More Adventures in Wisconsin

We've been in Wisconsin for six months now. It's hard to believe how the time has flown. In that time, we have done so many fun things. It's fun to look through the pictures and revisit the experience as I blog about each one... Forgive me for the delay, as I know these pictures are from a few months ago. But better late than never, right? And I didn't want to miss out on sharing with you all the grand adventures we've had of a new state to explore and experience!

We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary at a Korean restaurant in downtown Milwaukee, followed by a short walk to see Lake Michigan. I still get the hankering for Korean food every now and then, so we hunted online to find out that there were two - yes, two - Korean restaurants in all of Milwaukee. Tragic, I know. But we're grateful nonetheless! It was a fun way to remember our time in Korea. It's crazy to believe that almost eight years ago we met at our dear friends' Stefanie and Brittany's apartment in the "small" suburban town of Suji, South Korea. Going to a Korean restaurant reminds me of our brief dating and courtship. Bam - ten months from meeting to saying, "I do!" 

After lunch we walked from the restaurant down to the yacht club and pier along the lake. In many ways Lake Michigan does seem like the ocean. The broad expanse. The endlessness of it. There are even seagulls! And yet, the waves are absent. And the smell of salt in the air. It was beautiful, and I loved seeing and experiencing a Great Lake for the first time. 

Happy Anniversary, my love! Words cannot express how grateful I am to be married to you! 

We also visited a local dairy farm just north of Oconomowoc!! A family in our church has a dairy farm that has been in their family for many generations. They invited us over for a tour of the farm, as well as a bonfire. It was so much fun! I've never been to a dairy farm, so this was a grand experience to see this family's daily life. All I know about dairy farmers is that my grandfather was the youngest (7th child) of a dairy farmer in Menomenee, right here in Wisconsin, back in the early 1900s. Yup - I have returned to the land of my peoples, coming to Wisconsin!!! :) The military took my grandfather to Virginia before WWII, and he met my grandmother at a military ball before he left to serve in Europe. He never moved back to WI. So that's my connection with dairy farms. :)

Where the cows are milked

I like the cow that's totally just chilling

Where all the milk goes just after the cows are milked 

Jody befriending a calf

I cannot imagine the daily life of a dairy farmer. Milking the cows twice a day. EVERY DAY. But it was so wonderful to get just a small glimpse of their world, and to hear the contentment and love for their farm in their voices. And to see the views from their home. These native Wisconsinites are pretty awesome people. I'm glad I get to know them. 

sometimes i just have a hankerin'...

for korean nummies! so our spiritual formation group meets on mondays, and here we are! the henkles and us switch every other monday, hosting our group time, and on this occasion jody and i decided to go 'all out' and get a few korean food items at the H-Mart in aurora so that our dinner was completely korean from start to finish. it was so much fun!

we had spicy ramen - complete with the egg and slice of cheese on top, kimchi, kim (seaweed), the yellow radishes, sticky rice, the pounded fish bread (i don't know what it's called exactly) and bean sprouts. we even had the maxim coffee mix and ice cream from korea to wrap up the meal. it was SOOO much fun!

part of the fun is, as always, exposing friends to a new type of food. the ramen is pretty safe, of course, but the side dishes are what provide the greatest mystery to american friends. it's more fun to take a friend to a korean restaurant, but i thought we did a pretty good job! and jesse and rachel seemed to enjoy it all. haha. i am thankful for their willingness to experiment and humor us. :)

having jesse and rachel in our lives has been such a blessing. finding friends, and i mean true 'kindred spirits' has been harder than i'd like to admit in this season. i think part of it is... we're grown ups now, and free time is harder to come by. i think part of it is also that we're in the crunch time of seminary. jody has one more semester after this one, and he is consumed with school assignments and his job at the church. amidst it all, however, the Lord has been so kind to us in providing like-minded friends in jesse and rachel. we are so grateful. i pray that no matter where the Lord takes us, our friendship will last.

markers

i cannot help but marvel that it is already the end of august 2009. how time has flown! when i look at Scripture, God always had His people establish markers - markers to remind them of one of God's feats, of an encounter with God, of an end or a beginning to a new season in life. in my own way, i feel like this season and really, the end of this month, is a time to put a marker down to remember what God has done in my life.

