I wrote a blog on the airplane back about my trip...and I'm finally posting it.
Ah South Korea…My friend is there teaching English, so I thought what the heck, I can visit my friend and see South Korea. It was quite the experience and I decided I needed to blog about it. I’m on a plane right now, with 7 hours left, and one good typing hand. It’s gonna be long…I warned you.
Petey and I went to South Korea. My friend has a pretty good size apartment, and an extra mattress for us. She was working so we had dinner with her every night, and explored during the day. Day 1 – Cabs are cheap. We took them a lot because it was never more than 5,000 won for a ride. (about $4). Hardly anyone speaks English unless they are college age or younger, and had learned it. (which was still hard to find). And everything is in Korean with very few things in English. It is a little overwhelming not being able to understand anything. I’ve been to Germany and at least there you can sound out the words…business there must be owned (the majority of the business) by a Korean. There is no diversity, so we stuck out like sore thumbs. The people are amazing. Extremely nice and go to great lengths to help. It’s convicting because there are so many times we encounter foreigners in the US and instead of trying to help them we say they should learn English, like it is that easy. Try learning another language that is NOTHING like yours. Ok back to the trip, it was just a relaxing week of doing whatever we decided the night before. Our first day, first lunch was a sit on the floor place, and me and Petey pointed to soup that looked good on the menu, and hoped for the best. Lol. It was actually pretty good. Day 2- we went to school with Ashley to teach with her in the morning. The kids are funny. And way advanced compared to US kids. (well the majority). And the spoke pretty good English. On that note here’s a trivia. In the Korean language there are a couple letters that sound the same in Korean. B&P, L&R, and G&K. So it is very common for them to mix it up…therefore Petey called Ashley “Asherey” for most of the trip. Lol. But to them it is the same. ☺. The Koreans at Ashley’s school were awesome and helped us a lot with traveling.
Day 3 was one of the best days. We went to the DMZ. Demilitarization Zone. There was a few stops on the tour. One of them is on the line between North and South Korea. Along their border is the DMZ. It is a 4 Km area where each side protects their own country. In the middle is a bunch of buildings where half is on the North and half on the South. The buildings belong to one side or the other. Blue are South Korea’s buildings and tan are North Koreans. This is where the peace talks took place between them and other countries too including ours. This is where we went. To that room. We stood on the North Korean side of the building so technically I have been to North Korea, lol. The guards here stand all day staring their enemy in the face…and both sides are scary (obviously the north more). All South Korean men are actively in the military for at least 2 years and all have at least a black belt.
Day 4. Seoul, just wandering around and shopping. It was rainy. We saw a giant cathedral, and went to the Seoul Tower even tho it was too foggy to see anything. Then we did more underground shopping and bargain shopping.
Day 5 (Friday) we had a tour guide named Paul. Well, he actually didn’t know the area, but he did read and speak English and Korean so it was easy to get around. We went to a palace, I believe the biggest in the area. From there we had an awesome Korean meal. Just a ton of food really. We had a whole table full that we finished off, and I got up to use the restroom thinking we were done, and came back to a table full of new food. From there we went shopping and Petey found his wedding ring. It’s a silver hand-made ring. Super cool. Then we went to a little creek and off to meet Ashley and her friends and co-workers for a “dinner”….
Our engagement party- In Korea, they love love. And love marriage. So they surprised us at dinner. I got a bunch of the most beautiful roses you have ever seen. They bought cake and champagne, and the director of the school and her son, Paul, got us wooden ducks. In Korea, they symbolize love forever. ☺
From there we went to the “noribong”. They have rooms you rent by the hour for karaoke. It was fun.
Day 6- After a quick walk through Chinatown, and awesome Korean BBQ for lunch we headed to a baseball game. It was fun, cheering, making up what we thought they were chanting. And in the 7th inning stretch all us Americans (5 of us) stood up and sang “Take me out to the ball game” which ended with cheering and clapping. Then was out to an “western” bar. I almost beat a guy at pool even with my bum hand, and Petey rocked the drums.
That night was awesome and ended great and late at 5am…more on that later.
Our last day—we tried to get to a beach with no luck but did find a cool park. They were flying kites there and linking a bunch together, there had to have been hundreds of kites on one strand. From there we headed back to the apartment and then to the airport. Our flight was set to leave at 5:50…we got to the ticket counter at 5:20, and finally to the plane at 5:45…I live life on the edge…haha.
So that is our trip. I learned a lot. Like Petey and I are no longer allowed to drink Soju together because it makes us mean and overly sensitive. Good combo. It was so bad that we didn’t bring any back so we wouldn’t drink it…
The Koreans are nice people who band together to help each other. And there is hardly any crime. I think it is because of them wanting to help each other mixed with the fact that every male Korean has a black belt. Oh and you can buy waffles on the street that have like a honey butter on one side, chocolate cream on the other, and folded in half….heaven on earth.
Ok. Yeah there’s more…if you made it this far, congrats. Saturday night, some crazy stuff was happening, physically & spiritually. And it turned into a night of prayer with Petey, Ashley, her friend and Me. We were praying for Ash, and then were able to tell her friend about Jesus, and she was saved! It was really awesome. I hope to keep in touch and hear how her life changes through this. It was great to see hope at its finest. And love. And peace. And freedom. ☺
It was a great trip. Petey and I travel well together. Hanging out 24-7, we did great. And saw great stuff and met interesting people. I enjoyed Korea, and would recommend it to others.
