Christmas Videos

On Christmas we took David to the subway to let him run around.



The Cry Room during Christmas Mass

Christmas Fun

On Sunday of last week we had a Christmas party with our friends Charles and Na Tata. We went to the military base and had mass there. We had Popeyes and Na Tata's delicious lumpia (Filipino style eggrolls) for lunch and dinner washed down with a bit of Makkolli--Korean cloudy rice wine (good stuff but about $1.50 a bottle--the bottles are made of plastic!). Charles and Na Tata gave us some very nice gifts (including a Phonics bus for David which he loves--it sings about the different sounds the letters of the alphabet make). We also got to play on their play station 3!
In Korea they eat cake on Christmas so we picked one up for the party. There are bakeries everywhere and they offer all sorts of promotions to get you to buy. When I bought this cake I got a free pair of white earmuffs that had headphones in them so you could listen to your mp3 player in the cold. I don't know if they will ever be used though. The Korean figure skater, Kim Yonha advertises for one Korean bakery and if you bought there you got a kind of hooded shawl, similar to what Redding Riding Hood woudl wear.
Arlene and David. Arlene is showing two of her Christmas gifts. One is a music cd by the artist "Rain" and the other is the music Kim Yonha skates to.
Mass as taken from inside the cry room.
A very busy picture. A statue of Mary and the child Jesus in the back, with a nativity scene in the center and two Christmas tress off to the side! Still, keeps us in mind of the reason of the season, the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity in our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

David on Film

David Dances


David plays in a box


David and his toy dog

Dec 20th Update

Things are going pretty well for us. We are mostly over our colds. We have to hold David down to give him saline drops in his nose. He doesn't like it and its pretty traumatic for him. Other then that we are all in good shape.

Since Arlene and David weren't feeling well I mostly stayed home during the first part of the week, except to go to classes in the evening. On Thursday they were well enough for me to go to the dissertation support group meeting. We went to Gweyn and Mike's place which is at the Catholic University in Puchon where Gweyn teaches English (Mike is another Fulbright grantee working on prisons during Korea's colonial period, 1910-1945 when it was under Japanese control). We had a good time and I got some helpful comments on my work. We had a little trouble getting back home as it was late. We took one train that was going in the right direction but it stopped before getting to our station so we had to transfer to another one!

On Friday I went to do Christmas shopping, then went to the office and finally to class. Today (Saturday) I went to a presentation at the Church History Institute. It was really interesting.

Random Pictures

David wearing his Tigger outfit. He doesn't like wearing a hood.

Raush, fine makers of toupees and other hair accessories. I took this picture at Central City mall which is where Professor Baker's banquet was.

This comic was on display in a subway. This shows An Chunggun, one of the people I am studying.

From the same comic, An Chunggun shoots Ito Hirobumi, one of the main architects of Japan's colonization of Korea. He would die shortly from the wounds he incurred.

Banquet and Shopping

Things are going well here for us. David is almost completely better. The only thing now is to fatten him back up as he lost a lot of weight. As of today I have mostly recovered from my cold. Arlene is still in good health.

Today we went to Home Plus which is like a multi-story walmart. We ate lunch at McDonalds and then did our shopping. What's a little strange is that there are little shops inside the larger store. If you buy something there you have to have it rung up seperately for that specific shop. The shops don't have their own cash registers so each time you buy something you have to go with the clerk to a cash register who then rings it up there! It was funny because we bought stuff at three different shops and so had to go three times!

On Friday Professor Baker (my adviser) received an award from the Tasan Foundation. Tasan is the pen name (meaning "Tea Mountain") of a great "practical learning" scholar of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. So there was a banquet and as a graduate student of Professor Baker's I was invited. It was a lot of fun and I was able to chat with Professor Baker and another one of his graduate students that I am friends with (he studies Korean shamanism and is married to a shaman, making his studies that much easier!).

I am finally well enough to study again and hope to make more progress before the holidays.

Hysong and Miri

Before we got sick we had a nice meeting with our friends Hyosong and Miri. Both will be baptized on December 23rd at the Sogang Parish Church. Please keep them in your prayers. We ate at a nice little Korean restaurant.

