First Weekend

Date: May 25, 2008

Today is Sunday, I thought I would go check around my surrounding areas and also possibly find a church with English service. Sam told me about a church close to my place (walking distance) and he said they might have Eng. service. So I decided to check it out. Since I have no idea what time the service starts (Sam didn't know either), I just went at a random like, like 10 AM.

The service already started, however, it's in Korean. The usher guy didn't really speak English, but I guess he got that I was looking for an Eng. service, so he had a girl take me to a little house (looks like a residential area), and i met some Vietnamese people. Turned out, it's a Vietnamese church, they have a main church somewhere else away from here, but they just started this branch in Gunpo not too long ago. However, most people were Vietnamese and they spoke Vietnamese. The pastor and couple other people speak English. It's a really small congregation. Today, the message was given by a guest speaker who spoke mostly Vietnamese. There was a lady tried to translate for me, but it's hard to translate live.

Although I didn't feel real comfortable there, but it was nice to sing some worship songs in English ( especially in a foreign country), also i've learned a lot of people moved here to make $$. Apparently, because the wages back in Vietnam is very low, so a lot of them came to Korea to get a job/to work and then mail the $$ back home for their families. Most of them came alone without their families because their main purpose is to work and to make money so no time to take care of a family. A lady who sat in front of me who just had a baby, and she had to leave her back in Vietnam and get a job here. It didn't really make sense to me especially she had to leave her baby behind; I asked why she couldn't bring the baby along with her, and they said because if she has the baby, she won't be able to work. Also, I think b/c the expanses are pretty high here as well.

[After being here for couple months, I realized that the stuff here are not cheap, it's about the same as in the U.S. sometimes even more. I was surprised how expensive some stuff are. However, going out to eat is cheap, no tips and don't have to pay taxes. That's another different thing here, you pay for the labeled prices, don't have to worry about adding taxes/tips]

Korea probably offers one of the highest income levels among Asian countries, but as mentioned before, in Seoul areas, expanses are high as well. In addition to the Vietnamese people, there are lots of people from China are here for work as well. I think people from China and Vietnam are probably in similar situations, so they come here to earn more $$ and send it back for their families so the families can use the money in a country where the expanses are much lower. Someone told me most of them are doing jobs that are labor related, so the pay is not real high, but higher than what they can get back home. When I went to the immagration office for my alien registration card, I saw TONS of Chinese people there; they even have like 3 counters designated just to serve Chinese immagrants, and only one window for other foeigners.

I'm thankful and am fortunate that I'm not in their shoes. Life must be very difficult physically, mentally, and emotionally for them. Definitely a completely different lifestyle and a different world.