MEGACHURCH

Korea is becoming well known for its Mega-churches; multi-story high building complexes with everything you could imagine, its like a spirituality department store where no matter what age group or language, or time preference you have there is a section to meet your needs. 24 hour, all you can eat, hard-core christianity

But why so cynical?

Why do I lack the faith to believe that doing church on this sort of scale might actually work? Church in Korea has been the biggest cultural challenge for me, largely because they use a much older and more formal language so I can barely understand what is being said - and I think if you're just an observer at church it's always going to be a bit weird, isn't it?
But also, a different culture express church in a different way. Christianity is fairly new in Korea and the countries culture / laws are built on Confucianism which can therefore easily get mixed up with church and christianity: Such as the strong emphasis on respect, which has lead to a hierarchical society where breaking from the norm and pioneering change is very difficult to do in Korea.

I am trying hard to be open minded, however, more often than not I find my frustrations coming out. But hopefully in time I will gain a broader view of how christianity is expressed across cultures.

This is a picture of the church I went to last sunday - it's actually much bigger than the picture suggests
- 10,000 people can worship in the building at one time
- 30,000 people attend here regularly
- 100,000 members are registered
- I actually attend this church (the english service is in a separate building)

This Picture was taken before everyone arrived:

"REALLY?... REALLY?"

Hello, this is Eun-mi ^___^
I'd like to tell you a little story... Monday was a busy and exhausting day, so I was looking forward to seeing Danny after work. I can rest with him. But first,  I was hungry, so we bought some bread and made a picnic.
Then we went to Joong-ang Park together. We sat on a wall while eating our picnic, and we could see a view of all of Busan… But there were ants, and they tried to eat us!

We talked about life and our future, and even though we can't see our path we both have peace about it. Like this, eating, drinking, talking, having fun with Danny I find that I am able to rest. It was a special time, I really liked it... but I could feel the ants biting me.

While Danny was brushing ants off me suddenly he was down on one knee! and said:

저와 결혼해주세요! which means WILL YOU MARRY ME!

I said really?… really? haha and then I ended up saying YES!and so now I have a lovely ring and I have become Danny's Fiancée we are both very happy

(written by Hong Eun-mi / Edited by Danny Roberts)

 
 

A LOVELY MEAL

We met up with Jun and Yong-i this week for a lovely meal - Sam-gyeop-sal - otherwise known as 'korean barbecue'. You cook the meat yourself and then wrap it in a big lettuce leaf along with other bit and bobs and put the whole thing in your mouth. This could potentially take the top spot in my list of favourite korean dishes.


Jun and Yong-i have helped / encouraged / and been involved in mine and Eun-mi's relationship over the years, so we're very grateful to them. They also visited england and my parents place fairly recently so it was great to hear about what they made of the UK and cornwall.

MORE RAIN!

Well, the rain still isn't letting up, it's hot - then wet - then hot - then wet again. This meant that I kept taking an umbrella around on the days that were hot, and then on the days I decided not to take one it would rain! 
On the spur of the moment we decided to by some good old korean rain clothes haha.

We later found shelter in a nice cafe with a view over the beach. we also went out on the beach afterwards, which was great fun, but by the time we took the bus home I was soaking wet, even with the rain clothes.

DELICIOUS FOOD

Lots and lots of good food in Korea.

RAIN

Summer in Korea gets pretty hot. But it's also the rainy season, so one day it rains all day and then the next its boiling hot. But the rain is not like english drizzle, it pours down quite suddenly and umbrellas really aren't that useful since the water bounces back up of the floor! haha.

It's hard to really see it in the pictures:

A CHANGE OF PLAN

This week came as a bit of a surprise… My visa for my Job fell through! I'll spare you the boring details but this means I cannot work at a video production company, In fact my only other option is to do English teaching.
Ever since I decided that I want to come to Korea I have avoided the Teaching route, It seemed like a crowded and too obvious path for my liking, plus it didn't do well to serve my purposes in terms of learning Korean. The main reason for not wanting to teach though, i think is that I don't like the idea of participating in an education system that I disagree with. But then again maybe thats exactly why I should teach.
Now that I have been somewhat forced onto the wide path, however, I feel more at ease about it. I think it will be a good challenge and experience for me.
Also Korea loves English so the incentives are great: salary, housing, holiday, even working hours, can be much better than most Koreans get in their Jobs. So yeh… Just got to find the right school

가장 매운 떡볶이

One of our favourite places to eat is a little place called 'Hot Temple' haha. It has very spicy 떡볶이(Ddeokbokki), you have to pace yourself when you eat it but it is delicious.... and very spicy. 

 

KOREAN WEDDING

I went with my boss to help him film a Korean Wedding on the weekend! It was great, although it's a little tricky to describe it here in this Blog. It was very asian, or western asian (i'm not quite sure), because everything was very flashy and twinkly. It was set in big ball room with a huge catwalk as the centre peice, there were smoke machines, a fake 5 tier cake, spotlights, disco lights, even a smoke machine for when they walked down the isle! haha
But actually what was really great about it was the atmosphere, it was very cheerful and the occasion was well celebrated, there were a couple of guest musical appearances presumably from friends which were very entertaining, and the lack of formalities surprised me (there was some bowing, and candle lighting now that I think about it). Anyway the whole ceremony was over pretty quickly, and unlike British weddings there was no reception or after party to go to.

There was however a traditional ceremony for just the immediate family afterwards! They wore traditional Korean clothing and there were formal exchanges between family members and the couple which involved pouring tea and eating special foods... to be honest I didn't really understand what was going on, but it looked pretty interesting.