In case you thought I'd forgotten about you...

....tadaaaaaaaa! I haven't!!!
I've just been über busy lately, and sick, so I haven't had much time to blog. Never fear, though, I am feeling better and have plenty of ideas for the blog. Hopefully, I'll have time too!
Well, at this time of year, many people wonder, "How do Koreans celebrate Christmas? Do Koreans celebrate Christmas? What's it like?"
Yes, Koreans celebrate Christmas. Perhaps it's not as ingrained as in America, but in the nominal sense at least, Christmas is here. You can even hear Rudolf the Rednosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells translated into Korean. Major things I notice about Christmas: all of the bakeries make amazing Christmas cakes and often give you a prize if you buy one. Like Dunkin Donuts and Tous Les Jours. This blog has some good pics of the cake + gift phenomenon.

As far the real meaning of Christmas, well, the world's largest church is here in Seoul and a little over half of the country is Christian. Plus, with a Jesus like this  (see pic), who doesn't want to celebrate Christmas?

In general, I would say, Koreans celebrate Christmas with a lot of lights. If you thought this country had enough lights, you were wrong. Just like there's always more space on the subway, there's always more spots that need lights.



Illuminating the city is a team effort.



Outside COEX, a shopping mall. It speaks for itself.

Last year, I had a really great Christmas. I helped pass out gifts at Guion Children's home in the morning, then attended the English Christmas service put on by the Association of International Ministries in Korea. After that, I met up with some friends for dinner and finished the night at downtown Seoul, where it also started snowing.

This year, I will be going back to Guin Children's home with Jubilee folk. After that though, my plan is going to somewhat diverge from last year's. I'm sure I will blogging about those adventures soon enough.

It is really tough to be away from home on the holidays, but I'm thankful to be in a city that doesn't shirk on Christmas spirit (even if it's just commercial. sometimes, commercial can be cute.). And thankful that there are always activities to keep me busy. This year, I have even MORE to be thankful for.

Anyways, I will do my best to share the Holidays, Korean style in the coming days. Until then, Merry Christmas friends & family.

And P.S. We're all fine

Just another update of the "sitch"...things are fine. Life is normal. I'm still keeping a close eye on the news, but after a few days, everything seems to be back where it was.... http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20101201000605  And while some teachers at my school are freaking out, I'd say I'm with the unintimidated ones. Everyone is probably freaking out more about teaching their classes songs for the Christmas Concert.
Also, don't believe that CNN video because the other 11 million people in the city were having a normal day and this reporter...well, I think he was trying to make the situation bigger than it was. Seoul is not an angry warzone...although my favorite part is the 아줌마 (ajumma...a Korean married {usually older} woman) shuffling down the street in the background. She apparently was unaffected by the "riots."
On the other hand, thanks everyone for your well-wishes and prayers. I hope you all are staying safe & warm!

