MrScottiep's Xanga

Friday, February 01, 2008

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:01:26 GMT

"Some of us laugh, even in our darkest hour. Never leave lonely alone." ~ Ben Harper

Ok, so I am aware that I promised to update after big adventures, and I fully intend to make good on that promise, but all too often I need to be inspired to write down my thoughts, and inspiration is not always conducive to the up-beat adventure of my life blogs that people want to read. I am in the mood to write now though, but I can't promise it will be entertaining. I'll do my best, I'll probably be brief.

Over Christmas break I went to three different countries, Singapore, Malaysia, and Cambodia in that order with Eric, a fellow RA out here in Korea. To start I'll do my best to describe Singapore. There is a scene in the movie the Last Emperor where the young emperor is playing a game where people would push there faces into a hanging sheet and the boy would try to guess who it was. I feel like this is the best way to describe Singapore. At the core of it there is an Asian culture, but basically a big western sheet has been thrown over top so all you can see is a western city with the imprint of an Asian culture.
In Singapore:
-first we went to China town
- we visited a giant statue of a half fish half lion creature called the Merlion (like mermaid, but lion)
- while walking around I saw my first ever Islamic street evangelist, it was kinda cool
-we went on the Ducktour. It was a half boat half car vehicle.
-on the tour we saw the world's largest floating stage, and as always the wold's "-est" anything is really cool.
-we enjoyed the Christmas lights on Orchard St.
-we spent an afternoon at the zoo and watched them feed the white tigers...awesome.
-met up with a past student in Singapore for coffee
- returned to the zoo for the night safari, man, I love animals, they are so cool.
-my first Hard Rock Cafe experience ever was in Singapore

In Malaysia:
Eric and I then went to Malaysia to meet up with a bunch of other staff for the Boarding Conference. We did not do as much touristy stuff, but we did have fun hanging out on the beach. I wouldn't say a had a fair glimpse of Malaysia as far as cultural observations go, so I'll refrain for the time being.
- I ate poo, literally. Ok, so technically there's a Thai dish called poo and it's basically just a crab omelet, but I did order it just so I could say, "I ate poo"
- There may or may not be another body of water that I can say I have been naked in. At 11am one sunny morning the Straights of Melaka I graced the water with my, ahem, presence.
- One night we did hit up the night market, and ate dinner there
- don't ask me how I know this, but I am pretty sure our hotel had a gay Indian dance club in it.
- on the last night of the conference we went to this Indian restaurant where we saw an AMAZING magic show, and by AMAZING, I mean awful...awfully amazing.

In Cambodia:
We spent our time in Siem Reap while we there, and we met up with a friend of mine and some of her friends that are working for an organization called Sustainable Cambodia. It was really stellar to meet people doing great work in the thick of it as well as seeing the incredible remains of a gorgeous civilization.
- We saw the ruins Ankor Wat, Ankor Tom
- They set you up with a driver and tour guide (for a fee of course), and lets just say it was interesting to say the least. At one point we watched as our taxi driver bribed a police officer to get out of a ticket, and by the end of the tour I gave up even trying to understand a word our guide said because his English was so hard to follow.
- we did not feed the wild monkeys at Ankor Wat, that will only encourage them.
- We watched the sunset on Ankor from Bakaeng Mt.
- We went to River of a 1000 Lingas, which was nice just to be out in the woods and hiking again. I miss the woods.
- We went to the Land mine museum. Very somber.

So that's my Christmas break in short. It was a great time, and it was really wild all that I saw in just a couple of weeks.

It's interesting to do some reflection on life sometimes, especially after everything I just wrote. Something I have been thinking about a lot lately is roots. The idea of planting roots somewhere and making it my home. Seeing as I moved every couple of years growing up, I don't really have that. By the end of next year I'll have lived in Korea longer than I have lived anywhere in my life. I don't know, it just seems like this place is a bit of stretch to say this is the closest I have ever had to having roots, and I was wondering why. I think it has something to with the fact that it's always changing here. People leave as quickly as the come, and obviously the students always leave and change as well. So the closest thing I have to foundation/roots in my life is constantly shifting. Isn't that the way of it sometimes? I feel like too often there's nothing solid, nothing to reach for, nothing to hold on to. I was recently discussing with a friend my current state in life and as we looked at it, I am really back to ground zero. There's a lot of freedom in that, but there's also a dangerous amount of hopelessness attached. What do you do when God literally cuts all the strings attached to you? Do I fall crumple into a heap like a marionette or do a fly away like a kite? Obviously there are some big changes in my life on the horizon, but I have no idea what they are...I just hope I am ready for it when it hits...then again, maybe it's all just speculation. All that to say- What should I do with my life, I am currently taking suggestions? (We have until next Oct. to figure it out). I don't think I mind putting my heart on my sleeve so much this post because I don't think I have that many readers left anyways, and that's ok.

