Monday, February 23, 2009

Winter Beauty and the Beast

Well, a lot of things are moving around this week. I'm asking a lot of things and demanding a lot of things. I am asking to get someone to pick up Carol next week when she arrives, also asking that the church provides the books for my High School bible study, and I'm asking God for help with my demands. I am demanding we go to an English service this Sunday because I am off from my duties, and also that I get the week off for Nathan's wedding in June. Brandy is going to be teaching a class for moms and their children. 15 moms and 15 children, sounds fun I know. She will be teaching them two days a week at an hour and a half per class. The class consists of her teaching the moms English and continue their child's education at home. This is good for everyone. Brandy can get out of the house and meet people, and it might give Chloe a chance to play with other kids instead of hanging around the house all day. She looks whiter than snow white because she hasn't been in the sun in days. Mostly because of the cold and also there's nothing to do. I am getting prepared to go into hyperdrive once I get over the two dawn services I have to attend this week. There is a revival in our church this week, which started on Sunday and ends on Wednesday. By the end of it I will have attended 7 Korean services in a week. This is another reason I don't think they will argue against me going to an English service. This video is a great reminder to me that every little girl loves their daddy, but only shows it in the best way they know how.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Minority Report

You don't think of a white person being a rare thing in the world because of travelers, armies, & missionaries. But I have found that although there are places white people visit, there are also those that are not. Cheonan is one of them. Constantly stared at, smiled at, and touched, I find our presence here to be a new step for foreigners of any race. Although I see no other white people in Cheonan, I have yet to see a black person anywhere. I did see one on a Korean basketball team on TV once. I actually haven't picked up on that small fact until now. We do see Indian, Malaysian, and Philippine every now and then. Last trip to E-mart, a little Indian child would not take his eyes off of us. We saw him twice in the store and whatever he was doing was immediately stopped and he would stare at us, with a little drool on his lips, until we faded into the next aisle. Things you don't think about in America. We have every race there, really the only people we stare at are our own. When people have crazy piercings, tattoos, or hairdos. Brandy isn't used to it yet, but I never really cared that much about it. I actually find it quite funny. I got Pastor Kim hooked on video games. He keeps asking me when we can play again. I told him that his wife wasn't happy last time, but he said he can control his wife. We'll see. There aren't many sports here, really just soccer & basketball. The only sport I've seen for women is volleyball, which is more popular here than in America. We actually have a women on staff who played volleyball professionally. So I've seen women here turn to instruments because there's not much else, and that means we have very talented musicians in our church. Some women major in Organ in college only to be able to use it in church, because where else would you use it? When they had a play here they used a instrument pit and not a soundtrack. They have piano solos, duets with violins, a wind ensemble, and many more. I like it. I've only seen women play the drums, so I want to step in and play a little. Show them that guys can play instruments to. Really the guys here just play guitar. So, yesterday we just lounged around the house. Brandy went out to the grocery store, a nice little walk. I'll get some pics up later with the past few days events.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Stop me if I told you this...

ALright, I'm not sure if I told you about the meetings that I have and the way they go. We have piety meetings every morning we work, except for Sundays because we have church all day. The senior pastor sits in an overstuffed chair at the head of the people. There are two matching couches sitting adjacent from each other, which the pastors sit on. Then there are little matching audomin t, we sing a song and then we read a chapter, the one after the one we read yesterday. So I think they started in Matthew in January and now we're in 1st Corinthians. Each person reads one verse until the chapter is through. Sometimes I don't have to read which is exciting since no one can understand what I'm saying. Then the person leading that day prays. After prayer the senior pastor tells everyone what they're doing and what's going on. At this time pastors can present their ideas to the Senior Pastor and he will give them an answer or not. Once the SP stands up we can leave without saying a word. The best part is when we leave the SP sits at his desk and picks up his phone. His says "mull" and hangs up. This means water and a lady comes from his back door and brings him water. It is so mafia style here and he is the Don. It's crazy! Nothing happens in the church without him knowing and nothing happens until his word is spoken. I'm just waiting for my turn to whack somebody. J/K, we have other people for that job. I had a long day yesterday, worked until 6 all by myself in that small room downstairs. Sometimes I like being alone, but not for that long. I almost put on a movie because I was getting bored. I can't wait to move the offices to the new church. Then I can go home when I want to go home, instead of waiting for a pastor to leave. One of the samunim's came to our house yesterday by surprise, which is always good. This means they are becoming more comfortable around Brandy. Everything's coming together quickly here, and I think we're prepared to take it on. Brandy is trying to get a class together to teach mother's and their children. It is a hard task but she can't take on a different class when she's going to have a baby and take such a long break. Which means I've taken on another class which they created for Brandy, but since she can't do it, it has been put on me. Yeah! More work! I feel more Korean every day. Later I'll take a picture of my calendar and let you see how blessed you are to live in America and do what you do. You have to have God to work like this, I'm telling you this in truth, not jokingly. Okay, a little jokingly. Anyways, pray for us because we're going to need it come March. Another thing, whatthebook.com ships books for free to anywhere as long as you buy more than one book. So if you want to send anyone a book here, then you can use that online bookstore and do that.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Interesting Things

