k-shirts

the best shirts in the country: (from babo shirts)

Beginner Korean. Speak slowly.

똥짐(?)
play the game!

delicious!

angel

do you guys remember Angel? the guy i met in NY (angel of mine). so all year i had been planning on writing him a letter and sending him a copy of the picture we took. but i got lazy and it kept getting pushed back. finally, the friday i was leaving for korea i decided that was it. either i do it then or never do it at all. so write i did. then i mailed it to noelle to pass on to angel for me.

this is the message noelle left me after seeing angel:
"I saw angel today... it was definitely the highlight of my day. He seriously just exudes joy. he knew exactly who you were, and remembered your name right away. he wanted to tell you hi and he missed you."

this seriously made my day. it's amazing how easily bonds can be created. i really hope i get to make it back to NYC some day so that i can see my friend again.

korea brings the thunder and rain

GOAL #2: learn to like tolerate rain

i have never seen this much water fall from the sky in my life. this is why it never rains in LA. cause it'll rain here on say a tuesday, and by the time it turns to tuesday in LA, no water is left.
5 minutes ago i was on my way out to go help out at an English club here at the university. however, right when i get to the door i see lightning and hear thunder. so i turn around and come right back up here. is that bad? i hate rain

this month is orientation for us where we are taking korean language courses in the morning and doing teacher training workshops in the afternoon. at night there are also a bunch of things we can do: there are taekwondo, salmunori (korean drumming), and hanji (like korean origami) classes. though the only class i signed up for was cooking. i'm not so much excited to learn how to cook korean dishes as i am to eat them. i can't wait. too bad there isn't a korean eating class. there are also english clubs at the university that we can go help out at (e.g. the one i was planning on going to tonight, but instead am not here writing this).

first night out with the koreans (pic courtesy of sarah)

yea yea (pic courtesy of lindsey). this was the night i got called 형 (older brother) for the first time.

best moment of the week: so when you walk into classes you're supposed to greet the teacher right? so you bow and say 안녕하세요 (hello). one of the students, clearly confused, walks in and says 캄사합니다 (thank you). and the teacher's like 왜?! man i was dying...

another korean class one: after showing us a picture of David Beckham, the teacher begins writing 멋있어요 (handsome), a word we hadn't yet learned, on the board, which looks a lot like 맛있어요 (delicious), a word we have learned. everyone's like delicious?? and starts cracking up. the teacher spins around and is like "No! 멋있어요! Handsome! NOT delicious!"

arcadia, live long and prosper

FEC Arcadia... man, it's been such a long time. First of all i've been around FEC churches since birth and went to Arcadia when it was planted when i was in the 8th grade. i've essentially spent the last decade here. my time here has been real interesting. i started off in the junior high fellowship, moved up to the high school fellowship, entered into the college group, was a part of the adult service, and then became a youth worker.

having been here so long i've also been fortunate enough to see so many kids mature. the last two years in particular have been a true blessing. don't get me wrong, some times it was a very difficult place to be, but i am very thankful for the experiences i have had there. i went from seriously considering leaving the church and not having it be one of my top priorities, to really committing myself to the youth ministry. you guys should know that you were the reason why i stayed at Arcadia.

i read Philippians this week and i couldn't help but think of ya'll. Philippians 1:3-6 reads: "Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. I always pray for you, and I make my requests with a heart full of joy because you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again."

If you guys get the chance, read Philippians. This might sound weird, but try reading it as if I wrote it to you. Or if that's too weird, pretend that someone you knew wrote it to you. I ask you to do this, because I think sometimes we can detach ourselves from the word because we don't think that it was written to us.

check out this sweet graduation/going away card

what the spock? i hate that guy

i'm gonna miss you guys. thanks for everything these last couple of years!

okay, ya'll really need to stop hating on my bag. i got it for free, what're you gonna do about it?

worship team! (well, part of it at least)

yo honestly, it was such a privilege to play with you guys my last week. to see how all of us have grown, musically and spiritually, over the last however many years brings me great joy. i wouldn't have had it any other way. even though things weren't completely smooth, there were a couple people that came up to me and had some very nice things to say about that time.
also, being in that room that saturday night was such a special experience. i wish that you guys will be able to have many more of those.

a year really isn't that long.. i'll see ya'll soon! uhh, may you live long and prosper

i'm in Korea, trick!

GOAL #1: learn a song in Korean

The first week here in Korea has not been bad. The other Fulbrighters are all nice people so we've been having a lot of fun. It seriously feels like freshmen year in the dorms all over again. The training hasn't been too intense either, although we have begun to take language courses. We have Korean from 9am-1pm every day. That's FOUR hours a day. Last semester I only had three hours of class a week. That's three hours a week verses twenty! I can't handle it.
Our dorms are freaking tiny though! They're like half the size of the singles we had at Pitzer. I've been sleeping a good amount. I was also able to adjust pretty much seamlessly. On the plane I stayed awake as long as I could so that I basically crashed after that until the plane landed at like 5am. After that my biological clock was pretty much set. I also got this sweet dog pillow that you'll see in one of the pictures.

my room (made complete with a frog doormat and a cornelius cornelssen the tenth)

my bed. and there's my cute little puppy pillow (who i am tempted to name "seoul train")

They made me check in my in-a-soft-case-guitar. I even had to sign a liability form so that they could not be held responsible if my guitar broke. Furthermore, the "fragile" tag has a picture of a broken glass. That inspires real confidence.


