The Menno Melange

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.

Happy Easter! Spring is here and the yellow dust is blowing. We get some “yellow dust days” from time to time, where sand from the Gobi desert blows in, and covers our car front to back. (Not-so-fun-fact: The amount of dust has increased over the years due to deforestation in China and Mongolia) On these days it’s wise not to go outside, or you should wear a mask. Another sign of spring is babies, and no, I don’t mean mine, as I still have 6 months to go, but a baby bunny.

Herb
Our newest addition to the family is a bunny! No, it wasn’t my motherly instincts kicking in too early. You’re probably wondering why on earth we would buy a pet with a baby on the way. Well, we didn’t buy it. It’s quite a funny story. One of my 10 year old V-School students randomly brought a rabbit to class. Confused, I asked why he would bring a rabbit to my class, when the focus is learning English. I put it in a cardboard box and tried to teach my class, at times in vain, as there was a much more interesting distraction for the kids. Through their broken English and my broken Korean, I managed to decipher that the boy bought the rabbit on a whim from a store, and brought it home without asking his parents’ permission. His mother said no, of course, and probably that he needed to get rid of it. Since none of the other children’s parents would let them take it, he offered it to me as a last resort, I guess. I later found out that his mom did let him keep it for a little while, but he didn’t take care of it, at all. I saw evidence of that in how poorly he handled it, picking him up wrong so he squirmed and fidgeted, or putting him on his shoulder and letting him fall off, etc. It made me sick to see how poorly he handled the baby rabbit. So, I like to think I rescued the bunny…..and I certainly didn’t mind taking on a pet. I love animals, and had a pet of some kind my entire life until getting married, so I missed it.

Herb is a pleasant distraction for ALL my students now, so I had resorted to closing the curtains to where his room is, but that didn’t work. The students just opened the curtain, tapped on the glass, or stepped over the gate to play with him. I realize I will just have to put his cage in another room with a closed door. Will thinks we will also need a diversion, like a sign on a room that says “Do not come in-Rabbit inside”, but it would be the wrong room. Ha ha.

Easter Weekend
Will and I were put in charge of the Good Friday service, and the Easter Sunday service. YIKES! That made me a little stressed, but now it’s over and I can talk about it in a relaxed manner. For Good Friday, we planned a service that would be similar to how the final evening with Jesus would have been. Following the reading of text in John about foot washing, we all washed each other’s feet. Then following the reading of text in Luke about the Last Supper, we shared communion. For this I made chapatis, mimicking the flat bread that would have been eaten in those times. The service seemed to be meaningful to others, as I saw some wiping of tears. Easter Sunday also went well, as Will had written some skits, and he had made a cross specifically for the service. We invited people to write down a sin or burden in their life, and to nail it to the cross, symbolic of Jesus taking on our sins and being nailed to the cross, and during the choir song, we had the pieces of paper removed from the cross, replaced by some decorative fabric, to signify the resurrection. What was most meaningful was that many church members thanked us afterwards for a good service, and one even hugged me with appreciation. Even if the services didn’t go well, that made up for it.

Sunday School
So, I’ve been teaching the youth Sunday School class since January, and to be honest, I have mixed feelings about it. I’m struggling with a few different dynamics, and not sure which dynamic to address. The first dynamic is that they are youth, so, just like NA’can youth, they are “too cool for Sunday school”, and don’t really participate. Then there’s the question of me being younger than past teachers, and not intimidating enough to make some of the chatters stop chatting out of respect for me, as the teacher. The most obvious dynamic is the language barrier. Those that do know English don’t feel confident enough to translate, and even though I have asked repeatedly for a translator, I haven’t gotten one. I don’t know why, but I suspect it’s because all the eligible translators want to be in their own Sunday school classes. This causes my biggest frustration, cause I have carefully thought out lessons, with much to say, and no ears to hear it, and no willing mouths to make discussions possible. Sigh. I will bring up the question of a translator at the next meeting (again!) otherwise I will pose the question, “Should I be doing this?”

Pregnancy Pros and other things
One thing I love about being pregnant, is everyone has become so understanding of my quirky behavior. When I yawned in church one Sunday, the man sitting beside me said, “It’s okay. You’re pregnant.” Over potluck, when I asked for a little more rice, the server said in Korean, “Of course. You’re eating for two!” When I sang a high note in choir, all the ladies said, “Ooh, how is the baby now?!” One evening, some friends had us over for supper, and it was an entirely NA’can meal. The woman understood that I might be craving food from home, and she was right, and it was the most heavenly meal I’ve had; creamy pasta, garlice bread, salad with fruit, even CINNABONS to finish. We have such wonderful friends here.

I forgot to mention that when we first told Brother Cha that we were pregnant, we wanted to impress him by saying it in Korean. I should have practiced saying it a little more, cause I ended up telling him this: “나는 은행해요” which I think means “I am banking.” He was understandably confused, so Will gave it a stab, saying “재 아내 임신해요”, which at least uses the correct word, but we were still corrected, because in Korean, they say “we have gotten pregnant” or “we have conceived”, so the expression is past tense.

At my most recent appointment, I was able to see a fully limbed bean through the ultrasound, and when the heartbeat was played, in amplified sound, the baby started moving around like crazy! I had to ask the doctor if that was normal. He said the heartbeat was probably bothering the fetus. It was amazing; it waved it’s arms and legs around independently, and looked like it was head banging. I may be giving birth to a punk rocker. I then went to get a special ultrasound to test for Down Syndrome, and suddenly our bean didn’t want to move anymore, just when its movement was needed the most. The woman proceeded to jiggle the probe on my belly, very quickly, to try to get the baby to move. After 10 minutes of this jiggling, I was relieved to see our bean finally give her some movement.