We are still finding out things about their culture and personalities. In church services they have a pre-worship service which is just before the service for people who come early and it's upbeat. This past Sunday they sang "Jesus Loves Me", which I found very interesting since I haven't sang that song since I was a child. Another thing is that they have their own church song. They sing it almost every service and they made it up with a tune that is familiar to them. I don't know it yet, probably won't ever know it actually since it's 3 verses in Korean. One day I think Brandy and I will be able to mumble the verses and belt out the chorus. As some of you know, Koreans and a lot of the world, are a very touchy-feely culture. Brandy experienced this early on with a samunim, but I haven't really experienced it since I hang out with Pastor Kim who is aware of American culture. But recently I've begun to experience it since I've been getting closer to most of the pastors, evangelists, and other workers. I am now greeted with hugs or they grab my arm to show their affection. Not in "I love you" in a gay way, even though that's how it feels, but in a "I love you" with God's love and I feel comfortable around you. So I take their affection with an open mind and heart because this means I'm making friends, and that's always nice. We hung out with Chun-hae, San, and Eun Young yesterday. We went to a museum for the greatest general in Korea, Yi-Sun Sin. It was more like a park with a couple of memorials around. It was really a time for San and Chloe to run around and play, but it was really cold and everybody had to run around a little to stay warm. We rode in Chun-hae's car which is like a station-wagon SUV. Chun-hae drove and I sat in the passenger seat. Brandy, Chloe, and Eun Young sat in the back seat while San sat in the very back seat which faces backwards. We were driving for about 20 minutes and only the adults were talking because Chloe was tired and San was busy in the back doing something. We were next to a big rig and all of a sudden smoke filled the car. I thought it was the truck next to us blowing smoke into the car but then I realized that all of windows were up. San was freaking out in the backseat and we rolled down our windows and Chun-hae pulled over. She opened the hatch in the back to see San sitting, his face white with powder. He had found the fire extinguisher and pressed the button facing the front of the car, which filled the car with white powder that looks like smoke. We were laughing so hard and San randomly coughed the rest of the drive. He kept saying "Oh dear, fire." It was soooo very funny. Brandy might be teaching a mom/child class for 8 weeks starting in March and ending the end of April. We're all about to get busy starting in March. I'm excited and scared, but more excited. I put some pictures up from my phone, since I don't have a camera, but I think my phone does a great job. It has some Korean food that I've eaten and other things.
Korean Food and Such

Friday, February 13, 2009

Chloe's first acting

Since we're doing some Chloe classics, I thought I might post Chloe's first major acting role. This is for all of the people who didn't have a chance to see it before and for those who just love to watch it over and over again.

Up and Coming Director

This is a short movie from the brilliant mind of Chloe Thixton. She is so unique in her filming style that we decided to give you a sneak peek of her genius before she passes Steven Spielberg status. Remember to support your local indie films.

Long time no see

Sorry for being so long since the last one. I haven't had time or Brandy hasn't had a video for me. I can't do anymore pictures because I can't find my camera. I haven't seen it since the day we got our cell phones. Either I dropped it somewhere or it's hiding somewhere in the house. So until I find that it all relies on Brandy to get those videos going. Thanks for all of the prayers, I think they're helping. We didn't go sightseeing this week like we normally do. Instead we went out on our own to a part of Seoul, Insadong. Very tourist populated place filled with knick-knacks and art for tourists to buy and take home to America or wherever. I think it will be a good place for anybody who comes to visit us, but since we live here I bought a keychain and that's it. I'm very excited about my keychain though, it's a little wooden football. We also ate hotdogs cooked New Yorkian style and had some french fries from McDonald's. A little taste of America goes a long way. You don't realize that you miss something until you taste it. Brandy wanted a thousand french fries after having the medium one we order. Interestingly enough their fast food prices are cheaper than ours. A medium fry is a little less than a dollar. We got two small McFlurry's for less than $3. They tasted like real American food, kind of. The only thing I really miss is the pizza. The pizza here is littered with vegetables, seafood, and Korean toppings. I miss the meat, cheese, marinara sauce, and the sweet taste of cheesesticks. Anyways, where was I, yes, um...I miss pizza and oddly enough I miss Chinese food because they don't have it here. I had one thing yesterday that was the closest I got to American Chinese food and it reminded me of how much I like it. But that is one thing that will go away after a while, I think pizza will hang with me forever. Chloe spent the whole day with San while we went to Insadong with Eun Young. It was cold and rainy but I was excited to get out and walk amongst the busy city. I love getting out and walking here, the city, the people who stare at you, all part of the wonderful Korea we live in. Oh, on a positive note, Brandy didn't fall today. Yeah! I actually caught here one time so maybe she fell 1/2 a time, but that's it! Chloe's starting to love escalators because everytime we go to the store or travel we ride one. She still hasn't gotten the whole gravity thing down yet so we still have to hold her hand on them. The train ride from Cheonan to Seoul was an hour. Then we took a 10 minute subway ride to Chun Hae & San's house, then we took a taxi to Insadong. So I think we covered about everything except for the plane, which we came in on (I'm counting the boat because it was raining when we were in the taxi). Brandy's still trying to find Korean foods she likes outside of our apartment. So far no luck. She thought she liked bulgogi but this last time it was too spicy for her. She'll keep trying. Chloe is learning to potty train. Weeee! She sits on her potty and watches movies. When she goes tee tee she gets 1 piece of chocolate fruit candy and if she goes #2, she gets 2 pieces of candy. So far just tee tee, but we're still working on it and she really wants 2 pieces of candy.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Cell Phones and Independence

