joie de vivre

I love being here. I feel like I am part of something bigger than myself, even if it's just in a small way.

I just finished reading Donald Miller's "Blue Like Jazz" for the second (or was it the third?) time..and one of my favorite parts of the book is when he's talking about self-addiction. And how so many people are just looking out for themselves and don't care or take the time to meet the needs of anyone else. I don't want to walk through this life caring only about me and making sure my needs are met first. 

Here is an excerpt from "Blue Like Jazz." A poem by C.S. Lewis.

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.

I never had a selfless thought since I was born. 

I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through;

I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn. 

Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,

I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin;

I talk of love--a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--

But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin. 

I hope that each and every day, I can become a bit more like Jesus was. Caring, selfless, and more than anything, loving to everyone. 

My (almost) bad hair day

Yesterday my new Korean friend Sijin took me to a local hair salon to get my hair cut. I have been told by many people that I should take a photo with me of what I want done. I have a picture of my hair when it was cut before we moved, so I brought that along, with a few others just to give the stylist a better idea of what I wanted done. 

I really didn't know what to expect, other than I wouldn't be able to communicate with the lady doing my hair. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. 

So let me start at the beginning. We walk into the salon..show a lady my photos and my friend explains what I want done and the stylist seems to understand. They wash my hair, I sit down, and she starts blowdrying it! Here I am thinking.."Kinda weird that she's drying it, but whatever.." Then she starts cutting it all over the place..no real system of back, sides, front, bangs...nothing. She's just cutting. Then all of a sudden she puts gloves on and whips out this bag and starts mixing together some white concoction, which to me looks like hairdye (or bleach!). I catch a glimpse of the packaging and it says PERM on it. The last thing I need is a perm! I immediately panic and look to my friend Sijin asking her what in the world this woman is planning on putting in my hair. Sijin says that they're going to straighten my hair. With chemicals. So, as long as she's not perming it..that's fine with me. So she starts applying this gunk, which smells awful, and then she puts rollers all over my head. After 2 people help put rollers in, I sit there for about 20 minutes, noticing that my hair is looking a lot lighter! I begin to wonder if she's actually bleaching it without my knowledge! One of the photos I had happened to be of 2 blonde women..so I'm thinking "Does she think I want to be blonde?!" My friend asks, and the lady says not to worry. Great answer. 

A few minutes later, someone else comes over and ushers me over to wash it all out. Then they blow dry it, and I thank God it's still brown! And this is where I really start panicking..she starts straightening it with the flat iron, and then at the very ends of my hair, she starts curling it under, making these huge curls all over my head! The whole time I'm thinking over and over "WHY? WHY?" Why was she straightening it and then curling it under to make me look like I'm 80 years old!? I kept imagining myself ripping the flat iron out of her hands and just starting to straighten it out myself. I was so confused. Then all of a sudden, she grabs more rollers, and starts rolling up my hair again. Then they spray my hair with water, and squirt what smelled like peppermint oil all over my hair. I'm sitting there with this weird thing around my neck to collect all the water that's dripping down my neck and head. I was so confused! 

After another 15 minutes they wash my hair yet again, this time with a nice head and neck massage. The experience was getting betterat this point. The stylist blowdried my hair and it was stick straight! My hair is naturally curly, so it's really weird seeing it straight when it's wet. So, she dried it and didn't even have to use a flat iron on it to get it straight. She cut some more off and cleaned up the back and it looked great! All of this to say, I shouldn't have been scared or nervous. I communicated what I wanted..the process just took longer than what I'm accustomed to. They did a great job, in a different, roundabout way. 

Oh, and apparently the "Straightening Perm" will last 3-4 months! So long to my curls for now. 

Lesson Learned...

Always bring a camera! No matter what!

The other night Zack and I went out to dinner with another professor, his wife, and their son. They took us to a Korean BBQ place that they love. It's the original-take off your shoes, sit on the floor on a cushion type restaurant. We hadn't been to a place like that so far, and it was really fun, and nice to go with some locals who speak the language! So you sit down, and someone brings over some hot coals to put in the center of the table in this small pit, you order and they bring out raw marinated meat for you to cook on your own with tons of fresh lettuce leaves of all kinds, with all the side dishes you can think of! So you basically are making your own lettuce wrap, and it is delicious! Zack and i thought that was the meal in and of itself, but that's just the starter! A rice or noodle dish is also included..since any Korean meal is not a meal without rice (or noodles).  

I'm pretty bummed that I forgot to bring the camera though. I'm trying to get better about taking more pictures, so from now on I will always have it with me..even if it weighs down my purse! But for now..I'm going to borrow some photos from the internet to show you what our meal looked like.