Far Out Friday

I'm such a sucker for cute notepads and schedulers.
I discovered Kosney while I was in Korea and quickly fell in love.

Not only did they have great stationary, but they had some good CD mixes. I found a radio station that plays fun music.

My newest infatuation is this weekly scheduler:

Buried in the Sand

I was talking to my sister today about our childhood. I told her about how I have been increasingly fascinated by our upraising in a Korean home.

I've really wanted to start writing about how distinctly different our "Korean American" lives were from others while we were growing up. She mentioned something that I had forgotten for so long . . .

We had the best sandbox growing up. It filled the length of our backyard. Past the perfectly mowed grass that our dad maintained dutifully. So dutifully that even when Kathy and I begged to mow the lawn - we were denied with great intensity.

I remember the day the sand came.

I never knew that sand came in a big dump truck. I guess I just assumed that it was just where it landed. The enormous truck full of sand backed up across the perfectly manicured grass and dumped its load - so inelegantly. Was this really what our sand box would look like? A mound of left over remains from such an uncouth truck?

Within a few hours the sand was leveled and our sandbox was transformed yet again with an addition of a swing set. Kathy and I were given a golden gift that extended the expanse of our yard. What joy that our parents would so unselfishly give such a great gift.

However, being in an industrious Korean household, there had to be more than one use for the glorious golden sandbox.

Every late fall my dad would be instructed to bring in large buckets from the shed and line them with garbage bags. It was time for kimjang.

A large silver pot, big enough for small children to bathe in, was taken outside. Heads of cabbage - dozens of them - were salted and soaked for the entire day. Mom and Dad washed the cabbage, sometimes enlisting the help of Kathy and I, then marinated in pepper powder, garlic and a host of other seasoning.

While mom packed the cabbage in the buckets, dad dug holes in our golden sand box. Sometimes the ground would already be partially frozen. I don't think Kathy and I knew the full extent of what our parents were doing until the snow melted in the spring.

Spring reawakened our love for our golden sandbox. It was like finding a treasure when we found buckets full of kimchee in our box.

Kathy told me that she always thought this was normal - who doesn't find buckets full of kimchee in their sandbox in the spring?

I wonder if my parents ever forgot about a bucket or two. I hope they did. It would be such a treasure for the kids who reawaken their curiosity in the spring.

ㅋ~ㅋ~

For over ten years now I've been actively pursuing the Korean language. I say pursue because that's exactly what it is. Having been ten years, there are only two things to reasons why I haven't yet mastered it:



1) I'm no good.

2) It's stinkin' hard.



Regardless, I must say that my fondness for the Korean language has grown immensely. Something I've noticed about the Korean language is that each word is packed with meaning. When I hear Koreans speak, they're words are much more than just words - they are feelings.

I always find it interesting and find that I'm often jealous at how poetic and thoughtful Koreans are with what they say. Even insults are funnier in Korean.

I've been following a Korean Star Variety Show (basically a reality show with Korean models, singers and musicians) called We Got Married. In this show, two stars are paired together to fake a marriage for a few months. There's a couple that has been designated the Ant Couple because the "husband," Crown J looks like an ant. In an interview So Inyoung (the "wife") gets so frustrated because she tries to out-do Crown J's romantics - and never seems to be able to be more sweet or romantic than he is. So she says "이 사람은 네 모리 의에있구나" (roughly translated as "this person is always above my head" or this person is always a head above me).

It may just be that I am overly fascinated by the language. But, I'd like to attribute the richness of the language to Korea's long history and culture.

Regardless, I'm signing out with a phrase I just learned that sounds so much more fun in Korean.

"YingGuaEngBo SaPilGuiJung"
"What goes around comes around"

The Korean People - Part III (The 50 Year Standoff between the North and the South)

In Part II of this series, I briefly mentioned the relationship between the North and the South. As a result of Korea's (as a whole) Confucian way of life, the country has been loyal and hopeful of their severed family's return (regardless of the North's misconception).

In Part III, I'll be discussing the peculiarities of the North-South standoff.

I recently made a trip to the border between North Korea and South. The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) really is peculiar. While thousands of visitors to the South file into the depths of the tunnels hollowed out by North Korean emissaries, another thousand North Korean and South Korean soldiers stand with grave solemnity and military rifles pointed at each other.

After Korea was divided in two (The North with the Communists and the South with the Capitalists), the 38th parallel became one of the most heavily armed areas in the world - and has been so for over fifty years now. In those fifty years, the South (Republic of Korea - ROK) has discovered a number of tunnels that have reached unbelievably close to Seoul. In these tunnels, ROK soldiers found dynamite lodged into the walls. When confronted about this breach in agreement, the North replied that these tunnels were rich in coal - they were simply mining for natural resources. Later, ROK soldiers found that the stone in these tunnels were painted black. Now, tourists from all over the world can see the holes where dynamite was placed, see the paint on stone, and even drink fresh DMZ spring water in the tunnels.

Above these tunnels, a large "camoflauged" military lookout was built - mainly for tourists. On a clear day, it's possible to see "the largest flag pole in the world" with a North Korean flag on top. It's also possible to see a propoganda village where there are normal houses, soccer fields, and people riding on their bicycles - much of which was probably paid for by the South Korean government.

Amidst this severance between the two countries, there is a significant and hopeful point of unification along the border - Dorasan Station. This subway station was disconnected after the Korean War. It was recently reconnected in hopes of better relations between the North and the South.

Not only is the opening of this station a sign of peaceful relations between the two countries, Korean companies are investing more in North Korea.

While these might be signs that North Korea will open its borders, there are still doubts that the two countries will be unified any time in the near future.

"Number of Undernourished in NK Doubled"

From The Korea Times:

The number of undernourished people in North Korea has more than doubled over the past decade with a diminishing dietary energy supply despite the country's increased food production, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported.
The annual report, released in Rome on Wednesday, said the number of undernourished in North Korea totaled 7.9 million for 2001-2003, more than twice as many as the 3.6 million recorded for 1990-1992.

The dietary energy supply, measured in daily calorie intake per person, fell to 2,150 for the 2001-2003 period from 2,470 in 1990-1992, marking a 1.25 percent decrease, it said.

The Bethlehem Project

The Bethlehem Project relies solely on the support of private donors with a heart to feed the hungry children of North Korea. Without this generous support children will continue to be ignored and suffer from lack of food and easily preventable malnourishment.

www.bethlehemproject.net
bethlehemproject@gmail.com

Asia reach Ministries
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