The Marines Have Landed

North and South Korea never signed a peace agreement and are still technically at war.  This necessitates a strong presence in this country by the US military to help keep the peace. We had heard there was a small U.S. Marine base near Pohang.  Our congregation at Handong International Congregation was delighted to have 3 Marines visit our service a couple of weeks ago from that base.  We had a chance to meet them and invite them over to our home for lunch after service this past Sunday.  Susan prepared her pot roast for the troops with homemade bread and salad.  It was exciting to hear over lunch their stories about the Marine Corps as they've traveled the world serving our country in hot spots such as Iraq and Afghanistan.  One's father was a pastor, another's was a Youth Camp Director and the third has been deeply involved in music ministry (part of well known Christian rock bands) before joining the Marines. (The last one found our church over the internet and started listening to the services with his wife even before coming to Korea.)  We all sat around a table enjoying the pot roast as they shared memories of home and God's goodness.  By the end of the afternoon we'd pretty much adopted all three into our family and look forward to helping them explore Korea.  One expressed that the Koreans made him feel more welcome than any of the dozens of other countries he had visited.  Listening to them share how they came to be deployed in Korea and comparing it to the circumstances that brought our family to this far off land caused all of to feel a very special sense of God's purpose being worked out in our lives.  Two of the men have a wife and children at their homes in North Carolina.  Susan and I sensed our time together helped soften their feelings of separation from their loved ones for just a a little while.  They told us stories of the difficulty of using snail mail to communicate with home before Skype and Magic Jack made it so easy to pick up a phone and call.  Now if one of the kids needs help finding a hammer, he can pick up the phone and make a local call to dad in Korea.  All us had a special sense of God's direction in these difficult times, His love for the Korean people and the special place of Handong University in helping to carry out the great commission in our generation.  I have a deeper appreciation for the sacrifice our military men and women make to serve our country in these far off lands.

Korea and Kite Flying Season

Susan has mentioned over the years the fascination that Koreans have with flying kites.  She informed me that winter is kite flying season in Korea (where our city of Pohang has the perfect combination of winds and blue skies.)   Daniel and Robert got kites for Christmas and were anxious to try them out.  Surprisingly, I hadn't seen any Koreans flying kites over the five months we've been here.  I asked some students about this national past time and got quizzical looks in response.  Then one remembered that their "grandparents" liked to fly kites.  Mystery solved.  Susan had memories from her childhood of children and adults flying kites (she left Korea when she was nine years old.)  Obviously things have changed since then.  Still, Daniel and Robert had a lot of fun flying their kites on the new athletic field and a number of students stopped to watch.  Imagine my surprise this afternoon when I looked out our apartment window and saw in the distance dozens of kites and lots of kids running around.  I walked over and saw two fields filled with school kids all running, laughing  and flying kites.  Apparently they had built the kites as a school project (we have an international elementary and high school on campus) and they were out enjoying them in the afternoon breeze.  From all appearances, I'd say that kite flying simply skipped a generation or two.

Ken Chinn

Christmas Eve in Korea

Mark and Elysabeth arrived in the afternoon on Christmas Eve, bringing the entire Chinn family together this year.  Who would have ever imagined this a year ago?  Our family wanted to find a way of serving this university that has brought so many blessings to our family over the past 4 months.  During this winter break from school there are many international students who have no where to go for the holidays.  These also include many Korean missionary children whose parents serve in many foreign lands.  We are constantly surprised by the number of missionary kids here at Handong University.  Susan and I decided to serve all these students by inviting them over for dinner on Christmas Eve.  We made a Costco run and laid in a supply of chickens to roast in the oven along with mashed potatoes, creamed corn, homemade dinner rolls and lots of fresh salad.  We weren't sure how many would come, but were surprised and delighted when close to 60 students crowded into our apartment for dinner.  The food multiplied like fishes and loaves with some additional supplies rapidly defrosted from the freezer and a bit of help from another faculty family.  Everyone got seconds and thirds with students sitting and standing everywhere imaginable in our little apartment.  It seemed like we had a cross section of the world for dinner.  the students were clearly delighted and so were we.  After dinner we all headed over to join in the Christmas Eve service on campus.  Several faculty families were asked to take turns leading the congregation in carols and took turns reading various portions of the Christmas story.  Our family was asked to sing Hark the Herald Angels Sing and then read a passage from Luke.  It was so much fun for our family and the kids did a wonderful job singing and reading their portions of the scriptures.  After a time of worship and scripture reading, Pastor Young Ho gave a wonderful message pointing out that all of scripture is part of the Christmas story.  Although it was icy cold outside, the warmth we all felt at the end of the service made a perfect ending to a very special evening.  It was a Christmas Eve our family will always treasure.

