TGIF

So. The best thing about Friday was that I learned the campus was having a planned blackout all weekend, and I needed a place to stay. We're talking no electricity, no water, no nothing. Everything on campus shut down completely all day Saturday and all day Sunday. Yeah. How awesome is that? I wouldn't have even known about it had it not been for the other RA's. Like, how the F am I supposed to know about this? I was pretty mad. Now I gotta figure out somewhere to stay for 2 days on a few hours notice. The University is not in downtown Daegu anymore so it's not like there are a lot of hotels/motels around campus. I guess I should feel fortunate that K-PACE was having a meeting Friday morning to decide not only what to do with me, but with the students and that my RA buddy's would be going to bat for me.

That little debacle aside I got to class. TEST TIME! Oh boy, the last time I had to memorize anything for school let alone 40 verbs in a foreign language was a LONG time ago. Grad school doesn't really require any of that. I ended up getting a 37/40. Frowny face. Honestly I should have gotten them all, but I rushed through a bit and made some silly mistakes. Oh well, lesson learned. I'll definitely remember those verbs now lol.

We continued on our crazy speed journey through the basics of Korean and afterwards I headed back to the dorm to meet with the squad. We headed to our favorite kitchen for some mad grubbin time. I got a chance to ask how the meeting went and what my fate was for the weekend. Apparently they decided to keep everyone in the dorms. I don't know how this is going to work, but hey at least I won't die alone.

This is for mah ODM bois. Flowjobs gettin it done Hanguk style.

This was posted up in CJ kitchen (the one that I don't go to as often) and I remembered talking about it with Dan and Steve. Maybe I'll go lay down some fire freestyle and have Korea all over me. Nah. Not likely haha.

Friday night brought in our soccer uniforms! Yeah I know this is out of nowhere. I'm not really sure what the plan is with these. From what I can understand we are going to play with the students next weekend. As you know my roommate's name is Yoon Joo Sik. Well I renamed him Yoon Joo Sexy, and as you can see by these pictures I'm right.

YJS modeling our new soccer uniforms and his sexy new Puma cleats.

What a sexy beast.

Friday night with the students was more rec center and chill. I'm starting to build relationships with some of them and it's a wonderful feeling. They are so talented.One is an artist and enjoys telling me about the comics he draws. They are really good. Another wants me to help him in the gym. Another just wants to be bros and that's sweet too.

That's pretty much it for Friday, now I just get to lay down and worry about what I'm gonna do for the weekend. Here's some Korean words to ponder.

Korean Word of the Day: 주세요 (Joo Se Yo) This means please give me. So if you want some more Bap, you best be sayin Joo Se Yo.

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

You Won't Believe What Just Happened to This Guy...(Clickbait Title)

Wow. Today proves that anything can happen. I was on my way back from the engineering college with the other RA's and the K-PACE students, and I got cat called by 2 Korean girls. Yeah...I know. What is this world coming to?! Also, is this what it feels like to be a woman? All in all it was pretty awesome. In fact, I've been called handsome more times in a week while being here than I have in my entire life in America. I think I might stay here.

Haha, what a day. In Korean class they toned it down a bit with the new concepts. We did some review, and just learned a few new things. However, the homework given was to memorize 40 verbs. Yeah, 40. Life is fun here. My gone brain is. Things? Stuff?

I love these students. While I'm writing my blog entries, they stop by the door to my room and always say "Hi". They speak as much as they can in English and then leave. There are a few regulars. One doesn't say anything, he just dances in front of my door. If he ever does come in he repeats the same song over and over "fantastic, fantastic, really fantastic". Haha, it cracks me up every time. Oh, I learned the verb for dance today. 춤추다 (Choom Choo Da) To dance. So now I can tell him Choom and dance with him.

