Day 7 in South Korea: Church, Kyobo Bookstore, and Soccer Games

Well, thanks to the very helpful Pastor Kim of East Seoul Canaan Church and his daughter, Ruth, I was able to obtain some clear directions on how to find their church this Sunday, and this put me in wonderful spirits.
My dad had contacted the pastor after I was accepted to go to Hanyang University to ask him about me attending church there on the Sunday I was in Korea.
I had to wake up early because I didn't want to be late. I was under the impression that their English service started at 9 o'clock and really, I was so bad at predicting the subway ride time there that in desperation I had decided to just leave as early as possible for everything.
When I arrived at the church, no one was standing outside in the stairway/landings, so I was a little confused. I waited for a few minutes, then I called Pastor Kim's cellphone. Ruth answered and told me where to go.

I noticed this mirror in the church stairway. On the top it has written 'God Loves You' in Korean.

When I walked inside, I stood awkwardly for a few moments, waiting and wondering where the pastor was.
It was then that someone surprised me by coming in behind me. In what sounded to me like perfect English at the time, they asked me a question about what I was doing there or why I was there (something like that).
My first thoughts: Oh, it's an American! Yay! 
Well.
Needless to say, he went to get the pastor and I, feeling a little awkward, finally took off my shoes, put on some slippers, and went to the pastor's study.
Pastor Kim explained to me that they no longer have an English service, but kindly offered to do a Bible study with me.
He explained a lot about Lutheran theology, which was very valuable to me. Getting to study the Word of God with him was very uplifting. Afterwards, I felt like I could take the rest of the week on without the fear and frustration I had before. What a beautiful thing being with other believers is, especially when you are so far from home!
I was going to meet Jisu after that, but since they offered me food and fellowship after the service, and I wanted to know what a Korean sermon is like, I messaged him and he said it would be okay if I stayed for lunch there and came a little later.
When I entered the sanctuary, Pastor Kim directed me to sit somewhere and instructed a boy on that row to talk to me. It was hilarious-the guy looked totally clueless and caught off-guard! However, after I sat down I discovered that most of the youth in the church attend colleges in the United States (so THAT'S why that boy earlier sounded North American!). Most of the people I sat with spoke English, so we talked for a while before the service started.
The most touching thing for me during the worship service was that I could sing 'How Great Thou Art' in Korean right along with the rest of the congregation. The lyrics were displayed on a screen to the far right of the pulpit, and the song is slow and repetitive enough that I could follow along. It was really exciting and so beautiful.
Here is an example of what 'How Great Thou Art' sounds like in Korean-although the version I sang obviously didn't sound this complex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uFTlpRFfjc
After that, the choir sang. I couldn't help but notice they were being filmed. My mom somehow already knew that the church uploaded videos of their sermons and choir on Youtube.

So, I present to you videos of the choir and the sermon from when I was there! At 9 minutes and 20 seconds in the sermon video, I appear in the audience. I'm at the far right of the screen, wearing pink, with my hair in a ponytail. I won't hold it against you if you just skip to that point to see me there, because I highly doubt you can understand the pastor at all! :D

Choir-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liwegYDcu38&list=UUFJvZrY7Mo1zF3V-QtnpT9A

Sermon-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt4TaqA1n0U&list=UUFJvZrY7Mo1zF3V-QtnpT9A


Afterwards, I somehow got caught in a youth Bible study session of sorts. I couldn't understand what the girl leading the group was saying, but since I was sitting with the group, I just stayed where I was and tried to understand. A little while passed before I realized that I needed to hurry and eat or I would be late to meet Jisu, and so I excused myself and went upstairs to find Pastor Kim. He helped me with my meal, and I sat across from him and ate. I tried to finish everything, but he had served me a huge bowl of soup with rice and kimchi on the side. I remembered in the back of my mind that it's very important you eat everything that is served to you by elders and honestly, even in the U.S. I think it's good manners to finish a free meal.
HOWEVER
that was WAY too much food, haha. I ate everything and thanked him for it. Then I made my gettaway, stopping by the sanctuary to say goodbye to my reluctant-pew-mate from earlier and telling him it was great to meet him. Then I began my walk to the subway station.
While I was walking I took two videos of the area. It felt so much smaller and more residential to me.