Ken Chinn

Hapkido Kids

I don't know why judo, tae kwon do, and karate are almost a rite of passage for many young boys these days.  Perhaps it is all the energy at that young age that needs a constructive outlet.  When I was a kid, your Dad, with the possible assistance of other adult male relatives, schooled you on the fine art of self defense.  These lessons usually including the purchase of boxing gloves and, if you were lucky, possibly even a real punching bag.  Here in Korea, Daniel and Robert are each taking hapkido (also spelled hap ki do) lessons three times a week.  Hapkido is a distinctively Korean form of martial arts that focuses on self defense.  Lessons include physical training, tumbling, disarming opponents, deflecting blows and rendering an opponent unable to continue an attack through the use of leverage, kicks and other forms of striking.  The boys are taking lessons along with some of their friends here at Handong.  Mary simply wasn't interested though one of her girl friends is also taking the classes with her brother.  Daniel wasn't interested at first, but decided to tag along and watch - just to make sure he wasn't missing something.  By the end of the lesson he had joined in and was hooked.  Susan is enthused about the classes because so much of the teaching is centered on respect.  Daniel and Robert recently tested for their first advancement and proudly traded their white belts in for yellow ones.  I'm happy they are learning some self defense, but not surprised to learn that Robert's favorite times in hapkido are the games they play on Wednesdays.  That little guy seems to have fun 24/7 no matter what he is doing.   I think one of the main attractions are the totally cool ninja style outfits they get to wear.  Below are a couple of photos of our Hapkido Kids.

Ken

Double Digits

Today we celebrated Robert's 10th birthday.  Well, actually, we started celebrating it yesterday.  Elysabeth started this tradition by extending her birthday celebrations for up to an entire week.  Yesterday's festivities included a trip to the theater to see the new Hobbit movie.  We originally planned to see Wreck It Ralph.  That didn't work since American children's movies in Korea are dubbed rather than using subtitles.  Young kids can't read subtitles.  The kid's Korean isn't yet good enough to follow the dubbing.  So we elected to see The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey instead.  Since it isn't a kid's movie, there is no dubbing.  Subtitles aren't a problem since you hear the English dialogue clearly and hardly notice the subtitles at the bottom of the screen.  Mary didn't want to go because her earlier movie experience with The Lord of the Rings was scary.  With some coaxing, she agreed reluctantly to be see this movie.  I made a point of watching her from time to time during the show.  She was as absorbed as the boys.  The boys were exuberant afterwards and Mary allowed that is wasn't the worst movie she had ever seen.  If it matters, Susan and I both thoroughly enjoyed it.  It will be a blockbuster here in Korea.  The local 8 screen multiplex theater devoted 5 of its screens to this movie.  After sharing a tub of popcorn flavored like cracker jacks (do they do this in the US?) during the move, we set off for McDonald's for some dinner.  The kids ordered Chicken McNuggets and Susan slipped across the street for some kimbap (Korean burrito with rice and vegetables.)  Dad settled for a Big Mac set (set is the Korean term for a combination.)  Today we continued the birthday celebration with home made french dip sandwiches, home made birthday cake (delicious, but no threat to Jeannie Scott's wonderful creations) and opening his present (a remote control toy helicopter) and a surprise extra present of a BB gun from one of his buddies in the faculty housing.  The helicopter has been flying around our apartment for much of the evening.  Robert's had 5 pieces of his birthday cake, and the BB gun will wait until tomorrow for play in the woods.  Susan will rehearse her "don't shoot your eyes out" speech tonight to have it ready for the morning.  In the midst of all this celebrating, we managed to slip in a trip to downtown Pohong to join with others from our fellowship and another local church in singing Christmas carols for the shoppers as they walked by.  Somehow the little guy manipulated us into still another surprise birthday outing in the next week or so.  All in all, a pretty good haul for a very happy 10 year old.  Mom and Dad are pretty proud of the little guy and delighted he had a very special celebration of his special day.

Ken

Cake baked by mom, frosted and decorated by the kids!

Korean DMV

In Korea it is easy to get along without a vehicle.  Their mass transit system is very efficient.  Buses, railways, subways, taxis and planes take you most anywhere you want to go at affordable prices.  Here at Handong the school shuttle system complements all the other transportation by running a route into town every half hour.  Still, for a Southern Californian who grew up in a culture where the car is king, there is a sense of a loss of freedom.  This loss is particularly noticeable when it's dark and cold and you're waiting for the shuttle bus to come by as the snow is falling.  As convenient as the transportation system is, it always seemed that a trip into town took 3-4 hours.  So, when another professor who is moving in January put the family car up for sale, we were very interested.   We purchased their 8 passenger Kia minivan with a diesel engine.  Part of our agreement is that they keep using the car until January, but it feels good to have wheels again.  

