O di aeso wass-io?

Me guk aeso wass-io. I'm trying to study for my quiz, but as you can see I am taking a slight break. I fear that any entry I make on this blog will be fairly lengthy, as many things are constantly happening and to blog about an entire week is a daunting task (especially since my memory is so poor). So I am going to try a new format, see below:

New foods I've tried: job chae (which is what I am eating in the picture on this page), panja (scallion pancake), papingsu (korean ice cream: shaved ice, chopped fruit, ice cream on top, mix, eat), dak kalbi (I can't remember if I've mentioned this- it's spicy chicken), and korean bacon (I can't remember the name of this). Really, most of the food I'm eating here is new, but these are the most memorable. Papingsu, although it might sound icky, is fantastic! I actually ate it 3 times the other day. I actually signed up for a Korean cooking class, which is how I ended up eating job chae and panja, because we made it. I love taking cooking classes when I travel because it's fun to learn part of that culture. The woman who taught us didn't speak any english and one of the women in our group translated for us, it was really nice.

Special things that happened: The executive director for our program in Korea came and visited us on Wednesday. She's a really nice Korean woman who has worked for our program for 30 years. She gave a short talk about her job, our job/responsibility here, and a run down about the program itself. It was a nice talk and a pep talk for when we leave orientation for our respective cities.

I went and saw Harry Potter with a Amelia the other night and that was pretty cool. The movie theatre itself was smaller than in the states and the movie had korean subtitles. Other than that, no other differences.

Weekend plans:

Friday night a lot of people went out to drink and hung out with korean students from the university. The big drink in korea is called soju (it's an alcohol distilled from rice- no surprise there). There's this whole culture about it, so it's kinda fun to hang out, but it doesn't taste all that great (think vodka) so I don't drink a lot of it. After that a whole bunch of us went our to norebang, which was a blast! It's kareoke and you rent your own room with a whole bunch of people. Highlights of the night- dancing to songs like mmmbop (takes me back to middle school- yikes), spicegirls, abba, etc. It was pretty fun.

Saturday a bunch pf people were going to a juljingba, sauna/bath house, I opted out this weekend, but I do want to go sometime. Instead I went out with a few friends around town and got to see the main shopping area, which was kinda neat. Then a friend and I went paddle boating on a river nearby and spent the afternoon hanging out there and walking around the park. It was nice and relaxing. Last night I went out to dinner and had another famous dish here- korean bacon- it was tasty and I smelled like it when I came back, I had to take a shower!

Today we (a small group of about 6 of us) went to church and it was really cool. We went to a korean service early (9:00) and it was neat, I couldn't understand anything, but they had some music on a projector (like at cornerstone) so I got to practice some korean at church. We came back and I studied and then we went back to the church for an English service. I got to meet some koreans and hopefully I'll get a language partner while I'm here. The coolest part was the fact that I now know some Christians here and we want to start up a bible study/prayer group. It feels really good to be connected to other people who have the same beliefs. God is really faithful and answered my prayers; thanks for all those who prayed for fellowship here!

Praises: church and meeting others for fellowship, beginning to make deeper relationships with people, not getting bitten by so many mosquitoes, my eye infection clearing up and my eye being fine.

Prayer Requests: That I would stay healthy, continue to be responsible in studying korean (or supernatural abilities to pick up the language), continue developing relationships and that the Bible study would actually happen.

Thank you all so much for your support! I love the comments on the blog and the e-mails. Please keep me posted on how everything is going back home! There are two new ways in which to keep track of me here. First off is a place where I am posting my pictures- http://picasaweb.google.com/Jenna.Insook/KangwonUniversity

The second is the fact that I have a skype account ask me if you want it. Now, I can screen calls, so if there's some sketchy person who stumbled upon this blog and I don't know you (assuming I know sketchy people) I won't answer- simple. However, this is a great resource! I just tried it with a friend here and it works really well, even though I don't have a headset. So, if you have skype, give me a call sometime.

-Jenna