T-Shirt Idea
So, there’s this website about t-shirts designed by “Weh-gooks” (foreigners in Korea) for “Weh-gooks”, and Will had a silly idea for a T-shirt: “Mind your own grocery cart”. This is funny for us, because we have noticed that whenever we go grocery shopping, people tend to be overly interested in what is in our grocery cart, doing a long, obvious scan of the cart’s contents. Why is it so interesting?

V-School Shenanigans
Will played a trick on his students one class, saying he could solve a Rubix cube behind his back. Little did they know that Will happened to have 2 Rubix cubes, one solved, one not. He put the unsolved cube behind his back, and within seconds pulled out the solved one. All the kids, including the parents were astonished. So astonished, the lesson would not have been able to continue, so Will had to give away his secret.

One of our day school students is a character. We think he’s testing us to see how much we’ll take before snapping. The examples are too great to list, but here’s one. Since he was told not to write directly in his text book (where there are exercises to be filled out), he proceeded to write the answers in pencil, then erase them RIGHT after. I told him to just write the answers in his binder, where he had PAPER. No, he insisted on his system of writing in the book, then erasing it right after, creating a nice big pile of eraser mess on the table. WHY??

Knitting and now Cooking Club
The knitting club is still meeting, to my happiness, and at the request of the ladies, they want me to teach them how to cook some NA’can style things, like chicken noodle soup. So, after we showed each other our projects (I am now working on a baby sweater, another member finished off 4 hats and is starting a vest, 2 others are working on prayer shawls still), I showed them how to make chicken broth. They were pleased with how easy it was, but not so pleased, I think, with my different ways of handling the kitchen. They were sure to tell me just how to wash the table and peel vegetables properly. But hey, we can all be teachers and students.

And that concludes this lengthy letter, this extravagant epistle, this prolonged prose.

Anyeong Haseyo (안녕하세요)!

Never mind what I said last time about spring coming. We have had more snow in the last week than all of our winter combined. Maybe it’s winters’ last hurrah. It is quite nice, though, and covers the mountains beautifully.

Pregnancy
As some of you know, Will and I are pregnant! This happened during our 2 month break, so some would say we used our free time wisely. Hehe. This, as you can imagine, has been an interesting experience for us, being in a different country. First of all, the opposing Eastern/Western advice. In Canada, pregnant women are told to exercise and watch what they eat. In Korea, pregnant women are told to rest (I was even told “bed rest”), and my doctor specifically said I can eat anything (however, most Korean doctors would say to be careful about what to eat, as well). Another difference is that I get a sonogram (internal ultrasound) at every visit, so I have seen the little bean right from the beginning, and that is not the case in Canada. I could even see the little blip of a heart beat on the screen! I didn’t even knows baby’s that small could HAVE heart beats. Shows what I know.

So, we’re at the 2 month mark, and things are going pretty well. One unforeseen benefit is my immune system has gotten quite the boost. I haven’t gotten sick once since pregnancy, even when Will got sick! That would never happen otherwise. Usually Will never gets sick, and I do, or if he does get sick, then I get it much worse, and it usually becomes some kind of infection. But not now! I’m at the stage where I’m becoming a picky eater (Will would laugh that I said “becoming”), and seem to know exactly what I want to eat based on whether the thought of eating something makes me feel nauseous or not. One of our friends told us that it is a Korean tradition for a mother to name her baby before it’s born, so I decided to name our pre-birth baby “아람” (”Aram”); At one of the church meetings, our names were written on the agenda to show what tasks we were assigned, and our Korean names were misspelled a few times, and “아람” came up, which is a hybrid of Will’s Korean name (”일암”= Il-am) and my Korean name (”아라” = A-ra), so it seemed only appropriate.

One frustration about communication limitations is that our doctor doesn’t offer very much information, perhaps because of limited English, and the nurses and receptionists don’t speak English at all. We bring a translator friend for that purpose, but for some reason one of the nurses told our translator not to come anymore, which we don’t understand. Our friend said she thought the doctor was uncomfortable speaking English to us in front of a fellow Korean. Interesting. So, we’re wondering how things will work out if we don’t bring a translator with us. Another theory I was given by some women is that the doctor would prefer an older translator who has been pregnant before, as opposed to one who hasn’t. As they put it, “You need a Mrs. Translator, not a Miss.” Also, our doctor is very quick with understanding medical jargon (for example, when I said to him “so, I don’t have an ectopic pregnancy?” he understood right away and responded in kind with more medical terms. But, when I ask him anything on a conversational level, he gives short answers that usually don’t quite answer the question.

We announced our news at church last Sunday, and Will said it in Korean; “우리 아내는 임신해써요” (My wife is pregnant) and everyone burst into applause. I’m pretty sure they were mostly applauding because a) Will said it in Korean and b) he said it correctly. Oh, and one set back to the pregnancy is I can’t seem to stay awake during evening meetings!

