Speaking Midterm

Today was my speaking mid term. They postponed it a week, and even gave us sheets to write down what we wanted to say to help us. I wasn't nervous at all going in. I didn't eat breakfast because I wasn't hungry, but the other teachers thought it was because I was nervous. I actually didn't get nervous until I walked in the door to actually take the test, then I forgot everything I know haha. Pretty atypical of me to be honest, but when I feel that I don't know something well enough, that's when I get nervous.

I still think I did well on the test, I only had two minor mistakes that I could tell. I did speak relatively slow though and they could have deducted for that I suppose. I was the first to go however, and I'm happy about that because once I was done I was able to just go back to the dorm.

I actually wasn't hungry for lunch either. I'm getting better at listening to my body for when to feed it. Before, in America it was just eat 3 times a day because I can...well, and because Portillo's and Chipotle are just so damn good. I got a good lift in with An Hyo Sang, and we ended up heading to 8 Ho Gwan for dinner. I got my signature chicken curry bap.

Today was a day for pictures. I've been thinking about how I don't have many pictures and how that probably doesn't appeal to a lot of people when they read my blog. Honestly though, that's not the type of audience I'm aiming at. This blog is for people who are interested in adventures around Korea, and the intellectual side of things. As well as, my personal growth and journey. I think that part of the journey is growing though, so I will try to be better about taking pictures to make things more interesting.

So after dinner was a shower and then cooking class with about half the students. We made what I believe is called 족 (Jok) today. It was a bunch of vegetables all cut up and cooked with instant rice. The end product looked pretty good. They also put in sesame seed oil that we used on our chadolbagi back home in the states. That made things a little more appealing for me :).

An Hyo Sang (Left) and Heavy G (Right) cooking up a storm!

During the process of cooking.

Finished product and students enjoying themselves.

There were a few signs in the college of information and communication engineering that I wanted to show you guys. (The place where we have cooking class). Also I don't believe I mentioned that the K-PACE staff is going out for a dinner on the 28th to celebrate my news story and to thank me for bringing the school some publicity. I'm down lol. Originally I requested chadolbagi, however An Hyo Sang showed me a buffet place today that has unlimited beer and wine as well. I was sold, LETS GO!  Oh also, here are a few jams for you that I'm currently digging.

다비치 (DAVICHI) - 내 옆에 그대인 걸 (Beside me) and Park Hyo Shin 박효신_숨 (Breath) 

Umm yes? This place looks awesome.

Yeah, if you don't know where to find me I'll be living here for the rest of my life.

Ok onto dorm life! So I haven't really shared it on my blog, but I have a heat bandit. Yes, a heat bandit. Someone comes to my room when I'm not there, turns on my heat, and leaves. This has been going on for probably 2 weeks now. I didn't know who it was, or why they were doing it. Finally, I caught the culprit.

The Heat Bandit in Action!

My room got pretty busy tonight. I had the blessing of 고준혁 (Ko Jun Hyuk) visiting me tonight, so I had to get a video of him. Unfortunately I missed one of his favorite sayings "I like bed...I love bed...I LY-EEK BEEEEEHD...I LOVEEEEUHHHH BEEEEEHD!" That one always cracks me up. At least I got his favorite song (the last one) that he repeats probably 50 times a day. He says "fantastic, fantastic, very fantastic".

That's about it for today, tomorrow is yet another day of class. Then the weekend! Yayyyyy, wedding and church! I'm pretty stoked, I get to suit up. Hopefully there will be some yeojah's there to talk to. Thanks for stopping in! I'll post my speaking mid term transcript at the bottom here so you can check it out. Throw it in google translate for a good kick. See you tomorrow!

