Here in Korea, we meet lots of people. The most important part of meeting people, is telling them your name. This gets interesting when some of the letters in your name don't exist in the alphabet of the other people. The Korean language has fewer consonants and more vowels than English does. "F" does not exist, they use "p." Along with this, "p" and "b" are basically the same letter, so is "d" and "t." "G" and "k" are the same, and the best one is "r" and "l." This makes Riley's introductions hilarious. Plus, even after we know people a while, they can't remember that its "Riley" and not "Liley" or "Rirey" because to Koreans it sounds exactly the same. My name is much easier to tell people. First, I don't even bother with the "r"s, so I'm Ma-ga-et to most people, but best of all, there is a famous cookie brand here called Margaret cookie! Its even spelled correctly on the box!
As for our last name... we only use it for paperwork. Korean names are almost always on 3 syllables. The last name is one, and the first name is 2. The last name comes first in order as well. Our professor's (boss's) name is Im Man-sung in Korea, but in the US its Man-sung Yim. When I write out my whole name for people, they get amazed at the length. The paperwork here is sized for Korean names, so we get to write really really small.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Quick Note
Yesterday I saw the mailman on his way to delivering mail. He was driving a motorcycle. The mail was in a big box behind him. I wonder if this was done in the US if more people would want to be mailmen.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Socially Acceptable
Here in Korea, we noticed people doing some things that in america would either warrant funny looks, or would start a fight. However, here in Korea they are normal.
The first happens at meals. Imagine college age boys eating food. Here, it is totally normal for them to reach over and take each other's food. Even just spoonfuls of soup. EVERYONE does this. It doesn't matter if you just met someone, if you go out to eat with them, they can take your food without asking. This probably comes from the traditional meal mostly being eaten from common plates family style, and you grab bites with chopsticks.
The second thing is personal contact. This luckily only happens between friends. It is more normal for two friends (girl-girl, guy-guy) to hold hands than a couple to hold hands. Yesterday we were biking down our street and two middle-aged guys were walking down the street holding hands. In Korea is does not mean you are gay, it just means you are good friends. So, when our good asian (Chinese people do this too) friends reach out to us, we have to remember that it doesn't mean what it means in america.
The third thing is about the guys dress code. We were walking down the road this week and notice a really tall, buff Korea in front of us. He was wearing army boots and still had the army hair cut. This wasn't strange, the odd part was that he was carrying a purse. Guys here have purses. Granted they are usually brown or black, but besides that they look exactly like the purses my mom has worn in the past. A couple more things about what guys wear here. Skinny jeans are in! Asian guys usually have skinny legs anyway, but they all wear skinny jeans! I've seen not skinny ones in the store, but I don't think they wear them much. We have also been surprised at the men's tie's here. They have normal colored ones, but they also have a large selection or brightly colored ties covered in sparkles and glitter. And they are worn!
So, the last thing I will mention, is that guys aren't they only ones that wear strange things in Korea. Apparently, typical winter-ware for girls is a heavy coat, high heels, and really short short or skirts. Then, the only thing on their legs are tights. They don't wear this in the summer, only winter. Sometimes the tights are fairly thick, I think some are even like the ones worn by figure skaters, but they can't be a warm as a pair of pants!
So, if you ever come to Korea, don't start too hard at the man-purses because people here would not understand what was strange.
The first happens at meals. Imagine college age boys eating food. Here, it is totally normal for them to reach over and take each other's food. Even just spoonfuls of soup. EVERYONE does this. It doesn't matter if you just met someone, if you go out to eat with them, they can take your food without asking. This probably comes from the traditional meal mostly being eaten from common plates family style, and you grab bites with chopsticks.
The second thing is personal contact. This luckily only happens between friends. It is more normal for two friends (girl-girl, guy-guy) to hold hands than a couple to hold hands. Yesterday we were biking down our street and two middle-aged guys were walking down the street holding hands. In Korea is does not mean you are gay, it just means you are good friends. So, when our good asian (Chinese people do this too) friends reach out to us, we have to remember that it doesn't mean what it means in america.
