There's No Place I'd Rather Be

There's no place I'd rather be,
There's no place I'd rather be,
There's no place I'd rather be,

Than here in your love, here in your love.

So set a fire down in my soul,

That I can't contain and I can't control,
I want more of You God, 
I want more of You God.

Set A Fire - Will Reagan & United Pursuit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcJ8s4dVaiQ

I was listening to this song today during my devotional time and discovered how powerful it really is. To say "There's no place I'd rather be" is a very strong statement and one that I think we say too often with too little sincerity.

"There's no place I'd rather be but hanging out with friends 'till dawn.. There's no place I'd rather be than home with family for the holidays.. There's no place I'd rather be than resting on the beaches of the Mediterranean."

But what if God wants us to be elsewhere, out of our comfort zone, into the unknown? What if he wants us to say: "There's no place I'd rather be than with YOU God, doing Your work, wherever that may be."

Often I wonder why He has put me in certain situations or specific places. My time here is Korea has been a constant battle of emotions that change almost every hour - I'M SO HAPPY I'M HERE, what am I doing in Korea, I'M IN ASIAAAAAA, I miss my family in Turkey, HANGING OUT OVERSEAS IS THE BEST, why can't I be in Greeley right now, THESE NEXT FOUR MONTHS ARE GONNA BE GREAT, why doesn't this place feel like home yet.

Four years ago I decided to study abroad in Korea and began telling people of my plans. Now that I'm here, it is almost unbelievable, and amazing. It's 신기하다 (sheen-gee-ha-da), as my new friend JiHye would say.

To me, JiHye is one of those people that you run into incidentally, have a brief conversation with, and automatically know that you are going to be wonderful friends in the future. I met her about a week after being here and have been blessed and encouraged by her often since.

She, as well has many other people, is the reason why I can look at my situation here and know without a doubt that this is where God wants me to be. I see the great influence that she has had on me in such a short amount of time, and the impact that I have had on her and it makes my heart cry out there's no place I'd rather be than here, God.

Of course, I don't always feel like saying that. Adjusting to a new country and new culture takes time. There are the hilarious joys - like having three Korean guys you just met who speak very little English take you to lunch off-campus and order you something unknown. (How I ended up in that situation is an entirely different story; sometimes you just have to roll with it..especially if you're hungry!) Then there are the excitements of seeing new sites and visiting new places with rich history and cultural ties, and getting there and back without a Korean.

But there are also the pains of mis-communication between two languages and cultures, the friends who left home to try to erase memories only to find more hardships here, and then the heart-tearing confusion of wanting to be in some place familiar and yet still wanting to experience a new place.

All I can say is this - I know I'm meant to be here. Though I don't always feel like it, I can look around and know that this is where I'm supposed to be right now. I am eager to see how I am going to fall in love with this country, and how it will become another place I can call home. Set a fire in my soul, God, and teach me how to say that there is no place I'd rather be but HERE in your love.

A Day in Seoul

Saturday, March 7th, 2015 at 8:41 am:

Hey Susanna, so what are we doing right now?

Going to Seoul.

How're we gonna get there?

We think we're going by a bus.

Do we know where the bus stop is?

No!

Do you know how much it costs?

Uhhhh...nope!

~~ Travel Guide: A Day in Seoul ~~

Morning Transportation Tips:

• If you Naver (Korean version of Google Maps) the bus station, it won't be too difficult to find, but I don't suggest trying to find it while you are running to catch a bus. 
• Even if you get to the bus station on time, it won't necessarily have the buses it advertised running that day.
• Trains are cheaper than buses anyway, so go to the train station if the bus station tells you the next bus is in an hour.
• "Standing" tickets for a train actually mean sitting on the floor in a very crowded train car between a very old Korean woman and a middle-aged Korean man who likes to stare at you.
• It takes 1 hr 30 mins and 7100 Korean Won to get from Jochiwon, Sejong City to Seoul by train.

Immediately After Arrival:

1.  Find a bathroom in the train station. Even if you don't need to use one, the soap is really cool. Instead of liquid soap, they have bars of soap on metal rods that you rub your hands on.
2. After exiting the station, notice the Seoul tower. If you don't see it, look up again. It can be found between the skyscrapers. Even if in the morning you hadn't planned on going there, you will probably end up visiting it if it is a beautiful day.
3. Eat lunch. When you leave your town early in the morning, you will arrive in Seoul in the afternoon and it will be time to eat. Obviously, eat lunch at a Japanese restaurant that sells Indian curry Korean style. If you're not a spicy-food lover, get "spice 0". If you are, get "spice 2 or 3". If you're crazy, get "spice 6". The restaurant can be found near Meong-Dong shopping street.