안녕하십니까? 저는 칼입니다. 반갑습니다. 저는 미국 사람입니다. 저는 학생입니다. 제 방은 침대하고 책상하고 컴퓨터가 있습니다. 저는 한국 음식이 맛있고 한국 음식을 좋아합니다. 그리고 닭가비하고 치킨카레밥을 아조 좋아합니다. 한국어는 재미있지만 어렵습니다. 한국 사람들은 아주 친절합니다. 그래서 한국 사람들은 아주 좋아함니다. 미국에 안 갈 겁니다.

Korean Word/Phrase of the Day: 조금 (Jo Geum) This means "A little". Don't get this confused with 지금 (Ji Geum) "Now" or 가끔 (Ka Geum) "Sometimes".

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

No Time to Study!

And yet here I am writing this blog entry during one of my chances to study haha. Priorities right? We have a speaking test tomorrow that is left over from our mid term last week. We basically have to write out a script and then present it to the teachers. Mine is about half as long as it's supposed to be because I'm all about efficiency. I combined a lot of the requisites into single sentences. I'll just end up saying some stuff I know and I'll be fine.

Today was busy yet again. We had class 9-1 as usual, then at 1 we had to go to another building for a dormitory safety presentation. Then class again from 2-4. Luckily I sat on the end of one of the rows and the guy who was going to give the presentation came and said I didn't have to stay because I'm not staying in the international dorm. That gave me time to go get some lunch.

Well this morning one of the ladies who cooks in the cafeteria we normally go to told me that I need to try something else because I'm eating the same thing every time. Mind you I'm the type of person that finds what they like and sticks to it. But I'm also a good little boy and I do what I'm told. SO! Lunch was 똔가스 라면 (Ddon Ka Seu Ra Myeon) basically this is spicy ramen soup with pork cutlet in it. So good!

Gimme dat ddonkasu!

I went straight American style today and ate with a fork. Normally ddonkasu needs to be cut so I didn't know what I would need. Next time I'll use chopsticks for sure. I honestly had to blow my nose twice during this meal. It's a pretty normal occurrence now that my nose runs when I eat, even if it's not spicy. However, this was pretty spicy. I wonder if that will ever end. Maybe I just have years of garbage in my body that is finally being purged. Who knows?

So after lunch was that 2-4 makeup class. I went to our normal classroom and no one showed up. I wasn't really surprised since the board had no room number on it so they could be anywhere. Maybe they got caught up in the safety presentation and were running late. Maybe our teacher caught them on the way and directed them to another class and they forgot about me. I went looking around and found them in another classroom. I walk in and sit down and there's another teacher! One that I don't know, and BOY IS SHE SURPRISED TO SEE ME.

Luckily all my classmates know me so they're like it's chill. I sit down and we're into some review, which is awesome cause it's stuff I need. We take a test which I got a 90/100 on, and then during the first break Li Ting Ting leans over and says "why are you late?". I did my best to explain that I was in the other classroom and no one came and got me, but as she kept asking and being confused I started to realize that this wasn't a makeup class. It was the class that the students looking to get into the university take twice a week. Sweet.

Welp, here are my options. Leave during the break and risk a ton of confusion and looking like an idiot. OR I can stay in class and ride it out and look like an idiot. I chose the latter. I also hope no one remembers this. Ahhh classic Carl. Hey in my defense there wasn't really any indication that it wasn't a makeup class. Since everyone but Nathan and I are in the class the teachers sometimes forget to single us out and let us know we don't have to go. Also, the review was actually good, so it ended up being time well spent. Where was Nathan in all of this you ask? Well he didn't attend school today so I was the lone American representing.

Right after class I had to hop over to the K-PACE center to help with the student's English conversational class. I'm feeling more confident there now that I've been around and know the teachers better. Also this week was a carbon copy of last week's activity since they have the groups split. We built rockets! As you will see in the picture, there is a rubber band attached to the end so you can stretch it back and propel it across the room. Pretty sweet!

A rocket that a student gave me.

