In my Monday/Wednesday LG class, I have this one student named Ryan. He's probably the youngest member (32 years old?), but he looks, acts, and lives really young. It's really funny whenever he tells me that he went to check out a new club during the weekend cause clubbing is one of his hobbies (really REALLY hard to imagine). He recently came back from Switzerland, so he's been pretty jetlagged with the 8 hour time difference. I asked him what he did to help him fall asleep, and he told me that he played with his Nintendo DS. Isn't that hilarious?

I'm no 32 year old, but I'm definitely over video games. I pretty much lost interest after Puzzle Fighter and DDR way back in high school. It's really shocking for Koreans to hear that I don't play ANY computer games cause it's such a big part of their lives. But the funny thing is, after today's conversation about Ryan's Nintendo DS, I'm foolishly starting to want one too. Playing Mario or Tetris on the subway doesn't seem too bad of an idea, especially when you're always seeing grown men in business suits playing Yoshi unabashedly when they're sitting right next to you. It's 150,000won in Korea but $130 in the U.S. What's up with that?

Thought of the Day: Christmas Mixes.
Song of the Day: Raveonettes-The Christmas Song

Enoch's family was awesome enough to invite me, my dad, and Jaepil over for Thanksgiving yesterday.

















Today, Jaepil took a few of us church people to this place called 구룡 마을. It's basically this area full of shacks that are prohibited by the government, but people still live there cause they cannot afford to pay for housing in Seoul.

The irony is that three bus stops away, there are some of the most expensive apartments in Korea. Many of those residents probably have no idea that 구룡 마을 even exists. You can see the tall buildings in the background. What an encouraging view for these people, right?

I knew that Korea had some ghetto areas, but I never knew it'd have places this impoverished. As I told one of our fellow kyopos from California, "Ain't no Cerritos!"

Fantastic weekend.

Thought of the Day: Busan.
Song of the Day: Utada Hikaru-Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) -2007 MIX-

I just got back from having a Thanksgiving Dinner (samgyupsal) with my coworker, Brian. I asked him what he was thankful for, and he said that he felt like he was moving up in life in terms of making money and having hopes for a good future. I told him that as a Christian, I was grateful that I had a good church in Korea because one's church can have a great effect on the other parts of that person's life. Of course, this opened up a can of worms, and we discussed Christianity and my experiences with it.

I feel like my conversations about God or the Bible don't really go anywhere. It usually ends up with the non-Christian respecting what I believe and him just continuing to accept his life of uncertainty and trying to make the most of his time on earth. They don't really ask me questions or challenge my faith in Christ. Why are they so afraid of offending me? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Truly, hearts of stone can only be made into flesh by the Creator of all hearts. There is seriously NOTHING in my hands!

Anyways, here's a few things that I'm consistently grateful for:

1. Family-My family may be separated, but I think there's a lot of love in our Chung unit. I'm not even talking about divorce, adultery, or communication issues. We're just very healthy and happy with one another!

2. Health-I don't have any ear infections, sore throats, neck pains, or even any allergies! I don't even know what a migraine feels like because I've never had one in my life. I can't remember the last time I had real health insurance, but I've been doing fine without it.
*You may not believe this, but ever since I took my brain and behavior classes in college, I've always had a strong appreciation for the various physical and mental abilities I have like visual perception or motor skills. Take a minute to think about the complex activities you are able to do thanks to a healthy and functional brain. Brilliant!

3. Job-I know that I don't have the best job in the world, but I sure am able to provide for myself and my family. There are too many people in the world who are working twice the amount that I do without getting paid half the money I make. Less complaining, more thanking.

4. Shelter-I've never had to sleep in the streets, garage, or even a car. I have a bed, blanket, desk, computer, internet, bathroom...the works. I know a homeless man who sleeps outside about a block away from my place. He'd kill to live inside here.

5. Safety-I don't have to worry about being abused, tortured, or killed. I don't know what war is like. There are no oppressors or dangerous threats where I live. There are children in Africa who are always on the run cause they're either going to get mutilated or brainwashed into mutilating others.

6. Friends-I've never had to worry about being lonely. Wherever I've gone, the Lord has blessed me with amazing people who can make me laugh and smile. I am comforted by the idea that there is at least one friend who is always praying for me. I get mad love for a person who doesn't really love that much.

