Sunday, April 17, 2011

Good and Bad

It ain't too many times when I look back on a weekend and I think that it shaped a period in my life or way of thinking.  That's what happened this weekend.  It all started with a plan to go and watch some bullfighting.  I ain't never went to anything like it before, so I was up for it.  Several friends planned to go, but on ditched and another had to work.  So, it was just my friend Justin and me.  I was hoping that there would be 4-8 people in our group as usual.  But, it was what it was.  Then it al began!

I met Justin a few subway stops away and we went on our journey.  It was a random and fun weekend with lots of turns that couln't be imagined.  So weird.  This is why we call it 'Dynamic Korea!"  There's one thing that ain't a lie, and that is that Korea is just that.. Dynamic!

The final destination was a town called Cheongdo.  This is considered a village in Korea and they ain't nothing there except a bull festival and some peaches.  There are a several thousand people, but there's a old school feeling.  It is not so modern and a bit dirty.  So among other things, it is not the best place in the world.  We got on the train in Seoul and it goes 200 and some km/hr.  Very..very.. very.. very.. fast! We made it to a very large city called Daegu.  I'd guess that there are about 2 million people there.  This is when the crazy stuff started to happen.  We walked out of the train station and tried to take a taxi.   We got in 3 taxis and asked if they could take us to one of 3 motels that we had researched near the train station.  All 3 of them claimed to either not understand or not know where any of them were.  Then we decided that the best thing was to find downtown and get us some food.  That was my idea!  After that, we needed to find a place to sleep.  Well, there are many a motel in Korea, but most of 'em are not exactly that!  Finally we talked to many people on the street asking in Korean where we should sleep.  Nobody knew what the heck we were saying.  It was pretty funny.  Then we decided that we were tired so we had to find somewhere to sleep.  It shouldn't be that hard in a city of 2 million.  We found many 'motels' and we went inside one and paid $30 for the night.  Just one heated bed and a nasty bathroom.  It was very uncomfortable and very hot on the 3rd floor.  We opened the windows and left to go to a bar.  On the way back in we noticed a random hooker sitting on a chair next to the road.  Random!

In the morning we tried to make it to Cheongdo for the bull festival.  Justin was obsessed with getting there.  We asked the KTX train worker and she told us to get on tthe 3rd train in English, so we did.  The train went to rollin' down the tracks and I looked over at Justin and said, 'This ain't the right train!"  We were headed to the other side of the country to a city called Busan.  When we got off of the train, there were palm trees!  I wore a coat on the train if that tells you anything. LOL!  We was there for 8 hours and see an amazing mall, fish market, harbor and many other things.  It wasn't enough time, but we give it our best for a mistake.  Finally, we went back to Cheongdo by train.

Cheongdo was weird at best.  We got there and tried to get some food.  We wanted some specific food so we walked around asking people where a good restaurant was.  They didn't say! Weird.  We finally got to one and we were told to sit on the floor and eat, but as soon as we started to sit down the owner run over and told us that we should leave.  He hates foreigners! LOL!  We found another place and found some more people who told us where to sleep.  We went there and found an empty room with a pile of blankets.  We paid $40 for it.  Then we went to a bar for some food again and found a very old school place.  The service was amazing and we had a great time.  Awesome conversation and food followed by wanting to go to a singing room.  We went to one, but it was empty.  We sit there and sung into the microphone until the lady came and told us a very high price.  We left angry!  We asked some fast food workers for help and we jumped into their car and they drove us to another one.  Same price, so we left!  We'z so pissed at all of these rural haters.  I was content to just sleep after that!

In the morning, we found the only restaurant that was open on Sunday and then took a packed bus full of old people to the festival.  There was an old singing clown just a singin' away as we got off of the bus.  Weird.  Then we went into this huge stadium and sit right in front down close to the fights.  It wasn't bloody or anything.  I was expecting it to be nasty.  Most of the time, the bulls just run off and lost.  It was funny at times too.  Then we were greeted by this extreamly kind family in front of us.  They wanted take us to this wine tunnel built into a mountain to taste Korean wine.  Keep in mind that it was just a random family who decided to give us a tour of the village and the wine production area inside of a mountain.  Then they dropped us back off at the train station.  We took the train back to Daegu and finally had a standing room only ride the rest of the way back.  The worker would bow each and every time she come into our train or left.  We laughed pretty hard since most of the passengers were sleeping and she bowed anyway.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Choices

Life is so full of choices.  I make the choice if I'm gonna post on here or not every day.  I usually want to, but something comes up and I don't.  They's so much in life that is totally up to us.  Actually, I've been in a struggle to understand how much is really up to us and how much God has set up for us.  I mean, he prepared good works for us to do before the foundation of Earth.  How crazy is that!  My main choice every day is if I will follow God or my-own-self.  I am sure that it is true for every single human even if they don't know it.  Or is it?  I don't know to be honest.

