There's a first time for.. EVERYTHING!

"We're the first to talk on Mars. Hey Julie, I'm the First to walk backwards on Mars. First to blow a kiss on Mars. Hey, you're the first to blush on mars."

"How'd you like to be the first guy to die on Mars."

"Well, sorry, Mr. First to Show Inappropriate anger on Mars."




I couldn't help but start this blog entry off with a quote from "Rocketman," an amazing film, if I do say so myself. But sometimes, even I feel like saying things like this here in Korea. For example, I'm the first Erdmann to click their heels while walking down the street in Daejon, Korea. Or, I'm the first person from Michigan to start a collection of pictures taken with Koreans wearing Detroit Tigers hats.




(haha.. it's true.) Now, granted I could count my ENTIRE time here as a "first", and so I'll just share a few with you today.

Anyways, I'm sitting here in my apartment, holding my arm, because I just received a flu shot the other day from the school, and it's getting sore. So then that made me think back to the beginning of the year when we had to get physicals for the school and had to... GIVE BLOOD.. dun dun DUN. yeah, it may come to a surprise to some, but Sarah Erdmann has never given blood out of her arm.. only finger pricks. Haha.. I sound like such a little kid. ANYWAYS, soo.. yeah.. it was interesting. (No, I didn't cry.) But, well, having someone take a needle, stab your arm, watch as your blood leaves your body NEVER to return, and then, on top of that, hear the nurse tell you something in Korean is probably not the most comforting thing to happen all at once. I just looked at her with a "thanks for that, I don't understand a word you just said" smile and walked out. First time giving blood EVER happened to be in Korea. Haha.. I laugh about it now.

I don't think I was completely coherent at the time, seeing that I was in such a fog of not knowing exactly where I was or what time it was due to jet lag. We were fed in and out of rooms with more testing. I felt like I had to keep saying to myself, "Fear nothing, expect anything." We all got chest x-rays done, as well as being measured by the "fatness measuring" machine. (Seriously, that's what it was called.) Oh, and you couldn't forget the contraption that measured your height. You stand there and just as I'm about to say, "Uhh... what am I supposed to---" BAM! I'm smacked on the top of the head by a lever that comes down and bounces off your head to get your height. ha. But yeah.. crazy day, which brings me to the most recent "first" experience.


It all started Wednesday morning, October 29, at 7AM. I woke the kiddos up and took them to breakfast. No big deal. I'm walking back to my apartment and contemplating whether or not I should shower and get on with the day, OR jump back into bed for the next hour or so. (Let's just say, you all know me so, this wasn't a tough question.) I was sleeping VERY soundly and then around 9:28AM... "BOOOOOOM!" I'm rudely awoken by the room shaking and I'm laying there on the couch trying to make sense of what exactly was going on. I jumped up and out of bed and it had stopped. I looked outside. No smoke. Nothing. No sirens. "Earthquake?" yep. Later that day I found out that there was indeed an earthquake in Korea, probably around a 3.4 on the official earthquake scale, and I live to see another day. However, that definitely was one of those Twilight zone moments.

Speaking of Twilight zone, that reminds me of a CRAZY thing that happened just a few weeks ago. A few of us were at the mall downtown and as we were walking outside, we walked up to the taxi line and just as I was about to grab the handle to the taxi door, I noticed someone sitting inside. So we went to the next taxi. However, as we reached the door again, we noticed someone sitting in the back of that taxi as well. I'm thinking to myself, "Why are they just parked here? Their availability light is still on!" So we then look up and all say in unison, "Woah."

If anyone has seen the movie "The Happening" you might understand how I felt at this moment. (If you haven't seen it, you're not missing much.) Anyways, in the movie, just before people start killing themselves, they freeze there for a minute or so, not moving a muscle. Well, this day in Korea, we looked out onto the busy street and cars were parked up and down the street, people were standing on the side of the road and it was... SILENT! It was incredible! (but eerie at the same time.)

We remembered that we had been warned about this so we wouldn't freak, which is probably what I would have done, had I not known. I guess every month from 2:00-2:20, they stop EVERYTHING for a drill. It's like a giant fire drill for the entire country, you know, in case there was an attack of some sort. Needless to say, it was interesting.

Also, this past month I went to the Passion conference in Seoul. It was amazing. It was actually David Crowder's first time ever in Korea, so that was fun to experience. But even more so, it was incredible to worship with thousands of Koreans, in both English AND Korean, during that weekend. These Asians really know how to worship! And there's something awesome about going to a completely foreign country and still coming together as a Body to worship our Savior.




(pictured, David Crowder, and then Choua and I outside the Olympic Stadium in Seoul.)


Finally, this is my first time ever being an RA. I was on a leadership staff in college, but never an RA, an RA for High Schoolers. It's strange because sometimes I feel like their mom and then there are times where I just feel like the older sister because I'm really only a few years older than some of them. But I'm loving every minute of it!

