Miscellaneous

There have been a few noteworthy events that occurred over the past couple of weeks, so I will write a little bit about some of them in short, episodic format.

Thanksgiving

November 28^th was my first time to spend Thanksgiving away from home. I honestly kept forgetting that it was a holiday, but every time my friends posted about it on Facebook I did feel a little bit sad not to be at home with my family.

Thursday, however, I was invited to two different Thanksgiving meals. The first one I had to decline because of limited time, but the second one I was able to attend. All of the international faculty get together in their apartment building and have a big dinner. Everyone contributes something, and lots of the professors open up their apartment to host all the people.

As American students we were kindly welcomed into the massive throng that evening. There was a lot of good food, good company, and good conversations. It was really neat to get to know some of the professors better and hear their stories. There are some really amazing people here at Handong. It was also good to celebrate with people from such a wide variety of backgrounds. America was certainly not the only country represented there! I was really touched that they invited us into their big family and showed us such spectacular hospitality. It was a really nice evening.

Bowling

Another fun event last week was the I-House bowling trip! I admit, I was hesitant to go because I have never been good at the game and I have bad memories associated with it. But I promised to go with my friends, so that evening I climbed onto another bus and headed into the city.

I will be honest, Korean bowling shoes are even worse than American ones. But apart from that discomfort, it was a really fun time. I didn’t do half as badly as I thought I would, and had a lot of fun with all the people who came out. 

We even got to taste a little bit of street food after we were done because we missed the bus and had some time to kill. Not sure why they call them fish cakes, because they are more like a noodle, but they were tasty anyway. The outing was another good study break, especially with finals looming on our horizon.

Baptism

One of the most incredible, beautiful things that happened for me recently took place this past Sunday. One of my dearest and best friends here at Handong is my roommate, Noelle. She is from China, and her family is not Christian. But through her university she came to faith in Jesus and accepted Him into her life this past summer.

Throughout this semester, my roommate has become one of the closest friends I’ve had throughout all of high school/college. She is such an inspiration to me. Her heart is so soft and so kind, and she treats everybody with an unending grace. I have learned so much just by watching the way that she lives her life. I am incredibly honoured that God chose to place me in her life. She has patiently bore with me through all my difficulties and all my joys throughout this semester, and I truly treasure all of our long and late conversations, our meals together, our walks, and our shared laughter.

When Noelle was baptized this Sunday my heart was filled to bursting with joy. As I watched my sister take this step in her life, I was struck with the beauty of salvation and the incredibly way God has written everyone’s salvation story. I was also struck by a deep sense of wonder that God allows us to be part of other peoples’ stories. He allowed me to get to know my roommate, and allowed me to be with her as she proclaimed her faith in public. What an incredible honour. Such a good moment of my semester.

Handong is a really wonderful place to be able to take this kind of step, I think. There is such a closely knit family here to support and encourage you. I was really glad to be a part of this meaningful event, and I hope that I won’t stop learning from my fantastic friend Noelle any time soon.

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I have not been able to write very much because things have been getting kind of hectic. I had two presentations this week, and group work every night preceding Friday. I have another presentation to go on Monday, and then the grueling process of studying for finals. Prayers would be very much appreciated as I face these tests! I am working on typing up another blog entry about the I-House end of semester celebration, so stay tuned.

As always, thank you for reading!