Getting Better

This last week has been a little crazy as all three of us appear to have caught the stomach flu. Last Monday we took David to the hospital (Yonsei Severance Hopsital, the first western hospital established in Korea back in the 1880's if I recall correctly). Our doctor, a very kind and devout lady was a great help. David was dehydrated so she ordered an iv. He was still pretty sick for a few days but is now mostly better and is able to get into all sorts of trouble again. Since it's cold (it's snowing as I write this but it doesn't appear that there will be much accumulation) I've been doing most of the shopping which is pretty funny since I don't know the various fruits and vegetables Arlene wants and she doesn't know the Korean words for them!

I was well enough on Thursday and Friday to meet some social obligations. My adviser and another professor took me out to dinner and coffee on Thursday evening and we had a good time. My adviser told us how his family converted to Catholicism after having walked from Seoul to Pusan (a rather long journey!) while fleeing from the North Korean advance during the opening days of the Korean war. I didn't quite understand the whole story but it seems like a large part of it was because of their experience of almost being killed several times (it seems by American fire) during their trip. On Friday another professor took me to introduce me to an author and a publisher who does work on prophecy and religion in Korean history. He was a very nice fellow and we had a good time.

Sadly, the husband of the Fulbright director passed away. I went to his viewing. In Korean culture the bereaved sit in a special room with the coffin (which is closed) and a picture of the deceased. there are different variations on what one does but in this case I went in, took a flower and placed it on a coffin and burned a stick of incense. Then I retreated a couple of steps and made two deep bows and one half bow. To do a deep bow, I, in my slacks and sports coat, got on my knees and touched my head to the floor. The half bow is done from the wait, I think about 60 degrees. After that I approached the director and family and said "him-du-shi-kae-sum-ni-da" which means something like "It must be difficult for you." After that I left and was given a rather large amount of food (when you go to a funeral you bring an envelope with money to give to help defray the cost. You write your name on it and if I recall correctly a record is kept of who gave what (so that they can return the favor).

On a lighter note David knows that when I am wearing jeans that there is a good chance I will leave. So one day he tried to pull my pants off. He also took them away once before I could put them on (he didn't know what to do with them though so he ended up giving them back to me!).

Quick Entry

Last Friday I came down with some sort of stomach virus and was pretty sick. Unfortunately David and Arlene got it as well. Arlene has mostly recovered but David is still having trouble keeping food down for more than a few hours so we will take him to the doctor soon. He should be ok. Please keep us all in your prayers. I should put up a real update next week. God bless!

This week's happenings

We have had a pretty good week. I was able to get to the office several times and do a lot of work. I had my Korean final on Monday and did well enough on it to progress to the next level. On Thursday we had our first dissertation support group meeting. It went well and I learned a lot. However, we made the mistake of doing it to late in the evening. I had trouble getting home and didn't make it back until about 12 (I usually go to bed between 9 and 10)! On Friday we had a "Fulbright Forum". A senior scholar gave a talk on the move from the Articles of the Conferedartion ot the US constitution. It was pretty interesting as he talked about the influence of John Locke and the lack of influence of Thomas Hobbes. He also argued that Jefforson was a kind of plagiarist (though he did so in a rather light hearted manner, it wasn't meant to be a serious charge).

This week we received a lot of kindness. One of our neighbors came by and gave Arlene some pants and Na Tata (Arlene's Filipino friend here) gave us a lot of things, including another pair of pants. Yoori also dropped by and loaned us the toys that her daughter no longer plays with and gave us a lot of food. Here's a picture of Yoori, David, and one of the toys she gave him.



The weather is getting colder so we can't take David out as much as we would like. Her timing was perfect. He really loves with this toy and is even playing with it as I write this post!

Korea University

Last Sunday Arlene, David and myself went to Korea University. We had a look at the museum, the underground shopping centre, and some of the buildins. We enjoyed looking at the fall leaves.

Arlene in front of the "Main Building"

Arlene and David in front of the underground shopping center. The dining room of Popeye's is visible.

I love you in Arlene's verses.

My adviser emailed me to check to see if the grammar was correct for this poster.

Arlene in front of a statue.


Arlene and me!

At this restaurant the waitresses asked to take David's picture so we took a picture of one of them with David.

Pepero day

This was an eventful week in Korea. First, November 11th (Veterans Day/Remembrance Day in North America) is Pepero day. On that day you buy pepero (a kind of pretzel covered in chocolate) and give it to your sweetie. I bought some from Arlene. The thing is you can give them to other people as well so in the morning of the 11th we found that the executive assistant, who lives next door to us, put three boxes on our door!

