A great sunday

Sunday morning i woke up at 6:45- even though it is almost november, it is already full daylight at 6:45 here. I had arranged to meet one of my students from SKor to go to the Roman C Ch here in town. I woke up to snow falling heavily, and mountains blanketed in snow. In the soft morning light the frigid stone halways of our school seemed cold, exactly the kind of day to stay warm in bed. Instead I met my student, and upon discovering that the cafeteria was not open yet, invited him to my messy room for an impromptu breakfast of huevos rancheros, and cereal i imported from Shanghai. With gloves on my hands (we'll see how long it is before i lose them) and my sturdy boots on, we rode the little bumpy minibus down the hill to the quite unimpressive looking grey Catholic ch. The inside was as cold as the outside, reminding me of the cold cement st. casimir's church behind LCC. it was barely decorated, and mostly it was old korean ladies, covered with cheap white prayer shawls, braving the freezing cold and mud streets at such an early hour. Even though i only know a few words in korean, it seemed very familiar to go to mass- the same rhythms and components that people around the world do. An Italian priest intoned the mass in perfect korean, attended by two mismatched chubby korean alter boys. I got in a really good conversation with my student, which was the point. I was impressed at how orthodox and austere the service was, matching the building- no saints, no mary, no candles, or shrines or altars... just a simple straightforward homily about our Master.

Then i trudged back up the snowy hill to go to our english language service. An incredibly motley crue of nationalities, styles, personalities, conceptions of Xity. Mainly yust staff and faculty, some foreign students, other random people who live and work around yanbian. it was a great service. authentic. heartfelt if not professional worship songs, some great hymns. An honest message. in that room are people who have risked and are risking so much, that small gathering would not be the fellowship i would pick were i to live in the United states, but i do appreciate these little outpost fellowships, made up of random and assorted people whose only common bond is the Master, whose worship is unstudied and rough-around-the-edges yet real.

This was followed by the worst cafeteria meal ever- i only ate the rice, and tried a little bit of the grass, but the after-taste was, well, grassy. Had a good talk with Vic, from Georgia, over lunch, about our responsibilities here and the often conflicting situations we are put in. Watched 15 minutes of "America's Next Supermodel"- the weekly ritual of some of our english faculty. A great reminder why i am not living in the US :) The contrast between the old ChosunJok (korean-chinese) ladies i had seen that morning, muddied and freezing from the trek to mass, and these self-absorbed, b**chy models couldn't have been greater.

My muscles still sore from a three-hour long sweet American football game the day before (which necessitated me hopping back and forth between English, Russian, and German), i next headed to a faculty meeting. I love my life some days- where else can I play American football on a ghetto pitch overlooking the gritty coal smudged skyline of Yanji and snowcapped mountains receding toward NK, calling out plays in russian, as a Quarterback, and the next day attending a faculty meeting all in korean. The faculty meetings, which are usually inadequately translated and overly boring, are notorious here at YUST for us non-Koreans, but it wasn't so bad. I took my new Korean book with me, and learned all kinds of cool things. Did you know that Korean puts their causal complementizer ("because") inside their verbs, after the stem, but before the tense-agreement information (I node). I don't get how that is syntactically possible. How can the C information which modifies the IP be dominated by the I node??? I have been trying to draw trees to figure it out.

Chonun aju bapa-yo hangukmalul kongbuhaNEULAGO-yo.
I-TOP very busy-DECL Korean -OBJ study BECAUSE-DECL
"As for me, I am very busy, because i am studying Korean"

Chonun kayo choha- NEULAGO- yo.
I-TOP go-DECL be good BECAUSE-DECL
"As for me, I go, because it is good"

Only linguistics dorks will care about this, but that was more than enough to fascinate me during my meeting. I must say though, our president is really an inspiring man, and totally optimistic- his vision is contagious


After that, I got to take a delicious 35 minute nap. Then I went to the warm, yellow, cozy apartment of Richard and Susanne Schwemer. Richard was once an administrator for the Munich School District in Bavaria, and is here with his wife for a year teaching German. I really appreciate their insights and hospitality. They invited the whole German community here (of which I am an ingrafted part) to an amazing meal. We had pasta salad, bavarian onion bacon and cheese cakes, roast meats, with great german sauces, garlic salad, bread, and of course kimbap!(it couldn't be ALL german). I am amazed they could throw that together with ingredients found in Yanji, and it was the best meal i have had in so long. Had such a great conversation, laughing, talking about life here in Yanji. It was so filling, not just for my stomach. I reluctantly tore myself away, armed with my new flashlight (which i had gotten at our very Korean new teachers reception dinner the night before), and trudged through the shuddering bear apple-pear orchards, avoiding the complaining geese, through the darkness towards the little warmly lit chapel across the valley. There is nothing like being in a freezing and dark night and approaching a chapel with warm yellow light streaming out the windows, the sounds of Russian praise choruses growing louder as you approach. I really like that group of brothers and sisters, and that simple service (yes, the third one of my day). It is good for my russian, but i really appreciate their warmth and interest. We in my small group had a really good discussion about luke, and i just realized that man, these are really great brothers and sisters. I felt so much at home there, and joking on the dark road back toward YUST at the end of the evening.

I spent the last hour of my day cleaning my floor, then getting cozy under my blankets, enjoying the company of my electric space heater and huge plant, and red a short story by Chekhov in Russian, and some German poetry. Reading Chekhov in Russian was one of those things on my life list of things to do before I die. I read it slowly, and still need to consult my dictionary, but i am doing it! Cross one thing off the list! I still have on the list though to write a poem in russian.

So that's a day in my life

PS: One thing that has happened a lot recently is power outages. Today i taught my last class, a 4 o'clock class, in the dying light of twilight. When it got to dark to read, all the students turned on their cell phones and aimed them at the blackboard and it was light enough to see actually! So much for candlelight. Maybe thats why its almost impossible to find a candle here in Yanji. Still its kind of cool and cozy to sit around in the dark office and chat with my colleagues. Its also a convenient procrastination excuse.

PPS: im thinking of going to lithuania for my two month winter break, help out at LCC however I can...- looking at cheap ways to cross this great landmass... another good procrastination tool.