Random Sunday of 293

Once upon a time it was a Sunday, which means that this Seoul Survivor Chick had church to look forward to as well as an invitation to eat with the Pastor and his wife, and a trip to Costco.  It was going to be a full but productive day.

Let's just start from the beginning.  I got up and got ready for church.  I met the Coleman's and Chris downstairs and we followed our normal Sunday routine of walking to the subway, riding the subway to Nogyang, which is in Uijongbu, and stopping at Tom n' Toms to get a morning coffee for those that want it.  If we wait for the next train after that, we can't make it to church on time, so we always have a little time to spare.  After leaving Tom n Tom's we walk to Uijongbu Community Church.  This morning Chris went to the Catholic church that is on our way to our church.  Church was good, we had a baptism on this morning.

The baptism was interesting.  First let me say this, our church is on the third floor of a building that is connected to many other buildings, much like a strip mall or something like that.  I'm sure at one time it was some other business, so I said all that to say this, it doesn't have a baptistery built in.  It does, however, have a portable baptistery.  Picture a rectangular hot tub, and you might have a good idea of what it looks like.  There is certainly not enough room for two people, so the pastor stands outside of the baptistery while the one being baptized climbs a ladder and gets in the water.  Now, I am not sure how this all goes down at your church, but I the few churches that I have been to (besides this one of course) the one being baptized changes into some clothes that are okay to get wet, or a baptismal clothes that are provided by the church.  Not so here, the guy getting baptized just climbed over side and got in the baptistery with all his clothes except his shoes.  Khackis, polo shirt, belt, socks, etc.  After the baptism, he climbed back out of the baptistery, soaking wet, and was given a towel, which he used on his face, as he walked down the aisle soaking wet.  It was interesting to say the least.  This I will say, though, it was very evident that he had the joy of the Lord on his face.  I didn't know him before he got saved, but I have little doubt that he is saved.  This guy, whose English name is Tom, love to sing during worship, is attentive in the service, very friendly, and just seems to be soaking it all in every Sunday.  After the baptism, he just seemed satisfied.  It was a great thing to witness as funny as all the other things surrounding it were.

After church we went to eat at the Pastor's house.  We walked from the church to their apartment, of course, and their apartment complex is like a little village.  It has its own restaurant, mini grocery, convenience store inside the gates.  Quite an interesting set up.  It reminded me a little of  Pecan Plantation, that has its own bank, grocery store, gas station, etc.  The difference being, of course, Pecan is nice houses over lots of land, this was lots of apartments over not nearly the same amount of land.  But in a place where you walk everywhere, it is not to not have to walk so far to get the essentials.  It was also surrounded by many more different restaurants and shops, and is not too far from a McDonalds. Bonus!  McDonalds in Korea, is like your favorite restaurant back home.  It makes you feel like your back home.  It tastes like, the McDonalds back home, except there is not Dr. Pepper.  Anyway, I didn't eat there on this day, so I am not sure why I am talking about it.  Oh yeah, they live near a McDonalds.  Anyway, back to dinner at the Pastor's house.  Sharon had already told us that we were having Taco soup, which automatically makes me miss home because my sister-in-law Kerri makes the best taco soup.  Kathrine and I helped her get the meal ready, while Brock and Caleb talked with her son and his friend, and later Pastor Mike and another man from the church.  The taco soup was delicious!  The fellowship was great!  The dessert was genius.  Waffles with ice cream and hot fudge.  Definitely need to do that back home.  I really enjoyed my whole time there. 

Pastor Mike drove us all to our next destination.  Brock was taken to Nogyang station to go back home, the Colemans and I were dropped of at Shinsegae, which is a big mall connected to Uijongbu station.  I was going to meet Ciara there and we were going to go to Costco, while the Colemans were going to the movies to see X-Men.  We split up to go to our prospective places.  I went to the subway station to wait for Ciara.  I sat down on a bench in the station to wait for and read a book, but had to move because two men sat down who, I think, were a little drunk and smelled like cigarettes and poop (sorry Mom).  So I went to stand somewhere else and I was approached by a Korean couple who wanted to take a picture with me.  I didn't know what they were asking, until I was posing for a picture with the girl, while the guy took a picture.  After that was done, a guy just nodded at me and said "blond and American"  I nodded and said, "what are you gonna do?"  I mention this because, I just had a conversation with some random person in Korea in English.  That is rare!  Then I was approached by someone who did not want to take a picture with me, but did however want to give me some literature about the world can be getting better for you.  I have started calling this getting "Jdubbed."  Just in case I haven't mentioned this before, the Jehovah's Witness are very active here.  Anyway, he failed on his mission to convert me, but I succeeded in getting one tract in the trash!  After the man left, the guy from earlier told me that the JW had gotten him earlier.  Anyway, I started talking to him for a little bit.  He was also a teacher, working in Yangju, and meeting a friend at the station.  He is from Michigan.  I don't know his name, because his friend showed up too soon, but it was great to talk to someone outside of our group and our church and that wasn't talking to us to practice their English.

