Trips to Seoul can sometimes be an adventure. I've already had a few since we arrived back to Korea. This past Sunday we were going to visit a church in a suburb of Seoul that a couple of our friends have been going to. Todd and reviewed the web site directions, went over our subway map and determined the best route to take from Dongbaek.
Todd wasn't feeling well so he decided to stay back--I would be making this first trip alone. Here is how my trip to the New Philadelphia Church went.
1. 10 minute walk to the bus stop.
2. 5 minute wait for bus.
3. Catch the 5003 to the Gangnam Station stop.
4. Missed the Gangnam Station Stop. Realize I'm at the Woyyoun Apartment Stop.
5. Ask a guy who I think might speak a little English where the Gangnam stop is.
6. He doesn't speak English.
7. I walk across the street to see if I can find a sign leading me to Gangnam station.
8. Call Korea Helpline. And then notice the sign to the station.
9. Begin walking the 3 city blocks back to the Station.
10. Previous guy taps me on the shoulder. He will take me to the Station.
11. I don't speak Korean. He doesn't speak English. We walk side by side, occasionally smiling at each other and apologizing that we don't speak the others language. I ask his name. Te Eun. He is a baseball player. A pitcher. He loves baseball. I mention the St. Louis Cardinals and Albert Puljos. He gives me a thumbs up--he likes Albert Puljos. We reach the station. Te Eun walks me all the way to my subway entrance and watches me go down the stairs to the platform.
15. I catch the subway from Gangnam Station to Seoul University Station.
16. I wait for the church shuttle bus outside of McDonalds.
17. Elasped time: 1:40 minutes.
What a gift Te Eun was to me. I knew how to get to the station but he walked me all the way. We shook hands as we parted, I prayed a blessing over him and thanked God for his kindness to me.
The long journey to New Philly was worth it! What a beautiful community of people. The next journey will be a little easier and perhaps 15-20 minutes shorter because I won't get off at the wrong stop.
Walk, Bus, Walk, Subway, Walk, Shuttle
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Happy Chuseok!
What is Chuseok?
Chuseok (Korean: 추석), originally known as Hangawi (한가위) (from archaic Korean for "great middle"), is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Like many other harvest festivals, it is held around the Autumn Equinox. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food.
Thank you, Wikki.
Basically, Chuseok is like our Thanksgiving in the United States. This week we will enjoy a 3-day holiday for the Chuseok celebration. While most of our friends, Western and Korean, are traveling away to local (hometowns) and distant lands, we will be here, in Dongbaek.
The stores are filled with shoppers preparing to buy gifts and foods for the week long celebration. A friend shared with me last week that when she was young it was part of the Chuseok tradition for parents to buy children new shoes and clothes for Chuseok. Korea is now a prospering nation but in it's past there has been a lot of hardship. Today, Korea seems like a fashion capital but in the not so distant past a new pair of shoes was a huge deal.
For many families they will purchase fruit or other practical items to give as Chuseok gifts. In every store you visit in the weeks leading up to Chuseok stores are selling huge gift boxes. These boxes contain things like; Spam, lotion, fruit juices, cooking oils or boxes of ginseng.
The other day a friend came over for dinner and brought us a huge box of grapes--there were at least 20 little bushels of grapes. They said, "Happy Chuseok! We want you to experience what it is like in Korea to celebrate the holiday!"
It would be really awesome to celebrate with a Korean family. When I mentioned this to a friend she said, "Oh, Kimberly, you don't want to do that. It is crazy and stressful." I laughed because I understand what it's like to have large family gatherings--cooking, cleaning and lots of people in small spaces. I still think it would be interesting to go but in Korea it's not as commmon to invite non-family friends to family functions.
Happy Chuseok from Korea!
Chuseok (Korean: 추석), originally known as Hangawi (한가위) (from archaic Korean for "great middle"), is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Like many other harvest festivals, it is held around the Autumn Equinox. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food.
Thank you, Wikki.
Basically, Chuseok is like our Thanksgiving in the United States. This week we will enjoy a 3-day holiday for the Chuseok celebration. While most of our friends, Western and Korean, are traveling away to local (hometowns) and distant lands, we will be here, in Dongbaek.
The stores are filled with shoppers preparing to buy gifts and foods for the week long celebration. A friend shared with me last week that when she was young it was part of the Chuseok tradition for parents to buy children new shoes and clothes for Chuseok. Korea is now a prospering nation but in it's past there has been a lot of hardship. Today, Korea seems like a fashion capital but in the not so distant past a new pair of shoes was a huge deal.
For many families they will purchase fruit or other practical items to give as Chuseok gifts. In every store you visit in the weeks leading up to Chuseok stores are selling huge gift boxes. These boxes contain things like; Spam, lotion, fruit juices, cooking oils or boxes of ginseng.