Knitting Club
Thanks to the knitting club, I had more time set aside to work on Will’s second sweater, and I finally got it done. One of the husbands came to an evening prayer meeting with the new scarf that his wife made for him during the knitting meetings, so I said “Nice scarf!” and everyone applauded. It was neat. We had a meeting last week and I had 5 women come, and it was quite good. It was wonderful to see that they are all eagerly working on their projects; prayer shawls, bags, scarves, hats and vests. Oh, and now I am working on a baby blanket for “Aram”.

From L to R: The group at our third meeting; The sweater I knitted for Will

Peace Dam
A friend of ours took us on a day trip to see the Peace Dam in Hwacheon, and another friend of ours came along. As mentioned before, there were rumours in the 80s that N. Koreans were going to break a dam to flood the south, so many S. Koreans donated money to build a dam to protect Seoul. And today, a dam sits, about 270 metres high, when the river, at this point, is only around 170 metres high. The dam is very close to the DMZ, so as we looked out from the top of the dam, we were looking at N.Korean mountains. It was crazy to think that if the dam was at full use, we would have been completely under water, as well as most of the surrounding trees. There was also a rock garden in the shape of Korea, as well as a wooden cross with a war helmet perched on top. We then went to see the Peace Bell, which was a huge bell hung in the middle of a big circle. It was a temporary bell, but the real one will be made from the metal from melted guns, I believe. Very meaningful.

From L to R: Scenery in Hwacheon; More Scenery in Hwacheon; View from top of Peace Dam; A peace statue; The cross with war helmet; Suzy and I with an otter; Another from top of Dam; Carved Peace poles; The measuring lines on dam; View from Peace Bell; The gang under the bell; The bell close up

That’s all for now, folks!

Some random things:

From L to R: Familiar candy…where do I know this from…?; Funny car seat covers, are there really rabbits in the car?; The second sweater I knit for Will

Anyeong Haseyo (안녕하세요)!

Well, it’s only February, but there sure are signs of spring coming. Every day has been sunny and clear, and it’s starting to warm up a bit. I forgot to mention some things in my last email, so I’ll just add those now:

Seollal (Lunar New Year) Tradition
One tradition we have been hearing about during this important holiday, is that children will bow to their elders (parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents) and each person they bow to will give them money. So, those who have many relatives are VERY lucky indeed.

Interesting shoes
On our way home from Soeul, when we were on the subway, we saw the most peculiar shoes I’ve ever seen. This man has shoes that looked like normal running shoes on his feet, but under each shoe were 2 springs, and then a flat shoe surface that connected the springs to the shoes. So, like pogo shoes. It’s sounds crazy, but they were real. And, he was an older man, so it’s not some fad that’s coming out, I don’t think. We thought they must be orthopedic shoes, perhaps. Maybe he had lost the spring in his step.

Namdaemun Gate
As a point of news, an important historical site called “Namdaemun” was burnt down recently by an arsonist. This is quite a big deal in Korea, as it was the oldest wooden structure in Korea, built to keep tigers out. Wow, how long ago were there tigers in the wild? This gate was the pride of Korea, and some compared this tragedy to 9/11. I think that’s a wee bit of an over-exaggeration, but this gives an indication of how important this gate was.

Special Lecture at church
Will and I were asked to speak over 2 Sunday School hours about our testimonies, our vision, cultural differences, etc. This was a good opportunity for church members who are not in our cell group to get to know us better. After our second special lecture, a church member asked us how we resolve conflicts between us. It probably didn’t help our case much when I would reach for the mic while Will was speaking, and he’d yank it away from me, then I’d do the same to him. Everyone laughed at our silly behavior, and probably felt they had a good sense of how we handle conflict at home.

Knitting Club
I had my first knitting club meeting, and in preparation I made banana bread and set up a display of all the knitted things I made and brought to Korea. When everyone had arrived, I realized I didn’t need to prepare food to serve, because everyone brought something; fruit, a traditional sticky rice dish, puffy rice cakes, etc. I had 4 out of the 5 that expressed interest, and there are still some more who want to come, apparently. I thought I would be teaching them how to knit, but they all knew how, they just didn’t know how to make things. They looked through the knitted goods, and picked something they wanted to make, and they just spent the time practicing knitting, as most of them hadn’t knitted in a while. Meanwhile, Will entertained one of the ladies’ babies, and I taught each of them how to knit the things they wanted to make (ie. prayer shawls, toques and scarves). So, even though at first I felt useless cause they all knew how to knit already, I realized I can still help them make things, and just provide a way for them to gather and socialize, and some motivation to start and ultimately finish a knitting project. It also provides a place for them to bring their children so they can play together, or Will and I can entertain the kids, so the moms can actually have time to knit, when they wouldn’t at home.

One knitting club member couldn’t make it to the first meeting, so Will and I went to her place one morning, so I could teach her (or rather, remind her) how to knit. Her two daughters wanted to learn, too, so I tried teaching them, but alas, it’s much harder for smaller fingers. I knit a little blanket for one of the girls’ pet hampster, and the ungrateful thing just chewed on it. We later found it sleeping under the blanket, or at least half the blanket, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

V-School Interviews
It’s that time of year again, when we prepare for V-School after a nice long holiday. We went to the first meeting, where we met our 5 new students, 2 of which for After School, the other 3 for Day School. We first sat through 45 minutes of not knowing what was being said, then we began our interview process. To our surprise and joy, 2 of our new teenage students are NOT shy, and quite comfortable with their English. They lived for one year in Scranton, PA (we asked them if they had heard of “The Office”, but they hadn’t), which would explain their confidence. We are looking forward to getting to know these boys better. I also have two boys who want to learn guitar, so it looks like I’ll be starting a guitar class soon.