Wars and Rumors of Wars

Well, I guess I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the current situation of the Korean peninsula. Honestly, up until today, I wasn't too worried about it. I have grades to do. I have to choose a song for graduation. I have to try and sing Jingle Bells in key so that my children will also learn to sing Jingle Bells in key. I have to buy more plates and cups and kleenex. I have to email the coffee team. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Then today I realized, daily life is a dangerous thing. Perhaps more dangerous than a coming war. I am not afraid of war. I think (in an odd, I'll admit...a pretty odd perspective) I would be ok in a war. I'm not prone to freaking out. I know CPR. I have a level head and a loud voice. And I pray all the time. Furthermore, how many Americans can say they have lived in a war zone? Not that many, really. Not on American soil. So, from that point of view, it's a pretty interesting time really.
But today I realized...1) things are never really going to get better and 2) I am scared of living a "normal" life.
1) Now, I am generally an optimistic person. And I'm not saying to this to be all boo-hooey or that I want war or anything like that. But let's face it, Christian, you are living in the end times. Matthew 24:5-8: For many will come in my name, saying, "I am the Christ," and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. So, is my hope in the leaders and diplomats and military strength and war games? No. When I say that things are nevery really going to get better...well, they aren't supposed to, are they? The earth is deteriorating day by day...and while earthly things are passing away, it's preparing a new home, a new body, a new hope. (excuse the Star Wars allusion). So do I have great faith in the leaders to sort all this out? Well, no. Maybe they can sort it out for a bit, but it's not going to be a permanent fix. If they don't sort it out, then I pray that me&mine have the resources and common sense we need to live a Godly life each day, whether in war or want or plenty.
2) Today I realized that I am afraid of "normal" life. Now, let me explain (dad) before you think that I'm on a crusade against the middle-class or material comfort. I find nothing wrong with those things. Did Jo get mad at Amy because Amy married Laury and they lived in a beautiful house while Jo and her professor toiled away with itenerant boys at a school? No. They loved each other and accepted each other's different lifestyles. (Wintertime always makes me remember the March sisters. Marmee is a very wise woman. Read it.) However, Jo knew that she wasn't cut out to marry Laury.
What I fear is the comfort and complacency that material items often bring. I do not think gadgets and nice houses and working cars are bad (dad!), but I think the pursuit of them is tricky, especially if it takes your focus off God or what He wants you to be doing. This is what struck me today. I have been living in Seoul...and I'm quite comfortable here. I have my coffee shops and skinny jeans and mp3 player and everything I need for a quaint life in the city which makes it quite easy to forget that I'm on the verge of living in a warzone. And today I realized, there are missiles pointed at me right now. And I'm worried about A,B,C,D,E,F,etc.etc.etc. Shouldn't there be some greater worry? Shouldn't I be helping someone? Aren't there things more important than Christmas shopping and worrying about a job?
Then (because my brain is always thinking about 5 years ahead), I thought, ok, what if I get sent home? To America? Where nothing is wrong and there is no war (at least it's far away from us, so we don't think about it on a daily basis) and our biggest worry is our stocks and bonds? Will I then forget the trouble over here? Will I become so consumed by daily life (car, student loans, traffic jam, dinner plans, etc. etc. etc.) that I forget about my brothers and sisters who have grown up in the shadow of a war zone and may be stepping into another? And that worries me. How do you live knowing that your brothers and sisters are facing war? Everyday tasks become so trivial, but what else do you do? Drop everything? That doesn't seem very productive either.
And I thought of people I know who are only concerned about their immediate wants and desires (and I am no better) and it sickens me in a way to think, do you know, there are people living less than 50 miles from nuclear bombs? And all we care about are movies and clothes and fashion andandandand...And I am no better. I am no crusader. I have for much of my life been living unintentionally...living from day to day, pursuing this and that, even within the church. Loving God, but not really being intentional. And instead, being completely oblivious or unconcerned with the world around me.
And I don't know what the answer is. How do you live intentionally? How do you help? How do you live life and yet not get caught up in life?
OK, this was your dose of Sunday seriousness... in the end, pray for safety, wisdom, self-sacrificing attitudes. Pray for Korea, especially the people in the North...I am sure they are just as scared as the rest of us.
And, let's end on a hopeful note: For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)

Growing Pains

Last Thursday, I had two different students coming to me about their teeth moving. Jonah, in traditional Jonah-fashion, faced this new development with excitement and wonder. And being the boy that he is, just couldn't wait to make his teeth move more. Every 5 seconds, he was touching his teeth, touching his teeth, touching his teeth. At one point, I threatened to tie a string to his tooth and yank it out then and there if he didn't get his hands out of his mouth (I practice tough love in the classroom.)
The other little tooth-mover was Cathy. Cathy is small, and while very lovable, also prone to whining, especially when faced with ways of the world that she just doesn't understand. Everything that happens is like the end of the world because she just doesn't know any better. For instance, "I'm hot!" Well, dear, it's because your grandma makes you wear 3 layers of long-johns before putting on your real clothes and then adds a sweater on top of htat. "Tummy hurt." Well, dear, that's really your intestines and you're probably lactose intolerant..just give it a while. "Tooth moving!" Poor gal, teeth are supposed to move. But she was not aware of this, so she was pretty sore about her moving tooth and the fact that Jillian-Teacher was not doing much to fix it.
Friday, 3 students came to school missing teeth! Jonah & Cathy both lost a tooth from the bottom and Aaron lost both of his front teeth. (Aaron tends to be a little out of touch with reality, so his teeth were probably also wiggling on Thursday, and it just never occured to him that something was happening with his body or that he could share it with the rest of us.)
Anyways, as a teacher, this is the first time all year my kids have started losing their teeth. I felt really proud of my little Kinder, losing their baby teeth AND realizing it's not a bad thing, but just a rite of passage into the big-kid-world. My little monkeys are growing up!!!


Jonah



Aaron





Cathy

Bring on the 온돌 (Ondol)!