7. Freedom of Religion-Lucky Number Seven would definitely have to be my freedom from persecution. I can read, pray, talk, and even sing about Christ without a single worry. I can freely gather with other Christians to worship God and even invite others to join us. It's all good.

8. Material Pleasures-I am always grateful for every song and movie I have access to. My cell phone provides excellent convenience for my Korean lifestyle, and I never fail to take my ipod wherever I go. I don't have much of a fashion sense, but I'm very happy with the clothes that I am able to wear every week. Thank you, laptop, for keeping me sane inside my household!

The list obviously never ends, but these are the big things that I'm consistently grateful for on a daily basis. Although they are all gifts from the Lord, some day, all of these things will disappear. What wonderful gifts does He have in store for us in our eternal home? Til then, y'all be grateful now!

Thought of the Day: Smell like potatoes.
Song of the Day: Stone Temple Pilots-Interstate Love Song

Fall was beautiful for many weeks, but I think Winter has finally kicked in. Today, I had to bust out my faithful black scarf and turn my shower faucet to half way to get the hot water going. I even started listening to Christmas music again. I forgot how cold and miserable winter could be. -2 degrees, dude! How do those Russians survive out there?

Here's a picture of one of my students' essays that was poorly written. As you can see, he was sorry about the bad work. I had a smile just as big as the one on the paper.

This is my favorite class at Elite: TOEFL. I have a love/hate relationship with this class cause they give me the most workload and stress, but it's also the most rewarding and fun. Their English is super good, so they can understand all of my jokes and even do a pretty good job of making me laugh too. It's also really interesting seeing puberty at work in these students.

Tomorrow's the last day I'll be seeing Mike and Karen. Freakin' two hit combo!

Thought of the Day: Cold.
Song of the Day: The Chi-Lites-Oh Girl

I am doing so much better with work these days. I remember for my first small group meeting, we went around sharing about our struggles. I told everyone how I was really hating my job and had pretty much no motivation to go into work. These days, I'm not exactly thrilled to go into hakwon, but I'm definitely not hating life anymore either. Thank you for your prayers, small group!

I'm really glad that I came to PCL. I started a Friday morning accountability group with Jaepil and Mike (Hyunsoo). We've been doing this 1 Year Bible reading schedule, and we meet every week to discuss the passages we read. I seriously wonder how much easier my first year in Korea would have been if I had been at this church sooner. Oh well, the Lord has His mysterious plans.


Some of us like to eat dinner together and hang out after small group. Last week, we randomly decided to walk across 한강 at night. I thought it was really cool.


For those of you who are curious about Enoch, he recently decided to come out to PCL as well. I went to go visit his place in Bundang over the weekend. He lives in a really nice place next to this crazy set of apartments. Reminds me of a Bundang version of Hyperion or something.


After meeting up with Enoch, I had a nice lil date with my ex-student, David. We watched a movie, ate Dos Tacos, and went to a board game room (finally). It's really cool cause they have just about every board game out there. But of course, what better board game to play than Monopoly (Korean stylez).


In this picture, David looks super happy and excited to play. But after losing five games in a row within two hours, I turned his smile UPSIDE DOWN. He literally picked up every Go To Jail card at least once every single game. I think it was the first time David ever saw me crack up.

His parents actually gave me a gift certificate to show their appreciation for the past several months. When I got home, I checked to see how much they had given me. Two 10,000won gift certificates to Hyundai Department Store. "20,000won? I don't know what I'm going buy with that much, but it was a nice gesture," I thought. As I was putting them back into the envelope, my eyes glanced at the amount again. Somehow, my eyes had read 100,000 as 10,000. What a spectacular gift!

Thought of the Day: Beer.
Song of the Day: Anyband-TPL (Talk, Play, Love)

삼겹살 is always good, but it was especially good tonight for some reason. Brian needs to go into this teacher workshop thing tomorrow morning that's only for non-Koreans because of some shady Canadian teacher who did some terrible things at a hakwon. It's time like these that I'm super glad that I'm a kyopo.

Just in case you didn't believe me...


