Cherry Blossoms, Jimjilbangs, Peeps, and Selfies

This past Friday, I celebrated my 10 month-iversary in Korea! Pretty wild, right? It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that I've been in Korea for almost a year. In just a couple short months, I'll be flying home to visit my lovely family and I am so psyched!

Before this happens, have many activities lined up here in Korea (spoiler alert: May is going to be incredible). But let me back up a little bit and fill you in on yet another great week in Gwangju.

1. Spring is in full swing here. The greatest evidence: cherry blossoms (벚꽃)! Last Saturday I went to a Cherry Blossom festival which was conveniently located directly across the street from my church building. The downside? The weather! Right as the blossoms were blooming, we got some heavy rainstorms. Everyone was so concerned about the poor blossoms. They took a beating but they were still pretty.

Poor blossoms!

It was very rainy so I didn't take many pictures

A corn dog covered in fries?? Good job, Korea! A+

Back at the church, there was conveniently an activity with food! I ate delicious seaweed soup, kimbap, and chicken ^_^. Johanna, a classy French girl in my ward looked super French with her French beret. I convinced her to let me try it on too. Who wears it best?

French?

American?

Korean?

Clearly Johanna is the winner hahaha.

After dinner, we headed downtown for dessert. Mmmmm bingsu. I could eat bingsu every day.

You can't see the bingsu...because we ate it. But trust me, it's delicious

Since that day, I've been a little more successful with finding good cherry blossoms:

2. Yesterday, I had an adventure that was, uh, interesting. Very new and different haha. I went to a jimjilbang (Korean spa). If you don't know anything about what goes on in a jimjilbang, I'll fill you in with this Conan O'Brien clip:

Yes, I even did the full body scrub...yes, it was painful. But I felt so smooth and reborn afterwards! It was definitely an eye-opening experience. Jimjilbangs are nice because it's a cheap place to get cleaned up and sleep for a night when travelling. 

3. My mom sent me so many peeps in my Easter package! I've been really excited to try the unique flavors she sent but I haven't had an opportunity to share the experience with anyone. So I went ahead and tried a couple on my own:

4. In the States, taking selfies is shameful! But in Korea, it's very normal and very much embraced. I can take vanity selfies with pride and confidence! A new friend from Australia introduced me to a Korean picture app: Candy Camera. This app is popular because it pretty much makes you look perfect. Here are some good ones I got today next to beautiful flowers my friends and I came across walking home from church.

For comparison, here is one picture I took WITHOUT the app

And then things started to get silly,  naturally

ANYWAY. Please excuse the vanity. Really, this camera app is wonderful.

5. I have one more thing I must share with you. 

Shrek sweater!

Eating Shrek chicken nuggets while wearing my Shrek sweater

Okay. That's all. Until next time, friends and family!

I Love Sundays!

This week started with a bang. That bang being my co-worker making the decision to suddenly leave Korea early Tuesday morning. Tuesday was hectic, as my boss and the Korean teachers and I rushed to adjust the schedule now that we were unexpectedly one teacher down for the day. None of us knew my coworker was gone until she did not show up for work. Fortunately everything calmed down quite quickly. I only had to teach one extra hour this week and I have successfully sorted through the work left behind by the previous teacher that I needed!

BUT. Today I do not want to focus on office drama. Today is a Sunday. And oh, how I love Sundays.

I am incredibly blessed to have a place to go every Sunday where I can be in the company of good people who are striving to be better and a place where I can learn and worship.

Ahhh Sundays.

This Sunday was, as we call in the LDS faith, Ward Conference. Honestly, it is very much like most Sundays! There are a couple special things we do but mostly we were encouraged to bring a friend. While I did not fulfill this challenge, I still felt very spiritually uplifted.

A couple of my friends were dressed in hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) as they greeted all visitors at the door. Hanbok is typically worn for special events and holidays. I think these clothes are absolutely beautiful so I had to get a picture with these lovely ladies!

After our church service, we shared a delicious bibimbap meal. If you have never experienced the delight that is bibimbap, I urge you to rethink life and change your ways! It has the healthful freshness of a salad but the flavor-fullness of actual food (yes I'm bashing salads, whatcha gonna do about it?)

