becka lippy

Just a quick note before I head to bed- HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I will be posting again soon... so stay tuned!

For Christmas break (I have the week off from work) I am chilling at home. I'm really looking forward to the rest since January is going to be an intense work month. Anyways, I thought maybe I would let you all in on some of my doings around my house. You see, as each year passes I find I am getting more and more of a nesting complex. I want to make a home, to create a space that is comfortable and where people feel warm and loved. Ugh. Anyways, this means that instead of spending my money on other things, I am spending it on pretty lamps and other decorations. My bed, my Christmas lights, my teddy bear (named Dorothy after one of my favorite theologians wife- right, I DO get nerdier by the year), and my humidifer since the cold+my heater= very very very dry air. Here is my little work space. I got this very pretty lamp (but not before walking for over an hour around this HUGE shopping center looking for the best deal!). I really love my apartment. I feel so confortable here and I

Well it's the day after Christmas, but is it ever too late to post Christmas photos? Here are Sunyoung and I at lunch on Christmas day before we went to church. We went to an area of Seoul that I have never been to before (which is bound to happen in an urban area of 20 million people!). We had pork cutlets (seems like a popular dish here in Korea) and then headed to a church service for all the English churches in Seoul. Very cool. So let me share something with you about my friend Sunyoung. She LOVES the color purple. She always wears purple and whenever we go anywhere she points out everything in the stores that is purple. So our church has a purple Christmas tree in the coffee shop and Sunyoung and I had to take advantage of such an awesome thing as a purple tree. So here she is posing with her tree. Sunyoung introduced me to one of her English students named Joy. Joy is just beginning to learn English, so she took the opportunity to practice on me. She was very sweet though an

별이 That's right folks, 별이 (Pyeo-lee) is my Korean name. In honor of the blog template change, and it being Christmas Eve, I though this might be a cool time to tell you my readers about my Korean name. I've had it for a few months now but have only really started to identify with it (or honestly remember how to say it) for the last few weeks. I like the name though. I asked some Korean friends to give a Korean name since all my students get English names (most of my students go by Sally, Harry, or some other generic name). I told my friends that I wanted the name to start with a "b" sound so it would be similar to Becka. There aren't many names that start with the "ㅂ" (which is the b or p sound). So they gave me the name which means "star" in Korean. 별이. Sounds about right. Anyways, I'm thinking of all of you, my friends and family as I work till 9:15pm on Christmas Eve. May this be a good holiday for you, may you enjoy the company of your

One of the more popular things for young (and old) Koreans to do is called Norae-Bong. It is like Kareoke but so much better since only your friends see you make a fool out of yourself. After the Christmas party, a bunch of us headed over to partake in this great Korean tradition. For about $2 each, we got a room for an hour. There were thousands of songs in English, Korean, and Japanese to choose from. You choose a bunch of songs, and as the night progresses you keep updating the song list. When the song comes on, you grab the mic and you belt it out. And I mean, you BELT IT OUT. We were screaming our lungs out to Brittany Spears, Mariah Carey and of course, the Beatles! In good Kareoke fashion, the words are on the screen, but there are no music videos to go with the songs. Well, no American music videos. Instead, all the songs are played along with a Korean music video from another song. Which means most of the time, the Korean music video's story made NO sense with the English

Here is a little video, totally prime blackmailing material.

At the Christmas party I ended up sitting next to the owner of my school, Daniel (Sarah's husbund). Now in Korean culture, when your boss offers you something (especially alcohol) there is no saying no. So how could I refuse his very LARGE shot of soju? Cheers maybe a little hesitation... \ and bottoms up!

Sally and me Erin picking a white elephant gift Maggie excited about her white elephant gift, note the plastic flower attached. The spread of food for our party- everything from chinese and korean food to fried chicken and pizza. THe fried chicken, which LOOKED like KFC stuff, actually came with kimchi. I kid you not. THe center piece of the meal was this turkey which I heard cost over $100.

