Office goodbye party & last choir performance

Wednesday, June 27, was my final day at work in the textbook office and Jonathan's last day of teaching. In the early afternoon a couple of my coworkers walked into the office with a Paris Baguette (a pastry/bakery chain store) cake box and suddenly all the rest of my coworkers got up and congregated at the small table in the corner of the room. "Ali, come on, we're going to have a party for you," Robin told me as she rose from her chair. I was surprised, since my office had gone out for a goodbye dinner the week before, but I quickly finished what I was doing and joined the rest of my office at the table. They made me sit in the seat of honor while everyone else stood, and presented me with a blueberry cake and two presents. "You have to open the presents first," they commanded and I'm sure I turned red with all the attention as they watched me open the card first and read all the sweet thoughts and good wishes they had written. Then I carefully unwrapped the first present and found a white modern-looking, but older-style alarm clock. In Sun explained, "When someone is leaving, it's a custom to give them a clock, so that when they look at it later, they will remember all the time they spent with us." I was so touched and I know I will always remember the amazing people in the textbook office whenever I see my new alarm clock! They were all quite pleased that I liked the gift. Then I opened the second gift and found a small handmade wooden fan. It was from a lady named Kyeong. She told me, "I am so thankful for all the work you did to help me with the project I was working on. The fan is a thank-you for your help and the good work you did on that project. Also, it's because we were in the church choir together." I was so surprised she had given me something special since helping her with the project was just another part of my job and I hadn't even spent extra hours on it. What a sweet gesture! Then everyone wanted me to cut the cake so we could eat it. Someone suggested that Robin come and cut the cake with me (haha, like at a wedding) and then they told me that she called me her baby and called herself my Korean mama. I had had no idea! They told me all kinds of other stories, too, and it was such a nice time of sharing and reminiscing over the past six months of me working in the textbook office. We chatted and ate cake with chopsticks (the only utensil stocked in the office) until someone, probably our director, Dr. Yoon, said we should probably get back to work.

My goodbye blueberry cake

My Korean mama, Robin, and I cutting the cake, wedding style

Robin, Ann, Jewel, and Coco eating the cake Korean style

It was hard to go back to work and try to finish up the last project I would be working on in Korea, but it was even harder to go through the office and say goodbye to everyone when 6 p.m. rolled around. We promised to keep in contact, to write or send pictures, but of course that's never the same as actually being together, working in the same office, sharing our lives with each other. I had wanted to back-up all my work files onto my thumb drive, but hadn't been able to fit them all on, so I promised everyone, "I'll be back tomorrow to get the rest of my files. I'll say my real goodbyes then." So I gathered up all my personal items - my thumb drive, a chap stick, a small bottle of lotion, the "well-being" metal mug that June had given me back in our old office in January - and headed out the door accompanied by goodbye calls and waves.

The next morning I was back at the office, bringing my mum, who had arrived the night before, along with me. I wanted her to take some pictures of me together with some of my favourite people in Korea. After I saved all of my files onto my external hard drive, she did quite a photo shoot of me in my office with my coworkers. I will cherish these pictures of my special Korean people forever! (To see many more pictures, look at my mum's blog post.)

The steps leading up to my office feature many of the fruits of the spirit
~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

In my office ~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

Textbooks I helped create for my first project at the office ~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

With three of my coworkers: Coco, Chili, and Kyeong ~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

More of my coworkers in a meeting downstairs: Hee Young, me, Dr. Yoon, Jewel, Robin & In Sun ~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

Jewel, Robin, In Sun, Ann, Michelle & Jin waving goodbye to me ~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

Then there was another goodbye at church on Sabbath. It was mine and Jonathan's last time to sing with the church choir. We had told everyone the week before that the next week would be our last week at church, but they were still surprised when we told them again that morning that it would be our last time singing with them. It was special to sing that last choir song in Korean with my parents and brother sitting in the congregation. And after the service was finished, my family came up front and I introduced them to the choir and we had a flurry of photos taken with the whole group and with certain special individuals. It was a bittersweet time. I was happy to have my family there, excited about the traveling we would be doing soon, and looking forward to being home again, but sad to be leaving this country, and more importantly, these people who had become special to me.

Going over the Korean lyrics during our practice before church
~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

Special music by the choir and orchestra
~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

After-church pictures with the choir and my family
~ Photo by Glenda Quiring's camera

I guess that's why life on this earth is disappointing and heartbreaking. We make friends, but sometimes we have to leave them, sometimes we have to say goodbye. I can't wait for the great reunion in heaven where we will never have to say goodbye to those we love and cherish ever again!

BaeBong Festival

Now that we've gotten all caught up with the posts from our term break, we can tell you more about some things we've done so far this term. On Saturday May 12 the institute church held their annual BaeBong Festival. We really don't know much about the origins of this festival, but what we gathered is that it's a festival that churches put on around May every year for outreach (not sure if it's just within the Adventist system or if this is typical in most South Korean churches). After church there were many booths set up in the parking lot outside the church and institute and apparently lots was going on, like free dental and health checks and other fun and free things. Unfortunately we didn't get to explore the booths much since we were in the church practicing songs with the church choir and our fellow missionaries pretty much all afternoon. At 4 p.m. the church concert for the elderly started and it went until around 6 or so. Here are some of the noteworthy things about the concert.

