The Final Countdown

Currently Listening To: Duper Sessions by Sondre Lerche

Doo-doo-dee-doo...
Do-Do-De-Do-Do...
(Please tell me you know this power metal anthem)

Anyways...
I have 4.5 weeks of teaching left...
6 weeks of actual school...
Wow...
After last night, backpacking China is still a go...

Now, I was inspired by my friend Phil Harris after reading his blog (which you can access through my favorites in the top right corner)...

Some Things I Love:

- Black Coffee
- Sneakers
- Pizza
- My iPod (just got the 160 gb - booyakasha)
- Remembering my dreams
- Inside jokes
- Cold pillows
- Dreamland (best ribs ever)
- Chips & salsa (something I desperately lack here)
- Washing my hands
- Adventure
- Road trips
- Candid photographs
- Surviving a long run
- Bread

These are just some of the top of my head (and, I haven't had breakfast, so most of them are about food - whoops)

Yesterday, the Well Went Dry...

Currently Listening To: Noni's Field by Anathallo

First of all, this new Anathallo song is absolutely incredible...
I go to their MySpace and listen to it multiple times a day...
Check them out, it will be well worth it...

I have tons of stuff going on my mind right now...
I am sure I will type it out later...
For now, it is all just floating around in my noggin...

Anyways, in all of my life-speculation and slight senses of panic, I came across a quote that I might very well be floating on in a state of metaphysicality for a while:

"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."

This is basically the story of my life at this point, as terrifying as it might sound when I actually think about the implications of a life that is lived in this way...
However, a life like this will be so much more rewarding...
Let's do it, YHWH...
This little addage might just do a good bit to revolutionize my life...
Awe-some...
Absolutely awe-some...

Peace

A Secret Prayer: Please Let Lunch Be Good Today

Currently Listening To: Floating World by Anathallo

Let's just say this...
Sometimes one gets tired of eating peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast and lunch...
Anyways...
I am praying that the cafeteria hooks me up today...

This past weekend was nice...
We got a 3-day weekend because of Children's Day, a Korean holiday...
So, we got to see some festivals (Lantern Festival) and a cool parade...
It was awesome...
It really makes me feel a part of the country I live in...
A nice change from just walking in clothing stores, for sure...


Well, I am starting a Korean Conversation class tonight, I think...
All I have to say it, finally...
I have been wanting a way to learn a little Korean, and now I have my chance...
I think it is going to be offered twice a week...
I just wish it could have gotten started up a long time ago...
I only have a couple months left...
Hopefully I can absorb as much as possible before I leave for the summer...
I think we only have something like 5 weeks of teaching left or so...
Which is, honestly, kind of a relief and kind of frightening...
I still feel like I have a lot of stuff to get through before finals...
Well, I guess you just gotta do the best you can...

Anwyays, I have to do some planning for my World History class before lunch...
XOXO

My Students Always Come Back With Haircuts After Vacation...

Currently Reading: Love in the Time of Cholera
Currently Listening To: Happy Music for Happy People by Mogwai

I have nothing groundbreaking to say in this entry, I just sort of want to write...
I really am striving to be a more honest person...
Honest with myself, honest with others...
Lately, every time I think about what it means to be a Christian, I just think how I want so badly to be like Jesus...
I really feel that the Lord has been so faithful to me...
I went with some of my friends to a great English ministry in Seoul on Sunday...
I think we are going to try and make it out there as much as we can, given the distance and all...
I really just want to feel and be alive, and I think God is responding to my desire by drawing me in to God's nature and being, and I am trying to focus on becoming as much like Christ as I can...
I am trying to rejoice both in the freedom and yoke that comes with Christianity, and just strive for greatness (which, as I was reminded on Sunday, comes when we become servants of all)

Like I said, I don't have anything to say, which makes my life feel somewhat monotonous and lacking in reflection...
That's a different story...

XOXO

Korean 7Up and Peanut Butter Crackers

I Miss My Best Friends

Currently Reading: Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker (I don't recommend it - it has become an teeth pulling endeavor)
Currently Listening To: Relationship of Command by At the Drive-In

Well...
Apparently God doesn't want me to enter my students grades into the school gradebook system, because both times I have tried to do it in the past two days, something has gone wrong...
So, now I am sitting and drinking Korean 7Up and debating whether or not to make myself something to eat (I really want cookies, but I just don't have any)...
Um...
What has happened lately?

I saw Hillsong in Seoul (absolutely amazing - I needed it in my life)
I bought a candle from the store that produces no smell but claims to be apple-scented (and to think, it smelled so strong before I lit it - this is a pet peeve that I can't even start on, sort of like trying to wash your hands when the faucet is too close to the wash basin in the sink)
I just bought some candy for a kid in my homeroom (it is her birthday tomorrow)

Korean Boys Love to Sit in Each Other's Laps...

Currently Reading: Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker
Currently Listening To: Little Wars by Unwed Sailor

This is a cultural phenomenon that I do not understand...
I have sort of gotten used to it (and let's face it, I am not a super-macho dude anyways)...

Well...
For those of you who read this, I am basically just asking for your continued prayer as I try to walk out the steps that God would have me to take...
Coming back to Korea still seems like the most "lucrative" option in my life (I mean, I have never been one to base my life around money)...
I guess what I mean by lucrative is like a holistic sort of lucrative-ness...
I get to live in another awesome part of the world and see amazing places (I mean, who gets to go to Thailand for Spring Break and backpack across Asia in the summer?)

However, I am not at all opposed to pursuing another option if God would have me to do so...
The whole "Don't do it because it is safe, do it because it will be worth it" concept...
So, just keep praying that I will be led and sensitive and open to the doors God opens...
Thanks!

The Song for April Is...

Currently Reading: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Currently Listening To: Legends of Rodeo

Well...
I have got some updating that I am going to do...
I just got back from Thailand, which was great...
In Bangkok, we got to experience the Thai New Year, which is basically a 3-day-long water fight where everyone's goal is to soak you and rub clay all over your face...
Needless to say, it was amazing...
Then, we went to Phuket, where I was able to lay by a swimming pool for hours on end and get hit on by gangs of cross-dressing male prostitutes (this was both frightening and saddening)...
Now, we are back and teaching again...
All good things come to an end, yeah?

Now, on to the serious stuff I have been thinking about...
(You knew it was coming)
Basically, I just want to make sure that I "do" life right, at this point...
What I mean by this is that I just want to live life the way it is meant to be lived starting now, rather than putting it off until I know what I am supposed to be "doing" with my life...
Does this make sense to anyone else but me?
This doesn't mean I am living in sin or sowing wild oats or doing whatever I please until God snaps me out it...
Rather, I am just trying to walk into my destiny...
It is just tough to know what to do sometimes when you don't see the "end" result on the horizon...
I know nobody knows the future, but at least some people have an idea of their callings and what they ultimately want to do...
For me, this has never been the case...

However, God has been super-faithful to me lately...
For instance, last night, I felt God tell me not to do something because it is safe, but to do it because it is worth it...
So many times, this is so hard...
Even when I go on "crazy" adventures, I somehow do them with a level of comfort...
Basically, I am just wanting to live the life that is tailor-made for me by the Great Designer...
And, I love how God is wanting to reveal that life to me slowly but surely...
I have been re-exposed to some really encouraging and challenging words from God and they are stirring in my spirit...
As I often say in times like this - I am feelin' it...