Another student always comes to my door and tries to speak English, but all he ends up saying is "Hi" and when I say "Hi" back he says "Yes?" and I agree with him and he says "Ok Bye Bye". This happens time and again. I know soon I'll actually be able to have a real conversation with him. They're always so happy to see me. They always say "Hi". This is such a different world than I'm used to. Of course your regular friends and acquaintances always greet you, but most people tend to be filled with the grief of life instead of the joy God wants us to have. I really think being here is emptying my inner cup of grief and refilling it with the joy I once had. I hope that reading this blog can help spill over a shot or two of joy into your life as well.

Today our activity with the students was cooking class! I am absolutely horrific in the kitchen so I welcome this chance to witness some professionals in action. This was also the day that An Hyo Sang and I started our workouts! His girlfriend told him that she wants him to be a muscle man, so he asked if I'd help him out in the gym. I can tell who wears the pants in this relationship already. What a sweet guy. He wants to start with chest and triceps. All you guys out there know what's up, who can blame him? We get a good hour in and then head back to the dorm to clean up for cooking class!

This cooking class takes place in the engineering college, which is all the way across campus. For one of our students who has a severe walking disability, this can take almost 40 min. We left around 5pm for what I believe was a 6pm start, and the second group didn't get there until almost 6:30. The teachers 선생님 (Sun Saeng Nim) were extremely patient waiting for all the students to get there. We had the class in a food engineering room, and it was fascinating to watch her work. She diced up some onions, some green shallots(?), green peppers, and carrots, and cubed some ham. Her assistant worked on making rice in the rice cooker. There were also eggs that needed to be broken into a bowl and stirred.

The dish that the students made is called Omurice, and is a Japanese dish consisting of fried rice in egg. There is a certain presentation to this, the egg is cooked thin and placed inside a bowl to line it. then the bowl filled with cooked rice, carrots, onions, green pepper etc. The bowl is then flipped upside down onto a plate so the egg covers the rice in a bowl shape, and this is all topped off with ketchup. Here are some pictures so you get the idea.

THE FIRST KNOWN PICTURE OF HEAVY G IN EXISTENCE! COVER YOUR EYES!

An Hyo Sang sore from his workout with me cooking up a storm.

More Heavy G Action!

My group killin it! One of the students basically took charge and she made us into a super group.

Yesterday was a bit rough on food. I hadn't eaten since lunch at this point and I had just worked out with An Hyo Sang, I didn't want to eat the student's food either so I had to wait. In fact, we decided to go to the brand new Burger King on campus for lunch. Unfortunately it wasn't all that filling. Here's a picture of the menu to see if you'd like anything here.

Burger King Menu at Daegu University in South Korea.

They seem pretty bent on making the pineapple burger a thing. I'm not quite sure if that would fly in America. I know for sure it would start fights if it was on pizza, but hey, I give it a 5/7, 8/10 with rice. I hope someone out there gets any of those references. I ended up just having the four cheese burger, and while it was good and bigger than your typical Burger King burger it left me unsatisfied and a tad bit sad on the inside :(.

All in all, Thursday was a success and I'd do it again if I could. Here's some Korean to massage your brain.

Korean Word of the Day:먹다 Meok Da (To Eat) 마시다 Ma Si Da (To Drink)

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

Hump Day!

Wednesday was an exciting day, as I was able to go to Korean class again! However, this time it made my head want to explode. We are already a full two weeks behind in this class, so the teachers have flipped the switch into hyper drive to catch up. Unfortunately that means learning way too much for one day. My head was spinning, but honestly I kind of like it. One of the reasons I took on this adventure was to challenge myself intellectually in a way I never had before.

Communication has always come easy to me. My parents maintain that I taught myself English by watching TV. A point that certain people (Anna that means you) contest fiercely. Regardless God has gifted me the ability to communicate well, and I pride myself on that to a certain extent. Learning a foreign language is no exception to this. I knew it would be difficult going in, but I'm willing to do the work. In fact I'm excited to be challenged. I haven't struggled with anything in a long time, but I openly admit that learning Korean is hard.

