There I was. All set for an Asian cultural experience. Sumo wrestling with a gen-u-ine Japanese commentary. The preparations seemed a little elaborate - the salt, the pacing (waddling), the almost tender pre-match chest bump - but I was trying to be gracious. Em, on the other hand, was a little more blunt in her opinions, hence, this blog's title. I like the idea of sumo-wrestling - the kid who got picked on in school is now the one everyone else is cheering on. But having now actually watched it, I'm not such a fan. One thing that does impress me about sumo wrestlers however, is their ability to put on - and maintain - serious weight in a culture where rice makes up so much of any meal. I'm not in Japan, but the Korean diet isn't all that different, and I am dropping the kilos. Still plenty of 'puppy fat' and limited muscle bulk, but I am definitely a lesser man than I was pre-Korea.
Married to a qualified personal trainer is helping, I'm sure. It's taking all my wiles to ensure we only go running 3 days a week. In Year 12 my school required that all students run 6km, which I promptly walked and came 109th out of 120 boys. Since then I've had the vague aspiration to one day run 6km without stopping. I told Em this, and my vague aspiration became her focused goal (for me). I managed it a few times a couple of weeks ago, but since then Em has had a throat infection, which obviously meant I couldn't exercise. They amped up her antibiotics meds the other day and it is clearing up, but now I have a convenient throat infection of my own. This one doesn't require medication, but it should keep me from having to run for another day or two yet.
This blogging business is hard! My life isn't interesting enough to justify three full paragraphs on, and if I write about Em, she will have nothing to write about. Thus I am signing off. To our faithful 6 readers, peace out, hombres.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
We just finished reading Romans and I went to the doctor.
Although these two tidbits of information may seem completely unrelated, they are in fact both events that have happened in my life in the last 24 hours. Other than that there is absolutely no connection between the two of them.
When we arrived in Korea, we also decided to start reading Romans together. We read through it once without any commentaries or study guides and would talk about it as we went. In some ways it was really great to just read the Bible without having a set agenda of what we were going to talk about, but at the same time, Romans is deep. We ended up deciding that we wanted to read it through again with a Bible study that had a discussion questions and a commentary.
I'm SO glad we did. Cass Monaco, an amazing author of Bible studies, told me that in order to really say that you have studied a book of the Bible you should read it through 50 times. (As in read it straight through.) We definitely came away with a better understanding of the book having studied it twice in a row. I could easily read it a third (fourth and fifth....) time and learn even more. I think something that impacted me the most was going through my day and having specific verses from Romans pop into my head about situations that I was in. It can be so easy to have a general "Christian" perspective without really having the foundation be the Word of God. I know that I struggle with this at times. I have "the answer" but I'm not really confident I know WHY its the answer or WHERE I could find it. So, I'm thankful to have a little bit stronger foundation from having studied Romans.
For my second, and unrelated, point. I went to the doctor yesterday. I've been "sick" for about 3 weeks. Never sick enough to put in me in bed, but sick enough to be nagging and annoying. But, in the last week it started to get worse. I was coughing ALL over the place and just feeling like I would contaminate all 700+ of my students. SO - yesterday afternoon, with the help of my co-teacher, I ventured into the world of health care in South Korea. You know what? I'm impressed. The whole process took about 30 minutes. We walked from school to a doctors office. I gave them all my information and waited for about 5 minutes. Went into see the doctor. He spoke pretty decent English which was nice. After looking down and swabbing my throat he told me I had a throat infection - so not a cold like I had thought - and he had me breath over a humidifier of sorts for about 2 minutes. I was a little skeptical of it, but it actually really soothed my throat so I went with it.
Then, I got my perscription and went next door to have it filled. Literally took me 30 minutes. AND - cost me a grand total of about $8 USD. CRAZY. The doctors visit was $4 and the medicine for 3 days was $4. Again, the fact that it was so speedy and so cheap made me question the legitimacy of what I was getting myself into, but let me tell you. I'm feeling MUCH better. :) All in all, a very positive experience.
When we arrived in Korea, we also decided to start reading Romans together. We read through it once without any commentaries or study guides and would talk about it as we went. In some ways it was really great to just read the Bible without having a set agenda of what we were going to talk about, but at the same time, Romans is deep. We ended up deciding that we wanted to read it through again with a Bible study that had a discussion questions and a commentary.