Thanks for the prayers, Keep it real.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:52:17 GMT

"Standing in front of the black wall, lots of names carved in
Trying to make a little bit of sense of it all, where do I begin" ~Bill Mallonee

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Vietnam. It was Chusok here, Korean Thanksgiving, and so we had a week off of school, and a group of 6 decided to head off. There were 4 teachers and 2 dorm staff on the trip. Me and Eric proudly represented the dorm staff, while Brian, Julie, Angela, and Liz were the teachers. Brian and Julie did an incredible job of planning the trip with handful of touristy sites and what not, and also we had some time to chill out.
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh city late Saturday night to stay at a 5 star hotel called the Omni, let me just say it was ridiculously nice, and yet affordable. It was the type of place where I felt awkward walking through the lobby, because I was under dressed. Not my typical style of travel, but considering I'll probably never afford to travel like that any where else in the world, I didn't mind at all. Everything was super cheap in Vietnam by the way. Ho Chi Minh is more commonly known to westerners as Saigon, and when talking to our tour guide about it he said that the people of Saigon prefer to call it Saigon, so that's how I'll refer to it from now on.

You can't visit Vietnam with out visiting the effects of the Vietnam war. I won't dignify the word war with a capital W. So it's about 50 years, and man, I wish I had paid more attention in high school history class, because seeing the impact you can't help but be moved. I wish I could explain how I was moved, or what emotions I felt, but it was all so jumbled, it's hard to express, but I'll do my best. That first day we visited the War Remnants Museum, which basically just a small museum with photos from the war and facts about it.
From there we took these funny little bike rickshaws that seat one person, but of course they had us put 2 people on it, to the market. Where of course the drivers tried to scam me out of money right away. The market was pretty standard as far as South East Asia goes, lot's of shops all selling the same touristy things, and lots of people trying to call you into their shop to buy whatever it is they have; and once your in, the game of negotiation begins. It's funny though, because of the exchange rate, once you're in that situation you find yourself negotiating for a few cents, it's all kind of frustrating actually. After that we went back to the hotel to go swimming and celebrate being in Saigon.
The next day 2 days we had a tour guide named Binh (pronounced Ben), which mean Peace in Vietnamese. He was a really cool guy. First thing he did was take us to a factory where handicapped people would make "paintings" out of egg shell, which they oddly had painted on all the signs for the place.
From there Binh took us to the CuChi tunnels. This part of the trip was crazy, actually seeing the tunnels, seeing the craters in the ground from bombs dropped. There was a point early on in the tour where they let us crawl through an actual tunnel (they also had a tourist tunnel later on in the tour). So Brian, Julie, and myself squeezed through the small hole to get into the tunnel, I came out on the other side covered in mud, and I had been smacked in the head numerous times by bats, lots of bats. It was awesome.

Then they showed us just how the Viet Cong (VC) had survived during the war, and just what their lives looked like. These people, they new their business. They showed us some the crazy traps they would set up, how they would make the tunnels and traps, and even clothing. They had sandals made from old car tires, which you can still buy. So when we reached the tourist tunnels I was following a guard who was leading us through, and this guy was a good 6 inches taller than me, and he was running through the tunnels like they were nothing, I was thoroughly impressed. Ok, as some of you may know, I had never fired a gun, ever. I am not a fan of anything designed for the sole purpose of killing (I realize I just made a controversial statement). I have a confession; I can no longer say I have never fired a gun. At the end of the tour they have guns that you can pay to fire. So it's true I have fired a gun, but in my defense it was AK47, I mean, how many times ever would I get a chance to fire one? I also fired an M16. Now that brings into question the morbidity of going on a tour about war, and then firing an assault rifle at the end. Well I don't have answer except I like to try new things.

So on the way back to our hotel from the tunnels we stopped at a rest stopped. So everywhere you go, you see these bottles with a yellow liquid, and a dead cobra inside, also sometimes other snakes and scorpions. I thought it was just for show, so I made a joke with the lady at the counter, "you drink it right?" Thinking I was being funny, and she says, "would you like to try some?" Keeping in mind what I have just written about trying new things, it was pretty much a must do. So Brian and I drank a small bit of Cobra Juice straight out of the bottle on the counter, and now I am pretty sure I have super powers. Either I can read minds or I am hearing voices, either way, it's awesome!

The next day Binh took us on a boat tour of the Saigon delta, one of our first stops was at a Chinese temple for Taoism. Talk about interesting, so the burn TONS of incense there, and they believe the smoke brings their prayers to God. Then they will pray as they shake a box of sticks with numbers on them and then when a stick falls out they take 2 blocks and throw them on the ground, if the blocks match up, they know they have the right stick. They take their stick to the front desk where there a bunch of numbered pieces of paper with fortunes on them, and that's how they find out what's going to happen to them. Wild eh?
After that he took us to some small islands and villages where I got to hold a python and where we took a canoe ride through the jungle wearing those cool hats you see in Vietnam so often. At one point we reached a bridge, but we could get under it because the tide was in and there was another boat stuck on the other side, so we all got out of our boat and jumped into the other one in order to get it to sink low enough to pass under the bridge, but alas, I am just not big enough.

