Next Stop, Daejeong

*The following was written at around 11:30 am on October 30.

Today didn’t go quite as I had planned…

I knew it was going to be hard leaving all of my orientation group members, saying goodbye to the Academic Office Staff, and traveling to a new place.  However, I thought I was going to be one of the lucky few that didn’t have to be alone on their way to the unknown.  Since Lindsey, Daniel, and I were placed at different institutes within the same city, I assumed we would go on the same bus.  Imagine my surprise then when they got their two tickets to Daejon-Dunsan, and I got my one non-stop ticket to Daejeon, departing at 11am sharp.  Since it was 10:45 at that point, there wasn’t much time to think or fret about it, so as the guys helped carry my luggage, we rushed down the lot to bus 5688.  I gave Lindsey a hug and wished her safe travels, then waved goodbye to the others as the bus pulled away.

That brings us to the present, where I am speeding off to a land I know not.  For the first time I am completely on my own in Korea, very aware of the fact that the support system that has been there for me since the day we landed in Incheon is getting farther and farther away with every mile.  It’s a little scary, but also strangely exhilarating.  I cannot compare this experience to anything else in my life, not even going away to Grand Valley.  When I left for college, it was with friends and the guidance of family, and I knew I would be able to easily communicate with just about everyone I met.  Now I find myself barely able to sound out the words I see on street signs, let alone communicate with anyone using more than a few phrases and hand gestures.

Despite the uncertainty, this over two-hour bus ride is providing me some much needed quiet time in which to reflect.  I did a lot of research in preparation for coming to Korea, and it has definitely helped a lot.  Most interesting, however, are the situations and events I now recognize God was using to prepare me for my mission here.  Some are personal, and just between Him and me, but one example is that I worked in bilingual education for a year.  I didn’t notice at the time, but I was learning to be comfortable around people whose culture was different from my own.  Even though I speak a little Spanish, I often had to take risks in speaking the language when I would have preferred not to in order to get an important message across to students or their parents.  Now I find myself unconcerned that I am the only person who speaks English on this bus.  Every Korean is a unique individual, but they do as a whole seem to have a great desire to be helpful and hospitable.  Another way that I can see God working in my life was through all the opportunities that I have had to make and deliver Bible studies in small groups and one-on-one.  We prepare our own materials for religion class and Sabbath School clubs, and as a result of all my experience, I have a great collection of Bible studies I can draw from, as well as the necessary skills to build new studies as the Holy Spirit guides.

God really is amazing.  He has been calling me to Korea since 2008, and it is becoming more and more apparent why.  Some of you have had various misgivings about the program here, and I thank you so much for sharing them with me, and I assure you I am still taking your cautionary words and advice to heart.  However, if it eases your mind at all, there is currently a movement among some of the leadership here to bring about reform of a spiritual type.  I want to be a part of that reform, to return this institute’s purpose to its original roots of saving souls for Christ’s kingdom.

 There is a lot more to think about, so I will end this already long post. 

Gyeongbokgung Palace Tour

On Sunday we took a day trip to Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul.  What a thrill it was to step out into a place filled with so much history!  Somewhere around six centuries ago, the founder of the Joseon dynasty designated Seoul as the capital of Korea.  It was the perfect choice because of its central location on the peninsula, and it has remained so ever since.  As I understand it, Gyeongbokgung is the largest of five preserved and restored palaces in Seoul.  It is also the birthplace of the Korean alphabet, Hangul.  The palace itself and the view beyond it is breathtaking.  I'll let the photographs speak for themselves.

One of the gates

Traditional drum

Wow

Ornate eaves

This is a "Heavenly Deer."  It looks like nothing like a deer, nor is it very heavenly.

I loves me those mountains

Yet another scenic view

A place where affairs of state were attended to

Columns and ceiling decor

Peaceful Reflecting Pool

Can I live here, please?

