The Menno Melange

Anyeong Haseyo!

Time moves quickly, and already we’re in our last week of summer vacation…meaning our last summer in Korea! They say it takes about 2 years to really get the feel for a culture; to be comfortable with the language and underlying rules of culture, to have a good grasp of where everything is and how to get there, to find a good rhythm for the work (in our case teaching and preaching) and to form close bonds with others. So, I see this last 4 months as a time to just enjoy the foundation that we’ve built; a time to eat as much Korean food as we can, to climb a few more mountains, visit our favorite local scenic places a few more times, play as much hockey and swim as many laps as we can, and spend quality time with our friends, many of whom are like family. In fact, with Ruby in our lives, many of our Korean friends now have the name “Uncle” or “Auntie” at the beginning of their names.

English Camp
We led our final English camp this summer, with the theme being “Trivia Game Shows”, as is the style of some children’s shows in Korea. Through various different games (Big Connect Four, Crabwalk race, obstacle course, air hockey, hula hoop competition, etc) they had to be able to answer a trivia question in English before receiving the point. This premise went over very well, because they were doing it as a team. However, when we tried a time filler game “Murder Wink” (renamed Sleep Wink), the response was dramatically different: When someone was selected to be the winker, they never winked, and when someone was winked at (because I was winking) they didn’t lay down, so nothing ever happened.The reason we speculated was very telling about Korean culture. The winker was too afraid to get caught, so they never winked. And the winked at didn’t want to lay down because they didn’t want to lose and miss out on the game. They didn’t want to be singled out. Contrarily, our experience of playing this game in NA, kids enjoy fake “dying”, and make a big show of it, and enjoy their brief moment in the spotlight.

From L to R: Making origami foxes; Happy students; Playing giant Connect Four; Hula Hoop Competition; The group after putting on the “Pied Piper” play

Climbing Samaksan
One of our goals was to climb Samaksan, the highest mountain in Chuncheon, at 625m, so we did that a few weeks ago. We had the perfect day for it, clear skies, but not too hot. The way up is quite a challenge, involving some actual rock climbing, but we have a sturdy back carrier for Ruby, so it worked out fine. She was so excited at the start of the climb, flapping her arms around like she was trying to fly up the mountain. While the way up was mostly rock climbing, the way down was much easier, with well-worn paths through trees and stairs and walkways. (If you’re on Facebook, I posted an album of the pics)

From L to R: At the start of the climb; Flower in front of temple; Mountain water; Part of the mountain we had to climb; This way; The temple from behind; The view from halfway up; Neat roots; Climbing up a steeper part; View from almost at the top; On a staircase on the rock; Almost at the top!; Phew! That was a lot of work; View from the top; Ruby and Will on the top; The forest on the way back down; Buddhist Mediation rocks; A neat bridge near the bottom; Boardwalk path to the end

Full Gospel Fully
We have done a few more Sundays at Full Gospel church, and I felt comfortable enough to try worship leading, which I will do twice a month, the days that Will preaches. The church already has a praise band, so I just become the band leader on the days I go, picking the songs and leading them. Ruby does really well with just about anyone watching her, so it all works out. There is even some talk of starting a Bible Study group with fellow foreigners who are hungry for that kind of interaction.

3 Days in Seoul
Will was asked to do language testing at Connexus for the next group of prospective students, as all the teachers were on vacation for the scheduled time, so we spent 3 days in Seoul. I finally got over my fear of taking Ruby on the subway, as we subwayed everywhere while there. It helped that the subways were never as full as they can be, and there is a designated place for mothers with children. One of the directors of KAC loved Ruby so much, he said we could send her there anytime. I said we might take him up on that.

