The Menno Melange

Summer vacation is over and a new term of V-School has begun this fall! September 8th marked our first completed year here in Korea, and we don’t know where the time went.

Pregnancy Update
So, I’m in the home stretch. My baby is completely baked, as some would say. She is in the right, head-down position and all systems are a go! I am in that exciting yet frightening waiting period, knowing that labour could happen at any time, but I also have the comfort of knowing she would be healthy and fully grown if born any time from now to the due date. At least that’s what my doctor said. In fact, at my last appointment, he told me I should “exercise vigorously” to help induce labour. What?! But I’m not ready yet…I’m supposed to still have a few weeks! And, I probably will, as they say the first birth is usually late. But the thought is still quite scary. Oh, and I think I’m realizing that I have grown a bit bigger than most pregnant Korean women do, as I have had to go back a few times for more maternity pants, as I have outgrown a few! I didn’t know that could happen! JVC members are anxiously awaiting the baby’s arrival, and have been really supportive throughout this process. In fact, even though it is not a cultural tradition here, they are organizing a baby shower for us, which will happen this coming Sunday. It’s funny, I have never had one or been to one before, and they have never put one on before…so it’ll be interesting to see how our collective creativity plays out. I have cut back on teaching, which means Will is teaching a little more this term, and that makes the baby’s upcoming arrival that much more real. I’ve had 2 elderly women tell me that we are going to have a girl (not knowing we already are, apparently) based on the shape of my belly. I asked them, “What is the shape?” They say it’s a “pretty” belly when it’s a girl. I wonder what the belly is shaped like when it’s a boy (??). However, another woman said I’ll be having a boy, because my belly is “up higher”. Hmmm…

From L to R: At 35 weeks; At 36 weeks; At 37 weeks; At 38 weeks; At 38 weeks again; At 38 weeks yet again; At 38 weeks one last time

Cell Group Overnight
Every month when there is a 5th Sunday, cell groups worship on their own. Our cell group decided to do an overnight in Hwacheon, at one of our members’ parents’ homes in the country. The first evening we had a BBQ together, followed by S’mores-making, care of Will and I, which went over really well with the kids. The kids later called Will upstairs to swat mosquitos for them, but when he couldn’t find any, he just chased the kids with the swatter instead, which caused quite a stir while the rest of us were stargazing. The following morning Will gave a sermon to the group, then we all went down to the nearby river to wade or fish, or sit on the rocks watching Will make a sandcastle with the kids. It was a great time to connect with members of our church.

From L to R: Ana by the river; Will in the river

V-School Fall Term Begins, and other responsibilities
We have the same boys for Day School this term, and for our first day of classes, we made them talk for 2 minutes about what they did for the summer. We could really see the improvement in one of our students when, a year ago, he was too shy and limited in vocab to say very much, and now he could share his thoughts on evolution! It was quite wonderful. Will also has begun an English conversation class, with up to 12 university students, who meet twice a week at 6:30 in the MORNING. That is literally the only time that works for these busy students, so they must be EAGER to learn English. He also continues to lead an English Bible study to prospective YWAM missionaries, preparing to leave the country, as well as teaching two extra classes for me. What a guy!

Guitar Class
So, my knitting class is kind of finished, as the women mutually and enthusiastically want to learn guitar instead, now. So, I thought I would roll with it, and see where this will go. But, on one condition: That they all have their own guitars. I have learned from teaching music in the past that there is not much point in it, if the student can’t practice at home. So, we had the first lesson last week, and it was..interesting. One of the guitars brought was so old and impossible to tune (and missing a tuning knob that we needed pliers to turn it with) that is was virtually unplayable and the woman who brought it needed to use mine. The other guitar that was brought was also really old, causing it to persistently and consistently go out of tune, which meant I had to tune it about every 10 minutes. I enjoy providing a service that my friends will benefit from, but I have to say, I miss the knitting!