I first dyed my hair in 7th grade. I remember I found a box of hair dye in the mess of things in the closet area under the stairs. I don't remember if my mom put up any argument against the idea of me dying my hair. But I do remember it being fun. We did it together and it became kinda our thing (along with watching sappy movies and me giving her pedicures). I would continue to dye my hair for the next 15 years. I think the longest I have gone without dying my hair has been 6 months. That first time I colored my hair strawberry blonde. I had always wanted to be a red head. As the years progressed, the color remained red, but the shades got darker. Around my freshman year in high school it was a dark strawberry blonde. Then light auburn. And finally when I hit my senior year in high school I started dying it really dark auburn. It almost looks black in some photos. Since then, I've kept it some shade of auburn. I like it. People always think I am naturally a red head and I'm

No, not real hiking. Often times, people describe their relationship with the Lord as a "walk". Well, my walk has become more of a hike these past few months. When I am just walking with the Lord, there may be a small incline somedays, but its no more than a few steps uphill before I get to enjoy the few downhill steps. Usually, the Lord teaches me things slowly (or maybe I am just slow in learning them!). Usually I learn one lesson, or am confronted by one sin, maybe once every other week or so. But these past few months, and especially weeks, have been FULL of the Lord's dealing with me. I feel like every day is another steep step. The Lord has been working through so many things in my life that I am overwhelmed when I try to take inventory. It's like turning around and looking at how high up you have climbed. Last night I was tired of climbing. I prayed that the hike would be over soon. I wanted to reach the top of the hill to enjoy the view already. But God didn&#

Here are the fine ladies of SEA, chilling on my bed with my awesome hanukkah latkehs and wine. We never made it to watching a movie, but we sure did talk a lot. It was definitly a girls' night!

You may have noticed that recently I have been working through some of my views on marriage as it pertains to my life. I've been praying (as in my last post) that I would find joy in the place the Lord has me. When I was younger I prayed for contentment. But I think that is only half a prayer. Sure Paul says he has learned to be content in whatever situation he is in, but the Lord commands us to be joyful always. So that is my prayer. That I may truly relish the places the Lord has me. Even when they aren't what I had planned on. So last night after all the girls left my apartment, I realized something. And it gave me great joy. My friends say that I was created to be a wife. I think the qualities that bring them to make that kind of statement (besides my incredibly attractive body! haha) are my love for hospitality and my deep desire to love people. I agree that these are qualities that would serve fairly well in a marriage, but it hit me last night: they serve VERY well in si

I wrestled with God today. Or really, I wrestled with myself. When I was in high school I made a commitment to wait until marriage for sex. My dad gave me a ring and we had a small party where the elders in my life exhorted me to stay pure. Why did I do it? Well, honestly, part of it was just a trend for young Christian girls my age. But there was definitely a part of me that had thought through things. I knew that I wanted to get married, I assumed I would. The question was, would I do it God’s way, or my way? Would I go through life making my own decisions about love and marriage or would I trust God to pick out my guy for me. And even to my sixteen year old mind, I knew that God would choose better than I would. I realized today as I reflected on that decision that I viewed God as some yenta who would marry me off if I gave Him the chance. It made so much sense to me then. Give my heart to God and He would give it to a winner, saving me the pain of the losers. So why did I spend my

Jubilee Church is in the process of finding a new building. We are being kicked out of our old place and have been searching for a new building for quite some time now. If I heard correctly, we have to be out by March. This isn't the first church I have been to that had to move. And to be honest, I like it. Most people in the church are stressed or upset during the moves, but I love it when a church has to move. First, I think moving is a time that cements the people in the church together and the people realize that all the weight of the church cannot fall on only the pastor. It is a time for people to take responsibility for their church community. Second, its a time of paring down what the church owns. Often a move (even a personal move to another house) means you take time to do inventory on what you have, what you need, and what you don't need. I think when we are honest with ourselves, there is a lot more of what we don't need. Churches should share their belongings w

As I wrote earlier, it's been a week of reflection. I wish I could quantitatively judge how much I have changed over the past 6 months. Between graduating from seminary, going through the break and the valley that followed, and moving to Korea, I think it is safe to say that a lot has changed. But I have no one here who knew me before to judge. I will say that many of my regular conversations with God, about the desires and fears of my heart, have changed. While the subject matter remains the same, my prayers have changed. THe truth is, I do and always have desired marriage. I have wanted to be a wife since I was a little girl who dreamed of marrying Daniel Goldstein. I've wanted to be a mom since I was 3 and pretended to be mom to my dolls. But as much as my desire to be a wife and mom is ever present, my experience over the last year has taught me a radical trust in the Lord's goodness. My prayers have begun to reflect this new theology. As I have mentioned in previous po

In this video, Harry repeats something he told me in class ("me is smart") and I try to get some footage of one of my favorite students Yoonwha. He is my little monkey boy and as much as he is a total distraction in class, I adore him. Sadly, he is camera shy, so he hid under the table. You can hear Sulley in the background saying, "Yoonwha, you on movie". So cute!

