안녕하세요.

Hello again everyone. I'm keeping good on my word and I'm writing up this "part II" post to the blog I began Saturday.

Beware readers... long post ahead.

Saturday was an... amazing... day.

I had recently begun to feel a bit homesick. I miss my family, and I miss my friends especially around this time of year when the weather is so nice. I began feeling a bit misplaced. Friday night I went to bed thinking about the awesome summers at home, all of the bike trails, the coffee shops, the pool, the lakes, all the other fun things to do.

That feeling of loneliness also started to close in on me. While I have plenty to keep me occupied during the weekdays, and lovely co-workers to chat with during the breaks at work, I didn't really have anyone to bond with. I haven't been able to make any friends due to my hectic schedule. I'd been searching frantically for groups or activities that I could get involved and help me meet people, but let me tell you guys, that's not as easy as it sounds.

I went to sleep Friday night feeling kind of down, but woke up Saturday with some strange kind of strength. I was determined not to feel blue. If I had to be by myself, I would do whatever it took to make that time totally enjoyable. I woke up at 6:30AM Saturday morning (don't call me crazy, it was great!), piddled around the apartment for a bit, then put on my jogging clothes, laced up my shoes, and set out to the park. No way I was going to spend that gorgeous Saturday morning cooped up in my apartment!

I didn't realize HOW gorgeous Saturday really was until I was setting foot in the park. That place is a little piece of paradise. Green grass, trees, big wild bushes, and one of the most breathtaking mountains views I've ever seen. That scenic atmosphere coupled with the warm sun and the cool breeze gave me some serious energy. My first trip to the park on Saturday was great, but it was my second trip that set the mood for what was to be a truly amazing day.

After jogging for a bit (a lot of power walking too, because I'm so out of practice with jogging) I began noticing a lot of guys in uniforms begin to filter into the park. Soccer players. The green grassy part of the park is actually made up of two soccer fields. Neato! I thought to myself "Hm. Soccer. Interesting sport. I need to be interested in a sport of some kind." So, I made up my mind after my exercise to go home, get clean, and then go back to the park to watch the soccer matches.

About 10 minutes after I arrive at my apartment, anxiety sets in. I'm not much of a "Go and do new things by yourself" type of person. Actually, I get quite terrified for the most ridiculous reasons. I began to second guess returning to the park to watch the soccer games.

"What if there's a huge crowd of people there and I can't find a place to watch, I'll just have to turn around and come back home and feel all awkward."

"What if these are actual games of some kind, and it's not just leisurely playing, and I have to pay to get in? I need so save my money."

"I don't know the first thing about soccer, what if I get there and totally hate it?"

Yeah. These were some of the things going through my mind. But, I still had that curious strength that was telling me to 'quit being a baby' and go.

I kept repeating Eleanor Roosevelt's words of wisdom to myself over and over: "Do one thing every day that scares you." ...or at least makes you feel slightly uncomfortable.

That last straw happened when I was just about to decide against going back out to the park. This thought, as obvious as daylight, came stomping into my mind. "You'll move to another country all by yourself but you won't walk to a park to watch a soccer game? That's weird. That's just plain weird."

Alright, I talked myself into it. Out I go again, armed with a book and some study material just incase I get bored. The first thing I notice upon arriving back at the park, is that there are no observers of the soccer games going on (two, one on each field). The only people in the stands are other soccer players waiting their turn. The people who didn't come out to play soccer are strolling, or jogging, or riding their bicycles. Very relaxed atmosphere. No crowds, no yelling, just people enjoying the Saturday. Score!

I scope out seating for optimum comfort/view and then take the long way around to get to the park benches on the other side of the field from where I am. I take a seat. Suddenly, I notice God.

You think I'm kidding? You've got another thing coming. That one moment, settling down on that park bench in the warm sun with the cool breeze and the shady trees, the mountains looming in the distance against a perfectly blue sky... the presence of God was so blazingly obvious that I think my entire mind shut down momentarily with an overload of 'happy'. I just sat there in complete contentment. I was SO content in fact, that I sat there for over an hour doing absolutely nothing but soaking in the sun and the scenery and occasionally watching the soccer matches going on nearby.

Bliss.

At some point an ajushi (older gentleman) strolled past. He had a mask on his face (to prevent from inhaling dust and dirt) and a tool that looked like a pick axe in one hand. As he past me he turned his head, I could tell by his eyes that he was smiling. I smiled back and he raised his free hand to wave at me. I greeted him and he smiled even bigger, and then strolled on by.

