How to be a sinner

On the third day of KYD we learned all about how we are sinners.  You knew this was coming, right?  You might think that this was the worst part of the event but actually, I loved it.  Why?  Because I got to see how all of this was relayed in another culture.  And that was kind of entertaining for me.

Because I went to Catholic school, I have had many lectures about sinning.  That's standard when you're a Catholic school kid.  And now I got to have one in Korean!  It was mostly pretty standard stuff, sex, drugs, violence, etc.  But there were a few notable parts.  What, you ask?  Well, we watched an entire kpop video.  This was hard for me to understand.  I've seen a billion kpop videos but I couldn't figure out the significance of this one.  Was it Christian themed?  It just seemed standard to me.  Four girls are looking for love or something and they all look like they're dating the same guy because the production company is too cheap to hire multiple actors.  Turns out, the song lyrics were about sexy times and the girls actually maybe were dating the same guy in the story.  Weird.

They also showed news clips from America of men being arrested for not paying child support.  This was awesome.  Afterwards after speaking with my team members, I learned that in Korea they just straight up don't have child support.  This was one of my proudest moments as an American in Korea.  Because the people I was talking with were shocked that in a country they perceive as being so free-thinking, we make people pay child support.  Heck yes we do!  Shut it down.  Be responsible for your offspring.

Side note: I was shocked to learn that Korea had no consequences.  I just honestly had not thought about it before.  Maybe this will change?  I have no idea.  But I'm glad America has consequences for not paying child support.

Learning about sinning in Korea.

There was one final part of the lecture that stuck out for me.  We watched a (poorly done) movie about a man who is in love with a woman, goes to war, comes back, and then leaves her to be a priest.  But he's not cool about it and doesn't tell her, instead he just rides away on the back of a truck while she chases after him.  Turns out, it was Pope John Paul II.  I did not 100% believe this story so when I came home I looked into it and was unable to find anything serious.  Mostly the internet said he acted in college and dated a girl before becoming a priest.  But nothing about him coldly driving away and throwing a ring at her (I forgot so say that part but it was in there).  Anyone know more about this?  Let me know if you do.

After we learned all about sinning, we went on a pilgrimage walk.  We were put into groups and just walked for a long time, maybe about 5 or 6 kilometers.  As we walked along people waved at us, gave us water, and fans.  One woman held puppies and one little kid stood at the edge of his driveway in his underwear and rain boots and just stared.  It was actually all very peaceful and nice.

Photos from our pilgrimage walk. Look at the cool backpack that we got!

Once we arrived at our destination, Haemi Castle in Seosan, we went through a mini ceremony where we washed one another's feet and then walked up to a quiet grassy hillside and talked and shared our feelings.  Actually, I didn't.  When it was my turn I said I couldn't speak Korean well and we passed over me.  During this part we also ate ice cream treats.  Have you noticed that we eat a lot during this event?  We did.  It was awesome.  One day we eat got our own box of snacks, like the size of a shoebox.  That lasted me 2 days!

The view up to our grassy spot for feelings sharing time.

Finally, after we were done sharing we went back to our teams and had an awesome time at a concert.  It was huge and had a ton of big groups like Crying Nut (a Korean rock group) and Boa (a Korean pop idol star).  Some of the young people groups from different dioceses also performed.  I enjoyed it a lot but was really tired by the end.  We walked back to the buses on a second pilgrimage and finally went to sleep.

Before the concert we ate these cool meals that came in a box. They were in these bags and you pulled the tabs and then they steamed and cooked.  Mine was curry!  My friend said he had this when he was in the Korean army. It also came with a spork, so I taught everyone that word in English. Sharing knowledge.