Lingering Cultural Frustrations
Even after being here a year, and knowing what little of the language we do, we still are faced with limitations on a daily basis. The day came when we had to extend our visa’s, and we were so proud of ourselves for finding our way to the immigration office, filling out the needed form on our own, and we had all the documents ready. Or so we thought. We thought it was too good to be true that we could handle this administrative matter on our own, and just like we suspected, there was a problem, and the clerk needed to call our supervisor, for proof that we are doing what we said we are doing. Strangely, we didn’t need this proof last year, when we went through this process with our supervisor. So, that deflated our balloon a little bit. Later that day Will went to make a money transfer at the bank, like he has done many times before, and got the necessary (and correct) forms and was about to wait in the appropriate area, when a bank employee intercepted him, took the form he had and gave him a different one (assuming he had taken the wrong form, because he was a foreigner) and sent him upstairs (thinking he needed to do a different kind of transfer). After much wasted time and confusion, the bank man finally realized what Will actually wanted to do, sent him back downstairs and gave him the form he had originally taken. This was understandably frustrating for Will. We realize one reality to being foreigners is strangers will almost always assume we don’t know what we are doing.

Chuseok Weekend
Once again it is Chuseok time, Korean Thanksgiving. One of the things we love about Chuseok is all the food gifts we get. We got a huge crate of peaches from one of our students, and a huge crate of grapes from another. Also a huge crate of tomatoes from someone else. It’s a blessing, but also a bit of a challenge to finish off all that food before it goes bad! Anyway, we were invited to a church members’ home for supper one night, when some extended family were there, and we had a marvelous time, and shared lots of laughs. It was nice to be included in someone else’s family gathering. We were also invited to a friends’ hometown to her family gathering, so we headed off early the last day of the Chuseok holiday to a town 3 hours away, called Jeongseon. We stopped at a random temple on the way, cause I needed a break from being in the car, and met a friendly elderly lady who was eager to get to know us. She had offered us coffee, which we turned down because we needed to be on our way, but even as we were pulling out of the driveway, she was carrying out a tray with coffee, so we had no choice but to stay. I didn’t want to drink the coffee, as I’m avoiding caffeine right now, so as to avoid offending her, Will and I did a clever cup swap when she wasn’t looking, and he finished off mine. I was a little concerned she’d keep finding ways to make us stay, when our friends’ family was waiting for us for lunch, but using my best Korean sentence, I told her sorry, but we need to get going. She understood and happily waved us goodbye. Anyway, our friend’s family welcomed us like we were distant relatives, and the food was fantastic! Traditional Korean food, and I was reminded again that I need some Korean cooking lessons. For the afternoon entertainment, our friend, her sister and Will and I rode on a rail bike. The town has an old train track that isn’t used anymore for the train, but has become a wonderful tourist attraction, where you can rent a bike that sits on the track and peddle along 7 kms of beautiful country scenery, and of course through some fun dark tunnels! We passed beautiful rice fields, mountains and rivers, and enjoyed picking up some speed when going downhill (although we almost ran into the family in front of us a few times!) The track ended in another part of the town, at this neat restaurant shaped like two fish (see blog for pics, they actually look pretty cool). We had a wonderful time with this family, as well, and cherish the time we had with these Korean families.

From L to R: At the temple we stopped at; Inside the temple; Bell inside temple; Buddha statues; Dragon outside of temple; A waterfall in Jeongseon; Will and I by the waterfall; Giant grasshopper-shaped restaurant; The girls on the railbike; The whole gang ready to go; The view from the back; The first tunnel; The view from the side; Will and I; More beautiful scenery along the way (that’s a rice field); We actually got to stop traffic along the way, with lights and bars and everything; Will and I at the rest stop; Fish-shaped restaurant at the end of the track; Will and I in front of the fish; Our friend and I in front of the fish; The fish from far away; Will and I in the fishes mouth; Ana coming out of the fishes mouth

