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!

Final weekends of Term 1 All-Day Club

We're finally finishing up with the All-Day Club pictures from last term. The next-to-last Sabbath of the term, February 18, was really busy here at the Seoul Main Institute. We started with a teacher's Prayer Breakfast. We have Prayer Breakfast once a month at 8:30 on Sabbath morning. We usually sing some songs, someone presents a short talk, we prayer together in small groups, and then we eat breakfast together. Ellen usually makes pancakes and they're always great!

Jason, Ellen, Janice, Kevin, Dillon and Jonathan at Prayer Breakfast 

Cereal, pancakes and strawberries 

Ellen doesn't really want to hurt Dillon with a fork. Really, she doesn't.

After Prayer Breakfast we hurried upstairs to the church for Sabbath School. All-Day Club put on Sabbath School that weekend and the special music was all the All-Day Club members and teachers singing together. After that, one member, Stella, gave her testimony about getting baptized because of learning about Seventh-day Adventism through All-Day Club.

Stella giving her testimony and Jooch translating

Then we all dispersed to our separate Sabbath morning duties. Jonathan and I went to our Morning Clubs and then met back up again for church. In the afternoon we helped out with the Bible Video Club from 3-5 p.m. It was really fun because Pastor Caleb, the assistant director, had made up three games for us to complete. He put us into four groups of All-Day Club members with one foreign teacher in each group. For our first task we had to cut words out of newspapers and paste them onto blank sheets of paper to make a fairly extensive Bible verse. Next we played a Taboo-esque game where each team member had to describe a word that Pastor Caleb showed on the screen to the rest of their team and the team had to try to guess the correct words. Some where names of students or teachers and others were from the Bible. It was really close and by the time we were done that game the teams had very close scores. The final game was one the foreign teachers couldn't participate in. It was Korean riddles. In the end my team got really close to winning because of Gisele's great guessing, but Jonathan Lee's team finally beat us in the end. But we all had a really good time together. Right after that we rushed back to our apartment to change and then met back in front of the institute to go out to eat for a farewell to the leaving teachers. We went to a restaurant called Seven Springs that was several stops away on the subway. Yum, it was good, although trying to find vegetarian food proved to be a bit of a problem. We vegetarians just filled up on ice cream and floats, though, and all was fine. :)

Us in front of Seven Springs Restaurant

Then the next Friday afternoon, February 24, we went to Ashley's, a buffet restaurant, again with the All-Day Club members. It was a nice time together, especially since it would be one of the last times to see and spend time with some of the students.

Eating out at Ashley's restaurant

The guys - Jerry, Jonathan L., Koon & Jonathan G.

The girls - Ali, Angela & Elly (and a guy)

A game of "Rock, Scissors, Paper" (the Korean name for it) - Koreans use this game to decide all kinds of things

Waffle dessert

Ice cream dessert

Rudith, one of Jonathan's Level 2 students and a Half-Day Club member

Jennifer, another of Jonathan's Level 2 students and a Half-Day Club member

Christmas Program

Friday evening was our Christmas Program at the Seocheonan Church. Jonathan, Fabrice and I invited all of our adult students to come and enjoy the program and we all had a few students come! Many of the church members participated in the program. Even Jonathan and I got involved with playing music. Once the pastor heard that Jonathan and I play string instruments he asked if we would play for the program if he rented a bass and a violin. We said yes and he managed to find us each an instrument. Another church member, Alice, plays the cello so we formed a string trio and played a couple Christmas carols. The church members and guests were so excited to hear the bass and the pastor told us many times that, "it was the first time we have heard the contrabass played." The pastor's wife, Mrs. Lee, also asked me to play violin with her two young sons and two other children. It was fun to be involved in a Christmas program again this year and I think everyone enjoyed the event! Below are some pictures of our program. (Sorry there isn't a picture of me playing violin with the kids. Check back later...hopefully we'll be able to find a church member who got a good picture of that. There were a lot of cameras out so I'm sure we'll be able to find one.)