Hockey Game
Will’s team finally had an actual game with a team from Seoul, so I went along, bundled up enough that I’d be plenty warm in Antartica….and I was still cold. It was quite funny. Will was borrowing someone’s jersey, which was #20, and there was another #20 on his team. So I’m watching the game, paying particular attention to where #20 was, but everytime I saw #20 go off the ice, suddenly #20 was ON the ice again! I thought I was going crazy, until later Will told me why.

Farewell to the Nham’s/Moving
Last Sunday we had a farewell prayer for the Nham family, who left for the States on a 1-year sabbatical. Just like at home, we gathered around them, placing our hands on their shoulders, and prayed for their safe journey. Will and I are moving into their place this week, so we have been busily packing all our things, including V-School books and supplies. I didn’t know HOW much stuff we have, and I don’t know how we fit it in this apartment!

By the way, here are some nice views of Chuncheon city, where we live:

Also, here’s an adorable baby from our cell group:

Anyeong Haseyo (안녕하세요)!

Wow, sometimes there’s a long lull between noteworthy events, and other times there’s just a week. So, here I am again, in hopes that the next check-in will be shorter having already shared these stories.

Cooking Fiasco
So, I’ve gotten a little more comfortable with cooking here, and have attempted twice to make my mom’s chili. The first time I tried, we used hot pepper powder that we bought in Korea, thinking it would be about the same. WRONG. It was SUPER hot, and very hard to eat. The second time I attempted chili, I used the Chipotle Chili powder my mom sent, thinking THAT would be just like the chili powder I was used to, and WRONG. That was SUPER hot, too. We were both surprised by how hot it was, me unpleasantly, but Will pleasantly, and said “It’s Chipotle! What did you expect??” Apparently I don’t know what Chipotle means. At least Will loved the chili as it was.

Knitting Club
Ever since we arrived here I have wanted to start a knitting club with people from JVC, with the idea of teaching knitting and donating knitted goods to the needy. I finally got around to making the poster, had it translated by a friend, and put it up last Sunday. Turns out a few people are interested but are afraid of the language barrier. I will just have to insist that it’s more showing than talking. I now have two students so far, who are confident in English, and we’ll start classes next week, probably. I can’t wait!

Adventure in Seoul over Lunar New Year
1) First night
We decided to go to Seoul for a few days, while we’re still on break from V-School. We first went to a restaurant in Seoul called “Crazy Hook”, and it reminded me of a restaurant you’d find at Disney World, or something. The theme was Captain Hook from Peter Pan, so there were life size manicans of hook, and ropes and hooks hanging from the ceiling, etc. We greatly miss the strict sense of “Smoking sections” in Canada, as it is not quite the same thing here. The only thing that makes a “Non-smoking section” here is there is no ash tray on the table. We were literally 2 rows away from smokers. Did that mean there was no smoke in our section? Nope, there was. We then met up with a group of our friends from Connexus and went to a Nore bang. For those of you who remember the song “Barbie Girl” by Aqua, you might be amused to imagine Will and I singing that as a duet. A guy from the group had been learning the dance moves from the popular Korean song “Tell Me”, so we were entertained to see a grown man doing girly dance moves.

From L to R: Will in front of TV screens; Some friends who got really into the song; Ana with her back up singers

2) Suwon City Tour
We gave ourselves 1 1/2 hours to get to Suwon, a city just outside of Soeul, and it ended up taking 2 hours! Anyway, we did the Suwon City bus tour, which takes you to different parts of the Suwon fortress that surrounds the city. Our first stop was to admire a wall built in the 1700’s, which is very well preserved, and a secret entrance. We climbed to the top of the wall, where there was a tower and beautiful big yellow flags. We found a 600 year old tree that s considered sacred, and people believed that if they wished for something while touching the tree, their wish would come true. They have special slips of paper that you can write your wish on and tie it around the tree. This area of the fortress is also where a popular heritage show was filmed, so we saw the costumes used in the show. We went to an archery area, where the king practiced his archery, I suppose. We each got to shoot 5 arrows for 1,000 won, towards these targets with big pig heads on them. Man, archery isn’t as easy as it was at camp. We also drove to the KBS TV station, where a myriad of movie/TVshow sets are kept. On one side is a fake Korean town, based in the 70’s we supposed, and a fake Japanese town on the other side. Over lunch, we laughed about some of the funny signs we had seen that day. For example, a sign that says “Caution, stairs”, when you can clearly see the stairs ahead. If you can see the sign, then you’ve already seen the stairs. The punctuation was humorous, too

From L to R: Will and our friends in front of our tour bus; Cool dragon fountain; Never ending doors at fortress; Heather and I with some actors from the heritage TV show; 600 year old wishing tree; Golden buddha in the distance; Will and Joel trying to knock each other off the board; Past and present in one shot; One of the fortress entrances; Taking aim at the archery field; Our targets; One of the secret entrances; Will and Ana in front of movie set; The gang in front of a set; Ana at a “Japanese restaurant”; Funny sign stating the obvious; Your guess is as good as mine as to what this sign means; Another obvious sign with funny punctuation

3) World Cup Qualifying Soccer Game: Korea vs. Turkmenistan
We met up with a large group of friends and gathered at the World Cup stadium in Seoul, and our bags were searched before we were allowed in. A friend of ours had their travel mug taken, for fear she would throw it into the field (??). A marching band in yellow attire came out in fine form, followed by the players. During the game, everytime the Koreans were anywhere near scoring a goal, or being scored on, EVERYONE stood up and cheered like crazy. It must have looked so funny to see all these people standing up and sitting down every few minutes. They cheered so loudly when even a goal wasn’t scored, I wondered how on earth they would cheer when a goal WAS scored. As Will assured me, there certainly was a difference in volume and craziness when Korea scored. As predicted, Korea won with flying colours, 4-0. Even though our friends mug was taken, people still managed to sneak in toilet paper, and the streams of white could be seen after each goal. It was quite the experience, but by the end we were pretty frozen.