The next day we caught a small plane to the Island of Phu Quoc. We stayed at a pretty nice resort while we were there, in beach side bungalows. So it was kind of weird though, it was a lot like a ghost town. The resort was kind of worn down, and empty. It could be that it was the off season, but it was still kind of creepy, like the town was dying or something. On the upside, we basically had the beach to ourselves for a few days. I of course, got a sunburn the very first day. I also can now say that I have been naked in the China Sea! After a couple of days we grabbed a plane back to Saigon and then flew home to Korea. It was an amazing trip!

I want to write a little bit about an observation I made while I was there about the people. They were amazing, the service was above and beyond, and the people were so nice and kind especially to tourists. For example, the traffic in Saigon is INSANE, there are no lights or traffic signals you just go and there are thousands of scooters everywhere, and if you want to cross the street, you just walk across slowly as cars and bikes driving around you. If a police man sees a tourist though, he will run and stop traffic so they can cross the street. Granted that’s a small thing, but in so many other areas the people are so nice, waiters will just be really friendly, people will let you go first in line, etc etc. It’s all kind of unnerving actually, because in theory these people should hate Americans. I asked Binh about it, and he tells us that the people in Vietnam have learned from the destruction of war and don’t want to repeat it. Bitterness doesn’t help. They don’t want the world to think of the Vietnamese as the people from war time, but see them as the loving and welcoming people they are. He explained to me that his people were really just “chess pieces” during that time; their homes were ripped apart for a game of chess between communism and democracy. I don’t know how to feel. It wasn’t my generation, but it all defined a generation. I guess I just hope to learn from them, learn to forgive and love, even when people don’t deserve it.

While thinking of wars that defined a generation, please throw up prayer for Kristy Grant, she’s headed off to Iraq.

Thanks for the prayers, keep it real.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 03:05:29 GMT

"When you pursue your personal legend, all the universe conspires in your favor." ~Paulo Coelho [paraphrased]

I realize that I have been truant in regards to my xanga .   I should let you know I will be continuing in this pattern, but if you can handle the long delays between posts when ever something exciting or interesting happens I will be sure to update you on it. This post will be dedicated to my summer, which was busy, but awesome.

I returned from my last semester in Korea to North East Pennsylvania on July 1st. I spent a week at home and during that time I met up with my friend Jeremy for some taco bell action. Going to the States for the summer is officially a weird experience. It's always a time for processing of the past year, and reflection, but also a time to form personal goals for the coming year. I bring this up now, because dinner with Jeremy was the beginning of this process for me through out the summer, and let me just say it was a magnificent summer for reflection.

After that first week with my family, I returned to the first summer camp I ever worked at, to spend a week as a counselor again. Dude, it was so amazing! It had been 5 years since I had last worked there, and just getting out there and doing camp again was so much fun. The staff was great as well, it so refreshing to see Camp Hebron still producing quality staff. To wrap up the week that last weekend there was the 50th reunion of all the summer staff, where there some serious legends coming out of the wood work. Revisiting that period of my life was really rejuvenating for me. I was fortunate enough to have to of my closest camp friends ever be working there, Ben and Rodney, and that was definitely one of the highlights of my summer. I miss how much we tease each other, laugh with each other, challenge each other, and encourage each other. Those are good people

From there a group of us [Stauffer, Curt, Phil, and Ondeck] from Ship met at Hebron and headed to New York City for one of the greatest concerts I have ever been to in my life...DISPATCH!!! We weren't able to sit with each other so we all got meet new friends. From there, I went to Brooklyn and spent the weekend with Griffis. We went to see Mama Mia on Broadway and then went to dinner and the Brooklyn Bridge, it was a great time.

Ok, so here's another interesting thing about coming back to the states for the summer, I feel like a tourist. I am not returning home, but i am visiting the USA! With that in mind, I decided that no matter what the circumstances I was going to go see some things in the US that I hadn't seen yet, so I borrowed my mom's van and went to Maine, alone. I went to Acadia National Park and watched the sunrise on the US. Let me just say that place is gorgeous, I really miss the majesty of the nature the states while i am out here in Korea. While in Maine, i toured the park, and ate lobster. The morning I watched sunrise was gorgeous, but then it started to rain and didn't stop for the entire time I was on my road trip, the thing was, it was still amazing. From there I went to Vermont and saw the Ben and Jerry's factory, and then from there I went to New Hampshire and had dinner with my friend Jimbo from Camp California, so great to see him again, a walk down memory lane for sure.

After my New England road trip, I went to Stauffer's house for the night where we started planning out our sailing world tour. We also went for ice cream and apparently some girls there at the ice cream shop thought we were so good looking that we were gay. The next day we went to a pig roast back at Camp Hebron; they roasted their pet pig for the summer, it was hilarious. The day after that I drove to Ship and had lunch with the Kosers and the Keenes.

