Seoul, Korea

We had the wonderful opportunity to go visit Seoul, Korea at the end of May for 4 days with our branch. Our branch president, Peter Hwang, and his wife, Shelly Zhang, put all the plans together. They did a lot of work for which we were very grateful!

We stayed at temple housing while we were there. It was so wonderful to get up in the morning and go sit on the temple grounds and feel the Spirit and the peace.

 The entrance to the apartment where we stayed is to the right. If you go to the right before you get to the bush in the rectangular box, you will find a gateway that leads to the place where we stayed. We slept Korean style, on the floor with just a foam pad. Kind of like camping. It was a nice room.

 Just looking at the pictures gives me peace.

 I love the way this picture turned out with the Korean flag and Angel Moroni!

We arrived in Korea late on Friday May 29, 2015 and spent the next Saturday morning in the temple. Gary and I were able to watch our Branch President baptize his son acting for his father, and his wife who was acting for his mother and grandmother. They did the confirmations right there after the baptism was completed. The Spirit was very strong.

Then we had some breakfast while we waited for the time do a session. President Hwang went through for his father, Shelly Zhang for her mother-in-law and our Relief Society president went through for President Hwang's grandmother. 

As is the day was not special enough, we were able to be in the sealing room when Shelly and Peter (our Branch President and his wife) were sealed for his parents. Then we had the special privilege of watching Peter get sealed to his parents. What a wonderful and spiritual experience that was. I am so grateful that I was able to be there with them at those special moments. The Lord has truly blessed me with some wonderful opportunities in the last little while.

After the temple, we took a tour to the DMZ, demilitarized zone, between North and South Korea. It was a very interesting ride. Along part of the way, we saw the fences and barbed wire next to the river. The demarkation zone is in the middle of the river.

It's strange to think and see that South Korea is always on alert and so close to Seoul, too.

We first went to a place where trains and people used to cross to get from North Korea to South Korea and vice versa. We love history, so it was very interesting. You could see North Korea from there. This is the trains bridge and the mountains on the other side that you see are North Korea.

This is the bridge people would walk over to go from North Korea to South Korea and back.

Gary loves his trains.

This is Shelly Zhang!

We want to go back to this place to be able to explore more. Going with a tour group limits your time. We only got about 40 minutes here and could have spent hours. Shelly says we should come back with her and Peter and just take our time. We really liked the idea.

These next to pictures are for my brother, Keith. We found his favorite chicken place in this area, so we had to get some and we took pictures, so he could see. I was thinking of you even if we have not been able to talk or email since I left.

After this stop we went closer to the DMZ and to a place called the third tunnel. The North Koreans dug many tunnels through the granite to try to infiltrate South Korea. Some of them have been found and some have not. We were able to go down in this one, but they do not allow pictures, so the pictures are of the things above the ground. The tunnel itself was pretty amazing. The first two pictures are from the internet and the others Gary and I took.

This walkway is very steep and you have to walk down and then back up. Good exercise.

That landmine sign is for real. There are still many active landmines in the DMZ area. Gary and I found that very interesting and very weird.

After the tunnel we went even farther into the DMZ zone.

It was a hazy day, so the pictures are not as bright as we hoped, but you can tell what you are looking at. This is the DMZ. It is green and wild and beautiful. There are 2 kilometers of this on either side of the demarkation line. Off in the distance less than 3 kilometers away is North Korea. The land is beautiful and holds many wild animals and other species of life. Both Gary and I found this extraordinary. I always thought the zone was devoid of life and greenery, so that it could be more easily defended, but how wrong we were.

I think this was the favorite place for both of us on this tour because of the green, the mountains and the openness.

The last stop on the tour was a train station. This railway line leads to North Korea. If you were able, you could take this line and end up connecting with the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Pretty neat if you ask me.

A wonderful, but busy day!

That night we went walking through some of the streets in Seoul to find dinner. We ended up at a BBQ place. It was pretty yummy!

Shelly and I. That is my new backpack purse. I am in fashion I am told by my students. I think it's cute and I can have my hands free.

That's right, BBQ'd ribs. The stuff underneath it is cheese. Yes, you heard right, cheese!! It was so delicious. It was melted and you could eat it alone or wrap it around your ribs. Yummy!! So the things around the outside are eggs (on the bottom left), pumpkin (bottom right), potatoes on the right, a tomato sauce above the potatoes and a sweet corn at the top between the eggs and sauce. Gary, Shelly, Peter and I shared this one. We ate it all and then ate some of the others food because they didn't eat all theirs. It was very delicious, but you can't go wrong with ribs and cheese.

After dinner we went to a river in the middle of the city. It used to be underground, but the mayor had the road dug up, so that the river would be accessible. Many people come and just relax by the river now.

Shelly and Peter

Sunday morning we attended a Korean ward. It was very nice. It was all done in Korean. We had a couple of translating machines, but they didn't work that well because the missionary who was translating had his machine run out of batteries, so we just tried to listen and feel the Spirit. What I really liked was singing the hymns. We sang in English and they sang in Korean. It was a wonderful mixture and helped the Spirit to be even stronger in the meetings. We were able to partake of the Sacrament which was very important to me.

We went to a Queen's Palace called Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was beautiful and exciting to see it. There were many great buildings. The furnishings were amazing and the artistry was so detailed and beautiful. See for yourself.

They had a museum there, too. We spent some time there. Saw many beautiful things. Later that night we went to a street known for shopping and food. We saw street performers there, too.

On Monday morning, our last day in Seoul, we just walked around the city looking at shops. We also found a taco bell. They had an amazing book store. We bought a book about China. It was in English which is harder to find here. Most of the books were books about how to do something or the evolution of something with many pictures. They had some art books and some fascinating ones about war like ships, tanks, guns etc. We enjoyed that morning. Then we were off on the subway to the airport to come home.

We even found that we have our own parking garage in Seoul. It is a nice one, too!

Signage to the temple!

 Some of our group on the subway or metro on the way to the airport. You can't see Gary because he is taking the picture, of course.

Korea from the air. 

It was a wonderful trip. We both enjoyed ourselves, but we also realized that we love China. We love vacations, but we love coming back home to Qingdao. I also like Chinese food better than Korean. I could learn to love Korean, too, but I missed having Chinese food while in Korea. Gary and I look forward to going back to Korea and getting to know it better!

P.S. There is one thing you may have noticed. When I smile it may look like there is something on my teeth. Well there is. I decided to get braces on my upper teeth while we are in China. It is cheaper and I may only have them on until November, hopefully. We have been getting all of our dental work done here because it is less expensive. Our dentist is Chinese, but got his degree in Russia. He and his wife are both dentists. He is doing our implants (three of mine are done. Gary's are being worked on and then I have two more to do once my braces are off). She does the braces. So you will see me with braces on when I come home in July, but the next year I should be without them and have my front teeth straighter. Yeah!