Hazel and Gabe - the evening's emcees, joke-teller & translator

Alice was busy accompanying for almost every group during the program

The "Praise Ye the Lord" side enjoying the actions for "Hallelu, Hallelu" before the program started

The "Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah" side

Our string trio playing some Christmas carols

This girl sang a song in Korean and had a beautiful voice

The guys playing a slightly-jazzy version of "Silent Night"

Alice's husband on electric-acoustic guitar (not sure of his name)

Gabe on bass guitar

Jonathan on piano

These four boys made up the children's choir.
The three on the right are sons of the Korean junior teachers and one of the institute secretaries.

Korean solo

Guitarist and a Korean duet

Lilly, the Korean junior teacher coordinator, on the flute

Caroline, another Korean junior teacher, and her husband, Larry singing a duet

Peter singing an English solo

An impromptu choir made up of teachers and a few willing students

We ended with the whole group singing "Silent Night" together

The bug collector

On Sabbath after potluck Jonathan and I were just about to step into the elevator to go home when the pastor stopped us. "Elder Hong and his wife would love to have you over to their apartment," Pastor Lee said. "Can you go?" The request was so last-minute (or last-second, rather) that we weren't exactly sure what was actually going on, but finally, after much translation between the pastor and Elder Hong, we found out that the elder was hosting an AY (Adventist Youth) meeting for the young people of the church and hadn't remembered to ask us ahead of time. I had been planning to try to Skype with some friends from Tanzania that afternoon, but in the end we decided that it would be good to go and get to know some of the church members better. A few minutes later we were comfortably seated in the back of Elder Hong and his wife's car heading out of Cheonan to the smaller and more countryside town of Asan.

Almost as soon as we drove under KTX (Korean bullet train) tracks, we were out of Cheonan and in the country. It was so nice to see harvested fields and have a better view of the beautiful mountains that surround Cheonan! I didn't realize how much I missed the country until I saw it up close again. A few minutes later we pulled into the apartment complex where the Hong's live and soon were taking off our shoes in their entryway and sliding our socked feet down their wood-floor hallway. And then we entered their living room and suddenly I understood a comment the Pastor had made just before we left the church. Pastor Lee had said, "You can see a lot of bugs and learn all about them at Elder Hong's house." I hadn't had any idea what he'd meant then, but it had become clear. Bugs, neatly and creatively arranged in glass-and-wood boxes lined two opposite walls of the living room. Brightly coloured beetles standing in even rows in one box, frighteningly large horned insects lined up in another, grasshoppers and locusts organized with normal-sized beside gigantic in still another box and so many more! We soon found out that Elder Hong's hobby is bug-collecting. He told us, in his halting English, about which countries he and his wife had traveled to collect the insects and soon we learned that he has more than 20,000 bugs and butterflies in his collection, most of them from the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. He also showed us a cabinet along another wall containing hundreds of impressive and beautiful sea shells. Apparently, Elder and Mrs. Hong also snorkle and scuba dive to collect shells during their travels. Before Elder Hong had taken us on the full tour of his displays, more people arrived and we started all over again. And then another bunch showed up and we began again. As a grand finale he took us all into his office and opened plastic containers to show us his live specimen! It was certainly quite an interesting afternoon and we learned more about insects than we ever knew we would when we woke up that morning!

After sundown the Hongs took all eleven of us young people out to eat with at Mr. Pizza. All in all, it was a nice afternoon and evening seeing a new area of the valley, learning about insects and shells, and getting to know more about some of the members of the Seocheonan Church.

Beautiful iridescent beetles

Really large insects (the largest one's wingspan is at least 6 inches)

Two huge cicadas, with golden-gossamer wings. The label says Largest of the World

A leaf-like insect. There were three on display of different colors

Many beautiful butterflies

More butterflies

Beetle diorama with real wood from the same country as the beetles

A stuffed turtle and a scorpion below

Floor-to-ceiling shells

Another cabinet full of shells

Shell sculptures (took this pic for you, Bryn, cause of all the frogs :)

One of the live beetles

This one "hatched" just that morning

The menagerie

Sunset as we left the apartment (churches with steeples and crosses like this are very popular here)

We've seen this slogan several times and asked the waitress what it meant. She said that their pizzas are very healthy
(maybe low-fat??) so women like eating their pizza more than other brands. At least that's the translation we got...

Never really had live pizza before...

...or eaten from a live salad bar.