The next few days were with the folks, but I had dinner with the Skinkers, from there we flew out to Kansas City for a family reunion. The first of it's kind...ever! Some of the cousins there I had never met before and the others it had been maybe 10 years since I had seen them, it was wild. Unfortunately I was sick the whole so spent the first half of the reunion in bed, but the last day I was well enough to attempt to be social. I loved seeing my brothers! Then I packed up and a day later, on August 1st, I departed for another year in Taejon, South Korea!
[I tried to upload some photos of this but it wouldn't let me, sorry about that]

So it was a profound summer of reflection. It's interesting to think about how people view you in different places, and how well that person is accepted. Once you made a reputation for yourself, it's pretty tough to shake it, that's for sure. One thing I realized this summer is that I am stepping further and further away from religion with each passing day, and this is something that's not easy for some people to grasp. In contrast, each step away from religion is one step closer to spirituality, but even still some people will not see this as a good thing, and will not understand why I wish the same for them. I have also realized that by taking these steps that my life and faith must be exponentially more proactive. I need to be a living example of love, above and beyond. I have seen what happens when you step away from religion and closer to spirituality with out being proactive, and let me just say it has an appearance of hopelessness and depravity. But if I am going to be displeased with the world, I had better be prepared to change it, or at least try to. I think your faith is defined by how proactive you are in it. I know that was kind of a heavy shift from the rest of the post and if you have questions please feel free to ask, but there it is. Those are my reflections and goals that arose from the summer

Thanks for the prayers, keep it real!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 02:49:05 GMT

"Father forgive me, for I have not believed, like Mother India. I have groaned and grieved. Father forgive me, I forgot your grace, your spirit falls on India and captured me in your embrace" ~Caedmon's Call

Last Sunday evening, I returned to my home in Korea, from spending spring break in India at an orphanage out side of Bangalore. Monday I thought I was miserably sick, I will spare you the gory details of the symptoms, but lets just say if I wasn't in the bathroom, I was in bed for about 30 hours straight until the fever broke. It's the Wednesday after the trip and even though re-entry was a little rough, I wouldn't change it for the world, and would go back in a heart beat...here's the story...

Things that seem important quickly become trivial when you are faced with the reality that others live and thrive in daily. India is the meeting point of 2 of the world's major religions, neither of which is Christianity. A country that, in theory, feels like it's ready to burst out in violence, but has taken a route of peaceful resolution to their conflicts, thanks to Ghandi. It's really something I think Christians can learn from. The average income of a high end computer engineer is about $1000 a month, the average income for a blue collar laborer is about $50 a month. Our plane arrived late at night into a bustling city of Bangalore, where we ate dinner at 11pm an Indian buffet and spent the night. The next day in 90 degree heat, we took a 2 hour bus ride with out AC out into the country side. It was like something out of National Geographic.

We arrived at the orphanage to rows of 120 beautiful children sitting quietly until the moment we walked in where there was a chorus of "WELCOME AUNTIES, WELCOME UNCLES" in unison...From there it took a turn from good to simply amazing!

After we set our luggage down, the children sucked us in! Even if I had wanted to be shy they wouldn't have let me, one girl grabbed me by the wrist and said, "Come on, we are going to teach you how to play." Frankly, that was an understatement. These children had little to nothing and yet they knew how to play. They would invent their own games, on the spot. We had brought them jacks, but none of us knew how to play, so the children invented their own game using the jacks as a sort of spinning top, it was ingenious and hilarious. It had been over a year since they had seen any rain, the earth was dry there, very dry. They never knew when they would have running water or electricity for that matter, but they never seemed to care.

Ok, here are some highlights from the trip, in no particular order:
- the name of the orphanage was Beulah home
-the students that joined the trip were UH-mazing!!! I loved those girls, they all have huge hearts and were great!!! I really feel like a protective big brother now for them.
- I got to wear sandals everyday!
-When we awoke the first morning, I went out onto the roof and heard the chorus of Indian children singing, it was perhaps the most beautiful thing I have ever heard, and we had it going every morning.
- That first night during craft I got to be a paper salesman, selling it for the low low price of FREE!
- call: "I am going to brush my teeth" response: "Good idea"
- It wasn't uncommon for us to loose electricity in the evening, so often we would do crafts by candlelight hoster by C.Barr and crew. Until the candles were distributed the children would bust out in song. The first night I was in awe with a rendition of "Open the Eyes of my Heart", try to hold back the tears if you can.
-One night to unwind as a team we played Broccoli Broccoli, if you don't know this game your loss. Minji is a threat, be wary.
- One day we brought the children a suit case full of books, over 120. The director of Beulah home almost started and crying, and the children just dove right into them, they were so excited!
- One night Sally taught the electric slide then we got to see the different kids do a dance presentation. The little ones did one and let me just say absolutely hysterical and beautiful! If i can figure out how to add video, I'll post it for you guys.
-They taught us a new game they invented called Lagori. It's kind of like dodge ball, but there is a stack of rocks involved as well. It's hard to explain, so we'll have to play some time.
- You could watch the trees and see wild parrots every where, it was cool.
- "As Singles, we need to hug each other more." uh...ok, if you insist.
- as some of you might know, I am not much of kids person. I love teens and working with them, but younger kids are not my cup of tea so to speak. That being said in my notebook I have written down these simple words "Wednesday I fell in love." And by that, I mean the children. Spend any time with these children and it was impossible not to fall in love with them. I have too many stories that I could share about the individual children to write down, maybe someday in my memoirs.
- the last day we where there, I went to the roof with some of the boys and they showed me their home made kites. As weird as this may sound, for me, it was a symbol of their unbridled optimism and hope for their futures. They refused to be held down! If you closely at their kites, you can see why they are so beautiful. If you don't see it, that's ok, you just need to go to India