A good night's sleep: I've got my "thin mattress," a comforter,
and improving circulation. ^^

Before I came to Korea, in an ill-fated attempt to cheer up a friend through the use of bad comedy, my friend KTB and I were watching a Kdrama called SuperRookie. We watched as one of the main girls returns broken hearted to her little 1-room studio apartment and rolls up her blankets off the floor. While this seemed all perfectly normal to me (note: willing to accept cultural differences and be totally oblivious to the fact that it's different = helps me to better adjust to new environments!), KTB turns to me a says, "Jillian! You're going to have furniture, there? Aren't you?!"
I really couldn't understand why this worried her so. I figured, if the Koreans apparently can live without furniture, so can I. So I think I probably shrugged and said, "Yeahhhhhh....I think I'll have furniture."
Turns out, I do have furniture. Some pieces that are fairly good compared to the other teacher apartments (like my giant couch).
What I have recently discovered, though, is how good life can be without furniture. Koreans, being the forward thinkers that they are, traditionally (as in, for the past 2,000 years or so) heat their homes with 온돌 (Ondol), a system of pipes that run hot water under the floor. A couple of weeks ago, in trying to combat a sore back, I tried sleeping on the floor and thought, huh, that was ok. Now, a couple of weeks later, the temperature has dropped several more degrees and sleeping on the floor has become really good.
Here is how you do it: you put down a thin mattress called a Yo (thin mattress, thick quilt, same-same). And then as you sleep, your mattress and pillows soak up all the warmth and it's like being in an incubator. It's fairly amazing, and I never want to stand up in the mornings. Except, even standing up is not bad, because I don't have to worry about my feet hitting a cold floor. The floor has been heating up all night!
I've done some research as well, as to why 온돌 is so ingenious. 1) It perfectly illustrates the Korean mindset that opposites can exist in harmony with each other. Warm feet, cold head? What? It makes perfect sense here and apparently is the Korean recipe for well-balanced health. They also think it increases your circulation. Apparently, this sort of heating also symbolizes the "coziness and camaraderie" of family. A Korean home without 온돌 means a family is missing warmth.
Physical and emotional health and a good night's sleep all through tiny pipes under the floor? I'm sold! I want this in all of my future homes!

Thanks E.E.!

SO, I hope to be writing some more this week and sharing some pics from autumn in Seoul, but for now, I just wanted to share a passage I was reading this evening that I found refreshing:
"Here, I think, lies the answer to the barrenness of a single life, or of a life that might otherwise be selfish or lonely. It is the answer, I have found, to depression as well. You yourself will be given light in exchange for pouring yourself out for the hungry; you yourself will get guidance, the satisfaction of your longings, and strength, when you 'pour yourself out,' when you make the satisfaction of somebody else's desire your own concern; you yourself will be a source of refreshment, a builder, a leader into healing and rest at a time when things around you seem to have crumbled."
~ Elisabeth Elliot, Let Me Be a Woman, commenting on Isaiah 58:10-12

I Must Get Organized!!!

SO, sometimes when I go to clean my apartment, I start in one corner and then discover something  I don't like about it and instead of getting to the rest of the apartment, I find myself alphabetizing all of my books and color-coding my stationary or something like that...apparently, this trait also carries over into my digital life. ^^ I have some blogs I've been wanting to write: stories from the fall, explanations about some Korean cultural things...and a couple of videos I wanted to put up...
But first I realized, my pictures are not efficiently organized...SO I spent much of the afternoon rearranging and trying to condense my photos so that they would upload into Picasa in an organized manner. Except, Picasa does not organize albums by folder & subfolder, so my attempts at streamlining have been somewhat thwarted. Anyways, suffice to say, I now have a new goal to organize my online photos. Lucky for me, I love organizing things.
Anyways, so some updates to start with:
1) My Jubilee album: http://picasaweb.google.com/jlluttrell/Jubilee#
This includes all photos from Jubilee & Ecclesia events, except for last year's rafting trip, which is in its own folder. If you talk to me for any amount of time, you know how much time I spend at Jubilee, so if you're interested to see where and with whom I see at church, this is the spot!
2) Seoul Albums: I have 2. The first one, "Life in Seoul" http://picasaweb.google.com/jlluttrell/LifeInSeoul# is a mix of my life in the city up until my 2010 summer vacation. The second one "Seoul, SarangHaeYo" http://picasaweb.google.com/jlluttrell/SeoulSarangHaeYo# is general pics of life and adventures from August until I am home again.
Other pics of the city tend to be organized by neighborhood (Dongdaemun, Hongdae, Gangnam, etc.)...I'm not sure how to streamline all those, but I'll look into this week.
OK, sorry for the boring post. But keep an eye on the pics, they are being updated daily!!!