Ciara showed up shortly after he left with this friend, and we headed off to Costco.  It had begun to rain when we headed back outside, so we hurried off to the bus stop to catch bus 35 to Costco.  We waited and waited and waited.  We would see bus 35 go by on the opposite side of the road, then we would see it go by on our side of the road, but never stop.  The Coleman's had said that they came in on the other side, so we tried to walk to the bus stop on the other side of the intersection, but it wasn't that stop either.  So we finally stopped at the a tourist information center and found out that bus 23 also goes to Costco and that one stops at the bus stop we were near.  So we headed back to the bus stop we started at and waited in the rain.  Ciara at some point said, "It would be horrible if it was closed today, after all this."  You might be thinking, closed, why would they be closed.  Well, I would have been thinking the same thing, except about a month earlier, Ciara and I went to E-mart and they were closed.  Appearantly, all the big stores, like E-mart and Costco and Lotte Mart (which I haven't mentioned before) must close on certain days to let the smaller stores have a chance to make some money.  So now you know how we could be a little a worried about that.  Back to my story, we are waiting for our bus, Ciara is jinksing us, and we are getting wet.  The bus finally shows up and we are on our way to Costco.  In the subway, on the trip it tells you what your next stop is, the bus does the same thing.  But on the subway it also tells you the next stop in English, whereas the bus only says it in Korean.  Ciara can read Korean, if she has time, but it shows up on the screen for like 3 seconds and goes to another scene.  So we are just hoping that we are going in the right direction and on the right bus.  About 30 minutes later (seemed like an hour) we see Costco, it doesn't look as crowded as the last time we came, there aren't cars lined up waiting to find a parking spot or waiting to pick up customers coming out, but we are pretty far out still.  The bus doesn't turn toward Costco and we start to get worried so we decide to get out the next stop and walk to Costco from there.  It wasn't that far.  So, we get off in the rain and as we get closer we notice that there really aren't many cars at all.  Like maybe 10.  So we really start to think that it might be closed.  Ciara is still holding out hope though.  She decided that we need to walk closer to make sure.  About this time we see bus 23 stop at the bus stop that is much closer.  And we start to laugh.  She walks closer to the building and some one crossed their arms, which in Korean means "NO."   So we laugh some more and walk to the bus stop that we saw bus 23 stop.  When we get there, another couple also come to wait.  So maybe they were going to try to go to Costco too and wasn't just the silly Americans.  As we are waiting - in the rain- a man walks up to us in broken English and tells us to go to the other side of the street to get on the bus.  The bus doesn't stop here.  We had seen the bus stop here, but we listened to the guy anyway and walk back across the street to the bus stop on the other side-in the rain,  Then we saw a bus pull up to that bus stop.  HMMMM!  Ciara yells, "hey, there's a bus!"  He motioned for us to stay.  I guess he understands more English that we thought.  When we walked back to the bus stop there was a taxi and we considered taking but the other couple that I mentioned before took it instead.  So we are waiting for our bus-in the rain-an laughing!  Our bus finally shows up, and it is the same driver that we had before.  We were embarrassed for about 5 seconds, then started laughing again.  About 30 minutes later we see familiar territory and decided to get out and go to Papa Johns because we weren't able to get Costco pizza we wanted.  Papa Johns was delicious!  We had our leftovers put in a box tied with ribbon and I had lunch the next day! 

Let me just say, I am glad that Ciara, my awesome roommate, can laugh at the situation, instead of get mad and frustrated about the whole thing! 

So that was my Sunday, how was yours?

PS - we just went back to Costco, they are closed on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of every month.