SchneiderWeb

I have been in Korea now for nearly four months. Surprisingly, I haven't had that much difficulty acclimating. The climate is the same as in New York. In fact, it's been cold enough lately that I went local and have taken to wearing a surgical mask while riding my bike. I have been eating Korean food for the past 15 years, so I haven't had to adjust my diet (although I have forgotten how to use a fork); and I now even eat kimchi at most meals. My language skills are slowly coming along; I am no longer completely oblivious to what is being said at the weekly pastor meetings. Yet there is one local custom with which I don't expect to ever be comfortable--that being the sauna. First of all, forget the image of "sauna" that you have from your health club. We're not talking a bunch of guys wrapped in towels while they sit in a room the size of a jail cell and stew in their own sweat, as awesome as that sounds. No, Korean saunas have a rhythm and a ritual al...

I have a backlog of posts coming, for anyone who is still interested. I have an assistant starting this week to take over the children's ministry, which I have been leading for the last two months in addition to my other responsibilities (adult English ministry, Korean class, film club). His arrival should free me up for other things, like blogging. In the meantime, I had two New York moments in the last few days, including one just minutes ago, that I feel like sharing. A facet of life here in Seoul is that the taxis do not share the rules of the road that the rest of society follows. Green always means go, even when it is a green walk signal for pedestrians and cyclists. As I was crossing a busy intersection last week a taxi that I had a wary eye on blew through the walk signal and passed by close enough for me to rap my knuckles on his back door. I regret not yelling out, a la Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy, "I'm walkin' here!" All I could muster was an an...