- On a personal note, as to why India is amazing, if you're a man with out a mustache you are in a large minority. Mustaches are EVERYWHERE!!!!! Frankly, it's one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen (next to the children at the Beulah home)
- We had a day and half to tour Bangalore, where we went shopping, visited a palace, and ate a lot of food. The waiters at restaurants are notoriously rude there, it's hilarious. "What do ya want! c'mon hurry up!"
-At the Palace we got to see the King's son, yeah so that was cool.
- We went shopping on our last day, and we got there by a train of rickshaws. So much fun!

- On the shopping day I bought a few souvenirs relatively quickly, and then I hung out at a coffee shop, drinking Snapple, eating samosas (not to be confused with smores), and people watching.
- The last night there, Brian and I were in a room with literally hundreds of mosquitoes. We were both eaten alive that night, Brian got the worst of it. It was super hot, so we couldn't cover ourselves in blankets, so we basically just had to take. I eventually had everything but my mouth covered up in protection from the bugs of death and they bit me on the lips. Hands down, the worst night there.

All in all, the trip was phenomenal, and as always these kind of trips give you a greater appreciation for what you have. I wish my students could all go on something like this. I wish I could wrap this up more eloquently or thoughtfully, but words really don't do it justice. Enjoy the photos.

Thanks for the prayers. Keep it real.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:36:09 GMT

"Who in their right might, if had a choice between living and pancakes would choose pancakes?"
"Harold, if you'd pause to think, I believe you would realize that that answer would be strictly contingent between the type of life being led, and of course the quality of the pancakes." ~Stranger than Fiction

Well it's another Lunar Break here in South Korea. I am not really sure what to write about, but I feel like writing so I am going to grace my few remaining readers with some words. Some highlights since my trip to Thailand over Christmas...I bought my first new pair of glasses in almost 10 years. I have joined a fantasy NASCAR league. We got a handful of new students in our dorm this semester. A cool crew, I can tell they are going to be an adventure to say the least. I have a new group of 8th graders for my 8th grade Bible class, oh yeah, I am a teacher now apparently. The weather is warming up, and as we all know, I am a big sissy when it comes to cold weather, so that's been huge. Basketball season is finally over, so now we can use the gym for floor hockey, it's my chance to trick my peers into thinking i have some semblance of athletic ability...suckers.

As for Lunar, I have basically gone to great lengths to make sure I spent everyday in some form of physical pain. Granted, I have only myself and poor exercising habits to blame for it, so I figure the masochism is probably good for me. We've played indoor soccer, outdoor soccer, multiple games of floor hockey, multiple nights of airsoft, and on top of all that Tuesday night I had one of my wisdom teeth pulled. But folks fear not, I have balanced the physical pain with a healthy dose of mustache. That's right, I have managed to sport a ridiculously hideous mustache the entire break.

This makes me think of something cool about Korea. One thing I love about this place is I can wear anything I want or have my hair however I want as well. They are very open minded here about personal fashion, the more ridiculous you look the more it's generally excepted, so a hideous crustache (combination of 'crust' and mustache') is not only excepted but probably extolled. Unfortunately and unexpectedly I had a bout of self-consciousness when I left the safety of South Korea and entered onto the US military base on Wednesday for some delicious Taco Bell (thanks to the Adams for the highlight of my break). Let's all take a moment to be thankful for the fashion freedom we can encounter in this country, many countries are not nearly as fortunate as I am to have the freedoms that Asians have fought so hard to preserve. To think, there are some countries where people make fun of other people because of the cloths they wear, but I have a flannel from the 90's that says grudge rock never died, and a pair of fake leather pants that says even a short, skinny guy can be sexy, and a white see-thru shirt that says "men can wear women's clothing as long as they say its from Thailand". So to those of you who are not as fortunate to live in a country with fashion freedom, I can only hope that someday we can invade you and "liberate" you of your fascist fashion (pun intended, I know , it's bad).

[please play Collide by Howie Day as you read this next part, because I was playing it as I wrote it and it sounded cool in my head]
On an unrelated note, you ever feel like you're in way over your head? That seems to be a common theme in my life, but perhaps that's where I need to be- in over my head. Sometimes it feels so hard to be human, like because I say I am a Christian, I am not allowed to be human, that I need to be "above that". It's come to my attention that no matter how hard I try I am still a top notch tool, I mean there's nothing I can do about it. I try to "do" the right things, I try to "be" the right things, I try to "say" the right things, but I can't no matter how hard I try. I was lying in bed the other night just pondering the mysteries of the universe as usual, and it came to me, some great epiphany..."Life is hard." Yes, pretty revolutionary eh? (note sarcasm) As I was lying there though, I realized that life was hard, no matter what. It's not like life is hard for me, but easy for him or her. Life is hard for everyone, whether you're rich or poor, alone or loved, successful or a failure...life is going to be hard. I have been blessed beyond my imagination, I would never have imagined 10 years ago how sweet my life would be by the time I was 25 but even still, there are going to be ups and downs. It makes me think about in Genesis when man is cursed to "toil in his work", translate "Dude, life's gonna be hard". I was watching Scrubs today, and Dr. Kelso says "Nothing worth having comes easy." Sometimes I feel like nothing comes easy, nothing at all. In those moments, I just want to leave it all behind, just get up and run away. I don't though. I just started to write that "in those moments I know I am there for a reason", and I realized that's not true, I don't always feel that, I wish I could be so sure and confidant, but I can't, I am human. What I do know is that "nothing worth having comes easy", and I remind myself: life is hard...for everyone. I am not alone, even when I am.

