That changing of the guards ceremony I mentioned. All the beards were fake. Sorry to destroy your illusions.  

Eating at Lina's favorite restaurant. I am so thankful Lina was with us, and so regretful that she was used as a translator instead of being able to just be a student. 

At the palace. There were always mountains around. Seoul is surrounded by them. Dana would love it. 

Standing near a "guard" at the palace we toured. His beard is fake. Later we saw a ceremony that replicated the changing of the guards at that palace. 

In the elevator with Malinda, I mean Malida, getting ready to finally be tourists 

The view at the Seminar House on our rainy first 3 days in S.Korea 

The group with Bishop Kim and his wife 

Home sweet home

I'm back in the ATL.
Korea was lovely, and I wish I could have experienced more of it. But I am glad to be home.
I didn't get to do much tourist-y stuff, but I did visit one palace, shop a bunch and spend a LOT of time in churches.
Friendships were made/strengthened, kimchi was eaten, and new people from around the world were met.
It was nice.
I griped a lot about not getting to do as much cultural stuff as I wanted, the beds and pillows were hard as rocks, we spent 3 hours on buses everyday, and I could have done without the 14 hour plane rides.
But I had a good trip.
I got back yesterday at 11am. I went to bed at 10pm and got up at 4pm. It wasn't all jet lag. The sleeping pill I took at 6am might have had something to do with it...
And tonight I went to a Braves game.
I love baseball.
Rock on.

Some Stories from Korea

Yesterday, an 18 year old Korean girl named Felicity who is volunteering at the Conference walked me down the street to an ATM. She was wearing a traditional Korean dress, with sneakers underneath. She was quite chatty and proficient in English. She asked me if Iwas in school, and after I explained that I'm done with college and back in school again, I found out that she goes to high school in St. Paul, MN. While we were walking, some women stopped us and asked to take a picture with us. They told Felicity that they hadnever met a foreign person. I bet her traditionaldress didn't hurt either. On the way back, another woman scolded Felicity for wearing her dress out on the street, saying that she should go home. Anyway,today Felicity is volunteering in the computer lab,and when my computer wouldn't work I asked her to help me. She pounded on the keyboard with both hands, said"This computer sucks!" and led me to another one.

Here'sone more story from today:
Some cute variously-aged and variously-dressed Korean kids did a performance for us earlier. While they sang in Korean, danced, and played instruments, theEnglish words to their song flashed across the bottom of the huge tv screens that project what's happeningon the stage. The song was about a town that got sad and afraid, but then Jesus came and everything was happy and bright. So, at one point it was talking about Jesus being humbled into human form and it said"Jesus even took off his underwear and became a naked human baby." I promise.

I had to walk out of the Korean Cultural Night. Several factors contributed to my speedy exit. 1) The church is massive, and has been cold thus far,but I suppose the whole congregation came out tonight so it is full and hot in the "sanctuary" (it's more like a stadium).
2) The minister of this church gave a lecture aboutchurch growth for 45 minutes before the program even started. He is one of several brothers who are all bishops in the Korean Meth. Church, and who have built massive mega-churches. This is not the largest, but on Sunday we will attend the largest Methodist church in the world -- 95,000 members. Anyway, I suppose this brother felt like since we were in his church he should get to give a spiel (sp?).
3) There are lots of lilies in this building, and they stink. There are other flowers, too, but the lilies are the smelliest ones. Lilies are beautiful, but I can't handle too much of the smell. So, the heat, uncomfortableness after having sat forever, and the smell all came together and I was overwhelmed and felt a bit ill.

I'd better get back.

Korea

So, I'm in Korea.

I'm here on a trip with school, taking a seminar for evangelism credit. We have been in sessions most of the time, with small chunks of free time every day. However, we are at a conference center at least an hour outside Seoul, in a tiny little town with no shops to speak. The conference center is on top of a hill in the mountains, so the view is beautiful.
(Pictures later. Never fear.)

Evidently, we are here during the annual three weeks of heavy rain. This year the rain has resulted in the worst flooding pretty much ever for Seoul. The flooding has mostly subsided, but some roads are still under water in Seoul. I am staying up in some mountains, and it has been rainy here every day until today, but not floody.

We have been pretty much secluded in the seminar house (conference center). By yesterday, we students started to get a little stir crazy. We came here wanting to experience the culture and see the sights, and we have felt pretty detached from the rest of the world since we've been sitting in lectures all day every day. We have had some adventures outside the seminar house, finally.