last year - september 2nd - jody and i left korea. i cannot believe it has been a whole year, and yet i know now would be a good time to stop and take stock of my heart and perspective one year after leaving so formative a place. i must say that life is hard wherever you live, so i am thankful that i did not leave korea thinking 'the grass is greener in america'. i knew that danger, and so i am thankful that jody and i left when we did... knowing that it truly was time for us to leave and begin a new chapter in our lives.

talking to mom over the phone yesterday put words to my feelings concerning korea's challenges for me. i feel like the challenges i faced in korea where few, but i could never seem to overcome them. they hounded and shamed me constantly, so i never felt at peace, never felt like i could overcome them and live in victory - especially in being joyful despite my circumstances, which the Lord commands us to be as Christians. here in colorado (or should i just say, america?), there are so many more factors to consider (families, friends, so many bills, transportation, etc) and potential bumps in the road, but i see marked progress so much more clearly as jody and i overcome one hurdle after another. i am more at peace here.

a year later, there are occasional twinges of discouragement concerning the season i spent in korea... and really just disappointment that i couldn't seem to live in victory. however, i truly believe the Lord is healing the past and allowing me to move forward in life. i praise Him for His faithfulness in bringing me through it all.

and i am always craving the food! a few nights ago jody and i had a deep craving for korean lamyun, which cannot be satisfied by typical american lamyun. so we snagged britt parsons and drove to aurora to the asian (korean, really) market. we bought our lamyun, and then we hunted down a little korean restaurant to have some korean food. i cannot lie, i was beyond excited. jody said i was glowing! and i can honestly say that i had been craving korean food for weeks. i had doenjang jjigae, a popular stew that warms your insides for hours! it was fantastic! then, a few nights ago jody and i watched a korean movie that was so typically korean in drama, it was hilarious. i praise God for korean food, for korean drama, and for the internationally cultural perspective having lived there gives me.


another marker

it is also worth mentioning that in three days jody and i celebrate our two year anniversary! this go-round, we have year 1 to look back on, and i can honestly attest to the blessing marriage is amidst life's challenges. year 1 of marriage was spent overseas, working in a foreign culture, going to an international church, learning from christian international couples and seeking God's heart for our future. year 2 we started married life in america, spending considerable time with each set of in-laws, moving and establishing residency in a new state and starting seminary. what unique challenges each year has presented! but God has truly been faithful through every hiccup and challenge, and through it all i praise God for jody! he has been such a blessing in my life. i look forward to many, many more years of serving the Lord with him, and i love seeing God do marvelous works in him, making him the man He's calling him to be.

i can also attest to the Scripture "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17 God has used marriage to show me how terribly sinful i am, and how very much i need the Lord to keep going. i am thankful for jody, who keeps me in check and challenges me to re-think how i have always done things and to consider others more carefully. marriage is definitely a check on selfishness, and i'm so glad. i pray my marriage is a testimony of God's goodness and faithfulness, and of His incredible love, which challenges, convicts and spurs us on towards Him.

pray for us. pray for our marriage as we grow together and as we continue to seek God's plan for our lives.

Happy Anniversary, my love!

Saturday Get-Together

One Saturday a month Jody and I spend time with the Suji members of our church. It is a wonderful time to see good friends and to encourage each other. This past Saturday, Jody and I went over to Brad and Belle's place, where Brad and Jo did some talking/playing games, and Belle and I did some talking/home-baking. It was so wonderful. Little by little, others trickled in, and we played a game of tumbling monkeys and Billionaire, the card game. For dinner we all headed out to a good duck restaurant. All in all, it was a big group of us - with some new faces in there.

One couple, Dorothy and Mike (in the second picture - the redhead and the guy with the green jacket) came up from the south of Korea and they later spent the night at our apartment. It was so exciting to be able to host people and to know that they had everything they needed!

here's the duck being grilled for all of us. the numbers of side dishes was out of this world. phew!

here were my side dishes. that red paste is really yummy. and all the side-dishes can go on a leaf, along with some of the duck and kimchi, which you can see cooking on the grill (along with mushrooms and slices of potato). it was a light meal, but very tasty!

Yay for spending time with friends!

COMING HOME....

vacation time: 24.august - 9.september. 17 days total, travel time included.

will confirm with more detail once the tickets are bought and things are more established. if you want to see me while in the good ol' us of a, let me know. will be setting plans so i can make the most of this short block of time.



whose little feet filled these shoes?

a few nights ago i was walking in suji and i saw these near a trash pickup. (there's a lot of trash here, btw) i was struck with an oddly bittersweet feeling, seeing these precious little shoes. maybe the little feet grew so quickly they couldn't wear them anymore. i don't know. i like them, though.

emily and i have established our very favorite korean meal. it is called budda-jjigae (pronounced buddha- jee-gay).

