God In the New Year

God is never changing.  While there is always more of him to discover nothing about him has changed.  He has always existed and will always exist, our minds cannot fully grasp all that he is...  No matter how much we read, how much we listen, how much we study, there is more to him than we could ever imagine.  Quite literally the only subject we can say is "AWESOME!"  Each time I see a new site in a new location or observe something that seems different than what I know, I think it is so cool.  It is that much more when it is not man made but completely nature.  Have you ever just looked through some National Geographic type pictures?  God is pretty much the best artist EVER!!!

As we celebrate a new year for our planet, a new year of life for ourselves and continue to move into the future, I just want to encourage others, and myself, to bring God into the year with you.  He is constant, stable, secure, solid, omnipresent...  The only times I have personally ever felt like God let me down or disappointed me were times that I had expectations for things that I honestly should not have.  He doesn't owe me anything, that is something I need to be reminded of fairly consistently, and remind me he does, lol! 

Don't get caught up in the bad circumstances that happen to you no matter how bleak the outlook appears.  Scripture says that "with God all things are possible."  So whether financially struggling, facing health issues, mental health challenges, relationship strains, grieving a loss, and any other hardship, God is more than capable of providing you support to make it through. 

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Isaiah 43:18,19
“Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert."

(The Bible is encouraging and filled with hope and wisdom but I really and truly encourage you all to look at the context of the situations that I post about.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR LOVES!
Camille

They Can't Tell Either (I'm just say'n)

Hey Peeps,

On Christmas we went to an apartment to hang out with another military family and another one of their friends.  The couples were both husbands that are linguists with Korean wives.  I was able to ask some language and cultural questions without seeming offensive and it was interesting to get some feedback and perspective on military, language, family life, etc.

One of things that I just had to bring up and ask about was distinguishing between the various Asian people.  What traits helped them to know the difference?  The husbands both said that they could only tell once a person began to speak where a person was from (one of the husbands was Japanese.)  The wives however stated that they could tell by clothing and make up.  That made sense to me because that is often how I can tell when traveling around the USA when people are from other countries because they often wear clothing and shoe brands/styles different than ours.  Even with people within the USA sometimes based on their hairstyle I can guess at what area of the country or at least whether they live in a rural area.

Another topic that came up that had me laughing was one of the husbands pointed out that when we mock what people from Asian countries sound like we often make the noises like, "ching," "chong," "chow," and you know exactly what I'm talking about so don't even try to play like you don't!  Well anyway, he said that for Asian people they mock us English speaker thinking we sound like, "shalla shalla shalla."  I was so confused, LOL!?!  They went on to explain that many Asian languages are more vowel based, not placing consonant sounds together like we do.  The opposite is true for us where we use many more consonant sounds.  So where we have words with things like, sh, th, tr, br, cl... you get the point, they have words more with ou, eu, ae, ei.  That makes what they say sound how it does with the addition that they have more of a singing way of saying things, carrying out the sounds and we sound how we do to them based on our consonants. Interesting right!?

In Korean culture, as with many other cultures but not so much USA, it is the norm for the wife's mother to live with or close to the family after her daughter has a child.  She comes and takes care of household things such as chores, shopping, cooking and with the baby as well.  Not with an expectation to receive any thanks but just because that is what they do.  I know that other cultures do this as well but this is not something that we really welcome in the USA.  We are more independent minded and less interdependent minded.  Plus it seems that there is an ulterior motive sometimes when someone does something nice, sad but true.

Something else I found interesting when one of the husbands bringing up interpretation and how it can vary by person.  He shared that given 5 different linguists and one thing to say, there will be 5 differing interpretations of that statement.  Translation is word for word, not interpretation and so interpretation is left to the responsibility of the person converting the words.  He explained culture plays a huge role in the interpretation as well as understanding and life experience.  This reminded me of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  How they were often telling the same stories but the way that they shared different details was interesting to compare.  It was really cool to ponder and consider this from a modern perspective.  One example he gave was that in Korean culture people will often say to one another, "Have you had rice?"  which is the literal English interpretation.  However it actually means, "How are you?" There is a story to this but just consider us saying, "What's up?"  That if interpreted literally would be confusing too.

So in conclusion, learning a lot but with a lot more to learn, always!

Love,
Camille (카밀)

"...and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Luke 2:13,14 

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

 

Daniel and I went bowling yesterday with another couple.  That was my highest score ever in the history of me bowling.  Usually I am happy to get 100 but in the 3rd game I actually got 164!  The first 4 frames were strikes and then of course I got like 2 gutter balls LOL. 