The other day a friend came over for dinner and brought us a huge box of grapes--there were at least 20 little bushels of grapes. They said, "Happy Chuseok! We want you to experience what it is like in Korea to celebrate the holiday!"
It would be really awesome to celebrate with a Korean family. When I mentioned this to a friend she said, "Oh, Kimberly, you don't want to do that. It is crazy and stressful." I laughed because I understand what it's like to have large family gatherings--cooking, cleaning and lots of people in small spaces. I still think it would be interesting to go but in Korea it's not as commmon to invite non-family friends to family functions.
Happy Chuseok from Korea!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Hope
What holds the universe together is not an idea or a virtue, but a person: the resurrected Christ. Without Him, electrons would not continue to circle nuclei, gravity would cease to work, and the planets would not stay in their orbits.”
–Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI : Eerdmans., 2008), 125.
–Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI : Eerdmans., 2008), 125.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Beauty & Grace in every day
If you turn on the news tonight you will probably hear about a local or world event that will immediately frustrate, sadden or further increase your negative view of people and the world we live in. We live in a broken and fallen world and we all long for moments of beauty and hope around us. There are beautiful moments of grace and sometimes they come in very simple ways.
If you look, if you keep your eyes open and are aware of your surroundings, you can capture beauty all around you-even in people.
This past week I got to experience a few beautiful moments. One of them I shared on a photo blog project that I'm doing with my dear friend, Rachel. If you haven't seen it, please visit, www.kimmerandray.wordpress.com. Each week we will each post a picture that captured for us, Gratefulness. My picture, sisters, is Lia with two of our amazing friends here in Korea, Mindy and Kelly. Lia calls them her sisters and as a Mom, I'm incredibly grateful to have these two woman in my daughters life.
Here are two other pictures I was able to capture.
I was walking to the grocery store a few days ago and it was raining. There weren't a lot of people out but just ahead of me there was a man in a business suit. Approaching the business man was an elderly couple. The rain was falling harder and the elderly couple didn't have an umbrella. The buisiness man, offered his umbrella to them. For the next minute I watched, they insisted that they couldn't take the man's umbrella and he insisted that they did. Thankfully, the buisiness man won! As I got closer to the elderly couple I could see their faces, smiling from ear to ear and hearts full of gratitude.
I walked about one block with this precious little face staring at me. We grinned, and played peek-a-boo along the way. I thought about how safe she felt in her mommies arms and how much I love holding my own kids.
If you look, if you keep your eyes open and are aware of your surroundings, you can capture beauty all around you-even in people.
This past week I got to experience a few beautiful moments. One of them I shared on a photo blog project that I'm doing with my dear friend, Rachel. If you haven't seen it, please visit, www.kimmerandray.wordpress.com. Each week we will each post a picture that captured for us, Gratefulness. My picture, sisters, is Lia with two of our amazing friends here in Korea, Mindy and Kelly. Lia calls them her sisters and as a Mom, I'm incredibly grateful to have these two woman in my daughters life.
Here are two other pictures I was able to capture.
I was walking to the grocery store a few days ago and it was raining. There weren't a lot of people out but just ahead of me there was a man in a business suit. Approaching the business man was an elderly couple. The rain was falling harder and the elderly couple didn't have an umbrella. The buisiness man, offered his umbrella to them. For the next minute I watched, they insisted that they couldn't take the man's umbrella and he insisted that they did. Thankfully, the buisiness man won! As I got closer to the elderly couple I could see their faces, smiling from ear to ear and hearts full of gratitude.
I walked about one block with this precious little face staring at me. We grinned, and played peek-a-boo along the way. I thought about how safe she felt in her mommies arms and how much I love holding my own kids.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Adventures with Lucy
Who is Lucy? Well, she's the sweet pup we went to visit last week in the pouring down rain in the northern part of Seoul. We decided to see how Lucy might fit in with our family and made the trek back to Seoul. It was a beautiful, sunny day so the streets and buses were jammed packed with people heading into Seoul.
We met Laurie at Seoul Station. Lucy was entertaining and being as sweet as can be to all the homeless men that wanted to pet her. We made the exchange with Laurie and this is where our real adventure begins.
Zach and I would have another hour or more back to Dongbaek so we went to the bathroom, got smoothies at the Smoothie King and got Lucy all situated in her carrying case.
We waited twenty-minutes for the bus to arrive and when it did, it seemed like half of Seoul wanted to get on the red 5000. We pushed our way onto the bus only to be crammed in the center aisle with about 20 plus other people. Me, Zach, Lucy and 20 plus Koreans, body to body.
Lucy is shedding and her shedding took on a whole new level when we got on the bus--I must say it disgust me. Laurie said she had never shed until recently--we are shaving her. Zach started having serious issues, sneezing, wheezing and red puffy eyes. Sigh. Lucy is awesome--neither of us want to give her back but if Zach doesn't improve, we must.
