The Menno Melange

I can’t believe how fast time flies in the summer! It’s already been almost a month since I last wrote. I hope everyone’s summer was a good one (it’s almost over!) and that your transition to the fall (whatever that may bring) is a smooth one.

Pregnancy Update
I think I understand why pregnancy is 9 months. It’s only starting to hit me NOW that we aren’t just welcoming a baby into our lives..but a third member of our family. We will officially be a family. We will no longer just be a married couple. Wow. And she’s going to have her own personality that we’ll have to adapt to. I’m already getting a hint of what her personality will be like, as she is very active. One day I counted 50 kicks in the span of about 2 minutes. Yikes! Oh, at our last appointment, when looking at our baby through the ultra-sound, our doctor said our baby’s head is “big”. Great…

From L to R: Me at 32 weeks; Same day, different shot; Me at 34 weeks

V-School Summer English Camp
Will and I ran the Summer English Camp at church, which was a week long, for our After School students. We decided to do an Olympic theme, for obvious reasons, which meant our focus of the lessons was on travel, flags of different countries, and team games. On the first day I had my students pick a flag I had taught them, and draw it. It was interesting to see the different personalities of our students in how they did that; Some were very meticulous and exact, counting points on stars, using rulers, making sure the colour stayed just in the lines, and taking too long to finish; Other students scribbled off their flags in 5 minutes. The game that day was a “Pass the Flame” kind of relay race, and after the game, the kids wanted to take the little flames home that Will made. One of the students proceeded to stand on whatever piece of furniture he could find, and pose on it with his flame like the Statue of Liberty. Other team events were the “Balance-a-bouncy-ball-on-a-spoon-while-going-around-an-obstacle-course” race (which, as you can imagine, was hilarious to watch, as balls went flying every which way), a three-legged race, and human foosball with balloons. On the last day we had them do a team scavenger hunt, where each clue would lead them to a set of puzzle pieces (and the next clue), and they had to gather all the puzzle pieces for the final race, putting their completed puzzles together in teams. Our clues, evidently, were too easy, and what we thought would take 30-45 minutes of clue-hunting, actually took about 10. Part of the quickness could be blamed on the fact that they ran to each next clue like the room was on fire. We closed the week with an award ceremony, and the presentation of the 5 rings that we had been building up each day. We felt pretty good about how the week went, and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

From L to R: Camping drawer her flag; Another camper drawer her flag; Ana leading flag BINGO; Balloon foosball; Will watching the off side in foosball; Ana presenting medals at the awards ceremony; Group photo with the Olympic rings

Tomato Festival
We were invited by a friend to the Hwacheon Tomato Festival, and were there just long enough to get a sense of what it was all about. The weather was dreadfully hot, not a breeze to be felt. We literally lasted 10 minutes before leaving. However, in the time we were there, we saw tomato shaped lanterns everywhere, squished tomatoes all over the ground from people throwing them at each other, and the smell of tomato was overpowering. There was a “pool” of tomato juice where children could run and slide into it, a game area where teams would play cat-and-mouse on a slippery surface of squished tomatoes..but they had helmets on, so they were safe from slipping. As entertaining as it was to witness, Will and I agreed it was a vast waste of perfectly good tomatoes. We quickly escaped to a nearby river to go swimming and cool off from the oppressive heat. Swimming in rivers is a popular past-time for families in Korea. We certainly weren’t alone there, as there were tents, families BBQ-ing, dozens of kids playing in the water with tubes, water wings, etc. You’ll also see tons of cars parked on the sides of other roads, where families are swimming in other rivers.

From L to R: Ana and friend with tomatoes; Kids sliding into a pool of tomato juice; Playing “Cat and mouse” on tomatoes; Tomato lanterns; Families by the river; Kids playing in the river; Will looking cute in an inner tube; Will and Ana cooling off; Another view of the river; Ana drying in the sun

Olympics
It was interesting watching the Olympics with Koreans. Korea was doing very well in the beginning, being in 3rd place of all the countries! But I’d say to a Korean, “한국은 찰 했엉요, 그래요?” (Korea is doing well, right?) and the usual response was something like, “초금” (A little), so either these particular people are very humble, or expected even more of their country. Meanwhile…at the time Canada had zero medals, so I couldn’t understand their lack of pride. There was no end to their excitement watching the Olympics, however, as wherever there was a TV in public, large groups of people would be gathered around it, cheering every few seconds at Korea’s success.

Giving Herbie Away
Alas, as much as I loved my bunny, it was time to make room for our baby. I can’t imagine either Will or I would have had the energy or mindset to care enough for her when our baby comes, so we gave her away to a couple from our church. However, the actually passing her over was a bit traumatizing for me. I wasn’t used to seeing how country folk handle rabbits (picking them up by the ears), and since I have never picked her up that way, she wasn’t used to it when our friend did that. Her frantic reaction made me feel like she was in pain, but Will and our friend assured me she just wasn’t used to it. With as much calmness as I could muster, I simply said to our friend, “She’s your rabbit now, so you pick her up the way you feel is best.” Only when they left did I start crying. Sigh. I’d like to think that most of my reaction was hormone related…but really I’m just gonna miss my rabbit.

