darn darn darn

I have felt upset this Lunar New Year over some things. I have hope in the Lord that God will work things out. I just pray that everything will be OK.
God is faithful to love us, forgive us, guide us, and hold us up. I do wish very much that I could just be held by Him right now.

COEX Mall, Obama

This week my roommate and I stayed up late at night to watch the Obama inauguration on Yahoo! news. It was great. We had pizza and apple soda. I took off a lot of the cheese. The festivities started at 10 AM EST and midnight our time. There wasn't much going on for a while. Finally the dignitaries were shown getting in place for the ceremony. The Obamas were dressed nicely. At first I thought Michelle Obama's dress was ugly because the colours on the computer screen made her dress look like a greenish-yellow when it was in fact gold. It was an interesting outfit and had a 1960s look.
I thought it was funny when the presidential oath was said wrong. It's true that even very intelligent people make mistakes. They are still human.

Today I had to go back to the SDA hospital for another drug test. When I had the last one I was on some medication because I had been ill. I don't take medicines very often, but I was feeling very bad. Unfortunately, it made my drug test come out positive. I am hoping and praying that things will be OK this time. I have never taken illicit drugs in my life.
I later went to the COEX Mall. I had trouble finding the place when I got off the subway at Samseong. I wandered through some fancy designer stores until I finally found the mall. I grabbed some Italian at the food court, had my hair cut, got a cell phone charm, a pillow, and also three books and a board game at Bandi & Lunni's bookstore. I went to the mall mostly for Bandi & Lunni's. I love bookstores and I spent a long time there looking at the English books. I miss the 500 or so books I had to leave behind. I had better keep out of the malls for a while.
I got: The Island of the Colorblind and Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks as well as Einstein by Walter Isaacson.

The Dobu Restaurant

Yesterday Bernedette and I met up with the secretaries from the institute and we went to a dobu (tofu) restaurant with the other staff members. The Korean junior teachers were there, the director and his wife, their two young children, and the two former English teachers from South Africa. We sat on the floor on three tables that were put together. I sat across from Glenn and Ingrid and between Bernedette and Hidy.
The food was excellent. There were side dishes all over the table. There was some good kimchi with garlic shoots. There was friend and fresh tofu. I had a dish of soy sauce with the garlic grass and sesame seeds in it to dip it in. We each had a stone bowl of rice with a wooden cover. The rice had pumpkin seeds, beans, and a ginseng root in it. I love ginseng. We scooped out the rice into a metal bowl and then added a broth to the stone bowl. We then put the wooden covers on and let them sit. We then could have a soup of crispy rice. It was good. I sampled a side dish of hot peppers with bean paste smeared on them. Only Glenn tried a piece of it and I had the rest. I was the only one that seemed interested in some green peppers in red pepper paste. I ate all that side dish. I tried some tofu with paste on it, some garlic shoots in pepper paste, spinach, jap chae, and white radish kimchi.
After all that I felt that I didn't need to eat again until the next day. I had some good conversation there. It was fun. I like the people I work with and I like Glenn and Ingrid.

Hanging around Hoegi

I went to the Filipino SDA Church of Korea (FILSDAK) yesterday. It took me an hour by bus to get there. The bus #707 was extremely crowded once it got to Seoul. The windows were also foggy and I was worried I wouldn't be able to see where I needed to get off. The bus eventually stopped in Seoul and everybody started getting off. Apparently the bus was having troubles. I then waited on the street and a man told me to get back on either bus #260 or #270. Thankfully it arrived soon.
I made it into the church at 11:15 or so. I didn't miss the sermon. I came in during the children's story. It was about forgiveness. The storyteller took a sweet potato in a bag and said that as long as we don't forgive someone, things are like that potato. We have to carry it everywhere and eventually it will get rotten.
The church was VERY crowded. The sermon was good, it was about Cornelius. I didn't follow it all, yet it's something I want to read more closely.
I was glad to see Miez Amoso. I had wondered what happened to her. I didn't see anyone else I recognised, but many people introduced themselves.
We had dinner after church. There was rice, pumpkin and lentil mash, brownies, gelatin, sweet potatoes, tofu, etc. The folks at the table spoke in Tagalog for a while. When I was nearly finished with my food they then started to speak to me in English. They were very friendly. I found that others lived in Namyangju as well.
I later went to the children's program and the kids sang. I left and then started talking to a South African man named Waldo. He teaches at Kwangju Sangmu. I also taught there, so we had a conversation. We walked together to the main institute where a presentation on Gethsemane was going on. It made many people sleepy. I saw Ashley, a Korean teacher that I went to Cambodia with a few years ago. I also saw Thelma, who I worked with in Bucheon. I was happy to see them.
Ashley helped get me to Kevin and Kim Ellis' home for dinner. I had a good time. I found their daughter Crystal is in the 1000 Missionary Movement. The couple has been in Korea for 15 years now. I think that's great since they like it. The food was good. There was a crouton/mushroom casserole, tangerines, salad, etc. We were talking about freemasons and Skull & Bones for a while. I said that Obama is a 33rd degree freemason and some people were shocked. I said that Alphonso Taft started the S&B at Yale. His son was president of the USA and was also a Supreme Court justice.
Thomas Jefferson belonged to the "Flat Hat Society" of scholars at William & Mary.
I later took bus #707 back home. It was the first time travelling back by myself. The bus was so crowded that I had to stand for about 40 minutes. I met up with a Korean woman who had just returned from studying in Missouri, USA. She said that she knew of the South African couple that had taught at my institute because her mother runs a pet store they frequented. She also said that she had gone to Hoegi to attend a Bible study and church there. She had just attended the Bible study about Revelation by Kim Ellis. I said I had just been at her house. It was amazing. She asked me if I had religion and I said I am SDA.
She got off before me and had the man sitting next to me tell me when to get off. I started to figure it out for myself as I started to see familiar sights.

An E-Mail From an Advisor

I got an e-mail from my former academic advisor at Atlantic Union College. She wanted to know how I was doing and where I am these days. It was great to hear from her. I did have a good English department to study in over there. It was a good location, since Massachusetts is a centre of literary history in the USA. To this day many students of English want to study in that area.
I do miss hanging out in that old mansion which became the English department and having tea and discussions with the other students and professors. I miss the couch that was one of my favourite places to hang out on campus. I miss academia completely.

Free-IQTest.net

Free-IQTest.net - IQ Test

I know that many of these online I.Q. tests aren't totally accurate. I have never taken a formal I.Q. test. Of course, I.Q. is something that can't be measured completely anyways. As there are many types of intelligence, our levels of strengths and weaknesses make us each more unique.

Vanessa Mae "Happy Valley" at Reunification of Hong Kong