Afternoon Ideas:

• Take selfie videos everywhere you go. You only get to be a foreigner sometimes, so you might as well document your crazy touring around Seoul. (Yes, a video will be posted on Facebook shortly.)
• Visit the Tower. You don't need to go up the tower, because the base is beautiful enough, but I'm sure going up is even grander. You can walk up the mountain if you want, but taking the cable car up is worth your money. Walking down is nice - there is a perfect proposal spot on the way down too.
• Visit Gwanghwamun Square. There is a statue of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin and Sejong the Great, two of Korea's highest esteemed historical figures. Literally beneath their statues is a giant underground museum about them. Don't miss the small staircase behind the statue of Sejong leading down - I almost did!
• There is also a beautiful palace at the Square. Apparently, the palace closes at 5 in March. But its still beautiful to visit the outer courtyard if you get there late. The sun is setting around then and it is pleasant to walk in the courtyard imagining the rich history that took place there

Getting Home:

1. Get a subway card at a nearby convenience store. Even if you speak no Korean, most likely all you have to do it walk in and forward to the counter and the lady working will know exactly what you need. :)
2. Take a subway from Gwanhwamun to Jongno3-ga (line 5) and then transfer to Seoul Station (line 1). The subway stations are fairly self explanatory. One thing to be aware of is that you will swipe your subway card at the beginning, and at the end, but not during a transfer, so don't exit until you are at your final destination. (Different than in Istanbul.)
3. Get off at the Seoul Station if you plan on taking a train home. Considering the name "Seoul Station", probably other great things are there too, but all I know of there is the train. :)
4. There are many different kinds of trains; some fast, some slow, some that go where you're going and some that don't. If you say the type of train you want (most likely "Mugunghwa") and the place you're going ("Jochiwon"), the kind Korean lady working behind the counter will help you and give you a ticket in exchange for some Won.
5. If you buy "standing" tickets on the way home and there is more space in the "sit-on-the-floor-car" then don't choose to sit next to the heaters. Your back will become VERY hot, VERY quickly. Also, you will be staring at food the whole time since it is right next to the cafe counter.

When you arrive home, your legs will be sore, your camera battery will be dead, and your wallet will be empty, but your heart will be full! I hope you enjoy your day in Seoul! :) Plan or no plan, if you laugh, take pictures, eat food, and choose to explore and have fun, you'll have a blast! Susanna and I definitely did! :)

Becoming a Good Simple Notebook

"If you can learn to speak one language well, than you can certainly learn to speak one or more other languages."

Adapting to a new place that speaks another language is always quite the experience. When I moved to Turkey in 2009, I was 14 and I was moving from a town of 88,000 to a mega-city of 18 million. I remember being nervous about using public transport on my own for the first time and about attending a new school that was an hour away from where I lived. There were new smells in the city, new sounds that were loud and different, but most nerve-racking of all, there was a new language spoken and I didn't know it.

Language is such a unique thing. It is the strongest glue that holds one culture together, and yet the strongest barrier that keeps two cultures apart. I have had many experiences already in the week and a half in which I've been able to try and communicate with other people who don't speak English. Of course, I have failed many times and we couldn't understand each other, but a few times it has worked. Last week I went to an electronics store and tried to ask for an adapter. I acted out plugging in something to the wall and the man led me to the area that had extension chords, but no adapters. On Tuesday, I went into a different store again asking for the same thing, and this time using my broken Korean I said, "America. Korea." and he understood. I bought two.

It's the little language victories that keep me going as I adjust to a new place. Acting out an adapter and buying one. Ordering lunch in a foreign language on my own. Finding my Accounting class and being the only native English speaker in it. Discovering a campus Christian prayer room by following signs. Asking a lady on the road where a market nearby was and understanding her gestures - ("Big market where?") Asking for the price of different foods and then buying bananas from a street vendor.

As I progress in my Korean day by day, I must remind myself that I CAN learn Korean. I have learned English and Turkish and I know that if I continue to study and practice, I will be able to learn Korean as well. As everyone knows, "It is good to dream, but it is better to dream and work," "Faith is mighty, but faith with action is mightier," and also "Desiring is helpful, but desiring and work is INVINCIBLE." I will continue dreaming and desiring and having faith that someday I will speak Korean fluently, and I will continue working at it through study and practice. (And someday my dream of becoming a Good Simple Notebook may come true..!) Though my Korean speaking skills are fairly poor, I can only hope that it makes people SMILE and that it sounds as CUTE as these English translations do:

 

안녕 한국! (Hello Korea!)

