First Visit to Seoul

This week we took a brief trip to Seoul for a day of Rest & Relaxation. The green space (below) provided a sense of relaxation, and the American-style hotel bed provided rest. 

Gyeongbokgung Palace - after visiting the Palace Museum for two hours we decided to skip walking through the Palace proper. It reminded us of Beijing's Forbidden City.

 

Instead we walked along the Gwanghwamun Square, which happened to host a food festival featuring displays of Korean food and beautifully carved gourds.

How about this for the next pumpkin carving contest?

This particular street reminded us of Hong Kong because of its angles.  We found all of Seoul's street extremely clean, gridded, well marked, and not too crowded.

We decided to ride the cable car up to North Seoul Tower instead of visiting the ancient palace. From the top we could view 360 degrees of Seoul. 

We marveled at the list prices of the Korean currency. I had a hard time getting used to such large numbers but 1 Korean won = .087 US cents so our ticket price in USD was $5.24 each.

N Seoul Tower is one of the top ten places in the world that people can lock down their love. "Inspired by ancient Chinese custom, two lovers seal a padlock to a gate, chain,[ or fence] and throw away the key. This locks down their love for eternity"
(http://geekandsundry.com/10-places-to-keep-your-love-locked-down-across-the-world/) 

We also stumbled upon this fun demonstration at the tower courtyard.

We entered the cable car area to the singing of "Monster Mash."

Overlooking Seoul. I love green space, but here the leaves at the Namsan Park looked like autumn.

We ended our stay in Seoul by choosing our own cut of beef and taking it upstairs to a Korean BBQ restaurant where we cooked the meat at our table. The hot wood ash grill reminded us of Argentinian asado.

The restaurant provided the side dishes - for a fee of course. A pleasant way to end our stay.

Neighbors??

True story: Today as we rode the subway home from BBC, we noticed a group of people enter the train. Sometimes people catch your attention just by their interactions. Oftentimes we try to offer our seats to elderly people but most of the time, they refuse. I guess they like to treat the foreigner well. Anyway, as I tried to stand up with all my belongings in hand, the lady in front of me actually pushed me back into my seat. Eventually they got a seat; the wife sat next to me, the husband sat next to Mark, another older lady sat further down, and the younger woman, Mindy, (maybe 40s) talked with us. Mindy spoke perfect English so between our broken Chinese and her perfect English, we had a fun conversation. Conversations always begin with “Where are you [we] from?” When we told them SC, the talk turned to Spartanburg. It turned out that the two older people were Mindy’s 85-year-old parents who had lived in Inman, SC with their second daughter and her family. All three of the daughters settled in different parts of the US and now have families – Mindy in San Jose, CA; the middle one in Inman, SC; the oldest one in Warsaw, IN. The middle one and the parents have since moved to Indiana, but we had fun talking about similar geographic areas. We told them our home is only about 30 minutes from Inman.  They told us about their four generations who now live in the US. Mindy and her parents were actually just visiting Beijing. 

This reminds me of the time in 2014 when we ran into Jeremiah, a Riverside High School graduate from Greer.

Feelings

Many people ask us how we are. We, as many do, have a tendency to answer with what we are doing, not HOW we are. There's a difference.

So here are some words that describe us recently:

Frustrated – we woke up yesterday to no hot water. It should come back on in 36 hours. Better than last time when it was 3 days.

Sad – that Rudy & "Tina" leave for Paris in about a month. What they originally planned for 6 months has turned into at least a year. She's sad, unsure of what life will be like there. She's afraid of being lonely because she doesn't speak French. She's afraid she won't find food and spices she likes.

Burdened – that three brothers at BBC have conflict and one has threatened to leave the church because of it. We want to see the true gospel applied to all their hearts in true redemption and forgiveness. 

Mad - I started yesterday mad at Mark and really had to pray that God would help me. I had no right to be angry on the inside and asked him to remove that anger. It took a while and lots of prayer and focusing on why Jesus died for me. Eventually God gave grace to overcome the anger and we had a good but tiring day.

Compassion – for an old man and his granddaughter who basically live on the street. The old man sells plants near our neighborhood and we see them often as we go about.

Ragged – from traveling all over town to meet people. Nothing takes less than an hour to get to. Some days it just feels good to stay at home.

Happy – that I am again teaching chemistry to teenagers. It gives me a focus and a purpose beyond our normal relationships.

Thankful – that we see God’s grace working in our own grown children. In talking with Alicia the other day, we talked about how do we see God working in our own lives? Sometimes we can’t see it in ourselves but we do see it in other people. We see them growing in the love and grace that can only come from a personal relationship with Jesus.

Thankful – that both Brent and Amy begin new jobs soon. God has provided for both of them in their respective fields.

Disappointed - that one of our dating couples recently broke off the relationship. Sometimes we wonder what this young generation seeks in relationships and how do we apply God's truth to this season of their lives. What does the gospel look like in these difficult moments?

Off to chemistry class soon. A one hour and 45 minute travel trip (one way) for a 2 hour class then meet a friend for dinner on the way home.