[edit: the people have spoken]

glasses

mustache

thanks for the prayers. keep it real.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 02:06:14 GMT

"You can't stop your soul. JUST DANCE!" ~Thai Elvis

Well friends, I am back from Christmas break in Thailand, and let me just say, it was phenomenal! We spent about 2 weeks in Phuket, and then we spent a few days at a resort in Lanta. At the resort we stayed right on the beach, but the resort was a little bit dodgy, oh well, you take the good with the bad. There were 5 of us traveling together, Craig, Dan, Virginia, Lanney, and myself. Along the way we met up with some friends. Kirsten and here sister joined us for a few nights, Brian joined us for a couple of nights as well, and then Mat, Amy, and Nikole joined us for a week or so. So here are some of the interesting things that happened on the trip and memories from it and some photos too...

- We left Korea early in the morning and arrived in Bangkok for a short layover, where I noticed something pretty interesting, in the airport there were Muslim prayer rooms. I just thought that was unique.
-In Thailand they drive on the left side of the road
-On our way to the hotel the first night we were welcomed to Phuket, in a manner of speaking, by a truck full of locals cruising down the road playing guitar and singing
-One of our first nights we ate at a restaurant called Joe Kool's "The Worst Restaurant in the World". It was definately a funny experience. There was a live band there, that was just awful. Bad outfits, bad dancing, cheezy smiles...it was so awful it was amazing! Although there were probably only 10 people in the restaurant the band really worked the crowd and ultimately got Lanney, Virginia, and Dan to get up there and dance. At the restaurant there was a rude general manager from Austria, but he came over and talked to us and encouraged us to come to their Christmas Eve Luau, because "there would be women there with coconut braziers". I know you are thinking, "how could they possibly miss that???", but we did, suprisingly easily.

- I went skinny dipping in the Andaman sea! Ok, so it's not as cool as it sounds, but me and another person (name removed until they say otherwise) swam out in the afternoon and took our suits off and then put them back on, just so we could say we went skinny dipping
-As it turns out some people on our trip, "Freaking Love Onions!"
- So one day we all sat out in the sun too long and we all got really bad sunburns, and then we went to a restaurant called Wildfire for dinner, A restaurant with live music and torches set up everywhere, it's pretty cool.
-Christmas was great! Virginia did a great job of pulling a festive time together for all of us. She got us "stockings" and we all did a secret Santa thing with eachother

- One day we played Dino-gulf...mini-golf with plaster dinosaurs = awesomeness!

- Apparently our clumsyness spawned a game...I lost with 6 trips witnessed.
- One night we went out to dinner at this Italian restaurant, but right as we sat down the entire block shut down in electricity. The ovens still worked so we had dinner by candle light, it couldn't have been planned better.
- So Dan has a tendency to talk in his sleep, and on one particular night he was pretty talkative. At one point I hear, "uh, uh huh, ok...TIECE!!!" uh...sorry Ted.
- "As long as I don't puke or fart, I am ok." ~Lanney
- Craig, Nikole, Dan, and Myself all did a 50 meter bunjy jump...so cool.

- One night we helped an elderly swedish couple find a room to stay late at night. Ask Virginia to tell the story she does a great impression. Oh yeah, also the couple was drunk out of their minds
- For New Years Eve we spent it at O'Tools, a local Irish restaurant, and then we hung out on the beach
- Then we ate restaurant called The Green Man, where they had a live band, but the night soon turned into Green Man Karaoke, as the restaurant invited us to join them on stage, and we became all too eager to assit them

- The next day we went on a sea kayak tour which was really sweet. It started out with a decked out van that had karaoke for us. Then we started the tour and found ourselves floating through a cave with bats. So at that point Craig, me, and our guide, went to the back of the cave, and there was a small opening towards the back. We both laid flat and the roof of the cave skimmed our bellys, but on the other side was lagoon type area. And the were trees growing right out of the water filled with wild monkeys wrestling eachother. One even tried to jump in our kayak, but our guide kept him away. From there we went to "James Bond Island", basically an Island that was used in one of the Bond films. After that we stopped at another island where we jumped off the roof of a boat with eachother. Climbing back into the boat I got a pretty nasty scrape on the leg. I felt so hard core. So while jumping we met this French guy that was totally crazy, but an absolute riot, and very enthusiastic about everything, he was very energizing. To wrap up the tour they gave us coconut drinks.
- One night we went and had dinner while watching a Thai Elvis impersonator. It was funny at first but got old kind of quickly.
-ok here's some big news...I got my first tattoo. It's a Franscican Cross. I got it for a number of reasons, but here's what it means. St. Fransis is the patron saint of Croatia. So I got it so would never forget my time in Croatia and the things I learned there, but also because St. Fransis believed in simplistic living, and I want to remember the importance and freedom that comes with living simply. Ok, so you know how you hear people say it hurts to get a tattoo, but you think, how bad can it be? those people are totally covered in them?...well let me just say this...dude, it hurts; they aren't joking. It really really hurts.