Jeju Island
This was our first and last chance to take a big trip before the baby comes, so we made it a big one. We went all the way to the southern tip of the country and beyond, to the “honeymoon island” called Jeju. This island is actually sub-tropical, filled with palm trees and orange groves. We were overwhelmed by the kindness of a friend from church, who essentially organized the whole trip for us, making reservations for all our transportation and hotels. Our trip started with a bang, as we had to get up at 4am to catch the 5am train (ugh!), and again our wonderful friend kindly also woke up at that time just so they could take us to the train. Surprisingly, the trip on a 2-hour then a 3-hour train, a subway, a 5-hour ferry and 1-hour taxi ride wasn’t too hard on me (granted, I slept the ENTIRE night, without even getting up to pee, which is unusual, so maybe it was hard on me). The subway ride was made easier because someone gave up their seat for me in the special “Elderly, Weak and Pregnant Women” section. It felt weird qualifying for that seat (yes, even after 7 months of pregnancy). The ferry ride was made easier because although we were originally put in a room with several other people, for some reason we were moved to a private room (to this day I still don’t know why), where we could stretch out more comfortably. The taxi ride from Jeju City to Soegwipo (the southern part of the island), however, wasn’t made easy at all. In fact, it was the most unnerving driving experience we’ve had in Korea. Our driver would speed around mountain curves, while it was foggy, rainy and night time, while watching the Olympics on his GPS while talking on the phone. I think I had my hand on the door handle the entire time. But, we made it alive. Our wonderful friend from church even called a few times to make sure we were alright. We have learned the hard way in the past that beds in Korean hotels are a bit too hard for us (especially me), so we planned ahead and bought an air mattress, which was the one life-saver of the trip, hands down.

From L to R: The street in Mokpo; Will in front of our ferry; Will and Ana in our ferry room; An island along the way to Jeju

On our first day we made our way to 천지연 폭포 (Cheonjiyeon Falls), which was in a sub-tropical conservation area. This was the first time I had ever seen crabs in the wild, in places not near water, but in rock cracks. One of the things Jeju is famous for is a lava rock statue of a man, and this same statue can be seen everywhere on the island, guarding bridges, lining sidewalks, building entrances, and other random places. Since the island is essentially made from a volcanic mountain, you also see lava rock everywhere, which is used for bricks, buildings, sidewalk paths, walls, etc. We then went to 정방 폭포 (Jeongbang Falls), which is the most famous waterfall in Jeju, because the falls cascade right into the ocean. We sat out on the rocks and waded in the cold water for about 20 minutes, and that’s all it took for us to get badly sunburnt (yes, we forgot our sunscreen at home!). We weren’t used to being so vulnerable to the sun, as we seem to be protected from the sun in Chuncheon (we think by the pollution). We also went to 천제연폭포 (Cheonjeyeon Falls), which had different attractions. The first was a mystically-emerald green pool, (which would have felt more magical if we were there alone, and not sharing that sacred space with dozens of other tourists, waiting their turn to pose in front of the pool), a waterfall cascading like a big curtain, and a fantasic bridge that spanned the huge valley, with carvings of women on the side.

From L to R: Jeju Statue made of lava rock; Will and Ana in front of Cheonjuyeon Falls; Ana eating her mini-feast; Jeongbang Falls; People gathered at the bottom of Jeongbang Falls; Statue guarding bridge; Palm trees and a map of Jeju; Cacti; The pool in Cheongjeyeon; Cheongjeyeon Falls; Neat bridge with women carved on it; Will on the bridge; Another view of the bridge; Palm trees lining streets

The next morning we were picked up by a cab, and taken halfway up Halla-san, the highest peak in Korea (which is the volcanic mountain the island is made from). Most people climb to the top and try to see the huge crater through the clouds, but given my condition, that obviously wasn’t an option for us. We were surprised to see, however, a “moorlands” (like a marsh) at 1,100m up on this mountain, which we were invited to explore by boardwalk path. Our driver then took us over the “Mysterious Road”, which is a strange road with some sort of magnetic pull, because every driver on that stretch of road turns off their engine, puts on their hazards, and lets the road pull their car for them. It’s SO strange. What makes it more strange, is the road seems to go uphill, and yet the car still gets pulled. Will said it was an optical illusion, but we thought we saw an “obvious” up-hill slant ahead, and yet the car kept going, and the engine was still off. Very cool. I demonstrated my acculturation to Korean behavior by repeating, “어떠케??” (”How?”….but is more like “What the heck??”). I was also surprised to see WILD horses on the mountain, not too far from a pasture with cows grazing. Unreal. Our cabbie dropped us off in Jeju City (north tip of the island) where we spent the rest of our time.

From L to R: Will and Ana on Halla-san; The moorlands on the mountain; Will and a Jeju statue; Jeju city

Church Retreat
The very next morning (after returning home at midnight from Jeju), we were off for Yang Yang, in the east coast, for the JVC retreat. We promised to get our rice cooker there by 11, but the promise was not to be kept. The GPS we were using decided to take us the windy mountain road way (as opposed to the highway), so we were at the mercy of mountain road conditions and getting stuck behind slow drivers who we could not pass because there was always another curve in the road. We finally made it and received a warm welcome from the group, and there was about 50 people there from our church. For breakfast we had hot dogs with lettuce (which was a first for me), and then everyone was off for the beach. The water was unbelievably warm and wavy. Will held my hands as each wave swallowed me, just so I wouldn’t get swept away! Oh yes, and I really enjoyed having to wipe the salt from my eyes each time. OUCH! That evening quite a BBQ feast was served: Chicken, pork, steak and CLAMS. I had never seen clams on the barbey before. Bearing in my mind all pregnancy advice NOT to eat shellfish, I allowed myself a TINY indulgence (literally–it was a half a bite) because I had never tried clam before. Quite delicious. Not as fishy and weird as muscles. We had a wonderful time of fun, food and fellowship, worship and connecting with our beloved community here.

From L to R: Will and Ana with friends from church at a resort; Will, a friend and a Korean pop star; Cooking clams; Will BBQing; The JVC group at the retreat; The group eating; The mountains nearby; Ana with a sunflower in Chuncheon, right after returning home from retreat

Well, this month flew by, and with it did many opportunities to write the next update, that I did not take. Although this is our summer vacation from V-School, it seems we are busier now than before. The heat and humidity these days has been so unbearable, we finally turned on the air conditioning in the office of our apartment, which is where we now spend most of our days.