Tomorrow marks the end of the longest six months of my life. Or were they the shortest. I feel like I was dead for so long, and now I've woken up and found myself in Korea. I don't really know how I got here. I think I was sleepwalking. It's been an interesting week. I knew that this 6 month mark was coming up and I felt my heart beginning to think about those days. I wanted to read what I had written in my journal those few weeks immediately following the break up, but by God's grace, that journal is safely buried in my dad's attic in California. I wanted to cry. And I did. All four times that I watched New Moon. That's right folks. I saw the movie four times and cried each time. But really folks, I am ok. I look back on the last half of a year and am overwhelmed by God's grace. Even in the darkest moments in the Valley, He stood with me. I never stumbled beyond His reach, but was securely fastened to His side as we walked this dark path together. I am so g

This is one of the first Starbucks I've seen that has its sign in Korean. Most are in English. Rosanna and I weren't sure, but these looked like bugs they were serving as street food. So I took a picture and asked a friend. Sure enough- they were silk worms. No thanks! So Rosanna and I went for the chicken skewers instead. This street vendor guy was really nice and friendly so we stood and watched his presentation of making this candy. And then of course, we bought some!

Here are some photos from Thanksgiving: Maggie and I at TGIFridays We went to TGIF because it was the most American thing we could think of, but even TGIF had its own Koreanization of the menu. We all laughed when we saw the Kimchi Pilaf on the menu. We were all American (about 10 of us) except one Austrailian who was silly enough to actually order the kinchi pilaf. Then we all REALLY laughed.

Confession time. I have been struggling with jealousy. It’s not often that my jealous nature is brought to my attention. But I couldn’t ignore the resentment building in my chest every time I entered the church. You might think this sounds crazy, and to be honest, it probably is. But I was so jealous of the people who worked at the church. I want so badly to work for a church. Someone in youth ministry once told me that at their orientation day at seminary, a professor stood up and told the group of students that if they could imagine themselves doing anything else, anything else, that they should leave and go do that. That youth ministry was very difficult and unless you are called and can’t imagine doing anything else, you should leave. I don’t know if I agree with that, but it certainly resonates with my soul right now. There is nothing I want to do but ministry. I went to church a week ago and was overwhelmed by my jealousy of those who are serving in full time ministry. I know my

A little pun in the title. Not only is it the verse of my church, but it seems like possibly my verse for the year. This is my year at Jubilee (Church). At every church I’ve committed to over the last 8 years, I have learned valuable lesson. At Trinity Pres. Of SLO I discovered the (second) love of my life- THEOLOGY! In Chile, at la Iglesia Anglicana de Providencia I learned a lot about leadership and ecumenical unity (or lack thereof). In my two years at Westminster, I heard the most beautiful liturgy at City Church and saw what a bunch of hippies turned radical middle class Jesus lovers can do at New Life Glenside. The Village Church was a whole new experience. It was in so many ways the perfect church for me. It was a combination of good fellowship, solid redemptive historical and yet contextualized preaching of the Gospel, and a true love for the broken yet beautiful neighborhood we lived in. Even if I never get to live in New York again (Lord forbid) I know the six months I spent

I know its been a while since I posted anything. It is not due to any bad turn of events in my life, but on the contrary, life has been good. I am still struggling in various ways with Korean life (like their fierce and vocal judgment of anyone over a size 2 and the way they walk ridiculously slowly down the streets). But I am actually doing really well. I really appreciate my church. It’s not perfect, and I know that. But I really like it. I’ve never been a member of a church this charismatic. They aren’t speaking in tongues from the pulpit or anything, but the way the pastor talk about prayer, or even visions would probably make some of my Westminster buddies uncomfortable. But honestly, I need it. I am so thirsty for the God’s work in my heart, in my life, that I gladly welcome a strong faith in the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives today. Not that my reformed buddies don’t believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, but that too often the power that we so adamantly declare on pap

So as much as I make fun of my Korean students and their English, this morning I write to tell you that the language fun goes both ways. Not only are we teaching English, but most of us teachers are also trying to learn Korean. Last night, as we were walking home from work, Brittany got a text message in Korean from a friend she met this weekend. His text was as to be expected, in Korean. Great. So the three of us girls huddled around the phone and collectively worked on translating the message. Brittany sounded out, "hwa... hwa hae... hwa haeyo... pri... pri...tan...ni...." and then it clicked, "oh! bri-ttan-ny! that's my name!" At that point I couldn't help but laugh. Here we were staring hard at all these strange characters and really they just said her name (the first part means something akin to "whatcha up to?") Ah, the good times you have when living in another country.