-I did get to do my elephant trek, and although it's highly over rated, I am glad I did it just so I can say I totally rode and elephant. Craig, Lanney, and I went.

-Although it may sound like we did alot, the majority of the trip was just relaxing, sleeping, eating, and reading. It was really a great trip!
-Last but not least I want to point out that those that were there with me would confirm that we were all...CHAM-PEE-ONS!!!!

Well, it's good to be back, I miss the students and I am stoked for a new semester. Thanks for the prayers and keep it real!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 21:40:58 GMT

"And all the colors mix together, to grey..." ~Dave Matthews

Sometimes pictures can tell the story better than words...

thanks for the prayers, keep it real.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 09:54:58 GMT

"the Revolution is about recognizing that we are not caled to go to church. We are called to be the Church." ~George Barna

Well, here it goes...This might be my final xanga post. Granted, it might not be also, but now that I have your attention, allow me to explain to all of my faithful (and not so faithful) readers. As some of you might have guessed, I have been slipping in the frequency of my posts. Here's the deal, I started this to tell about my adventures and travels and to keep up with people across the globe. As of now, I am living my life in South Korea, I am doing a job that I love, and I am basically just doing life. Not as many travels or adventures happening as the last year of my life, which was ridiculously amazing. I will be updating any adventures or cool travels I have, such as my trip to Thailand over Christmas, and India for Spring Break, or if any other important announcements come up. Thanks to all of you for your loyalty in reading, and I hope xanga worthy adventures fill each of your lives! I would love to hear about them.

That being said, in 3 days I will have been working in South Korea for 1 year. It's strange to think about how much a year can change you. The school put contracts a couple of weeks ago in our mail boxes, asking us if we were signing on for 1 year, 2 years, or no years more. It's a weird thing signing a year or more of your life away, especially in October when your contract ends the coming July. I know a lot of friends of mine are really having to wrestle with this, and I feel for them. I want to take moment to announce for myself that I didn't hesitate for a moment when that contract arrived I signed it and turned it in right away, I will be returning to TCIS for one more year after this one, atleast!

I remember my dad telling me how as you get older the years go by faster, I realize my dad was not the first person to have this epiphany, but he was the first to share it with me, in my childhood. The unfortunate thing about this is I am pretty sure I am going to die soon, because my twenties are flying by me in a blur, and at this rate if I blink I'll miss my thirties all together.

I went and saw the musical The Lion King last weekend entirely in Korean, it was kind of like watching an opera, or an elementry aged church play. You have a general idea of what's going on even though you can't understand a word they are saying.

There's a coffee shop here in town that provides warm foot baths for you while you drink your coffee. It's really funny. Nothing more on that.

I have been reading alot lately on postmodern Christianity and the trend with in the western church of sincere believers leaving the church in large numbers. Any thoughts on all of that?

As usual with all things in my life, I am in over my head. Thanks for the prayers, keep it real.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 11:46:18 GMT

"Spiritual realities require risky language, unless you think they can be reduced to little formulas and formulations. But I guess modern fold do think just that." ~Brian McLaren

Still reading the same book as last time, but I am really enjoying it. It's very thought provoking for sure. It's not afraid to take the topic of postmodern Christianity head on.

So the past couple of days have been interesting. I am going to try and share about it, and we'll see if it turns out to be interesting or just incoherent drivel. First let me say, I have been in an "Fall Funk" as of late, where I do alot of reading, alot of writing, and WAY TOO MUCH thinking. Not to say it's a bad thing, this time of year always brings it out in me. Here's a quick funny korea story for you before I get into the "good stuff". So last night a group of us went to an Italian restuarant down town called the Flying Pan. I ordered mushroom pizza, it was pretty good although the crust was green, I think it was green tea crust. The funny part of this is what my friend Craig ordered. He ordered a pizza chicken dish, basically he was expecting a chicken fillet with sauce and cheese on top. What he recieved was a piece of fried chicken with cheese sauce, a peanut sauce, and chocolate syrup on top. You read that right, it was a chocolate fried chicken. On the side was an ice cream scoop of cold mash potatoes with raisens, strawberry moose, and half a hot dog. How wierd is that???

