And it's already nearing the end of May. Woof. Yesterday we celebrated Buddha's Birthday (and a day off) by going to a park with our church and playing some games and enjoying a picnic lunch. It was A LOT of fun. The festivities started off around 10:30AM with some kickball. For the most part it was pretty similar to the American version of kickball, except there was a line that you had to kick the ball past and it couldn't bounce before this line. Ok, this is a little tricky for a bunch of Americans who are not accustomed to this rule. Anyways. It was really fun and the Koreans soon realized that if I'm (Emily) playing in the outfield then they shouldn't assume that I will be able to catch the ball if it comes my direction. I get too easily distracted by what is going on around me. It was still a lot of fun. Narcisz, a Canadian and a new English teacher at Global, joined us for the day. So there were four of us Westerners enjoying the day. I have realized what a blessing our church is. It is one time during the week when I know that I will not be stared at because of my rather white face. They're used to us. Nice.
It was also a huge blessing to have Narcisz along (for many reasons) but it was also nice to be around another female. I'm around guys A LOT, which isn't a bad thing but it's so refreshing to be around other women. We get to chat every day at the A3 factory for about 20 minutes. God is good.
There's one man at our church, that has acquired the nickname "Seadog" (Seal in English, Mulke in Korean "Mul"=water/sea and "ke"=dog). When we were playing kickball we (the waygooks- the foreigners and some Koreans too) would chant "Seadog" and he would do this little dance like a seal. My description honestly does it no justice. It was probably one of the funniest things I'd ever seen. We enjoyed some lunch- pork, dog meat/not joking, and the normal Korean sides- kimchee, leaf wraps, cherry tomatoes, and some other tasty treats. Just for the record I just tried a bit of the dog meat, just because it was part of the culture. I didn't like it. Oh well.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent watching the men, choku, some type of foot volleyball, and talking with some of the women. The women played with my hair for a while and said it was like doll's hair. They were impressed that there were different colors in it. Keep in mind EVERYONE has black hair in Korea. Then I was introduced to a woman from North Korea. From what I could understand (my Korean is beyond rusty) she came about 3 years ago. She escaped through China when she was 25. Now she is in beauty school, studying to be a hair dresser, at least I think. I hope to be able to have more conversations with her. What an opportunity that would be!!! After the picnic Seth and I enjoyed a very quiet evening. He looked at missions information on the internet and I did some reading and knitting. It was amazing to have time to "just be." Loved it. I decided to make one of the tasty dessert mixes (Raspberry Oatmeal Bars) that my mom had sent for Christmas. It was delicious. But this morning, both Seth and I had some minor digestive incidents. We think it was from the bars. Our bodies have become so adjusted to the Korean diet, the margarine and such in the bars was a small jolt. We very rarely eat anything with margarine/butter in it. I can't even imagine how difficult it is going to be readjusting to American food.
This week we've been able to enjoy a bit of free time as we are only teaching 5 classes a day. This week I was able to find time to go running three times!!! Incredible. This morning as I was running I ran past a man who started chanting "Number One! Number One!" It was so funny. I have no clue who the man was. Oh well. I was able to enjoy a trip to the market to buy fresh tofu and dteok (rice cakes). You can't even know how good fresh tofu and dteok are. Really. Love it.
This last weekend some of the Mr. Kims and one Mr. Lee took us foreigners on an outing to the southern part of Korea. We went on a boat ride to a nearby island. The island was gorgeous. It is one of the few islands that is a private island and not owned by the national parks. The man who owned the island created some beautiful gardens complete with statues and amazing landscaping. This man was a Christian so he even made a small outdoor worship area with an indoor reflection room overlooking the ocean. It was gorgeous.
Then we continued to drive along the coast and stopped in Danghangpo Tourist Resort where we learned about Admiral Yi Sun Shin and the dragon boats in one of the battles with Japan. It was very interesting, definitely fun. This was also the same area where dinosaur footprints were discovered. Neat.
Ok, I'm done. Talk to ya'll soon.