Like I said, HongDae is the area where the university is. It's totally a sweet hangout for young Koreans. It was SOOO cold (well below freezing) on Saturday but Nicky and I walked around the area trying to stay warm. We stumbled upon this park that has live performances. Really cool. I took a quick video so you can see a little of the madness that goes on here. So this first group was really popular. The lead singer had a mad wig on that looked like an Afro... who knows where that came from. And this second group was just a few meters away trying to compete with the sound of the big group. It was a few high schools rapping. Cute kids, not really that much talent though.

This weekend was a double whammy. Both Maggie and Kiren(pictured above) were celebrating the big 23. A group of us went out to a part of town called HongDae. It is where the University of Korea is, so it's FULL of cool student stuff. Very hip place. Anyways, we met up at a bar and got nice nd toasty before heading to another bar where we danced. Enjoy the photos! Here we are with a ton of vodka and tequila and fruit. For some reason, they give you fruit when you order liquor. Awesome. Fun note: the fruit platters here are always complete with tomatoes. Of course, right? Sally, Nicky, Brittany, and me Before we went out for the birthday bash, Nicky and I hung out and got a pretzel at Auntie Annes. It was Nicky's first pretzal!

As I shared earlier, I was hosting a girls' night on Sunday. After church, Sunyoung, Nicky and I all headed over to my place where we were joined by Ta'eh and Sally (a new American teacher at my school). We ate yummy stirfry and then settled, all five of us, on my bed to watch Twilight. It was awesome. Totally the kind of thing I love doing. And of course the girls loved Twilight and we have all agreed to go see New Moon when it comes to Korea on December 3rd. Dinner with Becka always includes lots of yummy veggies! Koreans have a space near their from door for everyone's shoes. Check out Ta'eh's yellow crocs, I gotta get a pair of those! Nicky and I as I cook the food All the girls chilling before we start the movie- good times!

I am very excited to share with you that tonight I will be hosting a girls' night at my place. That's right. I'm having a few friends over (3 Koreans and an American) over for dinner and a movie. What's on the menu? My own crazy version of Korea food. It's one of my stirfrys with zucchini, bell peppers, onions, and tofu all in a rich bulgogi sauce and served over noodles. We'll watch Twilight (of course) and then when New Moon comes out Decemeber 3rd here in Korea, we'll head out to see that. I'm really excited to host this. I have such a small place, only 3 bowls (I'm going to borrow another one and use a tupperware myself) and my netbook screen is WAY too small to comfortably all watch the movie, but I decided I would rather live hospitably with meager means than not at all. So there you go!

It's 1:40am. You may be wondering what I could possibly be doing at this ungodly hour. Well after a loooonnnng day at work, I headed over to Kims Club (think Kmart) and then finally to my little studio where I planned on watching some previously downloaded tv shows. It was already 11pm when I started 30 Rock. Then the Office (a great episode, by the way) and finally, the best for last, Vampire Diaries. When all was said and done, it was 1:30am. Even though I was tired and sure that going to sleep was going to be the best solution to that problem, I wistfully distracted myself by looking up KoreanCupid.com. Yeah, internet dating. Not that I think I am anywhere near ready to actually date, but I figured it was about time I at least stuck my toes in the water. So I signed up for a free account and began to answer the multitude of questions for my profile. That's when the panic began. First of all, Koreans are obsessed with looks. I mean, in the US we are too, but there are 7 year

I bought Sexless in the City a month before Jason and I started dating. I put off reading it to work on my thesis, and then once the relationship started, and graduation plans ensued, and then the getting OVER the relationship season began... well, let's just say that it took me until mid August to begin reading this book that had so quickly caught my attention in February. Once I began, I realized that this woman, Anna Broadway, was telling my story. Sure some of the details were different, but she and I have walked disturbingly similar paths. I cannot recommend this book enough. Sure, it's about sex and Anna has a lot to say on the subject. But it's also just about life. It's about being a Christian. She describes her experiences with a hindsight that I can only hope to have a few years down the road. It's uncanny how closely her reactions to life match mine. Crushes on guys, not because they are worth even an ounce of your heart's energy but because you are