The third thing is about the guys dress code. We were walking down the road this week and notice a really tall, buff Korea in front of us. He was wearing army boots and still had the army hair cut. This wasn't strange, the odd part was that he was carrying a purse. Guys here have purses. Granted they are usually brown or black, but besides that they look exactly like the purses my mom has worn in the past. A couple more things about what guys wear here. Skinny jeans are in! Asian guys usually have skinny legs anyway, but they all wear skinny jeans! I've seen not skinny ones in the store, but I don't think they wear them much. We have also been surprised at the men's tie's here. They have normal colored ones, but they also have a large selection or brightly colored ties covered in sparkles and glitter. And they are worn!
So, the last thing I will mention, is that guys aren't they only ones that wear strange things in Korea. Apparently, typical winter-ware for girls is a heavy coat, high heels, and really short short or skirts. Then, the only thing on their legs are tights. They don't wear this in the summer, only winter. Sometimes the tights are fairly thick, I think some are even like the ones worn by figure skaters, but they can't be a warm as a pair of pants!
So, if you ever come to Korea, don't start too hard at the man-purses because people here would not understand what was strange.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Our Church in Korea
We were very lucky at finding a good church community almost immediately after getting here in Korea.
The first Sunday after arriving in Korea, we went to a church that has an English Service. Dr. Yim (our boss) found this church before we even arrived. The whole church is called Daedok Presbyterian Church, and its the second biggest church in Daejeon. I keep forgetting that, though, because we attend SPAN (Serving People of All Nations) which is much smaller. When I first heard of the english service, I pictured a bunch of people like me worshiping together. I'm not sure why, I was in a foreign country, but I figured the people like me would all be at this service. I found out that Americans were the minority at a service of people who were mostly not native english speakers. They were there because they spoke english better than korean. I've made friends from so many different places! South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, China, Dominican Republic, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, India, and Canada (not quite as exotic, but still neat). There are also many Koreans that attend our service, though I'm not completely sure why. Probably to practice english.
We arrived at the church two weeks before their pastor left. Please be in prayer for out new pastor. The guest pastors aren't bad, but we need someone steady to come. Its a growing ministry with new people coming all the time. We have retreats every spring and fall, with side groups going on weekly.
The service itself starts at 1:30pm. The whole church gets fed around 12pm, so we get to eat beforehand. The food is always Korean. They have an industrial kitchen with massive amounts of rice and kimchi. Then we have church. After church we have bible study, which is basically sunday school. The during the week, there are TLC meetings. These are basically bible studies. They are located in various regions of the city. Daejeon is split up into "dong"s, sorta like New York having Manhattan and the Broncs, we have different areas of the city with different names.
Currently, we are attending two TLC meetings. One is in a different dong, but we really like the discussions and the food is usually cooked by South Africans (delicious!!). Our other TLC is close to our house. We feel that one of God's purposes for us to come to Korea is to help our this TLC. They have been struggling with getting organized for a while, and this is mainly due to people not being able to have enough time to be good leaders. As of yesterday, Riley and I are going to be leaders of this TLC with our friend Ashley. Please keep us in your prayers too. This will be the most I've ever been in charge of a bible study, and we have a long way to go with it.
In addition to SPAN, we have become very involved with a place called GP house. It is sort of a spin off of SPAN, except it is geared to provide a place for foreigners and Koreans to meet and talk. It has sort of become our living room. Officially, it is a cafe that provides yummy coffee, korean lessons, and "talking club" (where people can practice conversational english). Riley and I actually lead one of the talking clubs. We also have parties to get people involved (last night was our Halloween party!!). Its an amazing place, and most of our friends outside of SPAN are from GP house. Its a good place to come, have coffee, and have conversations. The hope of GP house is to use these conversations to make friends and introduce people to God in a comfortable setting. One of the best things about SPAN and GP house is their attitude towards non-believers. They do not believe in pushing God on people, but instead just loving people for who they are and whatever they believe. I was told when I started in SPAN that many of the people who attend are there for the friendly people, but don't believe in God. I also have met several people who recently became christians because of SPAN's love and joy that they see and experience.
South Korea is a amazing place to gain a new perspective, and God seems to have made a place here for us before we even arrived.
