Anita's Adventures Abroad

No more adventures?

2011-12-03T04:59:00.001-08:00

I am writing this post from Mom's dining room. As I told one friend, Tootsie and I got tired of being kicked around and we headed home. I paid for the ticket with money that I inherited from my Grandmother. I may get to visit my friends who offered to pay for my ticket, but that bit of travel will be within the borders of the good ole U.S.A. In God I trust. I am believing that he is my provider...even if I did have recurring dreams of homelessness last night.So, I am done writing about travels to foreign lands but maybe I'm not done blogging. In fact, I'm going to ramp it up a bit and start something new as God begins something new in my life. My new blog will almost be the opposite of a travel blog. My plan is to explore the domestic arts for awhile. Im inspired by a woman named Marissa who has a blog called Now I don't know if I am nearly as creative as this woman, but I want to explore this. However I'm not a copycat and I personally like to make handbags. I'll make a new handbag each week and perhaps I will open an etsy shop where they can be purchased. I've joined something called and I'm sure that I will learn a lot from these folks. I hope that my 2 readers will enjoy the experience with me.

Fired Times Two

2011-11-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

After teaching in Korea for two years, I wanted more and I wanted my students to have more, so I earned a CELTA certification this summer and got myself hired by Pagoda, one of the famous chain schools, teaching Adults. They were supposed to be motivated learners because they were actually paying to take English classes...yeah, right!

Koreans sign up for English classes like Americans sign up for gym memberships.

So, I was assigned to work these monstrous split shifts with classes morning, noon, and night. I was always behind on sleep and I eventually fell asleep in class. That got me fired. I shed not one tear and I had a new job in about a week.

Then the new job was terrible. I was only going to get half-pay for the first two weeks and no airfare home until I worked there for 2 years. Then I managed to get into an arguement with this guy who wasn't even in charge, he was just another teacher and I took him to be a bit of a bully. He didn't want to take responsibility for our joint classes and give me any prep time on my first day, and because I yelled at him in front of students, they fired me on the first day. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. I'm usually not so hot tempered and I really don't understand what came over me that day, but it's too late to worry about it now.

At this point, the owner of the school wants money for the letter that will allow me to transfer to another school. This is totally illegal but he thinks that he can get away with it because I'm a foreigner. I think that I will call immigration or something and we will see about that!

A friend of mine offered to send me a ticket home and I may take him up on it, but before I do that, I thought I would write to everyone I knew to see if they knew anyone who knew anyone who might know of a job here in Korea for a well qualified and very passionate teacher who loves children very much.

Why I wanted to mess around with MLK's letter

2011-11-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

I listened to a sermon in which someone quoted MLK today, and then I ran accross a reference to the same letter from Birmingham on someone's blog. MLK was a Christian and civil rights were all about social justice.

When the African-American slaves were freed in the U.S. they were still treated as second class citizens. Today's slaves, when freed should have the opportunity to live just as everyone else does. I want this to happen.

I want women who are "choosing prostitution" to be able to choose differently. I want them to realize that the choices that they see are different from the choices that really exist. I want them to be able to expand their horizons.

MLK used some beautiful, amazing, and motivating language. I wish that I were the gifted writer that he was. Maybe, if I can borrow a few of his words, adapted to this situation, I too can inspire.

Fooling around with MLK

2011-11-07T08:26:00.001-08:00

My Dear Korean Clergymen:

I think I should indicate why I am here in Korea, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as an English teacher here and as a Christian I felt compelled to find a church where I could pursue spiritual growth and to do God’s work to make this world a better place. Several months ago, I participated in a conference on human trafficking and I became aware of how the problem affected Koreans and specifically, Korean women both in Korea and in other countries.
This conference was organized by Pastor Eddie Byun of Onnuri English ministry. Many Korean people were at this church as well as English speakers from around the world. Awareness was raised and everyone who attended wanted to fight this injustice.
I finished my contract teaching at a Korean public school, and I could have returned to the U.S. where there are many opportunities to raise awareness on issues of social justice, but having seen the pink lights and the scantily clad women with the sad and scared faces, I couldn’t just leave, so basically, I am in Korea because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by and not be concerned about what happens in Korea. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. No longer is anyone who lives in today’s interconnected world can truly be considered an outsider any longer.
In any social justice campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action.
These are the hard, brutal facts of the case…

waiting

2011-09-15T03:23:00.000-07:00

It seems that I'm in a place where I am waiting again.

When I think that I know what I want, but realize that I'll have to wait awhile before I will get it, I start to wonder if I really want it.

So, I have this dream to begin a sewing and embroidery business that employs people who leave the sex industry. It will take a team of good people, and a certain amount of money. Some of my friends share my vision...sorta.

One friend wonders how we will capture any market share.
Other business ideas keep coming up.
I myself have been sewing handbags hoping that we can sell them to raise some of the money that we will need. Along the way, the sewing machine started having problems and I have yet to sell a single bag. One woman asked about special orders because the bags that I have made are not to her taste. She would prefer something plain and beige. It would just about hurt me to make something like that.

So, I'm losing my mojo. I'm praying that I will soon get it back, and if I don't get it back, I'm thinking about looking for new opportunities so that I can earn more money. Perhaps some of the money can be used to get my dream started in a year or two...or not, it's just a thought.

more wishes

2011-08-21T22:26:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a bit more research for Mantle ministries and I'm collecting little pearls of wisdom off of Craftster.org, so I'm listing a few more wishes, maybe a few goals, and of course some dreams.

a really great outreach team
someone to train the team
business cards, fliers, postcards, media folders, brochures...
a logo that sets us apart from all of the rest of the t-shirt sellers on the web as well as from all of the other ministries that do what we do. As far as we know, NO ONE is doing this in Korea.
A madly successful fundraiser to kick this off and get it going...and my thought is to have a craft show/silent auction but it will take a lot of work to make it happen, so we will need PEOPLE!

We will need the people to do the following:

1. Talk to a designers to see if who would be interested.
2. Find a space! (We can use our church but it would be nice to have a bigger/more centrally located venue)
3. Decide how much to charge for tables/entrance fee/etc.
4. Get the word out to vendors!
5. Make a diagram of the space with table spaces drawn in so we can "reserve" the space when someone pays the table fee.
6. Get the word out to consumers! Use the internet, flyers, and if you have the money for a newspaper ad, DO IT!

Keep advertising all the way until the date of the fair, and hope for the best turnout!

2011-08-19T19:26:00.001-07:00

I don't really lean to the right politically and my reasons for this have a lot to do with the statements in this arguement between these non-believers.

It started like this:

"His myopic literal following of the constitution with disregard for how supreme court decisions and the amendments have clarified it's meaning is as silly as the the Christians who take the Bible literally."

Then someone else went on to say:

" That's the Tea Party and the libertarians for you, just like the Religious Right. People who are strictly adherent to a political philosophy who like to misappropriate other documents that have nothing to do with that philosophy to make it seem like they have a false sense of morality or patriotism on their side. If there was anything inherently moral or patriotic about their philosophies it would be self-evident and they wouldn't have to hide behind SYMBOLS of morality or patriotism to support their ideology.

Libertarians are the worse at this and they learned how to do so by Ayn Rand. She would come up with all this mumbo jumbo about "individualism" and "freedom" (words that can literally mean anything to anybody) as an excuse to intellectualize greed. What Ron Paul and other libertarians who hide behind the Constitution fail to realize is that, in many ways, our Constitution is a living document, and the new ideology that our Founding Fathers were putting forth was that, unlike the monarchies and oligarchies they were trying to break away from, the laws in the United States were derived from the PEOPLE not some bogus interpretation of "GOD" or adherence to some radical and flawed economic ideology like libertarianism."

Now, when I read the part about the constitution being a living document, I could not help but remember Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. So naturally, I began to think about how my faith and my political perspectives are joined...and I wanted to expose Michelle Bachman as the fraud that she is, let's be honest...it's a virtue!

Recently, many of us listened to and/or read the transcript of an interview with Michelle Bachman in which she described books and people that were influential in her life. In this article, some of us heard about "Christian" dominionism for the first time. I myself had to look it up on Wikipedia and here is what I read.

In the early 1990s sociologist Sara Diamond[13][14] and journalist Frederick Clarkson[15][16] defined dominionism as a movement that, while including Dominion Theology and Reconstructionism as subsets, is much broader in scope, extending to much of the Christian Right.[17] In his 1992 study of Dominion Theology and its influence on the Christian Right, Bruce Barron writes,

In the context of American evangelical efforts to penetrate and transform public life, the distinguishing mark of a dominionist is a commitment to defining and carrying out an approach to building society that is self-consciously defined as exclusively Christian, and dependent specifically on the work of Christians, rather than based on a broader consensus.[18]

According to Diamond, the defining concept of dominionism is "that Christians alone are Biblically mandated to occupy all secular institutions until Christ returns". In 1989, Diamond declared that this concept "has become the central unifying ideology for the Christian Right"[13] (p. 138, emphasis in original). In 1995, she called it "prevalent on the Christian Right".[19] Journalist Chip Berlet added in 1998 that, although they represent different theological and political ideas, dominionists assert a Christian duty to take "control of a sinful secular society."[20]

In 2005, Clarkson enumerated the following characteristics shared by all forms of dominionism:[21]

1. Dominionists celebrate Christian nationalism, in that they believe that the United States once was, and should once again be, a Christian nation. In this way, they deny the Enlightenment roots of American democracy.

2. Dominionists promote religious supremacy, insofar as they generally do not respect the equality of other religions, or even other versions of Christianity.

3. Dominionists endorse theocratic visions, insofar as they believe that the Ten Commandments, or "biblical law," should be the foundation of American law, and that the U.S. Constitution should be seen as a vehicle for implementing Biblical principles.[21]
Other authors who stress the influence of Dominionist ideas on the Christian Right include Michelle Goldberg[22] and Kevin Phillips[23][24]

Essayist Katherine Yurica began using the term dominionism in her articles in 2004, beginning with "The Despoiling of America", (February 11, 2004),[25][26][27] Authors following Yurica in this usage include journalist Chris Hedges [28][29][30] Marion Maddox,[31] James Rudin,[32] Sam Harris,[33] and the group TheocracyWatch.[34] This group of authors has applied the term to a broader spectrum of people than have Diamond, Clarkson, and Berlet.

It isn't beyond notice that those who stress the influence of these ideas are largely people who do not want to see any Christians take public office or influence our post-Christian secular culture. Some Christians, whom my pastor would call them fans of Christianity, rather than true followers of Christ, do not do a very good job of acting like Christians, so I can hardly blame these people. We Christians have given up a lot of moral ground as we have failed to be holy and set apart from our culture. However, we have every right to participate in a government of "We the People" as we too are people in America.

As I see it, even the softest forms of Dominionism seem to be based on a view that our world is getting worse and worse. Even Francis Shaeffer, who is rather unfairly associated with dominionism wrote a book called Whatever Happened to the Human Race? expounding on how he thought that the world was moving from a predominantly Christian one to a post-Christian, secular world that was worse.

Now, when I read my bible, I don't really get a picture of an idyllic, pastoral world where people always obeyed God, did the right things, and treated one another with kindness. Instead, I read of people who did really bad things...things so bad that God punished them and even let them become slaves to other nations at times...
and yet that God still loved them, rescuing them from their captors over and over again, finally sending Jesus, his only son to redeem them forever, and the world that Jesus walked in was no better or worse than what we have today. The Pharasees were in the holy temple trying to sell salvation for bags of gold and the Romans were worshipping innumerable pagan deities. Prostitution was a sacriment. Someone needed to stand up and tell people where they were going wrong and a few heroes of faith were there to do it. John the Baptist had his head served on a platter and Christ was crucified. How is our world today any worse than this?

When I see the way that people are trying to resist secular influences in politics, I don't see Christ, or even John the Baptist. I see a lot of garbage. We know trees by their fruits and one doesn't have to be a Christian to tell an apple from an orange. We are being called out on our faults and they are big ones. We need to quit bothering non-Christians about who they want to marry. In a secular state, marriage is a kind of contract and if people want to enter a contract (into which Christians are opting out of through divorce as often as anyone else,) who are we to say that they can't? Even if we want to resist this on moral grounds, we can't. We have lost that moral grounding through our own selfish behavior.

When it comes to abortion, I get that the fetus is one of the "least of these" that Jesus talked about. I get that children are a gift from God. However, I fear that we may not have much ground here either. How many Christian college students have abortions every year? It's a bit sickening. However, I am encouraged by the way that so many pro-life churches have put their money where their mouths are as they have reached out to help women in crisis and I think that Christians need to actively resist a culture that encourages young women to take the easy way out. Things like waiting periods and parental consent, or a meeting with a judge are perfectly appropriate. Abortion should not be an easy thing. However, once the decision is made, it should be as safe as anything else that can be done in a medical setting. Everyone should have access to medical care, it can save lives.

Let me say that last thing one more time. Everyone should have access to medical care, it can save lives. I'm dismayed by what has happened to health care in America during my lifetime. My parents had difficulty managing their finances while raising four children, but one or both of my parents always worked, so if anything really bad happened, we had medical insurance. Nowadays, with huge unemployment in America and with the rising costs of insurance, many families do without basic medical care. This shouldn't be happening. The health of the American economy may begin with the health of American families. We need to work on this. A country that is even remotely Christian in nature should care for it's poor people. I don't see many Christian political candidates who seem very concerned about this. Instead, I see people who complain that government is too big, and taxes are too high, and also that helping the poor should be done by charities because charity should be voluntary. Ayn Rand was the one who originally said that charity should be voluntary and she was an atheist who justified the greed of capitolism, because she disagreed with communism and was ignorant of the fact that pure capitolism and pure communism have never existed. So when Christians embrace her philosophy, it makes me rather sick.

Wish List for "Mantle Ministries"

2011-08-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

Pastor Jonathan has named the new NGO that we are forming. It will be called "Mantle Ministries" and he says that as soon as we have our equipment, Teen Challenge Korea will be it's first customer.

Our church has purchased a very basic sewing machine and with something called the Octi Hoop (http://www.creativefeet.com/products/frames/octi-hoop) we could make samples and get started. The starter kit is a mere $129.00 although, I expect that there will be a lot of trial, error, and frustration involved in the use of it.

I think that the next step would be a fancier sewing machine. There are some beautiful sewing machines out there. Sometimes, you can link one up to a computer and go...sorta. If a design has more than one color, it can be a lot of work changing threads and such. However, the sewing machine could be used to make the t-shirts that will be embroidered on and the fact that it can be multipurposed will make it a worthy investment.

When it comes to making t-shirts, the fastest and easiest way to do it is with an overlock machine. These are also called sergers. They create and finish seems at the same time while cutting away the extra seam allowance, doing away with the need to press seam allowances.

So I believe that our basic list is:

An Octi-Hoop kit to get us started (we can make samples and do fundraising with this)
A sewing machine that is capable of being hooked up to a computer,
A computer with the capacity for Graphics software
Basic Graphic design software (Adobe Illustrator?)
An overlock machine
An embroidery machine.

And of course we need money. However, the situation is filled with hope. We could probably get started with less than $10,000 US! Maybe a lot less! Perhaps we will try filling the Teen Challenge order with the Singer, an Octi Hoop, and a volunteer's laptop. Can't get any cheaper than that!

Spiritual problem,with a material solution that feels a little spiritual...

2011-08-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

My apartment this year is small and ugly. The employer purchased "blanket" is really a duvet. A duvet without a cover, and it's 100 percent scratchy polyester. My skin is sorta sensitive, so I'm going to compare the thing to having bedbugs. That's probably an exaggeration, but I'm not going to apologize for it. It's also really hard to live with a cat in such a small place. She's great but her litter box is not.

I think that my irritation to all things apartment related has something to do with my spiritual condition and the adjustment back to Korea this year. So, like many people, I started looking for a material solution to my spiritual problem, but sometimes in that misguided approach we really do get to experience grace.

