Thursday, July 25, 2013


   Hello everyone! So the Global Youth Forum has come to a close and we have begun preparation for the English Mission Camp. As some of you know, GVCS treated all of the participants to a three day tour of South Korea! These three days were so amazing! I shall briefly share a few of the highlights with you. One of the coolest things about the tour was the our hot pink party bus! It had a ceiling that looked like a light bright, a sparkly red stirring wheel, a sparkly floor, leather seats, a flat screen TV, and purple curtains. On the first day we went to this old historic town that was over 600 years old. The houses were so quaint and beautiful against the backdrop of the Korean mountains. There was a river at the base of a cliff full of small, smooth stones. We played in that river for a good long time and skipped rocks.

This is just one of the beautiful houses we saw there.
 
This is the river that we had such a good time in. As you can see, Jordan and Josh invested in some traditional Korean hats :)


During our second day of touring, we went to Seoul were we toured a Korean palace.
Here we are at the front of the palace not looking at the camera haha. Sorry about that. As we were walking through, people kept asking to take pictures with us. We would be standing under a door and out would come 10 cameras. :) We enjoyed our 10 seconds of fame. That tall guy in the background is our new friend Talen from California! That night we went shopping in the market in Seoul. There was this jewelry shop that went on forever! There was jewelry as far as the eye could see. Just when we thought that one could not fit one more article of jewelry in that store, Valerie found an escalator! There was a second floor. Poor Josh and Jordan had the hardest time corralling six girls in that store. We shopped there for a while and bought some souvenirs and gifts for family members at home.
Here is a picture of the market in Seoul! There was so much stuff to buy! That evening, everyone wanted burgers at Burger King except for me. Mrs. Baumann, my dad and I went and got some awesome Korean bbq...so much better than burgers in my humble opinion.
The last day of our tour was also spent in Seoul. In the morning we went to the DMZ where we walked down one of the military tunnels of North Korea. It was cold and damp down there and really made me think about the dark history between North and South Korea. On our way there, we drove past the border which was marked with layers of barbed wire. It was very unsettling. We then went to a cemetery where foreign missionaries to Korea are buried. We spend that evening in the Tines Square mall in Seoul with our old middle school teacher Mr. Tillman. It was so cool to see him again!
     I want to give a quick shout out to our friends from Red Lion! We had such a good time with then during the youth forum and the tour! They left for Seoul bright and early this morning at 4am. Some of us stayed up and saw them off. Everybody was a little mopy this morning when we ate breakfast without them for the first time since we have been here. We are praying for safe travels for them as they fly back to America tonight! We miss you guys :( #redoaksforever
 
     Today was a bit of a rough day for me personally. The constant smell of kimchee and the lack of sleep is starting to take its toll. For the first time since I have been here, I am a bit homesick. I miss my dad's cooking. I miss my bed and my bath tub. I miss my mom, my grandmom, and my little brother. And I really want some flat bread pizza. We began preparing for the English camp today and we realized that we really didn't know any details about what will be going on. I found myself really flustered and frustrated. I had to remind myself that this is the meat of our trip! As Mrs. Baumann reminded me, teaching English is only a small part of this. We are here to touch the lives of the little Korean children that we will be interacting with. I have no idea how God will use these two weeks, but I know that He has got something figured out that I can't even comprehend. So I would just ask that you continue to lift us up in your prayers. Please pray that we remain strong and keep our eyes on the ball. I know that I can be easily distracted by my own physical discomforts. As of right now, I'm sleep deprived and I have a really bad knot in my neck that's driving me crazy. These things pale in significance to God's larger plan for us while we are here. So thank you so much for following our blog! It means the world to know that people at home are following our progress. Take care and God bless!
 Sincerely,
  Hannah Crismon
 



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