Let me tell ye of me adventures in the new world!

     Let us just fain for a breeze dat ye live in a new land an' ye don't speak t' language. Ye don't know where anythin' is and ye've almost no shipmates. So, t' first thin' ye do is... watch nextflix!!!

     But seriously, there is a lot of free time when you don't have people to go see. This is sad and also true, especially for and extroverted person who possess almost zero motivation for events that exclude people. I have been shown a way to convince my computer that I am either in the states or Turkey, on occasion (no idea why google thinks that I'm in Turkey, but you can take it up with them). This means that I can watch nextflix or cbs.com you know, stuff. I have been perusing a great deal of the West Wing, that aired a few years ago. In short I need friends haha.

     I am so thankful for the ways that God has provided me with friends and opportunities to spend time with people, over the last few weekends especially!

     My first weekend I was extended an invitation, from two of the women I work with, to go with them to Costco. Yes, this is infact the same franchise that we enjoy in the states. There are four or five of them in the country and I was bound for the nearest one. Olivia, Jessica (their English names), and I met at work at 4pm and the adventure began. Olivia has a car which made this trip doable because the nearest Costco is about thirty minutes away. When we got there, all of the first four levels of the parking garage were full so we managed to squeeze in on the top story. Every large store that I have been to here, has multiple levels for the store and the rest are parking garage. Costco was two levels with a hybrid escalator-moving-sidewalk to transport people and their carts from the first to second levels of the store. It was much like the US version, but with many more people and a greater population of fish. I saw a large area of Cheeseball containers, chocolate-covered almonds, clothes, and the lot. After nearly an hour of shopping we made our way out, having to wait for the elevator to take us to the 5th floor where our car was parked. We packed it all in and were off.

     We were all ready for dinner at this point and they wanted to take me to a traditional Korean restaurant. I was still pretty jet lagged and had almost no appetite for the first two weeks, but I was trying to rectify the situation. The restaurant was made from a house built a long time ago in the style of Korean houses that existed over 300 years ago. It was simple and beautiful. When entering a house, or many traditional restaurants, everyone is required to remove their shoes in a specific area by the door. We were then seated and able to order. Traditionally Koreans sit on mats on the floor cross-legged. The tables are suited for this and are also low to the ground. When our food was ready, our servers carried our table in. Yes, the whole table. There were something like fifteen to twenty small dishes covering the table and they were for anyone who wanted to eat them, so we passed things around. Everyone had their own rice bowl where you could set thing you were going to eat or what ever you'd like to do with it. The food was delicious! There are somethings that will take getting used to and somethings I may never like, but over all it was really good! We ate until we were stuffed and then headed home.

     I think we got back to my apartment at about 9:30 that night. I was actually quite glad for the company and opportunity to spend time with my coworkers; who, by the way, are all single females in their late 20s or 30s. Apparently Iris, my boss, hired a male teacher from the states when she first started the school, five years ago, but it didn't work out that well. She said that there were many reasons, but it was partly because he was a little lonely being the only male at the school.

The next day was Sunday...

     I might need to preface this with a reminder that I have moved a lot, I love Jesus a lot, and I need people a lot. Thus, I was excited to visit a church and hopefully join a new group of amazing people! There are many English-speaking church services in Seoul (the capital), but I was unable to find any online in Bucheon (my city). I googled for ages and finally chose a church that I would go to in Seoul. The service started at 2pm and I would have to take the subway into the city. I decided to leave at 12pm, to give me time to get a little confused and still make it one time.

     After an easy transition into the subway system I made my way, over the next fifty minute, to my stop in Gangnam, Seoul. If were wondering, I think this part of Seoul was made a little famous by the song and if it is now stuck in your head...you are welcome.

     Walking out of the subway stations many exits I began again to reread the directions that the church had posted online. My phone is not operational as a phone, but more like an ipod, and I was able to look at the church web page that I had pulled up earlier. I was then surprised to find myself suddenly sitting on the pavement...I had fallen down a couple of stairs and onto the side walk. I seemed to be fine, which was kind of amazing and more amazing still because I had a lot of walking to do yet.

     If I may summarize the next hour and a half. I got lost, accidentally erased the directions, and was so flustered in the heat and by the number of people, that I stopped to eat a waffle with ice-cream and use the cafes wifi. I was already thirty minutes late to the service and was considering forgetting about trying to get there at all and just wander the city until dark. I was really excited to meet new people though and I doggedly decided to try again. A realization hit me as I left the cafe and less than twenty minutes later I found the church. It was now 3pm, one hour after the service had begun and I heard them praying. "Great," I thought "the service is over. I missed it." I thought that while I was there I might still try to make some connections or get information, when I hear the pastor say, "The sermon today will be about an hour. I know this is long and it is okay if some of you have to leave in the middle." Far from missing it, I had arrived just as the sermon was to begin. I took a seat on an empty row, but feeling lonely I tried asking if a presently empty seat belonged to anyone. When the answer came back that it was already taken, I made my way to the bathroom and the heat, expectations of meeting people, and stress of getting lost, all hit me and I cried for a hot minute while talking to God about it. It happens. When I returned to the sanctuary I asked one of the greeters if I could be seated nearer the front so that I could see. I sat a few rows up between a few men, which didn't feel like much of an improvement, but I didn't feel so alone as I had in the back. I enjoyed the sermon. The pastor talked about a part of scripture that I hadn't heard much about and he seemed funny and personable. I didn't agree with everything he said, but he spoke a lot of truth which is always good.

     After the sermon I introduced myself to one of the men next to me, who I found out was from LA. He showed me to the welcome table, where I talked to two men, one from California and another from Nebraska. They said that a group of them were going to have coffee and asked if I'd like to join. Three more people were added to our group, two woman and another guy, who was also new. It was so great to spend time with them. They were really encouraging and we laughed a lot. We found out that the other man who was also new to the church, had not been to any church in the last eight years. Wow, this was his first time in eight years. We added another friend to our bunch and decided to grab dinner at a New York style pizza place. We hung out until 8:30pm, said our good byes, and they directed me to a book store that has books in English. I bought two books and took the subway home.

     Honestly, even now it seems hard to believe how amazing that was. It is so obvious to me that God worked out that whole thing for everyone that day. I was told over dinner that the grouping of people was odd because only two or three of them were good friends, the others had only met a few times. One of them is usually quiet around people he doesn't know, but he was joking and laughing with the rest of us. It felt like we had known eachother for aged. Thank you God, I'll never know how you do that.

     Seriously so blown away, I don't even have the right words to tell you how much that day meant to me, but I feel so blesses to have had it. I was getting discouraged, evidence by the tears earlier, and then all of a sudden, an unlikely group spends five hours together... God is so good to me, I don't know why I am always so surprised.

Love you all,

                                    God bless you,
                                                 Haley (still ginger)