Let's Get Married!

Welp, here's the big news. I got invited to a wedding today. I met this couple literally last Sunday and they invited me to their wedding. I feel pretty honored and excited. I'll get to see what a Korean wedding ceremony is like. Here's a couple of pics of my invite (with my Korean name on it).

Wang Hyung Jun!

The front of the invite. David and Sue are getting married!

So apparently it's customary in Korea to take all of your wedding pictures before your wedding day. Obviously very different from America where it's considered bad luck to see your bride in her dress before the big day. Or something like that. Who am I kidding I don't know a thing about weddings or traditions of that sort. They just tell me to show up at a certain time in a suit and I follow directions. Luckily I brought a suit.

Today I didn't have to take an hour and a half bus ride to church! Wooooo! Instead I got a quick light breakfast at CJ. I honestly couldn't figure out the name of this dish nor did I take a picture to ask for help, silly me. However, it consisted of chopped up hot dogs and vegetables on one side of the plate, and something like shredded green beans on the other side. Then a bowl of some kind of leafy soup (no not seaweed soup I know what that is), and a bowl of Bap!

A very light breakfast for what I'm used to, but honestly it did it's job. In fact besides the bits of hot dog, I don't believe I ate any meat today. That might be the first time in my entire life...unless you count the days I subsisted completely off pizza.

I was doing laundry, and the machines here have super goofy timers. I have to run my wash through twice because after the first time the machine doesn't drain properly. Then when I put it in the dryer it countdown normally until about 11 minutes then just sticks there and goes back up to 30 minutes. Needless to say we left a bit late for church today.

We arrived in time to catch most of the second sermon. Unfortunately I have no translator for the main sermons (even though Ji knows English it's not well enough to translate for me). Still it is easy to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in this church. The congregation is really into it and I dig it.

After the sermon we had lunch at church. This was your typical seaweed soup with rice and kimchi, as well as some bean sprouts. Korean meal staples. Man I'll tell you, my nose runs like CRAZY every time I have a meal here. Not every meal is spicy, but my nose sure thinks it is. After lunch we headed to a cafe for some coffee. Now I'm not a big coffee drinker but I'll have a sugary drink with the boys every once in awhile.

A truncated pic of the cafe's menu.

Can you guess what I got? No...not a "What the Pong" smoothie. (Don't look that up btw, there are apparently some uncouth urban dictionary translations for what that is.) I got an Oreo smoothie! Yeah it was as good as it sounds. There were also many babes in the coffee shop. Maybe that's where I need to go to meet some ladies. Lets get jacked up on caffeine and go ask everyone out! Yeah! Best idea!

Heavy G and I headed across the street to a mart to pick up a few odds and ends after coffee. He needed Listerine, shampoo, and windshield wiper blades. Yeah, pretty interesting shopping list. I checked out the prices on alcohol there and a fifth of vodka was about $28, so yeah, don't buy anything but soju in Korea, got it. After heading back to church it was almost time for youth praise. We got back a little earlier than usual so we sat in on what seemed to be a brief sermon between the second sermon and youth service.

Youth service was good as usual, I got a personal translator again. This time it was the girl from the first week. She is a second grade English teacher. We had a short chat after service and she was telling me she was getting her students ready for mid-terms. Like WTF? Second graders? Mid-terms? I hadn't even heard of mid-terms until I was in high school. Education is INTENSE here. While I knew that going in, it's different hearing it first hand. She was telling me how the parents are crazy too. I can relate because of coaching ice hockey and dealing with them myself, but wow second grade? Next time you guys get tired of doing your homework just be happy you didn't grow up in Korea lol.

Time to drive home. As we are driving Heavy G is calling YJS and An Hyo Sang to setup an off campus dinner with all of us. The boys gotta get the boy band together every once in awhile to relax and regroup. The original idea was to get pork spinal soup? I don't remember what they called this (honestly there's so many new words thrown at me everyday I'm lucky to retain the few that I do know). After getting a hold of An Hyo Sang and much deliberation we decided on this soup. We called YJS multiple times but he didn't pick up.

Ji Sem (A nickname meaning Ji Teacher) or Heavy G had to get a haircut so he dropped me at the dorm and headed over there. I needed a nap after a big day so I laid down. I woke up to knocking at my door, and Heavy G (freshly chopped and it's hilarious) and YJS saying it's time to go. I throw on some clothes and we go to pick up An Sem at his one room (an apartment you can rent consisting of one room, these cost in the range of $300-400/month from what I'm told). I guess they boys discussed and decided they wanted 막국수 (Mak Guk Soo) or buckwheat noodles.

We went to a nice little place just off campus. These noodles are served cold, and you get a GIANT bowl of them if you order the large size. I like to live dangerously so I ordered the spicy kind. YJS got the same thing, Heavy G got some sort of different style, and An Hyo Sang got maybe the tuna kind? Here's some pics to sort it out.

My dish, currently unmixed.

Heavy G and his bowl (top right) and An Sem and his bowl (top left). YJS with a matching bowl (bottom left).

I'm not the biggest fan of cold food. If I'm gonna eat I want things to be piping hot and I want to still taste the blood. JK about the blood...but this was good, and they were right there was a lot. There was also a little coffee/hot chocolate machine next to us so we made some up before we headed out. We all headed back to campus in Heavy G's sweet Hyundai ride.

After getting back to campus it was time to prepare for the week ahead. Finish up homework, get my blog done, and get a little personal time in to make sure I get enough sleep. I admit the newness of everything is wearing off a little, but the magic and awe is being replaced by a genuine interest in others and relationship building. It's pretty fascinating to me how easy it is to make friends when you're in another country and the people are as accommodating and caring as they are here. Dr. Carol told me about their hospitality before I came here, but I am seeing it first hand and I love it. I lack nothing, and their generosity has allowed me to finally fully focus on seeking God which I believe is our ultimate purpose in life. Seek Him and all the rest will fall into place, no matter what the circumstances. I still have trouble focusing on this even though its something I am learning more and more about, and believe more and more in my heart. I continue to pray that he will strengthen me to fully trust in Him.

Once again if you have any questions you would like me to ask in my interviews please comment! I look forward to sharing the thoughts and opinions of my friends with you. Thanks for tuning in! More to come this week.

Korean Word/Phrase of the Day: 목사님/사모님(Mok Sa Nim/Sa Mo Nim) Pastor/Pastor's Wife.

TL:DR I'm in Korea.