thanksgiving and an amusement park!

We had our dinner on Saturday, had a good crowd of foreigners and mostly the young Korean crowd from church join us. We scored a turkey, which I was very excited about, and Christy made some tasty dressing and green beans. I made some corn casserole, chocolate crackle cookies, and chocolate mice. Yummy times! I was thinking that we wouldn't have enough food, because I was pretty sure that the people coming would mostly bring desserts. They did, but we still had PLENTY of food, glory to God! We even made take home bags of all the portable stuff for people to take as they left.

Yesterday was one of our friends who was here for a few weeks last day. Jim Bob called around 12 to let me know we were going to Everland, a local amusement park, as a going away party. I hadn't planned on spending the rest of the day out of pocket, so I was taking it easy, starting to cook and clean for the ladies group I was expecting for lunch today. Of course, I couldn't pass up Everland, even with only an hour's notice, so I wrapped things up to go along. There were four of us and we had a grand time. We all left feeling at least a bit woosy after riding so many rides back to back. There was hardly a wait for anything, so we packed all the rides we could in. Most of them involved some sort of spinning, so our tummies didn't thank us. They had it all decorated for Christmas, with all the Christmas music playing on the rides. It was lovely. Now I'm really ready to go home and spend Christmas in Texas!

So, when I got home, I had a lot of cooking left to do, but I got ready for Shannon's ladies group to come over for lunch today and we had a fun time talking. They thought it was fun to see my house and I was glad they got a chance to come over.

first snow!

It's snowing! Yay! And just the last post, I doubted...
It rained all night and all morning, and then now, at 11:20 am, it decides to snow! Fun, fun.
Just thought you guys needed to know. I'm about to meet Eric and Valerie to go to Technomart to get an electronic Korean/English/Chinese dictionary.

thanksgiving, not yet

Today was thanksgiving day. About 30 minutes left in it. I remembered it was thanksgiving a few times, but for the most part didn't really think about it. Last year, we had a huge party at our apartment. (At that time, all six of us were living together...now I can't even imagine! Hallelujah.) This year, Donnie and Shannon are in Texas, but we're still having a party at their apartment - on Saturday. Christy, a friend from Alabama, is sort of organizing it. It looked like we weren't going to get a turkey (they're very hard to come by here), but she came through and found us one from a friend of a friend on the army base, I think. When I heard about that, I got pretty excited. I like turkey! I'm gonna make corn casserole (I got sour cream at COSTCO...yay!) and cookies, and probably some chocolate mice made from maraschino cherries and hershey's kisses.

Today I went to a mountain on the northwest side of Seoul with Okja and a few people from her church. When we got to the top, even though it was cloudy, we could see North Korea! I almost cried, and probably would have if I had been alone, but we didn't stay too long and Okja was busy teaching me Korean. She's so good at that! We ate a picnic lunch at the bottom of the mountain. Picnic Korean style usually means kimbap - rice and other ingredients wrapped with seaweed. The other people brought two kinds of kimchi, some little anchovies, rice, seaweed, and steamed egg. We all shared everything. That's the way it works in Korea, usually. I like it that way. For dessert, we ate a whole sack of mandarin oranges and one lady made us some instant coffee. Yummy! By the time we finished, we were all bundled up again and starting to get cold, so we headed back. People keep saying it's going to snow soon, but I can't believe it because it's still not that cold. I get excited when I hear talk of snow, though!

Today's Top 10

I was going to start at ten and work my way up, but that's too difficult. So, here we go - starting with number one...

1. My house in Dripping FINALLY rented. It's only for a few months, but that's a few more months of me not having to pay rent here and mortgage there. Yay!
2. Had a great time with three friends for dinner - a restaurant where they have about 50 kinds of omurice, a fusion food
3. A great time at a board game cafe with my friends after dinner. I tied with 옥자 in Halli Galli twice! (I can usually never win that game.)
4. A man saw me jogging on the street today and stopped to say one word: gorgeous. Ha! Living in Korea is fun.
5. Laughing at Jim Bob and Eric on the bus to Namdaemoon market today. Those boys are funny.
6. A man offering to hold my bag on the way home tonight. (It's common for people to do this if they have a seat and you don't. This was a long bus ride, so it was appreciated!)
7. Getting the Korean phrase almost right to say thanks to him: "제 가방 들어주셔서 감사합니다. Thanks for holding my bag." (I text messaged it to Koh to check it, but then chickened out and didn't say it to the guy.)
8. Having an ice cream cone after lunch - "I Am Sam"(a flavor at Baskin Robbins.) Mmmm. So good.
9. A lovely morning at home reading.
10. Finishing this list. I can't think of a good number 10.

