Morning Prayer

So, after like 5 years in Korea and never once (as far as I recall) going to the early morning prayer and after denouncing it (semi-jokingly) many times, I, Izzie, have finally gone...yes, I went to the KOREAN prayer meeting this morning at 6 am. Funny how things work out sometimes. Apparently my name is on the calendar for Oct. 14 or something and I guess I have to give a short message or something. I figured I should check it out and get my face seen by more Koreans and well, that whole praying thing is good too. It's amazing how much better my Korean is here. Maybe I am focused more? I dunno...whatever it is, it's good.

I guess I can just write this post about my Korean experience here in western Kentucky. The first day I pull in, KOREANS! I saw like one or two Asians that I knew must be Korean...yay. Then I realized that my dorm was sandwiched right between two big family housing dorms with mostly Koreans in them. Most days around 6 pm, the Korean children take over the lawn and run around chasing animals and each other and riding their bikes with their English/Korean (Konglish) conversations. It's wonderful. From what I can tell, there are a few Korean-Americans on campus but I haven't seen them really so I'm not sure how or if at all they are involved in the Korean Student Association/community. I'm apparently "one of them," at least on paper.

The general overview is that there are tons of Korean guys who are mostly already pastors in Korea who are either doing MDiv or their PhD or some other masters course. These guys are all married with kids. Most of them are in their late 20s to 40s. So yeah, almost all the women are moms or (pastor's) wives (sa-mo-nim). There ARE a few singles, like FOUR of us! Yesterday the three guys were sitting together for dinner so I went to say hey and chat a bit and then one of the pastors came over and we were introduced. He didn't know I was "one of them" and then he proceeded to accept our joke that we were having a singles' group meeting. Then he told me to choose one of them. Yes, I often feel like I'm in Korea. Could you make things any more awkward? Anyways, that's typical. Of the three guys, the youngest who is like 21, actually has been in America since high school. He's an MDiv student. He was an exchange student in Missouri's bootheel, funny, eh? There's one guy who's 32ish and really nice, doing his MA in something. Then there's the friend of a friend, he's like 2 years older than me and also doing MDiv. The four of us are the singles. It's so weird.

Anyways, it's such a complicated thing. I mean, when two of them are talking together, they can more easily follow Korean rules of behavior. But then here they are in America and when interacting with the Americans those Korean rules don't apply. The Americans don't know that it's REALLY strange to use an older person (especially a pastor's) first name and first name only. It freaks me out because I feel like my mom would be ashamed by me if I did it. Then there's me who enters the conversation kind of speaking Korean, yet busting out the English and I'm definitely American but sort of Korean. What rules are followed then? I don't know. I'm not sure what's exactly expected of me. I don't know if they think I am over-stepping the bounds with the proper greetings (in-sa) or what. Time will tell. Many still have yet to see me as one of them. I'm just trying to be patient. One of the pastor's wife said I can all her unni. She's like 7 years older than me and pretty cool. ALL the kids here at seminary are cute (whatever country they are from). I'm not the kind of person who thinks ALL kids are cute. I've seen some ugly kids in my day. But yeah, they are cuties.

Anyways, the morning prayer sleepiness has gotten to me. I should lay down for a bit so I can be useful today. yay. But anwyays, with the 120 Korean bodies on or around campus, they have their own community and it's quite strange. It will require further anthropological study to crack the system. I have at least 3 years to do it. hehe