Following English conversational class I headed back to the dorm with the students to drop off my books. Then I met up with Heavy G and An Hyo Sang at 8 Ho Gwan. I was determined to show the lady that suggested I have some soup this morning that I listened. So I ordered 김치 똔가스 나베 (Kim Chi Ddon Ka Seu Na Beh) which is basically spicy Kimchi soup with that tasty ddonkasu in it. She was actually the one who made my food so she was happy with me. Yay!

If lunch and dinner look similar it's because they are!

It was fitness center time, so Heavy G drove An Hyo Sang and I there and dropped us off. I helped the students workout along with the other RA's and then we walked back to the dorm. Now here I am working on the transcript for my speaking mid term and talking with students. Visiting other rooms and conversing in both English and Korean as best I can. It's pretty interesting, it keeps me sane with all the studying I've been doing. That's about all. Tune in tomorrow to find out about my mid term! Thanks for all the support guys, it means the world to me.

Korean Word/Phrase of the Day: 팔 (Pahl) Which is arm...as opposed to 발 (Pahl) which is foot. Have fun hearing the difference in that one.

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

Rain Rain Go Away...

Today rained the hardest I've seen since I've been here. It came out of nowhere too. The start of the day was gorgeous. Sunny and 70 degrees, then I came back to the dorm after working out and while I was showering rain started pelting the windows. Other big news of the day is that I shaved lol. This legitimately became a 3 man job. I'm not kidding.

Normally back in the states I just go to a 미용실 (Me Yong Sheel) hairshop and tell them to cut my hair short. I also tell them to just use the electric razor on my beard too and kill two birds with one stone. Pretty simple for them, and saves a ton of time and annoyance on my part. Plus it's always fun to see people double take and wonder who I am haha.

Well unfortunately I couldn't convey through the language barrier to the lady that all she had to do was use the electric razor on me and we were good to go, even with YJS there. Hopefully next time I can. Maybe I'll just take her arm while she's cutting my hair and bring it to my beard lol. That should give her the idea. I also got my hair shampoo'd for the first time ever today. I guess that's just a standard thing here, or maybe just for that particular hair shop. Either way that was interesting.

Today was pretty busy. In class we learned yet another conjugation. We also started learning body parts, and how to say you're sick. That will definitely come in handy should I ever need it. We also wrote letters in class as part of an activity. It was a response to an email we had to read to work on our comprehension. One of the girls in class wrote hers to me. I didn't get to read what it said but that was funny. Also I made mine about travel and wrote that there are many, very pretty girls in Japan. That made the teacher laugh, and then she corrected my grammar haha. Red pen everywhere.

After class I came back to the dorm and it was lunch time. Immediately following that Heavy G drove YJS and I to the hairshop. Heavy G decided he wanted to stop in the arcade and play some Tekken, so YJS and I walked back to the dorm fitness center. We got a good workout in and it was time to come back and shave. Heavy G was so intrigued by me shaving that he stood and watched the entire thing. Then he had to get involved and help me find all the spots that weren't finished. Then Heavy G and An Hyo Sang helped with the back of my neck. Things got crazy, hair was everywhere, it was like a slo-mo party scene out of a movie. Heavy G washed down the bathroom and I hit the shower and all was good.

I actually went to CJ instead of 8 Ho Gwan for dinner today. YJS and I went there so we could get to the fitness center early to supervise the students. I ended up getting Jja Jang Myun and Bap. I was super full after but it was soooooooo good! Today was pretty empty at the fitness center, and the disappearance and subsequent absence of lobby yeojah makes me sad :(. YJS said that he would search far and wide to find her though and that gives me hope! Haha.

