Heels, Boiled Eggs, and other Korean Conveniences

1. Debudo Island
2. Ansan Lake Park, about 5 minutes from my apartment
3. Delicious dried octopus treats
4. Living it up in the hair salon
5. Sunset from Michelle's apartment
6. Ansan river
7. Bonding time.






What a week! I never could quite catch up on sleep. After being rudely awakened Monday morning at 5:30 am (two hours after going to bed), and not falling back asleep until 9, I realized having pets in a loft apartment is somewhat of a challenge. I woke up to Brigita jumping on and off my bed, running up and down the staircase, and dragging around her toy-on-a-stick with a ferocious vigor I had no idea she possessed. Her cute face suddenly transformed into that of a gilded demon. I sat at the table downstairs around 8 (having given up trying to sleep) and looked up at the loft to see the two cats piercing me with their stares of pure contempt. At least, that's what it felt like. They got me out of bed, and then were content to perch above me like two satanic gargoyles.

Yes, the feelings were that powerful. I was relieved when my co-worker expressed interest in taking one of the cats. I brought him to my house, stuffed Brigita and her toys into a crate, and went with him to HomePlus to buy food and a litterbox. He renamed her Wickett (she looks exactly like an eewok), and I'm sure he's giving her a lot more love than I want to. Leona and I are working through her emotional issues day by day. She is content to sleep in the office chair across the room from me, but she purrs and sits in my lap every time I come home. Much more preferable behavior for a cat.

Stories from school:
1. Monday, I was bouncing into my class, staggering under the heavy load of books (I don't finish planning until the last minute), when I felt a BAM and looked to the ground to see a small child in a pile. Tom (8 yr old Korean Harry Potter) pulled himself up, registered my gasp of surprise and gave me a sheepish grin. "Teacher! I .... library... late..." I was unsuccessfully holding back laughter and very concerned all at the same time. I raised my eyebrows as he adjusted his glasses and I tried to help him pat down his tousled bowl-cut.
2. We read a story in class (with my middle schoolers) about a bike program in Oregon. There are public yellow bikes that you can ride for free and then just leave anywhere. I looked up at my students after we read the page. I surveyed their blank, bored expressions and asked, "Would this work in Ansan?" Suddenly the classroom came alive with a resounding "NO!"
"Why not?" I asked. A student raised her hand. "Someone would steal it. My bike, at home, and then, gone. Chain gone. Bike gone." I told them my story of how both my roomates' bikes had been stolen in Charleston, thinking they would be surprised that two bikes could be stolen in the same year. Their stories escalated, topping mine, until even the quietest student in the class (who never says a word of English to me) was talking out in an audible voice, trying to tell me over the others that his seat, tire, and handlebars had all been stolen. Two students had already jumped up and were drawing the remains of their bikes on the whiteboard. It only took a couple strokes of the marker. "How many of you have had your bikes stolen?" I asked, my curiosity heightened. All 11 hands shot up. Our American textbooks really bring up the most interesting stories.
This was the same class in which we were reading a story about an African girl. We compared Korean and African life. "Ok, what is Korean life?" I asked. Five students, all at the same time, blurted out, "Fast. Fast. Fast." And then, "No play. Only study." A few girls in the back quipped, "Yes, play! Before academy! Little free time!" I asked them about African life. "Sloooooooooooow" they all said. "So would you like to live there?"
"No teacher!" they responded. "School outside! Too hot!"
3. I found out my highschoolers like singing songs. We learned the planet song, and the sun song. "The sun is a mass of incandescent gas..." We make up songs. "Summer solstice, summer solstice, Autuuuuuuuuuuuumnal equinox!"

Note: I just realized my cat escaped. She is looking in at me from the other side of the window. Great. Now I have to climb out of the window and somehow climb back in with her overweight body.

Ok that wasn't hard. All I had to do was reach over and pull her up. She's irritated though. It feels nice out there.