We finally got our cell phones! Everyone knows that already but I just wanted to say that again because we're so excited about them, especially Brandy. The church wants us to see something about Korea every Thursday this month so we went to Independence Hall this past Thursday for about an hour and a half. We got a guide who speaks English, even though I didn't want one because most things are written in English and I've already been here so I wanted to be the guide for Brandy. But Evangelist Yu insisted on a guide, who happened to not know so much English and the tour was probably one of the most boring experiences that Brandy has had since we've been here. She mostly dealt with an exhausted Chloe or talked about how hungry her and Yu's wife were. I, on the other hand, was very interested in what the guide was saying even though she would ask me many times what the English word was that she wanted to say; so it was more of a joint English tour guide. We help her with English and she helps us with the history. Anyways, the museum is government sponsored so it's about $2 to go there but it's huge! There are six museums, each with their own part of history. We only had time to go to 2 museums because the ladies were hungry and the kids were tired. We then went to a restaurant that served bibimbop. The restaurants work like this: the restaurant owner finds a food they are good at, then that's all they fix. So most restaurants have a short menu because they only serve one main dish and some small side dishes that taste delicious. Although Brandy and I weren't too impressed with the bibimbop, but I think it's because we're not impressed with rice, vegetables, mushrooms, and that's it. Brandy's first taste of Korea in a Korean restaurant and it was so bland. But, we had fun with Evangelist Yu and his wife. We then ventured to E-Mart and got Brandy a table, dishes, and a lot of other things that I had to dig deep into my pocket to pay out. You should have seen how happy she was when I let her buy the dishes she wanted though(1950's yellow, green, 7 red on all of the dishes. I'll try to put pics next time). I also bought the furniture for the apartment that we needed and it should arrive today. Brandy is ecstatic about all of that arriving today. She even slept in this morning so she would have enough energy to tell the movers where everything should go and finally arrange the house the way she wants it. Of course when I get home I expect the movers didn't put it "in the right spot" and I'll have to arrange it the way she wants it this month. Next month Carol can rearrange it for March. Now all we need for this month is lamps and that should do it. We will buy more stuff next month, but for now, she's happy (Brandy that is). One interesting note before I go; Pastor Kim said it's not custom for children as young as Chloe to have their own room. He'll be really surprised when we put the baby in her own room after a few months. :-)

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Well, we're still doing well. We went to Lotte Mart(which is like a Super Wal-mart) all by ourselves, something Brandy is very proud of but I'm used to by now. She couldn't stop talking about how proud she was of us to go to the Lotte Mart by ourselves in a taxi and come back to the apartment without any outside help. Chloe even didn't get a nap that night because we were so busy that day. We went to the bank to open our accounts, then to the cell phone store so we finally have phones, and then we returned to our apartment. We ate supper and then headed out to Lotte Mart. So Chloe didn't have a chance to take a nap, but she was so good. She was a little clingy to mommy but that's expected, she did however stay in the cart the whole time we were there and didn't pitch a fit to get out (mostly because she got ice cream and was very happy). We went grocery shopping and got a few other items. We still have to get a Korean table, which is about 6 inches off the ground and everyone sits around it and eats. We also need a coat rack and shelves for our clothes, and I think that will do it for the big items. I feel everyone is starting to adjust to our new settings more than earlier. Brandy is meeting the pastor's wives more and more in the apartment building and Chloe is loving all of it because she gets to play with their children. Brandy is worried about coming back to America because Chloe is treated like a princess here, literally. Eun Young (one of our friends here) said it's not normal to see such a cute American child, especially a girl in Korea. The Samantha Blackmon knows what I'm talking about. We got a TV! Yeah, Kidoong brought us his old one, which is actually pretty nice. It's a big back TV, but the picture is good and it's better than nothing. We are all very excited to stop watching movies on my laptop and now watch them on the tube, plus I get to play video games now (whenever I find the time). Glad to hear from everybody on Skype and stuff. Have a good one. This video has the apartment on it and other Chloe moments, enjoy.