The Pied Exhaust Piper
These days there is no shortage of insects, particularly mosquitos, due to high humidity, rain and heat, so in response, the city provides a regular service of spraying bug smoke into the air from a truck that circles apartment buildings. This smoke truck also provides entertainment to the local children, who are often seen running and playing in droves closely behind it, as though following the pied piper. Will has often wanted to catch this sight on camera, but does not attempt it, as the children cannot be seen through the smoke.

Pregnancy
I am now in my 31st week, or 6 and a half month. It’s funny, in the first trimester I couldn’t wait to start showing. I wanted to really FEEL pregnant. Now I’m showing (with 2.5 months left of showing) and I’m ready to get this baby out. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy the kicks and swishes and somersaults, but I am SOO tired of the heartburn. And I’m all out of TUMS. That being said, I’ve had plenty of time to knit her up a wardrobe, one that will undoubtedly be ruined within a few months of being worn. Sometimes she is so active, my tummy looks like a wave pool. It’s pretty hard to concentrate during meetings when that happens.

From L to R: At 29 weeks; At 30 weeks; At 31 weeks

V-School Closing Worship and Other Things
The day of V-School Closing Worship was a crazy day. In the morning, one of the members of our church, who is a dentist, opened up a new office. So, a large group of church members met at his office to have a worship service, to sort of bless the new space. We, however, were unaware of the worship aspect (so didn’t bring our English/Korean hymnal) and were unaware that it was a dressy type of event. So…while all the men were in dress pants and button-up shirts, Will was in shorts and a T-shirt. While all the women were in dresses and heels, I was in my usual capris and sandals. This happens sometimes.

Then we were taken to a Japanese restaurant, and Will thought he’d be adventurous and put up his hand for an order that he knew nothing about. What he was served was a really spicy fish entrail soup, a soup with fish intestines, liver, kidneys, etc. floating around in it. I felt SO sorry for him. He was a real trooper and ate some of it. I wouldn’t have even done THAT much.

Then came the Worship Service to close the V-School term. Will did the sermon, which was on Solomon, then we made our presentations. Our students did a variety of things to show their parents what they learned this term: My guitar class played “Amazing Grace”, two of Will’s students pulled off Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” beautifully, the skits I wrote for my younger classes didn’t go quite as practiced…we forgot to show the slide show of fun pictures that we took of our students…and it went overtime. Having said that, the parents loved it.

From L to R: Will’s sermon; My class doing their skit; Will describing what he taught; Will’s class doing their skit; My guitar class; Will’s students doing “Who’s on first?”

Worship Leading
I was put on the schedule to worship lead, and had everything planned, except forgot to find a translator. Whoops! I blame my absent-mindedness on my pregnancy. As usual, someone was willing to help in a snap. I decided to teach an English song, “If you believe and I believe”, but had it translated first. In the process of writing out the Korean words into the music I made a significant typo. The Korean word for “believe” in the song is “믿고” (Mitgo), but I accidentally wrote “맏고” (Matgo), which means “to hit”. OOPS. People generously went along singing without embarrassing me, and I was quietly told later.

Essay and Guitar Lessons
As we have a little free time and some skills to offer, we have been asked by church members to help certain people with certain things. For 3 weeks this month we helped a boy with essay writing, giving him assignments like writing about the Johnny Cash song “Ring of Fire”, about the poem “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, about a short fairy tale story, and movie comparisons. It was actually quite fun thinking of assignments and seeing his improvement on a weekly basis. I was also asked to teach a girl guitar, who’s going through a rough time in her life right now. She’s a keen student, and I think she may get somewhere in the few lessons we’ll have.

Weekend with Friends
One weekend we were blessed to be visited by a whole troupe of friends from Seoul, who came here to climb the biggest mountain in Chuncheon, Samaksan. We hosted 5 of the group, and stayed up late in good conversation and watching familiar sitcoms. Luckily for me, not everyone wanted to climb the mountain, so while half the group did that, the other half stayed with me. We met the climbers at the bottom, where there is a market, a wonderful rock canyon and waterfalls to see.

From L to R: The mountain climbers at the start; Temple along the way; The group at the top; Waterfall on the way down; The whole gang together at the bottom; Sitting with some friends over drinks; At Samaksan with our friends; Will and friends cooling off in the water

End of Term Knitting Club Party
Since it is the summer time, and harder for the ladies to spare their mornings, because their children are home, we decided to take a break until September. The knitting club has continued successfully for at least 5 months, so that’s cause for celebration. One of the ladies made reservations at a neat restaurant out of town, and part of the restaurant service was to send a van to pick us up and take us there! What a neat concept! This restaurant was in the country, where they had cute little gazebos along a river stream, where you sit to eat, and they grow their own lettuce which they serve with the meals. There was a chair in the river, inviting us to wade in the cool mountain water and take a seat. It was a lovely way to end our “semester”. However, September may bring a new name to the knitting club. The ladies have made it clear they would rather move on to learning guitar instead of knitting, but still want the cooking. So it may be referred to in the future as “Guitar/Cooking Club”.

From L to R: Ana wading in the cool river; The whole group, plus some friends; The tables; The garden; The duck before; The duck after; The group eating

Jesus Abbey
As we had intended for the past few months, Will and I finally made it back to Jesus Abbey for a few days (that is the spiritual retreat place in Taebaek that we went to in January). To ensure a stress-free drive, we borrowed someone’s GPS. It was fun to have that beeping machine in our car, telling us where to go, where the speed camera’s are, and when we were going the wrong way. It’s very easy to put much faith in this device, but I warn you not to trust it too much. You see, we were seemingly in the middle of nowehere, when our GPS started counting down the distance to our final destination. “500m….250m…50m…..0!” It beeped at us as if to say “You’ve arrived!” but we were on some country road, with no obvious indication of where to turn next! Uh….what now? My resourceful husband found his way to the nearby town, got a road map and we found our way old-school.