I came back to the dorm with the students and needed a quick nap before I socialized. Normally I have 1-5 open, but today was filled with activities. The same goes for tomorrow so I'm going to be tired, but I'm up to the task. A few little asides that I've been thinking about adding here but keep forgetting.
1. YJS wants to meet Li Ting Ting from my Korean class. He thinks she's cute. This wouldn't be for romantic purposes though, he just wants to meet her. I thought that was sweet.
2. Driving here is pretty crazy. Especially on campus. There are no traffic lights so basically everyone walks and drives where they want. They stay in their lane most of the time, but the rules aren't strictly followed. Out in the city I've seen people turn right from the left turn lane. No one bats an eye, it's just what they do.
3. The clothing is hilarious. I frankly don't care anymore, but the combinations can be bizarre. Today I saw a pretty girl wearing a suit and gym shoes. That's normal. Everyone seems to always have a jacket too, even when it's 70 out it's too cold lol. They also seem to like to show off their ankles, that's a thing with jeans and pants.

I think that's it. Thanks for tuning in! If you have any questions for Heavy G, YJS, or An Hyo Sang please feel free to post them here, I'm just about ready to put together an interview session with them for the blog.

Korean Word/Phrase of the Day: 오늘 잘 보냈어요 (O Neul Jal Bo Nesseo Yo) Edit: This means "I had a good day!" Yay! - Thanks to Jiyoung Kim for the correction!

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

Back to Reality

Mom's spaghetti. Hopefully someone gets this. Anyways, I had one of those days where it felt like I will actually be able to learn Korean. That was a good feeling. However, my listening comprehension is still way behind. Speaking is getting better as I sprinkle what I can in while talking to the other members of our boy band. The books we are studying with come with a CD-ROM that have all the lessons on them so I'm going to start listening to those for awhile each night and that should help.

We FINALLY learned future tense today. 미래 (Mi Rae) it is called. It is conjugated as such: (으)ㄹ거예요. I understand that's not something you can understand unless you've been in our class so I'll try to help. Korean works on a consonant/vowel system. Two consonants cannot be together in one syllable. The bottom of a syllable is called the 받침 (Paht Cheem). I've talked about this a bit before. If the paht cheem is there 있어요 (Isseo Yo) Ex: 먹 the ㄱ (G sound) is the paht cheem. Then you add the 을 in. Ex: 먹을 거예요 (Muh Geul Geo Ye Yo) I will eat, or I'm going to eat in the future. If the paht cheem is not there 없어요 (Eobseo Yo) Ex: 가 there is no paht cheem. Then you skip the (으) and insert the ㄹ as the paht cheem. Ex: 갈 거예요 (Kal Geo Ye Yo) I will go, or I am going in the future.

Hopefully that doesn't confuse anyone, even though I'm not sure how it wouldn't haha. We also learned how to connect two related sentences. 아서/어서/해서 (Ah Seo/Eo Seo/Hae Seo). These conjugations are based on the ending vowel in the verb. I won't go too deep into it, but those are the general conjugations.

After class I came back to the dorm and the other RA's were all busy so I did some studying and took a nap. We headed out to dinner around 5:30 and I got some chicken curry bap. YJS and Heavy G headed back to the dorm after they dropped me off at the fitness center. I worked with the students lifting and the machines. After that we all walked back to the dorms together.

Luckily today was restful and not too stressful. I have a dictation test tomorrow I have been studying for, and a speaking part of our mid term on Thursday to prepare for. Dr. Rhee the director of the K-PACE program, and who's grandfather founded Daegu University sent me a message on Kakao tonight saying that he was going to take me out to dinner to thank me for publicizing the university and the program. I wasn't gonna turn that down, so I asked for some 차돌바기! That is apparently quite the specialty over here. I used to go to an all you can eat Korean BBQ back in the states and eat plates of that with them. Here, every time I mention it they look at me like I'm crazy because it's so expensive and rare. I'll leave you guys with a few pictures I took of the mountains tonight with some clouds over them that I thought were really pretty. It rained all day so these were taken at a few opportune moments.

Korean Word/Phrase of the Day: 주말에 뭐 할 거예요? (Ju Ma Re Mweo Hal Geo Ye Yo) This means what are you going to do this weekend?