The creator is creative and he made us in his own image. My material solution to my problem is that I want to create something beautiful...the sort of thing that my creator does. I'm feeling pretty inspired and I'm convinced that a few handmade, beautiful things in this apartment will nake it more tolerable, if not inviting.

I'm headed to Dongdaemun today (quite possibly a craftster heaven) and I'm looking for supplies to make a duvet cover. I'm inspired by a free Amy Butler pattern (pictured below.) In fact, I was going to follow the instructions to the letter, but then I clicked on a link that was about making flowers out of yarn. I've got a small stash of yarn, but I don't have a fabric stash. I can hardly wait to get started.

The Largest Table

2011-07-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

My mom belongs to a church that is part of the United Church of Christ. President Obama belonged to a church of this denomination and it's respectable enough, but very liberal. In fact, it is so liberal that some have referred to members of the UCC as "Unitarians Considering Christ."

Every Wednesday, Mom's has a short communion service followed by a free lunch. Many homeless people atttend. While in Columbus, I have been helping out. I've helped out many times over the past few years, sometimes when I didn't have a job, or was having trouble paying my bills. I know that but for the grace of God, I too would be in the shoes of the people that I am serving. It is a blessing to be able to participate there but I have often wondered how I could do more. Often, I thought to pray for people there. However, I was afraid to make a scene or to offend people.

Today, I stepped out.

Most people appreciate the little old ladies who serve lunch at St. John's and are very respectful. However, there are those who are mentally ill, or perhaps very broken emotionally. They are just barely hanging in there, their personal boundaries are quite messy, and the smallest of things can lead to big troubles that make everyone uncomfortable.

Today, I decided to discretely go around and offer prayer to some of the known trouble makers.

Each person accepted prayer, each person knew the power of prayer, and the last guy, the one who had hollered the loudest, was the one who turned around and prayed for me. I was truly blessed.

The communion table truly is the largest table in the world. All are welcome, and despite what anyone thinks, we all have something that we can offer. Even me, even you, even a guy who is hurting so bad that he nearly started a fight in a free lunchroom.

Home Sweet Home

2011-07-07T08:10:00.001-07:00

Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote "home is the nicest word there is" and I must agree because I endured a long an nasty travel experience home from Istanbul and a few days later, relaxing at Mom's, I think that it was all worth it.

This has been the first morning of real relaxation. Saturday involved running around, Sunday was church, Monday the July 4th Doo-Dah parade, Tuesday was more running around (mailed out documents for my next E2 visa application), and yesterday I volunteered to help serve lunch at St. John's church.

I hope that I never have to fly Delta Again.

earworm/heartworm/I hope she's okay, I'm praying for her.

2011-06-19T00:54:00.000-07:00

I had a piece of this song stuck in my head. I didn't know the name of the song, so I looked it up. I've bolded the part that was running through my head. It was the part about heaven.

They made up their minds
And they started packing
They left before the sun came up that day
An exit to eternal summer slacking
But where were they going Without ever knowing the way?
They drank up the wine
And they got to talking
They now had more important things to say
And when the car broke down They started walking
Where were they going without ever knowing the way?

CHORUS:

Anyone could see The road that they walk on is paved in gold
And It's always summer, they'll never get cold
They'll Never get hungry
They'll never get old and gray
You can see their shadows Wandering off somewhere
They won't make it home
But they really don't care
They wanted the highway
They're happier there today , today

The children woke up
And they couldn't find 'em
They Left before the sun came up that day
They just drove off
And left it all behind 'em
But Where were they going Without ever knowing the way?

Anyone could see The road that they walk on is paved in gold
And It's always summer, they'll never get cold
They'll Never get hungry
They'll never get old and grayYou can see their shadows Wandering off somewhere
They Won't make it home
But they really don't care
They wanted the highway
They're happy there today , today (repeat)

I found the lyrics here:http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/the-way-lyrics-fastball/911972caca8aa944482568bd0034f647

Then, there were a few fans analysing the lyrics and I read this:

Interpretation of song | Reviewer: Ann | 10/16/09

When I hear this song and read the lyrics it reminds me of my mentally disturbed husband who wants a way out of being a father and husband, and just wants to ride his motorcycle off and away without ever coming back. He sees his children waking up and finding him gone wondering where he went. He has no more responsibilities or anything. Not only has he been mentally sick, an alcoholic, smoker, former drug addict, with other addictions now, including whoring around, he cannot face his midlife years like a man, and now takes everything in life out on his wife and family because his mother disowned him and his brother and disinherited him in favor of convicted felon and a dog groomer....that's what I get out of this song. It's no wonder he loves it so much. Pray for me.

I'm praying for you Ann...and all the women like you...and the men like him. Not being able to face middle age seems like an epidemic these days. As a single woman, trying to find an age appropriate guy who tells the truth about his life feels like looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack. The last guy that I dated was all charm and no truth. The song about love sending a letter to hate almost seemed like it was about me and him. Love lives in me and I'm not sure that anything but hate lived in him. I hope that changes, but that will be up to him. I wont be in the picture. I'm worth more than that.

The Avett Brothers The Ballad of Love and Hate w/lyrics

2011-06-19T00:51:00.000-07:00

Feeling better. Lots of work to do.

2011-06-06T03:13:00.000-07:00

I spent my Saturday afternoon hooked up to an IV line and gave myself the day off from studying. My attempt to go to church on Sunday proved futile. I hung out with Phil and had coffee instead. I also tried to get some work done. I took a nap instead. Now it is Monday and I am here at school until they kick me out. The Imams are calling everyone to prayer. I am praying for the strength to finish the journey.

Empty Sandals.

2011-06-01T00:38:00.000-07:00

I've spent a lot of time in prayer here in Turkey. Tired, jet-lagged, and sick with a nasty cold, what else could I do but let God be strong in my weakness...plus suck it up a little bit and get the work done.

I've managed to get some rest and today I have a day off from school, so maybe I will catch up on things soon. I have to plan 6 lessons and write 4 papers in the next 2 and 1/2 weeks, so I will be doing a lot of this praying for the strength to tough this out before I get to go home to the U.S. but I think that without taking the time to pray, I'll end up in real trouble.

Sunday was a nice day. I went to church and I had lunch with a woman whom I met there. It was a nice service but nothing special. No one initiated speaking to me, so as I walked out I noticed that another lady was there solo and I invited her to lunch. I don't think that there are any more protestant churches in the area, so I will try again. I went to the English service and I think that I will try the bilingual service next time, after all how am I going to meet a handsome Turkish guy who is Christian if I go to the purely English service.

After church, I walked through Taksim Square and attempted to find my way home. It was like a really great and strange mall with historic buildings, great stores like Sephora and the MAC cosmetics store, along with street vendors putting on shows to sell you ice cream and little kiosks that sell jewelry and scarves. along the walls of the little alleys that take you back to bookshops and cafes. I wandered into a shop that had a scarf that I liked, looking to see if they would have anything else useful and they sold me a bra that was just the right size at a reasonable price. I've purchased 2 bras here. They keep them packed away in boxes and someone helps you choose sizes and styles. I will wait until I get home to buy anymore. Most bras aren't designed to last well in Korea, they only came in 2 sizes...too small and even smaller.

Church and shopping can be excellent ways to spend a Sunday, my other favorite Sunday afternoon activity is napping. I laid down for a nap and as I closed my eyes, I saw a vision of scarves for sale and they had big, seductive, yet cartoonish eyes...think Princess Jasmine if she weren't a Disney Character...maybe if someone animated the story of Queen Jezebel, she would have those eyes. They were surreal and scary...and it's kinda like if you buy something cool and say that the dress or suit made eyes at you and said "buy me" you might not be rationalizing your purchase as much as you would be telling the truth.

I've had several visions like this while here in Istanbul. The other day, I was on a crowded subway thinking about the small and sorta disappointing church service that I had attended had a vision of empty sandals. The sandals were supposed to be for missionaries and other people who might be in Turkey to tell people about God. This place was once ruled at a Theocracy by the Emporer Constantine, which turned out to be a terrible way to run an empire, but now less than 1% of Turks are Christians and because Turkey wants to be a something like "a Secular Islamic" kind of country, it is illegal to proselytize.

Define this word "Proselytize" in a way that would be meaningful for lawmakers. Define it in a way that is compatible with free speech. You probably can't do it in any way that would ever get in God's way of reaching those that he has decided to love. Inviting someone to dinner is not proselytizing. Talking about God as part of the dinner conversation is not proselytizing. God could seriously get to work here, and in other parts of the world if people were just willing to step into the sandals and go.

When I think of this, and I think of the big church that I go to in America, I feel a little sick. I wish that church would just empty out. I wish that it would make it a goal to put so many people out into the world as missionaries that there would hardly be anyone left to attend that great big church. When the first Christians were persecuted by the Romans, they were scattered all over the place and their faith went with them. American Christians like to talk about how the church is being persecuted in America. They seem to hate the separation of church and state and the fact that we have free speech to the point that we can hardly escape the things that we don't want to look at or listen to. I wish that these people would go out into the world, see what it is really like, repent of the sin that exists in the way that they are looking at the world, and then begin to ask God to use them in whatever part of the world is needed. If they did this, maybe some Christians from India, China, Korea, and other places could reach the lost in America in ways that we couldn't because we were too lazy.

"I will wait for you" by Official P4CM Poet JANETTE...IKZ

2011-05-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

2011-05-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up thinking about my desire to go to the Hagia Sophia which is the oldest church in the world. It was built by Constantine and is now a museum. I imagined it filled with religious art and I remembered the time that I missed church to see some beautiful caves one Sunday in Korea with some massive rock formations that resembled underground cathedrals filled with pipe organs, and some other formations that reminded me of the human circulatory system and led me toward some wonderful thoughts about our creator and how all of his glorious works flow together so cohesively that we barely even notice it. It's like if he didn't exist outside of time, we would say things like "this was sculpted during his water and stone period" or some other pretentious art history geek-type phrase.

So, I've thought about skipping church to visit an art museum. If I were at home in Columbus, I probably wouldn't miss the opportunity to worship with all of the friends that I haven't seen in such a long time, but there's a piece at the Columbus Museum of art that I want to take another look at, It's a giant mosaic of Christ on the cross and it is made out of broken dishes. You don't touch works of art, but you really wouldn't want to touch this one, you might cut yourself.

Once, when my old boyfriend Kevin J. smashed a big mirror to bits in our home during one of our many fights, or breakups (I don't remember which), I took that mirror and made a rough mosaic out of it and a bunch of other bits of things like an earring from my wedding attire that like me had lost it's mate, and some red candle wax. I don't know what happened to that piece. I didn't value my creation and I left it behind when I moved my upholstery work out of some studio space that I had rented. Maybe it's still there. I called it "Broken when recieved" and it will never hang in a museum, but it was a really good expression of what I was feeling then. I was living a life that I hated. It was going nowhere and all that I could see was my brokenness. I couldn't see a solution, but because somewhere inside myself, I knew that a solution was possible, so I took the broken pieces and made some art out of it.

The Crucifix made from broken cups and bowls was amazing, I think. I don't know if the artist meant to convey his own brokenness on that cross, but when I think of it now, it's all that I can think about. I wish that I'd taken that broken mirror and turned it into a kind of crucifix. Jesus became sin on that cross, so those broken bits with the sharp edges would represent my sins and the mess that was my life.

Maybe some Christians would be offended by such a piece. I wouldn't have worried about whether Jesus was ummm...anatomically correct, it would have been hard to do that with broken mirror bits, and I probably wouldn't use shiny mirrors in such a creation. Old cloudy mirrors collected from junk shops would make the expression clearer, and if I managed to cut myself while creating the thing, I'd let myself bleed on it a bit. He became sin.

I'm sorta meditating on that thought. Jesus who never sinned in his life, became sin. Sin is messy. When you friend is struggling with a big sin issue or addiction, sometimes you have to back away a bit and get some distance on the scene so that you won't face too much tempation yourself. Even the closest followers ran away from Jesus when he was hanging on that cross.

So, I can't wait to see the Hagia Sophia and when I get back to the states, I want to see some of the less traditional representations of Christ on the cross. Piss Jesus comes to mind. He died for a world that would do nothing but mock him and had it not been for an act of charity from a believer, would have been happy to throw his body in a dump and let the animals eat what they could and pee on the rest. Works as offensive of that reflect the reality of the situation.

And then there was the Chocolate Jesus that was anatomically correct. I had to turn off the morning broadcast when our local Christian radio hosts held a conversation and took calls discussing how offensive it was. Ummmm...if you are going to beat someone half to death and then nail him to a couple of boards where you will leave him to die of exposure, stripping him of all his dignity, are you going to make sure that his underwear stays put? I think not. My sweet lord died for me and he did it with no dignity whatsoever. I couldn't love him more if he were made of chocolate. Maybe the artist loved him too. The DJ's weren't talking about the truth, they were just tickling people's ears...but I digress.

The tomb wasn't necessary. Jesus would have risen from the dead despite any decomposition or abuses of his corpse, if an artist depicts the abuse of Christ on the cross in a non-traditional way, it's no different than Mel Gibson making a bad film. (Some critics likened it to a BDSM film and a lot of Christians really loved all of the blood and gore, perhaps because Mel wore a loincloth, I don't know, I passed on that bit of hypocrisy,) Jesus was the Messiah and because he conquered death, we can have victory in our own lives through our relationship with him. That's the important thing, so if the work of art isn't "pretty" and creates a lot of controversy, but puts Christ message in the news, I'm a happy princess.

Arriving in Istanbul

2011-05-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

I've been in Istanbul for 3 days now. The CELTA class began on Tuesday and my eyes are now opened. I now know what a terrible teacher I am. Fortunately, I also know that there is hope for me.

We have played a number of learning games and the purpose of these games, plus how to make them work. The focus this week is on classroom management which I'm really terrible at. Now I know why I'm so terrible. I also have a clue as to how to use the dialogues, vocabulary, and other exercises on sites such as English Baby and Breaking News English and after a few more days of this, I might even be able to use a textbook effectively.

It's not like Korea was a total waste. I had some things to learn about motivating myself and not being too stubborn in the face of some crazy situations that were totally beyond my control. I think that I'm even learning not to be so stubborn with God. It's a little easier when I realize that when I have to give in to a situation, or give up a posession, or even give up on a dream or relationship that I was really treasuring, means that I make room for God to bring something new into my life. So now that I am in Istanbul, I am trying to make room in my life for homework that needs done. It's awful because I am completely jet-lagged!

sweet baby princess

2011-05-12T06:12:00.000-07:00

I don't recall what prompted me to download and watch "Coal Miner's Daughter" last week. It's a biography of Loretta Lynn starring Sissy Spacek and the first time that I saw it was in 1980. It was my first airplane ride and I was not allowed to rent the headphones because Teen Missions did not allow it's participants to watch movies or listen to rock music. It was a 5 hour flight and I could see the screen and if I put my ear down on the armrest, I could hear the dialogue, but I couldn't do both at once. I think that I watched an edited for TV version with my parents the next time that I watched it and I don't know what it's rated. There were a few swear words and a couple of fist fights. The development of Loretta as a songwriter is shown when she writes "You Ain't Woman Enough (to take my man)" and a few other biographical tunes that climax with "Coal Miner's Daughter."

Loretta sang about being proud of her roots and of her father. He was an honest hard working man from the heart of the appalachians and he loved his daughter. The morning after I watched this movie, I sat with my coffee and thought about the scene in which Loretta's father was giving good gifts to his children. They all had new shoes and his daughter got a new dress.

"How come she get's something extra?" said one of her brothers.

"Because she's becoming a young woman and women need pretty things" said her father.

My own father never understood this, but my grandmother, who went to school in dresses made from flour sacks did. When I was very little, she bought me a pair of baby shoes and when I'd outgrown them, she asked my mother to give them back to her. Then she saved those shoes until, when I was 40 years old, she gifted them to me. She also made many of the clothes that I wore to school over the years. I will never forget her kindnesses. She was 96 when she died two weeks ago.

