Korea 2.0

Well, well, well....Look what we have here! Since I have now returned to the land of Morning Calm (misnomer at times...although from the third floor up, we're above a lot of the noise!), it is also time for the revitalization of this blog.

Since this time around it is more like a every day life blog as opposed to a "let me document this year abroad blog" the format might change. But for now, I will continue with the tried and true format. So here's the blog music, which I have been humming as I unpack and get settled. As I will mention in this blog post, I feel especially like welcoming Jesus in with praise to my life here in Korea after the events that happened on the way here: Here For You by Matt Redman

So let me begin with painting an image for you: 5'8" young woman in a large straw hat and knee high boots sitting on the floor of an airport with a guitar and overloaded carry-on suitcase bawling her eyes out because of a flight that has been cancelled.

Not my best moment.

I arrived in San Francisco to discover that my Singapore Airlines flight to Seoul, the one that would get to Korea in time to be there for a dear friend's wedding, had been cancelled. But how did I find this out? I randomly met an old Korean man who looked as lost as I was looking for the international terminal. Turned out he was on the same flight as me (God Moment No.1). He asks me as we got onto the shuttle together, "Did you get the text message about the change for the flight?"

No I had not. I would also not get any communication personally until after the time that the flight would have been taking off, so unless I had met this man, I wouldn't have known one thing about what was going on at all. Jesus likes to outdo himself sometimes in the whole "miraculous meeting" arena.

We arrived at the Singapore airlines counter to find that the flight had been cancelled and the next Singapore airline flight wasn't until the next morning at 8:40 am, which would mean I would miss Sarah's wedding. They also seemed reluctant to look hard for another flight from a different provider. Cue tears, lots of them. Thankfully, Yoonseo was still awake, so I was able to let him know about the problem, and Josiah and Ana were available as well. Josiah called me and prayed with  me, and set about looking to see if another airline or airport nearby had any flights. He found one right away, and with those specifics in hand, I was able to ask if the airline could get me onto that flight. It took some waiting, but soon a woman came back and said that they had booked me onto a flight to LAX, and from there to Incheon (God Moment No. 2). I would arrive at 6 am Saturday morning, giving me six hours to get to the wedding in Cheongju. It was possible!

All the running around in Airports (can you say going through security THREE TIMES) got me so whooped that by the time I was on the Korean Air flight in LAX at 11:55 pm, I was almost completely asleep before takeoff. I have such a hard time sleeping on planes, but this time I was able to sleep 5 whole hours (God Moment No. 3). This meant that when Yoonseo picked me up at the airport, I had plenty of energy for the wedding, and didn't feel unbearably tired until around 9 pm, which was an ok time to sleep. I ended up sleeping straight through the night, from 9:30-5:45am...a good 8 hours of sleep (God Moment No. 4). On Sunday I took a brief nap in the early evening, but again was able to sleep the whole night. Not having to deal with bad jet lag has been such an incredible blessing.

On Monday, Hope also arrived in the evening, and I didn't realize what I good thing that would be for me, even though I wondered if having a visitor so soon after arriving would be stressful or not. Having someone to "show around" has enabled me to revisit all the places here that I knew and loved, and somehow through that I feel like I've 'rediscovered my roots' in a way, just by walking the ways I used to, and doing the things I used to do.

For instance, today I bought a bag of apples from the apple/fruit seller who always was outside the old Connexus building. It still cost 5,000 won, and he still gave me an extra apple with a smile like he used to. I know he didn't recognize me, but I knew him, and that was a really happy thing. I felt the same way going back to my favorite stationary store, Papearl, and seeing that the same guy worked there.

So adjustment is going well, I think, but I know that there is still more ahead, little by little. Today's added adjustment is my first full day of teaching. I feel ready!

Reading
Nothing yet, but will start El Deafo on the bus to Jamsil tomorrow morning!

Plans with Hope:
Wednesday Evening: Dalkkalbi or Samgyupsal and maybe 2nd Floor Cafe
Thursday morning: Jamsil and Olympic Park
Thursday evening: Dalkkalbi or Samgyupsal
Friday Morning ???
Friday Evening: Jjimjilbang with Anna!
Saturday: Hongdae, Insadong (?) (subject to change)
Sunday: Yangpyeong (?) (subject to change)

Community News:
* Sarah and Noah stopped by with Sarah's family on their post-wedding tour. They brought hugs and chocolate!!
* Plan is in the works to visit Gangneung (Yoonseo's hometown) with Connexus teachers in early June. I have heard that a zipline will be part of this. Cue fanfare!
* Gushik Yoon's wedding is on May 28 (Mom's birthday!), so there are a lot of wedding preparations going on. It looks like I will be a co-MC with Yoonseo to do the English translation of some of the wedding (don't worry, it will be from written material--my listening comprehension in Korean is not even close to that good haha).

No community quotes yet, but they'll be here when people start saying funny stuff. *hint hint*

-Abby