"we going to the mmmalll?!?"

Man was definitely made to work. Feeling much more useful now that I have a job. Some more people to hang out with here would be even better, but we'll work on that.

Two jobs actually. One waitressing with a bunch of immigrants from the philippines (oh wait... maybe they were all just deported...), sri lanka, uganda, and south america at Swiss Chalet. Its a much better job than I expected with quite a casual atmosphere and fun coworkers. The other is at quest services. No, not the Quest from the phone sex ads you see on TV, quest, the program for people with mental disabilities. I spent tuesday with a lady who has conversations in different voices with her different personalties; another who is nearly impossible to understand, has the same three conversations all day, is constantly shushing the other individuals because her hearing aids are too high but is also super cheerful always laughs at the other individuals' strange behaviors and loves to give hugs; and also surrounded by various others- one who screeches and points when she is happy- which is always, a 40 year old lady who acts like an excited three year old, fixated on one thing- "we going to the mall?" "mall? mall? mall? mmmmmmalll??: we going to the mall?!?""we going to the mmmaalll??".... the downsyndrome boy who knew all the lyrics to the wizard of oz soundtrack, Peter who checked if I had a wedding ring and when I didn't followed me around all day, zach the huge native man who loves to show of his new dance moves and who added three KoolAid packages to his juice then complained for the rest of the day of a stomachache... and numerous others. No bum wiping or depends changing that day, which was awesome. And no pants along with depends falling down in the middle of the street, which was also awesome.

I also managed to find some snow! I had to go to the mountains to do so, but got some snowshoeing in and saw some beautiful white mountain scenery. Maybe I'll post some pics someday.

I'll leave my christian friends out there with a bit of John Piper knowledge which I came across this week in Francis Chan's awesome book I've been reading, "Crazy Love":
"The critical question for our generation- and for every generation- is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activties you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?" If you could say "yes" to that question, you are not deeply in love with God like you are called to be.

that's definitely something to mull over.

Rivers and Roads... and an Ocean

I like to brag about winters at home to people who live in warmer, rainier kind of areas. A decent amount of snow making everything beautiful in a blanket of white, ice hockey in the backyard, good sledding hills nearby, fantastic ski hills if you want to pay the money- ones that take at least half an hour to get down if you're pro, not 30 seconds, ones with a good few feet of fresh powder to carve in; snowmobiling , snow-shoeing- exploring the mountains transformed by winter.

But the good weather seems to have left southern alberta- a luke-warm summer followed by a luke-warm winter. No snow and wind wind wind. I hate the wind. I guess I shouldn't complain too much because it isn't -40 with the windchill, but what's the point? You don't want to be outside anyway, unless you like dirt in your eyes and the exercise of trying to walk again a 100km/hr wind.

It's been an exciting few weeks. Sleep in (why wake up when your dreams of being a secret agent or living in Narnia are much more exciting than your day is going to be?), sit around for a bit, work out, drop of some resumes, come home, read, watch TV, and the next day do it all again. At least I have one friend who isn't working and a family around who can occasionally break up the monotony.

It all feels very purposeless- going from working everyday with kids who loved me, keeping myself busy almost every night with some good friends, fun times on the weekends with a large group, involved in church and bible study and an orphanage, and looking forward to future weekend and travel adventures; to doing basically nothing everyday, not knowing where to get involved, having almost no friends, and looking forward to much of the same.

I know I can't just look forward to some future, more exciting time in my life where I can like fulfilled and be a blessing where I am, I need to do that now, but it's hard.

"Resolved to live with all my might, as long as I live". But how?

At least I have a part time, serving job now so I don't go completely crazy. Here's hoping for something better though. Waitressing isn't exactly the dream job I expected to get with my degree. What did I expect to get again? Oh, wait... I never really thought about that did I? Shoot...

This song has been stuck in my head a lot lately. Makes me think of Korea and the relationships I left behind and the people I miss. It's about how in a year friends and family come and go, things change, and some of those people you left behind, or who left you behind, you'll miss like hell.

cause "I miss your face like hell... rivers and roads, rivers and roads, rivers till I reach you..."

Amen..

God Bless Us, Everyone!

Well, home again, and as strange as it was at first, its good to be back... at least for now. Good to see family and friends again, have Canadian/ home-cooked food- lots and lots of it, experience the grandeur of the Alberta sky, give and receive, play games, indulge in good conversations and lots of stupid ones, and traverse the city I grew up in that is mostly just as I left it.

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope that wherever life finds you it was full of blessings, and I hope this New Year brings countless more.

I have no idea where this next year will take me, but I'm sure it will be good, and I'm excited to see what God has in store for me and those I love.

Here's some resolutions from the brilliant Jonathan Edwards I would love to live by, all of them but the overly Puritan ones, I do think its okay to have fun on a Sunday, for the record, and I don't really wanna go about every day thinking about my own death. I think my favorite though, is #6 "Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live." Also, #1, "Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriad’s of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever." Amen.

God Bless, Everyone!

Shake it Out

LOVE FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE!!!!!!!



...What I don't love is losing my job...

Private school directors are a crooked, greedy, insensitive bunch. It seems unfair to make such an overarching judgement... but I really don't think I've seen any examples of directors that don't fit into this group.

Its a very common occurance for employees to go months without getting paid, to never get paid, to get let go for no reason, to get cheated on their taxes, and to get screwed over in other ways. Its all about the money and image no matter who is stepped on in the process.

