Holy cow I haven’t updated GRC in a month. I have been uploading pics and doing status’ on facebook which some of you read, so continue to do so. I have like 1000 pics now. Close to 500 of them just being in this last month. So here’s a brief run down of what’s been up.
Since the last update on march 7th I had just been teaching and advertising the 7th class performance we had, which was on the 22nd and was pretty awesome, I reunited with some friends from before, and also got together again with the other short terms who I haven’t seen since the end of February at English Camp. I worked the North America booth at the performance and bashed on Canada a lot. One of the songs performed “required” held up lighters, so as this is South Korea, everyone in the crowd held up lit up cell phones. I do not have a picture of the audience, but I did my part.
Good old fashion slave beatings
Snack Shack, Pastor's Daughter, Me, Wilson
Later that week I got a package from my mom that I had asked for. 2 pairs of shoes we had bought before I left but didn’t take. They are cool running shoes (which I’ve started to do) and some gym shoes. But in Korea they are even cooler because when I got them they were filled with CAAAANDY!
Only Ulsan kids do Taekwondo dance
Went to Daejeon where they opened a new church and it’s also where the Gracias music prepatory school is located. All the Lincoln schools were there and I saw a lot of teachers and short terms, who I found out, are headed home soon.
For the last 2-3 weeks it’s been balls to the walls translating of Korean to English for IYF English Speech Contest. It’s cool to have translated all 49 of my students but tiring work, just wanted to go hide, I also got 15 middle school kids and then 6 college papers. I couldn’t wait to be done, and when that happened I had to go back and fix a bunch cuz they changed them.
On April 3-5 IYF held their MT (membership training) at the same time as the university departments do, and some even went to the same city as I did. Our region went to Gyung Ju, which is famous for its Silla Millennium Park, historic park and ground of Korea, and cherry blossom parks when the spring season arrives. It was really cool, and I finally talked to the only short term that came to our ‘area’ spending all of 2008 in Tacoma/Seattle. The MT was cool, I saw another college’s MT at our hotel and they were going crazy with the booze. It so funny how Koreans drink, college kids drink the same and have the same mentality as a US college kid, but their games are not the same. They’ll do Korean patty cake as a drinking game. At MT our Ulsan group did this dance. The girls went first, and then the guys interrupted and did it. Oddly enough the last time I wore girl’s clothes and make up was at my old church back around freshman year. I thought MT was my vacation from translating considering I had finished them all, but on the last night at 11pm I was asked to fix some that had been edited. So I went to the main lobby and used their computer to check email and was up till 2:30 proofreading. And it’s still not over!
Tacoma short term
Geoff come work here, its a 24hr mart that sells families
Cherry Blossom path
Front gate of park
Redwaaaaallllll
We got a carny to take a pic with us
Girls
"Girls"
This week the contest started for College kids. Yesterday we went to Busan’s Korea Maritime University for our regions contest. None of my kids won cuz they all had no heart and/or sucked compared to the kids from Busan, who were really good. The big winners go on to the finals in Seoul where if u win you get some recognition from the “congress” of Korea. All in all I’d say it’s a pretty big deal to win a church speech contest that reflects governmental recognition for their resumes. They also win electronic dictionaries/translators (2-300 bux) or a new laptop, they all get plaques, etc. This Friday is the high school/ middle school contest. I have no idea how my kids will do but now I know what it takes so I can, with great reluctance, form them into speech winners (rather than good English speakers).
- Had the most fun with his speech
All this week the Lincoln kids are studying for a qualifying exam so I’ve been on holiday having no classes to teach. It’s been pretty cool, but I’ve kept busy helping with the bible seminar we are also holding at the same time. Our guest pastor is from Gumi and a pretty humorous guy. The first night our co-pastor was translating for us and out of no where he translated “Oh shit!” cuz that’s what the pastor expressed in Korean, I did a double take at my co-pastor and we all laughed. Was totally awesome.
This Sunday is the test for the kids, after that is 3 days of hardcore English speech contest practice ONLY per the principle. I also prepare for my visa renewal trip to Japan, which I saw the ferry and dock in Busan when I visited the city yesterday. Busan is pretty cool. I should get my F-4 Visa since my mom is Korean, then I can stay and just pay 30 dollars every 2 years to stay, or get married to a Korean.