Road Trip of Awesomeness
We just returned a few days ago from a week and a half long road trip around the country (by “around” I mean straight down, and back up again), which couldn’t have been as easy without the help of some JVC friends, for lending us their GPS so we never got lost, and helping us reserve hotels, so we always had somewhere to go.
1) Jiri-San National Park:
This was our first stop, after Ruby had her first jaunt in a coin-operated ride at the service station, which she did NOT like. We drove up Nogodan mountain partways to park, and just like a celebrity Ruby was soon surrounded by people taking her picture and repeating, “Kiopta! (”???!”), meaning “cute”, which we hear all the time. It was too cloudy to see anything when we arrived at the top, but the climb itself was a delight. We then found a nice little temple called Cha-nun-sa (???) by a lake, surrounded by bamboo and had a communal well with many colourful drinking spoons.

From L to R: Our first pit stop, in a “vending machine”; Getting her first ride; At the gateway of a temple in Jiri-san; The car that got us around; Ruby and her fans; The mountain we climbed, Nogodan; The misty Pathway; Climbing a rocky staircase; Taking a breather at the top; Near the front gate of Chanun-sa; In front of the gate; At the communal well; Taking a drink; Ruby and a pretty bridge; One of the guardians of the temple; The temple courtyard; Noisemakers (a gong, a bell and a drum); Bamboo!; Beautiful Buddha statue

2) Tongyeoung:
We then drove to a city on the southern coast, famous for beautiful white rocks and small islands jutting out of the ocean. Just our luck, it had to be rainy the 2 days we were there, so the boat cruise and cable cars were cancelled. Boo. We did what we could, though, and it was good. We drove to the second largest island in Korea, Geoje-do (???) and visited a POW Camp museum, located, of course, where there used to be a POW camp during the Korean War. In one area of the camp, where the outdoor kitchen was, there were life-size statues in place, one serving the food, and a few in line, providing a photo-op for tourists. When we each posed for OUR camera, this guy with a big camera came over and started taking our pictures…not one, not two, but MANY. Snap! Snap! Snap! It was like a photo shoot I didn’t know about. He didn’t ask our permission or say where those pictures were going. He even followed us around waiting for the next photo op. Oh well. We did get to see the famous Hegumgang (???), a small white island with spire shaped rocks, and took a ferry to Hansando (???), where a famous Admiral made an amazing defeat against 300 enemy ships with only 12 of his own, and who invented the Korean Turtle Ship, which is a turtle shell shaped ship with a dragon head on the front. Getting to the island was a bit of an adventure: I bought the ferry tickets at 11:30, thinking the ferry was leaving at 12:00, but no, it was leaving right THEN, so I had to run back to the parking lot, find where Will parked the car (cause I didn’t know where), yelled at him to get the stroller ready, pulled Ruby out of the car seat, grabbed my diaper bag with things almost falling out of it and we had to run in a small tornado of disorder. When we returned on the ferry, there was a group of traditional musicians waiting on the other side, all in yellow robes and hats, playing traditional music for some imported person who was getting off a big police boat.

From L to R: Ruby in a play room; The entrance to the POW camp; View of Geoje-do from POW camp; View of city through barbed wire; Entrance to POW compound; Waiting in line for food; Will’s wondering why the guy in front of him isn’t moving; View of Hegumgang from the road; Us in front of the beautiful Hegumhang rocks; On the ferry to Hansan-do; The path to the shrine; It was windy that day; The guardian said Ruby shall not pass; Ruby and Will on the Admiral’s gazebo; Stretching her muscles; Dragon in a tree; The musicians

3) Busan:
We then had an extended stop-over in Busan, just long enough to go to the famous Heundae (???) beach, where thousands of people go regularly, but we happened to go on a cloudy semi-rainy day, so we had the place to ourselves, and it was quite nice. Hundreds and hundreds of tubes and beach umbrellas were for rent on the beach, none of them being used, but was indicative of how many people WOULD be there.