Yes, I understand it's hard. People have told me this. I've seen it before I even went into this, but you never really know until you're living it. I can attest that this will be quite a challenge, but not impossible by any means. I just cannot wait until I have enough fuel to hold even the most rudimentary of conversations with a native Korean. Honestly, I could probably do it now if I really tried, but they have thrown so many things at us I'm still trying to get my bearings.

We haven't even started verbs or conjugations yet. Just explaining your nationality and asking about someone else. I have been blessed with a small (4) class of students, and teachers that are willing to go through and explain any confusion. Ok, enough about Korean.

Today, I had a new dish to eat. It's called 돼지쌈정식(Dwae Ji Ssam Jeong Sik) I even had to have my roommate type that one for me haha. This meal is giant leaves that you put seasoned pork, rice, and bean sauce into. This also seems to be a meal specific to this particular cafeteria since I can't find a recipe for it online. However, it was wonderful and I give it a 10/10 just like every other meal I've had. (Except for you my little Tangsu JJajang Bap you're a million/10).

Mmm homemade and excellent, I love eating here.

Finally, to the most exciting part of the blog and the whole reason I'm here! The students! I haven't really had a chance to participate with them up until this point. I'm around them in the dorm, but I can't really talk to them due to the language barrier. Also, I hadn't gotten a chance to do any job shadowing...UNTIL TODAY.

I got a message on Kakao from my roommate YJS during class that the K-PACE students were going to have a conversational English class at 4pm and that I was invited to check it out. Well hell yeah! This is awesome. I get a chance to see my dream job in action, and meet some of the professors. So of course I say yes, and head over to the K-PACE center about 3:30.

I walk in and head up to the third floor where the class will be held. The professors are in there getting setup along with most of the students. They're quick to identify and introduce me, and ask if I want to participate. Absolutely I do. So the plan is to make musical instruments. It's been a long time since I've been in an arts and crafts type class so they pair me up with Kate a Canadian teacher who has been in Korea for 15 years now. (I found all this out by the end of the class as I was talking to her.) In fact a lot of the teachers seem to be Canadian. I even got a chance to talk to some of them about hockey. THEY EVEN HAVE AN ICE RINK IN DOWNTOWN DAEGU! Unfortunately that's still around 30 min away from the school, and I don't have a car but it's a start!

My group is making drums, so we grab the materials and bring them to the desk. There are around 5 students per group. The different instruments are drums, rain sticks, pipes, and flutes. We make our drums by rolling up cardboard into a tube shape and stretching balloons over each end. Pretty clever if you ask me. Here are some pictures from the event.

Our group (best group) with the drums!

The rainstick group. Flutes in the back right.

The tube group. Flutes in the back left.

As you can see there is even a camera crew there taking video and doing interviews. The other teachers let me know that they do this every Wednesday at 4pm and I'm welcome to join. What a fortunate occurrence, that I'm sure is not an accident. One of the teachers even offered to drive me over to the rink to check it out when they have a game of rat hockey.

In the middle picture there's a guy dancing with his back to the camera in a white shirt. That is Park Jeong Bin. I actually met him when the K-PACE students visited Concordia University Wisconsin a year or two back. He was a student then. Now he works in the administrative office for the University. That is a testament to what this program is accomplishing. Not only here, but Bethesda College at Concordia, and all the other programs all over the world. These teachers and aids are incredible people with loving hearts who give their lives to bettering the lives of others and I couldn't be more grateful and in awe of them.

Spending this time with the students allowed me a chance to bond with some of them and converse. Some of them are quite good in English and I can already share some of my story with them and bond. Some may have to wait until I am good enough at Korean. xD <--tongue out smiley with eyes x'd.

After this class we went back to the dorms, and it was time to hit the gym! I am consistently going with the other RA's to watch over the students while they work out at the rec center. Yet another chance to bond with the students, and in a place where I have some experience and knowledge. Plus I can get a workout in myself if I want.

Wednesday was a breakout day in more ways than one! I'm really happy that God is giving me challenges, but also rewarding ones at that. I can't wait to see what else comes my way! Stayed tuned, Thursday is sure to be a doozy!

