A Workshop in July

So this last Monday and Tuesday was a workshop. This meant we got to travel to some cool places and see some neat things. We first took a bus from SEEC (my work place to a cave). On the way I brought some books to read. One book which took priority was a driver's manuel for Korea. I hope to be taking the test for a license next week. Perhaps I'll get a bike, perhaps not. I'm still not sure. On the way I also busted out my copy of Plato's republic in korean. I love philosophy, so I thought that reading philosophy in korean would be a good way for me to start learning it. I got through about a page with the help of a coordinator and I learned quite a bit about the language and how it functions. I felt really proud of all the korean that I was learning and being exposed to. We stopped and walked though a cave. It was quite small in places and beautiful in others. I was told that it was one of the oldest caves in korea. I got to take a cool breakdancing freeze in the cave so I was happy. I started talking with some of the boys in the cave. They looked like boy-scouts to me and they asked me some funny questions. Hi, what's your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Do you have a girl-friend? Most kids I meet ask these questions and they are funny to me. In western culture these questions would seem odd, but here its quite normal. We also traveled to a scholar's house. His house and face is on the korean 1,000 won bill (roughly 1 dollar American). Then we went to a museum which had its tour in korean. This was hard for me because I didn't know what the guide was saying and one of my co-workers who is korean said she had a hard time understanding because she was speaking so fast. Lastly we went to a folk village. According to my korean travel guide it was one of the non-fabricated folk villages in korea. It may not have been fabricated, but I was glad that it had warm water and a modern bathroom. It also had the old style bathroom, which I didn't go into and cold water if you wanted. I slept with two other guys in a room which just fit us. It was a good experience. I wondered if this wasn't closer to the type of living my mother had experienced while she was here in korea.

Vacation

Its been a bit since I updated, so I thought I'd write again. I have a small knowledge of reading the Korean language. It is pretty useful to see something and then be able to sound it out. Life seems pretty normal for the most part. I mean I know that I live in Korea, but there are so many amenities here available to me that its too easy for me to forget. In fact I often forget it, lol. But I am in a pretty isolated place where I interact with my people who speak English on a regular basis. I am at a good school. I have really good co-workers and the kids are very sweet. Its almost five months that I've been over here. That's pretty encouraging! I think I'll just keep on going. The time goes by so quickly during the week. Its really nice. Though there is a future decision I will be making. This next week I'll be taking a test to get my korean driver's license. If I pass I'll be able to driver cars and bikes with engines up to 125cc. So I was thinking of getting a bike to travel around and not having to call a taxi to come pick me up and take me home. But I've also been thinking of whether I should buy the bike or just keep the money and spend it on student loans. Several of my co-workers are vacationing in asia, traveling and seeing the sites. I chose to stay in Korea and not travel to save funds. There are always opportunities to do tons of things here; sometimes its hard to make the choice to pay off my student loans quicker rather than having fun and 'enjoying' the moment. Paul in his letter to the Romans encourages them to have not have any debt remain outstanding. I am convicted by this and will try hard to pay off my loans. It is just hard when there are so many distractions :) That doesn't mean that I don't have any fun, by any means. I saw Harry Potter the other night and go dancing in Seoul monthly. My school takes us to see neat things, like a martial arts comedy show called Jump. And next week we are going to see a cave. This is all free for us. They pay for meals and transportation, so its pretty nice. I see plenty of things while saving money :). Oh so I was in Seoul going to see the show Jump with my school. We went by a famous stream and so I went with some co-workers to check it out. There was a patch of rocks that went acrossed the stream. I thought it would be amazing to get a photo of me in a breakdance pose on the rocks. So I went out there and tried to stike one. Well I got lift-off when when I tried to fully extend I lost my balance and fell in. My glasses and phone went in the stream. I found my glasses, but my phone is gone. I tried the pose again and my friend got a picture of it. I then went and bought a whole new outfit for me to put on before I saw the show. It made for a good story. It was really funny to walk into the store dripping wet and buy and entirely new outfit. A lot of my co-workers found it funny too. Oh we also went to see a palace. It was neat. I think I kind of demeaned it, because after I saw it I was like cool, what's next. But I think that was partly due to the fact that we couldn't go inside the buildings. We could only stare at them from the outside. Oh I learned something about the symbol that looks like a yin and yang, but has three colors. Blue is sky, Red is earth and yellow is human. Never knew that before. Neither did some of my korean co-workers. They were embarrassed when I asked a question about their culture and they didn't know. I told them that there were many things about American culture I'm sure I'd have no clue about, starting with what all the symbols on our currency meant. I have no clue to be honest why there is an eye ontop of a pyramid.