When we arrived, we were welcomed then told we needed to tweak our attire. Will was in shorts (baring legs), and I was lacking socks (baring feet), both of which are no-no’s. Good thing we were prepared. We also had to hand in our cell phone. We observed the “Lesser” and “Greater Silence” hours in prayer, Bible reading or other tasks (that didn’t involve talking), strolled the beautiful grounds and breathed in the mountain air, participated in the worship services and had good conversations with others there.

From L to R: Our room; The grounds; Will, enjoying our walk; Quaint waterfall; Along our walk; Will and I; One of the buildings

While we were there, the guests were invited to a dedication service of a cow-barn at an adjacent ranch, run by the son of the founder of Jesus Abbey. Will attended, and was encouraged to hear of the various things this sister organization is doing to prepare Korean Christians for the opening of the border to North Korea.

From L to R: Drummers at the ranch; The group praying

All in all I’m glad we went, but being pregnant made our stay VERY difficult for me. The way the place is set up involves a lot of walking outside, but short distances, and then having to remove your shoes to go to the next building, or bathroom, etc. So, with my frequent bathroom trips, I had to walk outside (I forgot to mention it was raining incessantly), take off my shoes in the bathroom, put on sandals, put my shoes back on, then take them off again in my room. That got tiring after the third or fourth bathroom trip within 2 hours. Sleeping on the Korean-style mat is nearly impossible for pregnant me, as well, and by the second night (after a lousy sleep the previous night) I concocted a homemade mattress out of pillows and sheets, which did the trick..mostly.

On our way home we were spontaneous and followed a random sign that told us there was a cave ahead. This was one of the few times that being impulsive paid off. It was a neat tourist site, that involved riding a bus-train up a hill to the entrance of the cave, and the cave itself was a good 30 minute walk through. We all had to put on hard hats (there was a big group), and followed the path down into the depths of the cave, past the stalagmites and stalaktites, funny rock formations that each had names like “Virgin Mary” or “Entrance to Hell”, plus fountains and colourful lights. It was a good side-trip (one that our GPS was very upset about because we strayed from it’s suggested path, and beeped at us in dismay).

From L to R: The Train-bus we rode; Ana excited with the tickets; Cave entrance; Will looking silly in his helmet; Fountain in cave; Rock formation; Walkway in cave; Another rock formation; Yet another rock formation

Here is the next set of my weekly belly photos, from week 25-28:

Here are all the baby clothes I have knit in the last few months. For all you mothers out there who knit, if you are interested in a pattern for any of these (some of which I created myself), just let me know.

Sweaters

Coats

Pants

Hats

Diaper Covers

Scarf

Tank Tops

HAPPY CANADA DAY (a few days ago)!! No fireworks for us this year, but I imagine most of you had fun felicitous firework frenzies planned.

Hockey BBQ
Will and I were invited out to his hockey teams’ annual BBQ, which was held on one of the many little islands in Chuncheon. We sat on a blanket in the grass and first watched as people zoomed by on rented mini cars, and then Will joined his hockey teammates for a fun game of soccer. The game was followed by a delicous meal of Korean dishes and barbqued meats. We are learning how drinking is a fundamental part of mainstream society here. His teammates found it difficult to understand that he wasn’t drinking, while everyone else was. They wanted to know why he wasn’t, but due to time and language restrictions, he simply said that he doesn’t like the taste. They were concerned that we were judging them for drinking. We have observed that even pouring someone a drink is the an important social greeting. Maybe when Will’s language skills improve, the philosophical discussion can continue.

Another interesting difference in way of thinking is how his teammates perceived me. The first game I attended, Will’s teammates asked him if I was his girlfriend, assuming that was the case. When Will explained that no, I was his wife, they were shocked, and said, “But you’re a clergy!” thinking he could not marry as a clergyman (which he is not). We don’t know why they thought it was it okay for him to have a girlfriend??

Soccer Game between North and South Korea
Will went to Seoul for the big North/South Korea soccer game, which he had been looking forward to for quite some time. At the game, there were big flags for South Korea, but what was particularly interesting was the united Korea flag, a flag with a map of the whole country, North and South in the same colour. How powerful. Many other foreigners, mostly other English teachers, were also drawn to the game. However, because both teams had already qualified for the next round of World Cup qualifying the two teams played to another uninspired 0-0 draw. Oddly enough, they do have two more games in the coming months as they continue to seek a spot in the 2010 World Cup.

From L to R: Opening ceremonies; South Korea flag; Korea United Flag

Last week of V-School Classes
We thought it would be nice to get our students out of the apartment for the last week, so we had them climb Anmasan, our nearby mountain. It was funny; When I announced to our students that we wouldn’t have class that day, they all cheered. When I said we would instead be climbing a mountain, they were…less enthusiastic. Hehe. This week was also a time of prize giving, to those students who completed all their homework, movie watching and presentation preparation. This Saturday will be the V-School closing worship service, where we will present what we taught our kids, and our kids will do some presentations of what they learned. These presentations will include (this is a combination of Day School and After School students): Singing, playing “Amazing Grace” on guitar, doing the Abbot and Costello skit “Who’s on First?”, reading from novels they have been reading, skits that I wrote using basic English sentences, and showing off the web pages they made.

From L to R: Will teaching how to make websites; Ana teaching guitar; My after school students playing with their food; Our day school students on their way up the mountain; The group at the top;The view from the top that day

Meeting with Missionaries
Will has begun an informal class with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) students. They want to improve their English language skills, so they are having an English language Bible study. These young people have a desire to spread the good news around the world and they recognize the value of the English language to do help them do this. For Will, this is a social connection with other young adults and an opportunity to broaden the minds of these students.

