YU NA!! Wins GOLD!

It's been an exciting week here in Korea. All of Korea has been buzzing about their prize, Kim Yu Na, the #1 in the world figure skater. It's been exciting to see the nation rally together for Yu Na! It's also been a lot of fun to join them in the cheers.

On Tuesday, I was working at the school and talked to Todd about how great it would be for all the students to watch the short program. Yu Na was to skate at 1:00, we should find a way to let the kids watch. Eventually, every classroom had a laptop streaming the Olympic Figure Skating Short Program.

I joined Miss Kim (who is actually one of 4 Miss Kim's) and several of the Korean staff around Miss Kim's computer. The staff were so excited and nervous as Yu Na began to skate, we were all holding hands and our breath as she made each turn and jump. As she finished with a world record score, shouts and screams went up, we were all hugging and giving high fives. The staff were speaking in Korean mostly--they were so excited. In the midst of their shouts, Miss Kim said, "Mrs. Stewart, thank you for being happy with us for Korea."

I can't tell you how much fun it was to be with them in that moment. For this small country in Asia, that many people aren't really even aware of, all the world heard of Korea in that moment.

Today, I had to make a trip to the International Clinic in Seoul. I was hoping that my trip would be timed so that I could watch the finals today. As I was riding in the taxi, I said, "today, Yu Na!" The taxi driver smiled and said, "ne, 1:00!"

As I arrived at the clinic, every TV was tuned into the Olympics. Crowds were beginning to form as everyone anticipated Yu Na's skate. I had my appointment and was then shuttled to the Pharmacy (which is really a whole story in itself)--thank goodness the driver had his little TV playing in the car-we could watch along the way. We arrived at the Pharmacy but to my dismay there was no TV--I was starting to think I wouldn't get to see her skate--yes, I was totally caught up with the entire nation for Yu Na.

As I waited for the shuttle to return me to the subway station, the valet, handed me his phone, seriously, so that I could watch while I waited. Awesome!

At the subway station, I thought, "I'll try to sit by someone with their little TV on--someone always has their TV on." A sweet girl was walking along side me, thru the station, watching her TV and I asked if I could join her. She graciously said, yes and we walked side by side watching Yu Na skate. We hopped on the subway and continued to watch.

It was so cool to step onto the subway and hear the music and cheers coming from all of the TV sets. We continued watching and as she finished and her scores were posted, claps and cheers went through the subway car.



I then joined another woman, who spoke perfect English and we nervously watched the next few skaters together and chatted.





I arrived home as the medals were awarded. I heard for the first time the Korean National Anthem and thought about what a fun day I had celebrating with Korea.

All of this said, I was sad that the US did not win a medal. It was exciting to see them skate so well but when you live here, and all of the coverage that you're watching is in Korean, there's a different focus and experience to watching the Olympics.

This afternoon the sports channel has replayed the final four skaters over and over. Every commercial has had Yu Na and the newspapers shout out, "Kim Yu Na! Wins Gold!"

Retreat

We have met some pretty fantastic girls here in South Korea. This past weekend we had a retreat to pray, worship, and seek our God together. Although I'm incredibly tired, God was faithful to visit us with His beautiful presence. There were a lot of laughs and tears as we enjoyed being together and being with our Savior.

Lunar New Year, Year of the Tiger

There are really two main holidays in Korea. Chusoek, which is similar to our Thanksgiving and Lunar New Year. For both of these holidays Koreans travel back to their hometowns to celebrate with family. Food is of course a huge part of these celebrations along with giving thanks to dead ancestors. Koreans doesn't usually seem to slow down but during these two holidays much of the city seems to shut down.

We have been talking for the past couple of weeks about traveling to the coast. When we mentioned this to our Korean friends, they urged us to wait for another weekend. The traffic would be awful as the majority of Seoul would be heading out of the area--the best place for us to go to avoid the chaos would be Seoul. I was disappointed. I want to see the ocean. We've been here 6 months and have only seen Seoul and Bundang. We took the advice of our friends and decided to wait for another time to visit the sea. I couldn't imagine a 2 hour bus ride taking 6 or more hours--none of us would have the energy or patience for that.

