Picking up where I left off

Sorry to those "who faithfully read to the end" of my last post waiting for the conclusion of my affliction/persecution stories. I ran out of time and only had from for the one subtle reference about discharge papers. Haha.

Starting with the affliction....um....right after I was finished with all my wisdom tooth medicine and all that junk...my stomach started performing a la two years ago when it was terrible. Actually still is....and it's been a good five days. Not fun. I was looking forward to feeling normal again after the jetlag and the surgery and the working through the surgery, but no such luck.

Moving on the the persecution, someone stole my bike. I know that doesn't qualify as persecution, but that sounded better with affliction. Someone stole Jenny's from the same place last month. And left my coworker's bike untouched. He hasn't ridden it once this year. Not once. It's not fair.

Anyway, back to class gotta go....

Meeting Daddieo, Someone stole my Bike!!

So in the almost eight months that have passed I hadn't met my girlfriend's Dad. Weird you say? I thought it was weird too...a little. I mean, in Canada if you were serious about your girlfriend you would probably have met her Dad in the preceding 8 months....but on the other hand not really that weird....I mean he lives in a different city and they aren't close and I think she's seen him like 2 times during that same span of time....so not really that weird.

Plus, apparently normally in Korea you only meet parents when you're like serious about planning the wedding so again not that weird. (And no, the fact that I met him does not mean we're planning the wedding....the phrase 'normally in Korea' doesn't really apply to us ok?)

We had planned to go on Saturday so we could visit and they could see their Granddaughter....but I was really sick...so we changed the plan to just go on Sunday morning in time for his church service. Anyway, sickness not withstanding (more on that later), we went Sunday morning and drove the 2.5 hours to get there in time for the service.

On the drive there it surfaced that there may only be 2 or 3 people in attendance at the service...and now I have a much clearer picture of what her Dad actually does.

It goes like this....his main job is being a travelling chaplain to prisoners in Korea. So that's what he mainly does. He also has a small church building (which doubles as their house, now that Jenny's Mom has sold the cows and gone to be with him). So every Sunday they have services (yes I said serviceS) at this building as well. For the prisoners who have been released to come to, as well as a couple random other people from what I could gather. There was more than two people actually.... a veritable full house of 10 or so including me, Jenny and Seo-Yeong....

So when he got sick and left the hospital instead of going to Seoul for dialysis -saying God was going to take care of him- he was going back to his prison ministry, and the little church he has.

His health by the way was decent...seemed weak, but was walking around and preaching and singing so he was doing pretty good.

The church service in itself was interesting....as in it will interesting to read about. Because it wasn't interesting to sit in that's for sure. My Korean is good enough to sing along with the powerpoint (not knowing most of the words) and understand um.... 5% of the sermon....("um...ok, he's talking about his family.....um....now he's talking about smoking.....um um....") Like that.

The music was Karaoke style canned music (including canned organ prelude) with dramatic pop drums and the whole bit. I imagine most Canadians would have been laughing at the cheesiness of it, but I think I'm immune to cheesiness now....I spent half the time wondering to myself why I didn't find it as funny as I would have one year ago.....

Um, after services in Korea churches always serve lunch....so we did that....and then, even though the number of people had dwindled down to 3 (as in the three of us that came from Wonju)...they were still planning a 2nd service....because that's what you do in Korea....

Luckily (on the one hand) my stomach was going crazy and we were granted discharge papers (no pun intended). I'll write more next time...gotta go to work.....

Living with one fewer tooth...

Alright...the drugs have worn off...the blood flow has stopped (almost) and I survived the somewhat scary experience of having surgery with people that don't speak English at all....(wait...I answered yes in Korean....did he ask me if I can feel my lips, or if I can't feel my lips?....oh crap he started cutting....)

My stupid tooth was completely horizontal and really deep so they had to remove a lot of bone to get to it too......still hurts actually....normal wisdom teeth pain is suppposed to wear off in 2-3 days....but this one is still swollen and still a bit sore....anyway, not your average wisdom tooth surgery....oh and I didn't get time off either.....gotta love Korea....

But it's done...almost finished hurting ( I hope) and life should be getting back to normal now....

I'm pretty tired from the jetlag x2 and then the surgery.....hopefully I will get more regular again soon....

(as in regular blog writing...hehe)

Mattsimus Returns

Sorry for the month long hiatus....

It began when I went to China and every conceivable fun/useful website I use was blocked...facebook, blogger, Picasa, the list goes on....that accounts for half of the time.....

The other half I have been at home in Victoria, and most of the people who read news from me are here so I've just been telling it in person instead... :)

Regardless...for those who haven't got the scoop.....I finished my contract at the end of July....Bethany my sister came to visit in Korea, and we travelled Korea, China and Hong Kong together, and then I returned home....in a couple days I will be heading back to Korea to teach 6 more months at my school. A job I like, a place I'm comfortable with, and oh yea, a certain girl that I like a little bit...

If you haven't seen...there's an awesome slideshow here http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2004493&l=0651d9c7d6&id=51504786

What else is new? I started a professional photography course from New York Institute of Photography and am looking forward to doing that.....

Impressions of being back in Canada: This time coming back to Victoria feels so much different than ever before, and I have lived away from here A LOT....as in the 5 of the last 6 years....I guess I've been farther away and longer than usual this time....anyway....

1. There's so many houses and so much residential space...it's crazy how spread out everything is....when we landed in Vancouver I was in shock....

2. The air quality and drinkable tap water are just awesome....I love that about Victoria.....

3. Hamburgers are sooo good. I think the first five restaurants we went to I had a hamburger.

4. There are no people here. Like at all. None. I walked to Uvic from my house...ten minutes, to the bus station....didn't see a single person or car. I felt like I was on a different planet.

5. English is distracting....I can now magically understand all the retarded background conversations that I didn't want to hear/know. No, the rest of the bus does not care how much you drank last night or how hung over you are...

6. Victoria seems uber multicultural, and Vancouver even more so...I found a street with like every Korean food I like, a Korean Karoake place, Korean restaurants/grocery stores....man I wish Wonju had streets of Canadian stuff....

7. Life is much more relaxed here....everyone I interact with now at stores and stuff seems almost small townish now, and people aren't in such a hurry here.....and of course it is really beautiful....the beaches and forests and ocean....gorgeous....

That's all I got I think...

Till next time....I promise it won't be a month......