 

We attended Christmas Eve service at church and it was nice to be around other believers and not just around people focused on all the things that aren't important.  It put Christmas back into perspective.  I myself was in a "whoa is me" type of mood; feeling bad about not being with family and friends and with a spouse that really isn't big on gift giving.  I was reminded that this is not just a holiday. This is a celebration of Jesus coming to this earth to save us and reconcile us to God.  Not about gifts. Not about family.  Not about friends.  Not about anything earthly at all.  The purpose of Jesus coming was for salvation.  To show us the way...

 

At Christmas service today at the church it was the Korean church combined with the English speaking church.  For those of us that don't speak Korean, we each received a receiver that had someone interpreting the service for us.  It was a bit awkward and there was a delay from what the pastor was saying and what the interpreter was saying but we got the point.  The whole service was about forgiveness and apologies.  Apparently the words "apple" and "forgive" are the same in Korean and so it was a play on words. 

 

We'll be headed to another family's apartment later today to celebrate with them.  They are from our church, the husband was actually the one that interpreted the service.  

 



 



We each received an apple with the quote,

"Apologies release the past and forgiveness opens the future."

 

(We got the figurine from friends in Colorado as well as our log candle holder :-))

 

I encourage you to keep in perspective the actual purpose behind what we are supposed to be celebrating at Christmas and not on the gift you didn't get or the family member that you are not able to celebrate with, or the people that you feel you have to celebrate with today.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU LOVES!!! 

Church Related Pictures

I didn't realize that the church had a Facebook page until last week and then just today I was looking at the album and discovered that we are in pictures a couple of different times.  Figured I'd share with you all some of the pictures here, especially for those of you that don't have Facebook.  They are pictures from things I have previously posted about (baptism service and Thanksgiving dinner).

These were taken by people in the congregation and I just sort of just picked and chose randomly plus some that have us in them...

You can't really see us but we're in the back. 

I don't know what happened here, maybe off key...? lol

I met Oyinda, she is Nigerian and trying to find work here (please keep her in your prayers :-))

 

See ya, miss ya, love ya,

Camille

 

Kimchi Pics (stolen from Facebook)...

This post is related to the one from a couple of weeks ago...  http://defyinfinity.blogspot.kr/2015/12/tons-of-kimchi-literally.html

I was finally able to get the pictures of the kimchi making that I participated in with the church.  I stole the pictures from the church's Facebook page.  These aren't really in any particular order I just stole some random ones and then some that have me in them.

Enjoy, without the smells, you're welcome ;-)

This is the trough of ingredients, awaiting cabbage.

Mixing the various ingredients together before rubbing to on the cabbage.

Mixing ingredients...

A finished tub of some of the mixed ingredients that will go in the trough.

Rubbing the mixed ingredients onto the cabbage leaves.

Candid...

Break time.  We're eating rice cakes which tasted like nothing.  I was asked, "Taste good?"  and I just said yea because it wasn't nasty or anything it just really didn't taste like much of anything.  Apparently it's just puréed cooked rice with a little bit of salt.  At first I thought that they were really thick cheese sticks so I was pretty excited.  Probably healthier.

 

 Still eating my flavorless rice cake.

 

Here you can see some of the ingredients that they are preparing to dump in the trough.

Outside I guess they were preparing the cabbage or something like that...

This is a truck full of done kimchi all in those containers.

All done :-)

 

 

God's love,

Camille



An Orphanage & A "Gingerbread" House

Hello Family and Friends,

 

Daniel and I spent Monday evening volunteering at an orphanage.  He asked me about 4-5 times if I wanted to go and I said, "no," each time because I didn't.  I was irritated that he kept on asking me in the span of a couple of days.  If I say I don't want to do something please leave me alone, please!  Anyway I thought about it and felt like a horrible person because I did not go workout or do anything outside of the apartment that entire day.  Then I pictured myself in the apartment while Daniel was playing with orphans and thought better of going, so I did.