The guardian mountains

A part of the king's personal quarters

Ceiling detail

Little carved animals sitting on an eave

Young girls wearing traditional hanbok

Garden

Can't lie...I'm really proud of this picture 

Colorful painting inside the gate

The Main Gate

Busy, Busy, Busy

We definitely hit the ground running here in South Korea!  Lindsey and I were the last to arrive of thirteen new teachers.  Thankfully, we didn't miss too much, and have easily caught up with the rest of the group.  Each day we follow a very packed schedule.  It starts with a yummy breakfast, after which we have worship.  Then it is teacher training until lunch, then more teacher training!  Somehow we have managed to find time to open bank accounts, deal with some policy matters, take care of health screenings, and have a very inspirational and uplifting testimony time.  For an exciting turn of the tables, the English "All Day Club" (a group of students that spend all day learning English together), provided us with a Korean language lesson.  I picked up some valuable phrases that will certainly help me to communicate with the people I meet.

Like the Korean Colonel Sanders, of course

Most of our free time (of which there is not much) is spent just getting adapted to the local culture.  Life here is quite different from life in the States.  Korea is a country of extremely hard-working people who put 100% into everything they do.  Their goal seems simply to excel; be it in the classroom, on the job, or while pursuing a hobby.  Apparently there is a lot of pressure on young people to succeed and look good doing it.  If they cannot do so in all aspects of their lives, they risk being labeled as a failure by family, friends, and society in general.  Education and the job market are both extremely competitive.  These circumstances have resulted in a culture that seems addicted to long, exhausting work days, caffeine, fashionable clothing, and plastic surgery.  People push past you on the street and while boarding the subway, and there is a general sense that most everyone is in a rush to get nowhere fast.

Forget to do your shopping?  No problem. 

Grab what you need in the tunnel before you board the train

Despite this driven, high-stress environment, in the short time I have been here, I have already had many opportunities to see first-hand something that the Korean people are well known for:  their wonderfully welcoming hospitality.  

Friendliest Police Station I've ever seen

The staff at the institute made us feel right at home from the very start.  Even those who don't speak a lick of English are always ready to help, direct, or advise in any way they can (it's amazing how well one can communicate even without the use of words).  Just tonight one of the other new teachers went to an electronics shop in order to purchase a replacement cord for her laptop, and the shop owner gave her one for free!  When the All-Day Club took us on an afternoon outing, they helped us to read signs, answered our many questions, and pulled us out of the way of motorcycles on the sidewalk.

Yes, you read that right

In a nutshell, it's been interesting.  Everything is just so novel and exciting, I'm finding it hard to sort it all out.  I'll just take it all in for now :)

Korea So Far: A Pictorial Essay

Yummy Chocolate Soy Drink

My first look at Seoul

Pleasant skyline

Cool

Beautiful sunset

Crazy red glowy hand dryer

One of the Institute buses

You, too, can learn English!

This is my bedroom light fixture

Yummy yogurt drink the bank tellers gave our group

Giant tank sitting outside of a restaurant, packed with loaches...looks delicious, right?

We found an SDA church while we were exploring!

"The Anticlimax" or "Better Late than Never!"

After a restless night of sleep, I woke up before my alarm on Sunday morning.  I prayed, showered, brushed my teeth, put on the clothes I had laid out the night before, and went over my list of things to remember one last time.  Then my mom, dad, brother, and I piled into our car and went to meet up with my grandma and aunt for the drive to Gerald R. Ford International Airport.  I forgot to eat breakfast but was too nervous to miss it.

When we arrived at the airport two hours later, Lindsey was already there along with her family. We also had a send-off party that seemed to keep growing until that moment when we walked down the hall to the security checkpoint.  It was great having so many people there for encouragement, prayers, and farewells.

