The Wedding

On Sunday, Emily and I went to church and then to my co-teacher’s wedding. It was our very first Korean wedding and it was quite different. Firstly, the wedding is held at a hall, as are most weddings here. The hall will often include everything (food, photographer, hall, etc.) and it’s actually not too bad for price (about $1500 for the whole thing, I think). It’s here that the differences start. To prevent extended narrative, I’ll post in point form.

Brides rent dresses instead of buying. (Really – when are you going to wear your wedding dress again?)
You get the hall for one hour. Previous wedding finishes, bride & guests walk out, new guests & bride walk in.
Wedding pictures are done months in advance, include only the couple and are photoshopped to the nines. You’ll have a picture in France, in a forest, with angel wings, in a pink outfit, in traditional Korean clothes, etc. (The photoshopping doesn’t stop at location, though – cheapest plastic surgery ever. Face, moles, teeth, arms (get rid of the flab), waist, boobs, butt, smile, head shape, hair – anything & everything. Wedding pictures often look surprisingly nothing like the person.
You can take a picture with the bride for 30 minutes before the wedding. She sits on a bench in a little room, you go in, take the picture with her and leave.
Generally, a teacher or boss-type person does the ceremony. They talk a little bit about the groom, a little bit about the bride, give some tips on a happy marriage. My favorite part: the guy kept clearing his throat and horking right into the mike.
There is no cake cutting, kiss, garter toss, or signing of the register.
The mothers walk down the aisle first, light the candles and leave. Then the groom walks down (to the tune of “Here Comes the Bride”) and then the bride (to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne”). People may or may not be sitting at this point. Chances are good people will watch this part of the wedding and then continue their conversation or leave.
The bride & groom have two wedding hall workers salute them with swords as they walk down the aisle. After the wedding, as they walk back, the wedding hall workers shoot streamers out of big trumpet looking things.
After the ceremony, there are 3 quick photos at the front of the hall: new couple, new couple & family, new couple & friends. Everybody stand up there (stairs make it easier), smile, 2 pictures, finished and next.
I was the only guy on the bride’s side of the friends. Emily & I were the only foreigners in the building.
My other co-teacher got chosen to catch the bouquet. In Korea, one person is chosen and, after the picture with friends, they stand in front of everyone and catch the bouquet. All of the friends clap. You might have to do a couple of tries in order to get the best picture. Also, if you are chosen to catch the bouquet, you have 6 months to get married, or else you will never get married. (Talk about pressure!)
You give a gift of money (either before, during or after the wedding). Occasionally a present. Sometimes your ticket to eat is based on the size of your gift.
Once the wedding is finished, everybody (minus the new couple & family) go upstairs to the buffet, hand in your meal ticket and sit with the guests from every other wedding of the day to eat.
The new couple then goes and changes into traditional Korean clothes, bows to the parents and they may come up to the food hall to say hello/goodbye. Maybe not.

Interesting and different, to say the least. It’s faster (start to finish, including meal – 90 – 120 minutes) and probably cheaper. It’s a lot busier and more noisy in the actual hall and everything does appear a little rushed to the Western eye. An interesting experience, to say the least. I was really thankful for my co-teacher who sat with Emily & I for the ceremony and dinner. She translated for us and explained what was going on.

After the wedding, Emily and I went shopping and then Emily met some friends for coffee & Dr. Fish (these little fish that eat the dead skin off of your feet, or whatever part of your body you put into the water). I joined them for dinner, came home, finished my lesson for Monday and called it a night.

All in all, an eventful weekend!

The Bake Sale & The (Almost) Free Trip to Hong Kong

The Bake Sale & The (Almost) Free Trip To Hong Kong

It was an eventful weekend, this past weekend. On Friday, Emily & I went out for dinner & a movie (date night!). We went and saw “I Am Legend” and it was quite good. The premise was fairly straight forward and it had some good scenes. The ending was a bit of a let down, but it was a good see.

Afterwards, we were waiting for the bus and a few high school boys came and talked to us for about 15 minutes or so. They were hilarious and sweet and you could tell they just wanted someone to pay good attention to them. Sometimes, the random conversations can get a little frustrating but this one was definitely one of the “that’s why I’m in Korea” moments.

