A Holiday - Time for Rest and Time for Fun

A five day weekend is always welcomed!  It's always nice to have a break from work and normal routine and just relax and have fun.  Holidays should be a time of rest but also to have fun and do things you don't typically get to do.  That pretty much sums up my long weekend.

I've had the opportunity to talk with family and friends and sleep a lot.  But I've also been on a 1-day church retreat, went to Costsco, and watch the Harvest moon rise over the mountain outside my balcony.  I've watched some movies, listened to a book, and researched some meals to cook here with just my 2 burner stove.  It has been an awesome time.

The highlight is definitely the retreat.  It was about 24 hours to spend time in the Word and getting to know some awesome people at the church I am attending.  The focus of the study was on Lordship.  It was a great study and a great reminder of the preciousness of God's lordship and how we need God to be Lord and how that impacts our lives.  Honestly, during the second session it made my desire to move to Cambodia grow in intensity but also my desire to meet Koreans, learn Korean, and share the Gospel here in Busan.  God is Lord and people need to know!  I know of the good news of the Gospel.  I don't want to keep it to myself but instead share with all around.

Arpina Youth Hostel.  This is where our retreat was hosted at.

Not knowing names of people, I was a supporter of wearing name tags.  Mark P.  made nametags for those who wanted. We successfully got 2 tables wearing nametags.  By the end of the weekend, I knew at least half the people :)

My new partner in crime, a.k.a. learning all about Busan, Nicole :)

As far as getting to know people, the best part was probably the 2+ hours we spent outside playing volleyball, soccer, and frisbee.  I also "raced" with the pastor's 7 year old daughter.  She is awesome and I'm amazed at her courage.  They moved to Korea 9 months ago and she goes to a Korean school.  She spends every school day at a Korean school like I do but she must learn and understand what is being said even more than I do as she is tested and taught in the language.  Her spirit and love of life is contagious and I really enjoyed hanging out with her.  Oh and during this time outside there was also a spontaneous handstand contest.  Craziness!  But I did find out that one of the girls from church was an elite gymnast in South Africa which I think corresponds to US level 7ish.  Very awesome!

These two pictures are the field and track (which was like the fourth of the size of a real track) that we were able to play outside at for a few hours during the retreat.

After dinner and a third session we also played some team games.  My favorite was telephone charades.  I've never played this but wow!  The first person acts out a Bible story to the second person who then repeats it for the third and so on until the last person who then guesses the story.  There is quite a bit of deterioration.  It is a lot of fun to watch and to be part of.  When you are one of the later people acting out the story you feel so lost because you don't know the story and most of the actions that you see just don't make sense at all!  But it is a lot of fun.  It was just a fun night!

Oh and the pastor's 7 year old daughter and 5 year old daughter also got to stay the night and stay in the girls room.  They were precious!  Their excitement for the sleepover made it a night filled with joy.  They were great too!  The hostel was awesome.  It was much nicer than I expected and the sleeping pads that are traditional Korean bedding were much softer than I anticipated.  Granted I used 2 but still I slept well on the floor :)

My pretty comfortable bed for the night.

The girls listening to Sarah tell them a story as they got ready for bed.  Way too cute!!

Breakfast and another session rounded out the next morning and the retreat.  It was great but I was tired!  I rested most of Thursday night which I think is considered Chuseok day.  That night I think was also the Harvest moon.  It was gorgeous rising above the mountain outside my complex.  I spent the evening just watching it rise and being amazed at God's creation.  It was a peaceful night.

Korean culture on display in the lobby of the hostel.  I love the traditional Korean Hanbuk.  I think they are really pretty.

Denae, this is for you!  Blue and yellow :)

Playing traditional instruments.

And singing!  These dolls were awesome.

Different parts of culture presented.  At the front is the traditional mask dance.

Not sure what ceremony this is depicting but the next picture goes with it.

Just not sure about these but thought they were interesting.

Me: "Nicole, look!  It's our buildings."  Yep, I've claimed these buildings for us.  They were the ones that you can see in my pictures from Igidae.  They are beside the bridge.  It was nice to have reference point too.    

This is beside the field and attached to the hostel.  It's a golf driving range.  These things are huge and all over Korea!  I've seen several already!  They look like massive batting cages.  I think its a super smart idea when you have limited space.

Looking the opposite way of "our buildings" are these buildings....

Trump World.
Who knew Trump had buildings in Busan?  I definitely didn't!

Friday was a day full of rest and then a trip to Costco!  I spent way too much money but got some things that I couldn't find other places and some things that are just fun - like chestnuts to roast :)  Nicole and I had great directions and were able to successfully make it to Costco on the bus from the subway :)

Saturday was day to sleep, talk to Patrick and then venture to a new Homeplus.  Homeplus in a way is a type of Walmart.  I've already been to one twice and love it because they have more Western stuff than I can find at the grocery stores near my complex but on the way home from Homeplus earlier in the week, I was with Amber and Anamarie and we saw one much closer to our house.  I was determined to find it.  So I walked there.  It took me over 30 minutes but its almost all downhill.  I looked at the map before I left and it really wasn't that hard.  I think there might be a bus that goes in that direction that we can take in the future though.  It was so much bigger!  It was very overwhelming and again I probably spent too much money but it's hard to not buy Cheezits :)

All in all its been a great holiday.  Church tomorrow and a baptism at the beach!  Seems like a absolutely fantastic end to the holiday.

This and the picture below are from my neighborhood.  Almost everything was closed for Chuseok.  Its a view that will be rare to see.

Another rare sight...a completely empty subway station.

Both sides.  The train wasn't empty and some other people showed up before the train arrived but still pretty awesome and rare to see.

Just for fun: These are the subway signs.  This one is how you know where to go out but the numbers indicate what subway exits are out that way.  There are some subway stations with like 15 exits so you pay attention to the numbers a lot so you can find which way you want to go out.

The circle tell you what station you are at.  The words on the outside are the stations beside that.  The arrow indicates which station will be next for that train.  Super helpful signs :)

This sign just indicates where that train in particular is headed.  What stops are coming up. 

Seomyeon:  This is typically the station I go to.  It has both the orange and green lines here and its a 20 minute bus ride to get to it from home.  Most of the time I use this subway station as my starting and ending places.