From L to R: Will and Ana at the World Cup game; The whole gang at the game; The marching band on one side, the players on the other

Stolen Wallet
Why does a gutt feeling not linger long enough or feel stronger? For the first time EVER in Korea, I had a sneaking suspicion that I should feel for my wallet. I did so, and my wallet was in fact there. Feeling comfort at this, my gutt warning system turned off. Not 30 minutes later, on the jam-packed subway, so full I wouldn’t know who was touching me where, my wallet was indeed stolen! I didn’t think this kind of this would happen in Korea, and I have been assured that it is indeed unusual in Korea, by someone who has been here almost 6 years. Lucky me to be the exception! On the bright side, if anything “bright” can be thought of, I discovered it right away so we cancelled all cards before any damage could be done, I didn’t have a lot of cash in there, and my passport wasn’t in there. That’s the only ID I have now. The bummer is that I have to replace ALL other ID cards, some of which from overseas, which will no doubt be a hassle. Ironically, when I was in Uganda, I kept my hand on my bag wherever I went in the big city, knowing what I did about the clever theives there. Here, I never ONCE thought about doing that, and HERE is where it happened. Argh.

That’s all for now. If it weren’t for my passport, I wouldn’t be able to sign my name at the end, as I would no longer exist in the eyes of the Ontario government.

Anyeong Haseyo (안녕하세요)!

Since I last wrote we have had one, maybe two snow falls, so from what I hear we could maybe borrow some of the snow from our North American friends who are getting possibly too much. We have been in our January break from V-School, so it has been a good opportunity to learn Korean, do some sight seeing and get some exercise.

From L to R: Ana in the snow; Chuncheon bridge and snowy mountains;

Korean Study
Will and I have thrown ourselves head first into Korean studies. Our studies include lessons with certain JVC members, writing daily journals in Korean, listening to a Korean CD and answering questions, doing exercises in a text book supplement that goes with our other text book, and revieweing vocabulary with flash cards. Don’t be fooled. We aren’t anywhere near being fluent. But, this is the kind of intensity we need to get anywhere farther in the language than we already are. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: 한국어를 아주 어려워요 (Korean is really hard). The only reason I remember that phrase in Korean is beacuse I say it a lot.

Hockey Game
We went to watch the local professional Chuncheon team play against “Seibu” from Japan. Seibu might sound like a cool name for a hockey team, but imagine the cutest cuddliest little cartoon bunny you ever saw, and that’s their mascot. Will told me to look at their jersey’s to see what their mascot was, and I didn’t even have to tell Will when I did; He knew I saw the mascot because I had started chuckling. We saw a lot of fights disguised as “falls”. We happened to be on the side that had a good view of a player fall (jump) on his opponent with his fist closed ready for a punch. What proceeded was a 7-8 player pile-up. Will was the only spectator clapping (he said that’s what Canadians do). It was my first hockey fight. Fights, by the way, are prohibited in Korean hockey.

Prayer Meetings
Every Friday night prayer meeting is led by a different cell group, so we helped when it was our cell groups’ turn. I led the group in some hymns with guitar (some of the English hymns I had introduced to our cell group), and then ad libbed on guitar while people prayed over top. I was just mimicking what another church member does, and it was quite a neat experience. Another time we went to the 6:00am prayer service, which they do once a month so children and youth can come, as well. After an hour of intercerssory prayer and singing, portable stoves were brought out and breakfast was cooked in front of our eyes; Egg and cheese sandwiches. Mmm.

Church Involvement
Will preached his first sermon a few Sundays back, and he did his “Revelations in nature” sermon, with his slide show of pictures from our cottage, post-tornado. He explained how the trees that had strong roots in good soil remained standing, while the trees that spread their roots thinly over rocks blew over like paper. Very metaphorical I’d say. One woman said she knew her husband liked the sermon because he stayed awake during it. I sang with the choir again, and had the same struggles during the rehearsal time as I did the last 2 times. The choir leader tends to tell everyone where to start singing from in Korean and away they go, and I’m always lost: “Oh, we’re on THAT page….Oops, we’re singing THIS part..” etc.

From L to R: The congregation listening as Will preaches; Will and his slide show

English Camp
During the January vacation time, there is one week of English Camp, which is just like regular V-School English lessons, only more fun! I showed my kids Blues’ Clues videos and had them answer questions and solve puzzles. Will went out on a limb and encouraged his older students to be creative and try to write their own stories.This kind of creativity is not a part of the education in Korean schools, so this proved very difficult. It was so strange to be teaching the same kids as the rest of the year, but they were so much more well-behaved. They paid attention to everything and seemed to really enjoy themselves. One day I taught them how to tell time and appropriately we played “What time is it, Mr Wolf?” They gobbled that game right up. Whenever I caught kids and they became wolves, I would get them to say what time it was, and they always wanted to yell “LUNCH TIME!!” even though the advancing kids were too far away to chase them. It was amusing. Another day we played “Pass the Parcel” (the game where you pass a parcel around to music, and when the music stops you unwrap one layer of wrapping paper-and there are many layers-and the person to unwrap the last layer gets to keep the prize). They’re reactions were opposite to what I thought they’d be. Whenever the music stopped and another layer was exposed they would all SCREAM with joy. When the prize was finally revealed, they all whined with disappointment, aside from the prize winner.