Saturday was a bake sale put on by one of the foreigners here. He’s got fingers in a lot of things (an import food store, a speakeasy, an orphanage, a school and his own family) and he organized the bake sale to facilitate the transmission of Christmas baking as well as funds for the orphanage. Emily & I made a few dozen cookies and brought them. I think the biggest customers of the bake sale were the contributors. We bought chocolate coconut sponge cake, butter tarts, brittle, cranberry macadamia nut cookies, smartie cheesecake squares and lemon squares. Oh, and cream cheese icing. Amazing cream cheese icing.

In between dropping off the cookies and buying the food (they needed time to set up), we went to a dog café with our friend Stu. You walk into this place and the first thing that greets you is about six dogs of various breeds. You go to one of these places and pay $4 as an entrance fee (includes a free hot or cold beverage) and play with the dogs and cats there. They’re all incredibly tame and it really scratches the dog itch, if you know what I mean. As soon as Stu sat down, a dog jumped up beside him and one on his lap and they both instantly went to sleep. Emily sat with a little Pomeranian, a poodle and some sort of spaniel. I sat with a horse dog (I don’t know the breed, but that’s what it looked like). It’s relaxing in a dog sort of a way.

After the dog café, I got a call from one of the education office people (if my boss was my parent, this guy would be my uncle) and he wanted to know if I wanted to go to Hong Kong with some students for a study trip. My first instinct was “Free trip to Hong Kong – absolutely!” Unfortunately, I have another obligation at the same time so I had to decline. Not every day a free trip jumps in your lap like some tame dog.

Saturday evening, Emily & I had respective parties: a guys party and a girls party. Emily, Vanessa, Meena, Katie and Dawn made gingerbread houses at Vanessa’s house and Justin, Bobby, Dave, Hang-ju, Tae-won, Jae-gong, Leck and I played N64 and cards for the evening. Heaps of fun!

Preaching & Bread

Emily & I both preached today, I at our home church and Emily at a church in Mokpo. Both sermons went well, though I had one lady ask why I didn't finish all of my prayers with "In Jesus' name, Amen." Apparently, in Korea, they always end their prayers that way. I told her it was a cultural thing and we didn't always finish prayers that way. She wasn't too sure about my answer, and so I said I would try to remember that in the future, which made her a lot happier. In the end, it's not really a big deal either way. Hopefully she got more out of the sermon than that.

We then hopped on a train and went out to the church where Emily would preach. In order to not be late, we have to arrive about 90 minutes early what with the train schedule and all. The worship team was practicing when we got there and there were a few other people that were also there early. One lady wanted to take Emily and I hiking up a mountain for 10 minutes before church started (translate: no less than 45 minutes, in my opinion). Instead, we settled on going "out for bread." Koreans are convinced that all foreigners love bread and, compared to their regular diet, it's true.

However, Korean bakeries often leave something to be desired. Worse still is when they include something that was never desired. The most common surprise fillings are red bean paste and sweet potato paste. In addition, every bread is white and every baked good is sweet, even garlic bread and other non-sweet things. In short, going out for bread was a little intimidating. We said yes, however, and to the bakery we went.

We got some sort of round thing that was supposed to be an apple type bread, cream cheese baguette and fig yogurt for drinking. We went to the little sitting area (convenience stores and bakeries alike almost all have an area for you to sit and eat your stuff, 7-11 included) and we ate. The stuff was all much better than we feared and we had a nice chat.

We went back to the church and Emily preached her sermon marvelously. I was very proud of her and it went really well - rebuke free, even. The people at the Mokpo church are amazing - they're all so kind and there's a wonderful feeling of community there. Everybody just seems to care and want to engage with you. If I had to guess, that feeling increases inversely proportional (love that phrase!) to the size of the church. Bigger the church, less the attitude of universal caring. In that way, small churches are amazing.

We got back on the train and I finished up my lesson for tomorrow and then just enjoyed the ride. Our apartment was a bit of a mess when we got home so we cleaned it up, I made ham/egg/cheese bagels for a snack, finished my lesson on the computer and Emily packed up all our meat from Costco yesterday and put it in the freezer. Portioning is the best.

All in all, a grand weekend though busy and tiring. Hopefully I'll get a day off this week because of tests! It's been almost two weeks since my last holiday, so I think I deserve one now. Otherwise, I'll have to wait until next week when we get the Wednesday off because of the federal election. (Good idea, no? Statutory holiday for election day. I like!)

