The bakery opening

Things sure are done differently over here. Yesterday the Jejuguen bakery had its grand opening. It was already there on the corner before... but they closed down for renevations and expansion. Anyway, they had their re-opening yesterday and it continued into today.. what an event! There are huge flower arrangements aligning the street in front of the store, a balloon archway in the doorway, streamers and two models dressed in sailor-moon - ish clothing (incredibly short skirts and knee high boots) talking in microphones outside of the bakery, trying to get people to come in. So, as I said before, it's quite an event. Now, upon it's reopening, it is no longer just a bakery. It is a boulangerie, patisserie and confectionerie.. all in one... it's an awesome place... their chocolates look quite spectacular. Well, that's really all I can say about it... you kind of have to see it for yourself... it's wild (as Scott would say).

A quote by Francis Bacon

Last Lord's day was our second attempt to observe the Christian Sabbath. On that day I borrowed "the Pilgrim's Regress" by C.S.Lewis from my pastor, and I have been reading it ever since. It's an allegorical story about C.S.Lewis's conversion. It's great. Anyway, in it Lewis quotes Francis Bacon, and the quote reminds me of trying to keep my mind clear, or rather focussed, on Sunday:

"Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like: but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things: full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?"

Deborah now will talk to family, so I must leave.

MMMmmm thank goodness for the US army base

Hi, I'm about to retire for the night, so this will be a short update. Today we went to the Pastor's apartment to celebrate Chuesok dinner with his family and with several other families. It was a great time. One of the families came from the US army base and so had access to 'food we know not of'.... he brought the lasagna. Yummy... I know it's only been three weeks, but I tell you, that lasagna sure tasted good. We also had pies and cakes... which are luxuries for those of us without ovens... so the food was good and the company was even better.

We met two youngish couples, one from South Africa, they have two sons... one is four and one is six I think. He works with IBM I believe. The other couple is from the states. Hannah is from Washington, her husband Su is Korean, but attended University in Washington, they met at church and married. They've been married for two years and have a baby named Noah... he's really cute.

Anyway, there were others in attendance, some of whom we've met before and who we will probably become very familiar with... most all of them go to the church we've been attending.

So, it was a really good time, good food, good company and familiar games... we played 'Mafia'... must be a church thing?

Chuesok Finery and Aliens

Today was an extremely easy day at work, as the Korean Harvest Festival, or Thanksgiving festival of Chuesok was being celebrated. As a result, all kindergarten classes were cancelled, though all teachers were expected to attend to help out with the activities. Scott and I were two teachers who were not in attendance. As there were no classes this morning, we were given the morning off to go to the immigration office and apply for our Alien registration cards... which we must do within the first 90 days of arriving... or we are illegal aliens. So, that is all taken care of now... in thirteen days we can go pick up our i.d. cards confirming that we are now aliens... it's pretty good, we didn't even have to leave Earth. (I apologize for the extremely bad joke).

Anyway, I arrived back at work for my afternoon classes just in time to take in the last of the morning activities... all of the children and some of the teachers were dressed in the 'Hanbok' the traditional Korean clothing... it was quite a sight. The traditional costumes are beautiful, silk and colourful, with beautiful embroidery. If any of you have time you should look these costumes up on the internet... they are quite a bit different from the Japanese style kimono.... and they are very beautiful; each one is different.

The kids were all very excited, they had spent the morning doing traditional dances, playing traditional instruments, playing traditional games and cooking traditional foods... it was quite the morning I guess. When I arrived, the children in my classes rushed over to me to show me their costumes and the food and crafts that they had made.... One of the best experiences in Korea so far.

A bit of a mishap and a big storm

For Angela and all people who know her, I'd just like to let you all know that I now have a bump on my leg too. Not of the phantom variety.... mine is black and blue all over and hurts when I move to quickly. So, this is the short but painful story of the mishap, yet another tale of the clumbsiness of me (Deborah).

Scott and I were on our way out for dinner Sunday night, all was going well as we walked to our destination until we stopped at the stop lights. In Korea, there are cement blocks every foot on the side of the road, to prevent the cars from coming on to the sidewalk (I guess that's what they're for anyway.. I don't really know). Not knowing, or not remembering that I was standing behind one, I moved forward with my leg with full force as the little red man on the lights turned into a little green man.... SMACK, right into the cement block... I think the Korean people around me thought I was a complete idiot as I yelled 'ow ow ow ow...' and other English ouchey phrases. It was kind of painful to walk for the rest of the night and I had a nice shiny bump pretty much right away. Now it has become a nice big bruise, and still hurts.

Well, not really a very exciting story for those of you not interested in bumps and bruises, but it's the most interesting one I can come up with at present. So, on to the big storm story.

