YOGA, SLEEPING BEAUTY, FUN THINGS, FUNNY THINGS, AND GOOD LUCK

YOGA

The Mission President is supportive of his wife exercising, so when she and I were invited to attend a Yoga class, which takes place at 10:00 am on a work day, he instantly approved. I brought my one set of exercise clothes to work, changed, and we were off! When we arrived at the community center, we were about 3 minutes late (normal time for me). If blond hair, white skin, freckles, and totally different clothes (and language) weren't enough to draw attention, coming in late made us mega-noticeable! Almost all the class members were cute Korean ladies between 70 - 85 with black, short, permed hair, so we had full confidence that we could "keep up" and "do" the class. Ha!

As you can imagine, we were the worst in the class - these women are flexible! They can do anything! Being the worst brought us additional attention, as the teacher would walk by and correct what we were doing. The funny thing was - at the end of the class, all the women in the class wanted to take our pictures with them! We were celebrities (or freaks)

- one of the two. The teacher (in the middle with the grey shirt) came right up to me and asked if I liked the class, asked where we were from, etc. Then...when we went to pay for the class, the teacher told us that the two of us didn't need to pay! We can come any time we want! We tried, insisted, shoved money into her hand, but no. We are invited to attend free of charge.

L to R: Sumi, Sister Barrow, teacher, Brenda, two class members

SLEEPING BEAUTY

Remember when Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger, and falls asleep, and the whole Kingdom falls asleep for 100 years? One day in the mission office, I felt that I was reliving the story as an outsider looking in...

Notice the girl on the left sitting on the floor with her head on the chair. After a while, it becomes too uncomfortable, so she resorts to:

It had been a rough week

FUN THINGS AND FUNNY THINGS

NIGHTTIME BEACH EXCURSION

Fishing boats tied up for the night

What is this bicycle doing hanging on a wall?

Nighttime Beach

While we were checking out the night scene at the beach, we ran into an open market, where there were a hundred little stalls with people selling their specialties - food!

 Lower left hand corner - raw live octopus - some people like to eat it "live" - pull out of the ocean, chop it up, and eat it! Big red dish is tiny little octopi, in the blue dish are mussels, and the upper right hand corner is some kind of sea slug or sea cucumber.

 Fish, freshly caught, freshly cleaned, hanging to be sold, hanging to be dried; little lady in the back in a red coat (proof that it's cold) will wait all night for customers. 


WHILE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT FOOD...
There is a new recipe I have to share! When my kids were little, we would always go visit Bryan's Aunt Mabel, who lived with Uncle DeVere on an avocado orchard. They loved avocados, and made everything with them. One of her special recipes was "Chicken Avocado Jello", which we all laughed about for years.

Now we have a favorite food that beats it - "Acorn Jello"! It's true - jelly like stuff that is made from acorns. Don't worry - it only takes 3 to 7 days to make it, and the finished product is:

The various garnishes and dressings make it look yummy!

HAENYEO

There is a tradition that goes back over 1,000 years in Korea. Elderly women (between 60 - 97) , mostly widows still in need of income, will go out into the ocean in a wetsuit and a mask and dive for sea animals and seaweed that they can sell to make a living. They do not have scuba gear, but they have trained to be able to hold their breath for 3 - 5 minutes underwater. They are called "Sea Mermaids" or "Haenyeo", women of the sea.

Korea's elderly are mostly women, and their numbers are growing. Selling their daily catch provides them with some income. We saw several women walking around the tidepools on our latest beach hike. At first we thought they were "tidepooling", but then realized that they had baskets and bowls and were hunting and catching sea animals.

SPEAKING OF WOMEN...

In one of our English classes, we asked the class members if they had ever heard of a "Family Tree", or a "Pedigree Chart". They said they had, so we asked them to go home and talk to relatives and come back the following week with a story or stories about one of their ancestors. 