And so it seems my school needed someone to cover them for a few months while they waited to get another more permanent teacher in, and I was an easy target as I was already in the country, already had a visa, and didn't need a flight till a few months in. And now that a new teacher is coming and I need a flight home for christmas they have decided to "let me go"- no official warnings, no real reasons (I've never been late, never drunk or hungover which a lot of teachers in other schools regularly get away with, my kids are well behaved, do their work, and like me.... didn't think there was anything wrong with that!). Super.

There goes my travel plans, money saving plans, relationship plans....

Alberta it is then.

Momooshka Came to Visit!

All my friends have been getting visits from parents, siblings, and friends pretty much the whole time i've been here in South Korea and I didn't think my time would ever come, but IT DID!!!! My mom decided to make the trek all the way out here to see for a little over a week what my life's been all about.

We wandered Cheongju, tried all kinds of different foods, had dinners with friends, explored the historical side of Seoul, saw a traditional village in Jeonju, and climbed to the top of a mountain (Okay, we took a cable car and then climbed a bit, but it was hard work!). It was really good to hang out with my mom again, have sleepovers (our first ever!), show her my life, and build up our friendship a bit more.

Thanks Mom!

here's a couple pics: Seoul- city of contrasts

 Typical Korean spread

 Mom mastered the chopsticks!

 Jeonju

 Daedunsan

Korean Wedding

I went to my first Korean wedding this weekend. Was interesting for sure.

The ceremony was in a kind of banquet hall, open in the back to a kitchen with constant noise coming out of it. It was short and unceremonial. A bunch of things were done- short speeches, bows, kisses, rings- seemingly just for some posed pictures, it didn't seem like many people beyond the camera men and parents were paying much attention to anything going on. People were talking, on their phones, kids were running around... and I was in the back by the kitchen and couldn't hear anything.

After the ceremony there was a huge buffet and large amounts of free alcohol, then some people left and others just hung around for the afternoon drinking. In the evening there was another huge buffet and more alcohol. A couple of really short speeches, a band, then everything was finished at 9:00. I think the speeches, copious amounts of booze and the band were compliments of the irish side of the family, so I'm really curious what the wedding would have been like were it all Koreans.

This wedding, and the fact that MY MOM IS COMING SOON (assa!) has gotten me thinking about differences between Koreans and North Americans, things I would point out to someone coming here for the first time, so here it is, my "things you should know before coming to Korea" list (in no particular order). I may have mentioned some of these before but, suck it, I don't care.

1) Koreans never pay attention to their surroundings. Especially in grocery stores, but also on sidewalks, while driving.. whatever, Koreans are just focused on what they need to buy or where they want to go, completely oblivious of who may be in front of them innocently trying to pick out a BBQ sauce in the grocery isle. Beware the grocery carts. And the taxis.

2) You are never safe from vehicles. Anywhere. Red lights, crosswalks, and sidewalks even mean nothing to most Korean drivers. You are actually probably more likely to be killed by a moped on a sidewalk than on the road.

3) Koreans don't believe in lines ("queue's" as some would say). While you are standing waiting to buy your coffee or weekly Big Mac, stand on guard because you will lose your place in front of the till if you aren't careful.

4) Koreans spit and "hork" everywhere. Gross.

5) Koreans don't chew with their mouths closed and not at all quietly. Not sure how knowing these last two will help anyone, but I guess its just nice to be warned.

6) Koreans like to put sugar on everything. Beware the innocent looking hotdog or garlic bread.

7) Koreans don't believe in garbage cans. Keep that in mind as you leave a cafe with your paper cup or buy a bag of chips at the local 7-11. If you're as opposed to littering as I am, you might be stuck holding your garbage in your hands for the next hour as you make your way to your next destination.

8) You can smoke pretty much anywhere. And throw your butts anywhere you please. Don't worry, someone's grandma will pick them up the next morning along with all the other garbage you were forced to throw on the sidewalk.

9) Its also very acceptable, maybe expected even, to be drunk by about 7:00pm, especially if you are an older business man, don't worry, one of your friends will carry you home.

10) Soju must go with every meal, no matter how small, no matter what time of day.

11) Respect respect respect your elders- when pouring shots, drinking, serving food, greeting them, having a conversation (I'm not going to go into all those cultural rules here).... but once they reach a certain age, not sure what, just let them pick up your garbage for a living.  

12) Koreans don't flush their toilet paper, the put it into a garbage can. I don't know why. Smelly.

13) It's not really okay to show your shoulders, and definitely not any cleavage (as if Koreans have any), but belts for skirts are recommended and you are not allowed to wear clothes into the public sauna (not co-ed though, don't worry).

14) If you're a woman, you must wear heels at all times, even when hiking in the mountains. It is ALWAYS important to look your best. Unless you are old. Then apparently you must wear the most unmatching colors you can find, and neon or floral patterns are preferred.

15) You MUST have Kimchi with every meal.

16) You are only allowed to own a dog if it looks slightly like a rat. And it is probably best to make it look worse by giving it clothes and dying its fur pink.

17) Rain is very bad. You will look completely insane to every Korean if you don't use an umbrella, even if its hardly misting outside.

18) Koreans never split the bill. Usually the oldest person, or whoever invited everyone out for dinner will pay. Be careful of inviting people out for your birthday- you are supposed to pay for everyone!

19) Koreans always feel bad when they can't speak English, even though you are in their country. They will generally try their best to communicate with you. If you're a foreigner, they love to say hello.

19 isn't  a very good number to end on, but I can't think of any more at the moment.

So excited for my mom to come!!!!