The first Sunday after arriving in Korea, we went to a church that has an English Service. Dr. Yim (our boss) found this church before we even arrived. The whole church is called Daedok Presbyterian Church, and its the second biggest church in Daejeon. I keep forgetting that, though, because we attend SPAN (Serving People of All Nations) which is much smaller. When I first heard of the english service, I pictured a bunch of people like me worshiping together. I'm not sure why, I was in a foreign country, but I figured the people like me would all be at this service. I found out that Americans were the minority at a service of people who were mostly not native english speakers. They were there because they spoke english better than korean. I've made friends from so many different places! South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, China, Dominican Republic, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, India, and Canada (not quite as exotic, but still neat). There are also many Koreans that attend our service, though I'm not completely sure why. Probably to practice english.
We arrived at the church two weeks before their pastor left. Please be in prayer for out new pastor. The guest pastors aren't bad, but we need someone steady to come. Its a growing ministry with new people coming all the time. We have retreats every spring and fall, with side groups going on weekly.
The service itself starts at 1:30pm. The whole church gets fed around 12pm, so we get to eat beforehand. The food is always Korean. They have an industrial kitchen with massive amounts of rice and kimchi. Then we have church. After church we have bible study, which is basically sunday school. The during the week, there are TLC meetings. These are basically bible studies. They are located in various regions of the city. Daejeon is split up into "dong"s, sorta like New York having Manhattan and the Broncs, we have different areas of the city with different names.
Currently, we are attending two TLC meetings. One is in a different dong, but we really like the discussions and the food is usually cooked by South Africans (delicious!!). Our other TLC is close to our house. We feel that one of God's purposes for us to come to Korea is to help our this TLC. They have been struggling with getting organized for a while, and this is mainly due to people not being able to have enough time to be good leaders. As of yesterday, Riley and I are going to be leaders of this TLC with our friend Ashley. Please keep us in your prayers too. This will be the most I've ever been in charge of a bible study, and we have a long way to go with it.
In addition to SPAN, we have become very involved with a place called GP house. It is sort of a spin off of SPAN, except it is geared to provide a place for foreigners and Koreans to meet and talk. It has sort of become our living room. Officially, it is a cafe that provides yummy coffee, korean lessons, and "talking club" (where people can practice conversational english). Riley and I actually lead one of the talking clubs. We also have parties to get people involved (last night was our Halloween party!!). Its an amazing place, and most of our friends outside of SPAN are from GP house. Its a good place to come, have coffee, and have conversations. The hope of GP house is to use these conversations to make friends and introduce people to God in a comfortable setting. One of the best things about SPAN and GP house is their attitude towards non-believers. They do not believe in pushing God on people, but instead just loving people for who they are and whatever they believe. I was told when I started in SPAN that many of the people who attend are there for the friendly people, but don't believe in God. I also have met several people who recently became christians because of SPAN's love and joy that they see and experience.
South Korea is a amazing place to gain a new perspective, and God seems to have made a place here for us before we even arrived.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Fishing in Korea
The other weekend we went on a Korean family vacation with a friend of ours. The vacation was amazing and I will try to talk about pieces of it as we go, but one major aspect of the trip was fishing. Our friend who we went with was obsessed with fishing. We went to a remote part of the countryside with a beautiful river so clear that the water looked blue! The first night we arrived, our friend wanted to try fishing for catfish. Catfish apparently only like to be caught in the middle of the night. Thus began our search for a place to fish for catfish.
The first spot we went to was perfect. It was close to the place we were staying and our fisherman saw a fish! He had a glowing bobbin on his line so he could see it in the dark, and we watched that little light go up and down for a long time. He was the only one of us who really knew, or really wanted, to actually fish. We just watched and spoke in hushed tones. Actually, the fisherman's girlfriend started watching a tv show on her smart phone.
After a while he looked for fish again with a flashlight, and the one fish he had seen decided to swim away. The next hour was spent going from one fishing spot to the next. One had too little water, one already had two fishermen, until we ended up driving up a mountain to a stream.
It was so beautiful there! If only we could have actually seen anything... The stars were amazing, and when I took a picture with a flash I would see a clear, blue pond at the end of a cascade around white rocks. There were fish there! They were just about 1 cm long.