At the end of one of these videos, you can hear me say 'Hello?', and if you listen very closely you might be able to catch the male voice saying 'hello' before then. It was the guy from church that I had thought was an American. He stopped me and asked what I had been doing. After that, we talked for quite a while. He said his name was Chris and that he attends college in the U.S. at a Lutheran teaching school (I mentioned this to dad when I got home that evening and he named the college right away). He didn't know what a Linguistics major was, so I had to explain that. He's a Mathematics major (Mom's comment: Brilliant, Caroline, you have found yet ANOTHER Korean friend who is good at Math-go figure) While talking, we continued our walk into the subway station together. I was confused when he started talking about a currently showing movie in Korea and asked me something about having a friend to go see it with. I was thinking: I'm almost late to meet Jisu...what is this guy talking about? Movie? Friend? Free time? But I dismissed it as him trying to practice his English (not sure why I thought that because his English was so good), and told him I had to leave. Upon parting ways, he gave me his phone number and added me on Facebook. I got on the subway for Gwanghwamun to meet Jisu.
When I arrived at the Gwanghwamun subway station he had told me to wait at, I didn't see him, so I sat around in the hot sun and took some pictures. It's quite beautiful.

After that, Jisu told me the building I needed to enter that was Kyobo bookstore (to the right in the picture above-you can't see it, but anyway), but I was already inside because they had free wifi. I had forgotten to give him my phone number, so wifi was the only way we could contact eachother! After that we met up at the bookstore in the English section (the store was huge). Here are some pictures I took inside the bookstore.

This book looked like so much fun! Hahaha

This is an example of the huge emphasis placed on learning English in South Korea. All of these books are to pass the TOIEC, an English test that evaluated proficiency in business English. The TOEFL is an even more difficult English test and I think I saw about twice as many books on it.

Jisu wanted to purchase a relatively easy English book, so we hunted around for one until he found something he thought would be interesting. Then after realizing this was the perfect opportunity for such a thing, I bought my first Korean children's book, an abridged 'Little Prince'. I've seen so many drama characters read this book and there were a LOT of different editions of this book at Kyobo. In other words, Koreans generally seem to like this story. The illustrations were also very pretty. *.*
After that, Jisu's friend had to leave, so the two of us wandered to a cafe together and sat around for a few hours talking. We ate 팥빙수 (patbingsu), which is a very popular summer treat in Korea. It's just shaved ice with sweet red beans on top. Here's a picture of ours-

We got the milk kind, so it was a layer of sweet milk-y goodness on the bottom, then a layer of shaved ice, then red beans, then pieces of chewy rice cake. It was piled too high in the bowl for us to eat it properly at this time, but normally you stir all of this up and eat it that way. We carved away the sides until we had a mountain in the center so we could do this. It was soooo yummy and refreshing after the summer heat. :D

Plus, do you realize how nice it is to have someone who can understand English and Korean with you to make sure your patbingsu doesn't have walnuts hiding beneath the surface? I was really happy about that!
By the time suppertime had rolled around, we were both getting tired, and he had a 4-hour bus ride to Jeonju that night. We parted ways after that, but not before I got a video of some kids outside the cafe practicing Taekwondo!

We also took a picture together-

On my way home, I had to transfer subway lines at the Wangsimni station, but while I was doing that, I stopped by some shops selling clothes and I had to stop and look. It made me a little late, but I didn't break my curfew, and I picked out several shirts that I wanted to buy the next day.
I discovered something really good about my curfew on the way to my dorm, though-in the late afternoons/evenings, the men's soccer team at Hanyang played scrimages. This particular evening I taped some of their game with my camera (but I'm not posting that video right now). It was really fun and I could have sat down and watched them play for hours. Instead, I just stood there for 20-something minutes. Then I bought myself supper from the convenience store and went to my dorm.

-Argentia