An Update on My Lack of Updates

I feel slightly lame (not too lame, mind you - see my disclaimer - but slightly) that I haven't posted much these days.  It's especially a shame because I've done some crazy things that ought to be blogged about.  Unfortunately, said crazy things take time, and time's not something I have much of.

I finally got around to getting all my photos from my vacation (in which I successfully cycled from Gunsan to Daecheong Dam, north of the city of Daejeon, on a bike path that's said to be 146 kilometers) semi-organized enough to create a post, but I haven't had the time to sit down and write it yet.  That in itself is kind of sad, since my vacation was almost a month ago by now.

These days, though, my schedule's pretty tight.  My time at work essentially runs from 9 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. on most days, although recently I've had more breaks.  I come in early so I can get my work finished because I like to ride my bike during the afternoon breaks when it's sunny.  So during my breaks these days I ride about eight kilometers a day, sometimes more and sometimes less.  Someone in my church owns a 7-11 in the northeast part of the city, so I like to cycle there and chat with him and his family when I can.

Once I'm done with work, I usually either go to church or go to the gym.  I tend to eat dinner after nine unless I specifically have plans to eat dinner and neglect other plans.  Occasionally I try to cook, but sometimes it just seems like a waste of money, because I don't really have time to cook, and all my food goes bad before I use it.  So most of the time, and these days especially, I just eat peanut butter and jelly, since the bread is the only thing that really seems to go bad.  When I'm really hungry I order pizza, which is not particularly healthy but incredibly convenient, because I can squeeze ready-made breakfasts out of that for days.  (Heating up pizza takes even less time than making PB&J!)

On weekends I don't bother to make other plans on Sundays anymore, since I love my church so much that I just hang out there all day.  Saturdays are my only real free time in a week, so they fill up fast.  Once every two months or so we have parent-teacher conferences, and there's the occasional wedding, and then there's always somebody who wants to meet up with me and so I don't really have that day to sleep in or just relax much, either.

Anyway, I said all that to say that I have a hard time finding the time to eat dinner (tonight I ate dinner at 11:30 p.m., for example, and only because I've been sick and need to take my medicine with food - otherwise I would have skipped it and just gone to bed), so I don't really feel like spending that time blogging.  This is a rather lengthy post, but it's a rambly post, not a "think about how you want to memorialize the adventures of your vacation" post, so it takes less time for me to write than something worth your time to read it would.

So, my apologies for those of you who really wish I'd update this more often.  Hopefully sometime soon I'll get a chance to post some things.  We'll see.

Beautiful Gunsan

I love this city.

A Korean Funeral - And a Chuseok Invitation

I went to a Korean funeral today. The grandmother of a girl at my church passed away from cancer yesterday.

Korean funeral homes are different from American ones in perhaps a similar way to how Korean wedding halls are a different wedding experience than a church wedding.

The funeral home offers black 한복 (hanbok, Korean traditional clothing) so you can purchase mourning clothes there. They also have a bunch of low tables where you're served food prepared by the funeral home workers. There are easels with black signs and flowers everywhere. The sons of the deceased wear a special band around their arm.

My church went together and we sang two hymns out of a hymnal, prayed, and listened to the pastor speak briefly.

It reminded me a lot of when my grandmother passed away last year, although the similarities were actually quite small. Even so, I felt a little sad.

On the ride back my cell group leader asked if I had plans for Chuseok, which is like Korean Thanksgiving. He said that if I didn't have plans, I could celebrate Chuseok with his family - which would involve going to his mother's rice paddy and eating with them. I would really like to go, and I appreciate that he invited me. It's not the same as going to my mother's family's Homestead for Thanksgiving, but it's closer than I could have hoped for. I'm really grateful for the people in this church.