Anyeong Haseyo (안 녕 하 세 요)!

It has now been a week, but it definitely feels like we have been here longer. Already we feel a part of the JVC family, which is overflowing with kindness and love for God. We feel privileged to be a part of this community, as the people are very generous, warm, friendly and genuine. They have gone out of their way to make sure we feel at home and comfortable here, which we do. Even people who don’t know us want us to feel welcome. A woman came to our apartment and handed us 3 packs of kleenex, then left. I thought maybe that was her clever way of saying I had something unpleasant in my nose, but we were later told that kleenex is a popular house-warming gift.

  

Mountain-Climbing
We know that Koreans love their mountains and mountain climbing, so one morning we decided to find the closest mountain to us, and it turned out to be a mountain called “An-ma-san” (”san” means mountain). The path up the mountain was made easy by a well-worn path, steps made of stones in some places and logs in other places. The mountains are all covered in crooked pine trees, and buzzing with cicada type insects. We passed some tombs that have been there for hundreds of years, which just looked like mounds of grass, with a tombstone beside it. There were many people of all ages climbing up and down the mountain with us, and halfway up the mountain, as well as at the top, was exercise equipment. As if climbing the mountain wasn’t enough! These people are VERY fit. Maybe we’ll be ready to tackle the exercise equipment next year, after hiking up the mount every DAY. We climbed a large hill another day (felt like a mountain when we were climbing it), after passing fields of rice paddies, with misty mountains in the distance, and more tombs along the way. There was more exercise equipment, complete with hoola hoops, weights, a stair climber, etc. It was quite the sight, seeing lots of elderly women with visors on, doing hoola hoops. There was a mirror and clock strapped to tree trunks, too, a perfect outdoor gym. There was a big monument at the top of the mountain commemorating that spot, as that was where Koreans hid from the Japanese 100 years ago to mourn the death of an emperor. Will lifted a few weights on the mountain, but just for the camera.

Driving Lessons
We eventually got our car, and Brother Cha took us on a driving lesson around town here. After Will almost got side-swiped by a bus, Cha said buses and taxis follow no rules. Right after he said that (as if on cue), we watched as a taxi honked and drove right through a RED light, which had been red for a while already. Another day we saw a guy riding a bicycle while listening to music on his head phones and using both hands to text messaging someone! This of course required that he use his elbows to drive his bike!! Then we saw a motorcyclist driving on the SIDEWALK. The lady he swerved past didn’t seem surprised or bothered at all. Turns out that this happens all the time, as we’ve seen it happen a few other times.

Cell Groups
JVC has 4 cell groups; “Peace”, “Joy”, “Tenderness/Gentleness” and “Love”. The cell groups are seen as the most important aspect of church life in JVC, as it involves smaller groups of people to gather weekly in each other’s homes to pray, read, discuss and fellowship together. We were invited to attend all of them and see which one we would like to be a part of. We’ve only attended 2 so far, and they both were so different from each other. At “Peace” we prayed, talked about the book they were reading about faith, and we shared our testimonies, and how we felt led by God to come to Korea. Oh, and we ate some delicious snacks of boiled corn and sweet potatoes. At the “Joy” cell group, we were immediately invited to practice a song in Korean with them, that they plan to sing at church next Sunday. This was amusing, as Will can’t sing, and neither of us can read Korean as quickly as needed when singing. It was fun, though. There was an artist in this cell group, and she had us all draw simple pictures about certain emotions like “joy”, “anger”, “sadness”, “peace”, and then we talked about each other’s pictures afterwards. Then I was asked to play a song on guitar, so I played “Faithful”, a song from the musical we wrote. They enjoyed that, and had us talk about ourselves and why we came to Korea.

Becoming Korean
When we spent the day getting registered, we had to get our “alien registration” cards, drivers’ licenses, a cell phone (our first one!), and open a bank account. Brother Cha (one of the leaders of JVC who has been helping us settle in) thought we would need Korean names to open our account, so we now have Korean names (basically Korean-ized versions of our names).