Gramma never liked my father and I'm sure that she felt some satisfaction in outliving him. Still, he was the only father that I had. He loved me as best he could. Unfortunately, he hadn't experienced much love in his own life. The way he treated my mother at times, and the way that she stood by him for so many years taught me some unfortunate things about relationships. Then for a long time, it took a self-destructive turn. Now, slowly I have been healing and making a turn-around. My faith in God has been the primary element in this and the morning after I watched a film that some fundamentalist Christians once forbid me from watching, I had the most amazing "God moment."
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I sat in my favorite chair, drinking my morning cuppa Joe thinking about the story of Loretta Lynne and I felt impressed by her relationship with her father. Then I heard God whisper to me "you are my sweet baby princess" This is an endearment that I made up last year for my little cat Tootsie. I'm her mommy and my Daddy is a living God who longs to give good gifts to his children. Lately, I have been experiencing a "boyfriend issue" and while the jury is still out on the matter, I imagine that God wants me to have someone who loves God and treats me like His sweet baby princess. I look forward to treating that guy like a king.

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

I leave for Istanbul in 11 days.

2011-05-10T23:19:00.000-07:00

This past year in South Korea has been one heck of a ride. I think that I need some time off to recover from it. I've had four different bosses this year. One of the male teachers at school thought it would be okay to sexually harrass me, and I just read some anonymous comments on this blog about the old boyfriend from Texas that true or not, will have to be dealt with. Why me Lord? It's such a pain

I've learned a lot about ministry this year as well. I took the chance to lead a women's ministry and it crashed and burned. I learned some things about myself in the process and I also learned a lot about God's grace. I suppose that I'm going to keep learning about God's grace, just as I keep learning more and more about his love.

So, Istanbul in 11 days. Tootsie went to the vet yesterday and got a clean bill of health. I hope that I'm getting her paperwork right. If not, I read on someone else's blog that Turkish immigration officials can be very corrupt...so let's cross our fingers that any bribery involved will not be very expensive!

While I am in Istanbul, I will earn my CELTA certificate. This is a widely recognized certification for teaching English as a second language. It will open many doors. I am praying for some well-paying doors...perhaps in Korea, perhaps not. I do plan on returning to Korea, but like I said, I think that I need a break.

2011-04-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

Today was a strange day. I read an article by Nicole Braddock Bromley, the friend of a friend who has written a lot about recovering from sexual abuse and found myself in tears. I tried to write about that for awhile and then I went home, made dinner, drank half a bottle of wine and called the old boyfriend...the one who lives in Texas. I just left a message saying that I missed him and that should have been the end of my silly "drunk dial" but a moment later, he called me back!

I don't know how long we talked, we are such fools...or at least I am. I keep thinking that maybe we can get it right this time. However, I never want to be swept off my feet, away from Jesus ever again and I don't want to fear things like being too needy or too vulnerable. Miracles will have to happen. Therefore, I'll be fasting, and praying, and waiting to see what happens. Maybe nothing will come of it, maybe all kinds of things will come from it. All I can do is hope...and whatever happens, it will not suck all the hope out of me. I will always have Jesus.

I should write today

2011-02-28T21:18:00.000-08:00

Today is Korea's independance day. I have the day off and once again I am finding that I'd rather relax with my cat than rush about exploring Korea. If I did all of the "teacher/tourist things like visiting the DMZ, climbing Mt Seoraksan, and taking a ferry to Japan for a long weekend, I wouldn't get any rest on those particular weekends. I need my rest. This place is crowded and crowds are exhausting.

I do travel into Seoul each weekend to go to church. I love my church and I love fellowshipping with my friends while having a long lunch afterwards. My life revolves around church at times and God has been good to me in Korea. The difficulties and the failures have taught me so much that looking back on them, I feel encouraged that God will continue the work that he has started in my life until it is completely finished...this is something that he promises to all Christians, but is one of those things that is hard to truly believe until you have begun experiencing it for real.

One way that I experienced this recently was through a women's ministry effort that has crashed and burned thus far. I had one participant and the project included group work. It felt like counseling. I am not a qualified counselor. My one participant was something of an oddball. Some people can be quirky and different, and be very likeable. She was not. We discussed God's Grace. She said that she had experienced this grace but often had difficulty giving it to others. This was made clear to me when she lashed out at me for what she percieved to be my immodest clothing. I was dressed in an ordinary t-shirt with a tunic over the top of it. Maybe my collar bone was showing. I adjusted my t-shirt a little and moved on with the conversation. I had prayed that I would put non-essential things aside and stick to the topic at hand and for the moment, I was managing to do so. Not that long ago, such a comment would have caused an arguement from me, and not that long ago, I was wearing that low cut tunic without a t-shirt underneath, justifying it because of the summer heat. Now, I still feel okay about bare shoulders in summer, but I also think that if those bare shoulders are going to distract someone from something Godly, I'll probably cover up...only I'm not always completely consistent with this. Everyone is a Glamour Don't once in awhile.

After this meeting, I went home and took things up with God. I was pissed at him for letting her lash out at me like that. It was like she wanted to invalidate my whole experience with God and my ability to lead because of a stupid shirt. I was more than a Don't from Glamour magazine to her. I was a big old GET THEE BEHIND ME SATAN according to Today's Christian Woman. It was unsettling. I needed his love and restoration more than ever. I prayed, I had some people pray for me, I listened to sermons, and I sought counseling from a few trusted friends. In this way, I could stay grounded and even grow my roots deeper into Jesus.

It's been two weeks now and my single participant says that she "does not feel led to continue" our meetings. That's okay, I am grateful for the lessons that I have learned. In the future, I want to remember that serving others should always come out of love rather than duty and obligation. Sometimes, I feel that because God has been good to me, I am obligated to help others deal with the same difficulties that I have faced. Sometimes this is true, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes, we just get to be free from having to face those difficulties any more. We can choose to play with our cat because it's fun, or we can climb a giant mountain because some other people say that we should but before we choose, we should remember that it was for freedom that Christ set us free.

You like McDonald's

2010-12-23T22:50:00.000-08:00

All Americans like McDonalds, even the vegetarians, and if you don't think that's true, go and spend a year living in another country with a different culture. Then, if there's a McDonalds anywhere withing traveling distance of where you are staying during that year, I don't care how much you avoided McDonald's back home, Iguarantee you that there will come a day when you will want that Big Mac, or those french fries, or something off the McDonalds Menu. There might even be a day when you are whiny enough that someone else takes you to McDonalds in hopes that it will put you in a better mood.

I haven't had a McDonald's moment in awhile. I live accross the street from one, so it's a normal part of the scenery and not a big deal. Things like Bagels from Costco are the big deal for me this year.

Today is Christmas Eve and I have a bad cold so I will hang out with Tootsie, sleep in on Christmas morning, and just get some rest.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Chuseouk!

2010-09-21T23:40:00.000-07:00

I like to think that I grew up in a typically dysfunctional American family and as a result, my holiday memories are mixed at best. Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor day typically meant that Dad had me and my three siblings working on some onerous chore like digging a ditch around the foundation of our house so that he could put in new drainage pipes. or trying to stay out of Dad's way as he fixed something. Sometimes, that something would be a car over a cold Thanksgiving weekend. I'd be shivering as I held a flashlight in the freezing cold and my poor brother would be underneath the car trying to twist on some bolt. Dad would be drinking coffee and studying, or (more likely) swearing at the Chilton's manual. Great relief would be found when one could accompany Mom to the hardware store, or the auto parts warehouse. She would take her time and bring home donuts or some such. Those treats got us through some tough times.

So nowadays, I have a bit less to do, but it's getting done. Laundry, dishes, dusting, bedmaking, you name it. I'm also trying to write a bit, and Tootsie is looking interested in some magpies who are making a racket accross the street. What are you getting accomplished this week?

No fun until the chores are done.
Happy Chuseok Holiday everyone!

(it's a Korean holiday that is sorta like Thanksgiving, only longer)

Update.

2010-09-21T08:55:00.001-07:00

Wow, I was just reading my post and it looks like I'm due for an update. What's it been? Six or seven months? I returned to Korea with a fresh attitude and have been enjoying myself. My school is alright. My apartment is nice, and I brought my cat Tootsie. The other cat is staying with my mom in her new condo in Westerville, Ohio. Last that I heard, he is adjusting nicely. He's a big lover of a puss and I knew she'd fall for him eventually. When we lived on Yale Avenue, he spent most of his time hiding in the basement and hating on her dog.

While I was at home, I spent a lot of time pining after this guy who lived in Texas. Well, of course we broke up. The last time that I talked to him, I think that I was on my way to the airport. I said "how are you"

"Not so good" he replied...and then my phone died. It really did die. You can't make this shit up.

When I got to the airport, I plugged the phone in and tried to call him back. I never got an answer.

When I got to Korea, I tried e-mail, and even Skype. I never heard anything.

Perhaps I should back up a bit. It had become clear before my phone died that he was not living the victorious Christian life. In fact, he was living a seriously drunken life. Can you hear the Chorus of "Oh Whiskey, If You Were a Woman" coming on?

It's a fact of life. Ms. Ethyl Alchohol is a temptress beyond human proportions and the man who becomes her slave is seriously doomed, as is any relationship with such a man. I should have seen it coming. I probably did see it coming, but I really didn't want to. He was cute, he was interesting, he was accomplished,, he'd succeeded at nearly everything that he'd put his mind to. I'd wondered why a guy who'd led such a charmed life was interested in me and what the catch was from the beginning, and I eventually found out.

I miss the dreams that I had about my future with him, but I didn't see him very much, so it would be hard to say that I miss him, although I continue to pray for him. It became a habit and it's never wrong to pray. I hope that my prayers are answered some day, even if that's the day that by God's grace, I meet him in heaven.

So, right now I'm sitting here with my cat in my studio apartment in Bundang, S. Korea. Today is the Chuseok holiday and I have almost a full week off from work. It's raining a lot, so I'll be reading blogs, watching movies, and posting on facebook a bunch. Maybe I'll blog some more, maybe not.

Love,

Anita

Doing it Again

2010-02-26T16:08:00.001-08:00

After all the whining I did last year, I am now planning to return to South Korea.

Why? Well, if anyone has been following me on facebook, I've been doing my share of whining here in North America.

It has been wonderful to be home and to be around my family and friends. My cats are the most adorable creatures on earth. Tootsie pretty much lives in my lap, and Tarzan's boyish ways are so much fun. I will miss them dearly. They will stay with Mom.

Today, I met some nice people who may be a good choice to rent my house to while I'm away, and really for as long as they like. They took a rental application and we will speak again in about a week.

I have most of my paperwork together for my Korean visa application. I have been waiting on the results of my background check for over 3 weeks now. I expect to get it any day now and my recruiter has a school that I am interested in.

I've visited with the guy that I fell for last year a few times since I've been home. He just moved to Taiwan. It's a three hour flight from Seoul and my new school is on the western side of Seoul, quite a bit closer to the airport than my last school. Flights to Taiwan are fairly cheap compared to other vacation spots, so I may save more money this year than last year. I surely need to.

My decision to return was partly economic. There is no denying this. I found employment here in Ohio, but it did not pay well enough to really live on and it was certainly temporary. I was happy enough there and was trying to stick to a budget, but then they changed my responsabilities and the location of my work. The new warehouse was uncomfortable, and difficult to get to. There was no sidewalk during one portion of my walk from the bus stop to the warehouse and with the snow and the ice, I was afraid that I would fall down in front of a vehicle and be killed or seriously injured. I was unhappy and I seriously began to search for another job.

I found another job. It too was temporary, but I thought that it would be a great opportunity. I would be recruiting people to work promotional gigs, and I had some experience working in promotions. The event that I was recruiting for was a Hasbro toy event at Wal-mart. It didn't pay as much as some promotional events, but in this economy, I would not have turned it down. It was not a hard sell, if I could find the people at home.

Unfortunately, it was very hard to discern what was expected of me. Instructions on the computer program were scant and didn't always make sense. The boss would contradict herself, and sometimes work against herself. One morning, she held a meeting during the first hour, that was all about how important it was to be making lots of phone calls during that first hour. I did my best. I made lots of phone calls. Each day, I did a little better than the day before. After two weeks when I thought that I was starting to get the hang of it, I was fired. This was done by voice mail. When I recieved the message, It was on a Saturday while I was at a rest stop in Indiana. My grandmother had broken her hip and I was on my way to visit her. I made a decision to enjoy my family that weekend, but the following week was certainly a low point.

I could hardly look at job ads. All that I would see were these impossible barriers. I was angry. It seemed like nothing ever went right for me. Then I tried to think about positive reasons to return to South Korea and I convinced myself that it wouldn't be so bad.

Even though a lot of things went wrong last year, I got a few things right. I learned that I could endure the hardships of an expatriate life. I grew stronger in my faith. I made friends, and I learned that I loved teaching kindergarten, and that challenge to become a good teacher was something that had pulled at me every time I'd seen an ESL book on the shelves at the bookstore. It would certainly fulfill me much more than some mundane clerical job, or pitching yet another useless product at a grocery store.

So, I am now making plans to return. I will try to keep you posted on my new adventures.

Love,

Anita

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T13:04:00.000-08:00

The holidays find me home in Ohio and I am quite happy here. I have a job that you can read about in my other blog (5 books a day) and I am sharing my house with an old friend. I don't feel like a cow when I walk down the street, and when I got sick and stayed home from work last Thursday, my boss didn't come to my apartment pounding on the door and insisting that I go to work. The boss that I have now is nice enough and my co-workers don't seem like the type to butt in if I have something to sort out with my boss. I'll probably be allowed time off for some monthly meetings on human trafficking issues.

I've been making a few contacts regarding the anti-trafficking efforts that are going on in Columbus and there is actually a lot going on. My church, although it is quite large, is just not very involved. It's nice that there is a group of people concerned about the issue, but I'm not satisfied with it. I will be exploring more organizations and maybe another church...it isn't that I don't like my church. I like it in many ways, but I want more of some things, and less than others...and I know that I'm being vague here, which is not very interesting, but as I look at interesting books in my other blog, I'll get more specific with it...if I even want to put those thoughts into a public place!

Home Sweet Home

2009-10-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

I've been home for about a week now and should probably change the name of my blog to something like Adventures of a broad, or just Anita's adventures...but I'm probably too lazy. After all, I managed one post from Thailand, and no posts from Cambodia.

They do have internet in Cambodia. I checked e-mail and facebook using the free wireless in the fake Irish pub in Siem Riep. I bought a beer and they let me have the password...funny how that works!

I got really tired of being a missionary. It wasn't like I was tired of the work, but the expectations that go along with the work, really sucked. For example: some people think that a Christian shouldn't use works like "suck" but shoveling gravel in the hot Cambodian sun and getting blisters on your thumb, might be described as "sucky." Maybe it's just me.

Another thing that sucks is when Christianity gets reduced to a list of do's and don'ts. Glamour magazine has Do's and Dont's and when that's all that we are getting out of the Bible, we might as well be reading Glamour. Don't smoke, don't swear, don't go "too far" with your boyfriend, and do not wear white shoes after Labor Day. It looks bad. Maybe it even makes your whole church and your whole religion look bad. I can't say that I really know.

I think that saying that Christians don't (fill in the blank) is like saying that Christians don't sin. That is like saying that Christians aren't human beings and it instantly turns us into HUGE, GIANORMOUS HYPOCRITES!

Of course, Christians are hypocrites...all people are hypocrites. We all want to make folks think that we are better people than we really are. We want to do this so that we can get the job, get the toys, get the girls, or get the boys. It's what people do. You can't really judge people for this because as any fourth grader could tell you "when you point a finger at someone, you get four more fingers pointing back at you!"