Visit from Friends
We had two friends from Seoul come to visit us one weekend and we had a marvelous time. We first brought them to this neat traditional restaurant with sliding doors and private rooms. The building was so low to the ground that even I hit my head on the roof at one place!! We introduced them to MakGuksu-cold buckwheat noodles- the other trademark dish of Chuncheon, which they enjoyed. We then brought them to Kugok Falls, and we hadn’t been there since the fall. As we suspected, the huge falls was frozen solid, like an ice curtain. We were pleased to watch some ice climbers picking their way up the frozen falls. One man nearby took pictures of us, and only us, for at least 10 minutes. It was awkward, to say the least. Our friend took a picture of him taking a picture of us.

From L to R: Famous Makguksu restaurant in Chuncheon; Frozen river at Kugok Falls; Climbers climbing frozen waterfall; Looking down from the falls; View of falls from farther away; Mysterious man taking our pictures; Our friends and Will at our Dakgalbi restaurant

Swimming Tales
I got new swimming goggles and it was high-time I did. I had forgotten just how clearly you’re supposed to be able to see in water! Also, I had forgotten what swimming goggles are actually supposed to do-keep water out. I had been getting used to my right goggle filling up with water and swimming with my right eye closed for some laps, until one day I realized I could just buy new goggles! WHAT a difference that makes! Will comes to the pool with me sometimes and he observed that while all the men wear skimpy Speedo bathing suits, most of the girls wear skirts and shirts to cover up until RIGHT before they get into the pool. Made me wonder if I should follow that example of modesty, too. As previously mentioned, children are often left unguarded to run around and do their own thing. This, unfortunately, was a reality at the pool the other day. I had to switch swimming lanes twice because a crowd of kids were jumping in and splashing and floating around. I wasn’t the only one that noticed, as I joined clear lanes with other disgruntled lane changers.

DVD Bang
One evening we went out for supper with our former Korean tutor, who we had become friends with. We first went to Mr. Pizza, which is a popular pizza chain here in Korea (among dozens and dozens, which may be surprising to some of you). Their slogan is “Love of Women”, but I think they mean “Loved by women”, because the crust is low in fat, or something. We then went to a DVD Bang, which is a private room (like the Nore Bang) were you get to sit on comfy couches and watch a movie on a decent sized screen. Oh, and play with balloons (there were balloons all over the floor). We watched a Korean romance movie, and as predicted by both my husband and our friend, I cried at the end.

From L to R: Will and our friend; The comfy couches in the DVD room

Our January vacation is almost over, but we have one more glorious week off next week, as it is the Lunar New Year holiday. This is the biggest holiday right up there with Chuseok, where everyone goes home to be with their families, and traffic is clogged right up.

Anyeong Haseyo (안 녕 하 세 요)!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! We welcomed in the new year staying in our cozy apartment, watching a movie……while I nursed Will after some food poisoning. We had to miss the JVC service at 10:50pm New Years Eve, which was disappointing, but we have 2 more of those services to look forward to. I think Will was more disappointed in ruining his 14 year streak of NOT losing his lunch. Oh well. Can’t win them all.

Christmas Pageant
The JVC Christmas program was quite wonderful. I sang in the choir, and lead the children in singing “The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy” and “Away in a Manger” with my guitar. There was a Christmas quiz for the kids, and a few skits by the youth. A particularly funny moment was when “Baby” Jesus was played by a 16 year old, the tallest one in the skit, laying on the floor swaddled in blankets. Another funny moment was when another youth played a “celebrity dancer” in the nativity story (huh??) and started dancing Travolta moves to a pop song in a leather jacket and shades (Note: This guy is normally VERY quiet and shy, so this was a spectacular surprise). A third funny fact was that Joseph was played by a girl and Mary played by a boy, who didn’t cover his face very well with his head covering.

From L to R: Ana singing in the church choir; Little kids singing; Ana singing with the kids

Christmas Day
This was our first Christmas away from our families, as a couple, so that was hard, but we enjoyed Christmas with our new family here in Korea. The day was pretty quiet and uneventful, but in the evening our cell group had a delicious Christmas potluck, with roasted chicken, kimchi, curry, fruit salad and Christmas cake. We sang Christmas songs and had a wonderful time of fellowship and prayer.

Swimming
I decided I had had a long enough break from swimming, and there are some great pools here in Chuncheon, so I started that up again. My first day swimming was an interesting experience. There were swimming classes going on, and the instructor was holding a long bamboo pole, and would hit swimmers on the head, to get their attention if they did something wrong! That’s different. Also, the bathroom in the changeroom always has water EVERYWHERE; On the toilets, on the toilet paper, on the walls and stall doors. How does that happen? There are no showers in there.