Will’s name is: 노 일 암 (No, Il-am)
Ana’s name is: 노 어 라 (No, A-ra)

Part of becoming Korean involves speaking Korean to the best of our abilities. We are slow at this process, but we use what we know with gumption! At a meal gathering (this happens a lot), I said “Jung Malo Majiseyo!” (very delicious). One of the JVC leaders told me to say “Jung malo Mawjiseyo” to him, so I did, and everyone laughed. He then told me that I called him handsome. I guess there was a slight difference in pronunciation. So, I turned to Will and said what I thought was the same thing, but everyone burst out laughing again. Apparently I called Will delicious. Sigh. In Korea, babies are considered one year old as soon as they are born. That being the case, and to our greatest dismay, Will is already 30, and I’m 27 going on 28, in Korea. Bigger sigh.

Culture
At every super store here, there are greeters who bow as you come in, as well as people standing in front of every aisle to do the same. The side roads here are so small because 30 years ago there were no cars here, and so there was no plan for them. Side roads are just full with parked cars on either side, and there’s just barely enough room to get your car through. Also, with apartment parking lots there are more cars then parking spaces, so it is a common practice to park ones cars behind someone else’s but leave it in neutral, so that the car can be rolled out of the way when needed.

Food
We were introduced to bone soup, which is made from beef bones that have been boiling for 24 hours! It was so rich and delicious. Kimchi (김 치 ) is a favourite, fermented cabbage with red pepper seasoning, which is served at every meal. Generally the way restaurants work here is they serve one dish, so you go to that restaurant if you want that particular dish. Knowing this, Will and I went to a restaurant for lunch thinking we wouldn’t have to communicate at all (knowing that we couldn’t if we wanted to), but the waiter kept asking us questions, and we were helpless. Eventually I heard him say “Dak-kalbi” (덕 갈 비 ), so we said, “Ye, ye” (yes), and it was cooked right in front of us on a grill that was attached to the table. It is BBQ’d chicken, cabbage and rice noodles. Mmm. We went to a traditional Korean restaurant in the country yesterday, right in the middle of some mountains, where you sit in a separate room around a table close to the floor, and sit on the floor (as you do at all restaurants in Korea, but at this restaurant there are chairs that are right on the floor and have backs), and there are sliding doors made of papery material. We were served rice in wooden holders, with all sorts of side dishes, fish, tofu and bean curd soup, followed by a cinnamon/ginger tea called “Sujungkwa” (수 중 과 ), that tasted like cold apple cider, without the apples, and a hot bark tea called “Makamok” (마 다 몯 ), made from the bark of an ash tree. Another evening we went to someone’s house for supper with the young adults of the church. They are a wonderful group of people. We had a Japanese style feast, that involved cooking beef strips, shrimp, mushrooms, greens and noodles in a boiling broth on the table. We later played Crokinole, and we proudly told them that crokinole was invented where we came from, in Tavistock.

Church Work
Will led his first Bible study last Sunday, and it went well. Having a translator, everyone understood and nodded their heads along with what he was saying. I went up with the kids during the service to teach them some English songs. That went well too, as long as I was playing music. As soon as I stopped, the kids went berserk, and one kid lifted a chair above his head and then threw it down. Wow. When I came back down, communion was just finishing up, and everyone was sitting in a circle, with the table of bread and wine in the middle. A woman took my hand, led me to the middle, blessed the bread and wine, and placed it in my mouth. That was a beautiful experience. We were invited to a welcome pot luck that evening, for us and a few other new comers. We had a wonderful feast, then introduced ourselves, so I was asked to play more of my music, so I played a guitar song and a piano song that I wrote. We had our first day of V-School classes today (the home-schooling program, run through JVC), so we had 3 teenage boys at our place today. We introduced ourselves and played some fun word games and board games, and Will gave his first Bible lesson. We feel it went pretty well, although Korean children and youth are painfully shy, and don’t speak up very much, even if they know the answer. Hopefully they’ll get more comfortable around us.

Prayer Requests
We just ask for prayers for our continual adjustment to life and culture here (although it doesn’t feel too hard right now), and to be able to prepare ourselves adequately for our teaching tasks and ministerial involvement.

Anyeonghikeseyo (안 녕 히 게 세 요),
노 어 라 & 노 일 암
(Ana & Will)