Ok... So instead of explaining everything about my weekend on the blog... watch this video about my weekend!
First weekend in Korea? Pretty much fantastic. Thanking the Lord for the experiences, the friendships, the awkwardness, the communications and miscommunications, struggles, all of them blessings.
So I'll close with this:
"We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God."
2 Corinthians 3:4-5
As each day goes by it's getting more and more real that I'm in Korea. Especially as I venture outside of the comfortable university where all of the English speakers lurk. And then I'm realizing that I'm not here because of me. I'm here because of HIM! And He's equipped me with all that I need to live in a foreign country. By myself. Away from my friends and family and comfort of my home in Arizona. But I'm super safe.
God's a good Papa.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
Week 1: SUCCESS!
Okay! So I know I am waaaaay overdue for my first ever blog post, and I know everyone wants to know what's up so HERE WE GO!
The overall experience so far has been pretty great. I'm at Korea University for TaLK Orientation in Jochiwon, South Korea for the next 3 weeks, then they're sending me off to some city in the Gangwon Province in the northeast area of the country. So far I'm learning lots, eating lots, and meeting a ton of new people! The weather... not so good for this desert dweller. Not so used to the inhaling water vapor thing, but I don't notice after being outside after awhile.
I go hiking every morning at about 5 AM with a small group of scholars on a small trail on campus. It's really beautiful and I enjoy saying hello to all the ahjummas and ahjussis. And they like to practice some of their English skills too. Of course our conversations never get passed "Anyeonghaseyo" "Hello! Hi! How are you!" but it's practice nonetheless! A few of you know that it's my goal to have a small group of ahjumma friends and I'm happy to say I'm off to a good start. :D
I also have a short video up on my Youtube channel that explains a bit about my journey to South Korea and my first day there:
But after that... Ohhhh so much has happened! In the video, you saw that I did not yet have a room mate, but at about 11 PM she arrived, and dang was it meant to be. Her name is Sarah and she is coming to Korea from Portland, Oregon. She's cool and spunky and we already get along pretty great.
So the TaLK company gave us scholars two days to arrive in Korea; Saturday the 3rd and Sunday the 4th. For those of us that arrived on Saturday, they offered an optional field trip on Sunday so that we weren't just waiting twiddling our thumbs while the other 200 or so scholars arrived. There was the either the Korean Folk Village or a Buddhist Temple. I chose the temple!
When we first got there, we had a short orientation where they taught us how to bow, which looked a little something like this:
Then they took us into the temple where we learned how to meditate while walking, sitting, and lying down. Lemme tell you. Cramp city. The main monk was telling us that we would probably feel some discomfort and might get distracted by our surroundings or even our own thoughts. But once one of those distractions comes into our mind, label it for what it is and move on.
For example, if we were cramping or feeling pain while sitting down, we label it as "pain, pain, pain," and then move forward from that sensation.
After meditation, they fed us a lunch of bibimbap.
A few of us were warned before that the sauce, gochujan, was super potent, so not to use too much! Turns out, I didn't really need any because the kimchi that came with it was pretty saucy and spicy.
And this is where we ate
After lunch, we went back into the temple so that we could learn how to make the Buddhist prayer beads. Each scholar got a small bag of beads and string and we spent the next hour or so stringing those suckers up. It was pretty hard because the beads were made of wood, and some of the holes were not drilled all the way through. But they smelled so delicious. Like, those beads smelled reeeeeally good. Don't judge. I'll bring them home so you can smell.
Sunday night, the rest of the scholars returned, and we all had to makeour 11 PM curfew so that we would be ready for our first day of orientation!
I won't go into too much detail about orientation, but I'll say that I'm already learning a lot! There are about 300 scholars in the TaLK program and we are split up into 6 groups of about 45-50, all going to different provinces in South Korea. We are getting some classes on teaching, Korean culture such as do's don'ts, learning how to play the danso flute, taekwondo, and in the evenings we all take different levels of Korean language classes depending on our fluency. (I'm in the beginner's class)
Wednesday was the first day that we all got to interact with some real Korean elementary kids. Before we went, our group leaders taught us a few games that we could choose from to teach the kids some English, then they pretty much made us choose a game and threw us under the bus to get some experience.
Group 3 Leaders Ellis and Jon
Name Game and Categories Game
Group 3 decided to do a Sports Day instead of lecture yesterday (Thanks Ellis)
Overall, orientation hasn't been super painful, and we've got two more weeks to go! I'll keep you posted on any more crazy orientation stuff.
Right now I can't tell you all how blessed I feel. It's already been the first week and God has already shown me a whole lot about myself and every day I'm learning more and more about my purpose in South Korea. I can tell you right now, even though I'm having a ton of fun, I'm already struggling. God is showing me much about my own value, who I am, and what I mean to HIM! It's a struggle trying to be less of a people pleaser and more of a Jesus pleaser. Because, afterall, HE'S who I'm hear for: seeking His face in the kids I teach, the people I meet, and the culture I'm trying to understand. I'm still looking for a group of Christians that I can fellowship with, study with, and pray with. That's also a huge huge struggle, since I left behind an amazing church family. (Miss you Hand of Mercy! Thanks Pastor Pete for the podcast!) In all of this, God is so good. Like, really good. And I'm getting more and more confident that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be: holding His hand as He guides me through this super exciting, crazy, scary, ridiculous adventure. Can't wait to tell you all my story throughout this next year!