I am at the point in my life where I usually know what will happen if I do X,Y or Z.  What the heck is wrong with me?  The reality is that everyone is just as messed up.  Some are better at being able to hide it.  Regardless of anything I do, I can't control God.  He is there every time I choose to follow or to deny.  What is it about this God who sits quiet next to me as I do stupid stuff and then is OK with me despite whatever?  How can he tolerate such dumb behavior?  I know the reason, but it don't make no sense.  I try and figure it out and it is beyond me.   I know why, but still I ask myself over and over.  Perhaps that's why people keeps coming back around to Him despite our sometimes constant dumbness.  This is in fact is not a choice.  I ain't able to ignore any of this.  So, it is not a choice.  Arrr.  I got the headache.

All of these things rolls around in my head over and over.  My life may seem bad according to this post, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I am content in the here and now.  I have so much more than I could ever ask for and it's more where that come from.   As far as I can see, only good has happened to me.  Some bad things have went down, but in the end they've been good.  Friends and family has come and went and so have I.  I couldn't have guessed any of this when I was 14 or even 17.  I've been thinking lately about even being able to think on these things.  It just flips me out.  We are so complex and it is really true that they ain't nobody who can understand our thinking or our hearts.  I get so excited when I talk to people that thinks about these things at all.  There's so many who just plunder through life without even a thought on it.  This post really has give me the headache, so I better get back to doing something else.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Long Time No Write

I've wanted to write for about a week and I just couldn't pull myself toward this keyboard to write.  I've been sick.  Sick ain't fun.  I don't think I've ever had the cold that travels before.  It started after having some nice cake at an expensive coffee shop.  It had a curtain around the table and the ever so common button on the table to call the server.  Yep, I ain't kidding!  There's a server who treats you like gold as you take each and every sup of coffee.  I felt fine then, but then I took the subway home and then it started.  My stomach started hurting more worser than you could imagine.  Then I woke up and liketa fell over from the nasty feeling in my core.  I forced myself to get up and get ready. It's Saturday in Korea!  That means your friends expect you to travel to the capital of 12 million and party!  How can you not show up when about 30 people you know has been sending you e-mails all week about how fun it will be?  So, I got up took the subway alone to meet up with a few friends.  We went the rest of the way.  When we transfered on the subway, I felt as if I become a tiny little piss ant.  We crammed in and then more people pushed and pulled until there was more people than should be allowed in 2 subway cars.  I ain't tellin' no joke!  I had bodies touching every part of my entire body except my head and neck.  Remember, I was sick too!  No wonder people get sick so much here.

My sickness has changed into a sore throat, chest cold, headache and terrible cough with nasty stuff lurkin' in my lungs.  It just won't budge.  Despite this, my days have been filled with unstoppable fun.  It just don't stop. I don't never get bored.  It's just too much to do.  My sink currently has egg shells that needs to be cleaned out.  I'll get to that when I finish this post.  School is just a job.  Dynamic Korea is just a way to say that it is organized.  They gonna give me the third monthly schedule tomorrow that I've had in 4 days.  I don't think they can make up their minds as to what they want me to do.  I'll keep putting on a content face at school.  They don't need to know no different.  I started my Korean lessons last Thursday with a Korean friend.  We have a great time.  My friends gets to practice English as I learn Korean so it is a bit of a language exchange.  Free is good.

Then there is my church.  I liked my church in the cold hard town.  Well, I liked many of the people.  Let's just say that my church here is full of awesome people.  It is a bit crazy.  The pastor is from Michigan.  He likes Africa too!  9 times out of 10 when he's a preachin' I feel as if I'm the only person there.  I actually focus on what's being said and it applies to me.  I really enjoy it!  Beyond that, it ain't a week that goes by where they ain't a dinner after.  I even had South African food.  It is 100% meat.  How cool is that?  Protein is scarce here in Korea, so that was a treat.  We usually go out to eat.  It is strange going to a huge church with 10s of services.  I don't know anyone in any of the other services.  Besides, they are all Korean, so it is what it is.  There's a bible museum one floor up from my service in the education building.  Now that's amazing.  I want to visit it soon.  I hope it stays as fun and interesting for a good long while.  They ain't no other place like it in the world. I can promise you that.