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