Mmm... holiday.

The Road Trip

We took a road trip today to Costco. Yes, Costco is road trip worthy here. The nearest one is about 2 hours away and it's a vital source of things like cheddar cheese, dill pickles, nacho chips and Australian beef. (Korean beef is expensive and American is controversial and therefore demand is sporadic at best.)

We rented a van, hopped in with three of our friends and drove north for two hours to Daejeon. the van was a 9 seater so we had more than enough room. It was a diesel, which cost about $1.60 a liter, so it was $75 to fill up. Pricey, but about the same in the end as all of us taking the train (including the cost of rental and tolls). Also GPS. I will never drive in Korea without GPS. Roads don't have names here - intersections do. Ergo, it's impossible to navigate in a city you have never been to as there is no logical system by which to do so.

Anyway, thanks to the GPS (best $10 I ever spent), we got there fine. We ate well, bought lots and came home. We almost died only once, which is really good for Korea. It was my first time driving on the mainland, so it was a little nerve wracking at first but it was a lot of fun in the end. The weather was perfect, the friends were good and the food is always nice to have in the house.

Good times!

Oh, yeah, and Emily and I are preaching at two separate churches tomorrow: me at our home church and Emily at a church in Mokpo, a smaller city outside of Gwangju. This is my second time at our home church and Emily's third time in Mokpo. We both occasionally preach in both of these churches, and tomorrow is the first time our days overlap. If you think of it, please keep us in prayer! Thanks!

"The $10,000 Mascot" and "Why don't they close the windows?"

It's official - I (Jon) am a $10,000 mascot. Not that I cost that much to be a mascot, nor that I earn that much for being a mascot. Last week was an English contest and, to cut a long story short, my school won. As I'm the foreign teacher at this school, and the school won somewhere around $10,000 (or $5,000 - accounts differ), I am the new mascot.

I really had very little to do with it - I teach the grade 7 students and it was the grade 8 students that were in the contest. I see them once a month, and a few of them more than that. However, over 100 students were in the competition, so I had far less to do with their success than may appear at first glance. However, I'm still the mascot: the school with the foreign teacher won the competition and (possibly more importantly) the money.

Woo me!


Which brings me to my next point. Sort of.

Schools in Korea have a basic design: hallway with classrooms on one side and a window to the outside on the other. There are slight variations but nothing too shocking. Also, Korean winter has come upon us. It's cold enough to be chilling to the bone (dang humidity!) but not so cold that any building is really built to withstand the cold. Single paned glass, all glass doors, and (of course!) windows open everywhere.

In Korea, there is a rather popular notion that if you have any sort of a fan on while you are sleeping and you don't have the window open, you will die. Experts disagree as to how this happens (the fan steals your breath, the oxygen in the room gets depleted, etc.) but it's a common enough belief. I've got no idea if that leads to most of the windows being open on December 7 or not, but it just might.

The poor students sit in their classroom (made mostly of concrete and therefore is not warm and cuddly) and discuss how cold they are. With the windows wide open.

Which brings me to my second and final point: Why don't they close the windows?

August to December in a Nutshell

Four months is a long time. In order to bring you the most effective and efficient use of your time, here's the highlights:

• I (Jon) have been on TV two or three or four or five times. For sure two, possibly up to five times. The TV cameras were there, they were pointing at me but I didn't actually watch the news to see if I was on. Once was the Kimchi festival, once was a teacher training session, one was a promotional video for an English camp and two were about an English competition this past week.
  
• I was also on the promotional poster for the English festival.
  
• Emily and I have both preached (and will be preaching) in our home church as well as in a church in Mokpo, a town about 90 minutes away from Gwangju.
• I've had a great semester and have loved my two schools. They're the same as last semester, but I'll probably be changing in a few weeks here.
• I have been teaching at a University once a week for the past few weeks. I've been teaching junior high & high school teachers how to teach speaking, listening and pronunciation. It's been a great experience, and this winter break I teach elementary school teachers similar things.
• We set up our Christmas tree today as well as most of our interior decorations.
• We're going to China for Lunar New Years (also referred to as Chinese New Years, but somewhat inaccurate as much of Asia celebrates it)
• The Jacksons (Emily's folks) will be coming to Korea for the month of January.
• We (Jacksons two and Reesors two) shall be visiting Japan for a week in January.
• Emily is kicking serious butt with her studies and has one and a half more semesters until the end of all learning and the beginning of all teaching.
• We've made a whole bunch of new friends that God has really blessed us with.
  