As a bonus, here are some of my last meals in Los Angeles:

monday: chili cheese fries (Hi Life)

tuesday: curry fries (B'mans)

wednesday: animal style fries (in-n-out)


thursday: fries (back at in-n-out)


friday: fries (mcdonalds at the airport)

intimacy

So i guess this is the transition post. I have been home from NY for something like 3 weeks now. And though i might still talk about NY and my experience there i don't think i'll be dropping anymore "NY posts." But i must say, it is great to be home! to live and die in L.A.!

don't cha wish your city was hot like mine?

Back to the point of this entry...
I have found the theme verse for this period of my life. Every once in awhile some concept or theme will stick out and be something I want to work towards or learn how to do. Kind of like in the Pursuit of Happiness where Will Smith’s character is like, “I call this part of my life…” The current chapter of my life is title “Intimacy.” I want to know God deeper than I have ever before. The passage I have found is Psalm 139. I actually stumbled across this because Kyle’s bible was left open to it and he had even highlighted some of the verses. This passage talks about being intimate with the Lord and it opens with the psalmist stating, “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.”

The verse that captured my attention, in particular, though was Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. Point out anything in me that offend you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

I know that God knows me. He’s my creator, how could he not know everything about me. He’s been there my entire life. He was present in all my triumphs and all my defeats. Yet sometimes it’s easy for me to forget how well he really does indeed know me. I neglect how knowing me means being well-aware of all my flaws and all sins. Though I know, in spite of my failures (and I sure have had many), he wants to lift me up. It is not his desire for me to remain in my brokenness or to drift further away from him. He does not want me to be distanced from him, but instead is constantly trying to draw me in closer. He wants me to know him. But until I am able to let him into the depths of my heart, to allow him into the broken parts of my life and into the sin that keeps me away from him, I will forever be keeping him at bay.

I want to be intimate with the Lord, which is why I titled this chapter “intimacy.” For that to happen I must fully allow him into my life. I must be willing to have him expose the ugliest aspects of me. And then I need to be determined enough to stand up and deal with those issues instead of simply brushing them aside.

Therefore I say, search me O God, test me and know me. Show me where I need to change, that I may walk down the path of everlasting life.

californian asian

About halfway through the summer, the boys' room was getting kind of messy. And we kept talking about how we should vacuum it but we never did. So one night at dinner at a Senegalese restaurant, one of the girls from one of the church groups dared me to eat a fish eye. I'm like that's no big deal, i'll do it. But if i do you gotta vacuum my room. She's like sure. And i eat it. She never vacuums my room. But come on, like i was really gonna let her do that right? Uhh, sure. I actually try this stunt out again. And this boy seriously wanted to vacuum. He asked me like 3 different times but every time i was like it's alright, maybe another time. Until finally it was time for him to leave and then it was too late.

The church we stayed at had an indoor basketball gym. Naturally i spent a lot of time in there. Actually, that's not true. I should have spent a lot of time in there. But my ass is pretty lazy. Anyway, most of us hosts love basketball. In fact, when we introduce ourselves at orientation, we actually parade into the gym to bumpin music as if we were a legit basketball team. (we actually have a team name and warm-ups, but i'm not going into that here). All summer we tried to get youth groups to challenge us to games. But we were only able to muster up a handful. Finally, we get this one week, with some boys who begin trash talking there hosts saying all sorts of things. So it's finally game time. And we go out there and take out the trash basically. We handle it. Whoop on them. And send them downstairs to bed silent. Their youth pastor actually thanked me for beating them because they were getting out of hand with their trash talking haha.

So the next day they're begging us for a rematch. But i'm tired, and possibility sore from the night before, so i'm like no, i don't know about tonight. But aha! The brilliant plan comes to mind. I give them an offer. I'll play but if we win they have to clean my room, and then if they win i'd let them come up with whatever they wanted. They agree and i'm like sweet, i'm finally getting my room cleaned, especially since, you know, we whooped them the night before. But we lose some hosts, get some new ones, and in the end they catch on fire and go on something like a 5-2 run to win the game. I'm stunned.

I head to the showers to clean this game off of me. And soon a bunch of the boys from that church are in there talking about what they're gonna make me do. What follows was one of the funniest moments of my summer:

Boy 1: "Let's make him shave his legs or his head!"
Boy 2: "We can't shave his head, he's asian, they have nice hair."
Boy 3: "He's not asian, he's from california"
Everyone buy boy 3 starts laughing.
Boy 3: (to me) "Are you of asian decent?"
Me: "Naw, i'm californian"


Ridiculous. This brings back to mind other hilarious comments from this summer:

Mayonne: "I'm the sister you never knew you wanted"
Me: "I didn't know i wanted one of those"

This one's kind of bad... but i still find it hilarious, so forgive me...
As i'm walking through harlem with one of my groups, some guy we walk past exclaims, "Oh my god, it's snowing!"