Dirty Dishes

So, I had been asking my colleagues all week long if they needed my help with the dishes...I think I was just missing all those good memories as an intern at the Jacques Lefèvre Institute where I got to do dishes every day with some really cool people!... but finally today, Friday, they actually needed my help. Ha! Mrs. Choi handed me an apron and some gloves, I rolled up my sleeves, and we began the job! Shortly after starting our cleaning, I must have just looked so 잘생기다 (chalsaenggida = good looking) in all of my colorful cleaning attire that Mrs. Choi had to take a picture. At right, you can observe the result. I had fun! haha.

The above picture was taken just today, the week following my winter break. All The pictures below are from my winter break (Dec. 29 - Jan 6)

 <<<<<Here I am sitting with, from left to right, Yerin (예린), Dayoung (다영), myself, Pastor Keith, and Mizan.

On New Years Eve, I had  a part in a staged music video/skit at my church in Uijeongbu and this picture was taken before our performance on Monday night. The song was "Healer" by Hillsong United. We had basically four separate stories during the song. Each story presented a character struggling with sin in a different way. I played an angry husband who hits his wife and pushes her down because she is reading the Bible when he comes home from work. In practice once, I actually hit my wife (지혜 - Jihye)... she wasn't hurt too bad I hope (ha!) but everyone was laughing at me after the fact so it was okay. It was a little bit awkward, when we first started practicing the skit, kneeling down at the end and asking a girl who I didn't even know to forgive me for being a horrible husband, but since that skit it has been really easy to talk to her and we have become good friends! We always greet each other as "husband" and "wife" ... 재밌어요 (it's fun!).

 At right, from left to right is, Dayoung, Li Ming, Yerin, and myself. The four of us went out for coffee at this really great Italian café after dinner at Pastor Keith's last Wednesday. (As you can see, I am still wearing my wonderful coat everywhere I go... I feel like a lion with an overgrown mane sometimes.)
Below is another angle of the same pic and then, on the right is a picture of the very tasty waffle with gelato on top that Dayoung treated us to :)

Li Ming, second from the left, is actually from Qiqihar, China (near Harbin) and speaks fluent English. She came to our church for the first time just a couple of weeks ago. Dayoung and Yerin have both been at our church for much longer than I have.

 Okay... look closely at the words on the advertisement in the above pic... "this love is brillianter than the jewel"... translations such as this one are, unfortunately, not at all uncommon in Korea. Josh Worthington and I were talking about it one day, and we really think it could be a lucrative job if you had enough connections---fixing all the bad English translations in Korea that is. Josh pointed out the above ad when we were visiting Bosan together last week. Josh came all the way up from Songtan to see me and we had quite the adventure traveling up and down Seoul Subway Line 1 on Saturday. First we went up to Bosan, home of Camp Casey, the largest US military base in the region. While there we enjoyed some good American style sandwiches and some Aloe juice (that stuff is GOOD by the way... we put it on our skin in the US, but here they drink it!) all while watching the Shawshank Redemption on the TV at the restaurant. We were probably the only Americans in town not associated with the US military which was a surprise to most store clerks!

 After Bosan, we headed all the way up to the end of Line 1... to Soyosan. I had been wondering for the longest time "what is up there in Soyosan?" because it's the farthest north one can go on the Seoul Subway and it just seemed like it had to be an interesting place... well... not so much. Haha, we didn't even get off the train because there was hardly any town to explore and what we saw didn't draw our attention much at all. The landscape was beautiful beyond the town, but it was way too cold to go hiking. Thus, we headed back to Uijeongbu for coffee and dinner with Li Ming and her roommate, Tsai Hong (also from the Harbin area). Both Li Ming and Tsai Hong are Chinese language teachers at a local university in Uijeongbu. I am quite sure that our evening was quite a bit more enjoyable spent the way it was than if we had stayed up north!

At right is again Li Ming at our coffee gathering earlier in the week... we took a LOT of pictures that night. That is one more of the many blessings that smartphones provide--the ability to easily take pictures and show others pictures you have taken, which is especially a blessing when there isn't a common language in which everyone is fluent!

Li Ming also gave Josh and I a tour of her school on Saturday before we went to dinner. It was pretty cool to see where Korean college students study. She even let me borrow a book called "Evolutionary Illustration of Chinese Characters" when I said "I wish I had a copy of this!" haha... yes, I was being serious, and yes, it is currently what I read just before going to bed every night.

There are so many things I want to say here and it has been far too long since my last blog post, but I'll just have to save it for later.

Oh, well, I have to say this now, because I thought of it! Christmas in Korea! It was my first one this year! Actually, it was my first Christmas spent away from my family period. It wasn't bad at all, but I did have to work on Christmas Eve, which seemed unreal in my mind (thankfully there were no classes that day and we got to go out for lunch together (all of the faculty)... although the reason wasn't because of Christmas but because Mrs. Kim's contract was ending that day so I guess they thought it would be fun to celebrate ...? Anyway, I didn't work on Christmas. I woke up and for the first time didn't have a tree with presents underneath to run upstairs to... BUT, I did get to skype with my entire (almost) family as we all opened gifts  in our first annual gift exchange (organized by my wonderful sister, Elise Watson). They had previously mailed my gift so I got to open it with them all watching! (it was a nice new case for my macbook) Later that morning, I went to the Christmas worship at church. It was all in Korean, but many of the songs were just Korean translations from their original versions like Silent Night, Joy to the World, and Away in a Manger so I was able to fairly easily follow along. It is such a blessing to hear an old familiar tune sung in a new language.
After the service, Pastor Keith and I went to Outback for some Christmas steak.

New Years was spent with my church family as well. After the skit and other performances at church, a few of us guys went back to the Pastor's house to hang out/chat/watch TV until morning. Then, at 6:40 AM we went to see The Hobbit! Good memories were made :)

My overall impression since coming back to work after break is just how big God's hand has been working in my life even when I don't recognize it at the time. He has provided me with friendship when I need it and even when I don't know that I need it. I am so thankful for all of the people in my life here in Korea. That doesn't change the fact that I love and miss everyone back home!

jdwatson@anderson.edu