the weekend.......

i cannot believe it is already over.............i wish i had one more day of rest before the week starts up again.....

friday when i got home from school i was going to lay down for just a minute and ended up taking a nap for two hours. whew........i was pooped. i toodled around my apartment and then just went back to bed. i figured i needed the rest more than anything.

saturday morning there was a seoul city tour given by one of the teachers who grew up here in seoul, went to SFS grade K-12, and then is now back teaching here. he and his wife have been teaching here for 18 years. they call seoul home more than anywhere else. we drove around the city in the SFS school bus and saw many sites. check out my photos on the link to the right. we stopped at the major palace here and then made our way up to mt. namsan for the seoul tower. it was beautiful to be able to see the city from 360m up. i love it here. so green even though seoul is a huge city. after the tower we ate lunch in itaewon, which is the shopping area closest to the base and there are many americans. we had subway----yum!!! then i went shopping with the dornbachs......new teachers here too. they have two kids---george and lucy! we had a good time. we made our way back to campus via taxi and then i just hung out at my apartment for the rest of the afternoon. the weather here has been amazing for the last two days...............gorgeous and much cooler than it has been. i have had all my windows open and letting the breeze cool my apartment.

saturday night i went down through yonsei university to sinchon with my friend sarah. we ate dinner at ruby tuesdays and went for a free donut at krispy kreme. they give them away here while waiting to order. most people just get the freebie and then fake looking at the donuts. after they "ponder" what they want, they suddenly decide they do not need to buy any and sneak out the door. i know it sounds naughty, but it was fun none the less. :) we giggled about it for a block or two. then sarah took me to this cool music shop called syannara records. they have CDs and DVDs. i bought the newest passion album. good stuff!!! then we hiked back to school. sarah and i had great conversation tonight and i really enjoyed getting to know her better.......it was nice!!!

this morning i went to a new church----onnuri. here is theor web site---http://www.onnurienglish.or.kr:1004/ i went with three others from SFS. we met up at 10am and then headed for the subway in sinchon. we made a pit stop at starbucks.....this was awesome considering paul and i stopped here before church each sunday. it felt normal!!! we made our way to church.....we got there about 11:30am and church started right after. IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! they have a worship band which includes a acoustic guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, and three vocalists!!! the music rocked!! i really enjoyed my time here and really felt connected to the spirit! the pastor's message was good and i got a lot out of it. i think i have found my new church home-------wow!!! it was such an incredible feeling. i also found out that they have small group ministries around town during the week which made me happy. i am going to try one on wednesday night with a couple of the school folks i went to church with. thank you God!!!! this was an answered prayer to find this community...........i hope that it continues to be the place God wants me to worship.

after church i had my first solo adventure. i rode the subway to the military base to meet my friend nicole's brother, jeff. he is stationed here for a year. we met and then he treated me to lunch at the dragon hill lodge on base which is a big deal here. from what i have discovered it is a big deal to be able to get on base so to have jeff here is nice. the buffet was good. i really enjoyed hanging out with jeff since he is someone from home. :) he gave me the tour and we caught up and such. he also showed me where his apartment is which was really cool. it was great to hang out!!!

then i headed back to sinchon solo to go back to campus. it was fun to manage the subway solo for the first time today. it felt like a major accomplishment. i had a starbucks and walked around the streets while waiting for the dak-galbi group to make their way down for dinner. every sunday there is a group that eats out for dak-galbi, spicy chicken korean dish. it was nice to hang out and share a meal.

it is now sunday night and i am pooped again! i hope to get some rest and re-charge for this week. pray that i can continue to adjust, make connections with friends, and learn to earnestly follow God in my walk of life.