Tuesday

Tuesday could honestly be seen as uneventful. Truthfully, the largest amount of my day was spent getting my phone activated and set up properly. So yes, I do, officially, have a Korean phone number. God provided! I had no doubt he would, he just didn't do it in the amount of time I anticipated he would. But I'm well aware of the fact that he doesn't have to follow a set time frame by me. And honestly, after the events Monday, I think it was the perfect time. He built me up by doing so.

I had no class to teach yesterday, so I mostly spent time in the office, writing the marathon blog I wrote yesterday, talking with people, and grabbed a snack of ice cream and coffee after lunch.

Joseph and I had a nice talk yesterday. We also walked around the Isu area yesterday, and wound up going to an LG store. He wanted to look at new laptops, and we bumped into the bleeding edge in laptop technology - 3D laptops. It was just...mindblowing. They were displaying movie previews, game previews, and SNSD music videos all in 3D, and it truly showcased the platform's power. It definitely blows what we used to call 3D out of the water some 20 years ago.

I hadn't tried the latest 3D technology yet. I hadn't seen Avatar in 3D, nor any of the other gimmick movies in 3D since Avatar's release. So I had no clue how this technology worked. I honestly expected it to be a waste. But it honestly is mindblowing. I would say it's either on par or close to the 3D attractions at Disney World (Muppetvision/Honey I Shrunk the Audience). Nearby, they were showcasing 3DTVs, and if the laptops were good, watching airplanes just pull up right in front of your nose and looking almost life-size was mesmerizing.

My only complaint with the technology would have to be the requirement to wear glasses, and the subsequent eyestrain that follows with using them for extended periods of time. I've also heard that headaches can occur with prolonged usage. Plus, the price point. For the TVs, it was like $10,000 for a TV that can receive a picture with the distortion required to make the technology work? Pfft.

Not that I was planning on purchasing at all, but it was nice, of course, to see.

We headed back toward Durihana, and ran into one of the girls here heading for the pharmacy, clutching her stomach and grimacing. Joseph asked her, and she did have a bad stomachache. But she was in a hurry to get there, and we didn't talk long. But it was in the back of my mind, and I felt like I was supposed to pray for her. Of course, she was gone in a hurry, and I just shrugged it off for then.

After a couple hours, I was in my room watching a movie on my laptop, and relaxing, when I saw her walk by my room, with the same pained expression on her face clutching her stomach still.

I walked downstairs to find her in the kitchen area, laying down on a bench clutching her stomach. I knew. It was time to pray. I went to find Joseph, and asked him her name (Su-mi) and if he would go help me tell her that I wanted to pray for her. She isn't in my class, so I don't think she knew any English. And he was excited to.

We went out from the office, to see her heading back upstairs toward her room, and caught her. He asked if I could pray for her, and she said that was fine, slumped down in a chair, and I laid hands and started to pray. Joseph prayed with me, I believe in English. I honestly don't think she knew a single word I prayed, just that she trusted that I was praying for her stomach to be healed. At the end of it, I felt compelled to tell her to give God thanks, even if it hurts now, that her stomach was being healed. And she did, and went back to her dorm. I didn't see her again that day.

When I saw her this afternoon at lunch, she looked better, and I asked her if her stomach was better with hand signals, and she nodded, and did her best to tell me thanks in English. It was such a blessing to see it happen. I know it was God, and not a placebo. How could someone, who has no clue what I'm praying, just be healed like that through a placebo? Sometimes I've been prayed for, and questioned whether my healing was a placebo effect of reacting to what was being spoken. But she couldn't do that. She couldn't understand one iota of what I prayed. It's just powerful how God is confirming my faith through my doings here.

This morning, I went to their early morning prayer meeting at 5am. I don't do anything at 5am, so it was a battle. I was also told it wasn't required that I go, but I went. While I was there, I felt compelled to pray over the sanctuary for revival, then pray over the classrooms and all the dorm rooms, then went back to sleep.

I'm honestly feeling like I'll see the effects of this prayer in my time here. If I don't, I'm sure I will hear reports from Joseph later. But all I know is God is getting ready to move here.

Today I did have class. We went over the words a/the in English. There isn't an actual equivalent to this in Korean. The closest you get is the 이/가/은/는/을/를 particles in Korean, but they barely come close to a/the. So, when I felt frustrated studying the aforementioned Korean particles, I expected them to be the same with a/the. However, they seemed to pick it up ok. We'll see later if they did, but they didn't seem to have any questions regarding it. I also introduced related terms like "a couple/a few/some/a lot," which are pivotal in knowing the usage of a/the.