Back to the bus ride. I was kneeling down in the middle aisle trying to comfort Lucy who is trapped in her carrying case when a very sweet elderly man offered to hold Lucy in his lap.
The man next to the generous man, huffed and said something rude, I'm guessing, in Korean and turned away. I couldn't blame him, dog hair was flying all over and he was just trying to read his book. The generous man just smiled at me and nodded, as if to say, "hey, don't worry about it."
We were stuck in traffic and the bus seemed to sit for at least 30-40 minutes with little movement. A kind woman could tell Zach wasn't feeling well and offered him her seat. Zach could rest and I could try to decide what our plan of action should be. The plan, if we ever made it through the tunnel, would be to get OFF this BUS! We would either find another, less crowded bus or take a taxi to Bundang and then catch a bus back to Dongbaek. Thank goodness we have a year of experience living here, it didn't seem quite so daunting that I was trying to come up with a different route.
The bus finally reached the stop before the Han river. Thank goodness. We barely could get off the bus, people were helping push us to the exit. An elderly man who was sitting on the stairs yelled at me, why, I have no idea but thank goodness we were off that bus.
We took Lucy for a walk, gave her some water and just breathed and laughed about the madness of this trip. Another westerner got off the bus we were on and turned to us and said, "Can you believe that? That was intense." Agreed.
Now what? Plan A. I flagged down a taxi but he didn't go to Bundang. Sigh. Plan B. 8100 to Ori and then taxi home.
This was a good plan. The bus had seats available and people seemed a little more pleasant when we got on with our dog. We sat. No crowds just a quiet bus ride back to Bundang. Lucy continued to be awesome--sitting quietly in her little case.
We made it to Ori, flagged down a taxi and made it home. 3 hours later. Yes, three hours later.
Our first night with Lucy was great but we have some uncertainty if whether or not we can keep her. If Zach's allergies continue to bother him after her hair is cut we can't keep her. We would all be sad but Zach completely understands--who likes to feel miserable.
We met Laurie at Seoul Station. Lucy was entertaining and being as sweet as can be to all the homeless men that wanted to pet her. We made the exchange with Laurie and this is where our real adventure begins.
Zach and I would have another hour or more back to Dongbaek so we went to the bathroom, got smoothies at the Smoothie King and got Lucy all situated in her carrying case.
We waited twenty-minutes for the bus to arrive and when it did, it seemed like half of Seoul wanted to get on the red 5000. We pushed our way onto the bus only to be crammed in the center aisle with about 20 plus other people. Me, Zach, Lucy and 20 plus Koreans, body to body.
Lucy is shedding and her shedding took on a whole new level when we got on the bus--I must say it disgust me. Laurie said she had never shed until recently--we are shaving her. Zach started having serious issues, sneezing, wheezing and red puffy eyes. Sigh. Lucy is awesome--neither of us want to give her back but if Zach doesn't improve, we must.
Back to the bus ride. I was kneeling down in the middle aisle trying to comfort Lucy who is trapped in her carrying case when a very sweet elderly man offered to hold Lucy in his lap.
The man next to the generous man, huffed and said something rude, I'm guessing, in Korean and turned away. I couldn't blame him, dog hair was flying all over and he was just trying to read his book. The generous man just smiled at me and nodded, as if to say, "hey, don't worry about it."
We were stuck in traffic and the bus seemed to sit for at least 30-40 minutes with little movement. A kind woman could tell Zach wasn't feeling well and offered him her seat. Zach could rest and I could try to decide what our plan of action should be. The plan, if we ever made it through the tunnel, would be to get OFF this BUS! We would either find another, less crowded bus or take a taxi to Bundang and then catch a bus back to Dongbaek. Thank goodness we have a year of experience living here, it didn't seem quite so daunting that I was trying to come up with a different route.
The bus finally reached the stop before the Han river. Thank goodness. We barely could get off the bus, people were helping push us to the exit. An elderly man who was sitting on the stairs yelled at me, why, I have no idea but thank goodness we were off that bus.
We took Lucy for a walk, gave her some water and just breathed and laughed about the madness of this trip. Another westerner got off the bus we were on and turned to us and said, "Can you believe that? That was intense." Agreed.
Now what? Plan A. I flagged down a taxi but he didn't go to Bundang. Sigh. Plan B. 8100 to Ori and then taxi home.
This was a good plan. The bus had seats available and people seemed a little more pleasant when we got on with our dog. We sat. No crowds just a quiet bus ride back to Bundang. Lucy continued to be awesome--sitting quietly in her little case.
We made it to Ori, flagged down a taxi and made it home. 3 hours later. Yes, three hours later.
Our first night with Lucy was great but we have some uncertainty if whether or not we can keep her. If Zach's allergies continue to bother him after her hair is cut we can't keep her. We would all be sad but Zach completely understands--who likes to feel miserable.
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