I want to start a new weekly, or biweekly posting where I will share with you some of the fun (or just plain strange) things my kids say in class. Everyday in the teachers lounge we share the funny things the kids put on their tests or homeworks. Sometimes what they say is so blatantly wrong that it's just funny. (I want a cool name for this kind of post. So CONTEST time!!! THink of a cool name for these posts. Like "silly sayings" or "wrong readings". Send them my way and I'll use the coolest one.) To give you an example of what my kids say: On the vocab tests, the kids have to write the words and a sentence using the vocab word. Now these are smart kids, so when they don't know the definition of a word, they often try to make up a sentence that is vague enough that it just might work. One of the most popular ones is: "I like ________." Um, yeah, sure but that does NOT tell me that you know what it means. This was (hopefully) the case today wh

Today another puzzle piece fell into place. I've been struggling with my church for weeks. In fact, every week I've gone there I've found myself sitting in the sermon cringing and wondering why I still go to the church. Don't get me wrong, the people are very very nice and I'm sure they love Jesus very much. But for someone who loves theology, indeed who breathes theology, the simplistic and sometimes slightly bad theology was too much to take. I am the first to say that the gospel is simple enough for a 5 year old to understand and yet complex enough to study your whole life and never full grasp the immensity of it. But the teachings at this church were too, well, let's just say they weren't for me. I loved the social aspect of the church. I met so many Koreans there and I loved going out to lunch with them afterwards. But given my own personal state, I knew that I needed to be in a place where I was being fed spiritually, even if that meant being in a chur

So I realize that many of my photos are from this one class, but really, they are too cute NOT to post. Here is a fun video of them Friday all dressed up in their Halloween costumes.

My little princess Ella The whole class excited to get candy for Halloween Here I am being scary.. and yes, I am a vampire, but like in Twilight, I am a GOOD vampire. :)

It is Halloween this weekend so the kids are coming to school ready to have fun (which loosely translates as ready to eat candy!) I took the opportunity to capture some of the sweetness I get to be with all day, every day. My oldest class. These girls are at the age where school is almost uncool. Evidently dressing up isn't uncool yet. Check out the glasses on Eesun (the second on the right). Here is the damage done to my board by my students when I'm gone for my dinner break. I always come back to the class for a board full of goodies. Alex and Harry- two of my favorites. I melt when Alex smiles at me, which he totally uses to his advantage! One of my more advanced classes. These three girls are WAY too much fun, and such good students! Of course, all three came dressed as witches. Sweet kids! These two girls are stuck in a class of four rowdy boys who smell and throw stuff at each other. But the girls just sit in their corner and draw hearts all over their pages. Here they ar

So I know my blog posts have been few and far between recently- sorry! I am going to try to make up for it with a cool few posts. First, I just have to say that the past four months have been that hardest months of my life. I won't go into details here but it is safe to say that I have spent the last few months in a pit. I have never been that deep in a valley before and my one joy and consolation from this season was that the Lord was ever near. THere wasn't a moment that I didn't feel His presence, holding me close. I couldn't walk. I couldn't move. There seemed no end to the valley, but He always stayed with me. In fact, there were moments when all I could do is cry out for Him to sit with me. It was all the strength I had. I was reading some of James today and reflecting on how God tells us to rejoice in our sufferings, that it is for our good. I can confidently say that the Lord has been immensly good to me in this past season. He is faithful and I am grateful

(I saw this on someone's profile and thought it was one of the funniest things I've seen since leaving the land of all humor- Westminster Theological Seminary. I hope you enjoy... and boys, don't be afraid to try some of these out, let me know if they work!) 10. Find a prostitute and marry her. (Hosea 1:1-3) 9. Purchase a piece of property, and get a woman as part of the deal. (Ruth 4:5-10) 8. Find an attractive prisoner of war, bring her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and give her new clothes. Then she’s yours. (Deuteronomy 21:11-13) 7. Go to a party and hide. When the women come out to dance, grab one and carry her off to be your wife. (Judges 21:19-25) 6. Cut 200 foreskins off of your future father-in-law’s enemies and get his daughter for a wife. (I Samuel 18:27) 5. Become the emperor of a huge nation and hold a beauty contest. (Esther 2:3-4) 4. Find a man with seven daughters, and impress him by watering his flock. (Exodus 2:16-21) 3. When you see someone you li

I will post again soon. promise. :)

This will be a quick update. As it is, I have a bunch of school work to grade, lesson plans to write, and hopefully a good number of hours to sleep. I am doing ok. I'm still tired and congested, but I have no fever and have been back at work since Monday. Work is going well. I am getting the hang of teaching all the various classes, although I have just enough energy to teach and nothing more. I am doing ok. More to come later.