Kindness. It's AMAZING what bit of minute kindness can do to your day. Things were only getting better.

A little later another ajushi on a bicycle stopped in front of me rather suddenly. We smiled at each other and exchanged greetings. Then he asked me if I liked to ride bicycles. Of course! I responded. He chatted a bit more and then he told me that he rents bicycles for people to use. He asked me if I would be interested and I had to politely decline and say "Perhaps another time." I found out later that apparently renting a bicycle for a few hours is free. How neat is that?! So it's actually 'borrowing' a bicycle.

Just a few minutes after this I realized that I was starting to get a little bit uncomfortable. That bench wasn't exactly made of down feathers. So I finally gathered my stuff, got up, and made my way into town. I bought some yummy bread (thank you Paris Baguette for having wheat bread!) went to a little stationary shop and then headed home.

All of this was done before 1:00 pm. I LOVE early mornings!

Cup Overflowing


"God is not a 'just enough' God, he's a 'more than you asked for' God. He's not a 'cup half full' God, he's a 'cup overflowing' God. God's timing is perfect, his wisdom and mercy unfathomable. God is not a 'standby' God, waiting until you call on him before he enters your life. He is ever present, with you every moment, ready to give you wisdom, help, and love that you didn't even know you needed."

As I mentioned earlier, I had been battling the inevitable loneliness that creeps up on you when you're in a new place, adjusting to completely new surroundings with no one familiar about to make that adjustment easier. It hasn't been anything serious, just a little blue feeling every now and then. I was handling it quite well, I think.

However, I prayed that God would send me a friend, someone who I could connect with. Meeting people isn't spectacularly easy in a country where you don't know the language.

In answer to my prayers, God sent me Regina (해리).

Last week Regina posted a message up on Koreabridge about a conversation/culture exchange club that was meeting on Saturday nights. There was a phone number posted and an invitation to call.

Those of you who know me well know that I have a bit of anxiety when it comes to making calls to total strangers. There was even a time when I had difficulty ordering pizza! Of course, It's not that bad now. But anyway... I dialed the number a few times and then changed my mind before finally coming up with the brilliant idea to send a text message.

The response to my text message? A phone call! Regina lets me know when and where the club will be meeting and I'm invited to join! 7:30pm on Saturday night.

Am I excited?

ABSOLUTELY!

Saturday comes around and I make the 50 minute trip to Seomyeon where the club meeting will be held. I get kind of lost, so I call Regina for help and she comes all the way out to where I am to find me and take me to her office where the club meeting will be. As I'm waiting I hear someone call my name and I turn to see this young woman waving and smiling at me. My first impression of Regina? SO CUTE! She had such a big smile on, and she even gave me a hug.

The club meeting was fun, hilarious, and fantastic. I met a lot of kind, interesting, and friendly people. I thought that this was what it meant to be blessed beyond what you asked for. I asked for a friend, and God directs me to a whole group of nice people.

God wasn't done.

Apparently Regina, her brother Aaron, and a few other members live in the same city that I do! What are the chances?! One of the foreign teachers (a young man who was born in Korea and adopted by a family in the US) even lives in the apartment building next to me.

Also, over the course of the evening I hear someone talking about a church that they go to with Regina. I'm immediately on alert. I've been looking for a church, but there are so many here and some of them are kind of strange... so I've been really wary. There are a few English ministries around, but for some reason I wasn't feeling right about those. So, I ask Regina about her church and she gives me some info and then invites me to join her the next day at the 2pm service.

Podowan Presbyterian Church

I could write another full post about Podowan Presbyterian church. It was just an amazing experience. This section is going to be long, but not quite epic, I'll leave some stuff out so family and friends, if you're ready for me to talk your ears off, then ask me about everything else!

I attended the 2pm Korean service with Regina (there are something like 4 services, to accommodate everyone that wants to attend. It's the biggest church in Hwamyeong.) I couldn't understand the sermon, but the pastor was animated, passionate, and apparently really funny because there was a lot of laughing. My desire to learn Korean became even stronger.

My goals with Korean? Know it well enough to attend a university in Busan and understand a Korean sermon. Woo! Can I do it? You bet!

Before the service started Regina helped me fill out a 'guest registry' form. At the end of the sermon the pastor took out some papers and Regina turned to me and said "Okay, new members are going to stand up now."

What?

