Saturday, February 20, 2010

Kickin' it in Geumchon

This is very much like just about anywhere in South Korea:

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Ok, where was I?

oh yeah, I got hit by a car.. I've told this story a number of times, and I'm sick of explaining it, so this is the last time. Sorry. Anyway, I was walking home from the corner store. As I came near a small intersection a car coming from the right cut the corner so tight that he, or she, almost hit me head on. No headlights, just parking lights, as well as no blinker of course. I jumped off to the right but the front driver-side fender hit me and I tumbled over the hood. They weren't going fast, but just enough to piss me off, though. I spilled my Pepsi® over their windshield and so they finally stopped. I pushed myself off the car stunned with anger. I stepped back and immediately began yelling at them. The windows were dark so I didn't see who was inside or even how many people. They didn't bother rolling down their window either to communicate with me in the slightest. I continued to share my disgust and shock of their actions. But what shocked me most is that they kept on driving. I chased after them throwing the rest of my Pepsi® at the car, but still wasn't able to read their license plate cuz I didn't have my glasses (so stop asking me why I didn't get their information!). My ribs below my left breast was soar only when I laughed for the next week until this past Tuesday when I suddenly became sore just when I breathe. The doc last week said I was fine, and I'm sure I am. Just sore and ticked off at people's ignorance and carelessness.

Moving on..

"새해 복 많이 받으세요!" (se he bok mani ba deu se yo!)
Last weekend was Lunar New Year. Year 5,000-sumthin I guess.. haha. Didn't really do anything special. I cleaned my apartment so that Nate could stay here as his parents crashed up in his place for this week. Sunday I lost 11 bucks in poker. No, I'm not a gambler. And although I was kicking butt the first two hours of those games. I'm sure that will probably be my last time playing with actual cash, no matter how cheap the ante. Monday, i practiced some guitar and had a bit of a drawing party at a friend's place. So, not too special of a New Year. No fireworks as far as I know. Terrible shame on how they don't know how to properly celebrate anything here. Perhaps the reason is broken spirits by all the cars they get hit by here. RELAX I'm fine!

In other news, found a new job! Now it's just a matter of getting my visa junk renewed, blah blah blah... The job is very similar to the academy I work at now, only my apartment is WAY better; bigger, nicer. Slightly lesser pay, but it has it's perks that make it worth it for now.

For now, I'm doing fine. I'm pretty happy and have a tight church family and friends that support each other in any way we can. You may worry that I may get hit by a car again, but there are the same dangers in any other country, so please don't worry too much. I mean, at least I haven't gotten a gun pulled on me here. Anyway..before I make anyone mad...

I began "intermediate survival korean" class at our church on Saturdays. Korean is an unattractive language in my opinion but after a while it's still fun to learn. Hopefully I can learn to be some what fluent some day..

I'm still involved with the orphanage and the kids have warmed up to me immensely as of late. It's a good feeling that we can allow ourselves to open up to people we barely know, but something tells us that we can trust them. Maybe not fully, but just enough to know that we are safe and that they have something to share with us that is extremely important in our lives. And we may not know what that is for a very long time, but one day God makes it known to us even after those friends are long gone. This is why I visit them. I have just as much to learn from them as they do from me in regards to God's plan and purpose in our lives.

With that, here's some Word to share that's been on my heart and mind lately:
Psalm 139
Ecc 12:1-7,13,14
Matt 5:13,48
Luke 14:26,27
1 Cor. 10:31
Phil 3:7-11
Phil 4:6,7
James 5:13-16
1 John (yep, all of it)
Rev 21:1,2

{This post is brought to you by Pepsi Cola Co.®....but not really.}

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

2010 update..

Annyeong se yo!!

It's been a while.. So it's 2010. A fun year thus far. I like this year of the tiger. New years was nothing too special really. Just went out with friends and met a couple other newbies.

Still playing bass at church and helped out with designing a new bulletin. Loox great if you ask me! By the way, I guess I should've posted a link a long time ago to my church's website. Here ya go:
http://dongshinchurch.wordpress.com/
If you scroll to almost the bottom of the page, you'll see a group photo where it also reads "Dongshin Gallery". Click on it and you'll see some pics of me and Nate having some good times at different events we were involved in. It's been fun being involved in the church, meeting new people, playing music, discovering God in new light, and just goofin off.

Been job searchin lately. It's going ok. Problem is, at the moment, that most schools begin March 1st whereas I don't finish my current contract 'til March 22. There's a heap of options out here as to where I could work, so I'm thankful. I've been offered a couple neat positions for August; one is an RA in Daejeon, bout 2hrs west of here, but I'd rather stay in Daegu. Another is an Art Teacher position at a private international high school. Sounds good! So, we'll see.

...Soo...uh...was hit by a car the other day. haha. Don't have time to tell you now about it, but I'll update this post later. Love you guys!

Brandon / BJ / BañoJoe

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

A Sinsaengwon Orphanage Christmas

My apologies for not creating and uploading this sooner:

Monday, December 7, 2009

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

고맙습니다

Go Map Sam Ni Da = Thank you.

Haven't written in a while so let me think of what I've been up to here..

My buddy Kyle from Indiana left a couple weeks ago to go back home and immediately got engaged once he got off the plane. Nice play, my friend.

I will now be involved with Shinsangwon orphanage every first and third saturday of each month as a part of our church ministry as well as I'll be playing a big part in organizing events there for our church to get involved in. I'm pretty excited about it and love playing with the kids and even teaching them a bit of english. We have a Christmas party on Dec. 12th too.

Every wednesday I've been going to our men's discussion group at a local bar restaurant where each week a different guy will propose a new topic. Tonight's my turn. I chose to talk about Christians who screw up and it's plastered throughout the media and how we deal with that as the body of God's house. I think it'll be a real good topic. So it's not necessarily a bible study, at least I don't see it as that because we already make the time in church and at our homes to study the bible, but not that we don't study what the Word says about the issues we talk about. It obviously will play a big part.

Been pretty sidetracked hardcore on my paintings. I've barely touched them in 2 months! Grrrr.. No one's fault but mine. However lately, I have been trying to make the time to do so. If I keep at it, I know they'll turn out fine, but I also just need to get them done!

Work is going fine, I guess. I'm not much of a teacher still since I've never had training, but I'm trying my best and learning how to increase my effectiveness. Most of the ladies we work with are pretty cool, so it makes it fun.

I also go to a survival Korean class on Saturday mornings at my church which is pretty fun. They go too slow however. Luckily, there are Korean volunteers that help us out and I get to ask extra questions. They say I'm doing really good.

This sunday is our Thanksgiving Feast at church in which we invite people from the community to join.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Later.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

see you next time..

Wasn't well enough today to go to Japan. My chest and cough is still bothering me, and I feel fatigued a lot. I'm still taking the day off for holiday, but going to the hospital to pick up some more meds, then hopefully I'm well enough to hang out with my buddy Kyle who came to see us from Indiana last night. He'll be here for a week and a half so it should be a lot of fun. But the sooner I'm healthy, the more I can enjoy it. Thanks for your prayers.

Brandon