Korean Word of the Day: 저는 (I am (Jeo Neun)) 미국 (America (Mi Guk)) 사람이에요.(Person (Sa Ram E Eh Yo)) (This one is actually a phrase of the day because that's part of what we learned today.)

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

The First Day of Class!

Tuesday finally came! My first day of real actual Korean class! I was up early yet again due to excitement. Breakfast a little after 8, and a walk across campus does a body good. They told us to meet in the Korean teachers lounge at 9, so of course I'm there half an hour early trying to figure out what to do with my time. 8:45 rolls around and guess who shows up? That's right, Nathan, the American guy from yesterday trying to drop his class. Turns out me showing up helped garner enough interest to starting a new section of the beginning class and he was able to benefit as well.

So we walk into the teachers lounge together and the main teacher from yesterday takes us to a small room next door and sits us down. After a few minutes another Asian guy joins us. Turns out he is from Vietnam. I still haven't quite figured out how to say his name, but I believe it is Heuwia. Our teacher comes in and starts to talk to us in Korean. Most of her speech is to herself, and she translates what is important for us to know into English. Just after class starts another Asian girl comes rushing in out of breath and apologizes for being late. This girl is Chinese and her name is Ting Ting. Yes, Ting Ting.

So our teacher asks us questions to get an idea of how long we have been in Korea, and how much of the language we know. I told her that I had been exposed to the language for about a year, however I basically just knew the alphabet. She laughed at that and was a bit surprised, but hey who isn't with a 6'6 viking giant in Korea?

We get started right away on the alphabet sounds, and basically breeze through everything since most of us were already familiar with it. In fact Nathan seemed to be struggling the most even though he had already taken 2 weeks of this Korean course. Then again, with only one day spent on the alphabet, it would be easy to not have enough exposure to have it come to your head quickly.

I want to do a Korean word/phrase of the day. We didn't really learn any in our first class, but I figure it's a good time to start anyway since the pace is incredibly fast and the difficulty will increase rapidly of what I would be able to help beginners with on this blog anyway.

After class I messaged the other RA's on Kakao and asked if what their plans were for lunch. They were all up for something so Mr. An and I hopped in Heavy G's car and picked up my roommate Yoon Joo Sik for some noms. I had to get the Tangsu JJajang Bap again of course. Afterwards I asked YJS if he wanted some company in the library. He was totally down to study and chill, but I realized I had left my books in our room so I had Heavy G drop me off at the dorm. I sat down to my computer to watch a bit of my buddy's Twitch Stream (Shout out to mah boi Alex Keeler TheEndBoss). when YJS was all "brah u comin to the libary?". Well you can't just leave a man hangin like that so I packed up my books and walked out the dorm.

I have a general idea where the library is, so I message YJS to come out front to meet me when I get there. I wait outside for a few minutes and he pops out. We go upstairs to the 5th floor which is apparently quiet time. There's only 3 of us among a bunch of tables and shelves of books so I get down to work practicing my Korean alphabet. Since I know it pretty well by now I was focusing mostly on the pen strokes. There is a very specific way of writing the Korean alphabet. I find that it's actually pretty intuitive, except for a few things that writing English for 25+ years has trained me to do. I took a break and checked out the view from way up high and snapped a photo for you all.

The view from on high. 5th Floor Daegu University Library.

After about an hour and a half of scribbling away, YJS decided he needed to get back. I needed to go to the book store first though. Why? You guessed it, who needs cash in this society? NOT THIS GUY. At least not yet lol. They gave us books in class and told us we would have to pay the next day. Well I don't have cash so I decided my best course of action would be to go to the book store and buy replacement books. Good thing I did, it cost 20,000 won less than they wanted in class! My books literally cost $32, it would likely be 10 times that in the U.S. I'm good with that.

After the book store we walked back to the dorm to get the K-PACE students ready for dinner, and headed over ourselves. Bulgogi Bibimbap hasn't let me down yet so why stop now?! Me and YJS crushed it together and headed back to the dorm to get ready for fitness center time!