events of the week

Well, another week in Suji has flown by! Sunday when I got in from Hong Kong, the group from church had finished eating and was at a nore bang (karaoke room), so I got to join them. I was so happy to see everyone after my week of travelling on my own.

Monday, some of us went bowling. I only fell down once and even made a few spares! Tuesday morning, I rode my bike over to my friend Koh's house. His mom had invited me over to learn how to make kimchi after I expressed an interest. It's pretty potent stuff. She already had everything ready, so I had the easy part of just cutting and then mixing the sauce together. After that, we got our hands in the sauce and rubbed it all over the little cabbages, then made them into little balls and put them in the storage containers. They had to "sleep" for a day before we can eat them, so I haven't tasted it yet.

Wednesday, we had a prayer focus for North Korea instead of our normal prayer time for the church. It was really powerful for me to pray with my friends for that country, but we didn't have any of our Korean church members come. Pray that we'll have more unity with the Westerners and the Koreans in prayer together!

Yesterday, Inah, Laura, and I went to a palace that I hadn't been to before in Seoul. It was really beautiful, with all the leaves changing and everything. After that, I went to a dinner with my friend Okja at her new workplace. She's working at a company that sends aid to North Korea! We got some good Korean studying in after dinner at a cozy coffee shop. She's such a great friend to give up her time to help me practice my Korean.

I've been in the cooking mood this week. I made some tasty beans, a fruit cocktail cake, baked some sweet potatoes, am in the process of making some chicken chili soup, and even made some Indian fry bread. Yummy!

Laura pointed out to me last night that this verse is written on a stone near the doorway of our building.

시편 Psalms 121:8
여 호 와 께 서 너 의 출 입 을
지 금 부 터 영 원 까 지 지 키 시 리 로 다

The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.

Isn't that great? I love that we have God's word inscribed on the entrance to our building!

Hong Kong Island, the view from Kowloon. Sorry my pictures aren't so clear. My digital camera wasn't focusing so well. 

It's always nice when you can find a willy (really) convenient store! 

Mini bus in Hong Kong 

Hong Kong, near Mong Kok station, at the goldfish market. 

Here's a view again, at the top of a little peak that we took the cable car to, and then climbed up a rock to the top. 

I just got some pictures from JB from our Chuseok trip to Mt. Seorak. Here we are near the top of one of the peaks. 

Hong Kong, part 3

I am about shopped out, so I decided to pop into an internet cafe to catch up on a few emails and write one short entry. My video camera that also takes still shots (although bad ones) is a bit messed up, so I'll try to post some pictures when I get back, but no promises on the quality. I do have my normal camera with me, so I should have some fun prints developed when I get back.

The shopping in Hong Kong is amazing! It never ends! I have been to at least six different markets and keep happening on more fun places. I went to the Peak last night and got a great night time view out over the city. I am staying in a youth hostel in Causeway Bay, another great shopping district (a bit pricey, but there's an IKEA there!). My roommate is a nurse from Canada who has spent a YEAR travelling all over the world on an around the world ticket! I always meet the most interesting people when I stay in youth hostels. Besides the great price, meeting people is almost as good of a reason to stay in one.

Well, my hour is running out at the internet cafe, so I'll sign off and post again from Seoul soon!

hong kong, part 2

Well, it turned out that I didn't have such great access to internet at the conference. They had a great room set up for it, but you had to have your own laptop and I didn't bring mine. Anyhow, it was really good to meet up with so many different people from all over the world - India, Russia, Thailand, Australia, England, Bangladesh, just to name a few. They kept saying "We're family here," calling the leaders the leaders of the conference "uncle so and so." My roommates were four people from Houston, Texas, and one lady who was Korean, living in China. What connections! We had a good time together.