 

We went to a residential area that was about a 10 minute drive from the base (I practiced for my driving test by looking at the street signs and saying what they meant in my head).  So we get to the orphanage which was very clean and seemed sort of like a clean YMCA.  The downstairs area we were in was the administrative area and then the basement was like the recreation area.  We spent the next hour or so playing a version of "Go Fish," some invented animal learning game, and musical chairs.  The "Go Fish" game required that you know various body parts and get 4 matching body parts.  They were able to practice their English.  The second game required that we pair up and the volunteers read an animal in English and the kids had to run to the back of the room to find the corresponding picture then bring it to us (I'm pretty sure the purpose of this game was to wear them out).  Musical chairs was hilarious for the main reason that the music was someone playing the basic melody part of "Heart and Soul" on the piano and then randomly stopping.

 

About the "gingerbread house"...  Actually I just went to the store and got graham crackers which are super flimsy.  Anyway, Daniel was nice about cooperating in making one with me.  He built it and I decorated.  Originally we were each going to build one but I broke like all but 2 crackers I was using to make mine and I think Daniel pitied me so he suggested we make one together, LOL :-D



 

Daniel doing his thing to make the "gingerbread" house...

There were crumbs and broken pieces everywhere...

Once he was done building he had no interest in decorating...

The finished product :-)

Aerial view

Oh and this is soju.  We tried it to say that we tried it since we're here but probably never again, bleh :-P

 

 

Love ya,

Camille

COEX Mall

We took a train ride to go to COEX mall.  It took us almost 2 hours to get there so that was pretty awful because getting a seat only happened in like the last 25 minutes so we were standing most of the time.  The mall was huge and I guess that is the appeal of it.  We walked around for like an hour and didn't even make it to all of the areas.  We spent like an hour in the aquarium otherwise I think that we could have made through the whole mall. 

 

Anyone that knows me knows that I really am not a fan of zoos because I hate to see animals in such small spaces.  When it comes to aquariums I more don't like them because a fish is a fish to me. Me being to like 4-5 different aquariums (all but 1 with Daniel) isn't really all that exciting.  He likes them so we have gone but to me it's a waste of money, like taking me to an all you can eat place knowing I'll only eat 1 plate of food.  Below are the pictures from the aquarium

 

He didn't want to be in the picture, I had to pull the "I don't want to be at the aquarium" card and so he was a bit more cooperative...

 ...but not totally...

 

 

I made this bigger so that you can see it better, I did actually think that this was cool and it was my first time seeing it.  These are shark eggs in the incubator!

__________________________________________________________

There was a whole section of fish aquariums made to look like various random things.  I didn't take a picture of all of them, like 1 that was a pinball machine looking aquarium...

 

 

 __________________________________________________________
I really liked the white fish pictured below).  They were actually really pretty, called a "butterfly" something.

 

 __________________________________________________________

These were tanks with little fish in them.  They were next to pictures that looked similarly.

Daniel chuckled at the English that was on some of the signs.  This was incomplete so I wasn't sure if it was trying to say

"Fish hate when you put your hands [in the water]."

or

"Fish hate you when you put your hands [on the glass]."

Sea creatures are cool and all but I would have been content to walk around the mall while Daniel was in there and spent that 22 won wasted on me, on something for the house.

Love,
Camille

Learning Some Thangs ;-)

On Thanksgiving I posted pictures of dry squid and dry fish that I was confused about the purpose of and said I would figure out what they were for, and figure it out I have... http://defyinfinity.blogspot.kr/2015/11/happy-thanksgiving.html

I was told they are used for 2 purposes:  1) To make broth for seafood dishes, 2) To snack on.  Apparently they roast the dried fish or squid and then just eat them.  I'm guessing this would be like us eating prepackaged jerky except that the fish/squid needs roasted even after purchase.

So the thing is that as gross as this sounds to me, it seems a whole lot healthier than snacking on potato chips.  I have not seen very many overweight Korean people since being here.  Many of these people are short and petite in size.  Obviously genetics plays a huge role in general but I think that if they are snacking on fish products that has got to help! 

We have been to see 2 movies since we have been here, 007 Spectre and Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II.  I was told that at the movie theaters it is not uncommon for people to snack on these things while watching the movie.  I asked Daniel to grab me some Sour Patch Kids or Twizzlers when we went to the last movie and he only came back with popcorn and a pop.  I was irritated until he said that they literally had no candy at the concession stand.  I think that for health reasons it is great to not have candy but for selfish personal reasons I was disappointed to not have something sweet to eat on. 

So yea, just wanted to share the new knowledge with you all.  If/When I try it I will be sure to let you know!

Camille

Tons of Kimchi... LITERALLY!

