christmas in korea

Whew.  i just feel like I need to take a breath.  this whole week has been so busy with moving in and everything, i'm glad to have a chance to sit down and rest.  let me recap all that has happened the last week.  we moved into our apartment on christmas eve, all 10+ suitcases and all.  our realtor, whose name is Grace Kim, helped us move in and we had probably 10 different men walk through our apartment hooking up gas, setting up the heating, etc.  Christmas morning we were sweetly waken up by the doorbell of another gas guy who wanted to install a pipe. :  )

we then left to meet up with one of peter's coworkers and her boyfriend to go to the chaplain's house for a christmas meal/party.  it was great.  our chaplain's name is (drumroll please) Billy Graham.  He and his wife are extremely warm and welcoming.  It was a nice bite of Americana for two slightly homesick st. louisans.  there was an incredible amount of food: turkey, ham, two different types of mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, cornbread, carrot casserole, yams, you name it,  it was probably there.  even better was the conversations we had.  i met these two really energetic and fun korean girls who know Chaplain Graham from their church.  They were friends with a guy named Maurice, who is actually from Kenya, but speaks excellent Korean.  He is a seminary student.  Anyway, these two girls were keeping me laughing through the whole night.  One of them, Jinmin speaks English fairly well, while the other (slightly more rambunctious gal) spoke very little english.  Our facial expressions helped us communicate with one another and were often so funny I would be crying with laughter.  

All three of them invited Peter and I to go see a musical in Seoul this coming Saturday and we said "yes"!  I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.  I have a feeling we'll be great friends.  

a sneak peak of our brand new apartment (cardboard is on the floor).  We'll post some more pictures when we get more settled in.  and to all of you, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!  and come see us we have lots of room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
peter is bowing in thanks to all of you faithful readers of our blog.  : )


our bags being pushed and pulled around on this scotch taped platform on wheels.  amazingly, they were able to push it for half a mile over rough terrain.  they only dropped our bag once..no twice....no three times!  

kyung jin and kyung pyo show me around

seoul, insadong neighborhood

busy busy busy seoul

beautiful orchids.  they were so bountiful!
little tiny cell phone chains (everyone has one here) of traditional korea dishes.  pretty cute, huh?

golf course

some pictures!

sleepy body swarming brain

hi everyone. i feel as though i should 'whisper' since it's bedtime now and peter is sweetly sleeping nearby. i tried going to bed but just couldn't let my mind rest. too many things running through my brain so i thought i'd get up and blog about it. as soon as my head hit the pillow i just kept thinking of my to-do lists of all we need to do before moving in to our new apartment. my brain feels overwhelmed with storing all of these dates, appointments, forms, procedures, and on and on, sometimes i think it might just suddenly shut down. i feel myself getting too anxious about all of the change that is happening. we love the new things sprouting up in our lives, but with change comes, well, change.

i love being here in korea and so does peter. i mean, you should see the glow on peter's face as he takes a bite of korean street food (anthony bourdain would hire him). he's so happy here. everyday i look around and i feel like i need to pinch myself. i look around at all of these koreans and think, "no, no, sarah, you're not at your parent's church anymore. you're in korea now and not everyone here knows your mom and dad either." there's this familiarity of what's around me--the culture that is within me that has always been woven throughout my being, yet sometimes i feel so distant from certain aspects of the country/culture. i suppose this whole switch from being a korean in america and now being an american in korea will have some getting used to.

Being surrounded by all of these new experiences, hand in hand with my dear peter, is a total rush of exhilaration and fear at the same time. like having an ice cold wave crash all over your body. my body needs some time in the water before it feels comfortable to leisurely swim. (all of this change makes me also consider what it was like for Jesus to come to earth. how strange that must have been! )

i don't think i could survive without the constant thought of how dearly i am loved by my Creator. This experience will be challenging in many ways and I am SO thankful for God's presence-- He never leaves me. What a wonderful Father He is!! what a comfort.

Just typing those very words puts my heart at ease. I think i ought to go to sleep now. I think i hear peter stirring in bed... goodnight!

we're in daegu!!!

hey everyone! we are in daegu now (we arrived on friday afternoon). We took the KTX, which is the super speedy train system here and it took 1 hour and 38 minutes to get here from seoul. The train ride was really smooth and pretty luxurious. It was nice to look out the window as we crossed different bodies of water and to see the Korean countryside. It was a rather sharp contrast looking at the farmers working in the fields, orchards, patties, after being in the gigantic metropolitan seoul.

once we arrived in daegu we were picked up by a nice U.S. soldier named Sgt. Allison who graciously helped us lug around all of our suitcases. he gave us a brief tour and took us to the offices we needed to visit to officially check in. After checking in, we met a couple of Peter's soon-to-be co-workers and other officers/soldiers who work for his unit. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming so we were soon put to ease. Shortly after, we went to the hotel where we will be staying for about a week or so. We were told we'd be picked up in about 20 minutes to go to a Christmas party to meet other members of the unit. Meeting people at a Christmas party was not exactly how we envisioned meeting his company commander and other bosses for the first time, but we were glad to be in such a relaxed and informal atmosphere. It was kind of fun for me to see a bunch of military men and women, who (from my limited experience) are often pretty stoic on post, sit back and sing karaoke with santa hats loosely topping their heads. : )

the next day we went apartment shopping. i want to post some pics of that soon too. we saw 5 different apartments off post, in different parts of the city. the first one we saw was actually a villa, but it was rather small. the second apartment we saw was in a building really close to the post where peter will work (only a 3 minute walk!). We liked the location of course, but it had very little to offer in the neighborhood. The last three apartments we saw were more in the downtown area, farther from the base, but very close to the subway and still only 10 minutes from peter's work. we really liked 3 of them, but after talking through each of the possibilities, we decided on one apartment that is actually in a brand new apartment building. it's on the 17th floor, so we have a nice little view of the city and it has plenty of room for visitors to come stay with us. our realtor should call us back this afternoon and let us know if/when we can sign the contract. we'll post some pics soon!!