Cell Group Worship Service
Whenever there’s a 5th Sunday in a month, each cell group meets separately for Sunday worship. Our cell group met at the church, Will preached and I played a special song. After the service, we pulled out the ping pong table and played a few rounds with each other, while the children tried to sabotage our game by poking things in between the tables from underneath, or moving the net around, or stealing the ping pong ball and running away with it. We then went skating, pretty much all the children from our cell group, another couple and us. I realized just then that I’m not as good a skater as I used to be. A Chinese student, who has been attending our church recently, came along and had never skated before…so we just puttered around the ice, preventing falls every 5 minutes, while Will skated circles around us…the ol’ hockey player. Oh, and Will made new friends out of two little girls, who for some reason followed him everywhere on the ice.

From L to R: The ping ping saboteurs; Will and Ana skating

Hockey Game
Will likes to watch when our students play hockey, so we popped in to the arena for the hockey tournament which one of our students was playing in. In Korean hockey, NO physical contact is allowed, but the other team was playing dirty and checking our students’ team mates all over the place, and sadly that team won. There is an interesting Korean hockey custom, which involves each team bowing to the other teams’ coach at the end of the game.

Trip to 2nd tunnel, DMZ and Fish Festival
One family at JVC has been so kind to invite us out on a few occassions, and this trip was one of them. We first drove to the 2nd tunnel, which is one of the 5 known tunnels dug by North Koreans to spy on South Korea. There are likely more tunnels, that are perhaps still in use today. We first had to drive through a restricted military area, and were told to walk in a straight line towards the entrance of the tunnel. I’m not sure why. We were each given hard hats, and I thought that meant things would fall from the roof of the tunnel, but as soon as we went in, I saw why we needed hard hats; It is a very low tunnel. Even I had to duck most of the time. The sound of hard hats dinging against the rock ceiling could be heard at various points of the walk. It was quite humorous. There were circles spraypainted on the rock to show were mines had been, or holes made by North Koreans pointing in the direction of the south to prove that the tunnel was in fact made by the North Koreans. We went as far as we could until the barrier, which was at the border between the two countries.

From L to R: The entrance to the military area; Entrance to the tunnel

We then went to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which, despite the name, is actually quite highly militarized. The facilities had been recently redone. We were taken up a mountain in this slow moving train, and seated in a theater type place, that looked out a huge window. Outside the window was the South Korean side, the 2 km stretch of untouched land that is the border (the DMZ) and the North Korean side. We could look through telescopes and “spy” on the north. I saw a North Korean climbing a mountain to a building on top of the mountain, and a village in the distance. I had heard from friends about a fancy fake village in North Korea, set up to make South Koreans think the North Koreans are doing well financially. I thought the village I saw was also a fake, but I was assured it was a real village. We were not allowed to take pictures of the north, or the DMZ. There is a mountain in the North called “Red Mountain”, named so because so many men were killed on it, that when it rains, the mountain apparently looks red, as they say. We drove away through a flat, ugly area speckled with bombed buildings that had not been recovered, land that had seen many wars fought on it, land that was once part of North Korea.

From L to R: On train up the mountain; Ana pointing to where we went in the tunnel

The grand finale to our day trip was the Hwacheon Fish Festival, where thousands of people come to ice fish on a frozen river. There were hundreds of families huddling around holes in the ice, bobbing their plastic fishing rods, carrying their prizes away. On one side were these hugs snow carvings of a polar bear, penguins, and of course fish. There were sleds for rent, and little wooden platforms to push oneself around on with ice picks. Everywhere you looked on this lake were people of all ages pushing themselves around by one of these things. We all took turns riding and pushing a sled around, dodging people who weren’t looking, and almost falling over.

From L to R: Sign in Hwacheon for festival; People ice fishing; Kids pushing themselves around on little sleds; Will and Ana in front of ice sculptures; Will and Ana getting a ride

Random thoughts:
-Sometimes we feel invisible here; being budded in lines, people not moving out of the way on the sidewalk, etc. But the weirdest time was when we were at a restaurant, just about to sit in a booth, when a group of teens pushed their way past us and sat in the booth before we could. Is that a cultural thing or a youth thing? Hmmm…
-Like NA, traffic lights go yellow before turning red, but here, they also go yellow before turning green! So, you’re already stopped, and the light essentially says, “Wait…..ready? GO!”
-As I mentioned, seniors in this culture expect respect from anyone younger than them. We see examples of this all the time, aside from crossing traffic expecting cars to stop. Climbing down Anmasan the other day, we were following close behind an eldery couple, and we were waiting to pass them at any given moment. One of them even stopped, bent over to tie their shoe, and didn’t move out of our way. Will told me later that they likely just expected us to wait.

Here is the latest installment of random pics! Enjoy!

Random pics of us

From L to R: Ana with popular polar bear hat and paws; Will and Ana at the Fish Festival in Hwacheon; Will and I getting a push on the sled; Getting a faster push! Weee!; Will and Ana with Il-Young on top of Anmasan; Will and Ana at Gyeong-buk gong palace; Will and Ana with a robot at Insa-Dong in Seoul; Will and Ana at Jesus Abbey in Taebaek; Ana hoola hooping in Sokcho; Will “acting” in Chuncheon; Ana with monkey zodiac; Will with horse zodiac; Will and Ana at mountain market; Will and Ana skating; Will in a Korean Coke ad; Will wearing my glasses; Will in the polar bear hat; Will and Ana climbing Anmasan; Will and Ana at their first movie in Korea

Signs and other things

From L to R: Creepy manicans at the underground mall; Funny Cafe sign; Do not put your finger in between the doors!; Funny bathroom sign; Hmm, I would not want to go to this bar (perhaps the name is a warning of what happens if you drink too much); Interesting shirt

Christmas is fast approaching, and now our hikes up Anmasan occassionally involve trudging through snow. We don’t have the snowstorms our friends back in Ontario are getting, but every now and then we are blessed with a beautiful snow fall. Even though Christmas is not the biggest holiday here, we can still hear Christmas pop songs everywhere we go.