Hey Guys and Gals,

So the church did a combination Korean/English service project where we made tons of kimchi to help feed the homeless population in this area.  It was an interesting experience and something that I have never in my life done before but would definitely do again.  Apparently there were 6 tons of cabbage and 7 of ingredients, at least that's what I was told, GO TEAM!

First of all I was 30 minutes late because I didn't leave the apartment until 9:30a which was when they started.  I wasn't feeling particularly motivated to get up when my alarm went off so yea, need to try harder next time.  I walked to the church listening to some tunes and arrived to people in full kimchi making mode...

The pastor of the Korean side of the church was very welcoming and helpful with getting me into my own gear which included: a hair net, face mask thingy to cover mouth and nose area, a disposable body suit zip up, and an apron, gloves and sleeves to cover the tops of the gloves and bottom of the body suit sleeve. And then I was lead by one of the English speaking men to the small area in the middle of this assembly line looking trough full of kimchi ingredients.  This area had a couple of bilingual women including his wife who showed me how to make the kimchi. 

So basically what I was shown was how to rub the ingredients onto the cabbage leaves and how to mix the ingredients.  Unfortunately her instructions were pretty much, "Don't put too much.  Don't put too little," which meant like nothing to me since I didn't know what "too much" was or "too little."  The lady standing on the other side of me explained that is pretty much how Koreans explain things when cooking.  I think that anyone that knows how to cook explains things similarly.  I have been told to put "a little bit" of an ingredient into something as if that could be measured.  I need to hear "a tablespoon" or "a cup."  Obviously not when you're making "tons" of something but you get what I mean. 

When the trough started to get low then they put all fresh new ingredients by the bucket or like kitchen sized trash bag and we had to mix it all together.  Even though the lady standing close to me was saying what everything was I don't really recall everything.  I remember that there was chili powder, radish, leaks, green onion, fish/shrimp paste, garlic something, and some other stuff that I don't remember so yea... 

I'll have pictures later because one of the pastors is going to get some that they went around and took.  I was too busy making kimchi, cause that's what I do! LOL

For now this is all I got...

 All this time I thought that the orange things were peppers but they are actually a fruit called "persimmon" which is new for me.  I liked it, so I brought some home, Daniel doesn't want to try it (no surprise there).  The glass bottle was herbal tea that they gave us.  It was heated so kind of too hot to hold and awkward because I felt like I was drinking cough syrup given the glass container.  (They also gave us energy type drinks in the same type of container).

I got some kimchi on my shoes. 

 

 

Love ya,

Camille



Chocolate Chai Latte? YES PLEASE!

So I would love to be above advertisements... I really would.  Sometimes I think that I am and when it comes to certain things I really am.  But then there are others things that well, not so much... :-/

I have walked past a sign on the sidewalk at the market outside of the main gate several times.  It is advertising for various drinks including a chocolate chai latte which sounded amazing to me from the first time I read it.  The café is super cute looking from the outside and looks so cozy and quaint.  Well, I could pass the sign no longer without partaking in the yummy sounding drink featured on that sign.  I am a fan of chai tea and I also like chocolate so resisting the combination much longer wasn't going to happen.  Additionally, it was cold outside and I had been walking out in that cold for like 15 or so minutes so I really felt justified in purchasing it for myself, lol.

I'm sure this drink is everywhere, I just have not had it before so I went for it, without regret!  It was so perfectly yummy and since I stayed in the café it came in a glass mug.  I sat beside a little fake Christmas tree and just observed my American looking surroundings.  When I got into the café I was alone but then several people came in behind me so I had to wait a bit for my drink as there was only one barista in there at the time.  It was worth the wait :-)

She served me my perfect chocolate chai latte on a little serving tray with a little packaged cookie cracker (also yummy).  The ambiance of the café was chill (until people came in of course).  I like the industrial style of interior design and this had that look going on plus was a small place.  They had fleece blankets with plaid type designs to go along with the Winter season.  I had wireless internet too so I was able to check emails and chillax.  Then people came in so the vibe changed with hearing others speaking Korean to one another.

I liked it there and the drink was the price of any Starbucks grande sized drink so not cheap but not astronomical either.  I wouldn't go there often because "ain't nobody got time for that" but it would be worth going to once a week just to get off base and be able to hang out for a bit.

Love,
Camille

...eyes brimming with tears...

 

 

I LOVE BAPTISM!!!