I think that I do understand what the "don't" people are trying to get at. They look for a way to distinguish people who are followers of Jesus Christ from other people...and the song goes "yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

It's just that simple. We are supposed to love people as Christ loved us...which is damned hard to do when they steal and break all your stuff...and yes, coming home to find that so many of my things were stolen or broken was very difficult. I cried, I screamed, I downloaded some new songs on i-tunes that did not fall into the "worship" category, some of them even had 4 letter words in them.

happy birthday to me

2009-09-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

No special plans today. I wanted to ride an elephant, but when I went to the travel agencies to see about a ticket home, I was disappointed with the prices and didn't get around to making a plan for today. I suppose that I still can if I get on the ball... but I might just relax and be lazy.

Last night, I went on my first outreach with Project Nightlight. We met at the office for prayer, had dinner at a place where prostitutes were hanging out a few tables away, then split into teams of 4 and began walking. I didn't know if we were going somewhere specific, or if this was a prayer walk. I prayed anyway. I prayed for transformation of the area and I prayed for individuals that I passed.

My team evantually went into a go-go bar. It was pretty surreal. The girls seemed to have a choice of 2 outfits. The first ones that we saw were wearing a black and white striped bikini that reminded me of jail stripes. We sat down and ordered sodas from a ladyboy...or I think that he was a ladyboy, I forgot to look for the adam's apple.

Before I could even notice the girls, I felt assaulted by the music. Billy Ray Cyrus was singing about his Achy Breaky Heart. Fortunately, the songs were cropped short. Unfortunately, the loop was also very short and it was the same songs over and over. The technology might be a little more advanced than that though because it seemed that the next part of the song would play when it came around for the second time. With what I think was a Bryan Adams CD in whatever machine they were using, a new song started playing. I almost had to laugh when they played Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer." Yes, I certainly am living on a prayer, and I was living in prayer as best I could yesterday. Helping these women takes a lot of prayer.

It was hard to know where to put my eyes. I would look at faces, they would be smiling seductively and I'd find that uncomfortable. I didn't want to look at their bodies so much, but I did find myself noticing things like tattoos and the shapeliness of some of the girls. They were normal girls with different kinds of bodies. A couple of girls were smiling and giggling amongst themselves. It was a slow night, they had to be bored up there, and they were making the best of things just like girls who work together at any McJob anywhere.

A. our fearless leader is known by some of the girls. 2 of these girls came and sat with us. I bought one girl a diet coke. She needed the caffeine, she was drunk. I didn't get to talk to her much. (The language barrier and a sudden inability to make small talk were striking me...that happens when I'm in new places.) She talked to A. and she talked to Nikki. Sometimes it was in Thai and sometimes in English. She also got up and started dancing for awhile. It seemed like forever. I didn't want to watch her dance and since she knew A, I thought that she would have figured this out. Maybe she didn't know what to do. We left after she sat down and started behaving seductively toward A.

We met up with the other team and talked about our experiences a little bit. There was another new person on the outreach and she and I compared experiences. I was glad not to feel alone in my experience. I wondered if I'd sleep later.

There was one more stop. This was the lobby of a hotel. It was mainly an Arab hotel. We sat at a table there and A. explained a few things. It appeared to be a nice hotel. Arabs travel to Thailand for shopping, business, and medical reasons. There's a hospital accross the street from the hotel that is like a 5 star hotel. You will see a few wives and female staff members in the lobby, but mostly you see groups of men sitting together as the prostitutes walk around. It was Ramadan, so there wasn't much activity. We called it a night and taxied home. Nikki and I prayed before hitting the hay. I slept like a baby.

shoe-holic in the making.

2009-09-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

Today was very long, but it ended with 4 pairs of shoes for 1100 Baht, so I cannot complain.

I went to Nightlight with Nikki and was supposed to just sit and talk with the women. I watched the kitchen ladies make lunch and satisfied their curiousity about how well a farang such as myself could handle spicy food. I held my own, but I learned the trick to it at a young age. My mom's Texas style chili would make your nose run and your eyes water, but there was always the world's best cornbread on the side. Have a bite of cornbread when you need to cool your tongue a bit, and it's no big deal. In Thailand, you have a bite of sticky rice.

I learned a new trick in cooking class the other day...well it's new to me...I learned that the bigger the pepper, the less heat that it will have. My Korean boss was dipping hot peppers in hot pepper sauce, but the peppers that she was dipping were not as hot as the sauce...but she was still insane.

Anyway, back to Nightlight. I had a long talk with Annie, the director today. I told her my testimony, or at least most of it. (There were a few details that I forgot or didn't have a chance to mention.) She asked a lot of questions and she was very kind. I will go on the first outreach tomorrow night and if I need to bail or take a break, it's no problem.

So, the interview went well and this evening was date night for Nikki and Allen. They went to a restaurant in the mall, so I hitched a ride over them and we agreed to meet up afterward. I could have had western food if I'd wanted, but I'm not in Korea anymore and the food is good here, it's amazing!

I chose a Vietnamese place and ordered some of the best pho I'd ever had. Vietnam neighbors Thailand, so it shouldn't be surprising. I enjoyed it very much, and afterward, I wandered the mall a bit, expecting to simply ogle the designer goods that you see in most malls...and then I saw shoes for 159 Baht. Clearly, this was a bit of heaven on earth! I bought 4 pairs for about 35 bucks U.S. and I think that I'd better be wary of passing shoe stores for a little while. With these prices, I could get addicted pretty fast!

from Korea to Bangkok

2009-09-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

George says that I should blog more, so I'm gonna try.

On August 29th, I left Korea. It was one of the best days ever. I'd stayed over at Gayle and Dwayne Turney's house. Jason, Amber, the Turney's and I went out to lunch and before I left, we gathered together in prayer. It was the third group prayer for me in that week. My friends at Seoul International Baptist Church prayed for me on Sunday, and Pastor Jack from Lifechurch on Wednesday. I was so blessed.

I arrived in Bangkok Saturday night. Nikki, Allen, and their friend George picked me up and by the time we got home, it was way past bedtime. Still, I couldn't sleep a wink...not until around 3 or 4 a.m anyway. It was very hard to wake up for church in the a.m. and it didn't help that the church was about 2 hours away.

We arrived on time for Sunday School at the most traditional Baptist church, I'd ever set foot in. Sunday school was about how the man is supposed to be the leader in marriage, and the main sermon was about overcoming impossible circumstances. I could get behind the latter, and I suppose that the other stuff really depends upon how it gets put into practice.

Monday morning, I visited Project Nightlight where Nikki gave me the nickel tour...I'm not sure how many Thai Baht that is equal to. Korean Won and Indonesian Rupiah were easy, 1000 won was a bit less than a dollar...until it really dropped down and made me poor, and then 10,000 Indonesian Rupiah were about the same as a dollar. I think that 100 Baht are equal to three dollars, give or take...and you can use that 100 Baht to buy lunch for 2 people and get some change back. Stuff is amazingly cheap here!

Not that I'm totally on a vacation, but one of the things that makes vacations really fun is finding bargains that you could never get back home. Now, I get to find bargains that I could find neither at home, nor in South Korea. It's pretty awesome and this Saturday is my birthday, so I bought myself a couple of presents.

So far...because I don't think I'm done yet, I have purchased a fake Tiffany star necklace, a fake Prada wallet, and a really cute blue t-shirt with flowers batiked onto it.It is hard to resist a little shopping here because the markets are so darned interesting. Colorful vegetables, aromatic spices, simmering soups, fruits on sticks. It's a feast for the senses...and there's no dead fish smell. If you buy fish here, it's alive...way better than the smelly fish markets in other places. Places like, ummm...mmmaybe Korea? So, yes, I'm loving Thailand...yes I am!

I took a lot of pictures of the vegetable market yesterday when I took a Thai cooking class. It was fun and I ate so much, my stomache hurt. I will definitely try to duplicate some of the recipes very soon.

Today, I went on a bicycle tour. Bangkok turned out to be very flat. So, the course was not difficult in terms of strength or endurance, but it did prove treacherous. We went through alleyways and on sidewalks that were very narrow, had unpredictable dogs, pedestrians, and other road hazards.

My bicycle was a single speed and our tour guide was going so slowly that I struggled not to run into her or fall off. Then we crossed a river and visited a nature preserve. That was when it got really scary.

The path was about seven feet off of the ground and maybe two and a half to three feet wide. Turns were sharp and if you didn't pay attention, you could fall and hurt yourself really badly. I was praying to Jesus at every turn. We also got sprinkled on a bit, and I asked God for nice weather. He totally answered my prayers, even beyond what I knew to ask him...I didn't fall, the weather was gorgeous, and as I was on my way home, waiting in a taxi line, I met a woman who is starting somethign similar to project nightlight, only not for the women.

Instead, she wants to help the boys and men who never asked to be used as gay prostitutes, but who are violated on a regular basis by the gay sex tourists. Just the idea of these boys, kinda breaks my heart.

success, and picking up where I left off.

2009-08-27T04:33:00.000-07:00

umm...yeah, I sorta did abandon this blog.

It wasn't that I got a life, even though I did get to have an incredibly rich life here in Korea, it's just that for a long time, I couldn't appreciate it very much and every time I started typing, whining would result. The world didn't need anymore of that.

I met wonderful people here. I ate a lot of good food. I ate a lot of free food. I made my peace with Korean food. Galbi is pretty good, putting live scallops and mussels on a grill until they steam open is pretty awesome, even if you can no longer call yourself a vegetarian afterwards. Still, I'll never choose to eat Kimchi Jigae.

I've longed for home, and I've wondered if I will ever really fit in there after this experience. I've also wondered if I might not need some kind of debriefing experience once this is over...and that's sorta how I ended up with a plan for Thailand.

I was thinking about my summer vacation, and this woman at church (Nikki) was leaving to work with an organization called Project Nightlight (www.projectnightlight.com) reaching out to sex workers in Bangkok. Their goal is to prevent entry into the sex industry, and to help people get out of the sex industry. I asked her if there were any volunteer opportunities. There weren't any at that time, but this woman went to our pastor and got my e-mail address and we kept in touch.

When Nikki learned that my contract would be ending in September, it gave her an idea. I could go to this missions conference (http://extremeprophetic.com/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&agid=155&year=2009&month=09&day=13&Itemid=100&catids=46)

At the conference, I will be trained for this kind of outreach and Nikki assured (warned) me that the experience would be "life changing." I will attend the conference and work at Project Nightlight for about a month...but I haven't purchased my ticket home yet and you shouldn't be surprised if I stay a little longer.

I leave the day after tomorrow.

100 or so books that I've actually read

2009-02-18T05:21:00.000-08:00

Recently, one of those facebook lists went around with a list of 100 really good books along with some guess that the average person has read mmmmaybe six of them. I'd actually read 30 or so but I thought that the list was ridiculous. A Dan Brown novel was listed, but Mark Twain was ignored. So, along with the hundreds of romances and mysteries that I will never admit to when you ask me in person, here's my list. I encourage you to write your own list, and I'll bet that it's a challenge to stop at 100.

1. The Cat in the Hat - Dr. Seuss
2. Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss
3. Babar the Elephant - Jean de Brunhoff
4. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak
5. Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder ( I read all of her books)
6. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (I read all of her books too)
7. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
8. Stuart Little - E.B. White
9. A good portion of the Nancy Drew mystery series - Carolyn Keene
10. Are You There God? It's Me Margaret - Judy Blume (I read all of her books as well)
11. The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
12. The Diary of Anne Frank - Anne Frank
13. The Hiding Place - Corrie Ten Boom
14. The Little Princess - Frances Hodgeson Burnett
15. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgeson Burnett
16. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
17. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Frank L. Baum
18. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
19. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carol
20. Johnny Tremain - Esther Forbes
21. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
22. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
23. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
24. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
25. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin (I've read some of her other titles as well)
26. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
27. Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren
28. Andersen's Fairy Tales - Hans Christian Andersen
29. The Hobbit - J.R. Tolkien
30. The Lord of the Rings (trilogy) - J.R. Tolkein
31. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis (freaky, you will like it!)
32. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
33. No Exit - Jean Paul Sartre
34. Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett
35. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
36. The Bible (ok, maybe not all of it)
37. 1984 - George Orwell
38. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
39. The Robber Bridegroom - Eudora Welty
40. A Farewell to Arms - Earnest Hemmingway
41. As I lay Dying - William Faulkner
42. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
43. Heaven's My Destination - Thornton Wilder
44. A Passage to India - E.M. Forster
45. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
46. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
47. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
48. Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
49. Othello - William Shakespeare
50. Julius Ceasar - - William Shakespeare
51. Rebecca - Daphne DuMaurier
52. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
53. Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowlin
54. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
55. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and others) Douglass Adams
56. The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh
57. Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
58. The Tales of Edgar Allen Poe
59. The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane
60. The Stranger - Albert Camus
61. The Bad Girl - Mario Vargas Llosa
62. The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
63. Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice (followed her books for awhile)
64. Beauty's Release - Anne Rice as A.N. Roquelaure (read the whole series with much delight)
65. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
66. The Life of Pi - Yann Martel
67. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
68. Cold Sassy Tree - Olive Anne Burns
69. Sister Carrie - Theodore Drieser
70. The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
71. Beloved - Toni Morrison
72. A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
73. Traveling Mercies - Anne Lamott
74. Plan B - Anne Lamott
75. The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver
76. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
77. Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl
78. Gorilla's in the Mist - Diane Fossey
79. The Orchid Theif - Susan Orlean
80. The Story of Helen Keller
81. The Diary of Anais Nin
82. Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
83. How to Save Your Own Life - Erica Jong
84. My Left Foot - Christy Brown
85. The Elements of Style - E. B. White
86. The Accidental Tourist - Anne Tyler
87. The American Way of Death - Jessica Mitford
88. Love is a Dog from Hell - Charles Bukowski
89. The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter
90. The Bridges of Madison County - Robert James Waller
91. Waiting to Exhale - Terry McMillan
92. Bridget Jone's Diary - Helen Fielding
93. Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
94. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
95. Keeping Faith - Jodi Picoult
96. The Book of Ruth - Jane Hamilton
97. Here on Earth - Alice Hoffman
98. She Was - Janis Hallowell
99. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
100. Blind Faith - Ben Elton

Like the Shulammite

2009-02-16T08:16:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure that I'm finished with this poem yet, but I want to put it up and look at it.

Like the Shulammite

I'm a great person to talk to
I play well with others
I share my toys
I connect well
I get all that
but none of it
is getting me back
to the onestill in my heart

"have you seenthe one whom my heart loves?"
she said.in the Song of Songs.
She couldn't sleep.
She went searching,
asking everyone
"have you seenthe one whom my heart loves?"
He kept on leaving
and he kept on needing
to come back
for with all of that gold,
and all of those foreign wives
and the countless concubines,
He still wanted to know
if he was worthy.

"Turn your eyes from me,they overwhelm me"
he would say...

and like the Shulammite,
I haven't forgotten
that the one whom my heart loves
remarked on my hazel eyes
how they changed colors with my moods
and I want to ask what color they were
when I fell in love.

The Real Princess

2009-02-10T21:44:00.000-08:00

I needed a story for one of my classes, so I wrote one. I hope that you like it.

