Fellowship

So a large part of the YAV program is the focus on being rather than doing. It is really hard sometimes because when you are just being you don't get the same satisfaction you would get if you have completed a task that you get to check off a to-do list. It gets even more complicated sometime in Korea because a lot of the fellowship time with Koreans the spoken language is Korean, so I end up sitting there trying to get the most out of ever interaction I can.

What is interesting though is the different forms of fellowship. Not just having dinner with friends or going to grab coffee together. Koreans will go away for the weekend to Pensions. Basically a few rooms with no furniture but a few TVs and they sit around playing card games and watching Korean dramas. Then all the women go to one room and sleep on the floor together while the men sleep in another. Having had the honor of being invited along on some of these outings in the past I will admit they have helped to make me feel more like part of a family here.

But this past weekend was another first for me. I went to the Jjimjilbang with church. Now those who have been following my blog closely know that I have been to the Jjimjilbang with Jenny and Kristin, but this was my first time going and being the only foreigner in the place. Those of you who haven't been following as closely, the Jjimjilbang is the public baths or saunas here. Let the record stand that I am very glad that this wasn't my first trip to the Jjimjilbang, because the culture shock might have been too much to handle on my own. As it was I have gotten more accustom to all of the nakedness and showering next to complete and total strangers, although I think I can handle that better than when it is my boss's wife. I guess the real trick is that in the moment I don't let myself think about it. Only when I come home and start typing it up in my blog that I really start to miss the Presbyterian way of fellowship, yes give me a potluck any day!!

But as my brother reminds me, when in Rome do as the Romans do. Plus, it is better to participate in these experiences, I feel much more a part of the community for doing them then to be forever on the sidelines.