Thought of the Day: Crying Shiljangneem.
Song of the Day: Yoon Do Hyun-먼 훗날

For the past several weeks, my students haven’t been able to stop chanting, “TELL ME, TELL ME, TeTeTeTe…TELL ME.” At first, I didn’t know they were singing the Wonder Girls song, and I’d tell them to stop being annoying. The other day, I saw two of my hakwon students doing some of the dance moves outside. One of my boy students (totally borderline gay) couldn’t stop singing and doing the dance in class. But I must confess that I now listen to the song on my ipod as it is now THE Korean pop song to sing and (apparently) dance to. The crazy thing is that the oldest girl in the group is 19 years old! The youngest ones are 15! Young singers like BoA or even Younha didn’t bother me much, but Wonder Girls have officially made me feel a bit older. Ugh, stupid catchy pop songs!

Last night, my private student, David, was super rude to me. He didn't serve me any food or drink, played his computer game with empty apologies, and whined about how bad his day was without telling me why. At one point, I was so indignant that I was about to get up and leave, but it's a good thing I was able to endure to the end. He kept asking me if I was available to play with him on Saturday even though I repeatedly told him I'd probably be busy. Five minutes before we ended tutoring, he told me that his parents were letting me go. He started tearing up and began to cry. I've never had a student who liked me this much before. As relieved I am about not having to tutor til 11:30 anymore, I'm really sad that I won't be seeing David anymore. I promised him that we'd play together on Saturday.

Lately, I've been having a hankering for a lot of junk food like chocolate or ramen. I think it's cause of the weather that's getting colder and colder. I haven't exercised in three weeks, and I don't plan to for another three months. My body's probably telling me to stock up some fat for the winter. It's slowly creeping up and for some reason, I'm kinda looking forward to it.

Thought of the Day: SAT pwned.
Song of the Day: Wonder Girls-Tell Me

Yesterday...

My second boss in command called me at 2:58am. I obviously screened her and went back to bed. I wonder why she called me at that hour. Whatever it was, I'm sure it wasn't anything positive.

My dad got a new cell phone yesterday after using his old phone for the past six years. I've never met anyone who has used a cell phone for that long. I wonder how long he'll keep this new one.

Last night, I finally watched 8월의 크리스마스 (Christmas in August). That movie was pretty sad. Freakin' Korean people and their sad movies and songs. For example, I've been listening to a lot of Lee Soo Young lately, and that singer really sings some melancholy stuff. But I guess you can't really blame her or the rest of Korea since we're a people of hardship.

Anyways, I would like to encourage you with these profound words that encouraged me yesterday:

“Worry is arrogance. Worry is always in the Bible…Anybody who worries thinks they know. Anybody who’s filled with anxiety, it’s arrogance cause you’re sure you know how things have to go. You’re sure you know what you need. You’re sure you know how history has to go.”

-Tim Keller

Thought of the Day: Ezekiel.
Song of the Day: Younha-약속

In Korea, there are thousands of people who are studying to become government officials or teachers. The difficult part is taking an extremely hard test that requires months and even years of studying. Since the competition is so fierce, the test preparation demands complete dedication where people have to take time off school, work, and even relationships. I recently found out that one of the members in my small group didn't pass his test. I remember when my cousin didn't pass hers. Now I'm afraid that my good friend, Christine, isn't going to pass her teacher exam that she has in exactly one month. I've seen her health deteriorate right before my eyes. Meeting her and talking to her every week has taught me the power of stress. She basically told me that no one could possibly understand what kinds of pain she has gone through since college. It's quite remarkable.

Edward is one of my former students who was trying to get into Minsa (very good foreign language high school). Although he is a Mokdong resident, he would take a taxi to Daechi everyday to go to another hakwon til 2am. He did not get into Minsa. I meet with LG employees four times a week, and they incessantly express how they hate their 13 hour job. There are thousands of people who'd kill to have their job. This country is developing at a phenomenal rate, and people are struggling to keep up with it. However, one thing is certain: people are not happy.

Seoul is so crazy. I never would've thought that I'd get a chance to see so much raw footage. Koreans are so exhausted and dreary. I've become so exhausted and dreary. Life is tough.

Thought of the Day: 안타깝다.
Song of the Day: Lee Soo Young-Come To Me