Love,

Anita

Once upon a time, there was a prince who wanted to find a princess, but she had to be a real princess, not a fake princess.
The prince traveled around the world and there were fake princesses everywhere. Some were very pretty, but also mean. Some were kind to rich people, but were not kind to poor people. The prince knew better than to marry one of these fake princesses. A real princess would be pretty, and kind to everyone. There were a lot of these fake princesses around the world. So many, that the prince was having a lot of trouble finding a real princess.
Meanwhile, in a small kingdom, very near the home of the prince, a very pretty princess was sent to boarding school in a small town where the people were very poor. Her father, the king wanted her to study different languages and to learn how to be kind to people who were different from herself.
This princess was not only very pretty, but she was also very smart. In a short time, she learned to speak English, French, Japanese, and Korean. The other students at her school all spoke these languages regularly and after classes, they would do good deeds for the poor people in the village.
One Autumn day, the princess was raking leaves for an old lady while wearing her oldest dress. It’s colors blended in with the leaves so that you would hardly even notice her. The prince would not have noticed her, except that he was lost.
“Excuse me miss, but I heard that there was a school nearby, where I could meet a princess, can you tell me the way?” he said.
“I can show you the way, just as soon as I finish raking these leaves for this poor old woman,.” said the princess.
“I will help you then,” said the prince.
So together the prince and princess finished raking the leaves and she led him to the school.
The prince met the principal of the school and said “I am here to meet a princess.”
“You just met a princess,” said the principal.
“I don’t understand” said the prince.
“Stay for dinner and you soon will” said the principal.
The prince stayed for dinner. It was a special night. All of the girls at the school wore their best dresses and styled their hair as pretty as they could. The prince really enjoyed seeing all of the really pretty girls. The real princess nearly blended in.
After dinner, each girl performed a talent. Some read stories, some twirled batons, some played the violin. The real princess was last. She played the piano and sang a beautiful song.
Finally, the prince understood. The prettiest girl, who was singing the loveliest song, was the same girl who had raked leaves for an old lady and helped a stranger find his way. Certainly, she was a real princess. So, before she could finish her song, the prince bent down on one knee and asked her to marry him.

2009-01-18T06:17:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to think about what I will do when I get back to the States.

I am, of course, all over the board with this. Here are some of my ideas for when I finish my contract.

1. Pursue certification as an ESL teacher...of course, without an actual Master's degree in education, this certification wouldn't mean a whole lot in the U.S. but not all of the organizations that exist to help people to learn English in the U.S. can afford people with M.A. Edu's, and some of these organizations (i.e. churches) are not required to jump through the same hoops as a public school district. I wouldn't make a lot of money, but I could get some sort of job.

2. Go home and write a book about my experiences here...home not really meaning home in Ohio, but perhaps something modest in the vicinity of a very creative friend of mine who has more experience as a writer, comedian, and professional nice guy...and while I'm there, I should probably think about stealing a kiss...but then, I'm probably only thinking about that because I am here and I am lonely, maybe that isn't really necessary.

3. Go home for a few months, straighten out whatever needs straightened there, get a good start on my book, and then come back to Korea where I will have plenty of time to work on it with a relative amount of peace and quiet...and will be able to earn a decent salary.

I don't hate living here...or at least I don't hate it every day, but I don't want to do this forever. I want to learn how to be a better writer and I want to pursue a career that is really creative. That isn't to say that teaching doesn't require creativity. For most people, raising a child to be a healthy adult in spite of their own problems and all of the obstacles that get in the way, is the single most creative thing that they will do in their entire lives...and really, that's enough.

2009-01-10T06:24:00.000-08:00

Saturday night in Mo-ville.

2009-01-10T05:05:00.000-08:00

I am hanging out at home tonight...it's sort of like I'm hungover already, but not from good ole' ETOH either. It's more like a spending hangover because today I went to one of the true geek meccas...or somewhere close anyway.

The day started at the Jjinjilbang...and that started last night. I liked it so much that I stayed over in one of the sleeping rooms. If you want to know Korean culture, just sleep with it!

Everyone sleeps on the floor on these individualized gym mats wearing the same style of pajamas. Women wear pink, men wear blue. I slept in a room that was for women only, but there is also a co-ed section where many families spend the night. The rooms don't seem that comfortable, and they don't give you a blanket but when I considered how cold it was outside and thought about being able to have another soak in the saunas in the morning, I found a corner spot, laid down, and I was out like a light.

When I woke up, the room was filled to capacity. Apparently, these sleeping rooms are very popular. There were even a few babies in the room. These were good babies, I heard very little crying. In fact, they didn't even cry in the bath. I sat next to one mother who was bathing her little one and as I scrubbed my feet, she scrubbed her little girl. The little one squirmed all over the place, but barely even whined.

I left there feeling really good and this feeling stayed with me for most of the day, even when I got lost. I didn't really know that I was lost until I started talking to an adjosshi.

An adjosshi is an older Korean man who is usually married. This one sat down next to me and he was wearing the traditional quilted sort of Korean clothing. He was also carrying some kind of case. He apologized for bumping into me!

People bump into you all of the time here. They almost never apologize, even if they've hit you with the force of a Mack truck! This was a nice man and he would have something to say, so I asked him "Is that a musical instrument?"

He had several musical instruments in his case. They were the same instrument in different sizes. They looked like a variety of flutes. He then mentioned that he taught Korean history and was a member of Korea's traditional secret police. He had a large gold colored medallion that was part of his costume which he showed me. He also gave me his card. Then he helped me figure out where I was going. I'd left the Jjinjilbang at 11:00 a.m. and I finally arrived at Yongsan around 3:00 p.m. I could have flown to Bali in that time!

Arriving at Yongsan, I saw signs for the Yongsan electronics market, but somehow I ended up at the I-Park Mall. The Malls here have been on steriods or something. I was faced with an entire floor of restaurant choices, and after a brief stop at Lotteria for a shrimp burger (I can't read enough Korean to order without pictures yet, so it's hard to get gourmet.) I looked around and found an entire floor of household electronics. I decided to look for a camera first. There were zillions of them. I didn't even know what to look for, but it really didn't matter that much. The guy who spoke English to me and showed me something reasonable, got the sale. The camera will take pictures, and videos with sound, and seems fairly easy to operate. I plan to make a video of my apartment in a little while. The friends back home have been asking about it.

There were two entire floors full of computers. I bought a pink one. It has this one quirk that I don't like. The " is where the @ should be and vice versa. I can only hope that it does not have other problems, but after the guy spent a really long time installing the English version of Windows Vista for me, I was not going to get out of there without buying it.

So, now I am at home with my purchases. I also bought a hairdryer. It's got a cord like you would see on a vacuum cleaner back home but not a lot of power. I wanted a curling iron too, but I didn't want to part with 50,000 won. Some things that are cheap back home are really expensive here and you can never predict what they will be.

Hangin' at the Jjimjillbang.

2009-01-09T05:29:00.000-08:00

I just finished my first week back in Korea after my fabulous vacation in Bali. It's cold here. My employer is still annoying, and my kids still don't behave. Still, it's alright because tonight, I am hanging out in the jjimjillbang.

"What is a jjimjillbang?" you ask.

A jjimjillbang is a little bit of heaven right here on earth. There are hot rooms, there are cold rooms, there are steam rooms, there are saunas, there is a pc room, there are large screen tv's, there are private dvd rooms, there are sleeping rooms and there are even play rooms for the kids. There is also a restaurant, a snack bar, and if you haven't opted for a massage from one of the adjummas who work in the bathing rooms, there are massage chairs and spots where you can sleep over top of an infrared lamp.

There are no work out rooms, there are no evil bosses, and there are lots of families with cute, well behaved, Korean kiddies. It's a beautiful place.

My trip to Bali

2009-01-04T21:40:00.000-08:00

It's a pretty big island with something for everyone. Initially, I went to Legian, which was supposed to be near a beautiful beach. I got there around six in the evening and decided to walk to the beach. I walked, and I walked, and I walked. Eventually, it was dark, I had a blister on my toe (new flip-flops) and I had not seen a single grain of sand. I bought a different pair of shoes, took a motorbike back to my hotel, spent one night and checked out.

All of the best books about Bali mention the mountain city of Ubud. It is one of the places that Elizabeth Gilbert wrote about in Eat, Pray,Love. I now want to read that part of the book again and compare my experience with hers. There was a fabulous coffee shop there. It was called Kafe, and if I met any cool artists or writers, it was there. I had a couple of random conversations and enjoyed the food very much. I got addicted to avacado smoothies! Lonely planet recommended them, saying that they were Bali's version of wellbutrin. I couldn't pass that up! I hadn't seen an avacado since I left the U.S.

I spent four days in Ubud eating really fabulous food. My standard is usually "not Korean food," but the food in Bali really was wonderful. A restaurant called Centa had guacamole and the chips that were serves with it would have put many Mexican joints back home to shame. I would have asked for more, but there were vegetarian samosas to sample! There was Indian, there was Thai, and I even had greek at a place called Three Monkey's cafe. I also tried Indonesian food. The chicken satay with peanut sauce was standard fare everywhere and would get dull if you ate it every day...but not as dull as Korean food.

It rained a lot in Ubud. I fed monkeys in the sacred monkey forest and I went on a mountain bike tour where I got to visit a coffee plantation. I tried the Kopi Luwak, that beverage made famous in the movie "The Bucket List" and as the beans were freshly roasted over an open fire and ground right there before our eyes, it would be hard to say that it was a bad cup of coffee. Other people said that it "just tasted like coffee." I detected the distinct aroma of cat poop. Other than that, it tasted like any other Balinesian cup of coffee...which cannot be relied upon to be very good coffee. I bought some at the grocery store to take home with me and it was terrible.

The bike ride was very challenging and ended with a big lunch at the home of the tour organizer. It was quite a spread and I was starving. It was one of the trip highlights. Next time, weather permitting, I will not only go mountain biking, but I will go white water rafting as well. It will be worth it for the food that they serve.

On one rainy day in Ubud, I decided to go to the art museum. Unfortunately, it was partly outdoors and one of the first things that I did was to fall on my ass. I hit the pavement pretty hard and I was soaked. I gave up on the experience and went back to my hotel.

Once I was dried off, I decided to take advantage of a cheap spa treatment. Manicure, pedicure, massage, body scrub and flower bath for about 35 dollars U.S. You could also get some kind of "flower bath" for your female parts. I think it's some sort of steam treatment, invented to get Balinesian brides ready for wedding night "festivities" but I was not that curious about Balinesian culture.

After the massage, it had not stopped raining, so I went to the internet cafe. That was when I learned that Illysook had died of congestive heart failure. It's so hard to believe that he's gone. He was my favorite cat. Tootsie is everyone else's favorite and I love her very much, but Illy was shy around other people, so his love was all mine. I walked back to the hotel in tears and when I got to my room, I had a good long cry. Then I decided that I would go to Lovina the following day.

The bus was to pick me up at 11:00. I woke up early enough to go back to Kafe and have another avacado shake, a good cappucino, and some righteous banana bread before I left! It was a nice morning. The bus station was a little confusing but I figured out that the guy in the Starbucks shirt was going to the same place. I stayed sorta near he and his wife and eventually we were all three on the same bus. He was from Lebanon, she was from Finland. His name was Gad and her name was Morika. There were some German girls at the front of the bus, and another couple sitting near us. Henrick was from Sweden and his wife Yoshika, was from Japan. I was the only North American on the bus. I found this to be something of a relief. I haven't begun to understand the expat pecking order here in Korea, but I do know that most of my experiences with it have been painful. Maybe I needed a break from the Canadians and Americans as much or more than I needed a break from Koreans.

I was officially dumped by the two Canadian chicks that I met in Bundang and traveled to Daegu with. They even took me off of their facebook friend profiles.The other girl who went with us that weekend was put in the middle of it and she told me that they just didn't think that we had anything in common. They were on the same flight as me to Bali. On the way there, I saw them but pretended that I didn't. Then, on the way back they had to walk right by where I was seated to get to their seats. I kept my eyes on the book that I was reading. It was very awkward and my feelings were hurt a little but I also think that if they followed through with the plans that they originally told me about, then they were right. I traveled around and saw the real Bali, and they played around on that beach that I never found, surrounded by partying westerners with the only real Indonesian experience being that of the gigalos who are also known as "Kuta cowboys." The one girl told me that she was planning to see a guy there whom she sees every year, so I can only conclude that he is of that ilk. I hope that he finds his passport out of the third world without getting too jaded towards women.

The bus to Ubud was quite old. The rain was pouring down in sheets, and the mountain roads twisted in all directions. Henrick had a compass and was having fun announcing which direction we were going. This would change every second or so. We hoped and prayed that the bus had good brakes. All of the buses here in Korea have stickers on the back which boast "Jake Brake" and I was really glad not to see such a sticker. Stopping the engine to stop or slow down would be really scary on a slick mountain road and we were already pretty nervous. Gad and I were a little bit car sick as well. The trip took at least 3 hours. It felt like 12 hours, but it also felt like 15 minutes. 5 different people from 5 different countries swapped stories and started bonding a bit. When we got to Lovina, we decided to stay at the some resort. It had a really great swimming pool and it was 70,000 I.R. per day. That was less than seven dollars U.S. I had a look at some more expensive rooms, but they were not any nicer, so I went the economy route.

We all enjoyed that swimming pool immensely. We even went swimming in the rain. The beach there was black sand and looked a little bit like asphault. I went walking on it and took some good pictures of what looked like family life in Bali. Chickens pecked along the beach and one family was picking coconuts. I had to use a cheap disposable camera. I'd left my phone and my old camera at the hotel in Legian and when I called about it, they had not been found. I hope that the pictures come out nice.

New year's eve was celebrated in the swimming pool. A guy from New Zealand kissed me on the cheek. That was as debauched as it got this year...at least for me.

The next day I met a fellow ESL teacher who is French-Canadian and works on the island of Java. He was on holiday with his wife Dita and his 7 year old daughter, Africa. We hung out with two other couples that I'd met on a bus and over meals, we talked about all sorts of things, including human trafficking.
I'd read something about it's existence in Indonesia in The Lonely Planet and I mentioned that saying, "I sorta wonder what's going on with all these old men who seem to be here in Lovina all by themselves."
"Don't wonder." said Daniel, clearly confirming that men do go to Indonesia as sex tourists. Then he went on to describe the red light district in the Javanese city where he lives.

The next day, I noticed that one of the men at the resort had a guest. She looked to be a little older than Daniel's daughter. Now she could have been there for any reason at all, but it was likely that she was there as his slave for the weekend. That was yesterday and there was nothing that I could do about it. I had to check out and go back to Korea. I felt very sad about it.

Keep Indonesia on your prayer list?

Love, Anita

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T17:41:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that it's been a whole month since I last posted here. I could have sworn...wait a minute...okay, I just put up the two paragraphs that i wrote before I left here on vacation. I'm in Bali right now! It's beautiful and sunny out, so what am I doing indoors? Well, I'm a little crispy and I think that it's best.

Last post, I'd made a new friend. She's still in Korea and it's a good thing. Some people who are in their twenties, are cool enough that you forget how young they are. She's not like that. She won't date a man over 30 because she thinks they are disgusting. She gave one such man my phone number without asking me.

We both struggle as new teachers and I've had a rough couple of months. So far, none of my students has given me a book on how to be a better teacher. My friend recieved such a present and then gave it to me to look at saying "here, you need this more than I do!"

My friend has also preached to me about having a negative attitude and that I should do stuff to get over my culture shock. For instance, she thinks that I should visit some Korean Buddhist temples. I have yet to see any temples in Korea, but I don't imagine that I will leave Korea without visiting at least one. I want to do one of the Adventure Korea hiking trips and they almost always involve a temple or two.

Here in Indonesia, you can barely walk fifty feet without seeing a temple. There are little altars everywhere and you will even see little offering baskets in the middle of the street. I accidentally kicked one the other day. Maybe it caused me bad luck.

My precious cat Illysook has died of congestive heart failure. He was my oldest cat (12 years old) and my favorite. Everyone else loves Tootsie the best. She's the friendliest. I affectionately call her my little slut...where did she learn to be like that? Hmmmm!!!

Illysook was shy around strangers. That meant that he was all mine. I called him my little mouse. He was gentle and when I would lie down, he would lie down on my shoulder and purr nonstop for ages. He was all mine.

My mother wrote that Illy is waiting for me at the "Rainbow Bridge." I wish that I did not feel so comforted by this bit o' cheese. I like nothing better than to make fun of things like the "Rainbow Bridge" but this time, I cannot. I picture Dad and Maya taking care of Illysook and all of the other pets who are waiting there at the bridge for the people who love and miss them so very much and it makes me feel better.

