Mosquitos-12, Jillian-0

A letter~
Dear Jillian,
You may think that it is nearing late fall and that temperatures are dropping and that this allows you to sleep in peace, but we at the Foundation for Traditional Korea Mosquito Rights (hereafter FTKMR) would like to respectfully disagree. You are forgetting that you are not in America; we are not American mosquitoes. Unlike our American brethren, we do not succumb to your Western ideals of weather and temperature and "correct" season for "bugs." We maintain the right to withdraw your blood all throughout the year, not just during the "summer" months.
We would like to thank you for leaving your mosquito net open the other night, thereby enabling us to infiltrate the space you have kept so carefully guarded through the summer months. Because of your actions, many hungry mosquito youths will now have prime feasting for several days. We would also like to recognize your attention to animal rights when you decided to leave your repellant burner unplugged. This gave us a valuable opportunity to try out some new tactics and spend some quality time with our fellow FTKMR members without fear of spontaneous fainting or invisible forcefields.
In closing, I would like to assure you that we know it can be tough living in a big city alone, but we will not leave you unattended. When you are typing, eating, or sleeping, we will be right there, ready to remind you that you live in Korea and that you are not alone.
Sincerely,
the Foundation for Traditioanal Korean Mosquito Rights

I've never made so much foam before!

Sunday afternoon in Ecclesia.
It's like eat, pray, & love on a chai tea latte.

In case you ever wonder what I do on my weekends, because I'm so mysterious and surely must be up to chicanery in the big city, well....at least half of the weekend I spend at Ecclesia...creating as many shenanigans as I can while also trying to make a good latte, making sure people know that that dollop of foam contains just a little bit of the Holy Spirit. (joking joking...kind of...)

Ecclesia is the cafe inside of Jubilee. It's on the 4th floor of our new building. I much prefer the new location, because in the old building, there were no windows in Ecclesia and you could never tell what time of day it was or anything. In our new set-up, we have a whole patio AND sliding doors, so the whole cafe gets infused with fresh air!
Anyways, today was an incredibly busy day. INCREDIBLY! It was crazy. The whole day it was pretty calm and then right about 3:55 BAM! suddenly the whole church is up in Ecclesia and everybody wants a latte! (or americano, or iced americano, or cafe mocha, or caramel macchiato, or chai tea latte, or green tea -- WAIT! WHERE'S THE GREEN TEA? DID YOU FIND IT YET??? IS IT THE SAME AS HERBAL TEA? CAN WE JUST GIVE THEM HERBAL TEA AND HOPE THEY DON'T NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE? That was only one of our drama today!) It stayed really busy until about 4:15. (Note: There is a 4 o'clock Bible Study. So you know those 3:55 people are the "punctual" ones and the 4:15 people are the late-comers. :P ) During this time, we ran out of milk (but thankfully Jodie ran down to a grocery store nearby) and house coffee (hey look guys! You get an americano! surpriiiiiiise!) and had no time to clean anything up (food safety training on the spread of bacteria? whaaaaa?).
So our counter ended up looking like this:

