Chuseok

       Chuseok is the Korean form of Thanksgiving -- a holiday to celebrate a good harvest and to spend time with families. It provides families in the city the chance to go visit relatives in the country (this is called the Exodus). Chuseok takes place in one day, but the day before and after are also official holidays. Koreans pay respect to their ancestors and older relatives. The traditional food of Chuseok is called Songpyeon, or a rice cake in a moon shape. During Chuseok, many Koreans also don Hanbok, traditional Korean dress. For girls, Hanbok is a full skirt with a jacket. For boys, Hanbok is loose pants bound at the ankles and a jacket or vest. Most Hanbok are in very bright colors.

    At school, we got Thursday and Friday off to celebrate Chuseok. On Wednesday, all the children wore their Hanbok to school. We had an instructor come in and teach them traditional manners, and they made their own Songpyeon. My children looked so cute! All the girls reminded me of big, pink marshmellows! I made a video of the manners lesson, so you could see what the children learned!

    Since I did not have any family in the country to go to, I spent Chuseok in Seoul, catching up on my sightseeing. Thursday, I went to the palance, Changdeokgung. This was my favorite palace so far! Friday, I went out with another teacher, Paige, to the royal shrine, Jongmyo, and another palace, Changgyeonggung. Saturday I wanted to go hiking, so I made my way to Mt. Bugak. There is a skyway there that goes across the top of the mountain. It was very beautiful! Saturday night, I attended the Asia Harvest Festival at the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts. This performance celebrated not only Chuseok, but also the harvest traditions in Vietnam and China. It was a beautiful performance. I really enjoyed hearing traditional Korean music, and also learning about traditions in other Asian countries. The video is kind of long, but a good chance to listen to traditional Korean music.

    I have all of my pictures loaded up on Picasa, so be sure to check those out! Plus, I have pictures from a little show I went to called Bubble World.

Mark 2:1-12

Ok, honestly, I was kind of dreading this week. Last week I was all on this super-high, and this week, I don't know...I was kind of worried. I got frustrated over a few things this weekend, and then chided myself for being frustrated, and then questioned whether I needed to chide myself...I mean, ok, I feel like I'm kind of starting over in the spiritual realm...but is it ok to get frustrated over things? Or does that mean I'm creating discord?
Anywho, so with all these thoughts in my head, I was a little worried about this coming week. I mean, I drank 2 1/2 cups of coffee today! I never drink that much coffee! Ever! (But it's instant...so does that even count as real coffee?)
Anyways, so for my small group we have decided to study the book of Mark. Last week, we set out to read Mark 2, but then shortened it to just verses 1-12. We didn't get the chance to meet, and I kind of slacked off on the actual "studying" of the Bible this weekend, and even just that little bit of slacking off...I noticed. So, getting back into Mark was one of my goals after work.
Part of me was thinking, I have read this a thousand times by now, I don't need to read it anymore. But the other part is thinking, just go ahead and read it again.
One thing that really helps me in reading the Bible, especially if there is a part I don't really understand, is writing it out. I think once I start writing I concentrate better, because I'm seeing the scripture take place word by word.
Because Mark 2:1-12 kind of stumped me last week. I mean, these 4 men dropped their paralytic friend through the ceiling for physical healing. So why did Jesus start off with "Sons, your sins are forgiven you"? And I was kind of confused; was He saying that because the man was a paralytic as a result of his sins? Was He going to heal the man at all? Are forgiving someone's sins that same as healing them physically?
Tonight when I was writing, I realized, that it was because Jesus knew that this man needed spiritual healing way more than he needed physical healing, whether that man knew it or not. I mean, the man's friends brought him there because something was wrong with his body, but Jesus could see past the body and see that the man really needed spiritual healing.
Ok, so what do you all think about this? I would be really interested to hear any thoughts on Mark!

