Getting to know you, getting to know all about you...

I've left you hanging after my first night here in Korea, time to catch you up a little, with tons of pictures too!

Meeting the pastor and head chaplain

The first couple of weeks were a blur of starting language class, meeting new and important people, and experiencing Korean food!  We've also had a holiday or two, and gone on a day trip to Jeonju, but I'll post about that another time.

The first people we met, having arrived just before the weekend, were the chaplains and youth at our new church, the Hannam University Church.  We've since gotten to know both groups a little better and they should be fun to work with!

Youth group!  (All the girls, anyway.)

First day of school!

That Monday, we started language class!  There is more I must say about it than I want to write here, so I'll devote a whole blog post to it in a little while.  It's a big part of our first four months here (every weekday, 9am to 1pm), so it deserves it.  I will say that it is a great group of students, the teachers are all very effective (usually by being hilarious), and it's a lot of hard work!

With Hannam University President

Next up, we met the president of Hannam University, and learned our way around campus a little more.  It's not huge, but it has a nice soccer stadium, some trails through the woods (hard to find in a dense city), an English Café where everyone inside is supposed to speak English, a great student union building with cheap good food, and it is right next to a street with all sorts of food places and coffee shops (we've dubbed it "Food Street," very creative, I know).  Look to the bottom of this post for pictures of Hannam's campus, which I took on a holiday with nobody around, so that I wouldn't feel like as much of a tourist.

Interesting socks at 새움

The following week we learned about the places we would work, visiting a new one every afternoon.  First, we went to 새움 ("say-oom") children's center.  It's a long bus ride from campus, and it's in the middle of many of the towering apartment buildings that are everywhere.  The center has 1st through 8th graders who come to study, do homework, practice an instrument (it seems all Korean children are required to play an instrument, awesome!), eat dinner, and have some fun!  This center is three stories; it has two workrooms, an office, a computer room, and a kitchen on the first floor, a chapel (with a drumset, YES) on the second floor, and practice rooms on the third floor.  Spoilers: This is where I work!

Second, we visited 법동("bop-dohng") children's center.  This one is similar to the other in activities, but it's all on one floor with one large performance/practice room and a central workroom with small classrooms and a kitchen surrounding it.  It's run by a mother and her daughter.  This is where Anna S. is working.

Behind the mountain of trays at 새나루

Last on the children's center tour is 새나루 ("seh-nah-roo").  This is actually both a children's center on the third floor and a feeding center for the homeless on the first.  It is the first place we saw very noticeably disadvantaged people.  They serve dinner there for about 150 people in each of two sittings, and then also send out about fifty more to those who are homebound.   The children's center upstairs is again similar to the first one, but perhaps a bit smaller.  Anna Curl works in the children's center, but we all pitch in at the feeding center during our week.

The last visit we made was to 안산 ("an-san") Library.  It's a small public library where once a week the Annas will go to read simple stories in English and discuss them with a group of mothers from the surrounding community.  It's a funny story about how this program came about: last year's YAVs started it as a story-reading for young children.   The mother's brought the kids, of course, and they ended up being much more interested in it than the kids, so they decided to make their own group.

Lastly (for real), I am going to be running an English conversation group and a Bible study for mechanical engineering students.  Professor Park, an ME professor who attends our church, has asked me to run these because I have a science, and technology background, we'll see how they go!

Finally (finally > lastly), we met a very nice team from Hannam's IT department that is in charge of the university website, which can be viewed in Korean or in English.  They have a news section of the webpage that updates regularly, so they need to translate articles from Korean to English often.  They do have a wonderful graduate student to do this, 예슬("Yeseul").  After she's done, we will help clean up the flow of the English a little bit!  We may also contribute to a blog they have for foreign students looking to come to Hannam so they can get a feel for what Korean/Hannam life is like.  They also showed us around the main campus library, where we might end up spending a lot of time.

Thanks for reading!  This whirlwind of meetings and visits eventually died down, and now we are settling into our weekly routines.  More on that to come!

Hannam University Logo

Tower at the entrance to campus

Memorial recognizing all the countries that helped in the Korean War

We're...

Hannam and South Korea flags

in...

KOREA!!!

Cool tunnel, of which there are several

In the gardens in the center of campus,
this says, "Truth, Freedom, Service"

Many trees in the gardens are on perfect
mounds like this.  I don't know why!

Panorama of gardens in the middle of campus.  There are usually many more people, but it was Chuseok.

House for a replica of a famous drum,
getting the respect it deserves!

Free public exercise equipment!

Always building something!

Soccer Stadium!  Colorful stands.

Campus Map!

Pretty.

Trees all tied together.  For support?

Outside the President's office, some wise words.  Thanks for looking through all my photos!