I felt pretty cool, too ;)

Eyes still a little teary, we showed our passports and boarding passes, had our carry-ons x-rayed, and made our way to the United Airlines terminal.  We weren't there long before one of the employees announced that the pilot of the plane we were going to be taking had noticed something that needed to be taken care of by a mechanic.  I wasn't about to object to them making our flight as safe as possible.  After all, our connecting flight's departure time was still three hours away.  We sat patiently, and I let my family know about the situation.  

The minutes ticked by. I gazed out the window at the plane.  I suddenly realized we had been waiting for an hour, and I could not see anyone that looked like a mechanic anywhere.  The employee came back on the loudspeaker. "Ladies and gentleman, I apologize for the long wait, our mechanic was not on the field and had to be called in...usually the mechanics are not here on the weekends.  He has arrived at the airport now, but there is another plane ahead of ours that also needs to be serviced, so unfortunately it will be closer to 11:30am before we are able to board."

I went to speak with the representative at the terminal kiosk and explained the situation.  He was sympathetic, but said we would probably miss our connection.  Lindsey also went up to speak with one of the reps a couple of times, but their best advice was to take the plane to Chicago and try to catch a different connecting flight if possible.  At this point I found myself feeling pretty frustrated, and had to pray for patience and strength to handle the situation gracefully.  I immediately began to calm down, and when we were finally able to board at around 11:50am, it was with the assurance that if we got there in time, so be it, and if we did not, perhaps it was for a reason.

We landed, safe and sound, at O'Hare...five minutes after our Asiana plane took off without us.  Disappointed, we made our way to the United Airlines customer service desk.  They were sufficiently sympathetic to our situation, but were unable to find us another flight leaving earlier than Monday at noon.  Instead, they booked us in a hotel, gave us meal vouchers, and shuttled us over to Rosemont, not far from the airport.

Some Facts about Rosemont:

1. It is a part of the greater Chicago area that is completely dedicated to accommodating stranded air travelers

2.  The restaurants are all pretty pricey, and the dinner entrees do not include extras such as soup or salad, they must be purchased separately (so thankful for those meal vouchers!)

3. None of the hotels in the area offer free internet access, and there are no coffee shops, internet cafes, or non-hotel-affiliated restaurants anywhere within walking distance (in other words, they’ve got a pretty good racket going)

That being said, our stay at the Crown Plaza hotel was not at all unpleasant.  On the contrary, the room was nice, the staff friendly, and the food tasty.


We got to the airport via free shuttle the next morning and found our way to Asiana's terminal.  Thankfully, we were assured that the special vegetarian meals we had requested, along with our checked baggage, would be on the flight with us despite the changes.  I went to check out what the plane looked like, and, at least compared to the puddle jumper we took the day before, this plane looked ENORMOUS.  I felt a shiver down my spine as I realized this multiple-ton hunk of metal would shortly be lifting us through the air over a distance of nearly 7,000 miles.


The culture shock they warned us we might experience began even before we boarded.  While waiting in the terminal, announcements were made mostly in Korean.  Of the hundred or so people there, only about ten people were of non-Asian descent.  At the end of the boarding corridor, there was a table stacked with free South Korean newspapers (didn't do us much good).


In the cabin, everyone was very friendly and hospitable.  The pocket in front of my seat contained magazines, a blanket, a pillow, headphones, and these awesome little slippers. 

Stylin'

The flight attendants wore matching uniforms, high heals, and identical hairdos.  Requesting a special meal apparently pays off, as we received both our lunches and dinners before anyone else.

They were pretty tasty

Throughout the flight we were able to track the progress of the plane on our little tv screens.

The on-board service was almost overwhelmingly good at times.  It got to the point where I would try to look very interested in whatever I was doing at the moment any of the attendants passed so they wouldn't ask me if I needed something again.


Well, praise the Lord, we landed safe and sound after fourteen hours.  After going through immigration and customs, we found the SDA Language School representative, and walked out into what will be our home for the next year....

...but that's another story, for another blog post.

Zero Hour

It has been several days since my last post, and a lot has transpired.  I am currently spending time in good 'ole Bucktown, visiting with family and friends, getting ready to leave tomorrow--wait, say WHAT?  Leaving TOMORROW?  Oh my...where has the time gone?

