10-20

As I sat down to enjoy my omelette, hash brown, spam breakfast on this lazy Saturday morning, I turned on the TV to see none other than the Major League Baseball playoffs, broadcasted live (in Korean of course).

Along with my somewhat distinctly American breakfast, it was a nice taste of home.

It is a strange experience to watch live television from your home country on the other side of the world. 

10-13

As promised, here is a brief photo tour of my studio apartment here in Daejeon. What it lacks in pure size, it makes up for in coziness. It's part dorm room, part kitchen, part whatever-else-you-want-it-to-be.

During my move-in day, I was unfortunately greeted by piles of dirt, hair, and some kind of moldy grease. Let's just say that the previous tenant had a lower standard of hygiene than I do, and that's saying something. Nonetheless, this man cave has since been swept and mopped clean.

I really do love it. Everything I need for life as a foreign English teacher is literally within an arm's reach. Perhaps, eventually, I can begin to call this my temporary home away from home.

10-8

It is truly amazing what a church can do. Despite it's many flaws/mistakes/imperfections, the Church has the capability of bringing healing and fellowship to the most broken situations. I had the opportunity to experience a glimpse of that on Sunday.

As I wrote about earlier, I had established a goal for myself: to find some local church here in Daejeon where I could plug into a community. Peter, a man I met at a Korean church during my first weekend here, helped me find an English speaking church in town. This Sunday, I retraced the steps that Peter had shown me on the subway and bus system, and arrived at Saeronam Church in Daejeon.

The service was exactly what my mind, soul and body needed that day. When you can look around a room, seeing people from literally all over the world, gathered for one common purpose, something special happens. You feel a trickle of hope start to flow, from out of nowhere. The air becomes lighter, and your heart starts to glow with a new energy. This is it. This is a snapshot of what this thing called the Christian Church might be capable of. People, united, under a banner of love and service for one another. There is perhaps no place as beautiful on planet Earth as a small room such as this on a Sunday morning.

True joy and peace, for the heart and mind.

 

10-7

Short story: When you're moving out of one Korean apartment into another, make sure you keep track of BOTH sets of keys. Otherwise, you may end up needing to hire a handyman to break into your home for you. 

Longer story: Well, this was the weekend of the big move, or in my case, the very short move. My school has relocated me to my permanent studio apartment, just down the street from my previous one. I received about 30 seconds of an introduction to my new apartment, and I was soon standing in my recently abandoned man cave with two sets of keys: one to the old digs, and one to the new. I began my process of bringing over bags/dishes/food etc. down the street one block from my old apartment. It was right around that I slowly began to realize that I in fact had only one set of keys - something had happened to the keys to the old apartment. They couldn't be locked in, because the door was locked shut, and needed a key from the outside to be locked. Well.... fortunately a few teachers were around my school at the time of my mini crisis. I informed them of my half-moved-in situation, and about 20 minutes later, a Korean handyman showed up with a drill and a lockpick. 40,000 won and (~$40) and some minor stress later, I am now fully moved in to my new studio apartment in Daejeon. Stay tuned for a more in depth tour of the apartment.