Yesterday Daniel and I attended church service and it was nice.  At this point he is much more fond of the church service than I am.  I like the people they have been nice but the service style is just different than what I am used to and so will take adjusting.  That is "a personal problem" that Daniel pointed out to me a couple of weeks ago.  I've been praying about it...

Anyway, we went back to church in the afternoon to the baptism service followed by communion.  This was the Korean speaking part of the church combined with our English speaking part of the church.  Well, since we have to walk and didn't leave in enough time we completely missed all but the very last person being baptized (it started at 3p and we got there at 315p).  They were singing in Korean some hymns that I couldn't understand although one of them I think that if I had heard it in English may have known what it was because the tune sounded very familiar. 

At the end, after people dried themselves and got dressed, the newly baptized came up to give their testimonies and what they were going to do now.  Well, we literally could only understand 1 of the 14 people that spoke because everyone was speaking in Korean with one speaking in Thai.  I almost cried but not quite.  I could only assume what they may have been saying based off of how awesome God is in most of our lives!  The guy that we could understand was Iraqi and even though I'm pretty sure no one other than English speakers could understand him he had the biggest applause with the shortest thing to say :-)  The pastor for the Korean church interpreted for the Korean church when the 2 that did not speak Korean spoke.

After they spoke the congregation was given the opportunity to go up and encourage them and love on them.  I was excited to have the opportunity to just go and give hugs.  It was pretty much like a mosh pit of people to get to anyone as pretty much 7/8 of the people there went up to give hugs, give flowers, take pictures, encourage, cry with, and praise God with the people that were up there.  It was really awesome to be a part of it even though it was overwhelming with all the people up there pushing around.  I shook the guys hand and gave a hug to the Thai lady.  I couldn't quite get through the other Korean people to get to anyone else and I dislike crowds so I got out of there and back to my seat.

It was beautiful!  God is good :-)

Matthew 3:11-17 (ESV)
¹¹ “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” ¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. ¹⁶ And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; ¹⁷ and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

God's love,
Camille

 

Learning the Cultural Norms and Language

We got a new couch!  Maybe not exciting to anyone else but I was pretty freaking pumped.  If you have been to our house in Colorado you know that all we had in the living room area were 2 bean bag chairs and a papasan chair, that was all.  So while I don't like the couches that were lent to us temporarily I was also not especially looking forward to getting our seats either.  So we took a train trip to the Yong Sung Army base on Saturday and were able to find a couch at their PX that we liked and bought on the spot.  Daniel was hurting having to pay for it but I think it was worth it myself, I mean we take it with us when we leave so we'll have these for years to come.  It was delivered yesterday and I am sitting on it as I type this now :-)

So the purpose of this post is to share about our interaction with the men that sold us the couch.  They were Korean and spoke broken English but well enough that we understood mostly everything.  Super nice older gentlemen.  When we were paying for the delivery I handed one of the men my card and observed him take it using the 2 hand proper way I was taught about here.  The thing is that Koreans, when one is giving or receiving an item, or even shaking someone's hand, use a two handed way to go about doing it.  If I am receiving something in my right hand I place my left hand flatly under my right wrist.  That is also how I am supposed to shake someone's hand. 

I forgot about this because I have not really been paying attention but once I realized it I appropriately received the card back.  Another man observing was impressed with my knowledge of this after only having been here for 3 weeks so I was pretty happy with myself too, lol.

Daniel has been much better at remembering to say "thank you" in their language.  I automatically say "thank you" after someone does something, then when I hear him say, "kam-sa-ham-ni-da" I say it too.  There is also "an-nyeong-ha-se-yo" to greet people coming and going which I remember to say sometimes but not often enough.  Here are some other basic words...

"no" is  "a-ni-o"
"yes" is either "Ne" or "Yi"

Those are pretty much the only ones that I know.  I am learning some others and should be practicing more than I am but I am on the base most of the time so I don't really think about it much until I need to journey out. 

Since I don't really have any new pictures to share here are 2 candid pictures from Daniel's phone... & a couple of relevant pics from online :-)

 Our first time in Seoul, just walking around aimlessly.

 

So a friend back in Colorado reminded me of these yummy snacks.  She said they were made here in Korea which we then pondered about because Koala's are in Australia not Korea so yea...?  I snacked on some while here anyway :-)

 

At the palace.

 

This is an instant coffee mix that has just the right amount of cream and sugar.  It might be back in the USA but I didn't know about it until I got here, yum :-)

 

SHOUT OUT, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA :-)

Love always,

Camille