Entry 22: Dad and Me

As I sat in service, half falling asleep because of the poor sleep that I got the night before from sleeping at a 찜질방, the pastor made the announcement that there would be a guest speaker coming Wednesday to talk about North Korea. I wondered if this was the same guest speaker that I had heard speak on the topic of North Korean missions in the past, my father. After the service ended I headed over to meet the man that gave life to me (sounds awfully dramatic) at 강남구청 and then we had dinner. He told me that he was going to be speaking at Jubilee on Wednesday night, so the announcement that was made about a guest speaker was in fact my dad. Sadly, I would not be able to make it down to 서울 in time to hear him speak, but made sure that I was with him the following Friday when he would speak at another English speaking congregation, New Philadelphia church.
The week passed methodically, but when Friday came, it was a whirlwind.
1. Eunice and I had been talking about it for a while, but we finally decided to let the world know (aka facebook) that we are in fact going out. Everyone knew we had liked each other for a while, so I'm sure this was no surprise.
2. I had school, then to catch a ride straight to Seoul.
3. I had to meet my dad
4. Go to a prayer meeting.
Friday was busy to say the least. Thankfully the church was a pleasant surprise.
The church was alive and on fire for God. It was refreshing for me to be in that environment, surrounded by people praying in Korean style prayer. My dad did a good job speaking and I knew that a lot of people were touched by the holy spirit.

I spent Saturday eating with my dad's friends, because that is all we do, especially when I am out with adults. We eat. My dad's friends like to take us out to fancy restaurants since my Dad rarely sees them. We went to an American styled all you can eat brunch, where there was bacon, sausages, and other great American classics (sausages are German, but still, I consider eggs, bacon, and sausage American breakfast). It was tasty. Then for dinner we went to the Ritz Carlton, where every dish was over 30 dollars. We also had a desert that was about 15 bucks. Freaking ridiculous, and definitely not worth the price, but still was a nice gesture from his friends.

The most interesting thing that I saw from my dad, was the fact that he really is a foreigner to Korea. So if you don't know my dad, you will know that he moved to the States when he was 13, meaning that his korean is good but his English, is better. I think this time it really hit me, that my dad had only lived in Korea until he was 13, meaning that he didn't go to high school or college in korea, meaning that his korean, would be the equivalent of a 13 year old and whatever Korean he picked up as an adult living in America. This was a shock for me, since my father in my mind, had always been the most fluent speaker in Korean I knew. He was like the epitome of a Korean person in my mind, even though we rarely spoke Korean at home. Finding out that my dad had more learning to do, was definitely a shock.

I think I went back and forth in my dad's mind as to how my korean had improved. There were multiple times that his friends would comment on how much my korean had improved, and my dad would quickly interject with "No, his korean is still bad." and "His older sister on the other hand can speak korean much better". I would also laugh it off and just smile, with a hint of indignation. "But Dad, I did pass the SAT Korean test"
"yeah, I have no idea how you pulled that one off"
But on the other hand, there would be times that he would tell me how my Korean had improved, but those were far more uncommon than the previous conversation.

I was fine with it, since I am now able to hold conversations in Korean with Korean adults who know a bit of english. it works out well for me to get around and I can even muster up a joke or too. But yeah, my korean isn't that good, but I think I've improved a lot... at least I hope so.

Anyways, good weekend. It felt super long and drawn out, but it was nice to see family.