Korean: Do you like Korean food?
me: Oh, yes. I eat it every day. My favorite is budda-jjigae. And tuen-jang-jjigae.
Korean: (gasp, shocked face) You like budda-jjigae?! Oh, you must like hot food. Very spicy. You are true Korean.

CHURCH
sunday night a small group of us went to my favorite restaurant - nolbu - where we had budda-jjigae. i am pleased to finally have a picture of my pastor and his family to show you all. here is Pastor Bob, his wife Anna, and his daughters who are absolutely hilarious. it has been a pleasure to be part of GEM and under his loving shepherding. he and his family came to korea from canada only a few months (??) before i did, so their english is all enough for solid communication. i am truly thankful for them and i pray God's blessing an anointing not only rests upon his ministry and teaching, but on his leadership in his family, as well.

yesterday: stressful. got home from work around midnight. new class of little ones. 6 children. good grasp on phonics. now to get them talking, reading and writing well.

TEACHING
4 new faces in my upper-level classes. starting the bald bandit (A-Z mysteries) in my prep class, and the three musketeers in my step 3 class. been busy writing study questions, vocabulary lists, and grading tests, quizzes, and papers. exhausted. 

caleb slammed peter's head against the door?? wall?? yesterday. sophia's first day teaching them without my supervision. his head still hurts today/ dizzy. worried about caleb's bad behavior. mrs. kim is moving him to gina's class starting next week. pray that sophia can control them. pray the fear of God will rest upon them. i fear their excitement/confidence/ happiness in being able to speak english is out-of-control in the way they treat one another... it's hard for me to pass the baton... i still see them as my children. when they leave the classroom to go get water or go potty, they come and talk to me. encouraging them to be loving and kind to miss sophia and each other.

reading in James today. what a SWORD the Word of God is.

...randomness...

There is nothing that embodies Korea more than their essential sidedish called 'kimchi'. It is neither pleasing to the eye nor delightful to the tastebuds (initially, at least). To put it bluntly, it is cabbage- fermented with salt, kimchi sauce (which contains some sort of fish paste), and chili powder... and squished together. I found the above picture in the subway, and I couldn't resist taking a picture. Gotta love the Korean patriotism.

This picture was taken at City Hall - a week after this same place was flooded with Red Devil fans, supporting the Korean football team in the World Cup. And, oh friends, you should hear the complaints in my students' journals about the unfair call of the referee (or shall I say, the lack of a call) on the Swiss player's hand foul. In any case, if you look closely you can see an older man on a pink moped. The effort I took to stealthily grab this shot was solely for the pink moped. ^^

This weekend's visit to a Seoul Art Museum for a Picasso Exhibition... Picasso isn't my favorite artist, I'll admit, but it was still quite nice to see his works.I fear I am ill-qualified to fully comprehend or explain the various mysteries of such creations fashioned in the name of "art" ... If you have such wisdom, please enlighten me.

Thea flies out for Germany tomorrow. Please pray for safe travel.

A great post on Korean food (with pictures) http://thea-in-korea.blogspot.com/2006/07/koreanisches-essen-am-samstag-hat-mich.html.

