The Big News...

So, I'm sure this is what you've all been waiting for... my decision to stay or not to stay in Korea for one more year. I had to tell my school for sure this Wednesday, so my decision is official.

I guess you want to know what I told them.

Basically, as most of you know, when I went home this summer, I was DETERMINED not to stay another year in Korea. I hated my job, and I didn't think I could last longer than another semester. I knew this semester was going to be hard enough in itself, so I definitely couldn't imagine enduring it for any longer than that. Also, I was given the opportunity to start a ministry that has been my dream for the longest time when I finished my time here in February. So many things were pulling me away from Korea, and I was ok with it.

Here's the but.

BUT, the thing is, God's ways are not my ways, nor His thoughts my thoughts...

My first week back in Korea, I agreed to visit a new church with Caroline. Both of us felt an instant connection to the church, and God really gave me a peace about attending this church. It's amazing how my world flipped completely upside down in like two hours. After the service, there is a newcommers gathering where you can learn about the church and hear the pastor's testimony. Basically his testimony was amazing, and the theme of his journey was obedience. So many things he said hit me really hard. The biggest thing was that he said, "If you can't obey authorities placed in your life here on earth, how do you honestly expect to obey the Lord?" This ripped my heart because the reason I had such a hard time last semester was a lot to do with the administration over me at my job. But God was just saying, "Ashley, don't forget why I've brought you here. I have placed you in this position for a reason, and I expect you to be obedient to that..." Whoa.

And that was it. Yeah, at first I was just saying to the Lord, "I can't hear you, I can't hear you!" but he began to change my heart. Slowly, my attitude at work started to change, and all of the sudden I really started to like my job. I actually end the day feeling happy.

I think a lot of changes in administration are taking place at CCA next year, so I'm hoping that means an even better experience next year.

All that to say I am staying, and I'm actually really excited to see what the Lord does while I'm here for the next year and a half. (that's kind of scary saying it like that!)

Ok, just wanted to fill you all in on where I am at....

Lyrics for today: "Be Near" Shane and Shane

For dark is light to you
Depths are height to you
Far is near,
but Lord I need to hear from you

Be near, oh God, Be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good
Be near, oh God, Be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good

What a week.

Well hello there everyone... I hope this finds you well. I'm beginning to believe no one reads this but my parents since no one comments on it anymore. It's very sad :( Haha.

Seriously though.

So here's a compilation of what's gone on in good ole Korea in the past week give or take. Enjoy.

This is from last Saturday when Cameron and I went to Seoul. We spent the day at COEX. Highlights of the day: eating On The Border and Buying Korean phrase books in the best bookstore in Korea. Also we saw this creepy rock/statue thing on the bus ride home:

This is Karaoke from some night... I don't really remember. Anthony was a little crazy that night, as you can see....

Stephanie, Anthony, Kathy, Me and Cameron after Karaoke. This night I got to sing "MmmmBop." It was truly amazing. I miss Hanson.

This is from dinner last night. Caroline found a new kind of Samgyupsal that's like smoked so it has kind of a woody taste. It's good for something different to eat.

Park In and Anthony eating Korean style...

Me eating a really hot pepper. I didn't know it was a hot pepper until the moments after this picture in which I seriously thought my lips were going to fall off. Oh man it burned.


The next series of pictures is from the DBU Asia outing they took today. Luckily, they invited me to go too :) It was a great day spent at Gyeongbokgung Palace and in Myeong Dong Shopping!

The whole group minus Kathy who was taking the picture. Anthony, Cameron, Stephanie, Tim, Enny (SP? sorry), and Me. This was in the subway station right before we walked out to the Palace.

The front gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace.

The guards outside... I think that's what they were?

I think this picture is hilarious because almost everyone's eyes are closed. It was really sunny today.

This one's a little better. Cameron, Enny, Tim, Me, Tones, and Stephanie.

Waiting on people to get out of the bathroom...

Another gate in the Palace.

Me and Kathy. I really liked this wall... so pretty.

I look Korean right?

This suits Cameron well I think. Haha.

All the single ladies...

Another cool building at the Palace.

I had fun editing this one. I wanted it to look kind of dreamy... I like how it turned out.

I really like how this one turned out...

Tones and Kathy in yet another section of this place. It was huge.

I really love this picture of us. It was taken in the room the Emperor would go to think.

Kathy getting connected to her roots. HAAA.

Picture from the Subway station. This picture was an accident but I kind of liked it. It felt like we were in a cave down there.

The next pictures are from the most ridiculous things I have seen in a while. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these pictures. I laughed at Kathy for so long about these pics. Enjoy.

At first glance it catches you off guard right??? So good.

Didn't expect that one either right? So funny.

Our lunch of Bulgogi.

Some spicey Bulgogi.

Antonio and Steph

The other side of the table at lunch. It was pretty good.

Ok, that's all for this update. I hope everyone has a great week. Please keep all of us over here in your prayers... stresses and pressures are high and everyone is struggling to keep up. Please pray that we will be patient with the people we work with, and that we will be dilligent in our work!

Miss you all dearly! Mom and Dad get here in 12 days! Woohoo! Can't wait!

Song lyrics for today:

"Come thou fount of every blessing
tune my heart to sing thy grace.
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonet
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise his Name, I'm fixed upon it
Name of God's redeeming love.

Oh to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be.
Let thy goodness like a fetter
bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart Lord, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above."

1:45 AM

So basically it's like 1:30am and I have to be up in like 4.5 hours for Chapel in the morning. Goody. I've been trying to fall asleep since before midnight, but my body just won't sleep! Ahhh I'm going to be sooo tired tomorrow.