Elizabethtown

So,one of my favorite movies is Elizabethtown. I don't know why; the first time I saw it, I was really disappointed, and it has a pile of bad reviews. However, sometime over the past two years, it has become my comfort food, my fried chicken, and my hey-i'm-doing-laundry-and-need-background-noise movie. Despite my affinity for it, there are still some quandries I have.
For instance, the movie takes place over the span of 4 days, right? So, Susan Sarandon learns cooking, tap-dancing, organic cooking, plumbing, and mechanics in 4 days? Right after her husband has died? I feel like her story should be over the span of 6-12 months, and yet, 4 days?
This is really my only major issue with the movie. Has anyone else ever questioned the plausibility of the wife's actions in this movie? I mean, wouldn't the wife be in mourning and be mega-overwhelmed at this point? And yet, she wastes no time after the death of her husband, and starts to take every class at the community center.
If you have thoughts on this, I'd be interested to know them. I think my laundry and tonight's viewing of Elizabethtown should end at about the same time, so I feel pretty lucky!

Wonderful Weekend II!

Praise God for wonderful people who always think of fun things to do! Monday night I met up with the girls of my Axis Group, which are the small groups at Jubilee. Sarah, one of the girls, mentioned how she's been wanting to go to a Dog Cafe. And I was like, man, me too! Then, she mentioned how she was going to the Newcomers Fellowship on Saturday night, and I was like, hey, I'm going there too!

So I met up with Sarah in Hongdae Saturday afternoon, and we commenced looking for the Bau-House. The Bau-House is a dog cafe, where people drop their dogs off for dog-sitting. Then other people, like me and Sarah, come and buy coffee or juice or whathaveyou and play with these dogs. There were so many dogs -- of all sizes, and they all got along! The dogs climb on tables and chairs and look at you until you give them snacks. It was so much fun!

Saturday night was Newcomers Fellowship at Jubilee. They have this once a month, for people who have just started coming. I was a little bit nervous, but also excited to get to meet other new people at Jubilee. It was a great night -- I laughed really hard.
First, we got into small groups and played 2 truths and a lie. Then we got into different small groups and played this game where you had to talk as long as possible without using thinking words such as "uh" or "um" or pausing. I made it for 20 seconds. The third game was a sort of movie charades mixed with telephone. One group would get on stage and everybody would stand in line, facing each other's backs. The person at the end of the line would be shown a movie title; then they had to tap the shoulder of the person in front of them and act out this movie, without making any noise. Then that person would tap the shoulder of the person in front of them and imitate what they were just shown. This keeps going until the front of the line, where the person in front would have to try and guess the movie.

Our group's movie was "8 Mile," I was the last person charading, and yeah, me trying to impersonate Eminem gave everyone a good laugh. Thankfully, as far as I know, there are no photos of this event. For our last game, we all got in a big circle and played "I have never..." There is one person in the middle who says something they have never done. Everyone sitting in the circle who has done this activity has to get up and switch seats. Whoever doesn't get a seat ends up in the middle; if you were in the middle 3 times, you had to sing a song. I, luckily, never ended up in the middle...mainly, because I ran low and wasn't afraid to push a little to get a seat!

Sunday, Pastor Dave gave an awesome message from Exodus, entitled "Awesome Leader, Awesome Follower" http://www.myjubileechurch.com/multimedia.htm Somehow, he always says exactly what I need to hear. After church, I had lunch with my Axis group. I got to meet Jennifer, who was not able to make our first meeting on Monday. Then, Sunday night, I went to a meeting about volunteering at Ecclesia Cafe, our church's coffee shop. Again, it was all girls at the meeting -- but I am so happy to get to know so many sisters! It is definitely just what I need!

Through the week, I can get kind of down-in-the-dumps, but I am so THANKFUL for these weekends of good fun and fellowship! It makes life here so much richer!

Wonderful Weekend I!

I realized I haven't had a post in a little while, so I thought I'd share some of my recent weekend adventures.