Random Thoughts and Observations
-We saw a man riding a motorcycle in nothing but pyjamas! No helmet, no boots, just pyjamas!
-One trend here is for couples to wear matching shirts, but the other day I also saw matching pants! Both the guy and girl had the same pants, complete with Superman patches on each right butt cheek
-I think I have mentioned before that ambulances don’t get much respect here, like they do back home. One day we were caught at an intersection being traffic controlled by police because there was a marathon going on. We could understand that we were being stopped so the other group of cars could go through, but then an ambulance from our side, with siren on, tried to get through. Not only did the traffic going the other way NOT stop for the ambulance, but the police man didn’t even TRY to stop the traffic to let the ambulance through. Will and I just watched incredulously.

I don’t know when the next check-in will be, and whether there will be another before the baby arrives, but from here on in, Will may very well be the new author of the Chuncheon Check-in, at least for a little while!

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

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.

Anyeong Haseyo (안녕하세요)!

Spring has come, bringing with it such beautiful flowers; Magnolias, cherry blossoms…and those are the only ones I can name…but so many wonderful colors and flowers!

V-School Stories
1) Starcraft mania
We have one student who loves to watch Starcraft on TV. For those of you who don’t know, Starcraft is a very popular Role Playing Game here in Korea, and it’s actually becoming quite a problem here; Many young kids, under age 10, are addicted and will sneak off to PC Bangs (like an internet cafe) to play the game. Anyway, the game also has its own spot on TV, where viewers can watch the game with commentary over top. As I was saying, one of our students loves to watch this channel, which is a concern, but also loves to watch it 1 foot away from the screen. We do our best to distract him from that.

2) A different style of teaching
We struggle with another student who excels at their homework (perfect spelling and grammar), but really struggles in class. We wondered about this contradiction, until we found out that it is very normal in Korea for parents to essentially do their children’s homework for them. We were told that’s how children learn here. We have our doubts about this, but have to trust that this student will in fact learn something by the end of the term.

3) Positive things
One of my After School classes finished level one, so we celebrated with a teddy bear cake, after I made them write a nice long test. One of my After School students gave me a cute little plant, and with it was a note that she wrote, saying: To 어나 teacher, Hi! teacher. Congratulation. Your Baby. Thank you for teaching me.” Another student in that class is the most eager student I have yet seen in Korea; She has come to expect and feel gratification from the check marks I put on my students’ homework, so much that she actually drew a box in her homework for me to put my usual check mark in.

The plant my student gave me:

4) Special kind of homework
We were invited to one of our Day School students’ cooking classes, where we would partake of the food they prepared. This student lives in a beautiful home in the mountains, one of the few houses we have visited in our time here. There was such beautiful scenery and places to play that I was shocked knowing that this particular student never goes outside, or so they say. I announced at their home that from now on, part of their homework will be to go outside for one hour a day. They laughed, thinking I was joking, and I was pretty sure they wouldn’t do it. However, I was pleased to read in one of their journals that they indeed went outside to play with their dog. I asked the student if they just wrote that to make me happy, but they seemed genuine when they insisted that they really did go outside. I’m happy with that.

5) New Class
I was able to express my displeasure with the singing class, and to my relief, the class was canceled and replaced by a guitar class, which some of the students seem genuinely interested in. It is so rare to get a sense of real interest in these kids, that when I see it, I feel excited.

Pregnancy Update
So, the realities of having a child in a foreign country are sinking in. We hadn’t had too many problems, except when they asked us not to bring a translator anymore, for reasons we are unsure of. At our most recent appointment, however, only when we had already arrived were we told that our doctor wasn’t there, as he was at emergency surgery. The first nurse who tried to tell us didn’t know a word of English (and this is where having a translator would have been handy), so she got another nurse to try, who suggested another doctor in the clinic. He knew much less English, so our ability to ask questions at this appointment was more limited than usual. This would be more of a problem if my pregnancy wasn’t a normal healthy one, so I am very thankful for that.

