A NEW BEGINNING

As our time in Korea comes to an end, we have a lot of mixed emotions. We have come to love Korea: the people, the places, the language. We have been in this small and somewhat unknown country for a year. It has been the longest job I have had and it has been our first real home as a married couple. We have made some really good friends and we have had a lot of great adventures but it is time for something new.

We are finishing out last month of teaching and we are starting to look for jobs in America. We have the problem of needing a place to live but first we need a job. Before we can get jobs, we need to know where we are going to live. Do we need to find apartments or try for a small house to rent? Should we look for a place in a smaller town or closer to a city? This will also be our first time entering the US job market. Should we look for long term careers or jobs to tide us over until one of us goes back to school? We have a lot of questions and few answers.

Even though a year does not seem like a long time, it is long enough for lots of things to change. What will life be like back in the US? We haven't driven or been to Walmart in a year.The places, the people: what will have changed? How will our families and friends have changed? Even if it doesn't seem like much, people change in some way. If nothing else, people will have different stories and new inside jokes. We will have our fair share also but it seems strange trying to return to our friends who have had a totally different year than we had. It may be strange or awkward at first, but we look forward to catching up with old friends and family.

With that said, we are terribly excited about going home to see our family and friends. We have not seen our families or friends in a year. We have a lot we want to share with them and a lot to catch up on. We both love our families greatly and it was hard to leave in the first place but now we are going back and the excitement is almost unbearable. We get to hang out with people who not only speak our language but also share a history with us. These are the people who knew what we were thinking almost the same time we did. These people have laughed with us and cried with us. This new beginning brings joy, a little uneasiness, and some anxiety but we are ready for the new adventure.

Korea, we will miss you. We will miss your strangeness and your familiarity. We will miss the parts that feel like a foreign country and the parts that feel like home. This part of our lives must come to an end. To use the already overused adage, every end is just a new beginning.

AN INTERESTING EXPERIENCE

This weekend, Nicki and I went to Haebin and Anthony's Korean wedding. It was really nice. It was very different but it was nice. Korean wedding are like factory line. There is a wedding every hour and each party is expected to clear out in time for the next. Dispite the unusual set up, unusual to westerners at least, it was a lovely ceremony. We got to try our hand at singing Korean hymns and didn't really know what was being said. Afterwards, we found out that groom had to repeat his vows in Korean as well. Good job Anthony. After the wedding, we hung out to visit with some friends from the states. We felt like we were imposing but the Lee family was very welcoming. After eating and waiting for the newly weds to do the usual post wedding thank yous and such, we went out to eat dinner. On the subway back to the grooms apartment, a Korean man walked down the subway and slung water, or at least tried to sling water on our group. This was a very strange and uncommon experience. This caused quite a lot of frustration because it wasn't our place to confront the elderly man and no one else did. On a side note, Nicki and I thought it was a little funny but are very sorry it happened on a wedding day and to people who were visiting Korea for the first time. After some people got changed and we decided where to eat we went out for dinner. We had some very excellent Bibimbap. Due to our unexpected presence, sorry about that, we had some confucion getting back to the apartments and working out where we were going to stay. Dinner was a little late so we missed the last train back to Ansan. We decided to stay the night in a jjimjilbang. It was a very tiring day and there was some frustration as is to be expected on wedding days but over all, it was an excellent day. I would like to express, even though the receipients will probably not read this, our extreme gratitude towards the Lee family and the Wotring family (new and old) for letting us share in there special day and for treating us to dinner and the jjimjilbang.

Never Judge a Jjimjil Bang by its Lights

This past weekend, we took a road trip to southern South Korea. There is a lot to say about this trip but I've decided to write about only one part of the experience.

We decided that we could save money by staying the night in a jjimjil bang. Jjimjil bangs are Korean bath houses. Yes, you do bath naked in front of total strangers but mom, don't worry, the baths are segregated. I know that this sounds like a terribly awkward situation but it is actually fun.

The way that jjimjil bangs usually work is that you pay around 7-8 thousand won for unlimited use of the showers, saunas, and common room. When you pay the cashier, you receive a pair of "stylish" pj's which actually resemble PE uniforms. After you get your pj's, the men and women part ways and head off to their designated areas. Each area, well, at least the men's area, has a locker room where you undress and get any towels or wash clothes that you need. These are Korean sized towels which does cause some anxiety at first. Then you can go to the shower room. This is were the strangeness happens. The first time I went to a jjimjil bang, I was told that it is very important to thoroughly wash even if you are already clean. I guess this is to relieve any suspicions that the oegugins (foreigners) are trying to spread their diseases. I would like to point out that it is not uncommon to see fathers and sons scrubbing each other. This sounds very strange to westerners but it isn't that weird to be around. Also, there is not nearly as much staring as one might think.