Last weekend (Sept. 4-6), started out with a trip to the fabled night markets of Dongdaemun.

Dongdaemun is a part of town where you can --literally-- shop 24/7. In fact, some stores don't even open until 10 pm. A few teachers and I started out walking through this arcade that was about 2 blocks of hats and scarves.

Then we moved on to the street vendors and department stores. There are probably 4-5 major department stores on the same strip, each one anywhere from 5-10 stories full of STUFF. We were only able to make it through a store and a half before deciding it was time to GO HOME!

Saturday I started Gayaguem lessons at the Korean Center for Traditional Performing Arts (or something like that). The Gayageum is kind of like a zither, except it's about 4 feet long and has 12 strings. I was very pleased to earn my first blister. My teacher says this means I am a good student.

The NCKTA is a part of the Seoul Arts Center, in the neighborhood of Seocho (Satch-o). My favorite part of the Arts Center is the World Music Fountain, which plays a different song every 10 minutes. The presence of the Arts Center gives Seocho a lot of creative energy, I think. There are music stores all over the place and cool little coffee shops. If I played the cello or violin, I would be set in Seocho.

After walking around Seocho, I met up with Shauna (a co-teacher) and her friend, Courtney, in the Namsan Folk Village. In this Village, you can partake in traditional arts and crafts, play traditional games, see folk/traditional housing, and see traditional folk performances -- all for free! Plus, you can also dress up Hanbok.

You guessed it, traditional Korean dress.

Sunday, because all that tradition on Saturday wasn't enough, I decided to set out for Bukchon. Bukchon is also a "traditional" part of Seoul, but unlike the village of Namsan, people still live in these houses. There is a suggested walking tour that goes through the neighborhood, where you can also find small museums and cozy coffee shops. I visited the World Jewelry Museum first, which was having a special exhibit on Handbags.

Then, I kept walking and next visited the Bukchon Museum. There were a lot of "traditional" items here, but it also seemed to be someone's house in which they collected all the neighborhood artifacts and put them on display.

I was happy to see that the residents of Bukchon cared so much about their history though. I mean, look at this, could you imagine living here?

Ok, it looks like this weekend has taken up enough space. I will start another post for the next weekend... :)

It's FRIDAY!

Today I decided to make some videos of my Kinder. The first two are from Circle Time. During Circle Time, we go around the circle and everyone shares how they feel and why. When someone can't make up their mind, then we make up a story for them. The first video is a story for Sally.

From Life at LCI

The second video is Silver sharing about his happy/sad/happy dream. Silver shares a dream every day during Circle Time. Usually, they are "bad" and even when he says he had a happy dream, it takes a turn for the worse...

The third video is from PE, where we are learning the Cha Cha Slide...Sorry it's so dark!

From Life at LCI

Reasons why I love this country #2

KOREANS!
I love Koreans, I really do. Because if a Korean has something to say to you, they will just say it. They won't stand on the street and try to inconspicuosly stare at you or joke with a friend, they will just tell you what they are thinking.
For instance, tonight, I went to visit my friend Sam in Itaeon. After kebap and an iced chai, she walks me back to my bus-stop and waits with me. We're talking and then this older Korean couple walks up, stares at us for a minute, and then starts talking to us in Korean. I have no idea what they are saying, so I look at Sam, and she basically tells them that we cannot understand what they are saying.
Does this deter them from talking to us? NO!  They just keep laughing and attempting to impart nuggets of wisdom upon us. So, Sam and I smile and nod and then keep trying to turn back to our conversation. But everytime we start talking, the older Korean couple interrupts and starts trying to talk to us again. They're not even attempting to use English (as many Koreans do when they meet foreigners), they are just talking in Korean on and on and on. Sam and I attempt to restart our conversation at least 3 times, but to no avail. This couple was just way too excited to see two white girls talking to each other, I guess they wanted to be a part of the action? :D