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

Easter in Korea

Today was a pretty intense day not gonna lie. Not in the way that it has been with all this excitement, but it was an emotional day. Easter is a day where Christianity celebrates Christ's sacrifice on the cross for our sins. I am learning though, that we need to celebrate this each and every day. Once a year just isn't enough. I find myself overwhelmed when just thinking about what he did for us laying down his life to cover our sins. Today really brought that out.

I wasn't hungry this morning so I skipped breakfast. I used the time to get a little extra nap in to makeup for staying up until 2:30am the night before (thanks Joseph "Wipmix" Kim for that one). My boy wanted to catch up since we hadn't talked for awhile. He's the one who taught me the Korean alphabet all those years ago, so I am eternally grateful to him for putting me ahead of the curve. I really believe that helped make me successful here, as the program I'm in spent one day on the alphabet and went straight to work.

Heavy G is also having some jet lag from his trip to America, so he wanted some extra time to rest before heading to church. Perfectly fine with me, I got a chance to nap and catch up on answering people from all of yesterday's excitement. We left around 11am and got to church fashionably late as usual. I think Ji (Heavy G) likes to miss the opening praise session. Plus since we stay for the youth worship we are getting the same sermon twice anyway.

After the first sermon it was Easter lunch time! The church makes lunch each Sunday, and today was 고기밥 (Go Gi Bap) meat and rice! They actually ran out of meat right when I got to the front of the line, but all of a sudden they had filled a giant plate with what was left and gave it to me. I was honored and hesitant to take it. What an incredible gesture of kindness. As I was about to leave, they also heaped another spoonful of rice on top of everything. I wasn't sure what to do since there were a few behind me that didn't get any meat, but turns out others were more than willing to share when we got to our destination to sit down and eat.

For those of you who haven't seen my Facebook posts, I apparently made the front page of Naver.com yesterday which I guess is like Korea's Google. Some of the church members came up to me and told me they had seen my news story there and talked to me briefly about it. Others had absolutely no clue, but word got around quickly. There is a lot of overwhelmingly positive feedback and I'm so happy to share with everyone. Koreans here have found my Facebook and blog from the JTBC broadcast (and also the newspaper I guess) and have been messaging me encouraging words that way.

After lunch, Heavy G was still hungry so we hopped over to McDonald's for a second lunch? Haha, we both ended up getting Reese's McFlurries, they were tiny but very good. Following McDonald's we walked back to church for the youth service. This is where things got intense.

The youth members had put together a short interpretive dance/play for Easter. You can tell they had practiced a lot and put a lot of work into it because man was it good. Like really really good. I don't know if it was the Holy Spirit working in me or what, but I cried. I couldn't control myself. Today was honestly the first time I can remember being so overwhelmed by emotion that I couldn't control myself. I'm ALWAYS in control. I've become a very cerebral person over the years, and my brain has most definitely been in control vs my heart. Well I think that's changing now. I think God is changing me and preparing me to continue my ministry into the world. While there definitely is a place for logic, love must be prevalent and overwhelming in order to win. I'm getting there.

So here I am, crying in the middle of church, trying my best to hold back tears during a youth ministry play. All this time I'm looking at the cross just thinking over and over "how can anyone look at the cross and not be overwhelmed by the sacrifice Christ made for us". I certainly can't. I didn't used to be this way. Though I wouldn't have admitted or even realized it at the time, there was a point where I just didn't care. I thought I did, but I wasn't moved by it. Now I can't honestly even think about it without crying. Yes, I'm serious.

I know this is a touchy subject in a culture where men are supposed to be macho. Men aren't supposed to cry. Men can't be sensitive. I bought into that for so long. I'm so happy God is breaking those walls down and allowing all that pent up emotion to drain. I long to truly love as we're supposed to. Unadulterated and without fear of being crushed. Knowing full well that loving another human will lead me to be crushed again and again, but that with God I can pass on the unconditional love he has shown me. Giving my all emotionally, physically, spiritually, intellectually for Him. To everyone. I am capable of that, and I will do that. It will definitely take some time to overcome the fear I've built up regarding this, but I will overcome. When I do the world better watch out, cause this 6'6 viking has a GIANT heart and a TON of love to give. Come get some.