Baptism Sunday
Every year, the church goes an hour north, to Hwacheon, to a beautiful river where the baptisms are done. As we made our way down the slippery wet path to the river side, I had many helpful hands offered to me. The two baptismal candidates gave speeches, and were each dunked into the clear blue river. Afterwards, they were given a crown of flowers, a hands on prayer was prayed, followed by photographs. We then went to a nearby home for our potluck lunch, which included a big dakh (rice cake) cake, because while baptism is a death to one’s old self, it is also a birthday. It was wonderful to be amidst nature for a Sunday service, and for a service of celebration such as this.

From L to R: The group by the river; One of the candidates about to be dunked; The Canadians posing with the baptized; The whole group that day; The potluck afterwards

Funny Thoughts
-When people hear we still have our rabbit, at least 3 different people have asked, incredulously, “it’s still alive??” I thought this an odd question, or rather an odd assumption that she would be dead by now. Since a lot of people live in apartments, and likely keep their small pets in cages all the time, the survival rate of pets is not very high. I, however, do not agree with keeping any animal bigger than a hampster in a cage all the time, and give her free reign in the sun room. That is perhaps the key to her survival.
-I think the children here (not unlike children back home) have difficulty differentiating want from need. I know my younger students know the two words in English, as they could translate them into Korean, but when I asked them to tell me one thing they need (thinking food, clothes, water…), 5 out of 6 said they needed the latest Nintendo, and the other said an MP3 player. Hmmm.

Here is a random assortment of pictures:

Belly Pics 1: The Growth of my belly, starting 5 weeks ago

From L to R: At 20 weeks; At 21 weeks; At 22 weeks; At 23 weeks; At 24 weeks

Herbie’s Scrapbook

Spring Flowers

Food

From L to R: Octopus (before); Octopus (after); Kimchi soup, mini sausages and kimchi zuchini; Kimbop being rolled; Different kinds of fish (bottom R corner is manta rays)

Randoms

From L to R: Me with Shrek; The new knitting store in town (an example that copyright doesn’t apply here)

Anyeong Haseyo (안녕하세요)!

Time is just flying by for us these days. We’ve completed 9 months of our term in Korea, we’re nearly done our second term of V-School, and our pregnancy is more than half way done!

Korean Pregnancy Traditions..and stories
So, over time I’ve been learning some traditions that I may or may not have to adapt to. One tradition here is after the mother gives birth, she stays for 3 weeks with her mother, and doesn’t go outside at ALL. Maybe when I have a baby I won’t want to go outside for a while, either, but that seems a bit long to get no fresh air or sun. One evening our cell group went to visit a fellow cell group member who had given birth that day (and happened to be in the same women’s clinic I’ll be in when it’s my time), and I got a preview to what my experience will be like. First of all, they keep the rooms REALLY warm, unbearably so, at least for me. It is believed in Korea that a post-labor women needs to be kept warm. Women will even wear socks in their heated rooms, in the SUMMER (I’m just glad my birth will be in October, when I might appreciate some warmth). I can expect to be fed nothing but seaweed soup at this hospital, as it is believed a certain seaweed soup has all the nutrients a post-labor mother needs (I told Will he’ll have to smuggle in some other food for me). I’m not sure how it is in Canada, but here I learned that drugs are not used or encouraged during labor, which I am glad for, as I want to try to have a natural birth, in every way. I imagine drugs would be administered only if really necessary.

Up until recently, Will couldn’t feel our baby kicking whenever I knew she was. However, one day, while he had his ear against my belly, listening to the usual gurgles, swishes and burps, our baby boxed him in the ear. Will looked up, stunned, and said, “She just punched me in the ear!” Since then, that seems to happen a lot. I wonder what this means for their future relationship…

Me at 24 weeks:

V-School Stories
Every 2 weeks our Day School students visit a mental health facility in town, and this particular time one JVC member was leading a painting class. Our students, along with the people that work there, sat at different tables and helped the children to paint, or sign their names. We later all gathered around and picked our favorite pictures and applauded the artists. The helpers later met in a separate room to debrief and have a snack, and an older resident of the facility repeatedly would sneak in and steal our snacks.

From L to R: Will helping out; One of our students helping kids; Another one of our students helping; Presenting the pictures after

Lately I’ve been having real trouble with After School kids not doing their homework. It’s frustrating for us, because there is nothing we can do to make sure they do it, and up till now there was no reward or punishment for them doing or not doing their homework. Will and I came up with an idea to send a letter home every week, with the homework listed, and a place for their parents to sign to say they’ve done the homework. On top of that, I made a chart for each class, and each student will get a sticker for every week they complete the homework. If they complete the homework every week until the end, they get a prize. It is incredible how successful this new system is working. They have ALL been doing the homework. One parent even drove to the home where the lesson is held, at 10pm the night before the next lesson, to pick up the homework that her child forgot, so that she could do it! WOW.

Chuncheon Mime Festival
Every year there is an international Mime Festival held in Chuncheon, and for a week there are shows all over the city, at all hours of the day. We saw a free show held downtown, but it wasn’t quite what we expected. It was 3 people doing different things with tires of all sizes. There were paid shows in town that would have had more complex routines and more experienced mimes.

Pics from the Mime show:

Trip to Seoul
Will and I decided to try driving into Seoul, as we wanted to make a trip to Costco. As we drove into the city, the air was literally yellow from the yellow dust. It was one of the worst yellow dust days of the year. I could feel the irritation in our throats and eyes, even while we were still in the car. Yuck. We spent the evening at my brother’s, and watched the American Forces Network channel on TV for the first time. This channel is on the air in Korea specifically for the American military here, and in between shows, there were many ads with messages like: don’t rape, don’t steal, don’t leave your gun unattended…etc. Things that I would think are common sense. This doesn’t encourage me very much as to the behavior of some of the soldiers here. Some clubs and bars have signs saying, “No G.I’s”, as they seem to be known for starting fights. After going to Costco, and nearly going crazy because of all the cars and people there, we attempted to drive home for the first time from Seoul. After an hour of being lost, and driving back into the city twice when we thought we were driving away, we soon found our way home (Funny related note: At a church meeting, the subject of us adjusting to this culture came up, and one of the leaders said jokingly, “Well, they found their way home from Seoul. I’m pretty sure they have adjusted.”)

