Day by day

Secondary retreat went well - it was really great to see kids out of uniform, not focused on school work. We did a high ropes course, zip lining, orienteering, and a teamwork timed task competition. Outside of that we had a lot of chapel, ice cream, and pick up soccer. On the last night, I chaperoned a high school dance - that was one of the biggest cultural learning experiences I've had since arriving here. Not only was it music that was bumpin (http://youtu.be/9dOsAoziDfM), but there were school owned strobe and club lights. The DJ was a student, there was a brief "talent show", and some of their behaviors were a little different than what I expected. Alright, so there was almost NO crossover in the dancing category - dudes danced with dudes and girls danced with girls. I would have been less surprised by that if it had been a middle school dance, but the most surprising thing to me was the difference in where they drew the line between sexual and affectionate (towards friends) behavior. There was some serious dancing going down, but none of it was intended to be sexual. It was surprising also because I've heard quite a few times that homosexuality is not accepted here in Korea. It didn't make sense at first but after some time it made sense - the actions that screamed "Gay!" At me were taken as something friends would do because homosexuality is SO taboo that it doesn't occur to them that this action could fall under that category. All serious cultural evaluations aside, it was a really great time. Some of the student council boys performed this dance which is currently the biggest thing since sliced bread (http://youtu.be/yMqL1iWfku4).

We got back on Friday around 3. I went home and ate two separate dinners. It was awesome. :)

I spent Saturday with Ryan, the director of the choir I joined. He took me to see Weston Noble in the hospital. Weston came to Korea for many reasons, one of them was to direct the national Korean choir in concert and give a lecture on the Lutheran choral tradition. Unfortunately, he fell in his hotel and fractured his pelvis, causing the lecture to be cancelled. I thought another conductor (Helmuth Rilling) was going to fill in and give a lecture on Bach, but that actually didn't end up happening. I went to the Seoul Arts Center for the lecture, grabbed a soy iced chai (my current jam), and then found out it wasn't happening. Ryan said "get in a cab and give the driver the phone. You can come with me to the hospital". So that's what I did. I met up with Ryan at a kinkos somewhere inbetween the arts center and hospital. The cab driver tried to tell me something.... And then complimented my Korean, which was ironic because I hadn't understood what he tried to tell me. 

I think about once a week, my coworker Melinda and I look at each other and say "what a weird life we live!". Lately it's been in relation to having no control over things we are used to having control over - like knowing where we are going in a taxi. 

This is a more than fairly disjointed blog, but it's what I've got right now.

We have a school break from September 16-20 for Chuseok (Korean harvest festival), during which four other ladies and I will be traveling to Busan and an island between Korea and Japan (Tsushima?). Sorry if I already told you that - I'm pretty excited!