We took the K-PACE guys over to the rec center for an hour of good hard workout. This was my chance to check out the rec center for myself. I'm planning on joining, mainly because it's the only place on campus with decent free weights. One flat bench, one squat rack...whatever it works. The cool stuff is that they have a driving range in the basement with about 300 yards of room. (Very rare to have that much space in Korea).

We walk around to keep an eye on the students while they're working out, and of course keeping the other eye on any babes that might be around. After about an hour we walk back to the dorm and it's getting dark so my sleepy genes take over. I head to bed at about 10pm and its knock out time.

Korean Word of the Day: 안녕하세요 (An nyeong ha se yo) We will keep it super simple today. This means hello. You can cut off the ha se yo part in casual settings if you want for more of a "hi" feel.

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

Monday Funday

Ahhh Monday. Monday was to be the first day of my Korean class. Now I was 2 weeks behind the class start due to staying in Chicago until the end of my hockey season, so I knew I was under the gun. Add on the fact that these classes are extremely intensive, at 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, it's not your typical 2 hours twice a week type class. I was already 40 hours of instruction behind.

I had already taken a few walks around campus, so I knew where my classes were. I was asked to meet about 10 minutes before the start of class in the international affairs office to iron out some details and figure out which class I would be in. The K-PACE students tend to go to breakfast around 8, so we follow them over. After breakfast and walking to the global lounge (where my classes are), I was still almost half an hour early.

As I was waiting for the office to open, an English teacher from what sounded like Australia (judging by her accent) asked me if I was Carl. Apparently I'm already known on this campus. She was apparently a friend of someone I had been connected with here in Daegu before I came here. It seems that worlds are also small in Korea as well. I also managed to catch a picture of a relative of one of my friends at ODM back home. I had been told the Ryu family name was relatively rare and so if someone had that name they were very likely related. I decided to snap a picture to show my buddy.

A relative of my buddy Andrew Ryu, and she's pretty! ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋSorry Andrew!

So, the office of international affairs finally opens and I'm able to talk to my buddy Jong Chan, who was my email liaison and airport ride as well. As I'm sitting in the office waiting, another American guy comes in by the name of Nathan. Nathan is struggling with his Korean course only 2 weeks in. He wants to drop and start over when the next section starts. This scares me. Not only am I supposed to catch up, but they're going at a pace where people are already wanting to drop 2 weeks in.

After notifying them that I barely know any actual Korean, I just know the alphabet and a few random words/phrases they still want me to take a placement test. This is fine, because honestly I want to start from the beginning. Well they take 4 of us into a small room with the placement test and give us about 30 min to finish it. The front page and answer page are fairly simple, they have English translations on them. Awesome, I can do this! I turn the page to start the test after filling out my information, and it's completely in Korean. Awesome...I can't do this. There was no point in waiting in the room for them to come get us. I got up and walked out. I told my buddy Jong Chan that I didn't know a thing and I wasn't even ashamed. First time that's happened in a long time, that I've swallowed my pride.

After about a 45 minute wait, and a jaunt into the Korean teachers lounge for what seemed to be an impromptu vocal test of our skills, I was told to go back to the OIA (Office of International Affairs) with a Chinese girl that also seemed to not know much. Jong Chan informed me that they would be opening a new section for beginning students the next day, and that I should go home for the day.

Wow, another day behind. My competitive spirit was getting the best of me, but I realized that it was probably a GIANT miracle that I was able to start fresh and not have to worry about catching up. I was in the mood for some 우동 (Udong) a noodle dish with fish cakes served very hot. I went to the ddeokbokki place that I had gone to before, and it was excellent as expected.

Nommy Udong!

Since I really didn't have anything to study, and nothing to do I decided to take a sweet sweet nap. Ahhh, the covers made love to me as I lay down and fell asleep. Later I woke up and it was dinner time! Perfect timing. We went to our favorite kitchen, and I was inspired by my roommate to try a Chinese dish called 탕수짜장밥 (Tangsu JJajang Bap) which is sweet and sour pork breaded and fried, with black bean sauce and rice. This is an incredible dish, one of my favorite since being here. I couldn't find an exact recipe for it so I linked a JJajang Bap recipe instead. (Maybe Tim Leung can help us out!) Here is a picture of its goodness!

