However, I'm in a bit of a time crunch and want to write this blog now because we're leaving this evening for Seoul for 4 days and I know I'll have even more to blog about! So bear with me and don't critique my writing because I can bet it will not be my best work.
Teacher's Room Dinner.
Sadly I don't have any pictures from this endeavor, so you'll have to use your own imagination.
We've been having midterms this week which has resulted in getting off work at 12pm and lots of relaxing for me. However, the teachers are a bit more stressed and busy so my teacher's room decided to go out to dinner Wed after our only full day of classes. Why we had a full day in the middle of midterms, I have no idea. I was conflicted in if I wanted to go - I knew they'd be drinking a high amount of soju and beer and would be out late. However, it would have been really rude if I declined and I decided I would go to the dinner, refuse any soju, and go home right after dinner. I knew I had to get up at 6am the next day for the church trip!
Promptly at 4:30, we left school and went to some restaurant about 10 minutes drive from the school. There were about 12 of us at the dinner and it was interesting to say the least. Each table (we had 3 pushed together) had it's own burner on which they put a huge bowl of broth. Apparently it was self serve buffet, but they told me to just sit there so I munched on fresh pineapple as they brought plates and plates piled high with things that honestly didn't look appealing to me. Oysters, snail looking things, huge shrimp, mini half crab things, squishy looking intestine type stuff, and full baby octopus. I started getting a little nervous. I'm all for trying new food - but this was a bit much. The only thing that saved my hopes was a plate of frozen beef strips and veggies.
Once the broth was boiling, we (meaning them, not me) dumped in all of the seafood. To cook the beef, you just held it between your chopsticks and dunked it in the broth a few times until it was all brown and it was actually really good! I tried to get away with just beef and veggies, but I accidentally said, sure, seafood is fine, and all the sudden there was a HUGE pile of it on my plate. oh no. I started with the oysters, which I knew I could handle and moved onto the snail type thing. I had to grip it with my chopsticks and pull it out of it's cute little swirled shell. Basically tasted fishy and felt like I was chewing rubber. I avoided the crab and shrimp because I knew I would make a face at those and moved onto the dreaded octopus. It was about the same size as if you put your thumb and first finger together to make the A-Okay symbol.
Right as I was getting up the guts to put it in my mouth and knowing most of them were watching me, one of the English teachers says "warning, the head may pop in your mouth when you chew it." umm gross. I almost lost it right there. But, being the adventurous person that I am (and great internal pep talk) I ate it. Once again, the taste wasn't bad, but oh the texture. It was awful. I could feel the tentacles and it took soooo long to chew. But I kept the facial expressions to a minimum and it was successful!
 |
| I didn't take this picture, I found it online, but this is what it looked like! |
Next I decided to go for the intestine looking thing. When I asked what it was, they wouldn't tell me but just said "try it!" and I knew I was in for a surprise. It. Was. Horrible. It literally was fish intestines and was squishy and mushy and all you can imagine fish intestines to be. They were laughing because I couldn't hold the facial expressions on that one and was trying my best not to gag and just swallow the food. Swallowing was successful, and I stuck to beef and veggies the rest of the evening.
The table talk was mostly in Korean, so I sat there and decided to make up my own translations in my head of what they were saying, which was totally entertaining. There's a young teacher that always tries to speak English to me even though his English is very limited. He decided to try really hard during dinner and had the whole table laughing as he would try to understand me and formulate his own words. so fun.
4 1/2 hours later, they decided it was time to go...but were then going to noribang (karaoke rooms) but I bowed out and headed home.
I had a great time of trying new food and hard laughter - and I'm so glad I decided to go!
Church Mission Trip
The English church service I've been attending at Dongshin Presbyterian was offering a day trip to learn about the missionaries who came and spread the Gospel to Korea and because we had the day off, I decided to go. It was only 10,000won (like $10) and they were giving us breakfast, dinner, snacks and a bus ride there and back from Seoul! amazing! We met at the church at the early hour of 7:30am to eat breakfast and hop on the bus. The bus was about 3 1/2 hours but Holly and I had great conversation and I was able to sleep a bit also.
We visited Yanghwajin Foreigners' Cemetery and learned through a few videos and our tour guide about the early missionaries that helped get a translated Bible into Korea and sacrificed their lives to be God's hands and feet in Korea - building and leading orphanages, schools, and hospitals. It was fascinating and inspiring to learn about them. We then ate lunch outside and luckily it was a gorgeous day.
 |
| on the way to the cemetery... please notice all the hazardous wires. |
 |
| Foreigner's Cemetary |
 |
| The Japanese hated this missionary so much they marred his headstone so it was not readable. |
 |
| beautiful day! |
 |
| Effects of the Korean War on a missionary's tombstone |
Next we rode the bus to the Martyr's Museum where there are 600 martyrs buried on the land that would not deny their belief in Christ. Christians were persecuted heavily by the communists and the Japanese and various awful torture methods were used. There have been 2,400 Christian martyrs in Korea. Makes me sooo grateful for the endless opportunities I have had to worship God without fear of being persecuted. After stopping at a super nice rest stop (as far as rest stops go) we headed home.
 |
| There were paintings of all 600 that were buried on those grounds |
 |
| The group in the Martyrs Museum |
 |
| view from the museum |
 |
 |
| Martyr's Museum |
 |
| outside the museum, different country, but reminded me of Loma! |
It was a long day of being on a bus, but so enlightening and fun to meet/get to know better other members of the church!
No comments:
Post a Comment