Party Week

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, the members of Soju 2012 celebrate each other's birthdays.  This month, we had two - Tammy's and mine.  The week of partying began on November 17th with Tammy's birthday celebration.  We went out to dinner and then ended up in a bar (or two or three).

 Me & Zach

 The girls of Soju 2012

 Soju 2012

Then, Zach and I celebrated my birthday on November 20th.  In the morning, he gave me my gift of perfume and fixed breakfast.  After school he took me shopping where I bought fingernail polish and two shirts.  We then went out for dinner at a place called Posh Nosh.  It was delicious!

 He even wore a tie!

Yum!  Pizza and wine!

Thursday the 22nd was Thanksgiving.  In our neighborhood, we have a large population of foreigners (non-Koreans).  Most of us, if not all of us, are from the States.  So we decided to have a neighborhood Thanksgiving party.  Zach and I hosted.  I could not believe how much like Thanksgiving it turned out to be.

On Saturday, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our Soju 2012 family.  Zach and I hosted this one too.  Again, it turned out just like Thanksgiving at home and the food was absolutely delicious.  

 We even had two who were celebrating Thanksgiving for the very first time.  Stephen is from Canada and Fran is from England.

 Too much dessert.  Too many wines to taste!

After we ate all we could and more, we switched gears and the party turned into a birthday party for me.  We did some pre-gaming during Thanksgiving and before we went out.  Then we hit the bar(s).  Some of us (me) only made it to one.  It was a great night!

Friends from the neighborhood.

There is a picture of Soju 2012 floating out there in someone's camera, but I haven't figured out who's yet!

The next day, I went to my main co-teacher's wedding.  She is the one who helps me when we have questions about the apartment, banking, living, etc.  I was so happy that I could share her special day with her!

 The wedding was 1 1/2 hours away so we rode a "party" bus to the wedding.  They gave us snacks on the way to the wedding.

 They gave us more snacks (and beer) on the way back.

 First kiss.

Traditional wedding ceremony.  I could not stay for that one (family only) but they let me take pictures before they got started.

It was a pretty busy week but a lot of fun!  It definitely helped to keep my mind off the fact that we weren't home for the holidays.  However, we did spend the holidays with friends and even family (Soju 2012)!

A Motherless Daughter

This isn't written logically or very well at all.  It's just my feelings.  It's more for me than for anyone else though you are more than welcome to read it.

One of my favorite books is titled "Motherless Daughters" by Hope Edelman.  I encourage any woman (any age) who has lost a mother to read this book.

I feel so much but don't know how to put it into words, but I feel that I must.  It's been 9 years since Mom died.  I hate the term 'passed away'.  Let's face it, she died - and it sucks.  Cancer sucks!

I wish I knew Mom as a person.  Being almost 17 years old, I only knew Mom as Mom.  Though she shared a lot with me, I still feel that I never got to see her as a real person.  We experienced things together, but she experienced them as an adult.  That's very different than seeing it through a child's/teen's eyes.

There are so many things I wish I could have talked to her about: prom, my first serious boyfriend, graduation, sex, college, getting engaged, getting married, living abroad, marriage, etc.  What kind of advice would she give me?  Would she be able to help me in only the way a mother can?

I watched an episode of "Parenthood" tonight, and like I do during every episode, I cried.  This particular one had a scene where one of the characters had to get chemo for the first time.  I wasn't there for Mom's first chemo treatment, or any of them for that matter.  Yes, she had many, many friends to help and support her along the way, but how scary that must have been.  I always wonder if there was anything I should have done differently.

I do remember the moment I realized Mom was probably going to die.  It was the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep.  I went into the living room and picked up some pamphlets lying around.  One was about the stages of death.  I could pick out which stage Mom was in.  It wasn't long after that, that she went into the hospital and never left.  That was the longest week of my life.  Even though I knew it was going to happen, I didn't let myself thing about it.  I'm pretty sure I blocked out a lot of this time period because I don't remember a lot.  I don't remember being in her hospital room a lot.  I remember thinking that I could not get behind on homework.  Denial?!  I remember wishing she would die.  She was in a lot of pain and I didn't want that for her.  I remember her last breathe.  I also remember feeling very lost after that.

It wasn't fair!  It isn't fair!

I want to give her a hug.  I want to see her laugh.

Yes, 9 years have gone by.  Yes, it has gotten easier with time.  There are days when she doesn't cross my mind.  But, there are also days when I can't get her out of my mind and I am flooded with emotions.  I miss her!  I am thankful to have such a loving and supportive group of family, friends, loved ones, family friends, etc.  I love hearing stories about Mom and comments about what a great person she was.  Those are what makes the tough days easier.

Well, my thoughts are everywhere right now.  I should probably stop writing before it gets hard to read.

Love you and miss you, Mom!

Helping in a Soup Kitchen

During the past few months, Zach and I have made friends with several married couples who live in our neighborhood.  One of the couples invited us to a Facebook group called City Lights.  According to the 'About' section,  "City Lights exists to mobilize the people of God to be an active influence and transformative presence within our local community."  I joined the group not knowing if I would actually get involved in any of the activities.

A couple of weeks ago, City Lights posted that they were going to help at the Busanjin Soup Kitchen on November 10th.  I literally thought, "why the hell not?"  Haha.  Before coming to Korea, I'd like to think that I was a fairly active volunteer.  Since coming here, I've not volunteered for anything and I thought it was about time I did something.

I want you to know that I am writing this, not to toot my own horn, but to let you know that there is a homeless community in Busan.  And, if you are in the area, this is a great chance for you to get involved.

