What a day…

I’d forgotten how much I (sometimes) like to travel. I finished teaching at 10:00am yesterday, and today was a holiday. With a mid-week weekend available, I headed to Daejeon. Mike is heading back to Canada on Saturday, so I thought I’d wish him a fond farewell (until he comes back in June…)

Coming back this evening, I got on the train ~ with the Pusan soccer team. (drool) But they were in a different car, so the excitement ends there. I also discovered that my friend John and his girlfriend were on the same train. At our stop, his girlfriend continued on and we headed for the exit. Usually, I take the train – then the subway for 20 minutes – then a bus for 40 minutes before I’m home. However, John filled me in on a secret that there is another train that takes only 20 minutes, and cuts out all the subway / bus time. Hooray! We boarded the ‘secret train’ and were engrossed in conversation as the train slowed to a crawl. Thinking we were missing our stop, we lept up, and ran to the end of the car. The door was closed, but John hit a button and it opened. He got off, and I followed. As I was stepping off the train, I realized IT WAS STILL MOVING!! Slowly, but moving. Then a man with a flashlight started hollering and waving at us. ooops. It wasn’t a stop at all. We were just slowing down for some reason. So, we lept back on the train through the next door, and eventually made a rather bashful-faced exit about 5 minutes later – at our proper stop. What a day.

Thunderbolts and Lightening…

Last night I had an evening class to teach. The day had been hot and sunny, but by the time 6 o’clock rolled around I had changed into a longsleeved shirt to wear to class. About 15 minutes into the class, the sky turned green, a bolt of lightening flashed and was followed almost immediately by a tremendous clap of thunder. The wind started howling, and withing moments large chunks of hail started pelting the windows. My students rushed to the windows, threw them open and started catching the hail and tossing the chunks of ice back and forth across the room. It was complete chaos, and lasted for about 60 seconds – then the hail stopped, and my students returned to their seats. Then, about 5 minutes later, I saw a flash of round lightening. Yes – round. It was like a big ring of lightening that flashed, and was gone. After that the thunderstorm moved away, but I still had to walk home in the drenching rain. I couldn’t have been wetter if I had of climbed into a bathtub fully dressed.

Sorrow and Friendship…

This has been a sad week, but as is always the case, a liberal dose of blessings were mixed in for comfort.

Early Monday morning (in Korea) my Gramma passed away (in Canada). I’ve been hesitant to post any Blogs since then because words always seem to fail me when the subject matter is important or emotional. Gramma was 96 years old and spent the majority of those years praying constantly for her family. She lived a full life, and brought abundant amounts of joy to a whole whack of people. I love Gramma dearly, and will always be thankful for the love and support that she bestowed liberally on her massive family. I’m going to miss her alot.

I know that many people around the world were praying for our family. Thank-you. I can’t speak for others in my family who were far away from Gramma when she died, but I know that although I felt the distance, I never felt alone.

On Monday, my friend Kyung-Min called to say he wouldn’t be able to come visit me on Tuesday as planned. However, shortly after he heard about Gramma, he changed his mind, and travelled for several hours after finishing a 16 hour shift so he could “be a consolation” to me. He was a consolation and a blessing to me.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and words of support and encouragement.