Omg Tangsu JJajang Bap I would marry you if I wasn't already pledged to all the KPop girls.

After dinner I finally got to meet all of our K-PACE male students. I had already met most of them, but this was formal introduction time. Wow, what a myriad of names. Coming from English it is quite difficult to grasp names that differ so much from ours. In all honesty I still probably only know a few of them concretely. Heavy G took me around to each room and asked if they had any questions for me, and translated. Some of the most popular questions were "are you married?" "do you have any brothers or sisters?" and where are you from?". All good ones. I was even asked who my favorite Idol was, and also who my favorite Girls Generation girl was. This made me happy.

What I took from meeting these students is that they are all incredibly sweet souls. I am so blessed to be a part of this program, and having this adventure right now. I honestly go to bed in awe of my situation each night. I not only get a chance to better myself through language and learning, but I get a chance to make a lasting impression on these kids and help them grow themselves. I can't wait until I learn enough Korean to really converse with them on a deeper level. If any of you get a chance to work with special needs, I suggest you do it as it is a world unto itself. One that will open your heart and teach you more than you could ever imagine. Tomorrow is another new adventure!

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

Sonday!

Man, was this a day. Sunday gave me affirmation from God that I'm doing what I'm supposed to. I woke up at my newly appointed time of 6am (What is wrong with me?!) and sent a kakao message to Mr. G asking if he planned on eating before going to church. I had corresponded with both Mr. G and a K-PACE professor on Friday, the day that I arrived to make sure I had a church to go to, and a ride.

Heavy G the type of guy to not answer your message, but just pop in your room to answer you. A true OG. So, he pops in a bit after 8 and tells me that we will be going to the late service around 5pm or 6pm. This is cool with me cause I don't have anything going on yet. About an hour later, he comes back and asks if I'm ready to go to breakfast. Food sounds good, so I tell him of course! Unfortunately there is a truncated menu on Sunday's and I have to settle (LOL cause it's awesome) for bulgogi bibimbap. Afterwards we get in the car and start driving towards the city. Oh, ok church time now? That works.

This church is about a half hour drive from campus, and is in downtown Daegu. We drive past the professional baseball team's stadium, among some other landmarks. (Like a brand new giant Costco being built). Since Korea is so cramped for land, things tend to be built upwards instead of out like they are in America. For example, the McDonald's we went to for lunch was at least 2 floors, and the Starbucks we went to afterwards was 3.

So. Church. I didn't know what to expect. I had heard so many things about churches in Korea. Ranging from cult activity, to megachurches in Seoul with nearly a million members! Turns out this church is almost identical in sanctuary size to my ODM church at home. The congregation has a few more members, but the two are very similar. Ok, this is cool. Heavy G sits down next to me while the announcements are going on. Next to us is one of the professors from the university who I also spoke to about going to church with. He hands me his phone with the Korean and English bible verses on it so I was able to follow along. We were studying Genesis chapters 37 and 39 where Joseph has his dreams, but I wasn't really able to follow along since everything was in Korean.

After the service we decide to go get lunch. The choice was to stay at the church for Korean food or go to McDonald's. Well I was alright with McDonald's because of course, you guessed it. (I don't have any cash still). We get to McDonald's and one of the guys with us speaks English pretty well so I let him order for me. I wanted your typical double quarter pounder with cheese value meal. However, that's not an option in Korea. Only the single quarter pounder. It seems they get the double ordered enough where it is not a problem, considering they had wrapping paper with double quarter pounder already written on it.

A McDonald's menu in Daegu, South Korea.

There were 4 other guys that had joined Heavy G and I for lunch. Three of them were too shy to talk to me or even ask me any questions. I've found this is pretty typical here. I assume it's mostly my giant stature, but being American probably has something to do with it. After lunch the other 4 had to go back to church to start working on the youth praise practice, so Heavy G and I decided to hit up Starbucks.

