Ok I skipped day 58..who cares anyway..it was just my gripes about Friday classes. In my first class the guys really love weapons. We talked about going shopping so their short writing assignment was what they would buy if they were shopping. Half of the guys bought knives, dynamite, guns, etc. and last week they talked about killing people. wow. And in my last class with one student we finished early and had a fun game of hangman going on. I reminded all my students to bring in their essays tomorrow. I'm sure someone will forget. I hate that!
It was freezing today!
Back to Day 60. Today I visited the largest church in the world. Yiodo Full Gospel church in Seoul, South Korea. They are in the assembly of God denom. and have over 800,000 members. The sanctuary holds over 10,000 people and it was almost full. They have 7 services every Sunday. I went to the 3pm service.
Directions: Take Line #5 (Purple line) to Yeouinaru station. Take Exit number 1 and walk straight a few minutes. It will be on the left side which is the same side as the subway exit. You can also take exit 2 or 5 and ride bus #33-1, 3, 104, 119, or 326
I like the concept of afternoon services. This church has to have 7 services so they everyone can come. Theres a high demand for a lot of services.
I left my apartment at 11:30 am. I waited at the bus stop for about 20 minutes. Maybe not as many buses run on Sunday. I don't know. I've never waited 20 mins for a bus. So then I took the #1 line and transferred to the #5 line. I arrived at Yeouinaru station around 2pm. I took exit one and walked about 10 minutes. It wasn't hard to find. I sat down and the 1pm service was just getting out at 2:15pm. I watched all the people come out. There are about 20 men dressed in white coats and black pants who stand there in front of the church and bow and say something for a few minutes as the people are coming out of the church.
I went inside around 2:30. I was standing out in the lobby and a Korean man talked to me. He was the principal of an English school. He asked me where I was from and if this was my first time. He said he would be my interpreter for the service. Guess the information I found was wrong. I read that the 3pm service had English translation. All the stuff I've read said they lead you to a foreigners section and you wear a headset. Guess it wasn't true about the 3pm service. Praise and Worship started shortly after we sat down near the front.
Every once and a while the man would tell me the basic idea of what they were singing about in the song. They had 8 people in their praise and worship team and a band that doesn't sit on the stage but on the front row in the congregation.
They had a good choir and it was big. I think there were about 7 rows of people and at least 20 people on each row.
This was a very lively pentecostal church. I like the spirit of worship. I liked watching one of the praise team members. He was really getting into it and jumping up and down and really praising God.
I don't even know what the message was about. The Korean man would translate every once and a while, but I can't remember now. he doesnt use power point like im used to.haha. I enjoyed a Christian rock video he showed even though I have no clue what it was saying.
They had an altar call but no alters and no one comes to the front. And they said a healing prayer. The only reason I know that they had those is because it said "altar call" and "healing prayer" on the screen!
They did praise and worship at the end of the service also. I actually recognized one of the melodies, but I didn't know the words to the song. I enjoyed watching their dancers that were at the front during praise and worship. It was a group of young girls.
They had a dance team visiting from Argentina today. I enjoyed their 2 songs they did during service. One sounded like tango music and they danced to it. The other was that Lifehouse song that I've seen done as a drama many times. I really enjoyed it. THe only English part of the service! (the music was in English).
I think service was over around 4:30pm. I left around 4:45 because the man was telling me how to get back to the subway. I didn't take his directions. I took the way I knew. He also told me about their young adult English worship service. Its at 6:20 every Sunday night. I definatly might try that out soon. I definatly want to go to the Korean service again. I like the atmosphere even though I don't know whats going on.
I got back to the subway and got on line 5 and transferred to line 6. I decided I wanted to go eat supper in Itaewon. I really like Gecko's terrace so I went there. I ordered the cheeseburger and just sat there for a while listening to the English music. They have a great cheeseburger. Its expensive 10,500 won ($7.47) but its good.There were a lot of foreigners there. I just sat alone and no one bothered me.
One thing that bothers me about Korean restaurants is how the waiter brings you your food and then they never check on you again. And I don't think you get free refills. No one offered to refill my empty coke. drinks are expensive. a regular cup of coke was 3,000 won ($2.13) for about 16 oz probably.
On the 3rd floor of the same place as Geckos there is a bar called "Footloose". An 80's bar! I'll have to check that out sometime. If you didn't know it, I love 80's music. I really like The Breakfast club in Charlotte!
Then I went to Mcdonalds to pick up a big mac. I wanted to see if their big mac was as good as it was in America. I didn't eat it right then. I took it home to try later. I tried it later and it was good! It had 3 pieces of meat. I think the ones in America only have 2 pieces of meat. and its cheaper. It was 3,400 won which is $2.42.
random observation: Korean men don't mind holding their woman's pocketbook. I see men over here doing it all the time. It cracked me up today when I saw this man on the subway just holding his wife's purse on his shoulder. Oh and Koreans love to sleep on the subway. Its funny to watch them sleeping. I was watching this one guy and his head kept going over to the side. His head ended up on this other guys shoulder. That guy got up then. haha.
Then I went home.
I watched "Flash of Genius" tonight. Good movie.
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