random observations from living in korea

1. korean women don't know the meaning of "bumming it." it is the norm to wear heels (with anything, mind you, but usually with the whole get-up)... usually a skirt, a lacy/frilly top, and a fair amount of make-up. i do believe a friend and teacher at church called the style 'victorian throw-up" ... but the possibilities to bash korean female fashion are endless and should therefore, probably be left largely unsaid. lol 
2. very few people wear braces. or have ever heard of Crest White strips. i think i'll be blinded when i return to the states. 
3. korean bathrooms are a cultural experience all their own. the likelihood of toilet paper in the public bathrooms is uncertain; sometimes it's there, but usually it's not. i have learned to keep a pack of tissues (just 500won ~ 50cents at a subway or convenience store) on hand for emergencies. and then there's the squatty potties. i wanted to post a picture of one, but then realized it would probably not be a very appealing shot. i've gotten pretty good at using them, though. and another thing - koreans are afraid to flush the toilet paper, so there are usually trash cans right next to the potty for soiled TP. yes, friends, yes. it's disgusting, i know... but.... WELCOME TO KOREA. (^.^) 
4. the age and hierarchical gap is a big deal. it's all about being on the same level with people, so koreans join as many clubs and groups as possible to increase their spheres of equal footing. you don't hang out with or marry someone who is too far above/below you. and this is reflected in their language, too (how they address each other, etc.) 
5. the concept of a line is foreign here. they don't know how to... or don't care about forming a clear line, where one person finishes and the others in the line wait calmly and patiently for their turns. so yeah, all those lessons your kindergarten teacher taught you about staying in line while walking through your school do you NO GOOD WHATSOEVER in getting your subway tickets or checking in your card at the YMCA. so go ahead, stick those elbows out and PUSH your way through. be as RUDE as you like, and you'll just be one of the crowd. 
6. traffic lights are more like suggestions to most drivers here. 'red' is the new 'green' ... or didn't you know?! 
7. pizza toppings have taken on a whole new meaning. try mustard and corn and potato slices.... all on the same pizza. oh yeah. yummy. and a whole pizza - sometimes pushing $25 or $30. phew! 
8. confucian thinking still undergirds most korean behavior. younger must respect and defer to older. if a halmoni (grandmother) gets on the bus and there is no available seat, i need to get out of mine and give it to her. everyone is bowing to everyone, and i've seen some pretty DEEP bows from little kids. it's HILARIOUS. also, so much more is left unsaid... it is inferred instead. i've gotten pretty good at reading what koreans are implying and learning how to - basically - communicate as they do... without actually learning their language. lol.

and that's all for now, folks.

The Korean Staple

Rice. With everything. In everything. Bibimbap, kimbap, budae-jjiggae, doenjang-jjiggae, bulgogi, galbi... and the list goes on. And you know what? I think when I go home, I'm going to miss it almost as much as Koreans do when they go abroad. Oh, by the way, in the above picture the little rectangular thing in front of my rice bowl is seaweed. I love it.

The Art of Using My Rice Cooker

1. Spoon however many cups of rice you plan on eating in the next few days into your rice cooker.
2. Wash the rice in water several times; until the water is no longer cloudy. (Did you know that many Koreans use rice water to wash their faces? Apparently it is very good for the complexion.)
3. Cover the rice with water so that when you put your hand over the rice, the water covers your fingers.
4. Press the only button down and wait until the hot air pressure release goes off before opening up the lid. It usually takes ~30 minutes.

Ahhhh, I love how easy my rice cooker is.

Galbi (Korean BBQ) & Karaoke


After work tonight a bunch of us went out to eat and then for an experience of Korean karaoke. It was a great night, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
For dinner we had pork cooked on grills right in the table... and did you know? They don't use knives as much as scissors to cut the meat and any other food that isn't manageable for chopsticks! I'll never forget my surprise initially when I saw a server cutting food with a pair of scissors.

And unlike American dining, Koreans do not serve meals in courses; they bring out all the food at once and it's a communal eating experience.  
Clockwise: Cindy, Hannah, Miss Che (our secretary, who will be moving to the Yeongtong branch with Lauren), Mrs. Kim, Esther. 


And here is a picture of the men. On the far left is a guy who is moving to work at our campus. I forget his name, but I feel sorry for him - the sole male amidst all the females! The man behind him is the one who does our advertising, and the two men on the right are the ERC shuttle bus drivers. I see them ever so often as they come into ERC for some water or to discuss the pickup schedule with Mrs. Kim.


Here I am at the karaoke place, standing next to a famous older Korean singer. I don't know who he is, but Esther seemed to get a kick out of seeing him there. 

For karaoke, we reserved a room that was complete with a table, an L-shaped sofa, two microphones, 2 thick songbooks full of Korean and English songs (many of which I didn't know, but some that I faintly recognized). I confess I was ashamed of my lack of knowledge of English music, though the Korean I could not help. There was also a disco ball and a TV showing the lyrics and music videos that definitely did not correspond to the songs we were singing to. Esther and I sang "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion. That was definitely my favorite. Overall, I was reminded of elementary school days at the roller skating rink, singing and skating to well-known songs, and I truly enjoyed myself... once I got over the fact that about 7 or 8 of us were making complete fools of ourselves in a small little room. And we were staring at the screen to make sure we got the words right... LOL. I'm telling you - these demure Koreans can really let loose sometimes! After seeing how much fun they have, I can see why karaoke is a popular pastime among Korean youth....