Like California, you must have insurance to register a car.  A phone call took care of the insurance.  The professor friend called his insurance agent who, in turn called us.  I gave the agent the information he needed over the phone and had my insurance company in the US email a declaration that we had no claims on our auto policy over the past 3 years.  Susan was able to pay for the insurance through a direct bank transfer using an ATM machine (surprisingly, we can even use this feature to transfer money directly to our US bank account, though it doesn't work the other way from the US to Korean accounts.)  After confirming payment, the Korean agent emailed the declaration page from our new policy and gave me a call.  He cautioned me to be careful to never follow a taxi in Korea while driving.  Taxis are allowed to stop anywhere to pick up a fare.  If you have even a minor contact with a taxi, Korean law (undoubtedly influenced by a strong taxi union) requires the taxi driver be taken directly to the hospital and he is given at least a month off of work to recover.  All this has to be paid for by the insurance company - hence the lecture to the new policy holder.  Another interesting tidbit gleaned from the insurance agent is that, in Korea, you can park illegally as long as you put the hood of your car up and move within an hour.  I would think this is designed for vehicle breakdowns, but the law is broad enough to allow this even if there is no breakdown.  Why must it be moved within an hour?  That's because every insurance policy includes roadside service.  If you car breaks down, you simply call roadside service who will respond within 30 minutes.  They change tires, provide 3 liters of free fuel and will tow the vehicle up to 10 kilometers at no cost if necessary.  So, in Korea there is no need to be disabled on the side of the road for longer than an hour.  Pretty efficient system.

Now that we had the insurance, it was time to transfer the registration at the Korean Motor Vehicle Department.  It's located on the ground floor of the local sports arena, next to the playing field.  My guess is that, with land at a premium, it makes sense to use the stadium during the week for government offices.  The attendants in the office couldn't have been more helpful.  Susan did the interpreting and the professor friend accompanied us to make sure all the paperwork was in order.  My job was to sign a series of documents written entirely in Korean.  I have absolutely no idea what the documents said.  This probably seems odd, but in my experience is entirely normal for foreigners here in Korea.  I love old stuff, and was delighted to see that Korea allows you to use a seal instead of a signature on documents.  The seal is red and has your name inscribed in Korean.  You dip the seal into a sponge like pad at the  government office and then affix the seal to the document.  I NEED ONE OF THESE.  What a nice 18th century affectation!    The professor had one of these and its now on the top of my Christmas list.  Susan paid the transfer tax and we were on our way within a half an hour.  At the Department of Motor Vehicles In California, assuming they weren't closed that day due to the budget crisis, we'd still be in the first line at the information desk waiting to ask which line we go to next.

Below are couple of photos of the new vehicle.

With Apologies to Lewis Carroll

The time has come the walrus said, to talk of many things - of snow and sleet and and semester's end, of dynasties and kings.

Winter has officially arrived.  Last week we experienced both snow and sleet and much more snow today.  Of course, with the snow falling, the kids hustled through their work, declared home school out of session and it was time for snow play.  Tonight is 3 degrees below zero Celsius, and tomorrow will be 3 degrees colder.  Normally this would be a night to huddle inside, but we had tickets to Miso II, Silla, The Land of Gods in the city of Gyeongju.  It is a nearby historic city where many of the ancient kings of the Silla Dynasty are buried.  The fall semester is over and exams are graded and it is a night to celebrate.  So we slipped and slid down the hill to the shuttle bus and joined a bunch of students and faculty on their way to the performance.  After an hour and a half on the bus, we arrived at the performance hall.  To our amazement, and probably because of the inclement weather, our group was almost the entire audience for the performance.  There must have been 50 dancers on the stage with incredible costumes, lighting and music - especially the Korean drumming.  We were mesmerized by what we saw.  Spoiler alert - the young likely future king dies in the end, sacrificing his life for restoration of the 3 kingdoms.  It felt like we received a command performance suited for royalty.  For those adventurous enough to come to Korea for a visit, this performance is one of many places we'd love to take you to taste the Korean culture and history.

Graduation is tomorrow for the law school and we have the honor of having Chief Justice Roy Moore from the State of Alabama as our commencement speaker.  Those who follow the culture wars in the U.S. will probably remember the judge who was removed from office a number of years ago in Alabama by a state bar ethics committee for refusing to remove the 10 commandments from his courtroom.  In Alabama the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is elected.  In one of the few bright spots from the last election, the people of Alabama returned Judge Moore to his position as their Chief Justice.  I am looking forward to meeting this man of conviction who was willing to lose his position rather than submit to an unconstitutional demand.  

Ken "the walrus" Chinn

Snow!  A view from our living room balcony.  Off in the distance, several students made a 4' plus snowman.  He's still standing the day after.

The snow started falling while we were in town to pick up a new pair of glasses.

 Miso II was fantastic!  The musical was beyond our expectation.  Even the little guys enjoyed it.