It started at about 4:00 am this morning that both Scott and I woke up to very loud thunder and probably the loudest rain I have ever heard... It was raining very hard. However, when we woke up at 7:00, the rain had stopped and all seemed calm. So, we walked to work (35 min walk) as usual and didn't take either our umbrella or our bus cards. Shortly after we arrived at work a giant down pour began, as did the thunder and lightning. This time it did not stop. When Scott had to leave the Hann campus and travel 35 minutes to the Cheolsan campus, he had neither umbrella nor bus card.... and consequently had to walk. He got drenched pretty much as soon as he left the building. When I left at 5:00pm, it was still raining hard, and so being in the same situation, I arrived home soaked to the skin.

Anyway, I guess it's all part of the Korean rainy season that supposedly lasts until the end of September. Pastor Bill (the pastor of the church we have been attending) told us that it goes in cycles and we had had quite a few sunny and extremely hot days lately. He said that we're still in for the worst part of the rainy season, since the Hann river has not yet flooded, and it usually does. Pastor Bill has been here for 20 some years, so I guess he'd know (he's originally from Oklahoma for anyone interested).

We have a long weekend this week, so it should be pretty nice to have the time off. This coming weekend is 'Chuesok'... it is the Korean harvest festival that spans three days... it is usually referred to as Korean Thanksgiving. It may be kind of cool to see some of the festivities.

Well, better go.............. Talk to some of you later.

Celebration

This past Saturday was the first time that Deborah and I celebrated the Sabbath. We began it at 6 Saturday night and ended it at 6 Sunday night.

On Saturday before 6, we prepared for the Sabbath. First, Deborah looked up recipes online, recipes that could be cooked in a skillet. When she found a recipe, we went to the store to pick up the required ingredients and then returned home. The store is in a very convenient location. It is just across the parking lot of our building. After getting the groceries inside I went to buy fruit from the street vendors. I purposed to avoid the grapes because Deborah said she didn't like them, but I bought three bunches of them. Luckily, perhaps because it was the Sabbath, Deborah grew to like them. Now, we both love them. Anyway, I also bought two large peaches and three mesh sacks of mandarins.

Deborah aimed to be ready by 6, but no bother we ate a bit later than that. For the meal, we each had a delicious piece of chicken, marinated in a honeymustard sauce and rolled in bread crumbs, on a bed of lettuce, a mandarin along with mandarin juice and baked potato from a convection oven. In a surprise, though Deborah peeled the potatoes, when baked in the oven they got a new skin. And they were delicious! I wonder whether a similar skin would appear if they were baked in a conventional oven. At any rate, we finished the meal with a dainty apple dumpling.

We began the meal with a liturgy, which I borrowed from somewhere else. First, I said, "This is the day that the Lord has made," and Deborah responded, "Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Then I blessed Deborah and gave thanks for the food, mentioning that this excellent meal is a symbol of the glorious gifts of the gospel with which the Lord is pleased to make our souls fat. After the meal, we studied from the catechism (I really need to learn how to teach), played Uno and drank hot chocolate using Pepero's as stir sticks. Needless to say, the next day our hearts were well prepared to worship the Lord with his people.

Today was a great day

Today was a really good day. All of the seven year olds at the kindergarten school were gone on a field trip to Namsang, so three of my classes were cancelled and I had a four hour break between my six year old classes and my grade sixes. My six year olds were pretty wild today, but even the Korean teachers were having trouble controlling them so I didn't feel too badly. One of the kids even mooned me, but what can you do.

On my four hour break I went to the gymnasium. It's a really big facility and I think it may have been built when the Olympics were in Seoul. Inside it has swimming and gyms and racketball courts etc.. Outside it has an outdoor rollerblading track surrounded by a dirt track, many walking trails, benches under trees and a rockclimbing facility. I walked around outside for a bit since it was a really nice day and sat under some trees to write in my journal and read my Bible. It was a great way to spend the time. I also sat by the rollerblade track for a bit, writing in my journal as they played the Beatles over the loud speaker... the Beatles made it feel a bit like home.

The weather today was fantastic! It was hot like usual, but there was a lot of wind, cooling the air. It was really windy because there is a typhoon passing between Japan and South Korea right now. It has hit the west coast of Japan and is supposed to hit Korea tomorrow, but it's been downgraded to a level 3, so we'll likely just get some wind and a lot of rain, nothing too serious.

Well, Scott won't be home for another two hours and I'm sure he had a good day as well. Because of the field trip he only had three classes today and he didn't start until like 3:00pm.

This Past Saturday: First, We went to Yongsan

This past Saturday, we traveled into Seoul and walked around for seven hours. It was amazing. Seoul was packed in the market areas, but in other areas there weren't many people. It's a beautiful city.