• We left our digital camera in a taxi.
• We bought a new digital camera.
• Of the past eight or so weeks of school, I (Jon) have had one full five day week devoid of any sort of significant class canceling interruption or holiday.

Obviously, that's just the highlights that come to mind. Our life here has been fantastic as always and God's blessings are consistently numerous and significant. We've been busy but not really stressed. We have a good life and we're really happy for where we are right now, though we miss our family, friends and Canadian food a great deal.

By the way, we use Facebook more than our blog these days. By "we," I mean we both have it but I (Jon) tend to ignore mine for a few weeks at a time. Basically, it's the same as the blog, but with more pictures.

Funny, Funny Korea

On a pair of underwear: "Pelvis Panties"

Also, a classic (it disappeared for a while but is back now): "Bodygay"

A chicken restaurant: "Donkey Chicken"

From a friend of mine: "If you are a pastor, then I am in your behind." (i.e. If you are a pastor, then I will follow you.)

Shouted at me by a stranger from across the street: "Hello, nice to meet you! You resemble Harry Potter." (Add that to the list of people I apparently look like.)

The children's book "Who Pooped On My Head?" about a gopher who gets his head pooped on and asks all the other animals if they pooped on his head. They deny it, he doesn't believe it, they prove it by giving an example. Finally, he finds the dog and, in retaliation, poops on the dogs head. Unfortunately, gopher poop is a lot less substantial on a dog's head than the other way around.

I'm sure there's more, but I just can't think of them right now. Maybe more later!

If anyone's still out there...

So we're not the best bloggers. You probably realized that by now.

Long story short, I'm getting ready to come home to Canada (I leave tomorrow) and Emily has already arrived safely. We'll be there for just about three weeks, at which point we'll head over to Hawaii (Maui, to be specific) and then back to Korea.

To sum up the past while, my schools are going well and Emily is doing well (though really busy) in school. She preached a couple of times in Mokpo, a city about an hour away from Gwangju and last week she preached in our own church, DongMyung Presbyterian. Our pastor was in China for a missions trip and asked her if she would preach, and she did a bang-up job. She spoke about treasure in Heaven and everyone said that her sermon was really well done - an excellent balance of practical, teaching and preaching.

I've been leading a Bible study for our pastor while he's been away (just two weeks). There's about six old men (mostly retired and about 70+) and one older lady. They're all precious, and they are in the group in order to maintain their English so they always have lots of questions. They also fight with each other in a really funny way, especially when it comes to Emily. (They love her - every week, they sit down and tell her how beautiful she is, and how lucky I am. Also, they ask for tips on "how to catch beautiful women.")

Last week was especially interesting. A new foreigner from America came to our church and sat in on the Bible study. One of the old men, Mr. Oh, had a pronunciation question. Censoring aside, this is somewhat how it went.

Mr. Oh: "Matt, how do you say this phrase - "Full of SH**"?"
Matt: "Actually, that's what some people would think a vulgar phrase."
Mr. Oh: "I know, but how do you pronounce "Full of SH**"?
Matt: "I'll tell you after church. I don't feel comfortable saying it here."
Mr. Oh: "No, it's just a pronunciation question. Sometimes, when I say "Full of SH**, foreigners don't understand me. Do you understand me? F-U-L-L O-F S-H-*-*. I say it "Fulla SH**, but foreigners usually say it like "Full of SH**."

The conversation continued like this for some time, thereby delaying the beginning of the Bible study. I tried to help Matt a couple of times with "Mr. Oh, many foreigners do not feel comfortable saying that in church" but to no avail. It was a pronunciation question, and that trumps comfort level, apparently. I did my best to cover my laughter as the whole thing was extremely entertaining.

This was just one example, but these old men rag on each other every week. It's hilarious, but it's also amazing how much wisdom they have. One old fellow especially is a charter member of the church (about 10 years now?) but still isn't a Christian. However, the Bible study was on treasure in Heaven (same week as Emily's sermon - coincidence? I think not) and Mr. Pae said something equivalent to "When I think about God's character and all he has done for me, it's easy to give. When I was younger, I would only think about money but now God is opening my heart to the poor."