On the 13th is the big day for college examinations (the ones taken by high school students that do much to determine their future lives). On that day people live for work late--making the traffic less congested so the kids can get to the tests on time. Things are also arranged so that there are no airplane flights near the test center the students won't be disturbed. Really serious stuff!

My partner and I finished our part of our translation so that was a big relief. Monday is the final for my Korean class, then I get two weeks off before class begins again.

On Friday we went to buy Arlene a jacket at Hyundae department store. David likes getting attention from the clerks and often reaches out his arms so they will pick him up. He had his picture taken three times by them!

Choldusan

A couple of weeks ago we went to mass at Choldusan shrine. It's right on the Han river.

This is a tunnel for the subway train when it passes over the Han river. A lot of Catholics were killed here (it was convenient to dispose of their bodies in the river) in the 19th century. I think that's why there is a crucifix painted on the tunnel.

The Chinese characters for Choldusan. Translated it literally reads "Cutting head mountain". So I think we could translate it as "Decapitation Hill" or something like that.
There is a museum but you can't take pictures there. These are some outdoor exhibits which you can photograph. These show some of the various devices used to torture people. The Catholics were often tortured with these things.
The mass we attended was outdoors. The statue is a rather large one of Father Andrew Kim Taegon, the first Korean priest. There are mats and the people just sit on the ground.

Translation and Shopping

We have had another good but busy week. I'm preparing for my Korean language tests which will occur next week and the week after that. I'm also working on a translation with a friend of mine which should be finished by the end of next. It's a pretty interesting article on the memory of the Kisaeng (a kind of Korean geisha) named Nongae who is said to have killed a Japanese general by embracing him and jumping from a wall into the river (this happened during the Hideyoshi invasion, probably around 1593). I also just finished submitting an article which will be published in mid-december in "Acta Koreana".

David and Arlene are doing well. We went out on Friday to Hyundae department store to do some shopping. We bought David some socks, pajamas, and a jacket.

So we are in good shape, hopefully things will slow down a bit before too long.

More of David's Adventures

David on the Phone



David and the Mime



David has a good time with Daddy

Misc Adventures

Our friend Nikki came by to visit. She was an English teacher on Jeju island (where Korean newlyweds often go for their honeymoons). She is now the executive assistant at Fulbright and has helped us a lot.

We accidentally stumbled on a festival at the nearby park. This mime on stilts kindly made a balloon sword for David. He loved it but managed to break it within ten minutes of coming home.

Our friend Yoori. This picture was taken at Costo. She picked us up and drove us there and then drove us back. She helped us out a ot. We ate lunch there and they had the most delicious (and greasy!) pizza possible.

Pilgrimmage 2

Often Catholic pilgrammages in Korea include going to secular sites--I think mostly for practical reasons. There are often interesting secular sites right next to the pilgrim sites and if you are going to ride a bus for several hours you might as well see them too.

These are costumes from mask dance. The one on the left is a Buddhist priest and the one next to him is an official from the magistrates office. He's there because the little park we visited includes the grounds of the old yamen. Some Catholics were executed there in the 1866 persecution (its called the 1866 persecution but it continued on for several years beyond that).

We went to a park where a great minister under King Sejong used to come to relax. It was very beautiful. This is the sort of pavilion where people used to go and drink wine and write poetry. I don't think they write much poetry nowadays but they do the drinking!

The grave of the great philosopher Yi I and his mom.

The graves of Yi I's ancestors looking down from his grave. At this time they buried descendents above their ancestors. The order was reversed later on.

Rice in the fields.

Pilgrimmage 1

A couple of weeks ago I went on a pilgrimmage with the Church History Institute. It was very ineresting and I learned a lot. It was a one day affair that about 60 or so people took part in.

This is the tomb of Hwang Sayong, one of the people I am studying.

Here I am next to the stele that identifies the tome as belonging to Hwang

This is the outside of a little mission station where we had mass.

Merry Christmas!

The inside of the mission station where we had mass. It's a lovely little church.

