I am not even sure where to start! To begin with, I believe that I will just say: Praise the Lord! He his gracious and surely does prepare the way for his children!
I woke up this morning not feeling quite as tired as yesterday, thank goodness, otherwise I might not have made it through the day (I almost didn't anyway!). I decided that I was going to the cafe for lunch, and I was not going to be too late this time! I made there just after 11, but it ended up that I was (I never thought that I would say this!) too chicken to go try to order something. So I went to the coffee shop and got something any dumb American could order--an iced Carmel Macchiato.
While sitting an the cafe table, sipping my Macchiato (man was it good!), I see my dorm manager walking to another table with his tray of food. He grinned really big and said "Hallloooo, Ahbi (that is how they pronounce my name)". Mr. Manager (I don't know his name!) is an older gentleman that speaks a decent amount of broken English, so I go over to him and ask how would be the best way to order food. It turns out that you don't order food at the counter. There is a little machine that you choose which meal you want, insert money, and then it spits out a ticket which you then take to the counter, hand to the worker (without having to say a word!) and get your food. My being a chicken actually saved me this time! If I had gone up and tried to order, then they would have had to try to explain to me why I couldn't order there, I wouldn't have understood them, and it would have been confusion all around. So, the positive thing is that I will no longer starve once all of my American snacks are gone!
I was picked up by the bus at 12:50, along with about 10 other international students, and we went to church. Elly (the girl I met yesterday with the youth pastor), showed me all around. She said that over two hundred students attend this church. I am the only American. They have several services throughout the day, and approximately 7,000 members total. After she showed me around, we went and sat down. There was a girl sitting behind us who asked me where I was from. I said the U.S., and she turned to the girl next to her and, to my utter surprise, told her, in Russian, that I was from the USA. I was thrilled. There was FINALLY someone that I could understand! Both of the girls were equally thrilled to hear that I spoke Russian (and both exclaimed how wonderful it was to hear Russian). They are from Kazakhstan, and, it so turns out, they live in the same building as I do, only two floors down!
Most of the songs were like quite a few that I have heard before. Here is a short clip of one of them!
After the sermon, which was pretty good from what Elly translated of it (Carefully consider today how much you love Christ. Are you really okay without having anything but Jesus?), all of the new international students had to go up to the front together (thankfully most of the about 200 people there had left!) and introduce ourselves. We then broke into small groups and did a short Bible study on who Christ is and where He came from. It fairly interesting to try to work around the language barrier. Our group leader was from the D.R. Congo, and he speaks English and Korean very well. I however, speak almost no Korean as of yet, and the two girls from Kazakhstan don't speak the best either. They do speak a little English, but not much (a win for the American, finally!!!). So sometimes Dan (the Congolian) would have to tell me something in English, which I, in turn, would have to translate into Russian for Arai and Yana.
I woke up this morning not feeling quite as tired as yesterday, thank goodness, otherwise I might not have made it through the day (I almost didn't anyway!). I decided that I was going to the cafe for lunch, and I was not going to be too late this time! I made there just after 11, but it ended up that I was (I never thought that I would say this!) too chicken to go try to order something. So I went to the coffee shop and got something any dumb American could order--an iced Carmel Macchiato.
While sitting an the cafe table, sipping my Macchiato (man was it good!), I see my dorm manager walking to another table with his tray of food. He grinned really big and said "Hallloooo, Ahbi (that is how they pronounce my name)". Mr. Manager (I don't know his name!) is an older gentleman that speaks a decent amount of broken English, so I go over to him and ask how would be the best way to order food. It turns out that you don't order food at the counter. There is a little machine that you choose which meal you want, insert money, and then it spits out a ticket which you then take to the counter, hand to the worker (without having to say a word!) and get your food. My being a chicken actually saved me this time! If I had gone up and tried to order, then they would have had to try to explain to me why I couldn't order there, I wouldn't have understood them, and it would have been confusion all around. So, the positive thing is that I will no longer starve once all of my American snacks are gone!
I was picked up by the bus at 12:50, along with about 10 other international students, and we went to church. Elly (the girl I met yesterday with the youth pastor), showed me all around. She said that over two hundred students attend this church. I am the only American. They have several services throughout the day, and approximately 7,000 members total. After she showed me around, we went and sat down. There was a girl sitting behind us who asked me where I was from. I said the U.S., and she turned to the girl next to her and, to my utter surprise, told her, in Russian, that I was from the USA. I was thrilled. There was FINALLY someone that I could understand! Both of the girls were equally thrilled to hear that I spoke Russian (and both exclaimed how wonderful it was to hear Russian). They are from Kazakhstan, and, it so turns out, they live in the same building as I do, only two floors down!
Most of the songs were like quite a few that I have heard before. Here is a short clip of one of them!
After the sermon, which was pretty good from what Elly translated of it (Carefully consider today how much you love Christ. Are you really okay without having anything but Jesus?), all of the new international students had to go up to the front together (thankfully most of the about 200 people there had left!) and introduce ourselves. We then broke into small groups and did a short Bible study on who Christ is and where He came from. It fairly interesting to try to work around the language barrier. Our group leader was from the D.R. Congo, and he speaks English and Korean very well. I however, speak almost no Korean as of yet, and the two girls from Kazakhstan don't speak the best either. They do speak a little English, but not much (a win for the American, finally!!!). So sometimes Dan (the Congolian) would have to tell me something in English, which I, in turn, would have to translate into Russian for Arai and Yana.
The blond and black haired girls to the right are from Kazakhstan. The other girl to the right and slightly to the front is Elly. Surprisingly the only girl not doing the peace sign (on the far left) is the one from Japan.
When we were finished at church the bus took us back to the university, and all of the Daegu-do students went across the street and ate supper of fried chicken (which was a lot like chicken nuggets, yum!), french fries, and cubed radishes (don't ask me why the radishes were there. No one ate them).
We finally made it back to our dorm at about 7:30pm, and yes, I am tired again, which is why I must sign off for the night. Tomorrow morning orientation, placement test (which there will be no need of in my case!), and finally classes will all start, beginning at 8:30am.
I hope that everyone is staying in good health and has had a wonderful labor-day weekend thus far. Praise the Lord for this wonderful day and goodnight to you all!
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