Here is a man who is a self professed non-Christian, and yet the secrets of the Kingdom seem to be laid bare to him. It struck me of the verse that says that God uses the simple things of the world to shame the wise. Spiritually speaking, "From the mouths of children you have ordained praise."

Speaking of such things, and because I'm on such a roll typing, I taught at a teacher's camp these past three weeks. It was really good, with only about one day that wasn't very much fun. The teachers were really interesting to talk to and had a lot of really good ideas. At the end, one of the ladies came up to me and asked me "How do you have so much peace?"

I said God. She said she was a Catholic, but she still didn't have this peace. I said it came from trust and faith in God. She was really intrigued and that we would have to continue the conversation. It was the last day of the camp, though, and we didn't see each other again. However, it just goes to show you how God uses you wherever you are. Emily and I are here as English teachers, but we're used as missionaries. It's not so much about where you are, but about the God you serve.

Anyway, I'm coming home tomorrow! We may post more regularly in the future, or it may be more of the same. Regardless, I'm sure if you check at least once or twice a year there will be something new. Keep in touch!

BBQ

It is an indisputable fact that BBQ-ing is one of (if not the) best way to cook food. It is borderline sin to cook certain meats in any other fashion. Having fried a good number of perfectly decent steaks since arriving in Korea, I can speak from experience: a frying pan is not a sirloin's best friend.

So a while back, we bought a charcoal BBQ. Essentially, it's a big metal pan. Then, you buy charcoal and put it in your big metal pan. Light, and voila! BBQ.

Friday was a beautifully sunny day, and we had been seasoning some steaks in the fridge for a few days. We figured it'd be a great day to grill up some beef, and it was. We went behind our apartment building and rustled up supper. Here's some pictures.



The Where: Behind our apartment. Not very pretty, but it makes for a good running around area for the kids and a BBQ-ing area for us. There are no lawnmowers here (as there are no lawns) so a large flat area like this is normally either sandy, overgrown or paved.

The Who: Me, getting the charcoal ready to cook. Most people sit like this here. It's also the position you are in if you use a "squatty potty." Not bad, once you get used to it. The position, I mean. Well, the squatty potties too. More on that later.


The What: Seasoned Australian beef from Costco and cut vegetables with butter & seasonings (including home grown fresh dill). Yum yum yum!


The Dessert: Smores, o'course! We used metal chopsticks, which were perfect for the occasion.

The Fans: These kids watched us make the smores and eat the first bit. Very shy (didn't say a word) but fascinated nonetheless. We made them a round of the sweet sweet treat and took this picture. You can see the smores in their hands.

Pictures

After a relative drought (and now that Blogger has made it easier to upload several pictures at once), here are some random pictures from our life here. Enjoy!


Not every brand name here is run by an English speaker before going into national production.


Written on a mug in a department store. Look closely and read the writing.



Strawberries during strawberry season. A box (usually around 2 kilograms, or about 4.5 pounds) was between $3 and $15, depending on the size and when you bought them. We've probably bought 8 or 10 boxes of them. We'll eat half (usually the same day) and freeze the other half to use in smoothies. Good stuff.



Strawberries again. The season is ending now (probably only a week or two left) so we bought a box and froze the whole thing. Incredibly delicious, I must add.


At one of our three local grocery stores, there is a pet store. For the size of the store, the pet section has a remarkable selection. Including chipmunks, which I didn't realize fell into the category of "pet." We were there again tonight, and they had a cage of probably 10 chipmunks in it. My, but they're hyper little creatures.



Among the various toys available for children in nearly every toy section in every toy store are air soft guns that shoot little white plastic pellets. They are realistic looking, perfect scale weapons. This one is a Smith and Wesson handgun, with nothing on it to distinguish that it is a toy. You can get M-16's, shotguns, a ton of handguns and a couple of rifles. Nothing will cost you more than $20. Every once in a while, you'll see a little gang of boys running around and shooting trees, buildings and whatnot. They actually do have decent shooting power (to hurt, not kill) so they are relatively careful.


Brooke, Ryan and Emily at this little temple we went to for Brooke's birthday. You can see the temple in the background there. I believe (I'm not sure) it's at least 500 years old. Really neat, really small.


This picture was taken about a month ago (early April?). The flowers here in the spring are beautiful and everywhere. This is a little park downtown that was built last year.