The Starbucks menu was surprisingly close to the one in America, with just a few added words here and there. For example, my Chocolate Chip Frappuccino in America, was a Chocolate Chip Dream Frappuccino here. Heavy G and I sat and talked for about an hour, mostly about his love of cars and his family. Then it was time to head back to church for the youth sermon. I was not prepared for what happened next.

We walk back to church and outside are a bunch of kids playing. Some of these kids have hockey sticks. That's cool, I know one of the rich parents in Daegu had donated some ice hockey things recently, and there is a growing base of hockey interest here. We go back to our seats from before and sit down, but Heavy G has to leave to go use the bathroom. While I'm sitting there an elderly Korean lady comes up behind me and speaks to me in nearly perfect English. She asked my name and where I was from. (She assumed Canada, so I'm going to return the favor and assume she lived in Canada as well).

As we are talking, kids start coming up by the bunches asking for my autograph. I have no idea what was told to them, but I'm sure they assumed I was a professional hockey player. Of course I wasn't going to let them down so I signed everything they asked me to including random pieces of paper, blades of sticks, and even lettering of sticks themselves multiple times. One rambunctious young-ling wanted my signature on all 3 white letters of his CCM one piece. Meanwhile the piano player from the main service comes up and introduces herself as well. She speaks excellent English, and ends up volunteering to be my personal translator for the youth service.

This is awesome, I feel like a celebrity. In fact, the pastor even stops his sermon to tell me how handsome I am, and that I look like a movie star. This was particularly awkward and funny because my poor translator had to translate this to me while everyone was looking at me waiting for a reaction. Imagine that scene in your head. Haha, I was very gracious and laughed it off.

With my personal translator I was able to finally hear what the pastor was preaching about in his first sermon. This is where I got my affirmation from. He was talking about how Joseph had a dream, and how important dreams are to us. Not only dreams while we are sleeping, but dreams of goals in our lives. The pastor again stopped his sermon to ask what my personal dream was. Well boy was I ever prepared for this one! I told him that I was living it. To be here was my dream. My translator relayed that on and he was ecstatic.

The sermon continued on and we finished with a hymn and some small group action. The guys that ate lunch with us still weren't able to come up with questions for me until they were prodded. They asked where I was from, and if I was married. The usual. Eventually we had to take our leave and head back. I now understood that Heavy G had been talking about getting back around 5 or 6 instead of going to the 5 or 6pm service.

We got back and had some more food and rested. (Lest as my RA buddy's call it). A very successful and exciting day indeed. I was overwhelmed with joy after spending the day at church. I could tell their church was alive with the holy spirit. It was a much more vocal congregation than my one back home, almost had a southern soul feel to it. People shouting "Amen" and speaking in tongues even. Things I had never heard before, I had only heard of them. I am excited to go back again this week and have a personal translator again. Being a celebrity in Korea is good.

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

A Day of Rest

Ahhh Saturday...the Sabbath. Actually before that, let me back up to Friday night real quick. I got into my dorm room Friday afternoon around 2pm after lunch with the K-PACE management. My roommate was not in yet so I decided to take a quick nap. Then I went down the hall to the other RA's room, and found all 3 other RA's there. My roommate introduced himself as 윤주식 (Yoon Joo Sik). For those of you that don't know, the Si sound in the Korean language is actually pronounced She. So his given name is Joo Sheek. The other RA's are 안효상 (An Hyo Sang) and Mr. G. I actually don't know Mr. G's name yet lol. The best part is I've spent entire days with him at this point. I thought I could secretly figure it out from his Kakao (Korean instant messaging) profile, but to no avail. I'll learn eventually. Mr. G refers to himself as Heavy G, or Anderson as is his chosen English name, and is quite the gregarious character. He loves to talk, and while his English is intelligible, sometimes it is difficult to follow. I love them all though. They were incredibly open and helpful from the get go.