Nine months ago when I first got the whole process rolling, going to teach in Korea was more of an abstract concept.  It was something that was going to happen a long time in the future.  Now it's here, and the nerves have finally caught up with me.  Thursday night I got the jitters and couldn't sleep, so instead I just stayed up 'till the wee hours of the morning trying to pack a year into a couple of suitcases.  I won't know if I have suceeded until I arrive in Korea and it's too late to repack.  Even as I write this my heart is beating a little faster than usual at the thought of boarding that plane in the morning.

One thing that has helped me to keep the anxiety at bay has been to stay as busy as possible, and there have been plenty of things to do to help with that task.  Last Sunday my home church, Bauer SDA, threw a going away party for Lindsey and me.  It was a very humbling experience to see the great turnout, and it reminded me just how blessed I have been during my time in the Grand Rapids area.  Everyone was so wonderful, supportive, and generous, and the love I felt from my church family and other friends was overwhelming.  I praise God for all the care he has shown me through them over the last few years.

This week I spent some time with extended family, hung out with some school friends, and tried to organize all of the stuff I will be leaving behind.  Yesterday I had the fun opportunity to introduce my mom, dad, grandma, and aunt to Korean food at a cute little food establishment in South Bend called Sunny's Korean Restaurant.  Sunny, a native of South Korea, cooked our food, personally served it, and still found time to explain the dishes and teach us a few Korean words!  It was a fantastic experience, and I highly recommend her restaurant for a unique culinary experience.  As my grandma put it, "if all Koreans are as nice as she, you won't have a bad time at all, will you?" 

Today something pretty cool happened.  I went to church with my dad at PMC, and as I was walking out of the sanctuary after divine service, I overheard someone speaking Korean (I was actually pretty psyched that I could even recognize it as Korean).  I turned towards the voice and there was a young lady talking to an older gentleman.  I asked her if she was Korean (just to make sure, you know), and she said that yes, she was.  Then I just blurted out, "I'm going to Korea tomorrow!"  Her excitement at that statement matched mine (phew!), and she asked me what I was going to be doing there and for how long.  When I told her I would be teaching with the Sahmyook Language School, the man, who had overheard our conversation, smiled, handed me a business card, and said, "Wonderful!  Be sure to come visit us."  The girl leaned towards me, pointed at the card, and said, "that's a good connection!"  Then, in the rush of foot traffic headed out of the church, we were parted, and I saw them no more.  I looked down at the card in my hand and glanced at the title.  It said "Head Chaplain, Sahmyook University." o_O

Well, my next post may very well be from the airport in Chicago during our layover, or, in the event I cannot find access to a wireless network, South Korea!  Please pray for me as I begin this new adventure.

Ch-ch-ch Changes

I’m homeless. 

Well, not really, but it feels like I am.  For the first time since I went away to school, I do not have my own apartment.  My life is in two places, and I am in a sort of limbo between them.  Right now I am staying with friends while I substitute teach in GR.  Next week I’ll go back to my hometown to spend my last few days in the states with my family.  It is sooo weird not having a home base!

I have begun packing, and my goal is to travel to Korea with only one checked piece of luggage, one carry on, and a backpack as my personal item.  Typically people move to another country with at least two checked bags, but I don’t feel like shoveling out the extra cash required to do so.  Besides, now I won’t feel so bad bringing back a second suitcase of the things I will have accumulated during the course of a year in another country.  So far I’m doing pretty well…vacuum bags are pretty awesome inventions.  It is just a challenge to anticipate everything that I could possibly need to take.  I am relatively certain I will be able to buy shoes, since I understand the cutoff for women is around size 8, and I am a 7.  Not so sure about clothing, though.  Here I am a fairly trim person, but over there, I am plus-sized!  This is going to be interesting.


11 days 'till take-off!