We took this picture today. The big plants are trees in our parking lot. The little ones in the foreground are Emily's little herb garden. We've got basil, dill, something, something else and rosemary. All the rain has really greened everything up here.
Every once in a while you will get a pet vendor on the side of the road. We've seen puppies on a pushcart, kittens in a cage, birds on a bike. This time, it was rabbits.

The Prayers You Never Say

Emily and I went to see Spider-Man 3 last Thursday night (it was released here and in Japan before North America - take that!) and I got hit with a pang of homesickness. It's funny the things that will make you miss home. It was Peter Parker and his friend, Harry Osborne, that did it for me.

Anyway, we get home after the movie and I'm missing...home. There was a thunderstorm that night, which reminded me even more of Canada. Thunderstorms are not common here, and the thunder isn't nearly as impressive as Canada's. However, it was still a good storm. I'm feeling blue, missing people I share a language and culture with and I head to bed.

Long story short, we ended up going to church with one of my students. She invited me and her dad is the pastor there. I don't really know why I said yes - I wouldn't normally. We get there, and it's her older brother that does the translating. Her older brother that is about my age, a Christian, speaks English, neat guy and lives in our neighborhood. He also likes to do a lot of the same things we/I do. We hung out this past Saturday and he invited me to play soccer with some people from his church.

Basically, God gave me exactly what I needed without me even asking for it, and just at the right time. He is really good to us, and I see that more every day.


"This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met... God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." Matthew 6, The Message

When $5 is worth it

I (Jon) generally have two rules for a hairdresser in Korea: cut my hair short, and please don't talk to me. My Korean is not quite what I would care for it to be, and I tend to get a little nervous when a hairdresser attempts to get chatty.


Last year, I got my hair cut by the same lady all year long. I would go to the haircut street (about 5 hair salon places within two blocks) and I would go to her. Why? She was seldom busy, she cut my hair and there was no small talk. We understood each other.

This year, I've been searching for a new hairdresser. There's a bunch of places in our neighborhood. I started with one, and she was great. Her and her friend would make Emily & I coffee and order us dumplings when we went there. The cut itself would cost $5, and I'm sure the coffee and food cost them $2.50, so it was disappointing but not surprising when they were out of business a month or two later.

I found another place. She was chattier, but friendly. Dang good cut and shampoo for $5. Best haircut I've had in a while. Would she be the new one?

A month passes (I measure my haircuts in months - one month past is time for a cut) and I'm looking for a cut. She's really busy and I don't feel like waiting. I head over to the "Blue Hair Club," which has a Guinness World Record for the most amount of franchises opened in the shortest time, or something. 250 locations in 3 years. Impressive, though I don't see the reason for success.

The lady who cut my hair cut half of the hair on top, used no fewer than six razors on the side and sent me over to shampoo my own stinkin' hair. Short sides, long top, my own shampoo? And still $5? I don't think so!

I repent, learn the error of my ways and head back to the lady on the corner. Good job, shampoo and still only $5. Totally worth it.

Life

No matter where you live, life inevitably gets into a routine. What was once fresh, exciting and new is now just a regular part of your life. People, plants and pets all end up in the "everyday" pile of our lives.

Not that there is nothing special about these things in our lives. Instead, we need to make the effort to see the spectacular, the unique and the intriguing in the things under our noses.

Life has gotten into a routine here. It is no longer strange to have groups of elementary school children following you up to your apartment so they can talk to you. It is no longer strange to be given kimchi three times in one week from different people. It is slightly strange to be given a beautiful cake from a lady we don't remember but who remembers us.

It is no longer strange to get 7 days off in one month. Regular? No. Unforeseen? No. Appreciated? Yes.

It has become part of our lives for Emily to consistently receive marks above 95% in her school work.

We have a good life and we are thankful. God is taking very good care of us. We are healthy, we are happy and we are making good friends. Life is good, and we are thankful.

Cherry Blossom Festival

This past weekend was the Cherry Blossom Festival in JinHae, a small town about 3 hours east of us. We hopped on a bus with our three friends, Brooke, Ryan and Matt on Saturday and arrived at about 5:00 PM. There were cherry trees lining every road and major hang out area. They really were beautiful and we spent the evening wandering through the market that had sprung up to cater to the nearly 2,000,000 people that would come over the course of the festival.

