Day 21- No such thing as a free lunch

The title of this blog post seems a bit random, I'm sure. But it'll make sense about halfway through.

So, today's history class was really boring. I've found that the more I read the material in advance for class the more concupiscent I am that what the teacher says is merely repetition. Nevertheless, it was interesting enough stuff. Japan takes over Korea and basically treats the people like crap. Not too much different than Tuesday's lecture. Next up tomorrow is the Korean war. Should be fun, no?

Things that weren't fun were paying for my China visa. Now, us group of university students that are going were told that it would be around W130,000. Sure, fine, ok. No big deal. However, we all received an email earlier this week saying that the real cost would be around W208,000, much to the ire of other students. I merely shrugged it off- I knew it was going to be expensive, so why complain about it being a bit more than I thought? I remember DIC (Doofus in Charge, remember her?) telling us that it would be around $200 for the China visa, so whatever. Though it appears as though I was the only one. :/ Anyways, such is life and occasionally one must do things that are uncomforatable.

I went down to the office, W208,000 in hand, ready to get my passport back (the office took our passports for the visa) only to learn, to my dismay, that we can't get them back. Excuse me, said I, but my passport is very important to me.

Ah, replied the director here, but we need to keep all the passports together for the trip.

And why may that be? I asked.

Because you are all going over together in a group, she explained to my blank face.

Horrible enough of an excuse as that was, I made sure I got a receipt from those jokers and left the office fairly bummed out. Then, I met Abraham. Abraham is a Korean/Swiss student who was studying at Hanyang full time. He was roughly my age, maybe a little younger. To be honest, he didn't look Korean, but rather somewhere from the Middle East.

We began chatting amicably and he seemed like a nice enough guy. I said that I didn't have any plans for lunch and asked him if he wanted to grab something at the cafeteria. He wholehearted accepted and proclaimed we should not go the cafeteria, but rather McDonald's across the street from the college. Alright! Once we got inside, he offered to pay, claiming that it was a welcome to Korea present. Now we're talking. I shrugged and said sure. The guy seemed nice enough and hey, I had gone out to lunch with Alexis the other day and she was good enough company as well.


We get there, and the place is busy. I mean...busy. Though, I do have to say, for all of the business, it was no sooner than Abraham finished ordering our respective meals (Big Mac meal for me, McChicken meal for him) than our food was served to us. My jaw almost hit the floor. Impressed? Yes, sir. Not even Americans can do it that fast. I suppose at this point, I should point out that there are scooters where one can order McDonald's and they deliver it to you (pictured to the right). Amazing idea, but I fear that if it every caught on in the US, we'd never leave our houses. Or may I wouldn't.

The food was good. Standard- but because I picked up said meal between the hours of 11 and 2, the normally $5 meal was a mere W3000 (under $3). Good service, no? The drink was a little smaller than American drinks but it was good to have some familiar products in front of me.

So, I said a silent prayer and blessed myself as we sat down to eat. He asked me if I was Christian, to which I responded that I am. He revealed himself as a Muslim, to which I was interested. I asked a few questions of him, just standard stuff (not necessarily theology) and expressed my respect for Muslims (ie not drinking, prostrating to God- which the Orthodox do as well and I find it surprising that more do not). He then started to say that Christians and Muslims are somewhat similar theologically, to which I said I mostly agreed. Then came the issue of Jesus.

Ho boy.

To those of you unfamiliar with the religions discussed here, most Christians adhere to the idea that Jesus was both completely God and completely man and as such makes up part of the Trinity. By comparison, Islam does revere Jesus as a very important prophet and view him as important, but does not recognize him as the Son of God, an idea viewed as blasphemous. After all, how could God die?

Naturally there were going to be some disagreements in theology. He started with saying that while he reveres Jesus, Jesus never said he was the Son of God directly (which is admittedly true) and that Jesus was created, that God can never be split or divided and so forth and so on. I tried to defend my own personal viewpoints as best as possible, but he wasn't listening. That's probably what annoyed me the most. He continued plowing onwards even though I tried to say "That's fine what you believe but I don't believe the same things you do." He continued to proselytize me (or attempt to) for the next while.

I like a good theological/spiritual debate as much as the next guy, but there comes a point where the two people arguing basically have to agree to disagree or end up squabbling for the next hour/day/week/month. I was set with doing that- he wasn't. To be honest, I wasn't trying to convert him either and saw no reason to (he seemed perfectly happy enough as is). I enjoyed the talk and the company, though he was getting a bit overbearing. He wasn't confrontational, but rather zealous, if that makes sense. He said that he hoped that he wasn't offending me (he hadn't) but he just wanted to share the most important thing in the world to him with me. Fine, that's good that you have your faith. However, I have mine already and if I was looking for another one I would have been asking you questions rather than you telling me why my religion isn't correct- please leave me alone.

Thankfully I shook him off as I entered my language class but the somewhat constant barrage of him telling me that I was wrong left me somewhat weary. Even my classmates noticed it and asked me what happened. "Ran into a proselyte. Wasn't pleasant."

My encounter having worn me out, even the bubbly teacher for Korean language couldn't rouse me from my slow movement. I made it through class though and that's what is important.

I guess in the end, I am a rather horrible Christian. I don't actively proselytize or tell people about my faith unless it comes up in conversation. My priest at college tells our congregation that we should all have a testimonial about how we came to the Faith and a story about it. I guess, I really don't have one. I was born into Orthodox Christianity, was baptized at forty days, had Communion right after, First Confession before ten and went through the whole Sunday School thing, more often than not being the only one awake in class and stirring up some kind of debate or dialogue just to let the teacher know that someone, anyone was listening. Though, I'm not sure if any of them realized that. Well, maybe one or two.

It's not like I haven't considered other religions or schools of thought. Orthodox Christianity works for me, even with my many questions and concerns. It's where I belong.

Perhaps my respecting of other people's boundaries and believe that if I was a really good Christian then they would as me about what makes me different or whatnot and then I could tell them. Though, that has never happened, so whatever. Maybe some day. It wasn't today, apparently.

I guess, I want to leave off today with a quote from Neil Gaimen's Novel "American Gods." It's a fantastic book and anyone who likely mythology (of ANY sort) will love it and even those who don't will as well. The quote goes: "There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous."

No such thing as a free lunch, Ladies and Gents. No such thing.

-Reven