I'm in KOREA!Where do I begin? So many thoughts, so many excitements! There is no way to write everything that I've thought and experienced over the last few days, so I thought it would be easier to write a few random initial thoughts below and include a few photos to show you about my life here.

Clara, Susanna, Stephanie and I (all from UNC) at the Incheon Airport in Seoul, Korea.

Coming into my dorm room at 9 pm Monday with keys and a nametag in hand. Excited! :)

• Our orientation leader is about as TCK as someone can get. He shared "where he was from" today for us and it probably took about 2 minutes for him to explain every country he has lived in and where he grew up. He did 8th through 11th grade in Ankara, Turkey, so that is exciting! We have spoken some Turkish together. It is nice to have a TCK friend around who also doesn't know quite where they are from, and who has ended up in Korea over the years.
  
• Laughing and smiling (which are the same word in Turkish) is a universal language. My roommates and I haven't talked much, but we have definitely smiled at each other. One is shy in her English and my conversational Korean is close to zero, but smiling is one thing we are both good at! The other one and I have laughed together a lot and talked more. I'm so excited to get to know them both over the next few months!

With my roommate Se Young at the International Student Welcome Dinner (It was freezing, but the food was delicious!)

• You know you're in Asia when you buy a men's foot brace and it's barely large enough, and when taking showers is a knee work-out. ;)

• My Korean reading skills are quickly getting better and better. I've been learning random Korean words every hour it seems. I remember about half of them 10 minutes after I learn them, and half of that half I remember the next day. Lots of repetition, repetition, repetition! I've been coming up with helpful little hints to remember each word. For example, it is really cold here, so I learned the word for cold - 추위 - which sounds like "chew, woah!" because when you're shivering, your teeth chatter (like chewing?) Haha. It's silly, but it helps!
  
• Signs on campus are in Korean. Signs around town are in Korean. Staff speak Korean. Restaurant and store owners speak Korean. Most students here only speak Korean. It seems as though I will be learning Korean, and learning it quickly.

A typical restaurant menu. I will be learning how to read Korean foods VERY quickly

• The food is amazing here, but the hardest thing is ordering, as you can see in the photo above. Some things haven't set well with my stomach, but almost everything tastes wonderful. (I'm not so sure about liking the Kimchi yet..) I'm so glad to be living in a rice-eating country! I will be getting very good at chopsticks ASAP. :)

My first meal in Korea (Bulgogi) at the airport.

Eating Kimbap on campus on the first day. :)

• Last but not least, end every sentence with "ah-sim-nee-dah" or "hess-so-yo" and you've basically got Korean down. :)

More blog posts to come! School begins Monday and I am so excited for the adventures to continue! Thank you for your continued prayers as I adjust to a new country, culture, food and friends. :)

Farewell Feelings

In less than 4 hours, I leave a place I've called home for so many years, and begin an adventure elsewhere. It's a strange feeling, departing a place that has become known and comfortable in the last two months, to be welcomed as a foreigner in a place unknown.

My feelings are all over the place. Nervous. Excited. Joyful. Overwhelmed. Freaked out. Ready. Lost. Anxious. Can't wait. Curious. 

Yet with all the excitement and new things about to come my way, leaving home is what seems the hardest. Overseas flight by myself? Done that. Give me a new country to travel to on my own? Check. Throw me into a place I don't speak the language? Been there. Have me make a million cultural blunders and travel mistakes? Yup. But have me leave home again..? Yup. Check. Been there. Done that. But it never gets easier.

Honestly, I am SO excited for my new home. I look forward to making new friends, moving into a dorm, not living out of a suitcase for a while, finding new pockets of town to explore and new cultural things to discover. (And for finally being there!) Creating a new home can be exhilarating and I can't wait! I'm excited for new tastes, new sounds, new culture to participate in, new friends, new sights, new school, new country...

I grew up learning the transition model "RAFT" - Reconciliation, Affirmation, Farewell, Think Destination. This past week I completed R and A, and last night I did F at a goodbye party with close friends. Now it's time for T: Think Destination. It's time to leave behind what's holding me back, and look straight ahead into the unknown future in a new place. I may not know what's coming, but I'm excited and ready to take it on with open hands and a heart eager to love and learn. 