Too much powder! Too much syrup! Makes Jodie a tired gal^^

This is what I think is cool. And I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, because Lord knows, man, even this morning I thought, I still have sooo much to learn. But anyways, I started serving at Ecclesia soon after I joined Jubilee. I was thinking about joining the refreshing team as a way to get more involved (a wonder of God in itself, b/c I don't remember the last time I was "involved" in a church) and ended up coming to a meeting for Ecclesia. (2md Note: in the old building, Ecclesia Cafe and Refreshing Team were 2 different teams. Now we're all one happy Ecclesia Team) I thought, I've worked in coffee before...even making coffee at church (Mercy House, senior year at Ball State...Ok, I guess I do know the last time I was involved in a church), so this could be fun.
But I didn't have a super good attitude about it. I enjoyed making coffee...because I enjoy making coffee in general. I like trying to make the perfect foam and a 25 second shot and doing things in the correct order, because that gives you a better milk:foam ration and such. I appreciate a well-made drink, and I like to challenge myself to also make good drinks.
Going on...anyways, so my prayer in the fall was that God would change me. change me change me change me. My prayer in the winter was that God would change me. My prayer in the spring was that God would change me. My prayer now (ongoing, really, because there's always things to be changed) is that God would change me. And today I noticed, well, He did, in at least one way.
When I first started with Ecclesia, I tried to make good drinks, but I didn't try to be on the team or really take any pride in the ministry. I habitually came late and missed Sundays without notice and got really frustrated if I had to stay longer than I had planned and I didn't really feel very connected to the rest of the team. I was 27 and still the rebellious teenager. (Honestly, I wasn't a very rebellious teenager, you can ask my mom, so maybe all the rebelliousness has just decided to come out in spurts.)
Fast forward to now...since August I've been the "assistant leader" for Ecclesia. (Yeah! me! the rebellious barista!) And how does this happen? I plan on spending ALL day at Ecclesia on Sundays. And usually I LIKE spending all day at Ecclesia. I like the busy parts, I like the quiet moments, I like adding "extras" to people's drinks just to let them know that we care. I like being on a team and being friends with the people on that team and sharing life with them.


I can't handle the foam!



I like the idea that *somehow*someway*hopefully* our team is building up God's people and serving the church and sharing God's love. It's amazing. And it's all God. Because, obviously, left to my own devices, I would be a very petulent rebellious person. But God somehow takes those sharp edges and wheedles them down to something completely new and different. And I am so thankful for that. Thankful that our God does change us and doesn't just let us wallow in our own deficiencies. Thankful that God changes us and we don't even realize it, in areas we didn't think about. And thankful...just so completely thankful for all that I have in my life. ^^

CoffeeCoffeeCoffee

One time on Gilmore Girls, Lorelei walks into a coffee shop and says "Coffeecoffeecoffee." The lady hands her 3 cups of coffee. And Lorelei says, I only ordered 1. And the lady says, "You said, Coffeecoffeecoffee. That's 3 coffees."

Here's an inside tip: I love getting coffee. I love holding something warm in my hands, slowly bringing it close to my nose, and inhaling the lovely aroma of espresso, steamed milk, and (in tonight's case) caramel syrup. I used to not care for coffee at all...thinking it wasn't sweet enough and such. Then I discovered milk and sugar and the problem was solved.

Drinking coffee as a free time activity was probably solidified when I lived in Germany. Germans make "getting a coffee" last a whole afternoon...and when a mug is only $3-4, why not? Coffee became more than a way to stay awake in class, but a way to unwind, spend time, have deep conversations, think about life, and in today's case: escape from a sudden downpour.

  In Korea, the coffee shop trend has really flourished. Even chain stores specialize in presentation, each one claiming more quality and authenticity than the next. Prior to coming here, I had managed to wean myself off of coffee, but how can I resist here? Coffee becomes not just a drink, but a social activity, a place for quiet, a way to make work more exciting, etc. etc.

Since it is such a part of my life, I thought I'd show some pics of recent outings. Appearance is everything in this country, and coffee never fails to disappoint. 

 

Kristen & Suie introduced me to the Panda Man Cafe. He can do amazing latte art.






 





Caramel Macchiato and waffle at Cafe Bene.
This was some very sturdy foam. I was impressed.

 

The Hello Kitty Cafe in Hongdae.

I found my people!



The Awkward Bathroom Situation at LCI

The 2nd Floor bathroom during lunchtime.