Update

Things are still busy but fortunately I have recovered my health for the most part. I'm still working on a translation for one of my professors and on a presentation in Korean for my adviser here. In two weeks we will have finals for my Korean language class. Though things are busy my research is coming together. My Korean is also improving and i'm a lot more comfortable using it. I hope that it will continue to improve. David is developing a lot and now will come and bang on my door if he wants in my room. He also will come running when I come in the door. So we are all doing well. I'll post some pictures shortly. Please keep us all in your prayers!

David eating pizza

David eats pizza!

Commemoration of An Chunggun's Killing of Ito Hirobumi

On Sunday I went to the celebration of the 99th anniversary of An Chunggun killing Ito Hirobumi (see the previous entry for a bit more information). The event itself lasted for about an hour but I went to lunch with the director of the An Chunggun memorial hall afterwards. The ceremony itself was really interesting and well done. There were a few speeches and some kids were given prizes for the essays they wrote on An. It ended with an older fellow leading the crowd in shouts of mansei (literally 10,000 years, most people are familiar with the more commonly known Japanese pronunciation--banzai). It began with the national anthem and there was a military band to play it. There were a couple of things that were different from how such a thing would have been done in the states. For example, a guy did a saxophone solo with accompanying computer music in honor of An.

The other thing that really caught my attention is in the following video. Some elementary school kids came out and sang a couple of songs. The song they are singing in the video is simply titled "An Chunggun" and describes An killing Ito. They are holding Korean flags. If you look closely you will notice there are black handprints on their shirts. When An Chunggun took an oath with some others to fight the Japanese he cut off the joins of one of his fingers and wrote with his blood on a flag. That is why the hand is missing a joint. While An was in prison during his trial and while he was waiting for his execution he did a lot of calligraphy and would always put his handprint on his work so that became his kind of mark. So that is why the kids have it on their chests.

To give you an idea of how important An is, the flowers on the extreme left were donated by the president.

Sick

If I get overstressed and overtired I tend to develop a really bad stomach ache. Unfortunately things have been a little crazy here so I got sick on Thursday. I was well enough on Saturday to attend mass and on Sunday was able to go to the ceremony commemorating the 99th anniversary of An Chunggun killing Ito Hirobumi. An is one of the focuses of my studies. He was a Catholic nationalist/pan-Asianist who in 1909killed Ito Hirobumi, considered the mastermind behind the Japanese takeover of Korea. Ito was the framer of the 1889 Meiji constitution and was on Japanese 1000 yen notes for about 20 years.

I'm still not at 100% but am well enough to do some work so I will just keep trucking and try and take it a little easier. I can use any of the prayers I can get:).

David videos

Unfortunately this last and the next few weeks look like they will be a little crazy so I won't be able to put too much on the blog. For now I will just put up some videos of David and will hopefully be able to put up some more detailed entries in a week or two.

David dancing on a desk:




David playing catch with daddy:



David trying to push the buttons on a cellphone. The problem is that he doesn't realize that it's just a poster of the cellphone.

David Playing with the Laundry

David is really becoming energetic and able to interact more with his environment. When she can Arlene takes him to the park and lets him run around. Here is a video of him playing with the laundry. I like this one because it shows the kind of direction and varied activies a baby like to engage in.

Pilgrimmage

On Saturday I went on a pilgrimmage to Onong with the Catholic parish of Sogang University. The site itself is interesting. The father of a martyr named Paul Yun Yuil as well as some of his other relatives are buried there. Some of the relatives were also martyrs I think. What is curious is that the main martyr, Paul Yun Yuil has a tomb there but his body isn't in! There are a few other martyrs there who have bodiless tombs. Paul, and two others were beaten to death to find out where the Chinese Catholic priest who had come to minister to the Catholics was hidden. Paul had actually dressed himself up as the priest and spoke in Chinese and allowed himself to be arrested so that the priest would have time to escape. His body and that of his two companions were thrown into a river. The Catholic priest they helped save, Father James Zhou Wenmo lived another six years before he too was martyred. His body was buried secretly by the government and so the Catholics were unable to recover it. So he also has a bodiless tomb here. It's a little curious. Since Paul Yun's father is there his tomb is included and since he helped Father Zhou he is also included. Right now there is a movement to have these people, as well as some others made into saints.