I'm SO glad we did. Cass Monaco, an amazing author of Bible studies, told me that in order to really say that you have studied a book of the Bible you should read it through 50 times. (As in read it straight through.) We definitely came away with a better understanding of the book having studied it twice in a row. I could easily read it a third (fourth and fifth....) time and learn even more. I think something that impacted me the most was going through my day and having specific verses from Romans pop into my head about situations that I was in. It can be so easy to have a general "Christian" perspective without really having the foundation be the Word of God. I know that I struggle with this at times. I have "the answer" but I'm not really confident I know WHY its the answer or WHERE I could find it. So, I'm thankful to have a little bit stronger foundation from having studied Romans.
For my second, and unrelated, point. I went to the doctor yesterday. I've been "sick" for about 3 weeks. Never sick enough to put in me in bed, but sick enough to be nagging and annoying. But, in the last week it started to get worse. I was coughing ALL over the place and just feeling like I would contaminate all 700+ of my students. SO - yesterday afternoon, with the help of my co-teacher, I ventured into the world of health care in South Korea. You know what? I'm impressed. The whole process took about 30 minutes. We walked from school to a doctors office. I gave them all my information and waited for about 5 minutes. Went into see the doctor. He spoke pretty decent English which was nice. After looking down and swabbing my throat he told me I had a throat infection - so not a cold like I had thought - and he had me breath over a humidifier of sorts for about 2 minutes. I was a little skeptical of it, but it actually really soothed my throat so I went with it.
Then, I got my perscription and went next door to have it filled. Literally took me 30 minutes. AND - cost me a grand total of about $8 USD. CRAZY. The doctors visit was $4 and the medicine for 3 days was $4. Again, the fact that it was so speedy and so cheap made me question the legitimacy of what I was getting myself into, but let me tell you. I'm feeling MUCH better. :) All in all, a very positive experience.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
How is the Korean going?
Well, if you are anything like everyone else I know, you are probably wondering if we are learning any Korean. Other than "How are you?" the most common question I here from friends in Australia and the USA is "Are you learning any Korean?". The answer is both simple and complicated. That is to say, both "yes" and "no." Let me explain.
Yes. We are taking a Korean class every Friday where we have learned the alphabet, learned to read, how to introduce ourselves, order food, make purchases, and count. That's progress, right? And, in as humble a way as possible, you should know that we are at the top of our class as well. Chris and I have both had recent triumphs in using our newly acquired Korean. Chris was able to order several dishes from a restaurant without using hand gestures to show how many of each. He was also able to order politely and in complete sentences! YAY! My experience was similar. I wanted to buy some apples and so I asked how much a bag of apples cost. The man told me that I could get 1 bag for 3,000 won but 2 bags for 5,000. I went with 2 bags. These may seem like small victories, but I'm excited about them anyway!
No. We've been here for 3 months and our Korean is really quite minimal. Its difficult because nearly everyone we come into contact with (there are definite exceptions) speaks a bit of English, so the NEED for Korean doesn't feel as urgent. Also, English is a bit of a fad here, so most signs have at least some English on them as well as Korean. People also like to practice their English with a real, live, native English speaker On the bus, I've had people purposely sit next to me to talk English. We know people who have been here for over a year that know almost no Korean, and they've got along fine. We really don't want to be here for a year without learning the language, but its definitely possible.
Here are a few phrases you can try out.
Hello : an yeong ha se yo (this is phonetic, not in Korean script, obviously)
How much does it cost?: ol ma ye yo
Does this bus go to Costco?: Ee bosu Costco kanayo?
Yes. We are taking a Korean class every Friday where we have learned the alphabet, learned to read, how to introduce ourselves, order food, make purchases, and count. That's progress, right? And, in as humble a way as possible, you should know that we are at the top of our class as well. Chris and I have both had recent triumphs in using our newly acquired Korean. Chris was able to order several dishes from a restaurant without using hand gestures to show how many of each. He was also able to order politely and in complete sentences! YAY! My experience was similar. I wanted to buy some apples and so I asked how much a bag of apples cost. The man told me that I could get 1 bag for 3,000 won but 2 bags for 5,000. I went with 2 bags. These may seem like small victories, but I'm excited about them anyway!
No. We've been here for 3 months and our Korean is really quite minimal. Its difficult because nearly everyone we come into contact with (there are definite exceptions) speaks a bit of English, so the NEED for Korean doesn't feel as urgent. Also, English is a bit of a fad here, so most signs have at least some English on them as well as Korean. People also like to practice their English with a real, live, native English speaker On the bus, I've had people purposely sit next to me to talk English. We know people who have been here for over a year that know almost no Korean, and they've got along fine. We really don't want to be here for a year without learning the language, but its definitely possible.
Here are a few phrases you can try out.
Hello : an yeong ha se yo (this is phonetic, not in Korean script, obviously)
How much does it cost?: ol ma ye yo
Does this bus go to Costco?: Ee bosu Costco kanayo?
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