his phone. This went on for about 5 min until she finally told him to stop. When we got to the village we saw they had a place where you could get your picture taken in a Hanbok (traditional dress). We asked about it thought it was a reasonable price so we did it. Turns out we were mistaken. We had thought the guy was telling us how much per picture but he was telling us per person...$20 later... So we walked around and saw the village (which I was not that interested in to be honest, though most likely because of the crowds) and eventually went over to the other side of the park that has a small amusement park and several museums which I thought were more interesting (possibly because it felt like there were fewer people). We did a few rides and looked at the museums and then went and saw a few shows on the village side. The farmers dance was cool except for the percussion instruments they were using (take a kid using a fork to bang on his mothers saucepans, multiply x 100 and you have the idea). Then we went home after a fun but tiring day.

Han River at night

We went to the Han River tonight and took a forever-long walk. Sorry the pictures are so dark. I'm still trying to figure out some of the aspects of my camera.