Stand up? As in, in front of hundreds of people stand up? HA! I'm already blushing, but I tell her "No no, maybe next time." thinking that all guests were to stand up together all at once. I was wrong. They called out each person individually. Right after telling Regina I would stand up next week, I hear my name. I freeze. I can feel my face getting red as the pastor calls my name again and looks around. By this time half of the congregation have turned around to look for me, and have found me.... because my name is definitely foreign and I'm the only blonde in the room.

The people who have spotted me are smiling, it's probably impossible to miss that I'm embarrassed with as red as my face must have been. The pastor calls out my name one more time and I stand up half way and give a weird, awkward little wave. I sit back down quickly and take a deep breath... but it's not over! A young woman comes to our pew and hans me a little bag with some things inside and asks Regina and I to follow her. So we stand up, again, and follow the young woman out.

We're ushered to a room where all of the other guests and new members are. The pastor enters and calls everyones name out again and speaks with them a bit, I'm sure asking questions about where they're from and what not. He gets to me and all I can do is smile and try not to look as awkward as I certainly feel. BIG smile from the pastor and he shakes my hand and says "Welcome". He and Regina speak for a bit and then off I go to speak with the people at the English ministry.

The English ministry people are kind. But I can't help but think that the English ministry atmosphere wasn't what I was being lead to. It was nice, at least, to know that they were there. I also got to meet another really sweet girl named Shelly. She's from Chicago originally and her parents are both Korean. She's also here teaching.

After meeting the English ministry people a new group of us all head off to the College meeting which is just like a Sunday School class. Children's Day is on Wednesday, so there was a lot of discussion about children in need throughout the world. I couldn't understand what was being said, but the slide show was pretty self explanatory.

I'm looking at the slide show, the slide changes, and all of the sudden there's my name up on the screen. "Audra from the USA". My reaction? UUUUUHHH?!!!!?!?! I blush five shades of red again as everyone turns in their seats to look back to where I am. All I can do is smile and wave again. This time I don't stand up, I don't think my legs would have supported me. That much unexpected attention is pretty surprising.

But, I enjoyed being there with all of the other young adults. It felt good to be surrounded by people around my same age with a heart for God.

After that meeting we break off into small groups. Regina takes me to her small group where I meet four other young women. They are SO kind!!!!! Go Eun is the group leader. She's a molecular biology major at a University preparing for entering Med-school. Her English is actually pretty good, and she's so sweet. They include me as much as they can in their study, ask me about my prayer requests, and then ask me to pray (I pray in English and Go Eun translates). Close to the end of the small group Regina asks me if I would like to attend the evening service too.

My response. Sure!!!! We have a bit of time after small group before the evening service so some of our small group meet up with Shelly and a young man about our age to go eat.

After dinner we all headed back to church for the evening service. The evening service is full of singing, music, and a variety of praise that really kept me smiling and made me positive that God filled that place and everyone knew it. There was a children's group that came to sing and I recognized one of their songs.

"Oh how he loves you and me.
Oh how he loves you and me.
He gave his life, what more could he give?
Oh how he loves you.
Oh how he loves me,
Oh how he loves you and me."

I almost cried.

Then I almost cried AGAIN when a young woman came up to play the violin. Readers, she MUST have been famous because she was INCREDIBLE! I have never heard, and I mean NEVER, someone play an instrument like this. Even seeing fiddle players and what not in Branson and at shows... they couldn't match her, not even close. She was so passionate, and she moved with the music, it was SO amazing. One of her songs even made people cry. Her tone was perfect, on key, notes crystal clear. Every time she played the high strings I got goose bumps. It was phenomenal.

More singing again, and then the service ended.

Shelly and I say goodbye to everyone. Regina heads home, and Shelly and I go to Lotte Mart. We chat for a bit and express how glad we are to have someone to chat with in English. Then hugs, and Shelly goes home and so do I.

Later that night I get text messages from people telling me that they're glad to have met me. I feel completely happy.

So what about this cup overflowing thing?

Okay, so, I pray and ask God for a friend.

God answers my prayer with:

*Regina
*Aaron
*Go Eun
*Shelly
*The girls from my small group (Their names are hard to remember! But I WILL remember them!)
*The people from the culture club
*And... on top of all of that... a church home for me in Korea.

Consider my cup overflowed! ♥

To my family and friends in the states: I miss you so much! But I'm doing great, so don't worry about me! Smile a lot!

To my new friends here in Korea: I feel so blessed to have you in my life!

To my readers wherever you are: I hope that you're healthy and happy and enjoying life!

Until the next blog!!!