From L to R: Walking down a neat alleyway; Some pandas we saw in Seoul

Important Church Meeting
The last church meeting we had was an important one for Will and I. Now that Will and I have been here long enough and have adjusted, we have been given new responsibilities, that we requested to have: 1) I will be playing a prelude every Sunday morning, in between Sunday School classes and the service; 2) Will will preach twice every 3 months, instead of just once; 3) I will be given opportunities in church to teach English songs; 4) Will and I will lead seminars for a few weeks on peace and Anabaptism, made available after the service, for those who want to know more about JVC’s identity and stance; 5) I will be given chances to accompany hymns occasionally. Other projects were mentioned and encouraged by other leaders, such as my hymnal project (where I will combine hymns and worship resources from Korean/Anabaptist churches and partner Mennonite churches in North America), getting our musical translated and showing it to the church someday, and our movie night (more on that later). This is a wonderful next step for us.

The view from the front when I was playing piano (during the children’s story):

Knitting/Cooking Club
I am pleased to say the Knitting/Cooking club is still flourishing. We have even gained another member, bringing the number up to 4. One of the members finished her prayer shawl that she had started from the very beginning, and it was beautiful. She also showed us her vest that she finished. Another member treated us to Shabu Shabu for lunch, which is a traditional Mongolian meal, where you cook veggies, meat and seafood in broth, then add noodles at the end after the other foods have added flavor. One week I taught them how to make pie crust and quiche, and another week was cinnamon buns. It’s wonderful to see them try new foods, or new ways of making foods, then trying it at home for themselves.

From L to R: One member with her finished shawl; The same member with her vest; Eating with the group at the Shabu Shabu restaurant; The broth and meat; Putting the meat in the broth

Movie Night
Will and I hosted our first movie night at the church. The idea for this movie night first came about with the church’s desire to start an English service. Realizing that you can’t just start a new church service cold turkey, there was some discussion about first gaining a following from Will’s English Bible study class, then creating the service from that. While his class is gaining a following, we felt we needed another medium for drawing in new people, mostly foreign students, or students who want to learn English, missionaries who want to prepare for missions in English speaking countries, and anyone else who wants to attend an English service, as there are none available in Chuncheon on Sunday mornings. Anyway, for the first night we had 6 attendants, 2 of which do not regularly come to our church. We felt that was a good start. Plus, they all have friends that they will bring for other movie nights. The movie and fellowship was enjoyed by all.

The gang:

Funny Thought
-Strangers will sometimes strongly prompt and encourage their children to say “hi’ to as (because we’re foreigners) but won’t even say “hi” to us themselves. They will completely ignore us, actually.

Anyeong Haseyo (안녕하세요)!

It seems we’re getting the monsoon rains a little early this year, as we’ve had 3 days in a row of rain, and even some thunder showers. This amount of rain is unusual for this time of year.

Making the Pregnancy Real
So, Will and I set out to buy maternity clothes (well, just for me). There aren’t many stores in Chuncheon, and I had been warned that I wouldn’t find any that would fit me. However, I figure stretchy clothes are stretchy clothes. We stopped for ice cream on the way, sat in the middle of a shopping alleyway, and people stared at us like they had never seen foreigners eating ice cream before. We saw a store called “해피 맘” (which pronounces as “Happy Mom”, more or less), and that’s where I scooped my clothes. I am hoping that I won’t have to buy anymore, cause they are NOT cheap! (머니 비써요- Very expensive)

By the way, now that I’m pregnant, I’m getting a lot more hugs at church. It’s nice. People here are really happy that we’re having a child here. Already, one church member refers to our baby as his “niece”. A few people have pointed out the me the unusualness of how frequent I get ultrasounds (once a month here). I think it will actually be hard for me to have children in Canada and not have that luxury anymore. It’s been really reassuring to be able to see our baby every month, see her little heart beating and limbs moving, and mouth swallowing.

Youth Sunday School Fade Out
So, due to my build up of difficulties with the Sunday School class, I became very limited in what I could do with the youth; 1) I still had no translator, so I couldn’t give them a meaningful lesson in the Bible’s teachings; 2) Because they couldn’t understand me, and are painfully shy, I couldn’t get them to act out fun skits, or play complicated/meaningful games; 3) I couldn’t lead any meaningful discussions or ask them questions to invoke learning, because they never answered me or spoke in class, etc. Due to the aforementioned, my class had been stripped to 15 minutes of singing, 10 minutes of a brief Bible lesson, that only half the kids were getting, and mindless games for the rest of the time. In one class we played the card game “Spoons”, except I replaced spoons with chopsticks to make it more “Korean”, and that was, by far, the only time I had their full attention and interest (as well as the other classes where we played mindless games). A replacement was finally found for me, and after some struggles with feeling like a failure, I’ve come to realize that it’s only for the best, for my sake and the youth. I did the best I could with what I had, and in the end, having a translator was the maker and breaker of the success of my leading the class.

I will take this opportunity (one less responsibility in church) to pursue again playing music during worship (accompanying hymns, etc). I had asked about that in the beginning, and it was first met with enthusiasm, then with apprehension. Worship leaders like to move with the spirit, and as a result may change a song, or want to repeat a line again, and this would need to be communicated with the pianist. However, since I would not understand such a last minute communication (if the worship leader didn’t speak English) that would slow things down in the service. I understand the dilemma, but I really want to find a way to share this particular gift that I have. This calls for some creativity, I think.

