Adventures in South Korea

Hi blog readers (:

We apologize to those of you who have been anxiously awaiting our posts; on Monday and Tuesday we were away all day seeing different areas of South Korea. Today (Wednesday) we have a day off before our orientation for the English Missions Camp will occupy the rest of the week before we help with the camp for the next 2 weeks.

This post will be very picture-heavy!

After church on Sunday, we drove about 45 minutes to the city of Andong and the traditional village of Hahoe. We ate a really delicious Korean  lunch at low tables, seated on cushions. 

After lunch, we went to the 600 year old village of Hahoe. We walked through the old streets, looked at some souvenir shops, and enjoyed some time down by the river. It was beautiful and refreshing! After our time in Hahoe, we went to a big department store, Home Plus, for dinner. They had sloped escalators for carts to go up and down! There was a food court with lots of options (:

fried squid rings, anyone?

i was so thankful for this fresh meal (:

On Monday, we went to Seoul! We went to Gyeongbukgong Palace. There was a huge courtyard and beautiful gateway with lots of ornate buildings behind it. We walked around the buildings and then walked over to the Korean Folk Art Museum. While walking to the museum, Rachel and I were stopped by a Korean family asking to take pictures with us! The teenage son and daughter both separately took pictures with us, and similar occurrences happened to the rest of our team! We went to a big department store for lunch followed by exploring a really cool street market.

we watched a changing of the guard ceremony at the end of our time at the palace

Are you still with me?

On the way home on Monday night, we had a sing-off with Disney songs, country songs, and pop songs with our friends on the bus. It was so fun!

On Tuesday, it was raining all morning. We drove up to the DMZ. We went down into the 3rd tunnel, which was constructed by North Koreans and later discovered by South Korea. We walked down deep into the earth and went down a small, dark tunnel until we reached an area with barbed wire and a cut out into North Korea. My heart was so fearful walking down the tunnels, and I had to pray and recite songs and Scripture to myself the whole time. When we got back last night, I was reading Psalm 27, which says,

One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.5 For in the day of trouble
    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
    and set me high upon a rock.

I am so thankful that our heavenly Father keeps us safe in his arms of protection!

After we left the DMZ, we went to a nearby restaurant for Korean barbeque. It was so good! Then, we went to a cemetery where missionaries to Korea are buried. Their dedication to translating and sharing God's Word with Korea was inspiring. God's Word does not go out and return empty! 

Afterwards, we went to a mall in Seoul and met up with our old middle school English/Latin teacher from Tall Oaks, Mr. Tillman. It was really nice to catch up over a meal with him!

 Today, we all slept in and have been hanging around campus.  This afternoon, Kathleen, Hannah, and I walked along one of the rice paths into the village. We were admiring some flowers nearby to someone's house, and a woman walked over and cut off stalks for us while smiling and talking to us in Korean! It was such a sweet moment (:
We are all sad that our friends from Red Lion are leaving tomorrow morning, but we look forward to becoming closer with the others teams we have become friends with.We also hope to befriend more Koreans during the camp next week!

Thanks for sticking with me everyone!

With love,

Jaime