Culture Shock

“Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down.”
(Kobi Yamada)

This past week I have spent a lot of my down time reflecting on the events, people, and beliefs that brought me to this place-South Korea-to teach small children. One minute I find myself questioning where God is leading me, and the next He reveals His love for me in a way to me that fills my heart with unquestionable doubt that I made the right decision. After a very stressful first day of work and grocery store experience, I was stopped by a huge bus and was not able to get around it. Right as my frustration was building I looked up and all I could see above the bus was the bright light of a cross. All of the churches here have big lit crosses that stick up from the building. It was just what I needed.

Last Monday (my first day of teaching) was my first emotional, almost meltdown moment. I had been teaching kids for 8 hours straight. I got done with work at 7, and had to go home to an apartment with no food. I decided I needed to brave my first grocery store experience. I can now laugh at the situation, but in the moment the experience was not enjoyable. I went to the large shopping center called Lotte Mart that is about 6 to 8 blocks away from my place. Lotte Mart is like a Super Target times 7. It has 6 or 7 floors, and each floor is the size of one Super Target. The grocery store is the whole first floor. After spending two hours in Lotte Mart walking up and down the aisles ( similar to grocery shopping at cub) I realized I had only been able to identify about 20 items. I felt exhausted and truly helpless. I just wanted some fruits and vegetables, stuff to make sandwiches for lunches, and some easy dinners. I had no idea how difficult that was going to be. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING was in English. The only exception were the few items imported from the U.S. and they were outrageously expensive. I walked down aisle after aisle looking at malt o meal sized bags of dried fish (eyeballs and all). There were sections of bugs-straight up larvae and beetles. Huge tanks of eels and octopus and the largest fish I have ever seen surrounded me no matter where I was. I walked through the entire "meat" section (i think it was meat) and could only find one kind of lunch meat (ham), in the smallest packages, and at a very high price. For the most part, however, most things were unidentifiable, and I had no idea which prices went with which item (especially in the produce section) because it was all in Korean. Needless to say I found enough food to survive on, but I wasn't able to get milk or anything real heavy because I could only buy as much as I could carry. The best thing that came out of that sitaution was that I now know what to expect. I feel very hopeful that my next grocery store experience will be less traumatic. I do have a feeling, though, that I will only have 1 or 2 meals that I will make repeatedly for an entire year.