Near the beginning of the concert, the church choir, which a few of us foreign missionaries have joined, sang two songs. Both were in Korean (as all our choir songs are), and earlier that afternoon during our practice our conductor decided that one of them should be memorized. Thank goodness it was one that wasn't too long, had quite a few repeated sections, and we all knew pretty well!

Later in the program, all the foreign missionaries sang two traditional Korean songs with this term's All-Day Club members. Richard and Rachel were chosen by our institute director, Pastor Kim, to play the parts of Kabdol and Kabsoon in the first song. They "danced" along as the rest of us sang. Because they were the featured performers, they wore borrowed hanbok (Korean traditional outfits).

Richard & Rachel in hanbok along with Sandra who supported them and also wore hanbok for the event. They got quite warm in those outfits...

The song was about two young lovers. The first verse is about their secret love for each other. The second verse is about how the woman, Kabsoon, married a different man. And the third verse is about how  the man, Kabdol, married a different woman. So that should give you some background about the story in this song. It's actually kind of a depressing song, but it sure does get stuck in your head after several practices. If you want to see the words, click here.

Sadly, the lady Sandra asked to take a video of our songs only videoed the first one. The other one was pretty epic (read, extremely challenging) so it's a shame you won't be able to watch it. But this one is the most visually interesting of the two, so I hope you enjoyed it ! :) (And yes, for those of you wondering, Pastor Kim was sitting right in the first pew giving visual cues to Richard and Rachel so they knew what actions to do next. They had only been chosen to do the part at our practice the night before so they wanted to make sure they were doing everything correctly.)

There were lots of other songs and even a 10-minute "laughter coach" who told the audience jokes to make them laugh and had everyone stretch at about the halfway point of the concert. It was...interesting. Once the concert was over there was a free supper (the Pastor called it a banquet) downstairs in the fellowship hall for all those who wanted to join in. The elderly people went first and as they left after eating, they each got a large case of soy milk and a large box of seaweed (or maybe just one or the other). All in all, it was a really busy Sabbath, but a fun time working together for outreach.

Joined choir!

Last week Ruthie, who works in the Academic Office, e-mailed Jonathan and asked him if he and I would like to join the church choir. Recently they've been announcing in church that they are looking for new choir and orchestra members. We thought the orchestra looked like fun, but since we don't have our instruments here, we aren't exactly able to join. And as for choir, all the songs are in Korean so we never really considered joining it. But Ruthie said that she didn't read Korean very well either and the choir members wrote out the sounds in English letters so she could sing along. She had joined the week before and now was actively recruiting other foreign members so she wouldn't be the only one. We decided to take the plunge and Jonathan picked up two copies of the choir songbook halfway through the week. On Friday night after vespers we went to the practice and were happy to find out that Ruthie had convinced another foreign teacher, Sandra, to join as well. So that made four of us foreigners. All the choir members were so kind and helpful, even though some of them knew very little English. The ones who did, sat beside us, helped us write the sounds in our music, and translated with the director was saying. Ruthie, it turned out, was being very, very modest. She actually reads Korean quite well and didn't even need to write the sounds in her music to feel confident enough to sing for church. The other three of us, though, were very glad for the assistance. But we're all planning to study up on Korean and try to be self-sufficient in the near future. Here's a little look at our music and Korean lyrics.

Choir songbook for this quarter

The special music song for March 31, Communion Sabbath

Korean and English details

Korean snowman hidden in our music (it's pronounced 'hung')

Hymn in Korean with a cheat sheet - The choir sang this for passing out the wine

And, for your viewing pleasure, you can feast your eyes and ears on these two videos taken in church last week. The first is the theme song we've been singing at the end of song service time during the month of March. I believe the theme song will change for April, so I wanted to get a video of it before we stopped singing it. It's called "We Will Keep Our Faith Alive" and is a song I'd never heard until we first sang it in March, but it's definitely one that I want to keep in my repertoire. It's so beautiful and uplifting! Another foreign teacher said, during a song service practice, that it sounded like a Christian anthem. I agree. Apparently it's very popular with Korean Adventists, and now it's popular with me, too!

The second video is of our special music song with the choir, "I Could Not Do Without Thy Grace."

*Both videos were taken by an All-Day Club student, Jennifer, since Jonathan and I were both in the choir. I neglected to tell her how to focus the camera in the few seconds I had between the end of our practice and the start of the church service, so it's my fault the videos aren't focused. But you can still hear the pretty songs! (And also, sorry the musicians are overpowering the singers in the choir special music. I'm sure it didn't sound like that from a little farther back in the church.) Thanks, Jennifer, for taking these videos for us!*

So that's the recent news from our part of the world. We're leaving tomorrow morning for a four-day teacher's retreat with all the teachers, directors, and administrators in the SDA Language Institute system. We'll be back sometime on Monday, so I'm sure we'll have something to post from our time at the Yangpyeong English Village when we return. Stay tuned!