First, we went to Yongsan, which is an area that sells a bunch of electronics. There is something like 5000 electronics stores in 21 buildings. They are everywhere. In the main building of the district, an old bus station, there are many booths like a flea market, except they are all lit up with lights and they are selling electronics. We still had trouble, however, finding what we were looking for. In Korea, all interaction with people is like a puzzle game, unless you find someone who speaks English well. We did find someone that spoke english and he directed us to another building, where he said we could find power transformers. He told us the voltage too, which I had forgotten to look up. So, we walked across a parking lot and went to another building. This one had shops lined up along the wall of the building, like a strip mall, except the shops had no doors and they were very small and congested. They were packed with stuff. We went into one, which always takes courage, talked with the guy a bit, that is, I kept repeating "transformer," and he soon went back into his shop and picked up just what we were looking for.

Note

The previous blog post was not written here in Korea. I wrote it when I was on the ferry to PEI with Deborah and my mother. It was a bit of free writing to occupy time, but I thought that it well expressed my old subculture. It probably doesn't, but I liked it so I put it up.

Deborah and I are doing wonderful, Deborah only slightly less wonderfully than me.

Lonely Hearts

Walking on the streets of Vancouver; walking under the city lights, looking for a place to sit; looking for the next band to melt my heart; this heat will melt me, make me sweat; sweet taste of sweat on my lips, running down from my brow; a quiet, melancholy night; the city belches many noises, but nothing speaks to me; a few heckles and drunken laughs, but no real words; words ripe with meaning; words like ripe apples and words like ripe peaches; juice running down my chin, ointment on Aaron’s beard; words that ease my heart, ease my mind; none I find on these Vancouver streets; only lonely souls traveling in groups, in packs, searching for a den in which to settle and begin feasting on regretful hearts, licking wounds and chanting quietly to one another, “Go to sleep. We want to change the world, but we don’t love the world: we don’t love the world, but it’s all we were given.” And I walk past, for this den is not for me. I walk by these lonely souls; they’ll perish in that den, drowned in blood and pus they’ve licked from their wounds; I walk by these souls, they have no words for me; I taste my salty sweat as the city heat melts me, and walk past these souls, past the city lights, into the darkness.

Testing and Grand Opening

As Halifax's Christian radio station had a time of testing before its official opening, so we have had a time of testing. And as World Class, a new department store in Seoul, had a grand opening today with two Korean girls in tube tops playing electric violins on a stage outside the entrance, so we are having a grand opening today.

We now have the internet on our laptop, so our erratic posting will cease and our regular posting begin. Return here often for our superb writing, which daftly mingles intelligence and style: "Whoso is simple, let him come in hither: as for him the wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled."

We can be contacted

Hello everybody... for those of you wanting to know, we just arrived back after our trip to Seoul and we bought a power converter and a wireless router, so we can now be contacted by msn messenger, by instant message, microphone and/or webcam.

For the family... if anyone reads this, email us so that we can set up a time to contact eachother online.

We found a church in Seoul that holds English services, both traditional and contemporary, so we may attend there tomorrow. It is called Youngnak Presbyterian and is actually the biggest church in the world... 700000 people attend. Of course that is the Korean service. I'm expecting the English service to have like maybe 15 people, but it will be nice to meet some people.

Well, we're here

Hello everyone.
Well, here we are in South Korea... and I have to say it is very very different, difficult and yeah. A lot of stuff has kind of gone a little wrong, but we're surviving. When we arrived, the old teachers had not moved out of their apartment yet and so the school put us up in a 'Motel' for 3 nights... this is not your typical american style motel... our co-workers affectionately refer to these places as 'love motels'.

Anyway, it also turns out that we do not get our own apartment and we have to share a 3 bedroom apartment with two male teachers (making me a bit uncomfortable), their names are Waseem (a Muslim guy from Edmonton) and Ryan (a guy from New Zealand). We move in tonight.

The school seems pretty good though. Scott and I are both working at the same school, though they neglected to tell us that we would be working at different campuses. Scott works at Cheolsan and I work at Hann. I started teaching there today and boy was it difficult. It's hard to keep control of a class of 15 kindergarteners when you don't speak the same language as them and their grasp of English is saying 'Hello' and 'Goodbye'. Some of the kids are really cute, but others are little devils that run around like crazy, jump on tables, scream and pull on your clothes.... now try to teach them anything. Anyway.... it's going to be tough. I do have 3 older girls later in the afternoon and they are really good and try really hard. The campus I work at is a traditional Korean Kindergarten school, so they also teach piano, balet and martial arts. My Korean co-teachers that teach the other classes are kind of interfering and will come into your class while you're teaching and interupt you to tell you what you're doing wrong. So nice of them eh?

Well, I guess there's not much else to say... I miss Canada with it's fresh air, lack of millions of neon lights, and lack of smog (the smog in Seoul makes it impossible to see the sun, any blue sky, the moon or the stars... although you wouldn't be able to see the stars anyway for all the neon lights).

It's not all bad, and I'll probably get used to it all eventually..... but Pray for us a lot please.