Yesterday, we got stir crazy and talked a staff person into driving us to a store. It turned out that he had a regular 4 door car, and there were 5 of us. So Skip sat in front with the driver, and the 4 of us girls (Lane, Lina, Malinda and I) piled in the back seat. We giggled for the whole 45 minute trip there, and then we wandered for 30 minutes, and then we piled back in the car for the ride back for class. The store was really just a department store, like Macy's, with a market in the bottom. But we were able to buy Cokes and candy.

Today, we had free time and scheduled touring. We were able to convince the grown-ups (group leaders/staff) to rearrange the schedule so that we could commence the tourism sooner. We went into Seoul and shopped, had lunch at Lina's favorite restaurant, and met a group of students from St. Paul (UM) Seminary to tour a palace (GteongBokgung Palace). After the palace, we visited a shrine to Catholic martyrs -- Decapitation Mountain. After that cheerful stop (at which there was a drink machine -- COKE!), we headed to Itaewon shopping district. Itaewon turned out to be more touristy and not as nice as the place we went earlier with Lina, who is the Korean student on the trip with us. For dinner, we went to a Chinese restaurant that is a favorite of the Korean professor with the St. Paul group.

Without Lina, we would not know what we were eating, how much things should cost, or how to interact with local folks. She pretty much rocks.

I'm tired. Tomorrow, the World Methodist Conference starts. We have to leave at 7:30am in order to make it on time for the opening worship at the church where the Conference is being held. We'll see how that goes. I'm pretty stoked about the World Methodist Conference, since there will be Methodist folks from around the world. Rock on, Wesleyan connectionalism.

Cheesy Tourist Photos in Portland

More Spammer Names

Today, I cleaned out my spam
and these lovely people had sent me messages:

Checkerboards K. Littleness
Gouged A. Dictatorships
Astounded V. Conductivity
Generalissimo A. Poulticing
Mischieviousness U. Cunningly
Irascability U. Barmaid

Ha. I knew it.

Your results:
You are Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman 92% Green Lantern 90% The Flash 80% Supergirl 77% Superman 75% Iron Man 75% Spider-Man 70% Robin 65% Catwoman 65% Hulk 55% Batman 30%

You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I got a new camera.
I'm flying to Portland
at 5:45 tomorrow morning.
You know what that means.
Pictures of Portland.

Rock on.

I am a baseball fan

and I have the sunburn to prove it.

And I am now a firm believer that it really is
Root, Root, Root for the Home Team
because
If They Don't Win
It really is a Shame.

I'm just sayin'.

The Festival of Spuggles

or SpughFest.

Today was Sara's birthday.
We made signs.
We ate at Dairy Queen.
We saw the chocolate exhibit.
We got Australian pastries.
We ate at Agnes and Muriel's.

It was fun.
I'm tired.

Tomorrow, I head back to SC to help the folks pack.
Rock on.

Today's Best Spam Names

Revelations H. Bulldog
Periscopes U. Backache

ABCD and TFT

I'm taking a summer class
called Church and Community Leadership.
It focuses on Asset-Based Community Development
and Training for Transformation,
which are community organizing/development/building techniques.
The class is intense -- 9am-3pm everyday this week.
And that's it.
We have a paper due next week,
but we only have the one week of classes.
We are reading about one book a night,
and I am exhausted.

I'm getting a pedicure on Saturday.

Let It Be

Grades are in (mostly)
and I am pretty much a B student.
I'm cool with that.
I do pretty much B work.
Or if I do A work, I turn it in late.
(Seriously, I got a B in class where I turned in EVERY paper late.)

I am academically slightly above average.
That's not how smart I am.
That's how much I put into it.
Actually, I frequently put in below average effort
but I do it well.

I so do not stress about grades.
In college, we competed over who got an A on which assignment --
not outright competition, but we competed nonetheless.
And now, I am more cognizant of needing a balanced life.
And I get Bs.

Spam

I've been keeping track of the names on my spam mail.
Here are the best ones:

Mr. Yazzie
Expostulate E. Summerhouse
The Misogyny
Wigwam B. Telescope
Talc H. Quadruped
The Opposite
Cosmology M. Researcher
Refugio Leonard
Rollo Piper
Pelageya Gabler
Precious Winn
Reckons O. Hokusai
Methuselah Rivers
Rosy Shirk
Bean P. McEnroe
Spool M. Justified
Prosper Browner