No Rae Bang

I experienced one of those "must have" experiences last night--karaoke. In Korean, they call it "No Rae Bang." Everyone gets into it, even middle-aged business men, so I suppose that means it's a good way to de-stress. The administrators and teachers and staff love it, too!

So, beware. :) This is what happens when you start teaching English in Korea:

Life is like the Oregon Trail...

If my life was a copy of the Oregon Trail computer game, my character would be traveling at a grueling pace right now. Well, at least that's what it feels like at the moment. I'm hoping to reduce it to a mere strenuous pace during the next few days. I've been quite busy with all of my lesson preparation and orientation at the school, but hopefully things will slow down soon!

Homestay

One of my good friends once told me that I have a knack for meeting interesting people. I'm not sure if that's actually true, though; it seems to me that you can find something interesting in almost all people if you search hard enough. Of course, maybe I just have an easier time of it than others. Who knows?

Anyway, I have decided that my host mother definitely falls into the interesting category. I think I will write a book someday and make her the comic foil. She is quite the character--always talking, always cooking, always worrying--and she twitches when she's trying to pay attention to someone. Plus, she's anal retentive about hairs on the floor. She has lectured me several times on the importance of picking up hair. If she sees a stray hair on the floor, she squacks (that's the closest way I can describe the sound) and gives me a demonstration on how I should address the task of picking up the hair and throwing it away. It's quite odd. So I suppose she could accurately be described as a busybody. But she's also good-hearted, so I'll try not to complain too much.

My living situation is a little different than I anticipated. I live with In-Hwa (my roommate) all the time, as well as her little sister (age 13). Their mother stays with them 2 weeks every month (during which time she educates me on the importance of hair reduction in the house), and their father comes to visit 2 days every month. Their other sister visits on the weekends when she is not at the university.

I live on the 25th story of a large apartment building. Apparently, it's one of the wealthiest places in the city. And I don't doubt it because everything here is top-notch in quality. The only drawback might be that all the buildings look alike: tall and off-white. As a result, I had a bit of a scenic adventure as I was returning home today...that is to say, I got a little lost. Landmarks are hard to come by. But luckily for me, the people in Seoul are helpful. When I stopped to ask for directions, I found out that I was only 5 minutes away from my apartment. So it all worked out.

Blessing/Sending

New Horizon sent me off yesterday. They prayed for me in each service. It was one of those tiny extraordinary moments in a series of ordinary ones. I mention it because there's a bit of an interesting story behind that. But first of all, I should probably explain that I have an abnormal fear of middle-aged male pastors. I'm not sure why, but I do. The fact that Roger (the New Horizon pastor) is probably the most un-scary guy in the whole world makes little difference.

When Roger found out that I was planning to go to Korea, he told me to be sure to not escape until my church family had prayed for me. Well, I thought it sounded like a good idea, even if I'm not usually too crazy about a lot of attention. But as it came closer to the time to leave, I felt too awkward to talk to him about it. Since my departure was delayed, I figured he'd probably forget about it. Margaret kept pestering me, saying that it was an important thing, but I decided I might as well just fly under the radar and quietly leave the country.

Well, apparently, Someone had other plans. On May 11, Roger cornered me as I was headed into church. I suppose I was rather alarmed (given my pastor phobia and all). He asked me to speak to the church about what I was doing and why. (The thought of a big crowd alarmed me a bit, too!) But I couldn't say "no," and that's how I ended up in front of the congregation on Sunday. It was amazing to see the amount of people--some who were total strangers--who were willing to offer me prayer support and encouragement. I suppose I considered it a bit of a "bear hug" moment from God's family. And that was good. Oh, and it has helped me to get rid of some of my pastor fear, too. :)