Most of the shops in our building were closed this weekend. I was actually happy to find that people were taking a break. My friend, Young Sim, usually works 12+ hours a day at her restaurant. I'm always worried about her because she works extremely hard. But the past three days, her little restaurant has been closed and she took her family skiing. This made my heart glad.

For most of the day Saturday I was trying to convince Todd and the kids to go out. See some sites or participate in one of the Lunar New Year festivities in Seoul. I couldn't get them to budge. They all preferred to stay home. So we did. We rested, watched a movie and enjoyed being home together. Later in the afternoon, friends were going into Seoul and I decided to tag along. We enjoyed the afternoon in Insadong and then made our way to a Canadian Pub to watch a re-broadcast of the Opening Ceremonies of the winter Olympics. It was a great day.

Two friends that we've met here, Sarah Jane and Ruben, called us late Saturday to say that they had reserved a few rooms at the Ramada Seoul because they were offering a great deal for the Lunar New Year. The Ramada Seoul is a very nice hotel, rooms typically cost $300/night. But for Lunar New Year, only $50. We didn't even hesitate, yes! We need a night away, we'll take it. So, our sweet friends, Mindy, Whit, Charissa and Anna asked if they could hang out with our kids while just Todd and I went. Yes! And so late Sunday afternoon, Todd and I hopped on the Subway and headed into Seoul, rolling our suitcase and excited for 24 hours of uninterrupted time together.

Off to Seoul. Our subway ride was so strange. There were hardly any people riding the subway and the streets were deserted. When we walking to our exit gate we saw no one. We heard no one. We felt like we had entered some kind of twilight zone. I can't tell you how strange it was. Usually, it's just a mass of people, all moving together, pushing, rushing and did I say, pushing.

Today. Silence. It was true. Seoul had left for the countryside.

Sunday evening Todd and I shared a meal at this little Italian Restaurant (the food was actually really good), saw a movie, bought a bottle of wine at 7-Eleven and enjoyed our night away. When I woke up this morning, I felt for a moment that I wasn't even in Korea. It was strange and wonderful.

Now we are home. Our three day weekend has come to an end. The streets are filled with traffic and the noise has returned.

Happy Lunar New Year from Seoul!

**new pictures are on flicr.

you're so handsome

Here in Korea Zach is often told how handsome he is. He always shyly replies, "thank you." Usually, those comments are from elderly woman, so he doesn't feel too embarrassed. Today, at the bus stop a few high school girls (not from BHCS) joined Todd and the kids while they waited. After a few moments, the girls said to Zach, "you are so handsome." Oh. my. goodness.

Zach of course was embarrassed but said, "thank you." The bus arrives, everyone gets on and one of the girls asked if she could have a picture with Zach. He said, "yes." Smiled for the picture and hoped that these three girls would exit the bus quickly!

When the story was being relayed to me, Zach had a little bit of a cheeky grin, as if to say, "it wasn't that bad. well, ya, it kinda was but i kinda liked it. but not really."

I tried not to laugh but I couldn't help it. I'm not sure I should be blogging about it either--it could embarrass him even more. But it's too cute not to share.

19 years ago Todd and I were standing on this corner when he asked me to marry him. I said, "Yes!"

And yes, we do remember the night we were engaged--instead of doing something for Valentines Day, we celebrate Ground Hogs Day!

I thought it would be fun to surprise Todd with some pictures from our special corner in Columbia so I contacted our friend Lydia and she took a few amazing pics for me. Todd was completely surprised and loves the pictures--and so do I!

All day we were trying to decide what we wanted to do for our special day. Dinner? Dessert? Both? We decided that we both wanted Mexican so we hopped on the subway and headed to On the Border. Yep, you read that right, we ate at On the Border in Korea for our 19th Happy Engagement Anniversary. It took us 45 minutes to get there by subway and 45 minutes to get home (standing most of the way both directions) but it was totally worth it! We shared a delicious and very filling meal and had fresh guacamole (for me that was a highlight).

On the way home we were laughing at how different this year was from previous. We were falling asleep on the way home and it wasn't even 10:00--you know you're Korean when you fall asleep in another passengers lap on the subway. I didn't really fall asleep but I did close my eyes and thought to myself, "I'm so Korean right now!"