Korea, here I come! Time to leave for the airport. :)

Discoveries

"For many, darkness means silence. But for the blind, darkness means listen."*

Last week I went to a museum here in Istanbul called Dialogue in the Dark. It is an interactive museum where a blind person leads you around in the dark to help you experience what life is like without sight. 

You ride trams, walk on sand, find park benches and trees, listen for nearby streams, order tea, read signs.. All in complete darkness. 

This past semester I had the chance to meet and become close friends with two blind students. Unfortunately, our relationship bonded mostly through a terrible accident they were affected in, but by God's hand they both survived and through it a relationship was developed. 

The experience at the museum taught me many things, but it mainly gave me a glimpse of understanding what daily life is like for my friends and for others who are blind. An hour and a half is barely a fraction of the time a blind person spends without access to light, but it is quite a while for someone who is used to getting around by sight and can still have a life-long impact.

Lots of time is spent fumbling around looking for things and trying to figure out where you are, but one thing I noticed it this: the blind must constantly live in a state of discovery. Each moment of their lives are spent finding new things and figuring out where they are and what their surroundings are. 

Can you imagine the joy of completing a 1000 piece puzzle by yourself when you finally put the last piece in? It is difficult and the process can be frustrating, but in the end you have created a marvelous masterpiece. In the same way, the blind live each moment putting puzzle pieces together, finding precious discoveries in every thing they do. 

I take many things for granted. It was a complete eye-opening experience to have my eyes taken from me. There is so much more in life to be enjoyed and discovered that is beyond what we experience everyday. Who knew that finding a bike on a sidewalk and spending a few minutes searching for a bell on it would be so gratifying once you finally heard the precious sound? Or that discovering a park bench and spending a few moments in silence would teach you that the touch of a friend's hand or the faint sound of a calling bird could mean so much more without eyes than with them?

I hope that I may too be able to live my life this way, making each moment I live a joyous discovery.



*Quote said by our guide at Dialogue in the Dark

The Ordinary

For a long time now I have felt numb. Numb to saying goodbye to people and places. Numb to recognizing beauty and uniqueness.

Though as I sit quietly on the shores of the Agean Sea, I am utterly amazed by the beauty God has placed in even the simplest of things. 

A sunset. It happens every day, and yet we often miss it. We seek instead, satisfaction in the new, the untouched, the latest news, the newly released album, finding that once we get those things, we are simply eager for more. We go on seeking to find something unusual and unique to satisfy us, living as if the everyday gifts like a sunset are not enough; as if they are "ordinary."

Ordinary?! That we would choose to believe that a flaming sphere that warms the earth and provokes the seasons and gives us light and causes plants to grow and keeps us alive and rises each morning and sets each night is ordinary? Our perspective must be changed. 

In the past week I've wandered through ancient Ephesus, tracked up hillsides of long-forgotten ruins, explored where Paul the Apostle once walked 2000 years ago, walked the streets of famous Antalya, stayed at a 5 star hotel, been offered nine different kinds of Turkish baklava at one meal, walked on the beaches and eaten the foods of the Mediterranean, been around a hundred kids who grew up abroad like me, seen best friends from my past, watched my beloved sister get engaged, flown five times in ten days...

Yet, I continued to be numb to the significant beauty of it all until I took a few minutes to watch the sun go down one day. It caught my glance. It captivated me. It showed me that if there is awe-inspiring beauty in the simplest of things, there must be beauty in the seemingly bigger things too. 

If something we see each evening is that amazing and can impact us so much, how much greater is the beauty that God desires for us to partake with him each day?

All the while this past week, the sun set each evening and rose again each morn. How did I manage to let it slip by unseen? I know nothing but this: through my many imperfections, God has shown me grace. 

As the sun sets and I see Your face,

May I remember Your intimate grace,

You washed my feet, You formed my hands,

You made me a part of Your great plans.

Though I choose to see the earth as plain,

As uninteresting, unsatisfactory, known, the same,

Though I am numb to your great design,

And see this world and its ways as mine,

You warm my heart and make it new,

And in my failures, I turn back to you.  

You rub my numbness. You help me heal,

And pinch by pinch, teach me to feel. 

Though many sunsets pass me unseen,

I doubt not Your grace and love for me. 

For You take my "simple", my "ordinary",

And in one moment, make it extraordinary.