Friday, April 14, 2017

Month Won!

Today officially marks the end of my first month here in Korea. That's pretty crazy to say. I got here on Friday March 15th. It really feels like I've been here much longer than that. I guess that's due to being so busy every day. I'm going to use today's blog as a reflection on my first month here.

First I'm going to give a quick overview of my day though. I was alone when I woke up due to MT. I actually slept really well. I was kind of surprised at that. I got to sleep a little later than usual as well. I hit up 8 Ho Gwan for breakfast and then headed over to class. Of course today I was running a little later than usual so SOMEONE stole my regular seat. (It was a GIRL!)

I took the seat across from her because most of the other seats were taken, and ended up stealing Li Ting Ting's regular seat. In college there are no assigned seats so I'm not mad, it actually made for some interesting things. Apparently in Mongolia if you accidentally touch feet or legs under the desk then you shake hands. At least that's what I gathered. This happened today and the girl across from me reached over and grabbed my hand. I was confused but hey whatever. Then it happened again. Then it happened while she was talking so the whole class was focused on her, she reached across the table and I wasn't going to stiff her in front of everyone but it was clear I had no clue what was going on. The teacher just looked at me and everyone started cracking up. I was just like 몰라요?! (Molla Yo) I don't know?! Anyways this happened 3 times during class today and I'm pretty sure I'm married now.

We learned about time today. You use the counting (Korean) number system for the hours 시 (She) and the other (Sino-Korean or Chinese) number system for the minutes 분 (Boon), cause that just makes so much sense (#sarcasm). Man this is going to take a lot of repetition to get down. There are definitely times where I feel hopeless learning this language, and other times where I feel like I am definitely progressing and can do this. What a metaphor for life. This challenge is exactly what I wanted when I came here.

The rest of the day was pretty standard. I skipped lunch because I wasn't hungry, and right before dinner YJS came into my room and asked if I had time to talk. He told me that JTBC (a major broadcasting company here) had contacted the University about me and wanted to interview me. They want to do it tomorrow. Wow. This is crazy. I was on TV as a baby and a few times during my hockey career, but this is like a solo interview. I guess they want to come to the campus and film me teaching English to the students, teaching the students in the weight room, and also teaching them how to eat (?). I don't know if that's a translation error. I hope so haha.

What a crazy experience this is shaping up to be. I could have never imagined this would happen in my wildest dreams, let alone in the first month I was here! You know, last night as I was falling asleep I started to think about different perspectives on my life. I took some time to reflect on my time here.

I started thinking about the fact that I was a 30 (32 in Korea) year old single male living in a college dormitory in South Korea, basically working for free. I have no wife, no kids, no money, no house, (a car but it's back home). By many worldly definitions I'm a failure. Now I know most of you reading this would say "but you're living your dream!" and that's completely true, I don't view myself as a failure. However, coming from such a strong culture with a specific definition of success, sometimes it's hard to detach from that.

I had a little bout of embarrassment today in class as well when the teacher went around and calculated everyone's Korean age. Basically you're a year or two older in Korea then you are in America. If you're born on May 1st you are 1 year old instantly. Then come January 1st of the next year you turn 2. Then your birthday is basically January 1st every year. Even though it's not. Since my birthday hasn't happened yet, I'm still 30 in American years. However in Korean years, its the current year minus my birth year plus one (because when you're born you're one year old). 2017-1986 = 31 +1 = 32.

So that made me feel even better, especially when everyone else in the class is saying 20, 21, 22. Nathan is 26 by Korean years, and the girl who shook my hand today is 30. Otherwise everyone is super young, and I'm just figuring out what I want to do with my life. Honestly I'm fine with this though, because I know God has a plan for me and I'm playing by his rules, not the rules of this world.

I used to go on long walks in the early hours of the morning when I was younger. This probably started when I was about 16 years old. I was so wound up about my future and what I would do, that I just had to get out and walk and think. I would look up at the stars for hours and just dream and scheme. I always thought I had to take control of my life and make things happen. I thought about how I would be successful and achieve that American dream. How I could make a lot of money, have a beautiful wife, a nice house, and a nice car. That was the definition of success to me.

As time went on I still took walks, and the weight of this success hadn't fallen off of me. Life wasn't shaping up to be what I knew I was capable of, but I just didn't truly believe in material wealth being fulfilling. I was trying to live in two worlds. This came to a head when I truly felt Christ's love for the first time on my road trip to a Christian hockey camp in North Dakota with my bro Matt Gates. I had been a Christian my entire life, but really never had an actual relationship with God. I was a Christian in name only.

The experience I had didn't immediately transform me into a walking talking disciple willing to talk to anyone and everyone on the street about God. In fact I still struggle with that. What it did though was help me to realize definitively and without a doubt that God is real. From that point on I started to learn how to have a relationship with Him. I say learn because I'm continuing to learn. Everyday. But I can say definitively that He has answered my prayers. In ways that I never thought possible, and also ones that I never even thought about. My trip here is living proof.

While I may not have much to show on this earth, that no longer defines my success. I'm starting to care less and less as my relationship with God grows and grows. As my trust in Him continues to grow. As I'm able to lean on Him, and find rest in Him. "My yoke is easy and my burden is light". This is the truth.

Now I definitely want to follow that up with the statement that I don't have things figured out. Very VERY far from it. It really perturbs me when I meet people that talk down to others regarding their religion/spirituality/relationship or whatever you want to call it. I am a broken person. I mess up everyday. Multiple multiple times. However, I embrace this brokenness. One of the most common misconceptions that people have about Christianity is that they need to be saints before God will accept them. "I need to be a better person before I go to God". This is something I struggle with everyday as I recognize my sin more and more. Realize that God loves you as you are and not as you should be. (Thank you Brennan Manning for these words). Come to him broken, and be made whole in his love. You don't become better to earn his love, you change and become better BECAUSE you are loved. If you haven't checked out Brennan Manning's 'Abba's Child' I would suggest you do it.

Thanks for joining me for this one month reflection! So far this month I have: learned a foundation of the Korean language, made 40+ Korean friends, made multiple English speaking professor friends, started working out and losing weight, ate multiple awesome foods, found a great church, and had successive higher profile interviews (including tomorrow) about why I'm here and what I'm doing. I can't wait to see what next month brings!

Korean Word/Phrase of the Day:제/네/저의/나의 (Je/Ne/Jeo Ye/Na Ye) These all mean "my". Yeah. You can say my 4 different ways. You can also say "hello" 3 different ways. Not confusing at all.

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

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