For now, if you would, please partner with me in prayer throughout this crazy journey. Some specific things that I am struggling with now and could use prayers for are these:
-Find a church/bible study/Christian friends
-Boldness
-More confidence
-Seek the Lord's will a whole lot more than my own!
I love you family! Miss you all so much! See you soon!
(Skype: raerae5018)
The overall experience so far has been pretty great. I'm at Korea University for TaLK Orientation in Jochiwon, South Korea for the next 3 weeks, then they're sending me off to some city in the Gangwon Province in the northeast area of the country. So far I'm learning lots, eating lots, and meeting a ton of new people! The weather... not so good for this desert dweller. Not so used to the inhaling water vapor thing, but I don't notice after being outside after awhile.
I go hiking every morning at about 5 AM with a small group of scholars on a small trail on campus. It's really beautiful and I enjoy saying hello to all the ahjummas and ahjussis. And they like to practice some of their English skills too. Of course our conversations never get passed "Anyeonghaseyo" "Hello! Hi! How are you!" but it's practice nonetheless! A few of you know that it's my goal to have a small group of ahjumma friends and I'm happy to say I'm off to a good start. :D
I also have a short video up on my Youtube channel that explains a bit about my journey to South Korea and my first day there:
But after that... Ohhhh so much has happened! In the video, you saw that I did not yet have a room mate, but at about 11 PM she arrived, and dang was it meant to be. Her name is Sarah and she is coming to Korea from Portland, Oregon. She's cool and spunky and we already get along pretty great.
So the TaLK company gave us scholars two days to arrive in Korea; Saturday the 3rd and Sunday the 4th. For those of us that arrived on Saturday, they offered an optional field trip on Sunday so that we weren't just waiting twiddling our thumbs while the other 200 or so scholars arrived. There was the either the Korean Folk Village or a Buddhist Temple. I chose the temple!
When we first got there, we had a short orientation where they taught us how to bow, which looked a little something like this:
Then they took us into the temple where we learned how to meditate while walking, sitting, and lying down. Lemme tell you. Cramp city. The main monk was telling us that we would probably feel some discomfort and might get distracted by our surroundings or even our own thoughts. But once one of those distractions comes into our mind, label it for what it is and move on.
For example, if we were cramping or feeling pain while sitting down, we label it as "pain, pain, pain," and then move forward from that sensation.
After meditation, they fed us a lunch of bibimbap.
A few of us were warned before that the sauce, gochujan, was super potent, so not to use too much! Turns out, I didn't really need any because the kimchi that came with it was pretty saucy and spicy.
And this is where we ate
After lunch, we went back into the temple so that we could learn how to make the Buddhist prayer beads. Each scholar got a small bag of beads and string and we spent the next hour or so stringing those suckers up. It was pretty hard because the beads were made of wood, and some of the holes were not drilled all the way through. But they smelled so delicious. Like, those beads smelled reeeeeally good. Don't judge. I'll bring them home so you can smell.
Sunday night, the rest of the scholars returned, and we all had to makeour 11 PM curfew so that we would be ready for our first day of orientation!
I won't go into too much detail about orientation, but I'll say that I'm already learning a lot! There are about 300 scholars in the TaLK program and we are split up into 6 groups of about 45-50, all going to different provinces in South Korea. We are getting some classes on teaching, Korean culture such as do's don'ts, learning how to play the danso flute, taekwondo, and in the evenings we all take different levels of Korean language classes depending on our fluency. (I'm in the beginner's class)
Wednesday was the first day that we all got to interact with some real Korean elementary kids. Before we went, our group leaders taught us a few games that we could choose from to teach the kids some English, then they pretty much made us choose a game and threw us under the bus to get some experience.
Group 3 Leaders Ellis and Jon
Name Game and Categories Game
Group 3 decided to do a Sports Day instead of lecture yesterday (Thanks Ellis)
Overall, orientation hasn't been super painful, and we've got two more weeks to go! I'll keep you posted on any more crazy orientation stuff.
Right now I can't tell you all how blessed I feel. It's already been the first week and God has already shown me a whole lot about myself and every day I'm learning more and more about my purpose in South Korea. I can tell you right now, even though I'm having a ton of fun, I'm already struggling. God is showing me much about my own value, who I am, and what I mean to HIM! It's a struggle trying to be less of a people pleaser and more of a Jesus pleaser. Because, afterall, HE'S who I'm hear for: seeking His face in the kids I teach, the people I meet, and the culture I'm trying to understand. I'm still looking for a group of Christians that I can fellowship with, study with, and pray with. That's also a huge huge struggle, since I left behind an amazing church family. (Miss you Hand of Mercy! Thanks Pastor Pete for the podcast!) In all of this, God is so good. Like, really good. And I'm getting more and more confident that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be: holding His hand as He guides me through this super exciting, crazy, scary, ridiculous adventure. Can't wait to tell you all my story throughout this next year!
For now, if you would, please partner with me in prayer throughout this crazy journey. Some specific things that I am struggling with now and could use prayers for are these:
-Find a church/bible study/Christian friends
-Boldness
-More confidence
-Seek the Lord's will a whole lot more than my own!
I love you family! Miss you all so much! See you soon!
(Skype: raerae5018)
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