On the bright side, I will never cease to be amazed at technology these days. We have been seeing our baby on the screen right from the beginning, and at this last appointment saw the intricate little bones of it’s fingers and toes, it’s spine, etc. I even saw it gulping the amniotic fluid with it’s little mouth. Wow.

Another positive to being pregnant is I seem to get free meals this way. We were invited for supper last week, by one of our cell group members, and she said it was because I am pregnant. Oh, wow!

Knitting/Cooking Club
As I feared, my knitting/cooking club is kind of petering off, as one by one members drop out because of busyness. I knew this would happen eventually, and was told it would, but didn’t think it would happen so soon. I was down to 3 faithful members, and now one more has announced extreme busyness, and may return when the busyness subsides. Sigh. However, last week we had a great class, where I taught them to make banana bread, and we worked on our various knitting projects while the bread baked, then of course we ate some. I have finished 2 baby sweaters, and am working on some pants now.

The sweater:

Visit from Brother and Girlfriend
At last, we were able to meet up with my brother and his girlfriend, who are also living in Korea now. We were excited to introduce them to the Chuncheon speciality, Dakgalbi, for the first time, take them to Samaksan, where they saw a mountain stream for the first time in Korea, and paddled around in swan boats, providing some fresh lake air that they don’t get in Seoul. It was wonderful to have deep discussions again, without language limitations, and to make use of the wonderful guest room we have at our new apartment.

From L to R: The lake where we brought them

So, it seems that Mother Nature can’t make up her mind on the weather front, as we had summer weather yesterday, and today it’s considerably colder and rainy. We are a little concerned just how hot summer will get, because when I went out yesterday in capris and a t-shirt (quite appropriate for the 20 degree weather), a woman looked at me in the elevator with shock and asked, “Aren’t you cold??” She, on the other hand, was wearing a jacket and pants, as well as her son. Hmm, I thought, maybe I’m under dressed. But no, when I stepped outside, it was quite warm. Will has had similar encounters will warmly clad people when he ventures out in a t-shirt. If Koreans consider 20 degree weather cool, just how hot exactly does the summer get??

Trip to the Vet
So, the vet called cause he wanted us to come and see what I should be feeding Herb, even though I thought I had that in hand. When we got there, he was too busy for us, tending to an excited cocker spaniel with a bad hair cut, followed by a weird looking little white dog attached to an IV, just out of surgery, it seemed. We could have waited a little longer, but we felt close to nauseous having to look at photographs on the wall of the latest doggy fashions; dyed pink ear tips, purple-dyed paws, blue-dyed tails, braided doggy ears, dogs in costume, dogs with bows, dogs with unnatural and atrocious hair cuts. which is very popular among Korean dog owners, we have noticed. We instead wandered down an alleyway that took us back in time a bit, giving us a taste of what old Korea would have looked like before the war that devastated so much. Some houses in these rare areas still looked half bombed. Then just as suddenly as we had gone back in time, we were back at the big modern E-Mart.

Pics of the cool alleyway:

New “Favorite” place
One morning I got a call from all my knitting members that no one could make it, so Will and I went on a long-awaited afternoon excursion. We had been hearing about Samaksan, the biggest mountain in Chuncheon, but had been hesitant to go there; It is quite a difficult climb, where you have to scale rocks at certain points. We figured that would be a wiser climb post-pregnancy. However, no one had told us there is another entrance and another way up! We drove by this enticing place, a neat traditional market at the base of the mountains, nestled in the rocks and trees and built over these little streams that run down, full of fish. There’s a temple on a rock perch above the market, with a beautiful white statue of the Buddha overhead.There are also quite a few quaint outdoor restaurants, equipped with thick wooden tables and wood stoves. The market eventually leads you to an extravagant rock ravine, formed naturally, inviting you to walk the rocky path, admire the neat colors of the rocks, to a small but beautiful waterfall. The path then leads you to a set of steep stairs and to a bridge, bringing you to the beginning of the less strenuous path up the mountain. We went a little ways, past a restaurant along the path, then my conscience got in the way; “The doctor said not to climb mountains!”, so we turned back. Honestly, this place was like something out of a movie. We plan to go back there as much as possible.