So I am really sick. Either this is my normal asthma attack followed by 103.8 degree fever, or I have swine flu. I went to a doctor today, explained what was going on and begged her to give me something to lower the temperature. I spent all last night and this morning scared that I was going to black out from such a high temp. And no matter if I took Tylenol and covered myself with cold wet rags, I couldn't get my temp to stay under 103. So I went to the doctor and after she gave me a prescription, she recommended that I go to the hospital to get tested for swine flu. She said it would be $150, so I thought, well at least I would know. I went to the hospital, nearly dying along the way, I was in so much pain and i couldnt breathe and my head was on fire. At the hospital they said it would take 2 days to get the results and it actually cost $600. So I decided to skip that, go home, and just pretend like I do have swine flu. A week of quarrentine for me. Or I guess how ever long it t

Good news! As I speculated in my previous post, my time hanging out with my friends here wasn't that bad. In fact, it was almost... wait for it... good! I ended up having Sunyoung and Nicky come over after church and we were joined by my neighbor Gavin, who is from Atlanta. I was a little nervous about the whole affair on multiple levels. WOuld I be ok with so many people around me for so long? Would my guests who had never met each other, like each other? Would I have enough food to feed all four of us? I only have two bowls so how would all four of us eat anyways? It all turned out okay though. Nicky had to leave early so I only had to feed three people. Sunyoung and Gavin had bowls and I ate out of a tupperware dish. And everyone seemed to get along. After eating my rockin' speghetti, we headed out for coffee (Gavin's treat). Four hours later, we fianlly split up. It was good though. I like all of them. Sunyoung is ever sweet and encouraging and we love teaching each oth

Hey ya'all, (that's for Tosha) For those of you who have asked about my address or what you can send my way, any peanutbutter candy like Reeses or Butterfinger, anything fun in English to hang in my classroom, any Chai tea mix, anything really, is greatly appreciated. I don't need anything right now honestly, I'll let you know if I do. I think I would most appreciate just a card and some love! Send love to: S.E.A. [Becka Lipkowitz] 5F Heejung B/D, 49-11 Banpo-4dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 137-802, Korea mucho gra-cias!

The much promised video of a tour of my pad. It is smaller (believe it or not) than it looks. :) nice and cozy!

After the depressing last post, I feel the need to write a little uplifting post. It's not much but it's something. After wandering around Hongdae for a few hours, I made it back over to my part of town. One of the things I love most in life right now is grocery shopping. I think I have always enjoyed it, but now given my slightly anti-social attitude in life, grocery shopping is the highlight of my day. SInce I only have a half fridge, I have to buy small quantities and shop over other day or so. I had heard there was a supermarket about a mile or two up the hill from my apartment. After weeks of shopping at the little market around the corner, the thought of a supermarket was too much temptation to turn down. I found fairly easily and got some yummy food to make for my friend and myself tomorrow. As I was walking home, I ran into one of my students! His name is Sulley, he's probably 9 or 10 years old, and he is a sweet kid. I giggled with glee when he waved to me and star

I have noticed a pattern. Stay busy, and be okay. Have time to think and reflect, and choke back the tears. Not really a healthy pattern, but I guess its something. I decided to check out an area of Seoul called Hongdae today. It's where the university is and it's known for being a cool hip area. It's also the only place in Seoul where they sell nose rings. I have yet to see a Korean with a nose ring, so they aren't exactly sold everywhere. It's precious when I wear my nose ring and the kids go crazy asking me about it. So I headed out nice and early to make it across town (about a 30 minute subway ride). When I got there I wandered around for a while before I realized I was hungry. THe problem was, I didn't want any of the food I saw available. Korean food is made to be eaten in groups of at least two. There are a few dishes like bibimbop that you can eat by yourself, but in general, Koreans don't eat alone. In fact, many Korean restaurants don't even

