I am big boy, hot man

When I last left you, I was enjoying my travels in Osaka, Japan. Since then, much has happened and I will try to fill you in on the last couple of days. Huzzah!

Japan was an interesting experience. The people, as I believe I mentioned before, are very sad and snippy. They have major attitude problems and their “yes” is a terrifying “HAI!” It’s a major turn off. Anyways, we visited many temples and shrines in Kyoto, a little (ha, well, not by American standards with a population over 1.2 million) town not far from Osaka. We probably walked close to 10 miles while we were in Japan, and I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but when it’s cold and raining, 10 miles feels like death. Or what I assume to be death. I s’pose I’ll find out some day…
Anyway, our last day in Japan was spent looking for a restaurant that took credit cards. We found one. Awesome. Earlier that day, we went to this place called the Osaka Palace – it was the center of town many hundreds of years ago and was the epicenter of life. The king or whomever lived there was baller-rich because there was gold everywhere. You can see pictures of it on my Facebook. We returned home late on Wednesday night and I trudged back to my home-stay, not wanting to leave my team.

Thursday was a toss-up day because we hadn’t really planned anything “academic” for the day, but ended up doing some stuff anyways. We worked out a Bible-study rotation and worked out some interviews with Pastors and whatnot. I assume we’re going to use that information for a paper or something. Who knows. We did some shopping and ate. It wasn’t much of a day until that night. While I was in Japan, my family decided to move to a new apartment. Nothing fancy – and it was closer to the church. Which meant I had to spend less on subway fares. Pretty cool. Well, apparently, something went missing on Thursday night when I found myself locked out of their apartment. I knocked and knocked, rang the doorbell several times, and called their phones, but to no avail. I was, as my professor so kindly put it, “Sleepless in Seoul.” I went back to to subway station to call my professor, praying he’d pick up. He did, and I spent the night at his place. Needless to say, the church did not find this very acceptable, one of their members locking out an American in the middle of the night. I was told “something” was in the works to fix the situation (which, apparently, they didn’t know anything was wrong). I prayed hard.

Friday came early (actually, every morning comes early when you’re family gets up at 5:30 a.m.) and I went to the church to meet with my team. We went to another large church in Seoul, as well as a beautiful Catholic church. I was also able to purchase some books to read to distract me when I’m alone. I got A Nicholas Sparks book (I can’t remember the title – strange, right?), The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Angels & Demons. I’m a little more than halfway through A&D right now and it’s hard to put down. Friday was rather uneventful otherwise. We interviewed a pastor about what it’s like being a Korean pastor. They’re not much different than American pastors.

Saturday was when everything changed. As usual, I was up at 5:30 a.m. and was fed kim-chi for breakfast. I don’t think I’d ever like to touch the stuff again. My host-family then announced that we will be going to see Avatar today. I thought, “Okay, I can handle that,” and wondered what I would do for the next five (5) hours before we had to leave for the movies. Not an hour later, we were getting ready to leave for our 7:45 a.m.showing of Avatar. Oh, and it was sold out. Awesome. Luckily, it was in English and I could enjoy the movie, and upon returning home I immediately packed up and went to the church a full three (3) hours early because I didn’t want to be at home with my family. They’re very sweet people, they just don’t understand anything. While I was at the church, one of the other host moms came up to me and asked me, in fluent English, to move in with her. I was on cloud nine. The church arranged everything with my ex-family (that sounds so harsh…) and I moved in Saturday night. I haven’t cried since.

Today, Sunday, we spent at church, hanging out with Korean college students. They’re great people. Tomorrow (Monday) begins our English (or Engrish, depending on where you’re from) Bible camp. I’m teaching, for eighty (80) minutes a day, 1st and 2nd graders, and for another hour and twenty minutes high-schoolers. It’s a contrast, but since I’ve never taught anyone a day in my life, let alone Koreans, let alone ENGLISH – I figured I’d be okay. We’ll see how it goes. Please keep that in prayer – all of us are in waaayy over our heads with this, but the church really wants it to be good. They have high expectations of Americans. Let’s give ‘em what we got, ladies.

I miss everyone very much, but since I’ve had a chance to sleep in my new home, I’m not as “homesick” per se. I still want to come home, but I don’t contemplate jumping in front of taxis in order to get medivac’d out of this country. I love you all and appreciate your prayers and e-mails. Keep ‘em coming!

Thanks for reading. See you in a week.