After that we went to Starbucks, it's the only place I can buy chai in Taejon. While we there I recieved 2 ridiculously shiny coins (100 won and 50won). At this point in time I am pretty excited about these shiny coins, I feel as if some sort of luck must have just come my way, I was so excited to the point that I had to share it with my friends, but when I went to pull out the 2 coins I only could find the 100won coin, much to my shagrin. I searched all my pockets, my wallet, even the floors and all around the place. I had no idea where it dissappeared to. I should have realized at this point that this was an unlucky sign, but I didn't. Soon after, my friend Becca provides shiny coins for everyone at the table so they could enjoy the "luck" that I was so excited about. I realized at this point that I was not lucky at all, I took this news pretty hard. After that we returned to campus to hang out at Becca's apartment, there was a pretty good size group, and I was still in the Fall Funk.

So after a little while I decided to leave the party early, and go for a walk, with the hopes of clearing my head and heart. As I was walking along the road, I had the strangest thing happen to me. I bumped into 2 Kenyan Acrobats from Canada. They were part of a circus, and they were on vaction for a month before they started touring again. Their names were Daniel and Miles. There was something about that random bump in that spurred me on that evening. I then called my friend Dan and we went for hot chocolate around 11:30 at night. I was out until around 1am just talking about life with Dan. It was just what I needed when I needed it.

It seems to me that that has been a theme of my life lately..."Just what I needed when I needed it." Even that realization itself just came to me right now, this whole time I have been thinking "where I am going with all of this?" I can look back on this semester and see countless examples of God providing what I need right when I need, whether it be a frog in the grass, or an opportunity to "Go Big", or an email from a friend in Croatia, or a Kenyan acrobat to prevent me from going home for the night, or some hot chocolate and a good friend. There's been a lot of little things in my life that come just when I need them, as if it's God's way of saying "stop worrying so much, when you need it, it will come."

Today I went back to that same coffee shop to read and drink hot chocolate, and my other shiny coin falls out of my wallet onto the counter. Go figure.

Here's a couple of pictures for you to wrap it up. Dude, these are SPAM gift boxes! They take their spam very seriously here. How awesome is that?!?!

This is a picture of me and my co-RA Craig. I do whatever he tells me to do, but that's because he's awesome. If I am dead tomorrow for posting this, it was totally worth it!

Please tell me any other valuable life lessons I should pull out of the above stories. thanks for the prayers and keep it real.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 04:26:05 GMT

"What good is a man that won't take a stand, what good is a cynic with no better plan, I believe there's a better way..." ~Ben Harper

I realize that to the majority of readers, that it seems like it has been awhile since I have updated. Well there are a number of reasons for that impression. First, my last post was a protected post, in which case xanga will only let me allow 10 people to view it. The post was about my love life or, ahem, lack there of, and since I don't exactly desire to broadcast the details of all that to internet...The other reason it may seem like a lack of entries is the fact that I havent had a ton to write about. Life has been pretty much just moving along. Living in Korea isn't exactly exotic to me anymore, and I imagine not too exotic to my readers. So on to life as I know it...

This week is Chusok, which is basically Korean Thanksgiving, so we have the week off! Although, I miss my students, it's been great catching up on sleep and reading, apparently even some writing. This past weekend, myself and 11 other staff went to Seoul for a couple of nights, the countries capital city. We stayed at a sweet little hostel where we had 2 rooms (one for boys, one for girls) all to ourselves. Lets see, the 12 were Craig (our fearless leader and trip cordinator), Dan, Gurley, Chris, Matt, me, Sally, Virginia, Callie, Lanny, Shoopster, and Amy. I knew it was going to be a great trip from the start, when we were approached by a 7 year old korean girl on the train named Betty, and she quickly became comfortable enough to rub my face and put her finger in my mouth, she also drew me a picture, and signed it. Let me just say this girl was hilarious. I have also learned that my beard is "not soft".

That first day there we went pretty much everywhere, or atleast so it felt. It was Amy's first time on a subway EVER, so i guess it was pretty scary for her. Also, I just think Callie was enjoying having her picture taken.

We did a lot of shopping at different markets and what not. My favorite parts where lunch and dinner. We at this taco place for lunch with burritos like Chiptole, and I had a funghi pizza, reminiscent of the pizza in Croatian, except with Korean mushrooms. Plus they gave us sodas with 2 straws.

I will admit we did a lot of shopping that first day, and I will admit it was long day, but I tried to make the most of it. (I look like I have put on some weight in this picture, weird, I think it's just the angle)

The next day we slept in since we were out until about 1am shopping. There's this cool night market that stays open all night, and prices drop as the night goes on, it's crazy. Due to saving money this year, I didnt buy anything there, but I did see some hilarious t-shirts with ridiculous things written on them. The first thing we did the next day was head to this sweet palace, where they had a whole changing of the guard thing going on out front,

and then 5 of us went inside the palace for an awesome concert with "shoulder dancing". That was atleast how it was translated to us. Each of us got make some "new friends" while we there also.

That night we went to this tower that overlooked all of Seoul, it really was awesome.

The next day we were all pretty tired for the early train back, including the locals...

I can't lie, so far this break has been really great, and also relaxing. No deep philosophical commentary this time, turns out that's eprop suicide. I hope you enjoy the photo onslaught this post.

HAPPY 30th TO MY BROTHER, SHAWN!!!

Thanks for the prayers, keep it real.