Bali is amazingly beautiful and I have made some new friends. I will have to write more when I get back to Korea.

Love,

Anita

not sure if I have time for this, but I'll try

2008-12-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

I've read many a boring blog labeled "10 things that I love (or hate) about Korea and I'm determined not to write one. It's not hard to resist this temptation. On most days, I don't love ten things and as far as the things that I hate...well, you had better not get me started. Still, I wouldn't not go to Korea.

The isolation of living in this small town where there are very few English speakers is the most opressive thing. I pack the weekends with so many attempts to meet and connect with people that by Sunday night, I'm exhausted. Then, I'm also sorta crying on the Subway because I know that I won't have any of that social interaction again throughout my week.

Don't get me wrong, the kids are great

Man makes plans, God laughs...and then sometimes, he lets you in on the joke

2008-12-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

I've been neglecting my blog again...so I must be having a life, right?

Ummm...mmmaybe...but then perhaps I just didn't want to whine so much.

I am really appreciating the from my friends and family right now. These last few weeks have been tough on me.

I've been so homesick lately. I had to work on Thanksgiving, so I watched "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" with my kids and Icried during the prayer part. Then, when I had Thanksgiving dinner at my friend Annemarie's church, I spilled a couple of tears over the pumpkin pie.

Everything that would be normally be difficult when one moves to a far away place has the additional language and cultural barriers. One time, I got on a bus going the wrong direction and there was no way to know it until I was a good 40 minutes out of my way and was supposed to meet some people for dinner. Sometimes things like this happen all day long and it gets to me sometimes.

One of my worst problems is managing my 8-10 year olds. Yesterday, one boy spit at me from across the room and when I told him to go to my boss's office, he crossed his arms, stuck his chin out, and just sat there. I then sent another student to get my boss and she was out of the building. I think that she eventually called his mother, but it's not like that helped my class go any smoother. Being a new teacher, I shouldn't be expected to have classroom management and lesson planning down to a science yet, but it seems that my employer isn't all that happy with me. I seldom get any positive feedback, only criticism...and absolutely no mentoring, or suggestions on how I can improve matters.

Desparate for help with these problems, I attended a teacher training workshop on Saturday. It was held by a recruiting agency and taught by a guy who runs an esl teaching website. The best part was getting classroom management ideas from the other teachers. I put some of those ideas to work this week...and got myself into trouble with my boss. She's afraid that the parents will complain if their naught kids have to do pushups. On her behalf, she did at least read them the riot act and threatened to take away their Christmas party and they did behave a little better yesterday.

I learn a little more about teaching just about every day. It's exhausting. I don't get a lot of feedback either, so it's hard to know where I stand with my employer. Sometimes, I think that the teacher shortage is my only saving grace. Instead of firing me, they will have to put up with me until I learn to be a better teacher...and then I will leave.

Contributing to the teacher shortage is the fact that the value of the won has dropped by about 35% since I got here...gotta pray for the Korean economy...and tell our friends to buy something Korean for Christmas.

I am looking forward to the Christmas holiday. Instead of going to Thailand, I will be going to Bali. Thailand was having some political unrest to the point that the Bangkok airport was shut down. 100,000 tourists were left stranded. There was also a grenade thrown. Only one person died, but 22 were injured. The government eventually gave the protesters what they were demanding, and the airport is supposed to reopen today or tomorrow, but I got kind of nervous about going there by myself. I will be going to Bali instead.

I am pretty excited about going to Bali. I'd thought of it when I booked for Thailand, but it seemed a little too extravagant. Then, the travel agent told me that if I wanted to change my ticket it would only be the equivalent of $33.00 U.S. I didn't have to think about that decision for long! Man makes plans, God laughs...and now I'm sorta laughing too...kinda like he let me in on the joke.

trying to look up...and culture shock is real

2008-11-14T17:06:00.000-08:00

I can just barely breath through my nostrils again and it is a new day. I don't have to hate Korea today. My kindergarteners are having a big concert today and I am likely to have a meal that doesn't suck.

Today's concert will include little boys beating drums to the tune of Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff," the one-millionth-billionth rendition of Disney's "Whole New World" and the parading of the foreign teachers in front of the parents. I have to dress up for this. I will wear the same black 2 piece dress that I wore to my Father's funeral three years ago. It's cute and I used to wear it all the time. I have new shoes to go with it...I have a lot of new shoes here lately.

Tuesday was a cute little holiday called Peppero day. It's like a Korean Valentine's day. I recieved dozens of these little chocolate covered breadsticks that are totally addictive. I couldn't eat all of the peppero that I recieved, but I ate my share. I'd purchased a few to give to my students, but I needn't have bothered, what you get in the morning, you can give away in the afternoon. It was a cute, fun, holiday.

Another good thing that happened this week was that I met an American/Canadian/Japanese guy who also lives in Mo-ville. His name is Kevin and he teaches at the University here. He is married but his wife and son live in Seattle. He seems pretty normal and I sorta wonder if I haven't collected enough phone numbers to imagine getting people together and helping them to find some community here.

I'm obsessed with meeting "westerners" here. It's part of the culture shock experience. At times, I want to regress back to American food and talk to American people. It's one of the stages. A "honeymoon" stage is also described. I think that I am learning that this stage theory is like many other stage theories in which one may or may not experience the stages sequentially. There are honeymoon days, there are days of horror, there are days of regression.

You also want to deny that you are experiencing culture shock. You do this simply because you want to feel "normal." There is no such thing as normal and culture shock is real. Some people never recover from it and when they get home, they make a poor adjustment there too. The key is to keep your heart open...unless you want to be an emotionally repressed and heartless batard.

an I hate Korea day.

2008-11-14T05:22:00.000-08:00

The ESL board said that I would have some "I hate Korea" days. This is one of them. I'm sick again and experiencing some of the more negative aspects of culture shock.

I gave my kids a big test last week. It covered the last five units of the the phonics book and I got a pretty good assessment of how well my kids are doing. I documented all of this for my employer...and just how does she respond? Well, she wants me to give them another test next
Friday. Also, I can't give them just one test related to the material that we have covered, but I have to create five different tests.

I have four classes who are all studying from the same text. I worked very hard to get them all to the point where they were studying the same unit at the same time so that when I create a worksheet or test, I can give it to all of them. The test that I gave last week was a fair assessment of how each student is doing. The test that I give next week will be something of a joke...a joke that I am very frustrated with.

My kids are grouped together not by their English language skills, but by their ages. Thus, I have seven year olds who can speak circles around some of my twelve year olds...especially the ones who act out all the time, never do their homework, and have barely mastered the screeching of "Tee-chaaa ga-a-a-ame! I have no problem giving them all the same test, but my boss thinks that the smart seven year olds need an easier test than the Pabo 12 year olds. I want to call bullshite, but I don't bother because I know that no one is going to listen to me anyway.

I am starting to understand why the ESL message is rife with embittered souls who feel that they left their dignity behind in the U.S. One of the big things that people have been bitching about lately is how much resistance they get over the taking of the sick days that are allowed for
in their contracts. On the day that I lost my lunch, I had to argue and insist for some time off and in the end I only got to go home long enough to take a short nap. I really felt crappy this week and I wanted to take a day. I figure that what with walking around the school with bronchitis or pneumonia, or whatever I had a couple weeks ago and not taking time off, I'm tired and I'm probably due for some time to be miserable in private. However, I lack the energy to argue over this, so I just go to work.

I'm sick, I'm resentful, and then lunch today was like the last straw. I went into the lunch room and at my place setting was some rice (the Asian nutritional equivalent of white bread) and what looked like mud soup. I looked around the rest of the table (because Koreans love their side dishes) and everything else on the table was mushy and brown like mud as well. I left the room saying that I was not hungry.

On a brighter note, I bought my airline ticket for my Christmas vacation. I am going to Thailand. I will fly into Bangkok first and then I'd like to go to the island of Koh Phangan where I can lay on a beach, celebrate the new year, and go Elephant trekking.

Maybe I'll feel better in the morning

drowned mall rat

2008-11-10T04:44:00.000-08:00

I have a few pics up on my facebook and myspace pages. That will have to do for the time being. I'm not a big photobug. I like pictures, but I often prefer to be having fun and being in the moment while someone else is doing the clicking.

I got paid on Thursday and I'm beginning to plan my Christmas vacation. I can leave after school on December 24th and I have until January 4th. I'd like to fly to Thailand and then perhaps to Vietnam and/or Cambodia. I have e-mailed every travel agency listed in the English language newspaper and I've asked my boss to check some prices for me. I have heard that if you go through a Korean speaking coworker, you can get a better deal. I need a good deal because I spent a load of cash this past weekend.

You can't beat payday shopping in the Korea. So, you spent four hundred thousand won! So what? You have two million more to go! I bought three dresses, four pair of shoes, another black t-shirt, yummy western food, a bottle of wine, and, and, and...well, so much stuff that I had trouble carrying it all home. In fact, I inadvertantly left one of my shopping bags on the bus. It had a pair of really cute boots in it. I was really disappointed, but as it turned out, it was hardly a worry. When I got to work this morning, I told my boss about it. She then called the bus company and she had my boots in less than an hour.

Operation find myself a church to go to is continuing. This weekend, I went to church on Saturday AND Sunday. First, I went with my coworkers to their 7th day adventist church. I was not about to join their church, but I was willing to visit. They met in a classroom on the campus of a big hospital and worship was lively. Like my co-worker Reyna, the minister and many of the congregants were from the Phillipines. There was a potluck afterwards. The food was fabulous.

I have been praying that I would meet an English speaking gal pal who lived near me and my prayer has been answered. I met Annemarie on facebook and she lives just a block or so from me. She is from Cleveland and is Catholic enough to get up at the crack of dawn and take a two hour bus ride into Seoul. I've been just desparate enough for fellowship that I decided to join her. Catholic church is nice because it's the same all over the world and you are always welcome. I took communion for the first time since I left Columbus.

After the service, we sat in on a meeting that concerned some upcoming activities. There is going to be a big Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings. They will order it from the Army base and nobody around here eats like the military people do. All that I had for lunch today was some rice and some watery soup. Other things were on the table, but I don't like cold eggs over hard. I also don't like quail eggs. The latter was on a plate with some quail meat, but I passed on that too. I did take a bite of some sort of green leafy vegetable, but it was kimchi-fied. Thats what they do with almost all vegetables here. The ones that are not somehow pickled, or fried, are wrapped around pieces of red meat.

I should stop bitching about the food, but I probably won't. Let me bitch about food and a guy that I met right here in the same paragraph. I met a guy who lives here in mo-ville and he's probably going to stay in Korea for a very long time. He has been here for two and a half years so far and he already knows everything. This might take two paragraphs.

We ordered some lunch...or he ordered it because he could read the menu. To his credit, he consulted me. I chose the tofu soup over the kimchi soup. He then took the opportunity to boast about how when he first got here and couldn't read the menu, he went to the same restaurant over and over again pointing to the first thing on the menu, and then the next thing, until he had experienced everything on the menu. I'm not sure that I believe him, but even if I did, there's no freakin' way that I would do that. Too many strange, yucky, and unlovely foods have shown up on my school lunch table for free. I am not about to pay good money for such things.

It's hard to believe that I was such a "foodie" back home. I almost hate food here. I think that this is partly because I was too sick to be able to taste many things, and partly because Korean food doesn't have a lot of flavor...until they DROWN it with red pepper sauce. Now, don't get me wrong, I like spicy food, but spicy Korean is a whole different beast.

In spite of my messed up relationship with the food here, I have not lost any weight. My jeans fit as well as they ever did. At least I have not gained any weight. They have these cookies here called Binch. Jason, my coworker got me hooked on them. They are shortbread cookies covered with chocolate on one side. They are addictive...and then I go and seek out western food on the weekends. The food court at the Coex mall is a good thing. You can even find western food that is not "fused" with Korean crappiness.

Coex mall deserves it's own blog sometime. It's like every mall that you have ever visited but the stores are smaller and there are more of them and it's like the whole thing is on steroids. It goes on forever. One floor of it is actually a local airport. Another floor is a movie theatre. You can only see so much of it in one outing or your feet will fall off. We got lost more times than we could count. I went there after church on Saturday and again on Sunday. By the time that I got home last night, I felt like a drowned mall rat.

2008-11-01T23:07:00.000-07:00

I hope to have a picture day soon. Not having my own computer has delayed this. I feel funny about downloading my pics onto some random computer in a pc room. I will try to take care of this soon.

One of the cutest things that you will get to see on picture day is from Halloween. The school provided costumes for most of the kindies, so there were dozens of the cutest little pumpkins that you ever did see. We took them trick or treating Korea style. This meant piling them all into a bus and taking them to the parking lots of their apartment complexes where we were met by their mothers who had candy by the bagful. The kids sang songs and the moms handed over the goods. I was dressed as a witch and my role was to mug for the camera.

In the afternoon we hosted a party for the older kids and they were allowed to invite their friends. We decorated one classroom with lots of spiders, and once we turned off most of the lights, I led them in an interactive story about a dead guy whose "body parts" I was passing around. Peeled grapes, spaghetti noodles, ketchup and some other sticky things managed to make the kids scream and giggle and fun was had by all...especially me.

I was beyond tired at the end of the day, so I didn't go to any grown up Halloween parties. I wasn't really invited to any. I went to bed early and slept a little bit late. I was in pretty good shape for going into Bundang to meet Darren, the brother of my friend Erin from mortuary school.

We decided not to hang around Bundang for long. Instead, we took off for Mo-ville. I live 20 minutes from Everland and Darren is quite the Everland enthusiast. Some of that enthusiasm wore off on me. It was clear that the folks at Samsung who built Everland had done their homework. The place was themed out like Disney, had rollercoasters to rival Kings Island or Cedar Point, and there was a zoo with a safari ride where the bears come right up to the bus and put their paws on it. It could definitely be the sort of thing to attract international tourists to the Korea.

The hardest thing about getting around Korea is the fact that almost nothing is translated into English, or any of the other languages that people visiting Korea might be expected to speak. I sorta understand how great their public transportation system is, but I can't get all the way there because the maps and websites have only the smallest smattering of English on them. It's okay though, I'm not planning to spend tons of travel dollars in Korea. I'm working on going somewhere else for Christmas. I'm not sure about Turkey anymore. I want to go there, but it may prove too costly. Maybe I'll head for a beach somewhere.

2008-10-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

This last week was one of the toughest weeks in Korea so far. In order to get through it, I prayed a lot, talked to friends from home, and then on the weekend, I got the heck out of Mo-ville. I'm really fortunate to have a couple of girlfriends in Bundang who have been truly amazing to me even though we haven't known each other very long.

My friend Missy and I had a girls night in on Friday with pizza and a movie. I don't even have a TV out here in Mo-ville, so that was pretty great. Then, on Saturday we went to Seoul for pedicures. I love, love, love getting my feet pampered!

Missy had other plans for Saturday night, so I called Jennifer and we got together. I didn't mean to get totally loaded on Soju, but I'm new to the stuff, so that's what happened...and it totally happened. Like, this guy came up to me and said hello, and my response was to start puking... I didn't mean to reject him like that, but I guess it just wasn't in the cards.

Back at school on Monday, I knew that I was turning a corner and that things were going to be okay when there was a sudden announcement on the PA and I was told that I was to attend a concert in the auditorium. All of the kids participated, even the 4 slash 3 year olds.

The five year old boys performing a percussion and dance routine to Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" was one of the cutest and funniest things I've ever seen. Maybe they haven't seen "Little Miss Sunshine" here and we can only hope that they do not.

I sat on the floor during the show and at one point I had at least four toddlers on my lap. The whole school sang the theme song from Aladdin as it is the absolute favorite here and it never seems to get old. I didn't like it at first, tooo icky sweet and Disney and such...you know how that goes, but it started growing on me and now I'm right there with the kids singing my heart out.