It's always eye-opening to me to be able to see what God is doing in nations all over the world. It's inspiring to hear their stories, hear them talk about what is happening in their cell groups, their church, how they are impacting their communities. Wow. I love being exposed to all the languages, all the different accents of English, and all the different personalities. Good times.

Yesterday in worship, one Japanese father and daughter shared a song that they had written in Japanese. They translated it to English to share at our conference, and it really impacted me. We usually think of Japan as being such a hard country, not open to the gospel, but to hear the passionate heart of these people, to see their excitement and love for the Father in worship brought tears to my eyes. I was moved to pray over Japan as they sang, and then thought in my head: I should pray over other unreached nations, too. But, the gentle voice in my heart said, no, just focus your prayers on Japan right now.

Now, I am staying at a little hostel in the heart of Hong Kong for two nights. I plan on cramming in some more shopping and sightseeing before I head out on Sunday. More later!

hong kong!

Here I am in Hong Kong, well on the outskirts of Hong Kong, anyway. I'm at a conference that's meeting at a YMCA campground facility. We all have rooms, not tents, though. :) The weather is excellent. I'm wearing a t-shirt and flip flops! I met some Philipino ladies today, though, who were saying that it was a bit chilly. Ha!

I was going to go into Hong Kong tonight, but I got sidetracked at a huge mall with at least three grocery stores in it and found lots of Western food at reasonable prices. I bought marshmallows, Cheetos, and about 10 boxes of mac and cheese. I'll share the mac and cheese with some lucky friends back in Korea, I think. It was only like fifty cents a box! I ate at Hardee's, where they had roast beef and cheddar sandwiches, curly fries, and mashed potatoes! Hello! I passed on the mashed potatoes, but might have to go back to try them out later in the week. Oh, and before I leave the food topic, they also have breakfast foods at the McDonald's here. Oh my goodness, I sure did have an egg mcmuffin when I got off the plane today.

I've already met a bunch of interesting people, and am praying for the kingdom connections I'll make in the next few days.

great book

Bridal Intercession, by Gary Wiens. Of the friends who have seen this book next to my bed at my apartment, they thought I was getting ready for marriage or something. (Oh, that would be nice...) No, it's a book about seeing yourself as the bride of Christ as you pray and how that gives us such authority as intercessors! Wow. I highly recommend it.

how time flies

How time flies when you're job free! I thought I would be better about blogging now that I'm not working, but it's been another week already! I guess I can blame it partly on not having internet in my apartment yet. Picture this: I put on my big coat (usually over my pajama pants and t-shirt because I'm either about to go to bed or I haven't taken a shower yet) and head outside to the courtyard where I bum someone else's wireless internet on my laptop. Sometimes, I bring out a mug of coffee or a bag of skittles (like last time when the security guard helped himself to some). I am going to be a legitimate internet customer in January when I am here for a long amount of time. (Next week, I'll be gone to Hong Kong and then in December, I'll be in Texas for three weeks.) It'll also be much colder in January, so I'll be much less motivated to come outside to use the internet!

On Tuesday, I went to Ajou university in Suwon, a city about a 20 minute bus ride away. I took the level test to see what level Korean class they should put me in. I pretty much bombed the written test. It was all in Korean, obviously, and way hard. I thought I could understand what most of the sentences said, but then they had choices of which form of the adjective or which particle should go in the blank and I pretty much had no clue. Next, they interviewed me in Korean. I thought I bombed that as well, but she said I did a much better job speaking than writing. I guess that makes sense, because I generally don't get much practice writing. The last part of the written test was to write an essay about what I plan to be doing in 5 years (in Korean of course), and I had no clue what to say. She told me if I didn't write anything, they'd put me in level one, so I wrote about five sentences introducing myself and gave it back to her. She said that was still level one, so write some more! So, I did. I wrote about what I did in Texas and how I first started learning Korean, and she said OK! Level two! So, I'm level two and proud of it. :) Classes start January 7th! Yay!

Today, I met a girl who came to Korea on a vision trip with nkmissions.com. It was really excellent to talk to her and hear what she experienced while here and in China. I'm so ready to learn more Korean!