One of the most popular meals was halves of pigs, slow roasting over hot coals. There were probably 10 - 20 different tent restaurants that were serving this dish. We partook, and it was fantastic. Surprisingly expensive for Korea, but delicious and worth it in the end.

We ate, we walked, we sat and we called it a night. We were thankful because it was supposed to rain all weekend long, and the rain stopped before we even got on the bus that afternoon.

The next day was not raining, but something worse than rain. It was a dust storm.

Dust from China/Mongolia had kicked up something fierce and it was the worst storm of the year so far. They issue advisories for 400 micrograms of dust per cubic meter. Warnings come at 800 micrograms. Yesterday's storm was 1100 micrograms. We didn't know that. We walked about 8 - 10 kilometers. Within the first hour, we had all bought baby blue masks (quite common here) to help filter out some of the dust. It was a wretched feeling and just made you feel gross all over.

It should be on the west coast of North America within the next two or three days, so tell us what you think!

Dust aside, it was a good time. Culturally, we (being from wide open spaces) were expecting something a little more like a "Cherry Blossom Forest" and a little less like "Cherry Blossom Carnival," which is a more suiting title. Being in Korea, you learn to not expect things to be a certain way but to just be happy for what things are.

For what it was, it was good.

This is your flesh. Say goodbye.

On Saturday, I (Jon) went to the doctor for a general checkup with some questions I had. I needed some asthma medication, my wrist had been bothering me and I had a mole on my head that I wanted to look into getting removed.

I get the prescription for the asthma medicine, which was about $2. For all you asthmatics out there, that was brand name Ventolin, which will run you probably $100 in Canada. Pharmaceutical companies are evil. I digress.

The mole will be about $20 to remove. I wanted to get rid of it because it gets cut, poked, prodded, etc. every time I get a hair cut.

The doctor says my wrist is likely a bruised tendon and he can give me a shot of anti-inflammatories, no problem. He says this after feeling around my wrist for the problem, thereby aggravating the problem. I say sounds good. Relief would be nice.

So the good doctor ushers me into the "procedure room," which is about 10 beds, two feet apart from each other. You can see what every one else is having done. Perhaps like medical window shopping. "Oh, that looks good! I'll take two."

He asks me to lie down. I think that it's to get the proper angle for my wrist injection. He says it'll be a small incision and asks about previous general anesthetics. I'm getting curious as to what kind of injection this will be. He says he's going to cut my hair.

I'm getting my mole removed. Didn't ask for it, just asked the price of it. Hair - cut. Freezing - frozen. "You'll feel a slight tingle. I'm using electricity to burn it off of your head." Smell - burning flesh and hair. Nurse draws curtain. Burning flesh - not good advertising. I feel the tingle. About two minutes later, a bandage appears three inches from my face. Behold! My mole.

"This is your flesh. Say goodbye." End quote. One of our friends, Ryan, said it would be a good tag line for some new horror movie.

Wrist - still hurting. Mole - gone. Healing nicely too, by the way. Classic Korean misunderstanding.

That's right...

These are all the people that I, Jon, apparently look like. Each one is said with varying degrees of amusement (gales of laughter vs. genuinely serious) but all with sincere enough belief that that is my "dead ringer."

I just don't see it.

What do these have in common?

Donald Duck

A Cartoon Baby


A designer


An animation character


Larry King



Matt Damon
Maculay Kulkin



Andriy Shevchenko (A forward on Chelsea)


Rachel Mcadams

Korean Efficiency

Just a quick note from me (Emily) to share with you a marvel that occurred in our apartment complex this morning. I was just heading out the door to go to the gym - (I know me at the gym, crazy!) When I heard our doorbell ring. I answered it and there was a man and lady standing there. The lady was holding some sort of meter reader machine and the man had a gas meter in his hand as well as a plastic milk crate.

Usually when official looking people are at the door, I just let them in and let them do whatever it is they are there to do because I know that I won't understand them if they try to explain it to me. So I followed my normal protocol.

I kept getting ready and the man and lady proceeded to in about 2 minutes, no word of a lie, completely remove our old gas meter, put up the new one, configure the numbers, clean the wall behind the meter, and test the gas by turning on our gas stove! The man stood on top of the milk crate to reach the gas meter and he was soooo fast! I then signed some thing saying they had completed the job and they were gone!