Election
There was a big presidential election here in Korea, so everywhere around town there were posters side by side of the 12 candidates, as well as individual banners, and candidate dancers on the streets. Candidate number 2 ended up winning, and won by a “landslide”.

Election posters:

Cell Group
Every Wednesday we meet with our Love cell group, and it has been a wonderful experience so far. Every week I teach English hymns, and we read a chapter from “The Purpose Driven Life” and discuss it. It has been really crucial for us to have an opportunity to pray and share with others, in a smaller group setting.

Our cell group:

Korean Lessons
So, our Korean lessons are over for this year, and we decided not to take any intensive courses next year because they are quite expensive. Instead, 3 different people from JVC have offered to help us learn and practice our Korean, which will be much better in the end, as it will be a great opportunity to get to know these individuals…not to mention free lessons!

After School Fiasco
As the year comes to a close, so do our V-School classes. For my last After-School class I thought we’d have some fun. I asked them, “What game do you want to play? Bingo or Air Hockey?” and they simultaeneously yelled “Hockey!!” and just then I realized that the little pucks and puck pushers were NOT in the box!! They had fallen out. When I told them I didn’t have the pieces, they all whined at the same time, on the same note even. We found some other things to use instead, then I brought out a gift of lollipops to give them, and I made the mistake of putting the lollipops in the middle of the table (instead of handing them out individually), and they dove into the lollipops like hyenas into a piece of meat, and started fighting over them! Two boys were playing tug-o-war with a lollipop and it went flying across the room. Ahem.

V-School Presentations
All the kids had a final science class with one of the JVC leaders, and he taught them about DNA. As an exercise, he had all the kids put together these plastic pieces to form a DNA strand, so Will and I helped. Then we did presentations about our V-school classes, and had our students speak English for their parents and sing songs. Two girls from Will’s class spent about 7 minutes disagreeing about who should say what for their presentation, but other than that the presentations went well.

From L to R: Will and a mother making DNA strands; Ana making her V-School presentation; JVC building

Seafood ShabuShabu
The leaders of JVC invited the youth adults, including Will and I, to a seafood restaurant. At this restaurant they have shabu shabu, boiling broth to cook food in, so we had all sorts of seafood; muscles, crab, squid, fish, octopus, oysters, etc. One of the JVC leaders always teases me cause he thinks I’m too picky with food, so he was trying to persuade me to eat something really gross looking…it looked like squid brains (they turned out to be squid intestines), but I didn’t eat it. I did eat some oyster, though, which was pretty gross.

Ana eating an oyster for the first time:

Day Trip
Sometimes people from church invite us out for the day, a treat we always look forward to. We first went to a mountain called 광덕산 (Kwandaek-san), where all sorts of roots, bark, leaves, and other goods were being sold, that were grown on that specific mountain. Apparently people from Seoul go there to buy specific herbs and things, which you can’t get anywhere else. We then went to a town called 철원 (Chalwan), where there was a beautiful gorge with rocks jutting out. We saw a bridge called 승일 (Sung-Il), built in the 50’s, half by the North Korean president before the war, the other half by the South Korean president after the war.

From L to R: Frying bacon for lunch; Goods for sale on Kwangdaeksan Mountain; The Im family and us; View of the Sanchangri gorge; Ims and us;

Wonju
We went on a trip with a family from church,and on the way we stopped in a town called Wonju, to pick up a pastor and his wife. They live in a home that is also a church, and a place to care for seniors, most of whom have Alzheimers. Many of them don’t have family to care for them, or are not visited by their families. While we were there, a four-star military general came to visit. Now apparently this is VERY significant. A four-star general has power over the entire military in Korea, and the only person who has more power than him is the president. According to our pastor friend, not many people get visited by him, let alone SEE him. So, there we were, sitting outside the house, and a shiny black (most expensive in Korea) car drives up, that had a red license plate with 4 stars on it. The general stepped out, looking just like the soldiers there to protect him, so he wouldn’t stand out. He had a meeting with the pastor, and shook hands with Will and I.

From L to R: Ana with the general’s car; The residents of the home

Taebaek
We continued on to a spiritual retreat place called Jesus Abbey, which is visited by 10,000 people a year. Then we left for Jesus Abbey, which was a beautiful spot for spiritual retreat on a mountain side, where 30 people live, devoting their lives to intercessory prayer. The buildings were made of stone with straw-thatched rooves, all wood on the inside, with fireplaces warming each building. The next morning we were woken up at 5:30 by bells, and joined the rest of the people in a morning prayer service. We later joined our group to a meeting with some leaders from the community, and they were very interested in Mennonites. It was encouraging to meet more Koreans who are interested in peace and peacemaking. Will and I plan on going there for at least a week on one of our vacations, as it truly is a wonderful place.

From L to R: The gang in from of Jesus Abbey; The buildings of Jesus Abbey; Another shot of buildings at Jesus Abbey

Anyway, I will close this update with:
MERRY CHRISTMA S!!!!