This past weekend we had the joy of going to see some of our fellow Wartburgians, Nate and Ruth Kerl, who are teaching in the public schools in Seoul. Seth and I started out early Saturday morning walked to the train station in Gumi and hopped on the Mugunhwa train (the cheapest train) to Seoul. Arriving in Seoul, we were greeted by some familiar faces and headed out to see Namdemoon, the south gate (original gate to the south part of Seoul- very old). It was fascinating to see in the midst of skyscrapers and bustling traffic this huge ancient gate. It was beautiful. Truly.
Then we walked over to Namdemoon Market to see the sights of the various vendors. Everything imaginable was for sale (I think- don't quote me on that:). My personal favorite was a pair of boxer shorts with the Korean flag on then. Nice. Like it.
Nate and Ruth lead us to a diverse section of town near some of the major universities in Seoul where I think we saw more foreigners in just a few hours than we had in the entire 9 1/2 months we'd spent in Gumi. We decided to eat at a small brightly decorated Vietnamese restaurant off one of the side streets. We'd never had Vietnamese food before and were definitely not disappointed. After browsing the menu our crew decided on chicken pho (noodles), beef pho, fried noodles, and some sushi that was unlike any sushi I've ever had before. I am officially a major fan of Vietnamese food. Not spicy, but very tasty.
It was great to share about our experiences working with the private English schools (hagwons), to hear about their experiences working in the public elementary schools, and to reminisce about the old days at good old Wartburg. To think about it, it was all kind of crazy, just a few years ago we were sitting in IS 1o1 struggling to figure out why in the world this class was required yet now, here we were, married, working in Korea, and eating Vietnamese food. Life.
After the food was consumed we moved on to their favorite gellato joint. The Kerls have great taste. It was again delicious. Then we walked down to Changmicheon (a small landscaped stream in the middle of Seoul, with wide walkways bordering the stream's edge) we stuck our feet in the water to cool off and enjoyed some high quality people watching.
Then we walked around some more of the city and settled ourselves into a coffee shop to chat as we reflected on life, life in Korea, and life in the United States. In the course of this conversation they asked about our first year of marriage (4 months in the US, 9 in Korea). As I quickly processed this question about one million different thoughts overloaded my brain. I hadn't really the time to think about this as much as I would have liked. So with my usual lack of eloquence and clarity I replied, "It's been a learning experience." Stink. I had used the same year to describe my first year of marriage as my parents used when they took me out driving for the first time.
It probably sounded liked we'd had a rough year. Yet it got me thinking, what has the first year of marriage like...

• Truly. It's been amazing. A year of profound change. Obviously, you might say, it is the first year of marriage. Of course you're going to change a lot. But the truth is, I'm not done changing. And I don't want to stop growing. I hope and pray that each day I can become a better wife, sister, daughter, and friend. Of the afore-mentioned, wife is the newest role for me.
  
• In the incredibly intimate relationship I share with my husband I have been forced to confront much of what I've been trying to avoid my whole life. In this year, I've learned that I am a very selfish person, and I continue to be so to this day, but I hope that I'm maturing in this. Related to this, I've also learned about how little I think of my others. When I'm laying in bed in the morning I think about how my husband left the door of the bathroom open and am convinced that every single mosquito in Gumi will soon come in to eat me alive. Yet, in this, I fail to notice that it is also the only light by which he can read his Bible without turning on a light that will wake me up.
  
• I've learned about the value of words. Words are very important to my husband and often I'm not very aware of the words I say or how they will affect him. Because I tend to focus on emotions rather than on words, they (words) hold a different value in my heart, but still it doesn't mean that words have no value. In fact, its the exact opposite. Proverbs 15:23 "A man finds joy in giving an apt reply- how good is a timely word."
  
• I have truly married a man who seeks after God's heart. He leads our small (yet mighty) family with wisdom that can only come from God. His actions every day reflect his desire to love me as he loves himself and cherishes me as Christ cherished the church. Now, my husband is not perfect and we fail each other, but it's not about us but a grace-filled Savior who chose sacrifice, that we don't have to be perfect, neither should we expect to be.
  

I have a lot more to learn and to grow in. And I rejoice that God's given me such an opportunity through my marriage.

Ok, I got off on a tangent. A good tangent though, ok, back to our time with the Kerls. Where were we? Oh yeah, at a coffee shop in Seoul. I'm kind of amazed at how much I like coffee now.
As we sat in the coffee shop I saw an old man drinking painfully overpriced coffee from a trendy coffee mug. I wondered about what this man's life was like, the changes that he'd seen in Korea. He lived through the Korean War, probably had vibrant memories that lingered even today, strained memories of not having enough food to feed his family, being forbidden to speak Korean in school, receiving instruction in Japanese. I know nothing about this man's life. And now he sits, in a 20-somethings laden coffee shop with its neutral color palate and comfy chairs in downtown Seoul. I'm sure he must wonder too.
We decided that it was probably time to bid adieu to our wonderful hosts as we wanted to get back to Gumi before it was tooo late into the night. We walked back to the train station and said our goodbyes. Seth and I bought our tickets and unfortunately had just missed our train and would have to wait a little over an hour for the next one. Oh well. We walked around the Lotte Department Store that was next to the train station and attempted to find a cheap cassette player that would play our cassette for our Chinese class (yep, we're taking Chinese:). No luck. Oh well.
We hopped on the train and headed back. One of our co-workers from Global, Jolly, happened to be in the same car as us so we chatted awhile. It was so surprising to see her. We arrived in Gumi a little before 11PM (I think, I can't actually remember anymore, maybe it was 10PM), tired, and ready for bed. It had been a wonderful day.