The pilgrimmage itself was also a retreat and had some really surreal moments. One of my favorites was an old and really funny priest playing a harmonica on the bus ride over. He played "Ode to Joy," "Immaculate Mary" and "How Great Thou Art"! We also had to put on a little play where we talked about how we tried to show the spirt of the martyrs in our daily lives. It was really a great experience and I understand more now about God, the martyrs, and my studies.

Here are some pictures:

Here are the tombs with a statue of Jesus overlooking them.
Here isthe little parish there. During the mass we sat on these cushions. You take off your shoes before going in.
Here is a picture of some of my fellow pilgrims. I don't know who the guy is but the nun and the two ladies and I had lunch together. The woman on the right had a problem with her legs and couldn't really walk on her own so the other woman stayed with her the whole time and helped her out. It was very sweet and I'm sure brought a smile to Our Lord. They are in the process of converting to Catholicism.
A statue of Jesus overlooks another statue of Jesus. I think the one at the bottom is modeled on a famous painting of Jesus embracing a sinner, I think it's called the Prodigal Son or something like that.

Teoksogung Palace

Last weekend we went to Teoksogung Palace with our friend Rupeena.

We witnessed an interesting military procession in front of the palace:





There was also a performance of some kind of traditional dance:




We took plenty of pictures of the beautiful palace grounds:

Arlene, David, and a Military Guard
Arlene and Rupeena in front of a building built in the early 1900s

An old palace gate. I think the writing means something like Central Peace Gate

Sogang University

Two Fridays ago the three of us went to do some shopping at Grandmart (a large, relatively inexpensive department store). On the way we stopped at Sogang University, which is where I take my Korean language courses.

Arlene and David play by a fountain.
Arlene and David in front of a different fountain.
Sogang is a Jesuit University and so there is a beautiful statue of Our Lady and the Child Jesus, his arms outstretched, foreshadowing his sacrifice on the cross.
David plays in a fountain.

David

David is continuing to develop. He's in good health and is a happy and healthy little baby. He's able to run around a bit now and so able to get into all sorts of devilment. He likes to play with our rosary when we pray and so I bought him his own rosary. However, now he likes to take both of them!

Here is a picture of him with our friend Erin:

Here is a movie of him climing into a cuboard:

Research

This last week I was able to find a lot of good information for my research. On Tuesday I went to the An Chunggun Memorial Hall in Namsan park. I took a lot of pictures, picked up some books and had a nice chat with the manager. It looks like a really good place for me to do research. After that I went to the Myongdong Cathedral area and picked up some books. In the Catholic building there was a young woman giving an art exhibition. I picked up some copies of her artwork. It's really cool. Then I went to the Catholic tv channel offices and met a lady there who told me I could order copies of the shows from them. Following that I then went to the Korean Church History Institute. By God's grace I met a very nice woman who speaks excellent English there. She helped me a lot and got me some books and introduced me to the librarian so that I can do research there. The next day she also inroduced me to a professor at Sogang University who is looking at some of the same issues that I am looking at.

On Thursday Father Yo, who is in charge of the Holy Site at Paeron (which is where Hwang Sayong wrote the Silk Letter, where the second Korean priest is buried and is where the first seminary was built--all research interests of mine) invited me there for a visit. It's a one hour subway ride to the bus terminal and then a two hour bus ride. Father Yo was very kind and gave me a lot of books and some actual sized copies of the Silk Letter. We had a very nice talk and I was able to attend mass there. It was neat because it was a kind of Korean style mass--we all sat on the floor, the only other posture we took was kneeling after communion. Father Yo then drove me to the bus station (and bought my ticket!) and I headed home. I learned a lot and was able to find some useful information for my research.

I will try and post pictures of these places in the next few weeks. Right now I'll just say that God has really blessed us here with some great opportunities. Please keep us all in your prayers!

Trip to Myongdong

Last Sunday our parish went on a pilgrimmage (meaning there were no masses that we could attend ther) and since we can't really go on a pilgrimmage with David we decided to go to Myongdong Cathedral for mass. We stopped off at Gwanghwamun station to go to the bookstores there. We got a book for David that sings songs. Then we went to the Korean Tourist Organization as on the last week of each month you can have your picture taken in hanbok for free. There is also an exhibit there on Korean Soap operas. After that we went to mass at Myongdong cathedral, then had dinner at Burger King and came home. It was a lot of fun.

Us in Hanbok


Arlene with a cutout of her favorite star, Choi Ji-woo