So there I was on a Monday morning feeling much better. I will still miss my friend Maya. She was so young and so beautiful, it's just wrong. I can hardly believe that she's gone. It will take some getting used to. Grief is different for everyone, but I believe that death is a loss so prpfound that you never completely get over it, you just sorta get used to it and make it your friend after awhile. I've been the same way over my most recent heartbreak. I'm getting used to it and I'm putting my heart into my job. The kids are totally worth it.

Mourning a friend from home

2008-10-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

Last night while I was praying about a relationship that has probably ended, I got this picture of a mortuary cot. I thought that it meant that I should just let go or something, but this morning I learned that I was being prepared for some really bad news. A dear friend of mine just died.

Myra was one of the people that I made sure to get together with before I took off for Korea. She was beautiful, she was special, she was intense. Every emotion that she felt was just bigger than life. She wasn't living as a Christian might, but she knew Jesus and she knew how much he loved her. She had a lot of pain in this life. She may have wanted to die. It may have been an accident. I don't really know. What I do know is that she isn't feeling so all alone any longer and that I will miss her.

For me, this is the punch in the heart that in the midst of all the other things going on, could have sent me spiraling into depression. But it's funny how I was praying about a situation with a guy, when I got that picture of what was actually going on with her. I don't know how many times I listened to her highs and lows as she fell in and out of love with this guy or that guy. I am reminded of just how strong I need to be and of how I can only go to God to get that strength.

I'll bet that Mom didn't expect to be attending any funerals for me while I went to Korea.

Laryngitis

2008-10-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

laryngitis
The voice that I lost
so long ago
is still gone

I keep failing
to understand this

and in the moment
when I might be
expected to
put on the brakes
I mute
and crash.

Definition: accountability

2008-10-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

We wronged one another
we were both hurting
it never meant
that we didn't love
God, ourselves, each other
and everyone elsethat we still love.
It doesn't even mean
the horrorof being hypocrites
for we are not among those
who wipe their mouths
saying that they have not
actually sinned.
We are of a people
who acknowlege wrong
take responsibility for it
and take it to a God who
will heal our stubborn,
callous hearts
and teach us
to love one another
the way that
we should.

Seoul or Sheol?

2008-10-19T06:50:00.000-07:00

I went to Seoul this weekend, not with a date like last time, and not with my coworker and his wife like the time before. We did take the bus in together, but we went our separate ways at Seoul Station. They were going to church and I was going to get my hair done and make an effort at finding my own church.

Sure, I could go to their church, but I am not really ready to be a 7th day adventist. Like, if I'm going to eat meat while I'm in Korea, I'm going to eat seafood and I'm also not giving up the occasional beer or glass of wine. In addition to these things, I don't think that they even drink coffee. I used to make my living making coffee and I love, love, love my morning cuppa.

I managed to get my hair done and make some new friends. There was a woman from New Zealand who was sitting on the porch in front of the Dunkin Donut Shop knitting, so I asked her if there was a yarn shop nearby. There was no knitting shop, but I was invited to join her group and then I ended up making friends with a fellow named Al who wanted to go look at some art galleries. Having no plans for the rest of the day, I decided to go. We wandered around some shops and galleries. I bought a new handbag and a gorgeous necklace and I had a great time. Al even found me a place to stay. He was staying long term at a really cheap yagwon. It cost about twenty-five bucks, but it was worth about that much. I didn't shower there in the morning, or even brush my teeth. The shower was just too sketchy and there was no sink. I hadn't slept much and although I would have used my bottled water to brush my teeth. I would have had to spit into either the toilet or the floor drain. I figured that I'd just stop by Dunkin Donuts again.

So, I've figured out that the $40.00 love motels are as low as I will go.

Church this morning was pretty awful. Al told me that he used to go to the church that I intended to visit, but he didn't offer any other suggestions so I went ahead and checked things out for myself. I sat through the service and even went downstairs for the coffee cake after, but really, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The minister had preached a really condemning, legalistic sermon based on a verse that says "Now then, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Evidently, the King James Version of the bible added a little extra part to that verse that isn't in my more scholarly New International Version and this minister pointed that out too. I don't really want to go to one of those King James only churches. That doctrine is one of the first steps into wierdness for me, and the church bulletin/pamphlet went several steps further, even quoting a wierd verse about snake handling. I didn't see any snakes, but I didn't want to see any snakes...and I also want to stop condemning myself for crap that I really just need to put aside and forget about.

I haven't heard from the "boyfriend" in almost a week. He probably got freaked out because things moved along really fast that weekend when we went to Seoul. I was freaked out too. He was drinking too much, and he was smoking, and I pretty much hate those things, but he was also pretty cool. He may still be in Austria. He had to go there this week for his job, but he could have sent me an e-mail...or something. Then again, I didn't write to him until like Friday and then it was really brief. It was like he had cancelled one date too many due to all of his work stuff and I was still freaking out a bit. I was feeling really guarded...blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, it was a long trip back from Seoul today. I couldn't find the right bus stop, so I took the subway to Suwon and found a bus from there. On the subway, I talked to a young guy from New York who had also tried to go to church this morning. He'd managed to get lost and to make matters worse, he'd gotten on the wrong subway train. I wrote down the name of the church he'd planned to go to. Maybe he was supposed to be on that train to tell me where to go to church next time. It will probably be a few weeks. I spend too much money when I go to Seoul, so I can't be going back every week. Plus, the city is just so dirty. It even leaves me feeling slightly dirty in a spiritual way. I don't know if I can explain it, but I know that it wasn't just my runny nose keeping me awake last night.I doubt that I will even follow up with the people that I met there. Al was a fun shopping buddy, but after he told me how I should and should not sit in a chair at the Dunkin Donuts, I decided that he only wanted to shop with me so that he could tell me how to seem more "ladylike" and this woman is not about to audition for Audrey Hepburn's role in My Fair Lady.

Your not over there to get a life you are over there to write a blog to entertain those of us who are still over here. :-)

2008-10-14T06:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I got my first paycheck and immediately started neglecting my blog. I have been duly chastized as to my neglect of duty and I hope that my friends and family who read this will accept my apology.

I am getting the hang of teaching school. It kicks my behind every day and I love it. I'm also sick all of the time. The little monsters are made of 100% germs. I'm sure of this.

The smallest kids are my favorites. We sing songs and color in workbooks. What's not to love about that. The youngest ones are only 3 and 4 years old. They are learning to read and write English and Korean at the same time. When I was three, I got a new baby brother and walking to the mailbox was a big adventure.

These kids are truly amazing. Yesterday, some of them were learning to write letters in hangul. Four of them chose to write to me. I cant read a single word. I can make out a few letters, maybe the m and the a, still it isn't much. Fortunately, there are a lot of hearts and flowers decorating the letters. I think that they like me.

I find it much more difficult to manage the 10 year olds. I try really hard to keep them busy, because the second that they finish something, they are BORED!

"TEEE-CHAAA GAAAME!!!" they holler.

They truly think that they are in school to play games. Other ESL teachers say that we are "edutainers" and to a certain extent this is true. One is far ahead of this game if one can develop educational games. Last week, I played a lot of flashcard matching games, then yesterday I passed out a big worksheet to see if the kids who have been playing the games could actually identify the pictures that they had been looking at. The results have been somewhat mixed. I think that the kids who are constantly coming up to me and saying "Teeechaaak, what?" while showing me the cards are the same ones who aren't completing the worksheets. I have got to come up with a way to reach these kids.

Enough about work. I've also been having a life. I've even been dating someone. He's a software engineer who lives about an hour from me. He's an American who was born in Europe, so he has dual citizenship. He also belonged to the same kind of church as me when he lived in America. Right now, his life is a bit out of balance. He works all the time and when he can get away from work, he can be the picture of the partyin' expat. Maybe he needs somebody like me to give him a whack upside the head for this, and maybe I won't even want to date him a week from now, but we do have fun together, so I am trying to be patient.

The level of debauchery amongst the expat community is a little much for me at times. I've come to appreciate returning to Mo-ville on Sunday afternoons. It's quiet and I can hit the outdoor market before it closes. It's really cheap to live here. Yesterday, I bought a jacket for 14,o00 Won, and a whole chicken for 2,500 won. I was starting to feel under the weather and the Chicken made really good broth. The meat was tough as nails.

Food-wise, I've abandoned all of my vegetarian principals and I'm even finding a few Korean things that I like. The other day, I bought something that looked like a bagel, but it was soft and it was filled with red bean paste. I liked the red bean paste. I don't know what they do to make it, but I wonder if it isn't sort of like peanut butter. It has that sort of texture, only slightly more like a jam. It is sweet like a jam. I have become accustomed to Kimchi. They make Kimchi out of everything here. It isn't always bad.

What happens in Daegu, stays in Daegu?

2008-09-29T04:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend, my three girlfriends and I went to Daegu, South Korea, where we were kicked out, or turned away from three love motels, a karaoke bar, and a taxi.

The first thing that we did in Daegu, was to attend a wedding. There were many, many wedding chapels in Daegu. In fact there were so many wedding related places that we decided that Daegu was Korea's version of Vegas. We even joked about how what happened in Daegu, would stay in Daegu...and we were planning on staying in an Asian love motel!

I wasn't too sure about the love motel thing at first, but my coworker maintains that all the hotels are love motels...unless you want to pay 300,000 Won per night to stay at the Hilton and why would a teacher want to do that? Besides, love motels are more interesting. Some of them have strangely shaped beds and weird smelling aftershave available for your personal use. So, after the wedding, we figured out where the art show that we were to attend was located and looked for a place that we could walk to from there. We were then kicked out of the Mellow Motel, the Yellow Motel, and the 2000 Motel.

The adjuma's at eachmotel, maintained that there were no rooms, but their parking lots were completely empty. We even got a translator on the phone and were quite persistent with the adjuma at the Mellow Motel. We finally decided to look in a different neighborhood. There were no problems at a hotel near the train station.

After we rested up, we found a reasonably priced Italian restaurant for dinner. We didn't drink at dinner, so afterward we decided to get a cocktail. Most of the bars and restaurants in the area were very crowded at that point. We headed into a Karaoke place which was simply called "live bar" and were immediately told "For Korean's Only." We were pretty sure that it wasn't a gentleman only sort of place, but they clearly did not want four waygookin women in there establishment. Too much beauty in one place might be bad for them, who knows?

We eventually found a place and then went to the art opening. It was also a rock show and the club wasn't just cool for Korea. It would have been cool in any U.S. city...even if it were in Columbus...and that is high praise coming from the likes of me. It was a good show and I had a good time and I even talked to a couple of guys. One said that he was an artist, the other was a drummer in one of the bands. Go me.

The taxi driver yelled at us to get out and go accross the street when we would have gladly paid him for his driving us down the block and turned around, but instead of trying to get another cab with a nicer driver, we were demoralized just enough that we resigned ourselves to walking about a half a mile down some stairs and underneath the street to get across the street and get another cab.

This last incident (and some recent threads on Dave's ESL cafe) got me to thinking about the internalization of racism and how fast it can happen to us. Sure, not everyone who treats us poorly is a racist, and we can certainly be naive about other cultures to the point where we are offensive, but when we start getting demoralized and blaming ourselves for random acts of ignorance by others, we are on our way and before long we are on the aforementioned ESL board writing about how much we hate other westerners. I think that this is very sad.

not quite exiled in Mo-ville

2008-09-25T04:55:00.000-07:00

This week, I have mostly good things to report, however I have given the town that I live in a nickname. I call it Mo-ville. The actual name of the town is Mohyeon-Myeon. I have to look up how it's spelled every single time that I use it. I've grown tired of doing this. From now on I will call it Mo-ville.

I got the heck out of Mo-ville over the weekend. I went to visit a friend's sister in Bundang. We went to the Dublin Pub and I suppose that it was as close to an Irish pub as you are going to find in The Korea. We drank a Korean beer in the style of Killian's Red. It wasn't bad beer.

We sat down at the bar and started looking around. After a few sips, I got brave enough to speak to the people at a nearby table who looked like they were having a good time. "Are you guys teachers?" I asked, and only one person at the table was not a teacher. The odd man out was a military guy who was dating a teacher.

We were invited to join the other teachers and this one military guy thoroughly enjoyed being seated at a table full of women. If I had been his date, I would have been offended, especially since he insisted on giving me his phone number.

Another guy tried to pick me up in the M0-ville grocery store this week. He too insisted on giving me his phone number. He was from Sri Lanka and my kindergarteners can speak better English. It was nice that he tried, but suddenly the fact that I don't have a phone became convenient.

I finally got my Alien Registration Card today. They also returned my passport. The school principal gave me the envelope during our weekly meeting. She also congratulated me and welcomed me to the Nara Language school family. Somehow, she's very pleased with me.

Have I mentioned that I'm an advertisement? Well, evidently I'm a pretty good spokesmodel. The other day, I inadvertantly let my students out of class 10 minutes early. The clock in my room doesn't work, so I just make an educated guess by letting them out when I see other students in the hallway. Well, the other American teacher was taking his kids outside to play a game and I didn't know this. I followed them out and my boss pointed out my error. I couldn't rope them back into the classroom, so we joined Jason's class and played a chase game called "Blind Mice" I took off my shoes and played the good sport. So, as parents pulled into the driveway, the American teachers were out on the lawn playing with their children. Our principal loved this and she was feeling very magnanimous today. She even talked about her dreams for having franchises in Seoul.

So, I've got my ARC card and can now open a bank account and get a phone. It shouldn't be too long before I can do this. I should probably buy a new computer too. Evidently the repair on my laptop would have cost more than what I paid for it, so the warranty company wants to send me a check. I'm okay with that because I won't have to pay to ship it. I can use PC rooms and the computers at school until I decide the what, where, and when of a new computer. I might delay it until I get my October paycheck because I imagine that my September check will be pro-rated and I'd like to shop airfares for my winter vacation. I hope to meet up with my former roommate in Istanbul and perhaps visit some other sights nearby.

I've also got travel plans for this coming weekend. One of the women whom I met Saturday night invited me to go to Daegu where she has three photographs in an art exhibit that is opening. She worked with Zana Briski, the producer of the film "Born into Brothels" who founded the organization Kids with Cameras. This show will feature photographs taken by children who survived an industrial accident in China that devastated the community around it. I'm really looking forward to getting out of Mo-ville and possibly finding opportunities to do good in this world.

Long week

2008-09-19T06:22:00.000-07:00

Due to the Chuesok Holiday, this was only a four day week, but it felt like a month.

I should cover the Holiday first. I went to Seoul for the first time. We went to this big market area and most of it was closed. Perhaps this was fortunate because I didn't spend a whole lot of money.

Most of the merchants that were open were selling piles and piles of misprinted t-shirts in rather unfortunate colors. I sorta get a kick out of the bad grammar tees, but not to the point that I will part with the dollars that I worked so hard for back in the U.S.

In the Itaewon district, which is where you will find most of the "foreigner" population of Korea, I saw things that I liked better, but they were pricier. I asked about a hat that struck my funny bone and it was twenty bucks. It reminded me of a certain hawt guy back home, but I had to pass. Instead, I bought myself a "Coach" handbag with that 20,000 won. Sorry Dude, and if it helps I haggled that price down by 5,000 won. It might be a fake designer bag, but I still want a bargain damnit!

We didn't even try to find interesting food. I had a seafood quesadilla from Outback Steakhouse. Don't judge me for that. After all, I am not aware of any great Korean restaurants back home and at this point, I believe that there is a reason for it. This week, I had a cold and I tried some Korean chicken soup. It was this nearly flavorless bowl of watery rice with a few pieces of chicken in it. Not exactly the Jewish remedy that I had in mind.

School this week was annoying. My fellow American coworker and I need to agree to disagree on all things political. He's still a really nice person and I must say that he and his wife have been instrumental in making me feel comfortable here...not that I am very comfortable just yet.

It really wasn't fair for that recruiter to lie to me about the proximity of this place to Seoul. This kind of isolation does not do much towards setting a first time teacher up for success and I've had a few bad days.