Neat Temple Experience/Buddha’s Birthday
One night, I invited a friend out for makguksu. Afterwards, we followed a strip of colorfully lit lanterns to the biggest temple I have seen in Korea so far, and it’s just around the corner from JVC! For weeks leading up to Buddha’s birthday, all the temples in the country have lanterns leading up to them, and then have hundreds of lanterns outside the temple and in. Also, cities have large lantern pagodas in the downtown areas. There were also floats for a parade;dragons, golden pigs, an elephant with Buddha riding it, as well as the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals all lined up. My friend told me you’re supposed to put money in the animal of your year, but I’m too cheap to do that. We went inside this 3-story temple, and the sanctuary was quite breathtaking; 3 large gold Buddha statues sat at the front, and both sides of the room were lined with thousands of tiny lit candles, the ceiling was lined with hundreds of colourful lit lanterns (which people could pay for and hang a prayer on), and there were colorful, food displays all around the room. It took me right back to India.

From L to R: Ana in front of the temple at night; Buddha on an elephant; Two Chinese zodiac animals, Korean flag and lantern pagoda; The floats by day; Dragons up close; Lanterns on the balcony; Lanterns and scenery; Lantern tower in downtown; same

Will’s 30th Birthday
For some time, Will has already been thinking as a 30 year old, as he has been “31″ in Korean years since we got here. However, we are still true to his Canadian age, and celebrated this milestone here. As has become our tradition at special occasions, I sent him on a scavenger hunt around the apartment to find his gifts. We treated ourselves to a lunch at Outback Steakhouse, and I was frustrated at how little I could eat, because of my increasingly shrinking stomach. No wait…I still ate a lot, I just regretted it later. I made a cake for him, which we shared with our cell group that night, and sang “Happy Birthday” in Korean; “생일 춬하 합니다”. It was a special day.

MC Canada Witness Retreat
We were fortunate to be able to spent a weekend at a home in the Sobaek Mountains. On our way, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant called “Sand & Food”. The food was much better than it sounds like it would.

We had all of Friday off, so before meeting the group, we drove a little farther to Andong to see some sights. We first saw Korea’s historical treasure #157 (all the valued cultural artifacts and buildings are numbered here), which was a big Buddha head carved out of rock. It is said that hundreds of years ago, a soldier was angry at his horse for fearing this statue, so he chopped the statues’ head off, and blood was seen coming from the neck. Yeesh. The head was put back on, of course. We then found out way to Hahoe Village, one of (if not the only) preserved traditional Korean villages, where people actually still live. It took us away to be walking along mud-brick walled lane-ways, mud houses with straw rooves, right beside the traditional curved roof Korean buildings, traditional gardens and gateways….and then we’d see cars in the driveways. Unbelievable.

From L to R: Buddha’s head through lanterns; So, the Hotel exists…; The lanterns leading to the temple; Kimchi pots; Laneway in Hahoe Village; Another street in Hahoe

With the group the next day, we went to see the first Confucian school in Korea. It was explained to us that Confucianism was very controversial when it first arrived, and many were killed for their adherence to the beliefs. In fact, many were killed and thrown into the river that flows through the school grounds. On Buddha’s birthday we climbed a somewhat steep hill (well, it felt steep to me!) to a wooden temple built in the 1300’s, with the original wood! There was singing and drumming coming from the temple, and many visitors coming and going. Later a smaller group of us when to a hot springs place, where there were 4 different pools of different temperatures to choose from. I mostly waded in the luke warm pool, and was cornered and stared at the entire time by two little girls. A little awkward.

From L to R: The gang at the entrance; An old classroom; Scenery at the school; Ana with some lanterns; View from temple; same

I wish I could say it was a restful weekend, but it was quite the contrary. It seems my bodies’ incredible immunity boost for the first 4 monthes went away, and I came down with a Korean cold. I had heard they were bad, and it was bad. In fact, I’m still getting over it now. That, in combination with not being used to sleeping on a thin mattress, meant I did not sleep very well. Other than that, we had a wonderful time with fellow workers, and our time there really strengthened our friendships with them.

Teaching and Teacher’s Day
There is a wonderful day here just for honoring teachers, so as a result I got two bouquets of flowers and a hair clip. I also got a little card that I said “I love you” 3 different times. Wow. Also, my guitar class is going well, at least for 2 students who are improving, who I know are practicing at home. Others keep complaining about their fingers hurting, but I keep telling them “your fingers won’t hurt after a while if you practice at home”.

Odaesan Field Trip
We went on a V-School Field Trip to Odaesan Park, and saw an old temple, that had been destroyed during the war and rebuilt (there are a lot of those). In the museum there, we saw a display case with 3 tiny stones that looked like pearls. Our leader told us that when a Buddhist monk died, their body was burned, and if those little pearls are found in the ashes, they are considered true monks. The 3 pearls we were looking at were apparently from THE Buddha himself. Also, there was one dynasty where every word of the king was recorded, and we got to see some of those old books where those words were kept.