It was like a flash, I was very impressed, and now we have a shiny new gas meter! I left after that for the gym and when I got back about an hour later they were heading out of the elevator, finished all of the apartments. Now for those of you who don't know, we live in a MASSIVE apartment complex. I think that there are probably 200 units in my building alone. These people had replaced all the gas meters that fast!

Anyway, I thought that was pretty frickin' amazing!! When Korean people want to be, they are crazy efficient! Yep. That's my story. Thanks for reading!

Emily

Just General Stuff

School has begun for both Emily & I. Emily is knees-deep in IBOLT and has begun a rather heady semester, with nearly 20 credit hours (19.5 to be precise) and is going full steam ahead. She works hard during the day, which is good of her. I'm pretty sure that my experience would be more procrastinatory, should our places be switched.

In the evenings, we've just been relaxing as of late. After nearly two months of holidays, getting up again has taken a little bit of getting used to. We've been heading to bed early (between 9 and 10), but it's been nice to be in a regular schedule again.

The weather has been getting nicer. Tomorrow, it's supposed to be about 15 degrees here. The next couple of months should be absolutely gorgeous, before we head into the searing heat and insufferable humidity of summer.

I started at two new schools last week, and they both seem to be really good. The best part by far is the students. I teach 18 grade 7 classes a week, 3 grade 8 classes a week and occasional teacher's classes. I love interacting with the students and they've got really good attitudes. It is only the second week of class, so that may change. Hopefully it doesn't.

The random holidays have also presented themselves quite nicely. Last week, I had Tuesday off. This week, I've been finished by 12 or 1 on Monday & Tuesday. I've got no complaints at all about this - love the extra time off!

Next week, I go to an English camp for the week. An English camp is easy for me (another person leads the camp and I just assist) but it's a lot of work for the students. They've got class from about 8 AM until 10 or 11 PM. They're long days, but it's been fun in the past. I'm looking forward to it. It's out in the country, so the weather suits the environment well.

Church is going well. We're becoming more involved, but not too much so. We want to be careful that what we do, we do well.

Anyway, everything is going well. The weather is getting better, schools are going well and our home life is good. I've been really aware of how much God has blessed us - we have good lives! More than that, though, is the hope of the life beyond this. If life now can be this good, how much better is life going to be once you get rid of all the sucky things? Pretty dang good, I'm expecting. Pretty dang good.

More Like Guidelines...

Korea is what you might call a nouveau riche country (pardon my French). It's only been in the last 50 years or so that wealth has come here, and automobiles with it. Finally, the common man (and common woman) is able to afford a family size, family style motor vehicle.

Unfortunately, traffic laws are somewhat different here. A few of the ones to whet your appetite:

If you are caught at a red light, you must wait three rotations before you can go. Traffic does not flow North/South and East/West at the same time. Instead, northbound traffic gets a turning light and may go straight. It then goes clockwise around the intersection. Same thing for a pedestrian - only once every four lights can you cross.

And you want to wait for those lights before you do. Pedestrians do not have the right of way. Perhaps they do on paper (I'm not really sure) but they certainly don't in practice. In a way, it's refreshing. Jaywalking? People don't stop five blocks back for you. Instead, you stand on the yellow line in the middle of the road as traffic zips by you in both directions until there's a clear spot.

Emergency vehicles do not have the right of way, or if they do they have the same rules as pedestrians - wait for a clear spot and go fast.

Many other rules that Canadians would consider strict (such as stopping when the light is red, not blaring your horn as you zip through ten seconds later) are a little less strict here. Less like laws and more like...guidelines.

I figured out exactly how much like guidelines they were when driving in Jeju. Stop at a minor intersection's red light? Get honked at as people blow by you.

Going 50 km in a 30 km/h zone? Get blown by as people do upwards of 70 km/h.

Stopping for pedestrians? See above.

In order to (genuinely) drive more safely, I began to obey the guidelines. Minor red lights were suggestions. Pedestrians were just friends you hadn't met. Speed limits were possibilities.

Except for the posted speed cameras. Korea has photo-radar equivalent equipment posted on the highways and in cities. They've got signs warning you about it. Photo Police Enforcement - 350 meters. 250 meters. 100 meters. It'll only check your speed as you go under it, and you can see it a kilometer back and even if you couldn't, everyone else is laying on their brakes. So you go from 100 down to 50, under the camera and back again.

It was actually quite fun.