The Brave, Little Ninja Teaches in South Korea Round 2: Part 3

6/5 Julia, an OMS intern currently working with us, arrived at the end of April. She’s incredibly sweet and is a big help to me as well as a blessing to the missionaries. We’ve been going around to many of the tourist destinations in Seoul as this is her first time in Korea. It’s been really fun getting to show Seoul off to her.

This was a flower-shaped ice cream that we found in Myeongdong. It’s chocolate, yogurt, and strawberry flavored. A little expensive, but definitely tasty.

This is one of the gates of the historical wall that went around Seoul. As with pretty much everything in Korea, it was mostly destroyed during Japanese occupation, but they’ve rebuilt it. And I guess the guards are just in case Japan tries anything again.

One of the places the Julia and I went to was Gyeongbok Palace, but we didn’t go alone. Most of the women in the center wanted to come with us, and we ended up all renting traditional clothing to walk through the palace. It was so much fun that we all got to dress up.

We got to see a changing of the guard ceremony.

I’ve been to this palace about six times now, and the grounds are so huge that I still haven’t seen the whole thing.

The director of the training center and his wife took Julia and I to Minseokcheon. It wasn’t in Seoul and was actually somewhere I hadn’t been before. They described it as a tradition Korean village, but it was really more like a renaissance fair but for traditional Korean culture. There were people who walked around in traditional costumes as well as people who were making traditional shoes and silk and other things. There were also amazing live performances. It was a really fun experience.

One of the performances was “Horse Martial Arts.” And sorry to disappoint you, but it’s people doing martial arts on horses, not horses doing martial arts.

Apparently “Horse Martial Arts” is actually a Mongolian tradition, but the Mongols invaded Korea, so I guess that counts as being a part of traditional Korean culture. Many of these performers looked like they were teenagers, and they were apparently Mongolian and not Korean though Koreans identify themselves as having descended from the same ancestry as Mongolians.

Because I’m on a tourist visa, I’m only allowed to stay in Korea for 90 days, so every three months I have to leave Korea and then reenter in order to get another 90 days. Two weeks ago was my first time that I had to do this. I went to visit my friend in Japan, who was the same friend who I’ve visited each time I’ve had to do this visa run. I didn’t have much time to be there as I had to be back teaching, so I had two requests while I was there for a little over 24 hours: ramen and Japanese rice cakes.

Look how beautiful this ramen is!!!

My friend knows how much I love ninja stuff, so she said she’d been slowly accumulating ninja stuff to give to me the next time she saw me. I’m the happiest person ever!

I’m extremely grateful that my friend allows me to just crash at her apartment for a random night and run around Tokyo with me as we search for good places to eat in Shinjuku. She’s awesome!

This was a pen gifted to me by one of the furloughing missionaries who lives in Bolivia. Apparently the little alpaca on top is made out of real alpaca wool.

So this is the kind of stuff that fascinates me. Minute Maid is an American brand, but we definitely don’t have Jeju orange–flavored orange juice in the States, which is a crying shame.

Hannah, who I met last year, arrived back in Korea on Monday. She’s now an official OMS missionary who will be in Korea working at the training center for two years. Since it’s looking like I can’t be in Korea long-term, a lot of what I’ve been doing at the center was to set things up for her and whoever comes after her, so that they may have at least a solid foundation of an English program without having to start from scratch when they come.

I’m super excited to see her again, and I’m really looking forward to spending time with her as we co-teach.

So this is what’s called “Army Stew” and is probably my favorite of the many kinds of stews in Korea. Among the ingredients are dumplings, sliced hot dogs, rice cake, baked beans, mushrooms, spam, tofu, kimchi, thinly sliced bacon, and bean sprouts. It’s amazing.

We planted flowers with the missionary kids during class as an activity. Now we’ll get to see if teacher can keep them alive until they actually flower.

As for prayer requests:
Please pray for Julia as she continues to learn more about Korean culture. She also has responsibilities back at home to prepare for her summer job as well as all the papers she has to write for her university class. Please pray that she had the energy to do all of that and that she doesn’t get overloaded.

Please pray that Hannah gets over jet lag quickly. She also has a lot of errands she has to get done such as getting her visa, setting up a bank account, and getting a Korean phone, so please pray that she’s able to get that done quickly and without any surprises.

Please continue to pray for my family’s health.

My family will also be coming to visit me next month, so please pray for safety on their flight, and that they too can get over jet lag quickly so they can enjoy Korea.

For me personally, please pray that I’m able to keep up with all my responsibilities. I feel like I’ve got a handle on it right now, but the summer camps are getting closer and closer, and that will add another layer on my responsibilities as I have to plan those.

Look, Mom. A picture of me.

Look. Another picture of me.
(This is just proof that a bunch of missionaries are really just goofy kids at heart.)

I apologize for this being late. Thank you for reading.