From L to R: Neat mini-cooper ad; Empty Heundae beach; Alone on the beach; Mom and Ruby walking together

4) Gyeongju: We then drove Korea’s traditional city, where most of the rooves of houses and buildings are the traditional style, where many old kings are buried in grass mound tombs. We first went to Tumulus Park, where there are many grass mound tombs in a beautiful park area, and lots of nice paths weaving around them. We then crossed the street to the Anapji gardens, which were absolutely beautiful. I have never seen so many open fields in Korea, many with just flowers. There were many walking paths through the flower fields, and ponds filled with giant lily pads and lilies. We then found some sort of Expo or crafts fair, where people were showing off Hanbok (traditional outfits) and women were spinning silk worms. They had hundreds of silk worm cocoons in a pot that was being heated, and about 6 or 7 different cocoons were attached to their looms, and as they spun the looms the little cocoons would bounce around in the hot pot. We spent the night in a Minbak which is like a B&B without the breakfast, and it was traditional style housing, so we slept on the floor. It was quite nice, with a beautiful courtyard in the middle. We also visited Bulguk-sa Temple and Seokguram, a stone-carved hermitage. There is a stone statue of the Buddha carved into the inside of a hill, but you can only see it by entering the temple.

From L to R: The opening pathway in Tumulus Park; The walkway to a tomb; The entrance to one of the tombs; Taking a rest in the grass; Ruby sitting in the grass for the first time; Tombs, ruins and mountains; Ana in a field of flowers in Anapji; More fields of flowers; Walkway through the many gardens; The mascots for Gyeongju; Women spinning silk; The minbak where we stayed; Will and Ruby in our room; Old turtle drum at Bulguksa Temple; Front of Bulguksa temple; Ruby and mom in temple; Beautifully painted door; The huge bell at the entrance of Seokuram; The temple with the stone Buddha

5) Yangyang/JVC Retreat: We then made our way to the JVC Retreat in Yangyang, which was our next stop along the coast. This was a nice relaxing weekend with friends, good food, rest, worship and fellowship. Oh, and swimming, although we didn’t do too much of that cause the water was so very cold.

From L to R: Ruby and dad at the JVC retreat; Mom and Ruby taking a break from the sun; The Yangyang beach

6) Sokcho: After the Sunday morning worship at the retreat center, we drove just 20 minutes further north along the coast to Naksan-sa Temple, which is one of the only temples on the coast (most of which are in the mountains or deep in a forest). There was much to see, whether it was a museum of relics, a gazebo overlooking the ocean, a walking path on the mountain side to a shrine, the many emerald green rooved temples, or the large white rock Buddha statue at the top of the mountain. The statue stood on a circular flat platform that was the mountain top, with large pots of lotuses surrounding the perameter, and a 360 degree view of gorgeous scenery. Just breathtaking! We then made our way to our friends’ parents’ home in Sokcho, which was a home/Minbak/restaurant right on the beach. After a wonderful home-cooked meal in the restaurant of Samgyetang (???), chicken stew, our kids (they have two, the youngest close to Ruby’s age) played together until bed time. The next day we did a short hike in Soeraksan National Park, a place of majestic white rock peaks, rocky valleys and rivers. Then we drove farther north to the DMZ, to the Unification Observatory, where you can look upon the Crystal mountains of North Korea from a mountain. On the peak, there is a statue of the Virgin Mary and the Buddha, almost side by side, praying for Unification of the two Koreas. There is also a church on the peak, with a big window behind the pulpit facing North Korea, where they undoubtidly preach about and pray for unification. There was also a “museum” of things made in N.Korea.

From L to R: This just speaks for itself; One of the beautiful shoreline views at Naksan-sa; Getting a drink from the beautiful fountain; A closer view of this shoreline shrine; A statue at the top of the mountain; These lilies were all around the statue; The view of Sokcho from the top; Blue-roofed temples; The path leading to the statue; The parking lot of Soeraksan; Ruby and the big Buddha; Rocky valley; Bridge leading to Bisandae; Another rocky valley; More picturesque scenery; Fun bear sign; Statue of Mary at the Observatory; Statue of Buddha at same place; That means “Unification”; The statues together; Ruby and I in front of N/ Korea; With friends from church in Sokcho; The boat we took a spin in; Weeeee!; Our friends from JVC

Now we’re back and plans and we are slowly starting to think about our last term of V-School, and preparations for going home.