4. I have a class of the cutest eight year old boys. I walk into class and they are all seated, grinning at me with their books on their desk. They have me whipped to the point of receiving candy every day. Tom didn't have his homework Friday (which was shocking- he always has it)- and I was legitimately concerned. I squatted down to look at him at eye level. "Tom- what happened? Why?" He returned my questioning with huge, innocent eyes. Suddenly the two boys on either side of him were in my face as well, curiously studying me as I studied him. Why did I suddenly feel like I was the one being interrogated? They got closer and closer until, "Teacher! Your eyes! So blue!" I brushed them away and stood up, defeated. I can't even pretend to be mad at them.
5. The parents are complaining I don't give enough homework. Welcome to Korea.

So yeah, life has been trying to sleep through "meow! meow! meow!" at various times in the morning, drinking the delicious new instant coffee I found (it foams! Like real cappuccino!) and going to school for my acting/singing/dancing/miming performance. I love teaching here. Parents are never satisfied and there's always something to complain about (like anything in life) but despite all that, I'm glad I have a job where I can be around people all day. Especially small people who are Korean. I'm trying to have a good life schedule but, failing still! I get home around 11:30, am too tired to go to bed (it's true- I just hate the whole process of brushing my teeth and washing my face) and somehow stay up until 3 doing something or the other. Ever since my trip to the library I've been wanting to finish the 5 books I got. (Impossible! In two weeks! I love unattainable goals!

Oh, quickly, on instant gratification. A Korean friend I met here owns a fashion business. I hung out with her last weekend and really liked her shoes. They are purely Korean. If I wore them in the states (which I will) I could either be taken for a prostitute or someone who saw something in Vogue and thought it would be a good idea to actually wear it. They are black leather four inch high-top heels with about 4 straps starting from the middle of the foot and going up to the ankle. I love them. She told me to just buy them from her site. She called me Thursday. "Do you still want them?"
"Yeah but, I don't know how to order them online!" She gave me her bank account number (here you can just take someone's number and transfer them money into their account without stealing their identity), and told me she would send them to me that day. On Friday (a little over 24 hours later), I came into the teacher's lounge after my second class to see a box on the table. I am still dumbfounded. You can shop online, and get it the next day. Standard. As Meagan keeps saying, "I have seen the future, and it is Korea."

This Saturday I forced myself to stay home and rest. I made french toast (glorrrry glory hallelujah!) laid on the couch, and read my book. I opened my huge window (it takes up a whole wall) to let the golden afternoon light stream in, mixed up with the blue autumn sky and rows of colorful signs on the building across from me. I stepped halfway out of my window to listen to the Celtic music streaming in from the live concert somewhere in the city. I went outside in the cool air, the wind blowing through my hair as I crossed the street, passing moms in hiking gear, uniformed kids with ice cream just getting out of school, families running with baby strollers across the perpendicular street on a "no crossing" light.

I left the house to buy eggs. When I went to crack one to make the French toast, turns out it was boiled. Really? can't people boil their own eggs? I went downstairs to the 7-11 in my building, and all the eggs there were boiled. I crossed the street to the other convenience store. Boiled. (These are the times that it is blatantly obvious: YES, I am in a foreign country. I want to buy eggs, a food staple for almost ALL cultures, and while it is easy to find sausages, rice balls, and canned coffee, eggs have all but vanished from every store where they should be located). I went to a small grocery store, walked through all of the fresh fruit displayed outside, and surveyed the entire refrigerated section. Ok. Fish, sauce, kimchi, beer, beer, beer, American cheese, yogurt, milk in tiny bottles, mushrooms, pet supplies... wait! No eggs? Peach juice and strawberry-flavored milk, but no eggs? I mustered up the courage to ask the green-aproned employee ringing up things by the sausages. "Eggs?" As usual, a symphony of Korean came out of her mouth. (I've got to buckle down and learn this stuff! At the least- remember my phrasebook when I leave the house!!" I made the shape with my hand. "Chikin? Small? Eggs?" She continued to speak to me, and motioned to tiny, round sausages in a bag. I stooped even lower, and began charades. By the time it was over, I had mimed the shape of eggs, frying eggs in a pan, and had pretended to be a chicken laying an egg. But my acting is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. She brought me outside to the store attendant who speaks a little English. "Eggs?" I wearily asked. "Ahh!" He exclaimed. "Kye-ran!" Of course. Kyeran. How did I not know that. He led me to a display in the CENTER of the small store, eggs stacked halfway up to the ceiling. Not only can I not speak Korean, I am almost entirely unobservant. Eggs are not refrigerated here I guess. I found some that had a picture of a raw, broken egg on the front, and paid $5 for them. Thirty minutes later, I was home.

