Pictures

As you already know, I am not much of a picture person. However, having recently been gifted pictures of some different places here in Daegu, I thought I'd pass them along to give you (Mom) some sort of visual reference.

The most picturesque photo I've seen of downtown Daegu - truly Luke is a wizard with a camera.

Downtown Daegu at night. This is about 7-10 minutes from where I live (walking).
A picture of the bridge across the river Sincheon that is nearest to our house. You can't tell in the photo, but the lights across the bridge actually shift colors in a continuous spectrum. It's pretty.

Munyang

These are Molly and me at Sky Tower one night we went there to sit at the rotating restaurant and watch the sun set. It was beautiful.

Just me at the beach . . . apparently it's really dirty and all of our (Me, Jesse & Molly's) students were really appalled that we'd waded in. :c/ Live and learn. It was such a good day though, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Heinsa

Mrs. Kim took all of us teachers to Heinsa (a temple about 45 minutes from Daegu) and let us walk around. This temple stores a set of wooden prints for the Buddhist scriptures. Once a year people go to the temple and perform a ceremony where they carry each of the thousands of wooden slats on their heads around the temple grounds for hours to dry them out. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, the bus driver wouldn't let us walk . . . I'm not sure why. (?)

추석

This last weekend I had my second-to-last three-day weekend in Korea! On Friday Molly and Jesse and I went to 포항 (Pohang) and laid on the beach all day. I am excited to report that my legs have tanned imperceptibly, an unprecedented event in my life. The rest of the weekend was full of long walks culminating in a huge container of ice cream split by Miss Molly and myself on Sunday evening.

This weekend was the biggest Korean holiday (추석/Chuseok). Koreans get together, eat lots of food, go and visit all their ancestors' graves and tell family histories. Mrs. Kim made us japchae and lots of other good things I don't know the names of to take home on Thursday night after work, so we all had quite a treat.

Other that that I've been having class with my friend 임연정 (Eim, Eyun-jung) pretty much every day, working on college interview skills (which has been awesome) and am starting to think about how I need to pack for my trip home. Happily for me Maija and Terry have decided to drive down to Arizona, so I'll just fly straight to El Paso, TX to be with Heather and then catch up with them for the ride back to Portland. Wow, that sounds like a plan. It's amazing to be close enough that I can really plan it, but I'm SO excited to eat Mexican food!!!!!! And I'll be in the best possible place for it!!!!!!!! *Sigh* now I'll never be able to go to bed . . . I'll have to go check out my new book.

Shadows on the pavement

Luke and I went on the last of our many Korean walks last month. Now he is back in the US harvesting sugar beets. One night just before he left we went out to Munyang and watched the stars come out. We walked out to a little pond and saw a few lightning bugs and then sat down in a clearing and tried to count how many different types of insects we could distinguish from their noises - Munyang is peaceful, but certainly not quiet, at night. (c:

Another thing I'm sure y'all will be interested in is that I got to go to dinner at my friend 현지's (Hyun-ji/Karen) house. It was . . . amazing. Her family was . . . wonderful. Her mom even told me how to make Bulgogi (which is very delicious). If I can get a recipe for japchae and mandu I think I'll be pretty much set as far as Korean food goes. They do have this really spicy soup with tofu that I like, but my stomach is less enthusiastic about the heat. *Sigh* That's life.

Oh, and I read Tuck Everlasting with a student last week, and I found a quote that was kind of where I am: "Things had happened to her that were hers alone, and had nothing to do with them. It was the first time. And no amount of telling about it could help them understand or share what she felt. It was satisfying and lonely, both at once."

I love you guys.

The Voice of Truth

On Sunday the sermon was about hearing God's voice. I made a friend when the guy speaking (Ken - really nice guy, loves the KJV (c: ) asked us to define the verb 'to know' and then called on a really sweet older Korean guy named Huang. My new friend talked about knowing the character and characteristics of something, and warmed up to me when I helped him with a couple of words along the way. (He talked to me afterwards, it was awesome.)

Ken talked about us expecting that the Lord speak to us the way we speak to each other. And I realized that I feel like God does. I feel like He speaks through body language (He speaks through His body) and through His art (Creation) and through His words. I see Him - His character, His fundamentals, clearly. I know that I see but dimly, but I believe I see Him still - I am sure of Him in ways that I'm not even sure of myself.

That's all.

*Sigh* Pictures

As pretty much anyone who knows me well enough to be reading my blog knows, I have a strict no picture policy. However, having somewhat relented about having my picture taken, I have decided to gain points both with Heather and my mother by allowing you to view some pictures taken by others. These were taken right before Steve left for his new job in Seoul. The first is Jesse, me and Molly. The second, left to right: Molly, Steve, Luke, me, Jesse.

*Sigh* You're both welcome. I love you, I hope you know how much. :cP

Episodic

I met a woman yesterday on the train. I have no idea what she was saying, but after I finished drinking my 2 liter bottle of water on my way back from my walk she took the empty bottle from me. She seemed pretty excited to get to keep it. (?)

I went hiking this morning at Munyang (문양). It's so beautiful! My knees are tired from all the downhill though. I think I might've pushed it a little hard since I only had three hours to get there, do the hike and get back, if I wanted a shower before work (which . . . I did - and everyone else wanted for me). Munyang is so differently beautiful than Alaska. Alaskan mountains are . . . indifferent. They are so many, and so tall and remote and, in many ways, unapproachable. Korean mountains are nothing like that. They seem old, like they've seen too much and are tired of it.

Things that count as mountains here in Korea would be considered hills where I'm from, and not even particularly large ones. I would love to be able to make you understand how they're still enough though, but I can't. I can't explain how worthwhile they seem after so much dingy gray and brown in the city. I came outside yesterday and this man stared at me as I walked past him urinating on a garbage pile. This is a first-world country, everything is paved, sanitation is very important to them . . . and there was an available bathroom about 30 feet away. *Sigh* I guess what I feel is a strange dichotomy. People talk about how lush and green Korea is, but in the long, grey-brown winter it's hard to imagine why.

And then you take the subway to Munyang . . . and just before the stop you come above-ground, you see a pond, and valleys full of rice paddies, and the tired mountains looking down. Somehow just wandering through the mountains and adding your weariness of the landscape to their own is refreshing like sitting and talking about everything that's wrong with a friend. Even if nothing gets solved, you're not the only one who sees it, someone else knows.

I also love the people I meet as I wander. Today on the trail I passed two Korean women going the opposite way. One of them wordlessly (this is actually inaccurate, she was speaking in Korean the whole time) managed to tell me she had seen me there the other day with Molly and ask if I was alone today. I also met a man on the subway going back who commented (they almost all do) on my footwear (gourmet sandals are where it is at) and ask me in motions where I had gone walking today. People can say what they want about the world being a dark and lonely place, I felt like God's face shone on me today. People are such a delight to Him, and I am thankful for being blessed by finding delight in them as well.