I just want to take a moment to introduce one of the more awkward parts of my school: the bathroom. Our school has 5 floors, 4 of them have bathrooms. Each bathroom is similar to this one. That is: notice how it's 1 ROOM? Notice how girls and boys are separated BY A WALL? And ONLY a wall?
I call this the Awkward Bathroom Situation. For the little kids, it seems to not be a huge problem. Or, maybe they just get used to it really quickly. At first, I think some of the girls would try and peek behind the boys' wall and the boys would try to line up on the girls' side...but they got bored with that after a while. Apparently, the mystery has worn off already.
For teachers/adults, this is where the uneasiness comes in: when I go to the bathroom, if there are Kinder around, they all rush over to the girls side and start yelling my name. Also, for teachers, what if I have to go to the bathroom at the same time as a male teacher? That's just weird. It has happened only twice, and that was several months ago. What made it even more awkward that one of the times, one of the male teachers tried to talk to me. And I thought, I know you are over there, but that does not mean we need to acknowledge the fact we're in the same room. You pretend you don't know what's going on, and I will do the same.
This is not Ally McBeal. We do not need coed bathrooms to create more interesting social situations.

Sweet Roll Day



This was the afternoon edition.
Can you believe there were more in the morning?



Occasionally at LCI, the cosmic forces of the dessert universe align, and we end up with Sweet Roll Day. Last Thursday was just one such day. We started out with 2 sweet rolls, gained another 2 at lunch...by the afternoon the original stock was gone, but somehow quickly replaced with more sweet rolls. Sweet rolls very rarely travel independently; usually, they arrive in groups of 2 or 3.

Koreans seem to have a healthy love for the Sweet Roll. And Korean moms are fairly convinced it's a foreigner's favorite food. So when they come to visit, there's bound to be a Sweet Roll Train not far behind.

Sweet Roll goodness.

This is not related to LCI, but just proves the love Koreans have for the Sweet Roll.

Typhoon Let Down!

So, this big typhoon that was supposed to happen? That I was totally gearing up for? That I dug through stuff and found a poncho for? That was supposed to wreck havoc in the metropolis of Seoul?
Yeah, I slept through it.
It, apparently, hit about 6 hours earlier than expected...which puts it at around 6ish AM here in Seoul. I remember waking up vaguely and thinking, huh, it is really windy outside. That construction site I live by is going to be a mess. (Then again, I live by a construction site...have lived there for 12 months. There is always loud noise.) But I didn't think it was the typhoon, because the typhoon wasn't supposed to hit until during the day. I thought it was pre-typhoon weather and would slowly build up to the typhoon.

I woke up at 5:42 to go to the bathroom, batted an eye at all the wind and rain, and was thankful I still had 18 minutes until my alarm went off. My alarm went off at 6, I opened 1 eye, pressed the snooze, and slept until 6:20. Then I really did wake up, stumbled to the bathroom, and started my morning. Apparently, this was when all the storming was going on. I wasn't fully awake. I didn't really notice.

When I set out for work, this is what my neighborhood looked like:

OK, some bushes were out of place, but the neighborhood ahjummas were already on it!

This is what I was expecting to happen today:

Actually, this did happen in Korea...just not in Seoul.

According to Bloomberg, Seoul got lashed, but it must have been in some other neighborhood. The financial district seems to have made out just fine. As I told Mike, commerce will protect us!

Oh yeah, I live in Asia...

... Sometimes I actually forget that I live in Asia...2,000 miles away from all the weather patterns and germs and hazards that are known to me. Seoul often doesn't seem *that* different, or maybe I'm just used to it now, and I forget that certain things are totally different here.
Like...typhoons.
I have read about typhoons, and seen videos, but I didn't really think it was something that affected Korea. Korea, or at least Seoul, seems so protected from other "common" Asian events...as if the skyscrapers and subways and giant outdoor flatscreens act as a wall against natural disasters.
But, a typhoon is coming. I'm not sure what exactly this entails...I had a story book once with my older kids about a typhoon. In that story, a boy lost his parrot, but the parrot came back safely after the storm, and the boy did not seem that affected by the high winds...
As the rainy season just.won't.end,it seems fitting that there might as well be a tropical storm.

The storm is set to hit on Thursday...though it's already (or still, depending how you look at it) raining. Being Korea, they probably won't call off school...but oh well. I'm oddly excited to be living in a country that gets hit by typhoons...I feel like it will be a great conversation starter someday...

A full story can be found here: Typhoon Kompasu Heading Towards Seoul