For one thing, I sorta work for Big Brother. Nearly every room in the school has a camera in it, including the teacher's room. On Tuesday, I was told not to knit during my downtime because the principle thinks that it looks bad when the parents look at the monitors which are all in a big display in the receptionist's office. I'm also told that I should "smile" more. I understand the cameras in the classroom, but I don't think that we need one in the teacher's room. Sure, it used to be a classroom, but it isn't any longer. Turn off the freakin' camera.

After work on Tuesday, I decided to chill and get a pedicure. It was the worst pedicure ever. I went to the "Princess" nail salon and they painted my toenails for about $25.00. Now that wouldn't be a bad price in Columbus, Ohio, but you would have recieved more service. They did not soak my feet, pumice my heels, or even apply any lotion. All I got were pink toenails and they knew that they could get away with it because I didn't know how to read the signage in their shop. I walked out with tears in my eyes.

I muddled through Wednesday and Thursday trying to learn the names of all the kids and working very hard at staying awake after 4:00 p.m. Then after school on Thursday, we had our weekly teacher's meeting where I was told in front of everyone, that I should not knit in school except during lunchtime. Now, I had not brought my knitting in since they told me not to knit. I did not need to be told this a second time and I definitely did not need it brought up in front of everyone. I took my supervisor to task for this right there on the spot and I hope that it didn't make my coworkers too uncomfortable. You are not supposed to make people "lose face" in Asia, and my supervisor would not have done this to a Korean, so I was in the right, but I'm not sure if I went about this in the right way. Still, I'm a foreigner and I do everything wrong, so she will have to live with it. Especially when you consider what she has in mind for me this next week. I am supposed to have a brand new class all to myself. The Kindies won't know any english at all as far as I've been told. I think that I will use a lot of flashcards.

I've made plans to go to Bundang and possibly/probably spend the night. There will be drinking involved, probably at a "Foreigner Bar." I will meet some friends that I met over this here internet, as well as re-meet a friends sister who is also in need of a night out. We will probably go to the Dublin Pub, which is funny because I grew up in Dublin, Ohio where the big pub is called the Brazenhead and I wouldn't be caught dead in it.

new friends and such

2008-09-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to make friends here and there. I'm getting along well with my coworkers, a guy from Missouri and his Fillipino wife. They have been married for less than 2 years and their love for each other is obvious. They are also deeply devoted as Seventh Day Advenists, so their love for God is also obvious. We worshipped together on Saturday as they believe it to be a more authentic day to observe the Sabbath. They also observe some dietary restrictions. I'm not likely to become a Seventh Day Advenist, but we had a really nice time together.

I also met an older Canadian gentleman who has been teaching here for at least 10 years. He has traveled extensively in Asia and hasn't been back to Canada in about 8 years.

My new friends and my old friends are very encouraging, and as I am told of endless opportunities for ESL teachers, they even disagree as to how I can best accomplish it. The catch is that I won't accomplish any of it if I dont' figure out how to deal with being alone so much of the time. So far, I'm doing alright. It might even be causing me to draw closer to God in some ways. I have a lot more time to pray, that's for sure.

Keep me in your prayers,

Love,

Anita.

Don't call me, I'm still trying to figure out how to call you.

2008-09-12T17:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a long tough week here in Korea. I live in a place called Mohyeong-Myeon which is an "agricultural city." I never thought that those two words would go together in any sentence that I wrote. It is comprised of a very strange mixture of tall buildings and greenhouses. You can smell fertilizer (shit) just about everywhere you go.

I was told that I would be in a place called Yongin City. I went there last night. You have to take a bus to get there. Last night, I went there for a pizza with two of my coworkers. Afterward, we walked around and went to a 500 won store. It was like an american dollar store, only 500 won is the equivalent of fifty cents. I bought a sugar shaker and an alarm clock.

You did read that right. We did go out for Pizza, it was such a relief. Thus far, Korean food has been a big disappointment. Almost everything is either pickled, or fried. Kimchi is a spicy pickled cabbage and it is served with every meal. Then there will be pickles and some other pickled dish as well. Most of the meat that I have been served has been battered, and fried, and after they have fried it, they set it aside for awhile and serve it cold, on purpose! I was also served a cold omelet. Kimbap, the Korean version of sushi sucks too. Instead of a bit of nice fish and some vegetables, the rice and seaweed rolls have cold ham and eggs in the middle. I also had to eat corn with my chopsticks, one kernel at a time.

I also went to Suwon yesterday. I had to visit the immigration office to get my Alien Registration Card. They took my passport and told me that it would take another 2 weeks, giving me some lame piece of paper to use for an ID if necessary. I asked if I could use the ID to open a bank account or get a phone and they said no. I pretty much cried. I still feel a tear in my eye if I think about it too much. It will be another two weeks before I have a phone.

"Don't worry, you can buy a phone card" I've been told.

So, I tried that this morning. I have a card worth 20,000 won and calls to the U.S. cost 52 won per minute. It's pretty cheap. Unfortunately, when I went to use the phone, I could not figure it out. The prompts are all in Korean. I think that the prompts are saying: for gibberish press ?? and for more gibberish, press ?! What about "for English press 3?" Hell, I'd settle with "por Espaniol..." I wouldn't understand every word of the spanish, but I would get the numbers!

With all of this trouble, it's no wonder that a lot of expats don't have phones. I am determined not to be one of them. I think that its irresponsible and it smacks of that "don't call me, I'll call you" sort of arrogance that in the U.S. turns me off big time. I also think that my family should always be able to get ahold of me at a moments notice, whethere we are getting along or not. After all, when the shit hits the fan, most of our squabbling is meaningless.

oh oh oh I'm magic, y'know!

2008-09-10T04:41:00.000-07:00

I still don't know exactly where I live. I still don't have a phone. Still, I think that I'm okay. I can get mail at the school and I think that I trust that more than I would at my apartment building, and I should be able to get a phone as soon as my alien registration card shows up. That should be on Friday. Then my only obstacle will be a bank account. The phone bill will be paid directly out of my bank account and will perhaps help me build some credit here in Korea. I'll need some kind of Korean credit card if I want to order anything from any of the waygookin malls...in other words, catalogs.

Shopping is difficult here. For one thing, I live on the very outskirts of Yongin City in a place called Mohyeon-Myeon. There is almost nothing to buy here. For another thing, all of the "good" shopping is in Seoul and I've heard that it's not so great either. I buy groceries and I spend time in this here PC bang, an extravagance that costs about $1.50 an hour. I can only eat so much, and I can only stare at a computer for so long. I'm running out of good books in a hurry.

One thing that I did have to purchase this morning were some products of a feminine nature. On the box it says "enjoy your magic time." So, I'm sort of uncomfortable, and rather a mess, but somehow, I'm magical. Okay, I'll buy that.

univerals, and day 3

2008-09-09T04:42:00.001-07:00

Sunday morning, I awoke to the sound of construction. I looked out the window and the construction worker noticed me. He then pointed at me and the usual construction worker sees a woman noises followed. I laughed and moved away from the window.

Then, last night I met a Canadian who wished to buy me a beer. The little grocery stores here all have tables out front. I sat down at a picnic table on a nice porch overlooking the street life. An older couple was drinking some sort of rice wine nearby. Suddenly the man shoutedWaegookin, boogah boogah!" and starts picking his nose. Waegookin is a derogatory word for any foreigner.

So, whistling construction workers and drunken racist bastards are cultural universals. Who knew?

Today, I followed another teacher around and actually did some teaching. I'm still very jet lagged and it was exhausting. I missed my Mom!

I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast, Korean food for lunch, and another PB&J for dinner. I've been drinking plenty of water and my stomache has stopped hurting. My back and everything else have begun to hurt. I'm having a good time anyway.

day 2

2008-09-09T04:40:00.000-07:00

Well, day two here was my first day at work. I sat in on other teacher's classrooms and I was taken to a hospital for my medical exam. They performed an EKG on me. Talk about your pre-employment screening. Alas, I was found to have a minor sinus arhythmia, so I will not be the absolutely perfect employee. I hope the school can stand it.

I also had my picture taken for my ARC and as it turns out, sleepy and hungry look good on me. It was a really cute picture. After that, we had lunch at the school. There were too kinds of pickles on the table, plus kimchi. I like pickles, but my stomach does not seem to like anything right now. If I were smart, I would eat plain rice and water for the next few days. Unfortunately, my curiosity got the best of me. I tried the weird chicken nuggets AND the gristly barbecued pork. I wonder when my belly will stop hurting.

I've arrived: day one

2008-09-09T04:39:00.000-07:00

I’ve arrived: day one
I started my trip off right by having a bloody mary at Port Columbus. I then took a very small and scary plane to Detroit. The Detroit Airport is cool. I switched to lemonade. The flight from Detroit to Tokyo became really tortuous when the couple next to me fell fast asleep as miss window seat had to pee reallly bad.
I was supposed to drink Saki in the Tokyo airport but I could barely find a glass of water. Fortunately, it wasn't a long wait for the flight to Incheon, Seoul South Korea and the people that I waited with were cool. Elle was a rower for Purdue and a fellow Starbucks Barista. She worked a shift just days before she left. We both had Starbucks hands (rough), although mine are starting to soften up a little bit.
When I arrived in the ROK, I was totally parched. The fellow picking me up was super nice and offered bottled water immediately. I didn't even have to ask. He also bought second bottles. He was in charge of ,me and another girl who had to catch a bus. We waited about an hour for her bus and then he drove me to Yongin. That took at least an hour. There I was again with what was something of a language barrier, totally having to pee and being able to do nothing about it. Somehow, I got him to pull over at a gas station. One more bump on the road and I'd have had an accident.
I have a brand spanking new apartment. I'm pretty sure that it was prefabricated. Everything in it looks like it came from Almost Furniture. It's an Ikea style apartment without the style. The wallpaper totally kills it for me. It's a very large and repetitive beige on beige floral print. If I give up and run home early, blame the wallpaper.
For my very first day in Korea, my boss took me to TGI Fridays. I hate American chain restaurants and I had a killer stomach ache. 24 hours of flying does amazing things to one's intestines. On top of that, the waitress forgot to put in my order. Two other entrees came out and I mistook one of them for mine. The waitress put it on the table and my boss claimed it for hers but left it in the middle of the table, so I didn't know that she was claiming it, I guess that she was sharing it with her husband. We were with her daughter-in-law and the music teacher from the school and those two also shared an entree. Two entrees were in the middle of the table and one of them looked like what I'd ordered. I didn't know that it wasn't. I thought that we were sharing. I had a little from each entree and I was pretty much full by the time my entree arrived. To save me some of the embarrassment, everyone tried some of my entree. Then they pushed some watery brown stuff on me. It must have been what TGI Fridays calls coffee.
After lunch, we went to a store called Homever. Their slogan is "Home Sweet Home Forever" It was like a Meijer or maybe a Walmart Superstore, asian style. They bought me all sorts of things for my apartment and a whole bunch of Groceries. I bought all western style foods. I'll be eating Korean kiddie food for lunches. I wonder what it will be like.
All in all, it was a productive day. I found a PC bang, where I can log on and write home and that is what I am doing now.
Love,
Anita

I don't have an accent

2008-09-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

I will be leaving for Korea on Friday. I'm a little nervous. I'm afraid that I will be lonely and I've been acting rather stupid because of this. I hope that my friends can forgive. I'm not worried about God. He's forgiven me for worse. I'm trying to learn from my mistakes. I am sure that I will make many mistakes as a teacher, but at least, according to this quiz that I took, I don't have an accent. My students will speak English correctly!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
Boston
North Central
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I was a teenage mutant missionary

2008-08-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

I was a teenage mutant missionariy

As I get ready for a year in South Korea, I can't help but think of the last time that I went on a trip accross the ocean. I went to France, England and Scottland with Teen Missions when I was 15. Their mission seemed to be to take American teenagers all over the world and expose them to nothing but hard work.

The first two weeks were in Merritt Island Florida where they held "The Lord's Boot Camp." We had to run an obstacle course every day and it sucked. It also rained every afternoon. Dry socks became a commodity. It was there that I also got my first dose of what they called "special blessings."

Those who were so blessed got extra work detail during the one hour per day that we had for "free time." This was really the only time that we had for bathing. My heinous infraction? I left my Bible in my tent when it was time for that daily hour of enforced personal devotion time.

As an adult, I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder.

So it was there at boot camp where my summer ordeal began. My bible was never where it was supposed to be. They let me go for nearly 2 weeks without the "privilege" of a shower. I felt like Pigpen from Peanuts. When I finally got my shower. I stayed in there for a good while longer than the time alloted, and I was late for the evening group devotions. I probably got "special blessings" for that too.

Finally, I lost my bible at Heathrow airport so that they couldn't "bless" me anymore.

Today is the 20th.

2008-08-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

Today is the 20th.

Well, the recruiter said that I would be leaving on or about the 20th, so today's relevant quote comes from Darrell Mullins who said: "You never leave for Korean when you think you are going to leave. Nobody ever leaves on time."

I am STILL waiting on my visa number. Once I get it, I will have to get my passport stamped by the Korean consulate, which is located in Chicago. There is also a $45.00 fee attached to it.

Yesterday was my last day at Starbucks. I've had a lot of "last days" at Starbucks, but I think that yesterday was for real. I'm sorta fed up with the joint. I was scheduled in as an extra and my shift sent me home after just one hour. That hardly honored the effort of showing up.

All day long, it's like we are running a race and if you stop for even a second to catch your breath, there is always someone coming along and saying "if you don't have anything to do..."

Excuse you, but I've been working here for the last YEAR. I know what I am supposed to be doing and I know when and how to be doing it. QUIT riding my ASS!

Okay, well, I'm going to stop feeling sorry for myself and go serve lunch at St. Johns.

my pet cause

2008-08-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

My pet cause is human trafficking. You will probably see a p.s.a. here from time to time. This is one of them.

The sex industry, which relies on human trafficking for a good portion of its profits comprises 4.1 percent of the South Korean GNP. For comparison, we often here about sex tourism in Thailand, but the sex industry there adds up to about 3% of it's GNP. When I get to Korea, I hope to find an opportunity where I can get involved in helping women escape. Here in the U.S., good parenting, and maintaining a certain level of sexual integrity are steps in the right direction.

For more info, go to www.istoptraffic.com

ex-cited

2008-08-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

ex-cited

I am liking the word expatriot. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be hyphenated or not, but I like it even better this way, ex-patriot. The hyphen gives it a similarity to words like ex-boyfriend, or ex-husband.

I'm sorry America, but I am leaving you. It's not that I don't love you anymore. You were really comfortable and easy on the eyes, and what with the whole" being born here" thing, I got really stuck on you for awhile.

It's not you, it's me. I need time away for awhile, I need some space. You will make a really good friend. Maybe we could even get back together someday, but don't wait for me, okay. I wouldn't want to disappoint you. You are a really nice country.

Sure, you can call me...but not too often, okay?

Don't cry now.

We'll see each other soon.

Love,

Anita

P.S. That patriot costume that you made me, was that for Halloween? I don't think that they celebrate Halloween in Korea, do you want it back? It didn't fit me very well, but I don't want to throw it out if it would mean that some insecure redneck kid would have to go without a Halloween costume...or on second thought, how about if we just agree to toss it?

I could be a real tramp these days

2008-08-19T07:57:00.001-07:00

I could be quite the tramp these days.

If you want to be popular
with the wrong sort of boys,
tell them that you are moving away.

Then also, the right sort of guys,
the men with the right stuff,
they will be swarming you as well.

It's easy to sort them out.

The bad boys will want to
"get together before you leave."

and the good guys...
will say the same thing
with new and improved,
heart-tugging phrases like:
"I'm really sad that you are leaving"
"I wish that we had more time"
or "I wish that I'd met you sooner."

So, if I don't meet a cute Kiwi,
I have options.