Bethlehem

After going to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher we had lunch and then went on to Bethlehem. It's in Palestinian territory so we had to go through a security check point to get through and we were given a new Palestinian guide.

This is the outside of the Church of Nativity. We had to wait about half an hour to get in. While we were waiting we heard gun shots but the guide just said they were fire crackers.

The door is really low. I heard before that it was so people had to stoop down and be humble to get in. Our guide said it was because some knights would go in on horseback so they made it smaller.

This is the inside of the Church of the Nativity. Our guide is holding the number nine sign.

There is a grotto under the Church of the Nativity where Jesus was born. It's divided in half. One one side its really decorated but you have to wait a long time to get in. So we went to the other side which isn't decorated like that so we wouldn't have to wait. It was really cool to be where Jesus was born. You can see the natural stone ceiling above. We think of Jesus being born in a wooden manger but the people of this area actually used caves as mangers.

This is where the body of Saint Jerome used to pray. He translated the Bible into Latin and so is the patron of translators (I don't know if that's official but I treat him as such^^). The Crusdaers took his body to Rome.

"Here lies Saint Jerome, priest and doctor of the church"

A cool statue of Saint Jerome. I love the skull at his feet.

Halloween

We went to a Halloween party at a friend of Arlene's house. Then we did some Trick-or-Treating.

Arlene carries David away from the house while he admires the candy he received. He sure learned the word "candy" fast.

David holds a piece of candy while I hold him. You can see from his legs that he was dressed as a skeleton this year. They are pjs so he had to wear a jacket which kind of kills (haha!) the whole skeleton effect.

New Blog

I started a blog on Korean Religious History in hopes of forcing myself to write down what I am learning and opening it up to criticism. I put in an entry on my recent trip to the American Academy of Religion in Montreal. Have a look if you like. Please make lots of comments and criticism!

http://koreanreligioushistory.blogspot.com/

Dad's birthday

Dad celebrated his 64th birthda. Here are some pictures!
David likes Dora so Dad's cake has Dora and Boots rings

Dad asked for toys for David for his birthday.

This actually isn't from Dad's birthday but a few days later.

An Chunggun Conference

From October 21st to the 27th I was in Korea for an An Chunggun conference.

Here is the room I presented in.

From left to right are Professor Cho, who was my advisor while I was in Korea and who arranged for me to be part of this conference, Professor Simirtseva, me, and two professors from China.

The old Fulbright building.

My hotel was only about 100 feet from the Orthodox Cathedral. This is the inside.

Here is the outside.

I had to go to Myeongdong to run some errands. Someone here is giving out free hugs. http://www.freehugscampaign.org/ .

I stayed until the 26th to see An Chunggun's official commemoration ceremonies. They were really amazing. Usually they are just in a little auditorium but this time they were outside with a jumbotron and dancers. Usually you just go but this time I had to have a ticket. They even had security: I had to go through a metal detector.

My hotel.

They had a special An Chunggun mass that evening.

It was good to go back to Korea but I was sad because there was not enough time to meet everyone that I wanted to. I apologize to anyone who reads this that I wasn't able to meet.

I also have some good news. There is a good chance that Jimoondang will publish me and my co-translator's translation of the works of An Chunggun!