From L to R: Neat roof on a temple; Will and a doorway; Pagoda in front of temple; Gazebo with drum; Ana in front of archival building where the books are kept of the kings words

Visit from Canadian Tour Group
Two of the previous workers here brought along a tour group from their church, and we had the pleasure of hosting the leader couple. We enjoyed worshiping and praying with the group, as well as sightseeing. One place in Chuncheon we saw was the Shin Tomb; the tomb of one of the ancient kings’ best friends, who dressed as the king and was killed in the king’s place. Before the king could get to his friends’ body, it was beheaded, so the king made a head of gold to replace the real head, and buried the body, the real head and the head of gold in separate graves. Today there lies 3 grave mounds, and no one knows which is where (although among the group we seriously questioned whether a head of solid gold would really have been buried, and if so, if it had been dug up and stolen)

From L to R: The statue of the honoured king’s friend; scenery near tomb; Turtle tomb (symbolizing longevity); The hill leading up to the tomb; The 3 mounds; Worshipping with the group; same; One of the tour leaders preaching

Random Frustrations
Some would say we have been here long enough to have a few built-up frustrations, so I will share some:
-When students laugh at us (not just polite giggling, but full-blown, loud, long-lasting laughter) for mispronouncing ONE syllable in a Korean word, when we never laugh at them for mispronouncing English
-Our car was keyed significantly 3 times over the course of one week (We were told some drunk people will do that…either that, or someone was mad at us!)
-Taxi drivers that break all the rules of the road; cut you off, don’t use signals, make a wide left turn in the middle of the intersection, when they are in the far right lane, honking at you when you are in their way and they want to run a red, etc)
-The swimming pool etiquette is quite lacking here: In one swim alone, I was almost hit in the face by a young man carelessly playing in the middle of my lane and his; I had to avoid a girl swimming towards me in my lane, who didn’t even move out of the way at first; I had to push flutter boards out of my way on various laps, etc.

Seems silly to end this email on a note of frustration, since we are still very happy here and loving our community.

Here are some pics of us helping to prepare food: Rolling kimbop; Will slicing kimbop

Ana’s updates are usually full of both of our experiences, but over time I, Will, have developed a few opinions about things, and I thought this would be a good outlet for those kind of ramblings.

One of the many strange dualities I experience here has to do with my impressions of time. As we wander around Korea doing our various tasks and side-trips, I sometimes see things that make me feel like I’ve slipped back in time, and there are other times I feel like I’m living in the future. I don’t mean this in a critical sense, either of our hosts here or of our worlds back home, these are just observations. Also, I think it’s arrogant for people to think that something newer is by definition better, or that we as a society are smarter, more civilized or more humane now than we were a generation ago.

The future
As a former pastor, I have a tendency to always makes lists of three, so here are three of the ways that I feel that my life in Korea feels futuristic.

Technology
A ridiculously high percentage of Korean homes have high speed Internet access. The causes or results of this are that 1.) Korean websites require a greater than average amount of bandwidth because of their flashy content, etc. 2.) Koreans are much more open/calloused about illegally downloading movies, 3.) people buy everything from clothes to groceries over the Internet. The only thing preventing us from doing more Internet shopping is that these web sites are almost always entirely in Korean.
Another sign of the high level of technological advancement is that cell phones are much more prevalent than they were back in Canada. It is quite common to hear someone’s phone going off during meetings, on the train or during a church service, either with a trendy/annoying/unnecessarily loud/funny ringtone or the buzz of the “silent” vibrate mode. We even have a cell phone when we would have opposed their intrusive presence back home. The Korean alphabet makes sending text messages much easier and quicker. Also, the only time I’ve ever had less that four full bars of connection is when I was working with a friend of mine near the North Korean border.

Language
This may sound strange coming from someone who is still a long ways away from having a functional ability to speak or understand the language. I think this language is in many ways more advanced than English. There are almost no irregular verbs, the alphabet is quite simple to read (Korea has almost 100% literacy rates). There is always a structure for everything and people’s ability to explain nuances of the language to us is limited only by their ability to speak English to me, not by the complexity of the language. Of course, one of the beauties and curses of learning languages is that they were not developed by think-tanks taking simplicity and universality into consideration. The Korean language developed in a small peninsula, while the English language developed as the British Empire grew and became exposed to and absorbed other languages and cultures. Over time people have theorized that a newly invented language would take over the world, and while various attempts have failed, I imagine if it were possible, that language might look a lot like Korean.

Land use
Korea is a small land with lots of people. They barely have room for their own people, let alone immigrants. That’s why, when Koreans build, they build up, not out. Futuristic books when I was a kid always talked about a time when people realized there was only so much land they could use for buildings before food production became more important. Korea is that place. People understand that having an apartment may not be better than having their own house, but accept that it is the most feasible thing to do.

Blasts from the past
Cars
When I was a kid, there were basically three car makers, and anyone who drove something made by someone else was either showing off their money or could be suspected as being a communist. Those three companies each had one compact car, one sedan etc, and each model had maybe four or five colours, so if you drove a tan coloured Taurus, odds were you weren’t the only one in any given parking lot. In Korea, almost everyone drives a Kia, a Hyundai, or a Daewoo. Our light blue Hyundai Avante is never the only one of its kind that we will see in a day. It reminds me of the Ford pickup my dad drove, or the various family vehicles we had over the years.

Racial Homogeneity
If you grew up in a small town, an ethnic community or, like me, you grew up in a small town ethnic community, your exposure to people of other races was limited. I had a certain trepidation about approaching foreigners and an over-sensitivity about not offending them. Foreigners are still relatively rare in Korea, and while most people still have a trepidation about approaching us, not everyone worries about what is offensive to us. Groups of school girls will say “hello” to me, and then when I say “hello” back, they giggle as though either my voice cracked or my fly was open (and I’ve experienced both enough to know those distinctive laughs). People laugh at us when we mispronounce Korean words, they tell us we’re too fat to buy clothes at their store, or do anything to avoid talking to us, even if it’s their job as a service personnel. I know these are very natural reactions, but they can be quite offensive if we allow ourselves to be offended.

The North
I was too young to appreciate the significance of the falling of the Berlin Wall or the end of the Cold War, but I remember how people talked about the communists, as though it were some kind of ever-present threat. The Cold War is not over in Korea. Some people are hopeful for a reunification with the North while some people live in constant fear of the war reigniting. The combination of mandatory military conscription and a highly militarized border with their only land neighbour leaves an interesting impact on the society.