Everyone has their own relationship with God. I'm not here making statements of how everyone should be moved to uncontrollable tears every time they look at the cross. Haha, imagine that scene every Sunday. Walking in like "did someone just die here?" Of course not! Sunday is a cause to celebrate! Christ rose from the dead and overcame sin so that we are saved! Everyone is in at a different point in their personal relationship with God. That's the great part. I'm just at a point where the cross means so much to me that it's literally changing who I am. Don't worry if you're not at that point or have never experienced that. God is doing in YOUR life what needs to be done, and in mine what needs to be done for me.

Right from church Heavy G and I headed out for dinner. I actually wasn't hungry at all, but this was going to be our only chance. YJS, and An Hyo Sang were busy so we went together. I had requested 짜장면 (Jja Jang Myeon) black bean noodles. This is originally a Chinese dish, and it normally comes with fried pork. OMG SO GOOD. NOM NOM NOM GET IN MAH BELLEH. Funny aside story. Korea celebrates what is called "Black Day". A month after Valentines day if you are single, you go out and eat Jja Jang Myeon by yourself. That day fell last Friday the 14th. I had no knowledge of this day at the time, and I almost got Jja Jang Myeon from the cafeteria. That would have been super silly. Luckily there's no meat in the dish at the cafeteria so I went with chicken curry bap again. Who knows what would have happened if I had eaten some black bean noodles Friday?!

Jja Ja Myeon and Tangsu (Fried Pork) with Heavy G! (Gratuitous soju ad with babe included)

I'm really excited for next Saturday. I've been invited to a wedding! I'm gonna get suited up (thanks Dan for a tailored suit that I can wear!) and impress all the ladies. Maybe even get a haircut and shave this week? (Woahhhhhhhhhh I'm crazy!) Dave and Sue are getting married, and I can't wait to find out what a REAL Korean wedding entails. (Sorry Sandy but yours only counts for half :P)

Otherwise life hasn't really changed much even though now I'm a celebrity. (Jay Kay El Oh El, I don't really think that). Dorm life is back to normal now that the seniors are back from their trip. Next week is going to be another tough one studying Korean. Thursday I have my speaking mid term. That's about all I can think of for special events until the weekend. Thanks again for stopping by! Please drop some comments if you have any questions or words of encouragement. I still need them even though it may seem like I'm doing really well. I love you guys. <3 사랑해요!

Korean Word/Phrase of the Day:잘자/안녕히 주무세요 (Jal Ja/An Nyeong He Ju Mu Se Yo) This means "goodnight". I posted this a few weeks back as 잘자네 (Jal Ja Ne) and Mr. Wipkim told me it was super wrong last night so I looked into it today by asking Heavy G. He said Jal Ja Ne would be used for a father looking in on his son at night and saying "go to sleep". The two I posted today are the informal/formal versions that are more common in use. Sorry Wip, I have failed you.

TL:DR I'm in Korea.

Interview Day!

Wow, today was nuts. I got interviewed by a major news station! What a crazy first month it's been here. I'm just so thankful to God for bringing me here and jump starting my ministry to the world. I can't and won't take credit for any of this. He is the one in control, and I'm ready to work wherever he ends up sending me. (Not gonna lie I did pray to get a taste of the famous life last night. Maybe a few K-dramas, and a Kpop girlfriend or two. Nothing big. I realize this is a bit selfish, but God knows that world needs some Godly influences. Moving on...lol)

Being filmed for an interview is incredibly awkward. At least for me it was. Especially with the language barrier. Luckily I had a few people around who could translate, but it was still like "ask the students why they were gone so long on their trip". Oh ok, sounds legit. Act like this. Act like that. What an interesting world being filmed for a living must be. I think it's definitely something I could get comfortable with and allow my personality to come out in front of the camera more.

