Our time in Korea: Week Three in Review

We found an English speaking church here in Korea near our apartment complex so we started off our third week going to a church service.  It was so awesome and we ended up going out to lunch after the service with a few people from the church.  It was such a nice afternoon to be able to spend time with other believers, share a meal and continue to learn more about Korean culture.  We actually met a guy from NC who is stationed here in Korea through the military and a family from the states who have lived in Georgia and SC! Such a fun day and week look forward to going back next week.

Monday we just stayed around the apartment most of the day and went to a mall near by and just walked around and had dinner.  We stocked up on a few more items and supplies we may need once we have Charlie with us.  Late Monday night we received updated pictures of Charlie as his foster mom had taken him to the agency for his appointed monthly check up.  So this was a nice treat as we had really began to miss him!

Tuesday we signed up for a free food tour in Insadong. We ended up being the only two on the tour and spent about two hours with our guide John.  It was awesome, he took us to a few markets and explained the basic Korean dishes and key ingredients Koreans use in their recipes.  For the most part we just walked through Insadong with John talking about Korean history, politics, his view on what is going on currently in Korea regarding his generation, John is in his early twenties. 

So much Kimchi! We learned that Koreans have separate refrigerators for their Kimchi :)

Yes, that is pig's head 

Yummy egg bread

Wednesday we booked train tickets to travel about 2 hours south of Seoul to Daegu.  This is the city where Charlie was born and where his birth parents are from.  We took the KTX train that travels at top speed about 200 mph! It was nice to be able to see a lot of the country as we traveled South.  We toured around Daegu taking in all the sites and spent a lot of time thinking about his birth parents and how God has orchestrated it all!  There is a tower in Daegu and we hiked to the top and took a lot of pictures of the city to share with Charlie someday.  It was a special day and we had a great time.  

Thursday we spent NewYears Eve watching the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens :) Brent has been dying to see it so our friends from church here told us where we could see it in English.  They also recommended watching in the Starium Theatre which apparently is the largest screen in the world!  I have to admit I have never watched any of the Star War movies but it was really good! Brent caught me up on all the history of Star Wars all night.  He said he felt like a kid again watching, we had a great time :) We made it back to our apartment by 11:00 PM and brought in the New Year in our pajamas drinking coffee and eating cheesecake! We were originally going to try to experience the New Year in a big city but it was so cold out and we opted for the warm comfort of our little apartment. 

Friday we visited the Korean War Museum which was absolutely amazing!  We spent our entire day there and did not see it all.  We plan to go back this coming week to finish touring.  We have a better understanding of the Korean War and the relationship between South Korea and the US. We had read a lot about the Korean War before traveling here but able to learn so much more by being here.  This museum is a must see if you ever visit Korea!

Saturday the weather was much warmer and broke into the 50's!! We stayed outside all day touring around the parks on the Hangang River.  So many people out biking, skateboarding, kids flying kites, and families spending time together.  We walked, and walked and walked!  It think our phones tracked that we walked about eight miles! As the sun began to set we rode back into Insadong and tried more Korean dumplings and street food.  We justified this by having an active day outside! 

We anticipate hearing of our custody sometime next week!  Looking forward to another week in Korea and continue to count down the days until we see Charlie HyeonWoo again. We miss him so much!