A Weekend Wandering

Spent a lazy Saturday exploring the bustling metropolis of Busan, with Jen and AJ, Dan and Lindz (whom I will henceforth refer to as "The Marrieds") and Kate, one of the teachers I work with. It was a rather overcast day so we mostly just passed the time window-shopping, people-watching, and browsing through some art galleries. Highlights of my day include:

1. The wonderful man who nearly drove into us on his bicycle, grinned at us and yelled something in Korean... then proceeded to make faces and peace signs at us until AJ walked over to talk to him, at which point he hugged AJ's arm like he was clutching a teddy bear and didn't look like he would ever let go. AJ, kindhearted bloke that he is, simply hugged the man back.

2. These young lads who were jammin' it out on a park bench. I recognized the Once soundtrack from a distance... they were singing in English! Couldn't resist joining them...

3. Our $3-apiece Galbi meal at this restaurant Kate found; it was very inexpensive and it tasted great! Galbi is a popular Korean meal, usually pork or beef ribs marinated in garlic, soy sauce, and ginger and cooked on a grill in front of you. Actually, they usually bring you the meat raw, and you cook it yourself. You wrap the meat in a leaf, adding some veggies, kimchi, and various sauces, and then munch on it. Rabbit-style. All the little side dishes are shared amongst the diners, and everyone dips their chopsticks into the communal bowls.

4. And last but not least, this cozy grandpa sweater I bought from a second-hand market stall... I love it because it has little grey kiwi birds knitted into it! Anyone who knows my fondness for New Zealand, will understand my delight in finding this treasure of a sweater, just at the turning of the seasons...

...although some of my comrades seem to think they look like malnourished elephants. Perhaps you can settle the argument. Cast your vote here in the comments section, if you so desire! Kiwi, elephant, or... other?

Happy Hallow's Eve

Happy Halloween from South Korea!

It's not a traditionally celebrated event here, but because we are an English Academy, it turned into quite a big deal. I teach eight classes on Fridays, so it was like having eight mini-halloween parties in a row. Just when I was exhausted from the last one, a fresh lot of students would come in, excited and ready to go! Whoever formulated the idea to give kids loads of sugar and then attempt to teach them should be shot. It all culminated into a killer headache by the end of the night, which may have been a result of excessive sugar in my bloodstream, the noise levels, or the fact that a pirate's eye-patch was throwing off

my balance and vision all day.

Muah ha ha... (not-so) Happy Halloween...

Moving Day

How to move out of your apartment on the eleventh floor...
just open a window!
Have you seen this before? I'm new to apartment living, but I thought it was hilarious!

Love at First Sight

This gentleman stole the key to my heart with just one glance.

Hakdong Pebble Beach

Spent most of a Saturday afternoon following the coastal road on foot that winds its way from sandy Gujora Beach, to Hakdong Beach, which is strewn with smooth, rounded pebbles. Ate some bibimbap at a local restaurant. Bibimbap is a rice dish mixed with a variety of veggies, some chilli pepper paste, and other sauces, and is usually topped with some meat or an egg. It's a pretty common meal here. This restaurant specialized in raw fish, due to it's seaside proximity, so my meal was... fresh. I ate most of it... Korean-style, sitting crosslegged on a floor cushion, holding chopsticks. The day turned rather grey and overcast towards the end, and because of either misinterpreting the bus schedule or missing the last bus home, we sat on a bench at a bus stop in the increasingly cold autumn air, until well after dark. Eventually, we ended up hitching a ride off a lovely Korean woman, who didn't speak a word of English, but played Norah Jones in her car. I found myself winding my way home through dark mountains and twinkling lights, rather exhausted from all the fresh air, exercise, and warm food, with Norah crooning sweet and mellow lullabies in my ears.

Hakdong Pebble Beach, Geoje-do, South Korea

Raspberry Jam

Astonishing but true: I have been here for one month already!

Equally hard to believe is how completely at home I feel. It's as though I just walked in and set up camp and found this immediate contentedness to be living and working here, though a stranger in a strange country. In some ways, everything is new and exciting. I am eating unusual foods, hearing a new language in my ears, and observing carefully the people I see, in an attempt to gain a better understanding of this culture. My life these days is interesting and invigorating, confusing and sometimes overwhelming, but overall, I'm enjoying the process.

I am a foreigner in a foreign country. I experience culture shock every day. I am the sore thumb that stands out for being taller and paler-faced, the one who misinterprets situations because of language barriers, and probably unwittingly makes hundreds of social faux-pas in any given moment. I am the "weiguk" (Korean word for foreigner) that doesn't fit into the status quo. The odd girl out. On many levels this could be a very lonely place for me. But I don't feel alone.

I want to give credit where credit is due. God has been very kind to me. I seek Him a lot. Before I got here, I asked and waited and allowed Him to lead me, and I wish I could express to you, so you could see it too... this physical, tangible evidence... that there is a God who cares deeply for His children. Seek Him first and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33) In this process of learning to trust Him, I have found my every need has been met, sometimes even before I realized I would have a need. And not just in ordinary things! Some of the ways I've experienced His provision have been quite extraordinary, in that excessive, extravagant, trademark way that He loves. He gives me more than I need so that I know that His gifts are for sharing.

I have been so richly provided for, in such simple and profoundly personal ways, that only someone who knows me intimately could have devised them. I feel loved and known. I don't know how long He will have me here for, but it doesn't matter. He is my home. This means that where He calls me next will be Home too! Not in the familiar, nostalgic way that freshly-baked pulla bread with Mom's raspberry jam, chaotic family dinners and reunions with loved ones make me feel at home, but in the sense that I am known and loved, and I am learning to know and love the One who made me.

Perhaps this lyric might better express what I'm attempting to put my words to. It's from an old Steve Bell song that I love. I had scrawled these lines into a journal during my university years, when, for the first time, I was experiencing that uprooting and unsettling nature of life outside of my childhood home. This concept of what constitutes home has, for a long time, ignited much contemplation in me.

Home is anywhere He leads me...

Home is where I want to be

Home is where I live with Jesus

I'll be at home eternally.

I think I'm finally starting to understand that.

Don't misinterpret this sense of home. It's not a settling place. So much in my life is still so unpredictable and transient. I'm not anticipating this transience ending anytime soon. I probably won't live in South Korea for the rest of my life. And that's okay. I don't mind the moving. It keeps life fresh and me on my toes. Home is not a house with a white picket fence, a choice of paint colors, and a chimney with smoke curling out of it. It is not even a light in a window, glinting at me throughout life's journey like some far-off, unreachable destination. Sometimes, this home of which I speak can be a resting place... but we don't rest forever. There is work to do! Beautiful, good works prepared in advance for us. And in asking the Master Builder and Carpenter to construct His designs in my life, I find myself sitting here, in a completely foreign and unfamiliar country and culture, still very much at home...

It is pouring down rain today for the first time since I arrived in South Korea. But I'd rather have rain and chopsticks and the knowledge of a Creator who loves me, than anything else the world has to offer.

I am where I should be.

I am home.

Sweet and Mellow Days

It is Autumn in South Korea.