The next day was more successful. We went net fishing! This involved putting a net next to a medium-sized rock, and the guy with the giant crowbar would go to the other side and wiggle the rock. Any fish hiding would dart away into the net. It was pretty effective. About 1 out of 4 wiggled rocks produced fish. The fish were about 5 inches long on average. Some were generic fish, some catfish, and some eels. It was a lot of fun just wandering around the river, once your feet got to numb to notice the cold. We caught a good number of fish, and I wasn't sure what they were going to do with them. One thing about koreans, they use every part of the animal/plant. I knew they weren't going to go to waste. Once we got back to the house, the women (there were a team of sisters cooking all the meals) made a spicy soup with chunks of radishes and kimchi. Then they dumped some of the fish in whole! I didn't see it, but our friend said one was trying to swim! We got bowlfuls of the soup once it was done cooking. Then we ate the fish whole, tiny bones and all. They were so young and cooked it was like eating canned salmon bones. I ate the head last...
So, that is our fishing experience in Korea! It started dark and ended yummy!
The first spot we went to was perfect. It was close to the place we were staying and our fisherman saw a fish! He had a glowing bobbin on his line so he could see it in the dark, and we watched that little light go up and down for a long time. He was the only one of us who really knew, or really wanted, to actually fish. We just watched and spoke in hushed tones. Actually, the fisherman's girlfriend started watching a tv show on her smart phone.
After a while he looked for fish again with a flashlight, and the one fish he had seen decided to swim away. The next hour was spent going from one fishing spot to the next. One had too little water, one already had two fishermen, until we ended up driving up a mountain to a stream.
It was so beautiful there! If only we could have actually seen anything... The stars were amazing, and when I took a picture with a flash I would see a clear, blue pond at the end of a cascade around white rocks. There were fish there! They were just about 1 cm long.
The next day was more successful. We went net fishing! This involved putting a net next to a medium-sized rock, and the guy with the giant crowbar would go to the other side and wiggle the rock. Any fish hiding would dart away into the net. It was pretty effective. About 1 out of 4 wiggled rocks produced fish. The fish were about 5 inches long on average. Some were generic fish, some catfish, and some eels. It was a lot of fun just wandering around the river, once your feet got to numb to notice the cold. We caught a good number of fish, and I wasn't sure what they were going to do with them. One thing about koreans, they use every part of the animal/plant. I knew they weren't going to go to waste. Once we got back to the house, the women (there were a team of sisters cooking all the meals) made a spicy soup with chunks of radishes and kimchi. Then they dumped some of the fish in whole! I didn't see it, but our friend said one was trying to swim! We got bowlfuls of the soup once it was done cooking. Then we ate the fish whole, tiny bones and all. They were so young and cooked it was like eating canned salmon bones. I ate the head last...
 |
| Us net fishing. We are both in the picture, Riley is helping with the net and I am wandering. |
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Vending Machines
I have decided to post some little entries so that people can stay interested and I don't have to write as much. I still need to give you some big updates, but I realized something interesting today about Korea.
Korea's vending machines have almost everything. The ones in our building can give you yogurt, cereal, milk, soda, hot coffee, and hot chocolate. They also have one for meat on a stick (not as bad as it sounds) and even cigarettes (with a place to put your ID card to make sure you are old enough). I know of one near the cafeteria that can serve you hot ramen. With all these amazing thing you can get from vending machines, there is one thing you cannot get. I have yet to see a vending machine with candy. No candy bars, no honey buns, no lance crackers. I was so taken with the meat on a stick machine I didn't even miss the candy, but today I was craving chocolate and realized I couldn't just go to a box and get some. Maybe that's one of the reasons everyone here is so skinny...
Korea's vending machines have almost everything. The ones in our building can give you yogurt, cereal, milk, soda, hot coffee, and hot chocolate. They also have one for meat on a stick (not as bad as it sounds) and even cigarettes (with a place to put your ID card to make sure you are old enough). I know of one near the cafeteria that can serve you hot ramen. With all these amazing thing you can get from vending machines, there is one thing you cannot get. I have yet to see a vending machine with candy. No candy bars, no honey buns, no lance crackers. I was so taken with the meat on a stick machine I didn't even miss the candy, but today I was craving chocolate and realized I couldn't just go to a box and get some. Maybe that's one of the reasons everyone here is so skinny...