We thought it would be really interesting, hearing stories of the ancestors growing up in "Old Korea". Surprise! The following week, not one of the "students" had one single story. They reported to us that women historically were so oppressed, that once they were married, they didn't have a name! They stayed home and took care of the children, food, clothing, and the farm, and no one ever spoke to them, so they "lost" their names!! Tragic? Since their grandmothers don't even have names, they don't know much about them, and no one ever spoke about them or told stories of them, because they were of no consequence.

Koreans are given a Chinese name when they are born. They all know it and remember it, but later on they are given a Korean name. I mentioned once before that people change their names all the time, and it is not uncommon to go through four or five names in your lifetime. Now many Koreans also have an "English name", so that if they are learning English and speaking to Americans, the English speaking Americans can remember what to call them. 

Last fact about names: Women who marry do not take their husband's surname. They keep their own family name. So...Mr. Kim is married to Mrs. Moon, and so on...

Imagine how difficult it is to find a long lost friend or relative, even with facebook. One fourth of the population has the surname Kim or Lee! Last name always comes first, so if your last name is Lee, your name might be Lee Yeji!

FUNNY THINGS

A funny thing is having a bunch of Koreans for dinner, serving tacos, and giving them chopsticks. Some of the guys ate five tacos!

Vicki always likes everything we serve, and I feel sad that I don't have reciprocal feelings about her raw oyster kimchi! Forgive me Vicki.

GOOD LUCK

At the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple, there are many things you can do to assure that you will have "good luck" for a year!

Rubbing the nose of the golden pigs assures prosperity in the coming year.

We rubbed the noses for quite a while.

The dragon has all the power in the red ball he holds. You can buy a little figurine, write on the bottom what you want for a wish, and then place it around the dragon, and you will get your wish! Our tour guide picked one up and said, "Someone wrote they wish that they will do well on their next test." Probably every one said something like that...

Most Buddhist temples are built in the mountains, which makes Yonggangsa very unique to be built right on the ocean. One of the Buddhas blesses the fishermen going out from here. Many fishermen have a dangerous job and many do not return.

2016 is the Year of the Monkey, but these statues show all the animals representing the zodiac creatures. My favorite is Year of the Rat!

Good Luck!

THE WONDERS OF CREATION

Haeundae Beach

 Last Saturday, we found ourselves headed out to points unknown for our next adventure in Busan. We boarded the subway, changed lines twice, and ended up at our destination - Haeundae Beach!

 It is definitely the most upscale and glitzy of any areas we have explored - including giant, glamorous hotels, trees and bushes covered with miniature white lights, thousands of restaurants, and well-dressed young adults enjoying the beach climate. 

We headed down to the beach to see people of all ages dressed in heavy winter coats and gloves watching the waves frothing in and out while seagulls screamed above.

Islands are visible in the distance. Some of South Korea's 3,000 islands are inhabited, others are difficult to reach, even by boat.

Not far from the huge Christmas tree (yes, it's still up), we found the entrance to our destination - the Busan Aquarium! 

The aquarium boasts 35,000 marine animals made up of 250 different species. The most intriguing to us were species native to the Asian waters, and that we had never before seen. There was a giant Japanese spider crab, with the largest leg span of any arthropod. It can be as large as twelve feet in diameter from claw to claw, and is found only in the waters around some of the Japanese islands.

I had never seen "upside down" jelly fish - a species of jelly fish that sits on the bottom of the ocean in the sand and pumps its tentacles up toward the top of the water

There are many different types of seahorses, this one, called a Sea Dragon, looks like a weed with a stem and leaves all over it.

Bryan was enthralled looking through the tunnel at the huge sea turtle overhead.

I

I am awestruck with the wonder of God's creations, and the beautiful and orderly complexity of all the creatures He has masterminded. I ask myself, "Why is there such variety and uniqueness among living things?" The nature of each living thing and the relationship it has with the living things surrounding it are concepts too difficult for my mind to fathom. 

How do they exist perfectly balanced on the same planet?