We also went over basic sentence structure, one of the things they wanted and needed to learn. This is quite the opposite in Korean. Korean sentences typically go subject + object + verb. The verb is ALWAYS last in Korean. In English, the basic structure is of course subject + verb + object. Another difference in Korean is the subject is often understood, and omitted, which cannot happen in English, lest we have a fragmented sentence. So I had to stress to always write the subject in English. It seemed to make sense to them. The one male in the class really tried to take the cake, and got really close. In fact, I was impressed at even his attempt at this.

We were discussing the sentence: "I found the ______," and using different nouns to complete it. Then suddenly, he says "Teacher, I have a question." Then he asks me if the following was right: "I found the my friends." He was attempting to use possessive nouns, but he didn't realize that a/the are dropped in this case, but what an effort. He understood the concept, and narrowly missed in application. They are all bright, but he may honestly be the smartest in there, and is bold enough to take giant leaps like this to learn faster. I'm trying not to play favorites, but he may be teacher's pet now.

Just had lunch and now I'm chilling for a while. Did laundry yesterday too, and it was an adventure...to say the least. First off, all they do is wash their clothes, then hang them to dry. And the washing machines have so many knobs, toggles, and buttons that I'm scared to touch anything. I had Joseph help me, and he showed me to just press the power button, and press one other button, and he said that's it.


...what a kidder. I went up there, on the phone with my mom, to take my clothes out to hang them. I found it flashing up a notice, and any attempt to open the washer door was diverted by the fact that it was locked. Suddenly, my clothes are stuck in a perpetual purgatory of being clean and dirty. One of the older women here came and helped me. Any time that it flashes that up, I have to hit the start button again for it to start another cycle. Not sure why it just doesn't start the next cycle automatically, but whatever. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle.

So that attempt at laundry turned into a half-day ordeal, and i wound up hanging up my clothes before bed to dry.

Went to dinner last night with Yoonmi. We headed to Popeye's. Now everyone who knows me knows I can eat my weight in fried chicken, and if you put me near a Popeye's, then it's game over for me. People who don't know me personally at this point might try to guess my ethnicity from these statements, but if we're going by stereotypes, I hate watermelon. Enough said.

When I found out they have Popeye's here in Seoul, I knew I was going to have to go there. And my mom was sufficiently jealous over the fact that I was going. And I was told by a coworker to find out how it is. I think people would be in shock about the differences.

The chicken was great. It was just as spicy and juicy as the American counterpart, and I devoured it. Yoonmi approved. The biscuits were just as good, and fluffy, as the American version. But something didn't sit quite right, like something was missing. I couldn't place my finger on it, OH WAIT...yeah I could.

THEY DON'T SERVE CAJUN RICE OR MASHED POTATOES! I almost gave myself an aneurysm trying to comprehend this, especially the cajun rice part. One of the spiciest things on the Popeye's menu, a staple food of Korean cuisine, and they don't serve it. This is so much of an irony, the Alanis Morisette is probably, right this moment, kicking herself for writing Ironic 16 years too early.

I mean, I can MAYBE understand mashed potatoes. As much as Koreans eat potatoes, I have yet to see mashed potatoes anywhere here. So that could be expected. But the dirty rice not being there? I already feel a headache coming on just talking about it. That's what makes Popeye's! I could eat a gallon of dirty rice by itself, and it's not here.

But what they DID have was "Cajun Salad." I use those words in quotes because it was neither Cajun, nor a salad. It wasn't a salad because it looked like a gelatinous glob of puree vegetables that you would find in Lunchladyland. And it wasn't cajun because it was spicy, at all. Yet another irony in Korea. It tasted more sweet than anything, and sweet isn't Cajun. Cajun is where you put peppers in the mix until you can't fit any more peppers in the mix, then you top it off with hot sauce. THAT'S Cajun. Cajun doesn't taste like a giant sweet potato filled with random veggies. I'm not even from Louisiana and I'm taking offense.

I approved of the food, but once again, it just hurt me in places I don't understand not to be able to have dirty rice at Popeye's, because it just simply didn't exist. To me, it's like bringing Cracker Barrel here, and not including fried okra on the menu.

I digress. We ate, and ate well, then we decided on what to do the rest of the night. Yoonmi was tired, and really didn't want to do something major, or anything with a lot of people. Once again. We were near the Namsangol Hanok village, somewhere we went last year. It was around 8 at night, and they are "closed" on Tuesdays. However, this closed I think just meant they don't do any of the displays they did when we visited last year, because the gates were wide open, and the lights were on, and people were still walking around. So we headed in, and sat near a pond, and just sat there for about 2 hours, talking, and relaxing together. It was so quiet. On occasion, someone would come sit down near us, but for the most part, it was just us sitting there. Absolutely relaxing. We could watch the fish in the pond swimming and jumping out of the water. We were sitting behind a traditional Korean gazebo. Just absolutely beautiful.

After that, I took her home, and then headed home myself, with a can of Pocari and some squid chips.

I really did a lot of backtracking to talk about everything that happened in the last 24 hours, more tonight. A lot more tonight.