Upon arriving at the church and entering the doors, the five of us were instantly stopped by a very small, very friendly Korean lady, who rightly assumed that we were college kids. She then proceeded to take us to a special service that was directed at people our age - and when we entered the room, I was overwhelmed. There were about fifty or so Korean students my own age, mostly from Carnegie Mellon University, talking and laughing and playing contemporary Christian music. I could see that, despite our different ethnicities, they were very similar to my own friends.
I cannot even remember how many different students approached and greeted us with warm handshakes and introductions, all curious about how our unlikely group had found their church, and I felt extremely accepted - something I had not been expecting from a church other than my own. There was, however, one very unique experience that we did have doing an otherwise normal service - about half way through, the leader asked everyone to stand up, turn to their right, and give that person a shoulder massage. We then turned and did the same thing to the person on our left - talk about an ice breaker!After the service itself was over, we were invited to stay for their church's lunch, an invitation we accepted. They took us to a large gymnasium in the church (it was a really big building) and I realized then just how big of a congregation there really was in attendence - probably close to two hundred people or so, I would imagine, though sometimes I overexaggerate a bit. There were a least one hundred, though. I never knew there was that large of a Korean population in the Pittsburgh area. Once in the gym, we were treated to the traditional Korean dish of kimchi, a dish that sort of resembled a cabbage soup, with meat and other vegetables as well, over rice. Not being a huge fan of cabbage myself, I just had some rice, though I did taste a bit of Alisha's kimchi - surprisingly spicy, though not something I would order. But at least I had the experience once.
Considering we had three students that were not from America with us, Alisha and I decided that before we returned to Waynesburg, a spontaneous trip to the Duquesne Incline was more than in order. I had actually never been on the Incline myself, either, even though I grew up here in Waynesburg, so I was more than willing to make the trip. For those of you that don't know what the Incline is - it is an old cable-car style system, kind of like a train, that goes up...well, an incline! The point is, when you get to the top of the hill, you have an amazing view of the city of Pittsburgh, and all three rivers, as well as the area around the city. Even though it was freezing outside (what can I expect from February, I suppose) it was an awesome experience.
Pittsburgh actually has a surprisingly large number of cultural things to do - mostly things I never even knew about growing up in the area and only discovered after beginning to attend Waynesburg University. I can say that they have definitely all been pleasant discoveries, such as the Korean church. There is also an area known as the Strip District (we are taking a trip there with WORLD later this semester as well) where one can buy foods and ingredients and crafts from literally all over the world.
Speaking of cultural events in Pittsburgh, I am attending one in April myself that I am unbelievably excited for called Tekkoshocon. It is held at the David L Lawrence Convention Centre (I saw the building for the first time on Sunday, and it is HUGE) and is a convention celebrating Anime and Japanese Pop Culture. Now, I understand that this sort of thing may not be everyone's cup of tea - but for people like me, its a haven to have an event like this so close to home. A surprisingly large group of us are planning to go up from Waynesburg to an area easy to drive to about 45 minutes away called South Hills where we can catch the subway system into downtown Pittsburgh, eliminating the need for anyone to drive or park in the actual city - and its only about $1.5o for a ride. And oh yes, if you are thinking in the back of your mind, 'That sounds like one of those things were all the nerds get together and dress up in strange costumes with weird hair and hang around eating Pocky all day,' you are exactly right. And yes, I have a costume. In April, you can check back here for some...interesting pictures, I'm sure.
So if you are interested in the amazing world of Japanese Pop Culture - fear not! Going to Waynesburg will get you within an hour of a really large collection of people that are into the same thing! Good news for those of us in America interested in things from across the globe, after all.
Anyway, enough rambling about the future (I am just really excited, we've been planning to go since July, and its finally really close) and onto the present! Yesterday I recieved an invitation to join Pi Gamma Mu, the International Honor Fraternity of Human Services. Although Waynesburg does not have the stereotypical 'party fraternities' (something I am really glad about), there are a lot of academic fraternities that one can join, or be accepted into, throughout the years attending here. I know that besides this one, there is at least two others for business and for theatre. However, this one applies to me the most, and I am definitely going to accept the invitation - talk about a nice opportunity to help me get into graduate school one day! Thank you Waynesburg!
Well, next week is another one full of exams - so it looks like I am off to start working on studying for my International Relations one! Until next week...
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