Who could orchestrate the creation of even one of the truly extraordinary living organisms around us?

The answer is that no mortal man could conceive of such a monumental reorganization of the elements. The entire Creation validates the existence of God. What would motivate someone to want to create a world, with all of its puzzles and problems? The answer is that only the love that Heavenly Father has for His children motivates Him to give us the gift of the incredible universe in which we live. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." (Psalms 19:1)

"All things denote there is a God; yea, even the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator" (Alma 30:44). I came away from the Aquarium that day with reverence for the Creation, and with appreciation for this planet that we call home.

February 8, 2016

SOELLAL, EULSUKDO, AND NAKDONG

This Tuesday is the biggest holiday in South Korea - Soellal! It lasts for three days,(Feb. 8,9 and 10) and the weekend before it takes place is a madhouse of millions of people with multi-colored suitcases-on-wheels all over Korea getting on buses, smashing their bodies into subway cars, and sitting in a traffic web on clogged streets and highways where most people deny the existence of traffic laws. Soellal is the Korean Lunar New Year, which has been celebrated since ancient times. The customs are:

• People return to the home of their father, or the oldest brother in the family
• Some people dress up in hanbok, or traditional Korean clothing

• They eat traditional food, and play traditional games.
• They give gifts to each other - a lot more than at Christmas or on birthdays.

We've noticed quite a few gift boxes arriving at the mission home. Some of them are huge cases of fruit - oranges from Jeju Island, for which the island is famous; apples from local farms; or, as shown by a display in a department store:

the not-so-traditional SPAM!

The Mission President received a tasty treat today - two cases of black seaweed - perfect!

EULSUKDO ISLAND and NAKDONG ESTUARY

If you want to do some serious "birding", you have found the place! - Eulsukdo Island at the Nakdong River Estuary. The island is a delta, positioned right where the Nakdong River empties into the South Sea, and has many bird species inhabiting the island throughout the year. 

We came on a blue-skied but wintry day. The island was inhabited - 

birds: millions; people: a few more than five

 The reeds and grasses are great places for birds to live.

 President Barrow, Sister Barrow, and the Georges. It was freezing for the women, and just right for the men!

 The men with Ben Barrow in the middle. Ben is a senior in High School here where he attends an International School. 

Somewhere is 0.9 kilometers away... translated:

Nakdonggong Hakuseng Tetombongro

View of Busan from the island

Ducks, herons, and sandpipers are just a few of the many species here.

Picnic gazebo made out of trees

A great day with the birds and the Barrows!

What We Do

Day to day happenings in our lives:

We ride on the subway to go to a baptism.
L to R - Elder Smith, Vicky, Elder Seok, Bryan

We watch the missionaries do funny things.

Here they devoured an entire Baskin Robbins ice cream cake.

Here they are modeling the latest missionary fashion, "Lego" ties.

Elder Dobbins' mother sent these and they really are made out of Legos. 

L to R Elder Lee Sanglim, Elder Dobbins 

We eat dinner at some of the ward members' houses.

Here we are at the home of Sister Lee and Brother Gu.

Sitting on the floor is hard for Bryan, and is also hard for me if I am wearing a straight skirt.

The shared dishes down the middle of the table are kimchi (red), seaweed (green), and pickled onions (brown). Each person was served a WHOLE CHICKEN! This was OK with everyone except me, who didn't want to seem rude, but I knew there was no way...

Notice that each guest has a spoon to eat the broth, and a pair of stainless steel chopsticks to eat the whole chicken, and all the side dishes.

The elders were given a terrific orange, so before they actually ate it...

Elder George is giving some advice to Elder Park Kangsan, one of our favorite missionaries, who just left for home.

This is Hyunji, an adorable English student. She comes every Tuesday night. Bryan takes the adult advanced class, and I have Hyunji for one on one tutoring. (I couldn't get the video to load, so you will have to imagine her saying "My name is Hyunji").

HAPPY SOELLAL!