May 8, 2011 교회 - Church

I love the 한옥 hanok!  It's so darling and fun!  Plus there's electricity, running water, internet, air conditioning, and television.  I've always wanted to experience living in a 한옥 hanok and I have finally done it!  One cool thing about 한옥들 hanoks is that they have 온돌 ondol (underfloor heating system).  온돌들 ondols are especially nice during the winter or when it's raining.  In traditional Korean houses, they slept on the floor with using a 요 yo (thick blankets best description) as bedding.  The 요들 yos were really nice but the pillows were hard.  It almost felt like sleeping on a suspended book.  However, we eventually fell asleep.  Seriously, if you have a chance to come to the southern areas of Korea, make a stop here in 김해 and spend a night or more in a 한옥 hanok!  It's beautiful here and so much fun!

Entrance to the 한옥 hanok

Our living quarters!

This sign says "Spring sunlight reaches lucky person first."

Boys' room: 감로실

Girls' room:  은하실

Living room that connects the boys' and girls' rooms.  This is where we have class and meet together.

Inside the girls' room

Outside in the back of the our 한옥 hanok

Backyard

For church, we attended the 김해 Gimhae branch.  It's pretty far from our place that we had to take a taxi to get there.  All of the services were done in Korean which was really cool to listen to since I've never heard the services in Korean before.  Because I didn't know everything they were saying, it was a bit hard to pay attention to.  However, because of a few keywords in the talk, I knew what the talk was about and what they were trying to convey.  I found that it's easier to understand the target language you're learning by struggling a little bit instead of having someone constantly translating for you word for word.  Not that translators aren't important but once in a while, it's interesting what you can pick up without a translator and rely on your own knowledge.  The brach was really noisy before the services began (haha children are the same everywhere lol) and the children were everywhere during the meeting but it's ok because it was pretty entertaining.  So far, no one's accent or dialect is super strong except a few people.  Other than that, everyone is pretty understandable which is great!

What stood out to me is that the church overcomes culture.  You see, Koreans don't go out of their way to say hi to people; they keep to themselves often.  But when we went to church, so many greeted us.  In certain situations, they still maintained thier culture but in some instances, they would drop it and acted like many of the members back home and when I went to church in other countries.  Isn't that great about the gospel?  :-)

Going to church

Today was also Mother's Day so I called home and wished my mommy a Happy Mother's Day.  :-)  I got to talk to my family for a little bit and it was so great!  I haven't talked to them for a while so it was so good to hear their voices!  Although I'm enjoying Korea so much, it was nice to hear the family.  :-)