I started off my day by reading professor Chang's papers and making sure I understood them. They were only synthesis papers so they were pretty straightforward. I had a couple of cups of coffee and readied myself to attempt to go to church.
In case you weren't aware, today was palm sunday. Today is the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem (I think?) and there was much pomp and circumstance. Anyways, Kayla really wanted to go to mass today, for obvious reasons (the start of holy week), so we got mass times and I asked around until I found the bus that took us into jinlyang, the city closest to us.
We boarded the 840 bus and somehow made it into Jinlyang. That was the first step in the serious of steps that got us into the church, though. Unfortunately, the on.y thing I was sure of when we got off the bus was that we were in Jinlyang. I knew that the church was indeed in the city, but never having been there before, I had to revert to my question asking ability to find more info.
We climbed the hill to another church and I asked a friendly looking lady if the church I was standing at was in fact the catholic church (I knew the church was actually a presbyterian church, but I thought just asking if it was the catholic church would leave less room for error). It wasn't, and instead of giving us directions, the lady motioned over to a van, and yelled something at the driver. He nodded his head and motioned for us to get in.
Normally, I would be wary of this situation, and have some terrible fantastical exchange in my head that I was about 2 minutes away from being able to say, "and that was how I ended up a slave in North Korea...", however, I was pretty sure that we were being taken care of.
I love it when I'm right. They took us straight on to the church, and didn't even ask us to give them any money. I love people here.
Needless to say, I experienced my first catholic mass. In Korean. it was neat, I can say that much. I sat next to this sweet old lady who shared her hymn book with me. I was actually able to read along and sing the songs in time! Then, the reading of the gospel was done, and I attempted to follow along in my parallel Korean/English bible with what the guy was saying.
It might or might not sound ridiculous to say that something could make you feel like you're on the verge of aneurism, but I really felt like I had pushed the limit of my brain capacity. It was neat because I was able to understand stuff, but it was the toughest thing I've ever tried to do in Korean. It would be neat to get an audiobook and try that very same thing I think.
Anyways, my first catholic mass passed (which, in all actuality, I probably wouldn't have really understood if it was in English anyways, so it being in Korean may have been ok). We left the church, and somehow made it back to the school. We also met a ton of nice people at the church. They were all saying hi to us and attempted to talk to us. I say attempted to talk because I would say something and their reply would prompt the: no-clue-what-you're-saying,-but-I-want-to-be-polite-about- it look. They got the hint, and tried to simplify it down. Didn't work. Older folks use much different words than we're taught. It's so funny. I never thought a language could be so different, but then again my native tongue has no concept of ingrained caste rules and am intrinsic honor system. Well, kinda, with please, and thank you, and all that stuff, but I think thee, thou, and thy would be the better example of what the closest thing we have is.
Anyways, while I waited for my dinner date with my professor and his family to roll around, I read over his papers again. The time approached our meeting, so I headed down early. That was actually a good decision, because even though he was late, I was able to get some great picture opportunities. I love taking pictures. And video. The video is much tougher to get good material for, though, so I have much less of that. I don't think any of the work I do in pictures and film is any good, though, so I guess that's a redundant statement.
Spring here is so beautiful. Everything bursts into life with vivid colors, and the sound of bees humming the work week away fills the air around any flowering bush/tree. The air smells good, yellow sand or not, and the weather is really pleasant. It's as if Spring here is truly as it was meant to be. Or maybe Murray and the greater Paris area just needs more fruit bearing trees and flowers.
My professor arrived shortly after everyone disappeared and I ran out of picture ideas, and we were off to dinner. Before he came to pick me up, I was thinking how I had broken a streak of eating a certain type of chinese food once a week since I had been here. Oh well, I thought. Not a big deal, it's just food after all.
Turns out we went to a different chinese restaurant, but ate the exact meal which I thought I was missing out on. I thought the irony was the most delicious part of the meal, just ahead of the cinnamon-ed sweet and sour pork. We had a really good conversation, and the food was delicious. Overall, it was a fantastic meal.
Did I mention we had a conversation? I wish I could say it was in Korean. Unfortunately (and secretly, fortunately too), the whole family spoke english. Being a professor, Dr. Chang was able to do work in America, and allowed his children to go with him. Maybe his wife too, but they never said. It's common for Koreans to only take a child or two abroad and not the other parent, so there's no telling.
Either way, I made a really good friend in the good Dr.'s son. He is basically just the Korean version of me, if you can believe it. Every time one of us would talk about a hobby or interest, the other shared it. It was as if, upon birth, I was rebirthed to a surrogate caucasian mother, put up for adoption, and then swept away to the states, never to know that I shared a twin over here. I really wish you could meet the guy, though. He's a good friend. He goes to school in Seoul, though, so we had to drop him off at the train station before I could go back to the dorm.
His parents seemed unbothered by him leaving, but I found out their oldest son is studying in America (Indiana State) and they miss the older son a whole lot. Just in case that sentence sounded funny, I feel I should explain that in the Korean family, the strongest feelings parents have for their children are given to the eldest son, since he is the one who carries on the family census. The family census, in a related story, is basically the complete genealogy of the family, and usually goes back 3 or 4 generations. We don't have an equivalent in the States, or I would compare it.
Something else cool, though, was that the Prof.'s son wanted to be just like his dad. I love to see that. I could tell that he loved Dr. Chang and wanted to make him proud. Every time Dr. Chang talked about his son, he got this Korean-man glow about him as he talked, and I could tell the pride he held for his son was incredible. The familial/filial love in the room was practically tangible. I really wish I could hang out more with complete Korean families. They seem incredibly nice to be a part of.
They drove me back to the dorm, asking questions the whole way, and dropped me off. I really enjoyed the time I spent with them. They are so nice, and the Prof. is a really accessible guy. He even called me smart, which is pretty nice to hear from him.
Tomorrow at 2 I'm going to get my project! Like I said before, it appears that it will be in synthesis, so I'm super excited about it.
Oh yeah, and I got all of my homework done.
For Now
Aron Huckaba International Vagabond
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