The filming took about an hour. We started in my dorm room with the students, then they brought them out and did the part with me studying Korean, and my blog. (Shout out to Laina/Asuna for reading everyday). They had me start doing homework from a part of the book we hadn't studied yet to get film of me writing in Korean, so it was definitely rushed and probably all wrong. That's gonna be interesting to explain when we get to that page during class. "Uhhh Carl? Why is this page already done? And why is it all completely wrong?" "Well 선생님 (Teacher) you see, the news guys were pressuring me, and I didn't know what to do and, well...sorry?" Haha. Then everyone is gonna wanna see the news clip and we will get off topic, and not be learning Korean! See? I'm always thinking of everyone else.

After that they wanted to go to the gym so they filmed me putting my shoes on and walking down the hall. There were a lot of parts that they filmed but didn't make the cut. I suppose that's pretty typical. The gym was probably the most awkward, because it was like "ok go up to each of the students and say stuff". Cool let me just get out my improv degree and get a quick refresher on it. It's cool, what they did looks good so I can't complain. As much as it sounds like I am lol, I had fun. There were some pretty funny parts in the gym that didn't make the cut. For example, one of the students is an actual weight lifter. They had him on the bench press machine, (No not the actual free weight bench) with next to no weight on it. They had him act like he was struggling, and had me yell 하나또 (Hana Ddo) one more at him and clap like I was cheering him on. There was another student they gave 5 lb dumbbells to and had me coach him on doing curls.

After that we walked next door to a study room to have me explaining the tube rocket to the students. That part actually looked really cool on the video. Then it was time for the actual interview. Surprisingly this only took about 5 minutes. The journalist spoke English pretty well so it was easy to understand his questions. He thanked me many times for the interview and said I was a very good interviewee. Who knows if he was just being nice, but I'd like to think based on the clips that I spoke pretty well. Who'd have thought that all those years ago when my dad started driving a short bus (twinkie bus for all the mean kids out there) that it was preparation for this part of my life? God has a plan and it is good.

In fact as I'm writing this I am getting friend requests on Facebook from random Koreans. One happens to be a special needs teacher from Suwon (near Seoul) and would like me to come visit their school. I may be staying here with a job next year after all. Who knows? God does, and I'll follow where he leads me. I really just can't get over how awesome and exciting this all is, and has been. On our Skype call the other night my dad told me "the most exciting place to be is living within God's will, anything can happen" and boy is he right.

Wow, I just got a message from another person who added me tonight. They had no friends and no pictures so I was very skeptical about the account. Usually when that happens it's just a spam account. However, it looks like this person made a Facebook account specifically to find me and friend me tonight. They messaged me and said they had seen me on the news, and that they were a person with disabilities themselves. They have a friend who also lives in the dorms here, and they have heard good things about me. They said they would pray for me and they thanked me, and hoped that I would find love, friendship, and companionship here in Korea.

What an encouraging day. I'm glad I'm writing this blog so I can remember that there is good in people's hearts when the inevitable downturns happen. I have a few pictures from some of the RA's and students sitting around waiting for the news to air my story. They ended up running the story around 8:35pm which I would say is a pretty prime time spot. I was surprised.

Waiting intently!

Almost time for the story!

Bonus Pic of Vyking in action.

For those of you not in the know, Vyking is actually my rap name. Yes, I am a rapper. No I'm not good, but I'll take the chance plug my crew 'The Flojobs'.

That's about it for today! Stop by tomorrow to see what other crazy stuff ends up happening to me!

Korean Word/Phrase of the Day: 똑똑해요 (Ddok Ddok Hae Yo) this is the present tense conjugation of "smart" have fun!

TL:DR I'm a Korean celebrity.

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.