From L to R: Will standing in the market; One of the market displays; The beginning of the rock walk; The view looking the other way; Ana sitting on the steps; The entrance to the path; The first waterfall; The second waterfall; Will and Ana in front of waterfall; Ana on the bridge; The outhouse (not a very convenient location, if you ask me); Will by a set of stairs; The third waterfall; The Buddha statue; The view from the overhanging temple

Pregnancy Update
It`s finally happening! I had to put away 3 pairs of pants last week cause they don`t fit, and I have noticed the signs of a pregnancy belly. This may not be surprising to hear, given that these are logical next steps in the pregnancy process. However, it was so hard to mentally grasp that there is something growing inside me, where there was no visual proof! Also, I’m mostly out of the “extreme food picky-ness” stage, which made things harder for me, especially since most of the food I crave(d) is not in this country.

Cell Group Worship
Whenever there is a fifth Sunday, the cell groups each do their own thing that Sunday. Our cell group just joined another cell group at the church for worship. Our cell group did the special song, “Obey My Voice”, which I lead, and Will did the sermon. He made a joke at the beginning that his sermon was short, his translator could always lengthen it by adding more to the translation. This is funny because whenever someone translates for us, the translation seems a LOT longer than what we actually said.

Election Dancers
So, there is an election going on, but I’m embarrassed to admit we don’t know what about. What we do know is that whenever there is an election, there are dancers on street corners, dancing to REALLY loud music, wearing matching uniforms with the candidates’ number on them. If the candidate is number 2, for example, then they’ll hold up two fingers most of the time, etc. We find them quite entertaining to watch sometimes.

Various angles of the dancers:

V-School Stories
We had a sort of “field trip” day, except we just went to see a movie and then out for lunch. On the way to lunch, we had two of our students in the car with us, and they were supposed to tell us how to get to the restaurant, but Korean kids are so shy, that even when they knew us, they didn’t tell us how to get there. Will was is the wrong lane, and had to make a last minute decision whether to stay on the highway or get off to the right, and the boys were silent. Will then said, “Do I get off here?” and they quietly said, “Yes’, so Will quickly had to switch lanes and get over. We still don’t quite understand the shyness, especially since we have been teaching these kids for 7 months!

We started a singing portion in the weekly teaching schedule, where I’m to try to get our teens to sing songs in parts! I’m realizing this might be impossible, as four of them don’t even sing at all! When they do “sing” they are mostly just chanting, sort of, and only one actually sings. I’m at a place where I have to wonder, “Will things improve if I keep trying, or should we just end the singing class altogether?”

With all the challenges that come with teaching, all it takes is one student who does something sweet and the rest doesn’t matter anymore. After one class, one of my students wrote, “I love Ana” on the white board, in English AND Korean. The parents are always keen to tell us how much their children like us, and whether that’s actually true or not, it makes us happy.

Random Things
-In the English Bible, we have the verse, “I am the bread of life”. In the Korean Bible, the verse translates to, “I am the dakh of life”, dakh being a rice cake. It’s interesting how what Jesus describes himself to be can change depending on the culture.
-This morning we heard many sirens moving past our apartment, so many that Will said, “I’d better get dressed in case we have to evacuate the building”. We then saw the the emergency vehicles were parked at the next building over; 7 fire trucks, 1 ambulance, 3 red vans with sirens (don’t know what they’re for) and many police cars. I watched from our balcony as dozens of people flocked over to the scene out of curiousity. The strange thing is there was no visible fire to merit 7 firetrucks! The other strange thing is just as quickly as those vehicles appeared, they were gone again, and it was as if nothing happened.