Seoul-- first time out!

Today I was able to go out with Kyung Jin, my cousin, to Insadong in Seoul. It was a lot of fun! We took the subway to Insadong, which is this huge outdoor/indoor shopping area with various other buildings and structures. I was just amazed at all of the different shops that were there. Seoul is a very international city -- I saw many different shops representing various different cultures. Of course there were several U.S. chains: Starbucks, KFC, McDonald's, Burger King, Outback Steakhouse, Dunkin Donuts, even 7 Elevens! I'll post some pics soon.

Pedro and I had an orientation meeting today about living in Korea.  I can sympathize more now with Peter as I suffered through some death by powerpoint!  : )  anyhow, we got out a little early and took a nice walk through parts of the post.  We got to see some nice views of seoul and distant mountains.

We took some pictures of the Korean artwork around our hotel as well.  You'll also see a picture of a bird in a tree.  I still don't know its name, but it is beautiful with a deep blue color on it's wings and their large puffy bodies.  They are all over the country and they have a unique chirp.  

It was nice to be free from fluorescent lights and also to enjoy the korean landscape and plant life.  We both couldn't help but thank God for this time here and how happy we are to be in Korea!!

Another family visit with my oldest uncle and my cousins

family reunions are sweet

This weekend peter & I were able to meet with some of my family members from my dad's side who I haven't seen in almost 10 years.  It was really great.  We left each meeting with full hearts.  As some of you may know, I had some anxiety about being around my family with my broken Korean (or Konglish : )  However, both gatherings we had were so full of sweetness and kindness.  

We first met with my dad's youngest sister, who we nicknamed "Bowling Como" on Saturday.  Como means paternal aunt in Korean.  Bowling Como came with her husband and their two kids, Kyung Jin (daughter) and Kyung Pyo (son).  Both of their kids have studied in the U.S. and have really good English skills so they often translated throughout our conversations since Como and Como Bu (uncle) speak little to no English. 

 I have a special fondness for Bowling Como because she has always shown much interest in my life and my siblings' lives.  She and my uncle came to our wedding and visited several times in the U.S.  Both Como and Como Bu are extremely generous, kind, and easy going people.  Several times throughout the day Como emphasized quite emphatically that if we ever needed anything she would just be a phone call away.  They took us to lunch at a restaurant here in the hotel.  They were extremely gracious and I hope that we'll be able to get to know them better during our time here.

On Sunday, my dad's older brother and his three kids came to visit.  In Korean, we call him (Koon Ahbohjee) which literally means, "Big father".  He is the head of the family since he is the oldest sibling.  I know how fond my dad is of him and how much he respects him, so it was nice to be around him for the afternoon.  I was kind of nervous about meeting with him and my three cousins, Kee Bom, So Hee and So Jung, because they speak very little english, but it ended up being a really fun afternoon.   They greeted us with a large bag full of apples and clementines, as well as some traditional korean pastries.  I sliced some apples, laid out some clementines, chocolates we bought from the PX and poured orange juice and we talked or mumbled through our conversation for a few hours.  So Hee, one of my cousins, is a really funny girl-- very charming in the way she talks and she put us all at ease by asking funny questions.  Peter offered the phrase he has mastered in korean to them by saying, "I don't speak Korean well".  My uncle and all three cousins just erupted in laughter and replied almost in unison, "We don't speak english well!"  

They soon left after an afternoon of catching up and lots of laughter.  I really look forward to getting to know them all better.  My uncle had good things to say about Peter too.  He told me that just by looking at Peter's face he could tell he was a good, gentle, and kind man and that he could tell he loved me.  I suppose some things don't need words to be communicated. 

Family visit

our hotel in seoul

airport adventures

peter & i have been in a whirlwind preparing for our move to korea.  it was appropriate that our flight to korea was a bit frazzled as well.  we were scheduled to leave st. louis for atlanta on wednesday, december 10. 2008 at 7:25 am.  Our connecting flight left atlanta at 10:45 am for seoul.  atlanta had some large thunderstorms going through and created many flight delays.  we ended up getting off the plane at 10:51.  Luckily, our connecting flight was delayed by 15 minutes.  That left us 9 minutes to get to our connecting flight.  we were in concourse B and our flight was leaving from concourse E.  Needless to say, peter & i booked it toward our departure gate, running recklessly through the airport.  As we approached the escalator, Peter yelled out in a loud voice something to the effect of, "MOVE TO THE RIGHT!  COMING THROUGH ON THE LEFT!!"  We barely missed a train going toward Concourse E and had to wait a few minutes for the next one to arrive.  I looked at the time and noticed we had only 3 minutes til 11:00.  We ran as fast as we could and approached the emptied gate.  The flight attendants simply said, "congratulations.  you barely made it."  

we finally boarded the plane, panting and filled with relief.  our seats appeared to be taken by a man with a small baby.  luckily, a young man offered to move to another seat so peter and i could sit next to each other and not have to sit in a tight section with a baby.  we ended up having a whole three row section together which was nice when we wanted to stretch our legs and lay down for a nap.  the flight from atlanta lasted 14.5 hours, but went by surprisingly fast.

right now we're in yongsan, which is in the middle of a bustling seoul.  we're staying in a hotel, dragon hill lodge, until peter and i are finished with in-processing paperwork and in-briefings. hopefully this blog will be a good place to keep in touch!