It is the beginning of my understanding of what a "monsoon season" is, and from what I have been told, a month long of it to look forward to. "Understand, you will be wet, and you will be wet all of the time." So after the long day of down pour I looked longingly out the window of my Hagwon to realize I had no umbrella and in the aftermath of my journey home I would have been dryer if I had taken a dip Yellow Sea. In procrastination, I tinked around on the computer at school and in happenstance a Korean teacher walked into the office. She said, like an angel, "I have car. You need ride home?"
I most whole heartedly (thinking in my head: soaking rainy walk to bus, smelly wet bus, soaking rainy walk to apartment home) said an enthusiastic yes. This Korean teacher was always very smiley and welcoming and spoke, at best, broken english. As we pulled out of the parking lot in her glorified box on wheels she turned to me and said "You have dinner?" I looked out the window at the daunting rain, taking into consideration the possible uncomfortable nature of an enduring conversation between two people that cannot understand each other and said "of course."
She took me to an end of town that I have never been. (Suncheon actually translates into "very very country" but there is really nothing rural about this place.) We parked and meandered down a street that looked lit up like vegas between the neon lights on the signs and the reflecting puddles rippling in the street. She lead me up a stone staircase to a cozy Korean restaurant.
Let me note here that there are two seating areas in a Korean restaurant: take off your shoes and sit on the floor (Korean Style) or keep shoes on and sit at a table. (Western style) So, I have learned that you wait in shoe limbo to find out your next move. I know this of because of a few awkward instances off taking shoes off only to put them sillily back on again. We were sat at a table, or should I say two couches with a table between them. It was possibly the most comfortably I have ever sat down for dinner.
So we talked, kinda. . . I learned that she was from Jae Jeu Island, "the Hawaii" of South Korea. Hearing this I said, " I would love to go there someday" and with out hesitation she replied "Tell me when you go and I will prepare a room for you at my parents home." This is an unaccustomed response I have encountered in Korea. Hospitality is NOT an illusion but an authentic gesture of respect. The communication between us a liken to a ride in a bumpercar. She asked me in broken English if I believed in Jesus. (a question I avoid answering at all costs) She then said she had not been a real Christian her entire life but as of, and she was very specific about this, January 2, 2008. That was the day, she said she had heard the Voice of God. She said she had been praying as she had many times before and out of no where she heard a voice that said "Do you love me?" She said she heard it and replied "Yes, do you love me?" and to which, in her interpretation, God responded "Yes, now move to China and spread my word." This came to her not in verbal means but in visual terms: she said she felt love and saw pictures of Asia in her mind. Since then, she tells me, she is able to pray in 3 different languages: Chinese, Arabic, and Japanese with out actually ever learning these foreign dialects. She calls it "speaking in there tongue." She insists that this multilingual occurrence only happens while she is alone and in prayer, but that her sisters: one in Sacramento, one in Austria also have the same ability. It is now her goal to travel to China and do missionary work because God on January 2, 2008 told her so. Then she asks me if I would like to play badminton with her at her church on Sunday. Images of birdies sailing over a taut net between Koreans and a white robed Jesus suddenly rush into my mind. I smile out of the corner of my mouth and reply in true California style."Sunday? Would love to but unfortunately I already have plans."