Your blog host,

~Auggie

I regret not having been able to write for so long; so much has happened the past few days and I fear this post will be way to long and still neglect too many details, but I’ll give it a shot!  It feels soo good to finally have my space/freedom back with my new apartment, and my connection with the world/sanity back with my computer’s long-lost friend, the internet.  The feeling of lacking a place in the world with no ties to anything familiar can make you go a little crazy!  Aside from and probably also slightly bolstered by that, it has been an amazing weekend.  

As difficult as it is to sleep during the day while sunlight fills your room and floods your closed eyes, it is equally so to get to sleep in Korea before this becomes your fate.  Quick, “quick” rundown of the weekend:  Friday evening, met an old friend and a new friend down by the beach to start the night; one club led to another led to the Norae-bang.  Now, I am just as suprised as you are at how quickly a small room with a booth, table, and karaoke machine could turn into one of my favorite places on this whole-wide planet, but by the time we finally dragged ourselves out of there it was broad daylight, and the subways were conveniently running to take us back home for bed.  After a short nap, I awoke on Saturday in time to go meet some friends at a hippy/worldly music festival/benefit by Kyeongsung University.  We sat in the grass for hours watching cultural performances from all over the world.  There is something about sitting in the grass on one of the first warm days of Spring to help you forget that there ever was a Winter.  I love that feeling.    When the sun set and the festival came to an end, our group came to the strong consensus that dong-dong-ju was in order.  We found a little place nearby and ordered the sweet, milky Korean alcohol that is poured from a tea kettle and drank from small golden bowls.  After dong-dong-ju and dinner, it was time to head down to the beach for a concert.  I had no idea what to expect from the band, but it honestly couldn’t have been much better.  This Korean band played a cover of nearly the entire Rancid album, “And Out Come the Wolves”, which is one of my oldest favorite albums.  And, of course, all the Westerners in the bar rushed up to the stage for sweaty, dance party madness.  Sooooo awesome!  Naturally, singing along to Korean Rancid got us ready for more norae-bang, so off we went!  After a short session of norae, a mere few hours remained before sunrise.  I was excited to get home to squeeze in some, any sleep in it’s natural state of darkness, but the invite to the jim-jil-bang was far too intriguing to pass up.  Now THIS is by far the most bizarre experience I have had in Korea yet.  So the jim-jil-bang can be found at given hotels throughout the city and is basically a spa or bathhouse, but an overnight spa or bathhouse.  Visualize: You enter a nice hotel and go up to the 4th or 6th floor if you are a female/male respectively, and are given PJ’s and a towel.  You are then free to use the hot tubs, saunas, showers, vanities, etc. in this huge, elaborate facility as you please.  And of course, this must all be done in the comfort of your bare feet, birthday suit, and false confidence.  When you are finished cleaning up, relaxing, and are ready for sleep, you will head upstairs to the 5th floor to the biggest sleepover party you have and will ever see.  There is literally a sea of Korean men, women, and children in matching PJ’s lying all over the floor, sound asleep.  Most bizarre thing I have ever seen!  After a miserably failed attempt to join them in slumber and having lost my 2 friends to the men’s sauna, I left to go watch the sunrise on the beach across the street.

Needless to say, I was exhausted by Sunday.  Mentally and physically.  But it was rejuvinating, in a way.  I met a lot of wonderful people from all over the world and walks of life, and I’m ready for more!

As mentioned in April's event calendar, the Seoul Photo and Imaging Show happened at COEX over this first weekend in May. While I had little idea what to expect specifically, I figured there would be enough to see to merit getting up early on a Saturday morning to try and beat the crowd. Above is a giant reflector or lighting doo-hickey - if my photography ever gets to that point I'm sure I'll

I meant to write every day while I was here but last night when I logged on I found that both Facebook or Blogger are being blocked by the Chinese government. I actually found out they didn't work on my own and then did a little research and found out why and then found out how to bypass the IP address (which I already knew how to do from getting baseball and "The Office" in Korea which isn't supposed to work either but anyway) and by the time I figgert all of that out I was too tired to write.

The flight over here was uneventful. The Beijing airport was quite a piece of work architecturally and one of the most intriguing spaces I have ever seen. It is huge and seems to hover over the air above you. This (size) soon became a theme and may be the biggest impression I have of China. Everything is giant-size. We got out of the airport and caught a cab to our hotel, the Minzu. This is an old historic hotel which recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. It is historic because it is one of ten buildings commissioned by the government when the communists took power back in the early fifties. There are two kinds of old in China. The Minzu kind, the new old, and the Great Wall kind, the old old. They often coexist side by side, as in the case of the famous portrait of Mao affixed to the front of the main gate to the Forbidden City.