Tonight, Meagan, Michelle, Erin and I went to a part of Ansan to get Uzbeki food. You know, Uzbekistan? Of course, everyone knows their food is like pot roast. Ansan station is one of my favorite parts of Ansan. It's where the immigrants live. It is crowded with creepy, looming men, their eyes haunted by the realities of having to start a life in a foreign country (to provide for their families, perhaps?), vendors selling everything from mandarin oranges to socks, and restaurants with food from all over the world. Fresh fruit and vegetables are spread out everywhere along the pedestrian street. Motorcyles, however, do not hesitate to zoom by, weaving in and out of people walking. We saw fish laid out across a table in bowls, and beside them, a shark! Just stretched across a table, about three feet long. Everyone eyed us curiously as we stopped and stared. I've never seen a shark for sale before. We came to the restaurant and had lamb, fries, roasted potatoes, two kinds of bread, cucumber yogurt, and lemon tea. It was about six dollars each. We chatted with a woman selling pantyhose and socks. Her chatting in Korean, us chatting in English. Both using our fingers. (Although I am getting better at understanding numbers, thanks to the song I made up). I bought some. I thought I was buying 10 pairs of black tights for $5, came home and opened the bag, and, oh. Knee socks. Whatever. Everyone can use more knee socks, right? We decided to come home when a man holding a ratty grey sweater (which we could have bought in any of the shops we were walking by) kept trying to sell it to us.

I'm going to a Korean class tomorrow. I might go to a huge mountain next weekend. I might go to Thailand for Christmas.

Life is good. Jesus is teaching me to be at peace with my surroundings, my failings, and my dreams. He's all I have. He's teaching me to trust Him for every step that I have to take. For example, I want to do something that matters over Christmas. I want to help someone in some way. I wanted to go to Indonesia and help with earthquake relief, but tickets are $1500. I have to trust that He's prepared good works for me to walk in. And that He'll finish what He started. A lot of times my life seems really insignificant and I worry that He will finish anything. But He said He would. So ok.

Thanks so much for all your prayers, I felt a lot less lonely this week! My coworkers are irreplaceable, they keep me alive, and having a cat instantly made my apartment not empty. My students are worn out and they need love, and God is showing me that.

If you would keep praying that God would just do His will in my life. That I would be selfless. That I would truly love people. That I would trust Him to work out all my dreams and that I would listen to His voice.

I've also been so blessed with friends overseas who haven't forgotten me! It's one of the strangest things, I think when someone leaves the country we assume they're having the time of their life every second. I forget to email people who are gone, and when I went to Nepal for the first time I realized how invaluable it was to hear from people back home. I need to be reminded that my friends and family haven't forgotten me, and I'm so thankful and overwhelmed by all the love they've extended, even from millions of miles away. (It is millions, right?) I don't deserve all the incredible people who are in my life. Even if we don't see them for months or years, someone who impacts us is always in our life. I have the wisdom of a lot of people in my head and in my heart, and it's comforting.


God always provides, and sometimes He keeps us completely alone, or partly alone, or overwhelmed in community. Wherever He puts is, if we're following Him there, it's right.
"Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: "Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there." So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook." - 1 Kings 17: 2-6


Also. My dad was right. They DO sell syrup in Korea. I found it at the grocery store, along with pancake mix, powdered sugar, and chocolate chips. BOO YAH.