Today I felt the weight of my depravity. I had a sad dream last night. Not a bad one, per se, but a sad one. When I woke up, I tried with all my might to return there. I wanted to go back to the tears in my dream. I wasn’t done crying I guess. But I couldn’t fall back asleep so I got up and made my way over to Paris Baguette, the coffee house around the corner that has the cheapest americanos and yummy breakfast pastries. I got some work done, blogged, and talked to a few people via internet. But over me hung this dark cloud, residue from my sad dream. I told one of my friends on gchat about it and found myself tearing up in the café. I guess it’s going to be one of those days. I made my way over to school, trying to block out the pain at the bottom of my heart. Classes were not so good today. I realized throughout the day that when I am not okay, my pool of grace for the kids is all dried up and I have no patience with anything. I guess it was a bad day for the kids to come to class

Seoul is extremely safe. Seriously, the only time I ever felt unsafe at all was in the Itewon area which is full of foreigners. Where I live is mainly Koreans and SO SO SO safe. Seoul is so safe that no only will you not get robbed, but if you accidently drop your wallet on the subway, people will run after you to return it. It happened to my friend a few weeks ago. The photo above is of a subway seat where someone left a purse. I noticed it when I got on the train and sat opposite of it. I wanted to do something about it, somehow get it back to the owner, but I had no idea how to. So after fruitlessly trying to make eye contact with some of the other passengers to point out the purse, I gave up and just took a picture. I'm sure it got back to the owner eventually. Oh Seoul, you are way too easy.

In case anyone doubted that my obsession was just as strong as ever! Yep, Twilight in Korean! Actually, it's still in English but with Korean subtitles. Close enough.

Last night I got my resident alien card! I thought I'd capture the moment by showing off my identity from the various places I have lived. I have to admit, I'm not thrilled with the photo on my Korean card, I didn't realize that the passport photos that I submitted to the government would be so permanently attached to my life here. Oh well. At least I didn't have to wait in a 3 hour line like Chile.

I made a kid cry today. It was the first time in my four years of teaching that I have made anyone cry. The worst part is the kid is a 13 year old boy. Yeah, not exactly the demographic I pegged to be the first to cry. Now before you go thinking I was truly mean to the kid, here’s how it went down…. It’s a class of 6 young teens. We were going around the classroom reading an article. When it got to this young fellow’s turn, he had his head down on the table and wouldn’t respond to me. I asked if he was sick. He said no. He was tired. Ok, well, sorry, but you can’t sleep in class. Please read. After a few minutes of prodding, he finally began to read, no whisper the part of the article assigned to him. Ugh. This attitude kept up all throughout class. Then, a few minutes before class was over, his cell phone rang. Yeah. I looked sternly at him and told him to turn it off. Not only did he not turn it off, but he answered it! Right there in class! NOT OK. I told him that he wasn’t allowed

It was at the party Saturday night that I met Richard. He was standing in front of Nickie and me in line for food. He introduced himself and his friend Love (no joke, this guy’s name is “Love Moon” maybe his parents were hippies?). We talked a little but I was pretty wary of guys and felt like he was too interested in talking to us. I escaped as soon as I could. Later he tried talking to us again. There were almost 200 people at this party and somehow we kept running into him. I said something to Nickie about it, but she thought he was just interested in us as friends. I decided to trust her intuition on this one since they are both Korean and I’m not. She would know better than I would, right? Well, maybe I should have stuck to my gut on this one. Who knows? Maybe I over read things, but I saw Richard again today at church. In fact, I saw him three times at church. The first was just a quick passing. The second, he came and sat with Nickie and me and started talking to us. The third,

I wish I had my girls here. I would love to laugh with them over the ridiculous things that have happened in the last few days. It started on Friday when I found myself walking around the city, slightly lost, and not caring. I realized that I am quite apathetic toward my life right now, and that includes my feelings about Korea. It’s not that I dislike Korea. I don’t. But neither do I like the country. I just don’t care. In fact, I don’t care about anything right now. I spent Friday examining my attitude toward life and wondering if it was my own version of culture shock. I was pretty sure it wasn’t. The feelings were far too closely resembling the various emotions I have faced over the last four months. The truth is, I just am not ok. I felt like a little blue cartoon animal on a Zoloft commercial. Just stumbling around on the stage of life, not caring about anything in the world. I realized at some point in the day that I am depressed. And then I panicked. What am I supposed to do? I