After getting checked into the hotel, which is strange in a way but nice, we met a friend of my co-traveller Matt: Ma Huidi. She is so funny. She took us to the National Center for the Performing Arts. This building is surreal. It looks kind of like a partially submerged egg floating in the middle of a lake. It is huge (it actually contains several performance spaces and I believe the one that we were in was one of the smaller ones and it probably seated around 500) and is interesting in that it has no visible entrance. To enter you take a tunnel under the lake which has a glass ceiling: it was amazing to look out through the water of the lake from below. The concert itself was thrilling. The Chinese National Symphony performed with an aging pianist who I gathered from the reception he got was something of a national treasure. Matt told me that the program, which was a mixture of old classics (Grieg and Rachmaninoff) and pieces made famous by the aforementioned pianist during the cultural revolution, was controversial. I wasn't so interested in the politics as the music and enjoyed it thoroughly. After this we walked near Tienanmen Square and then back to the hotel for a late dinner (salted duck and shredded pork).

We woke early and went for a walk. We had booked a tour of the Great Wall through the hotel but we weren't scheduled to leave until ten so we had a leisurely breakfast (bacon, eggs, and Stilton on wheat toast for me) and hiked around for a while. The city was beautiful in the early morning and it was fun to watch the people getting out and about. By the time we were picked up for our tour it was already getting hot and it would eventually reach ninety F. The man who took us on our tour was quite an efficient driver but I don't believe he spoke to us three times throughout the day. He wasn't unfriendly per say, just incredibly quiet. The traffic was horrible the whole day but I was able to catch up on some sleep and it was nice to see the countryside anyway. A few miles north of Beijing the mountains begin and they are very beautiful, rocky sharp ridged, just like the ones you remember seeing from old Chinese ink paintings.

This part of China must have skipped spring because the cherry blossoms were just starting to bloom and only the crazy birches had leaves on. That is another one of the surprising things I found about China. I would have thought that a country of six billions would have had every square inch of arable land under cultivation to produce food (as it is indeed in Korea) but they have apparently had a big drive in the last few years to plant trees to offset their carbon emissions I think and plant they have done. The whole place is covered with newly planted and fast growing trees like poplars, willows, and birches. Everywhere we went it was like one giant tree farm.

Once in the mountains we climbed till we got to our destination, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. This is not the most popular (the tourist frenzy what puts the bad in Badaling) or the most picturesque (probably Jinshanling) but strikes a nice balance between the two. We took the cable car up but it was still quite a but of work for both of is to get there and we had to rest in the shade a few times. Once we got to the top the view was of course incredible, the wall rising and falling huge distances as it rode the ridge of the mountain from horizon to horizon, reappearing far off in in places before finally disappearing for good in the distance. The mountains looked a bit naked without their greenery but the puffs of cherry blossom everywhere was a nice accent against the dark of the hills.

After running the gauntlet of the souvenir stands (which is a story all in itself), we got back down and found our driver and headed for the Ming Tombs. We didn't have the time or the energy to really explore them but what we did see was spectacular. I especially loved the Hall of Souls, a thick-walled hall built to look like a wooden structure but constructed of stone so as to last for eternity. Inside was a giant granite obelisk with an ancient inscription. It was amazing to think that these things were built long before the first Europeans set foot on North America. There is a juniper tree there that has been found to be several thousand years old. It was most likely transplanted there during the construction of the tomb complex.

On the way back we stopped at a dumpling house that I found in one of my guidebooks (Matt lived in China for several years and loves dumplings, as do I). They were hand made after we ordered and I made a movie of the lady stuffing and forming them. We had duck, pork, mutton, veggie, and just for fun I ordered donkey. I liked the mutton the best and second probably the donkey, which had a lot of tooth and a beefy texture with a little bit of a whang at the end. All of that was washed down with cold Xingtao. When we got back to the hotel tonight Matt wrote his wife an email and promptly passed out. We are both exhausted. It was a lot of driving in a hot car today and quite a bit of walking. And I have a bit of a cold. One of the funny things that happened today was that I sneezed and had a big string of snot hanging out of my nose. While I was trying to find a tissue or something in my bag the driver turned around and caught a look at me. He turned back around to face the road and silently rolled down his window. That was the end of our air conditioning for the day.

Bed now. Up early tomorrow. More soon and pictures.