Outside of one of the Busanjin subway exits, a large tent is set up where the soup kitchen is.  Several churches are responsible for running the kitchen.  Several people from one of the churches wake up really early to prepare all of the food.  There is a church service that begins at 11 am and when the service is over, the food is served.  Our group and a few other volunteers lined up and the members of the church filled the trays with food.  We then took the trays to those waiting for food.  The whole process of serving the food took less than 30 minutes.

It definitely felt good to help those in need.  Though I probably won't go every Saturday, I plan to go as often as possible.

Someone made a video of what happens at the soup kitchen and I will share that video with you to give you a better idea of what it's all about.

Ordering Take-Out

Within a very short time of us being in Korea, we figured out that just because a restaurant doesn't have delivery does not mean that your food cannot be delivered to you.  Korea has a system called "Quick Service".  Basically, you can call any restaurant and say 퀵서비스 (quick service) and someone on a motorbike will pick up your food from the restaurant and deliver it to you.  Even McDonald's does this.

*I did not take this photo.  I copied this photo from Google Images.*

Zach and I have said from day one that we cannot learn how this system works.  If we figured it out, we would be fat, lazy slobs ordering in food for every meal.  **The great thing about quick service??!!  You don't have to pay the delivery person.  You also don't have to tip them.**

Well on Monday, we decided that we wanted to check out the Chinese restaurant near us.  The sign on the door said "Take Out".  That was fine with us!  However, after we ordered our food, the man asked us for our address (in very broken English).  Zach told him our address (in Korean, of course!) and we were shooed out the door.  We walked back to our apartment and within 10 minutes, our doorbell rang.  Our food had arrived!

We ordered one meal to share plus a side of fried rice -- too much food!

The food comes in real plates and they even gave us a couple of real spoons and wooden, disposable chopsticks.  When you are finished with your food, just leave your dishes outside your door and the delivery person will come back to pick them up!  It's as easy as that!

Busan Fireworks Festival

This past weekend was the Busan Fireworks Festival.  People have been talking about this festival for months.  It is held on Gwangalli Beach in Busan and is very popular. http://festival.busan.kr/html/kor/movie/fire_08_eng.html  We definitely wanted to go and see it.  During the week or two leading up to the festival, we began to hear stories of how crowded the beach is during the fireworks.  We were told that if we wanted a seat on the beach, we would have to get there hours early.  The fireworks started at 8pm and we were told to get there in the early afternoon.

Me, Zach, and two other couples from our apartment complex decided that we wanted to go together.  We had heard that the view from one of the mountains nearby was absolutely amazing.  We planned to make a day out of out.  We packed food, snacks, drinks, and games.

Saturday came and the weather was terrible!  It was raining and very cloudy/foggy.  We stopped to eat a restaurant at the bottom of the mountain to see if we could wait out the rain for a little bit.  It never stopped raining.  In fact, the rain came harder.  That's when we decided to go into a coffee shop for a bit.  After a couple of hours at the coffee shop, we heard that the fireworks had been postponed until the following day (Sunday night).

On Sunday, we headed up the mountain a little later than the day before.  We hiked up the mountain for about 45 minutes before we found a fairly decent spot to see Gwangan Bridge and the fireworks.  We picked a great spot.  It wasn't very crowded and we had a great view!

Here is a video I took of the fireworks.  It lasted for 45 minutes but the video is about 15 minutes long.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkJLTcqWuSQ

A Gift From a Widow

My co-teacher walked into my classroom earlier this morning and handed me a box.  She said, "face towel" and started to walk away.  I said, "thank you" and asked her who it was from.  She said that before I arrived in Busan, one of the teachers from this school died. This gift is for the anniversary of his death.  Apparently, the date on the box (2012.10.22) is the day that he goes to Heaven.  I asked my teacher what subject the man taught.  She then revealed that he was a retired P.E. teacher that was very old.  When I asked her if he died of natural causes, she said that he had cancer or something.  I guess it's a tradition in Korea (or so I've been told) for the widow/widower to give gifts (to whom exactly, I don't know) on the day that the person goes to Heaven.

Anyway, I was a little taken aback by receiving a gift from a deceased person's wife whom I have never met, but I sure am glad this guy is now in Heaven!  Yay!

 The box that the towel came in.

(Using Google Translate - not totally reliable)

김현철 - Kim Hyun Chul (the man's name) / 영가 - Spiritual

49재 - 49th / 회 향 - Times incense

2012.10.22 - The date he goes to Heaven

The hand towel

Chuseok/Rachel in Korea

I'm a little late for this post, but I have not had internet at home since Oct. 1st.

At the beginning of the month, Korea celebrated Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving).  Because of Chuseok, we had a 5-day weekend.  During Chuseok, many people go back home to visit with family.  Instead of me leaving to go visit family, my family came to me.  Well, my sister did at least!

She arrived on Sunday evening which means I could spend 3 full days with her before I had to go back to work.

It's a little blurry but I was really excited to see her.

Spent the first day on the beach.

The first night too!

On the 2nd day we went to Beomeosa Temple

At Beomeosa Temple.

We also had some fun on the subway!

On the 3rd day, we went shoppig in the markets.  We also stopped to shake some hands.

After shopping we stopped at Busan Tower.



On the 4th day I had to go to work, but after work we went to the Childrens' Grand Park.

We didn't get very good pictures because it was dark and I was using the camera in my phone.

On the 5th day (Friday after school) we met up with some friends.  We had snacks and drinks at a Korean bar.

On the 6th day, we checked out the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).  Tickets were sold out so we didn't watch any movies.

Later that night, we met up with friends again and went to a noraebang (karaoke room).

We sang some interesting songs.

We got about 3 hours of sleep before we had to take her to the airport.

The sunrise after we dropped her off.

It was a great week and I am soooooooo happy that she was able to come out to spend time with us.  We had some much-needed sister time!