As you all know I killed my iPhone when I restored it. I am unable to reactivate it until I get my sim card which Mary is sending, but in the mean time I’ve been torrenting tons of music- trans Siberian orch, final fantasy OST’s, entire john Williams and star wars soundtracks, alternative/punk/rock/blues of our youths and of course country music. And a few movies, monsters vs. aliens, ben button, and wolverine but haven’t gotten around to watching them yet. Can’t wait until I get my iPhone back up so I can go running with some music. I do have to say the Jay-Z/Linkin Park Collision album is good for getting pumped, but nothing wakes up my mornings like Chariots of Fire.
On a sadder note, 2 weeks ago the main pastor at my church was persecuted and is hospitalized. I don’t know the story exactly but I was upstairs in the staff room which sits literally on top of the lobby where it all happened. It was past midnight and I was translating papers when another pastor’s wife came rushing in and told the 3 of us left in the room to get out. We ran downstairs and the lobby was filled with white powder (which ended up being 4 cans of fire extinguishers). There was some scorch marks on some doors and light switches and a table. We ran outside to get into the air and found the man who did it lying in the grass totally black from being burned. After they hauled him into a van to go to the hospital I saw Pastor Kim and he was taking off his shirt. What was exposed was all burned, and he had lots of patches of hair missing. But cuz of the adrenaline he was in pure Pastor Command mode for like 3 minutes of chaos before being forced into a car to be taken to the hospital. It was crazy and emotional for a lot of people. It was all kept hush hush for about a week b4 the announcement was made to the congregation. Even though I was there for the aftermath, I don’t know the exact details of who the man was, but I heard it was a brother or deacon who was upset cuz of that night’s sermon about money and dealing with troubles. I just know the guy had gas (also from what I heard it was in a soda bottle) and tried to burn things. I had the notion that we shouldn’t be cleaning anything until the police arrived, but being just a guest and follower I helped clean up, when we nearly had it all wiped down – 45mins later- the police arrived and were a bit mad that we cleaned up. I don’t know how it works here but its all being taken care of as far as I’m concerned. it was a fairly subtle attack, considering it wasn’t a bomb and I didn’t hear yelling or anything of the like. Lastly I also can’t say if the guy aggro’d the pastor or was all sneaky about it trying to use a prayer session as his way in. I only say this cuz from what I deduced the night of, that he came to ‘seek’ help and prayer, but later I saw an interpretation of what happened and saw the pastor pull the man back by his collar in an attempt to stop him from doing, or getting away. But anyway we’ve seen him on a video cell call and he looks ok and is doing better, maybe in another month he will be out. The other guy, I have no idea how he is.
A few days ago, out of no where, these little bastards showed up.
The other day I went to the university with Wilson. We went to see a Philippino professor because Wilson can speak Tagalo and had met him before. I could tell the prof thought I was a Korean cuz of the way the converstaion was going and its tone when he would look at me lol, so here’s a quick recap of it went.
Me: I’m from America too, from Oregon
Prof: Portland? There is a student here from Oregon.
Me: Yes I’m from the Portland area, and I’ve met Marie, she lives 20 minutes from my house, in Beaverton.
Prof: Do you know where Lake Oswego is?
Me: (what the deuce!) Yes, I’m from Lake Oswego….
In my near 3 months of being here very few people have even heard me say Lake Oswego, let alone anyone EVER say Lake Oswego, I always just say I’m from Portland cuz that’s where the church is. I was totally surprised at how small this world is. The prof knew about LO because when he was a grad student his now-ex girlfriend was from LO and went to Reed. I don’t remember if I mentioned this, but I a few weeks ago I met another prof who spent last year teaching design at PSU. With Ulsan and Portland being sister cities and all these meetings close to home it’s like I never left Oregon.
Well that’s where I am for the month of March and into April. This month should be exciting with my birthday and trip to Japan. I’m also getting more involved and getting out more. The weather is turning warmer and life is good. Hit me with responses, requests or questions. How are things there? Wanna talk about police shootings, people killing families, or crazy North Korea??