After a good thorough scrubbing, it is time to get in the hot/cold baths. This is where a good jjimjil bang differs from a mediocre jjimjil bang. The jjimjil bang that we stayed at in or near Tongyeong had a very bright and luxurious facade but the interior was just mediocre. It only had one hot bath and one cold bath. The jjimjil bang in Ansan that I've been to, was much better even though it is in a building complex.

In the bath rooms (not to be confused with bathrooms), most jjimjil bangs also have steam rooms and massage tables. There is something fun and relaxing about going from hot to cold then back to hot baths and then relaxing in a steam room. Being naked does take getting used to but it really isn't that bad. Most of the anxiety is nothing more of encountering the unfamiliar than anything else, but I digress.

When you have had your fill of being naked, you can dry off and put your pj's on. In the locker room, you can also use take extra time to clean your ears, brush your teeth, blow dry your hair, etc. After you finishing primping and putting on your pj's (making sure they are not on backwards of course), you go to the common room. The common room will have a snack bar, massage chairs, exercise equipment, PC's, a TV, and floor mats. It also has heated floors or ondul flooring. This is where we slept even though there was a separate sleeping room in the Tongyeoung jjimjil bang.

Everyone except for Joey, our Korean friend, had trouble sleeping. Our "bedding" consisted of a slightly larger towel and, if you are lucky, a "pillow." The pillows were hard foam blocks and in some cases, blocks of wood with a semicircle cut out for your head. Despite the minor discomforts and chorus of snores, jjimjil bangs are fun and cheap places to spend a night or just an evening.

The new Colosseum

Nicki and I decided to stay in Ansan this Saturday. We went to Jungang to do some shopping and decided to see a movie while we were there. We went to Meganex and our choices of English movies was very limited. We decided to watch The Watchmen. First of all, DO NOT WATCH THE WATCHMEN. It may have been the worst movie I have ever seen. Secondly, I am beginning to worry about the direction in which Hollywood is going.

I don't know if the comic book is any better but this film was absolutely repulsive. I think that it had a lot of potential and the the theme could have been excellent. In my opinion, the whole movie and any redemptive qualities it could have had were ruined by the grotesque violence and explicit sex scenes. Movies have made their points and have been entertaining for a long time without such gross scenes. As we discussed after the movie, it is also an insult to human imagination to show things so explicitly.

After seeing this movie, I am reminded of the Colosseum. It seems that Hollywood is having to feed the masses more and more graphic materials to appease us. I have wondered about Hollywood for a long time. War movies have gotten much more graphic but at the same time, "War is Hell." Sex is also much more prominent on the silver screen. It has always or at least almost always been there but never this revealing. Directors use to only hint at what was going on. Now, I feel like I should be the creepy middle-aged man living in his mom's basement when I see a movie. I strongly believe in freedom of speech and I oppose censorship but I really am worried about the direction in which Hollywood is leading America. Not to mention America is asking Hollywood to take us there.

That is all I have for now. I would highly recommend not watching The Watchmen unless you like smut or unless you are terribly curious.

It is funny how hard choosing a career can be. I know I want to do something but I just don't know what it is that I want to do. It is also funny how it is much easier to decide what one does not want to do as opposed to deciding what one wants to do. I am going on my fifth month as an English teacher and I know one thing...I do not want to teach English for the rest of my life. Now, along with the definite "no's" comes many "maybe's." I can't decide if I would like to teach or not. The only thing I know is that I do not want to teach English as a second language.
My schedule is very conducive to thinking and so I do a lot of it. When I figured out that I do not want to teach English, I began the very pain staking task of deciding what I want to do. Should I teach math? If so, where? Do I want to go into Engineering? If so, what kind? Maybe I want to be a contractor. Is that a waste of my time at Erskine? These are just a few of the questions that seem to continuously race through my head.
Along with the question of career, I start to think of life in general. What is God's purpose for my life? Should I seek out an active role in ministry? Is God calling me to do this or that? Or are these just my desires? I guess this is not a unique problem. I have been told that almost all young graduates go through this. Now I have the question "does being abroad make these questions harder?"