I'm going to go off on a tangent because recently I had a conversation with Laura, the dorm mom, about our dorm and the kids and how each kid is so different and sometimes it's difficult to feel like you're on the same page with each of them. Each of these kids comes from such different backgrounds, but the majority of them come from very privileged non christian homes. Their parents are doctors, professors, scientists, and famous opera singers. They sell Jets and are owners of giant companies, like Bennigans. (Yes, it's still thriving here in Korea, even though I think most of them shut down in the States.) You name it, probably one of these kids' parents does it. So this automatically puts my role as their RA and spiritual leader in a difficult place. They have been given everything they need in their life, so there's no need for a Savior or Heavenly Father. So my heart hurts for these kids. But now, just imagine what some of them will do someday. They've all had some sort of international experience and have been pushed to be the best in education that they can possibly be. These kids are the cream of the crop and just think what amazing things they could accomplish for Christ, if they'd let Him into their lives. Just some things I've been thinking about lately.

I still need to update you on my crazy time visiting the DMZ. (De-militarized zone between North and South Korea) I even stepped inside North Korea! Interesting, right?

Well, stay tuned for more updates.. as in.. a couple days from now. Ha..

Hugs, blessings, and Korean Tigers Fans!

Sarah

Just call me Mav...

So I've been appointed a new nickname, given by my fellow RA, Scottie. From now on, I will be known as "Maverick" here in Korea. (Stop laughing..ha.)

I updated not too long ago, but if I don't write another one, I'll get WAY behind. (So much has happened.. I'm constantly on the move here..) So a couple weeks ago we had a Rugby Tournament. It was so much fun! However, waking up at 6AM on a Saturday morning doesn't usually start a good morning, but after a long bus ride to Seoul and getting warmed up, we blew those rugby-goers out of the water. (And when I say blew them out of the water.. I exaggerate.. a little.) We actually didn't do too horribly, considering most of our team was new to the game about a month ago. But I guess it's a pretty big tournament in Seoul because some teams flew in from China! (crazy, right?)

At first, we were shaking in our boots because after arriving to the grounds, we began to notice how amateur our team was. haha.. Some of the teams had legit team outfits, numbers AND last names on the back to make it even worse! Our team, well, was given used TCIS dragons tennis t shirts (oversized, I might add). But regardless, it was an amazing experience! There were different divisions (all girls, all guys, mixed, and youth teams) and so in our division (mixed) we got 5th out of 8 teams! AWESOME! we won 3 games, tied 1, and lost 1. (The team we lost to were BEASTS! no joke.)




What's rugby without an injury, right? ha.. Yeah, so it's touch rugby, but I definitely got tackled to the ground.. landing on my head and then scraping up my back pretty bad. No concussion though, so I felt ok after sitting down for a while.



THEN.. we had SEW here at TCIS. I actually got to design the t shirts for this, which was quite exciting! (However, the guy who printed the t shirts put the logo on sideways..guh.. oh well.) So THIS is how they were supposed to look:


Oh well.. they looked cool regardless. But we had an amazing SEW. They flew in a speaker, Tim Milburn, and a band, Station 2, from the States and we got to hang out with them for a couple weeks! It was a blast and always a nice thing to meet fellow Americans here in Korea! :) It's sort of ridiculous, but I actually knew who the lead singer of Station 2 was! Crazy story, but he had come to Woodside Bible (when it was still called Troy Baptist) when he was in a previous band, Thirsty 4 more. I felt somewhat like a groupie when I explained that I had his music on my itunes and could finish lines from songs when he started singing them. haha.. ehhh... oh well.


some girls from my dorm hanging out during the SEW games (Soojin, Angela, and Esther)


me and Jennifer at the Station 2 concert!


Station 2 at the outdoor concert near LaVita, a coffee shop right outside the school grounds

FINALLY, fast forward to this past weekend where a few of us traveled to the southeast of Korea to the Jinju Lantern Festival! They celebrate this every year in memory of probably the worst period of Japanese invasion here in Korea. Supposedly, in October of 1952, General Kim Si-Min led his troops of a mere 4,000 and killed close to 20,000 Japanese. So this celebration is definitely one of Korean national pride. Soldiers would float lanterns down the Namgang river to let family and fellow troops know of their safety inside the castle. Cool, huh? Well, these were not just ordinary paper lanterns.. they were HUGE.. and there were so many of them! It was awesome.








(this one even breathed fire!)

Also, to our surprise, we got to experience a real Korean bullfight! No matadors, just bulls fighting each other! We got there and pretty much just walked in. Did we have to buy tickets? WHO KNOWS!? So we sat down and enjoyed the fight along with every other senior citizen in the Jinju area.. haha. (Seriously, I think we brought down the average age by 40 years!) It was crazy though..





Here's a video of us at the bullfight. There were brief moments of excitement, like when one bull TOTALLY tackled the other, but unfortunately I didn't capture that on film. I did however get this little snippet.. Oh, and at the end we're all making "oh gross" noises because these bulls had seriously been going on for so long but didn't give up, so they were OBVIOUSLY getting tired and showing it by hanging their giant tongues out of their mouths. ha.. awesome.



But that concludes everything going on right now. Thanks for your prayers from before, but as far as my animation classes go, I'm actually taking another break until after Christmas. (It's a long story, but pretty much they signed me up for the wrong class and the class I wanted to be in was already filled up... sooo.. I decided to wait until the winter term to start up again.) It's a bummer, but I feel good about this decision and I know this will give me more time to spend with the girls on my hall and just "be" here. (Maybe this will even be a good time to work on my illustrated book that my sister and I have yet to write! :) God has already answered so many prayers since I've arrived and I'm so thankful! Thank you for keeping in touch and I pray God blesses each of you today!

Hugs, blessings, and upside down t-shirt logos!

Maverick