Well, it's been a while since I've written on here. And I'm gonna blame Anlee. Having a girlfriend takes a lot of time! I find myself wanting to see her all the time, and other things get pushed to the back. It's crazy! Having a girlfriend should mean you get 4 extra hours in every day. Where was God on that one? But seriously, it's great. My time and priorities have certainly been rearranged, but it's all very good.

I've give you some snapshots of the last 3 weeks.

Well, my mind isn't going back that far, so let's do the last week. Last Saturday, Anlee, me, Amanda(Anlee's roommate), Brian (Amanda's friend), Cam, and Gideon went to see the Nutcracker ballet in Seoul. Some of Anlee and Amanda's Korean co-teachers also joined us, one of them bringing their family. It was a great night. Probably the best part was eating a full-on American meal at Tony Roma's before hand. I got just a plain old burger and my taste buds were jumping up and down in excitement the whole time. It was incredible. I had a good time talking with the husband of one of the korean teachers. They lived in Canada for several years, and more recently lived in NYC for 2 years. They have two younger kids that both speak Korean and English. Pretty cool. After dinner we walked up the street (in the 25 or so degree weather) to the Seoul Arts Center. It was a really nice building. Our seats were way up at the top, but it was still a good view. I was surprised at the number of foreigners there were around us. There was a white couple probably in their late 60's, early 70's right in front of us. I also wonder what other people's stories are. I wonder how long they've been in Korea. The ballet itself was very different from the American version. I had seen the Nutcracker in Seattle as a child and had really fond memories of it. This version did not really captivate me. The dancers were great and the music was great, but it was kinda hard to pick up on the story line, and really didn't draw you in very well. It was not as captivating as I had hoped it would be. And it didn't help that the audience would clap after every slightly impressive individual dance performance. And so every 8 minutes or so, the play would be interrupted by applause. Kind of annoying. But it was still a good time. It's nice having a group of English speaking friends to hang out with.

The next day, Sunday, was our Christmas service at my church. Now, I haven't really ever played with the worship team at my church. I've done a couple of special music pieces, but nothing with the team. They know that I play and have asked if I want to get involved. But I've told them that one of my reasons for coming over here was to take a break from being in a leadership position, and being up front in the church. Not because I don't like it, or don't feel called to it. But just because I've done it for most of my post-middle school life and feel like if I'm going to continue to be in ministry or leadership positions in the future, I'd like to take a step back now, while I can, and just evaluate life and God from a non-ministry perspective. So, I've turned down the offers, but have said that in time, I'd love to join them. And this Sunday was mostly a bunch of special music stuff so I agreed to be a part of it and ended up being part of 4 different songs. I played O Come, O Come Emmanuel on the guitar and sang. I played piano for a Korean guy named Sung Min for a Kirk Franklin song. It was all jazzy and gospely, and was a good challenge for me on the piano. I also played piano for an American girl named AP on Oh Holy Night. It was an interesting blend cause she's a classically trained singer (think opera) and I worked up an arrangement that was more upbeat and syncopated. So we both had to compromise and agree on a medium. It turned out great though. And lastly, my Korean friend Paul was doing a rap and he asked me to right a hook (you know, the singing part that comes in between raps; kinda like the chorus). I put together something and sang that with him to a track. It was pretty fun. It was nice to play a good amount of music that day. I still think I'll wait a bit to play with the team, but am feeling close to being ready.

On Monday, Anlee and I went and saw Avatar. That was really sweet. Go see it.

Then, Christmas Eve, I got to lead a song in the Korean Christmas Eve service. The Korean church that my English service is held in is huge (I think 15,000 members). And they put on a Christmas Eve service that was mostly just special music, and a lot of kids dancing around. And they asked a group from the English service to do a song. I volunteered to lead something kinda last minute. So we did my arrangement of Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee. I played guitar and sang, Pastor Nick played piano, someone played bass, and then there were 3 other singers. It was really fun. There were probably around 3000 people there. Good experience.

After the service, a group of us went over to Anlee and Amanda's place. The girls had the idea that we could all just crash over there and then nobody had to wake up alone on Christmas day. We had a great night eating yummy food (thanks to Costco), watching Elf, and playing Nertz, the greatest card game in the history of the world. The only bad part was that I got dominated by Amanda, who's only played once before. I will get revenge before I leave (that's right Amanda, just wait). It was a good time hanging out with friends, and then we all crashed on the floor.

Christmas day, we went back to the church, as there was a turkey dinner being served for the English service. It was pretty good. Not amazing, but real American food is always appreciated. After that, Anlee came over to my place and we hung out for the rest of the day/evening. We shared gifts, made a Christmas tree (picture), watched Grinch, went on a walk, and had some yummy alfredo and ice cream cake. It was one of the best day in my recent memory. It was nice to have Anlee and other friends to share Christmas with. At no point did I feel lonely. Then I skyped with my family today (the 26th) and got to chat with all the relatives that are over. I almost felt like I was there with them.

Here's a link to a new video that I just took this last week of the infamous Tae-oo Fekkes, my Korean brother. http://www.vimeo.com/8390635