Friday, September 30, 2011
Saturday Ride
This morning, Riley and I took a jog/ride. Since Riley is a much faster runner than I am, I usually fall way behind when we run together, but today we had the idea that I could ride my bike and Riley could run. It worked really well and I wanted to tell you what we saw on our ride.
We went to the river near our house that has biking and running paths all over it. It is really pretty because there are bridges for people that are just square rocks in a line with plenty of room for the water to go between. The river is also always full of white egrets.
So, we pasted (or rather got passed) by some serious bikers. In Korea, when you take up a hobby, you get the who outfit. These guys (girls?) wore biking pants, jackets, gloves, bandanas, hats, and sunglasses. We also passes families with children on training wheels, children just off of training wheels, and people just biking leisurely along the river.
Next to the river there is a flat grassy spot where we passed students playing baseball. It seems whenever we pass Korean students around middle school age, they love shouting out "Hello!" or "Good Morning!" to practice english. Most of them were playing baseball. (Koreans love baseball!) After we passes the baseball-playing students, we passed some tiny Koreans playing soccer. They were probably 6 or 7, but I think they were better than me. Then we passed a group of people practicing a flag routine. It reminded me of my marching band days. There was also a group that I think was a drum group, but they were just standing around. There was a huge stack of drums nearby though. Under one of the bridges there was an official soccer/volleyball game going on (they even had a referee). It looked almost exactly like volleyball, except they were using their feet and the net was a lot lower.
Today was a wonderful day to be outside! Its perfect autumn weather. It makes me miss pumpkin pie! You can get pumpkins here, they are just little and green. Actually, Koreans call all squash "pumpkins." I'm not sure what all will happen in a Korean fall, but the weather is just like at home! And, we get to celebrate 3 Thanksgivings this year! Korean, American, and Canadian! If I can just figure out how to make pie crust, maybe I can make a Korean pumpkin pie...
Anyways, right before we turned around, we passed a golf driving range someone had set up next to the river. It looked like a kit you could set up anywhere. People had their drivers ready and were wearing their golf outfit.
We came back the way we went, so it was just more of the same. More "Hellos" from the students. Riley ran through a flock of pigeons and almost caught one! We passed more packs of students on bicycles and more families out enjoying the beautiful day.
We went to the river near our house that has biking and running paths all over it. It is really pretty because there are bridges for people that are just square rocks in a line with plenty of room for the water to go between. The river is also always full of white egrets.
So, we pasted (or rather got passed) by some serious bikers. In Korea, when you take up a hobby, you get the who outfit. These guys (girls?) wore biking pants, jackets, gloves, bandanas, hats, and sunglasses. We also passes families with children on training wheels, children just off of training wheels, and people just biking leisurely along the river.
Next to the river there is a flat grassy spot where we passed students playing baseball. It seems whenever we pass Korean students around middle school age, they love shouting out "Hello!" or "Good Morning!" to practice english. Most of them were playing baseball. (Koreans love baseball!) After we passes the baseball-playing students, we passed some tiny Koreans playing soccer. They were probably 6 or 7, but I think they were better than me. Then we passed a group of people practicing a flag routine. It reminded me of my marching band days. There was also a group that I think was a drum group, but they were just standing around. There was a huge stack of drums nearby though. Under one of the bridges there was an official soccer/volleyball game going on (they even had a referee). It looked almost exactly like volleyball, except they were using their feet and the net was a lot lower.
Today was a wonderful day to be outside! Its perfect autumn weather. It makes me miss pumpkin pie! You can get pumpkins here, they are just little and green. Actually, Koreans call all squash "pumpkins." I'm not sure what all will happen in a Korean fall, but the weather is just like at home! And, we get to celebrate 3 Thanksgivings this year! Korean, American, and Canadian! If I can just figure out how to make pie crust, maybe I can make a Korean pumpkin pie...
Anyways, right before we turned around, we passed a golf driving range someone had set up next to the river. It looked like a kit you could set up anywhere. People had their drivers ready and were wearing their golf outfit.
We came back the way we went, so it was just more of the same. More "Hellos" from the students. Riley ran through a flock of pigeons and almost caught one! We passed more packs of students on bicycles and more families out enjoying the beautiful day.
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