This is a lame post, so if you don't want to read it, here's what you'll miss. Really unexciting pictures of Caroline, Erin, and I eating pizza. Then, really unexciting pictures of us eating "authentic" Mexican food. Then, you can see that Korea has a very interesting take on aquariums, next, you can see that Anthony, Cameron, and I absolutely cannot blow bubbles, and lastly, you'll see what happens when Anthony steals my camera.

Here's Carolina eating her Pizza at UNOS Pizza in COEX mall after church last week.

Erin and I with our pizzas. Notice mine has no sauce.... YUMMMM.

The three of us after UNOS.

Then, due to the swine flue, Caroline, Erin, Krista and I went to have Mexican food in Songtan for lunch on Tuesday. Thank you, swine flu.

Apparently Caroline and Erin were full or something.

Krista and I after Mexican food. Yes, I am rockin the tye die. Be jealous.

These next pictures are from the aquarium in COEX mall. I went on my day off Wed. I shopped, ate at On The Border, went to the Aquarium and watched My Sister's Keeper (oh my goodness so sad... be prepare to cry... ALOT)

Anyways, Korea has an interesting take on Aquariums, so this was entertaining:

First, fishies in the vending machine.

Next, fishies in the potty. Don't you know so many kids go home and put their fishies in the potty and never see them again...

fishies in the refrigerator...

And fishies in the washing machine. Of course.

The next series of pictures happened A)because Chelsey, one of Cameron's friends sent us Bubble gum and asked us to have a bubble blowing contest B) because we were using a timer and C) because apparently we aren't as good at blowing bubbles as when we were 12. Go figure. So, here's what happens when you give us a camera, bubble gum, and a timer...

1st unsuccessful attempt: Ashley fails.

2nd unsuccessful attempt: Anth and Cam fail... I just look like I have a mental illness.

3rd unsuccessful attempt: we all fail and laugh hysterically about how dumb we look trying over and over again with a timer trying to get a picture of us blowing bubbles.

4th unsuccessful attempt: Anthony turned angry and Cameron decided to whistle instead. Something like that...

5th unsuccessful attempt: Cameron REALLY fails. I mean, looks really cool?

6th unsuccessful attempt: Erik comes home... realizes that we are retarded and offers to take the picture for us. BUT someone, I won't name names (Cameron Cline) still can't seem to blow a bubble. This is as good as it got.

And this is what happens when Anthony steals my camera for like 30 minutes.

So that's the end of this late night/early morning/have to get up in 4 hours post. Hope you were entertained.

Wold Festival Songdo

Hellooooo everyone. So last Sat, Anthony, Caroline, Stephanie and I went to a global festival in Songdo. We rented a car since it's about 1 1/2 hours away from Suwon, and spent the whole day out there. Songdo is a brand new state of the art city that's supposed to be the next biggest thing in international technology and business. The global fair had lots of different stores, foods, and activities from countries all over the world. I had Napali food for lunch and it was fantastic! If you want to check out this crazy new city, you can go to the website by clicking HERE.

Anthony got a little windblown in the backseat...

Um so this said "flying toilet germs" so I thought it was noteworthy and hilarious, thus the basis of its appeal for a snapshot. Sorry it's blurry, I took it while I was going to the bathroom :) TMI?

Outside the front of the global fair. Anthony, Caroline, Me, and Stephanie.

Lucky for Anthony they were giving out free Ajuma (old lady) visors. Seriously though, these are all the rage in S. Korea. It's crazy. No one wants a single centimeter of their face to see the sun. Good for them I guess.

All the ladies in front of a fountain...

Ummm this was super cool. It was like an upside down garden of lots of diff kinds of squash. Pretty amazing.

Mmmmm they looked so tasty.

These were a little bit scary.

Yeah, that's right. I've been in THE Trojan horse. How many people (other than the 1000s that have been to this fair) can say they've done that??? Ok, I admit, it wasn't that cool. But still.

I don't know what this was I just know my stubs for legs weren't long enough to get on it.

We went to see this AMAZING circus show. This was before it started.

Ummm so our butts were two big for us to fit in this... so either it's made for one person, or two Korean people.

Carolina playing with some Korean thing. Sorry, I truthfully have no idea what this is...

There was a teddy bear museam or something. Amazingly enough it had the longest line to get in to. Koreans love their teddy bears. We didn't go in so we settled for a picture. I look like a little kid in this picture and I love it.

This is a string of kites! Can you believe it! It's soooo amazing. They were still putting more on when I took this picture. So cool.

My view of the kites...

We went to see a 3d film about "tomorrow land" which is part of the new city. It's got all the latest technology. SOOOO crazy/cool. It was like being in the movie Minority Report.

Anthony riding a tredmil but it feels like your walking through a park on the screen. Neat.

A thing you could sit in and try different hairstyles on you and see what you'd look like with plastic surgery (koreans also love their plastic surgery) and what you'll look like when you're old. SCARY!

At the end we took a picture for the memory tree... see below:

Where your picture shows up...

On the roof of Tomorrow land

All of us together... I didn't mean to be so snuggly with Tones... I thought everyone else was closer to me :) haha

Some robots that will be used in the new city. SOOOO cool.

We saw Super Junior in concert! I really like them. We saw this song.... (click HERE for video) Basically Super Junior is HUGE right now... especially this song "Sorry Sorry" it's super catchy. I like it alot. It'll get stuck in your head though.

Then after we went and had a REALLY late dinner of Samgyupsal on our way back to Suwon. Yummmmmy.

Okie dokie. That's all for now. Oh, highlight from tonight: Getting to sing "mmmbop" at Karaoke tonight. OH my goodness it was awesome. Thanks to Kathy and Stephanie for singing with me! Such a fun night!

I'll update again soon!