Saturday, December 27, 2008
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.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
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!).
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!).
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