So, Friday night. I got to the dorm and realized I had no blanket or pillow. OHS NOES! However will I sleep?! Fear not, we can go into the nearest city 하양 (Hayang) and get some. All 4 of us pile into Mr. G's car like a boy band that's been friends forever. My roommate Joo Sik has the best English besides me so he is the designated question asker. How old am I? Why am I here? Onto the more important things like what do I still need besides blankets and pillows. They also decided that as their newly adopted Korean, I needed to get some face lotion. Yeah, I'm not much of a lotion guy of any kind, but being a bonding moment I decided to indulge them. (After telling them I didn't need any about 4 times).

My Korean face lotion that's gonna make my skin so smooth I'll be in all the K-Drama's.

I am pretty in awe that they were so willing and ready to just go pick the things up that I needed. Also, that they were as helpful as they were. I posted a video above of what plugs look like here. I had no clue before I got here that outlets were not universal, but now I know. So that was another thing we had to go get. Anyways, this was the first meeting for me of my fellow RA's, and they have continued to be awesome people. I end up going to sleep about 6pm Friday night like the party animal I am. (Rawr *with kitty claw simulation*)

I wake up about 6am Saturday morning which is totally typical for those that know me. (It's totally not, that's usually when I go to bed). Maybe moving halfway across the world has been good for me, so far it's fixed my sleeping schedule lol. No one is awake yet, so I decide to go for a walk around campus and get my bearings. The previous day 윤종찬 (Yoon Jong Chan) took me for a tour around campus by car after picking me up from the airport so I had a general idea of where my classes were in relation to my dorm. Forgive the picture spam, but this campus is going to be GORGEOUS in summer.

A short video by the girls 여 (Yeo) dorm ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Brilliantly engineered stairs in front of my dorm. Wheelchair accessible!

Random amphitheater I encountered on my walk Pt. 1

Random amphitheater I encountered on my walk Pt. 2

Main faculty building across a giant field.

This was really cool. This is the founders grave. What an incredible dude. His grandson is in charge of the K-PACE program, and the one I have been working with here.

Brand new state of the art recreation center. This is where I shall be finding dates for the next year. (jay kay el oh el)

So! My walk was definitely fruitful. A beautiful campus to enjoy with literally no one else around. I found where I would be taking classes starting Monday and a few other lovely tidbits to enjoy. (Like food spots!) Speaking of food, lets talk about what I ate!

Breakfast was 닭갈비 (Dak Kalbi) This dish is basically pulled chicken, with rice and oh is it so good. If you know the Korean alphabet at all, the word for Chicken (Dak) is tricky because it has a silent ㄹ(R/L sound) in it. Those tricky Koreans can getcha, but I guess when English has words like knight we can't complain too much can we :P.

For lunch I had 떡볶이 (Ddeokbokki) Which is rice cakes and fish cakes in hot/spicy soup. There's a little shop on the edge of campus right by the west gate that serves this and all I have to say is nom nom nom. I get room and board through my compensation so I don't pay for most meals, but this meal was $2! TWO...DOLLARS...I'll let that process for a minute while you salivate over this nommilicious meal.

My Ddeokbokki! Not yours!

 Since you all are not privy to my financial information I'll let you know that my typical monthly budget is spent around 75% on food, and 25% on other things. This stems partly from me being a big dude who likes to eat, and also the fact that I don't exactly watch what I spend on food. For this reason alone I might never leave this place. IMAGINE THE MONEY I COULD SAVE! (just kidding Dad)

Dinner was 불고기 비빔밥 (Bulgogi Bibimbap) and a great one it was. This dish is sliced beef over rice and veggies. In fact I've had this dish multiple times since I've been here. As advertised Saturday was mostly a day of rest. I went to bed at a whopping 6pm again. (I'm clearly living it up here). Food and rest was what I needed after a lot of traveling though and my body thanked me for it. Nothing super adventurous, but a few walks, and a lot of good food. Stay tuned for Sunday! It was a doozy!

TL:DR I'm in Korea.