Elder Woods, Elder Wagner, and I ate with a group of investigators (people who are taking lessons from missionaries to learn more about the Gospel). Mix that bibimbap!

Four of them are from Cambodia. The three on the left expressed a desire to be baptized as of today! Hooray! 

I wanted to snap a picture to show how many people we had but I'm always worried about being too invasive with picture taking so this one is not a good representation because I was trying not to draw attention to myself!

After the meal, the missionaries invited me to join them for a jolly game of good old fashioned charades. Well, of course it was a very bi-lingual edition since we had Korean and English speakers alike playing together.

It was also a Sister's birthday so we had cake and ice cream! Sister Mikesell is trying to act out "science," I believe.

Can you guess what Sister Naatjes is acting out? She ended up requiring some assistance!

We ended this activity with a short video and spiritual thought. I would also like to share the video we watched together. It is one man's personal experience about coming to know God after years and years of pain and struggle. I felt very moved by his story. Always remember that we are eternal, infinite beings. God works with us everyday to better ourselves but the betterment only happens when we are willing to embrace it. Sometimes this self-improvement requires difficult trials. These painful trials may feel like they will last forever but they won't. Trust in God and trust those around you to help you!

So now I am in my apartment, on my bed, taking in the beauty of yet another great day as I prepare for the week ahead. I have a couple things I wanted to write about. For example, my fantastic friend Jessica Drake sent me a birthday package, on top of three birthday cards I received from others. It was nice to get a second wave of birthday greetings. Also, September 10th was my 3rd month-aversary of being in Korea! I am 1/4 of the way through this incredible adventure. To celebrate, I went hiking and took several pictures of a beautiful temple that I would like to post about. Hopefully I will get this done before my 4th month-aversary!

Thanks, as always, for coming along with me on my Korea adventure. I will write again soon. 

Enjoy the new week, friends and family!

Fun Times with the Sister Missionaries

Today is what I understand to be the most important day of Chuseok (Korea's Thanksgiving holiday). Originally I was supposed to join the missionaries in my ward for dinner at our bishop's house. Sadly, bishop's wife is ill so dinner was cancelled.

I still met up with the four sister missionaries downtown. For those unfamiliar with LDS missionary schedules, once a week, they have "pday," or preparation day where they have some time to write letters, send emails to friends and family, shop, etc. Missionaries cannot do anything like go see a movie even on pday. ANYWAY. Mondays are pday here so I got to eat lunch and do some shopping with the sisters! I've been downtown several times but they introduced me to a number of new things.

First thing we did was get some dak galbi for lunch (one of my favorite meals!) But now thanks to the sisters, I know I can order CHEESE to be mixed in. This is fabulous (and fattening) news.

We struggled with the 5 person selfie...so we tried a different angle

...eh close enough!

Sister Wagner started crying because she accidentally rubbed her eyes after eating our spicy meal haha

I don't remember what this is called but it's just caramelized brown sugar that a street vendor was making. He uses a cookie cutter to make a shape on the treat. If you can cut out the shape perfectly using a toothpick, you get another one for free. Sadly Sister Lee was unsuccessful. But she shared a little piece of the one she paid for. It kind of tastes like toasted marshmallow.

They're so cute, right? The other Sister Lee (doing the peace sign) goes home in two weeks!

Next we did "sticker pictures." It's a photo booth that makes your eyes super big and then you can slap on tons of cutesy graphics before printing them haha. Sister Naatjes pointed out the saying on this one and we thought it was hilarious: "Some times are good, some times are just okay, and some times are really bad, but no two times are the same."

"Even in depression, girls can be more beautiful."

Pondering Korean wisdom.

Our finished products!

Shopping!

Outrageous Korean accessories 

BINGSOO. It's a traditional Korean dessert. It's shaved ice with various toppings. The bottom one is bean powder, the other one is berries. Both were sooo delicious. The little cups are filled with condensed milk. You eat off the top part of the bingsoo a little bit and then you drizzle on the condensed milk. Ugh. So good.

This break has been pretty chill for me--nothing overly exciting. But I don't regret my decision not to go on a big trip. Tomorrow I will have an opportunity to see a new city anyway: Damyang! More fun stories to come!

Music I listened to while writing this post: Weezer