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