Korea--Day 6 (Thursday, June 28)

First, a couple random nature pictures. We haven't seen a lot of nature, but here's a Korean magpie.  It makes a lot of noise.

And here is the skygarden on the roof of our hotel:

I was up very early this morning and decided to take a walk to try to find the cathedral that looks nearby on the map.  Let's just say that after about two hours of wandering, I was completely lost.  I was standing downtown among the tall buildings so I couldn't see Namsan tower, which is my usual landmark to help me find things. I decided to forget about the cathedral and just focus on getting back to the hotel before our bus left.  I located the tower and was heading in that direction when I glanced to my right and...there was the cathedral. 

I went inside, read some verses, prayed that I could figure out how to get back to the hotel.  When I came out, I knew exactly where I was on the map but still couldn't figure out where the hotel was.  I asked a Korean guy on the street, who happened to speak perfect English and gave me great directions.  I made it back to the hotel in time to board the bus for the day's itinerary, but I was already exhausted and covered in sweat.

First stop was a tour of an elementary school. Here's Sarah with the principal:

The orchestra performed our national anthem and then theirs, along with a few other songs.  They were very talented.  Sarah and Grace performed a song that they just threw together last night. 

Then we had a line dancing lesson.

 

We presented our gifts to them, and then we left.

 We had a little free time, so we walked to Eden Meerkat Friends, where you can interact with meerkats, wallabies, a raccoon, a genet, and some cats. It was an awesome experience, and we all loved it!

 

 

 

 

 

We also got our feet cleaned by "doctor fish", who eat dead skin.  It felt so strange, like they were vibrating!

We packed for tomorrow's trip to Busan and got ready for tonight's home visit with a host family.  At 4:00, we went to one of the meeting rooms in the hotel to be matched with our host family.  We met our guy, Min Jong Baek, who used a translator app on his phone to tell us that he doesn't speak English well and showed us how to use the app so we could communicate.  Even though we had some trouble communicating, we could tell that he was a fun guy with a great sense of humor. 

Min Jong drove us to his house, which is only about five miles outside of Seoul, but it took us an hour to get there because of rain and traffic.  He told us (through the app) that his son was 16 and his daughter was 12.  He told us he lived on the 11th floor, so when we got in the elevator, I pressed 11.  He said, "Oh, sorry, sorry, I get numbers mixed up.  We live on 17."  When we got to his apartment, he introduced his wife (Jung Ran Lim), his daughter (Seo Yeon Baek), and his son (Joo Won Baek).  We were quite surprised to see that his son was just a little boy.  We asked their ages, and Seo Yeon said she was 13, and Joo Won said he was 7.  I told Min Jong that we were expecting a 16 year old, since that's what he told us, and he said, "Oh, sorry, sorry.  I get numbers mixed up." 

We toured their immaculate, uncluttered apartment, and had a feast of japchae, bulgogi, bibimbap, salad, and fried Korean pancakes.  They all used forks so we would feel more comfortable. It was all so delicious!  They even ordered takeout so we could try Korean fried chicken. Then Jung Ran made dessert (Koreans don't usually have dessert; she just did it for us), which was pancakes stuffed with honey and topped with chocolate sauce and ice cream. 

We showed them pictures of our house and family and a map that shows where we live.  I played a game with Joo Won, which was to help him learn English, but it also helped me learn Korean. They gave us gifts of socks, Korean snacks, some face mask things that I'll have to figure out when we get home, and a selfie stick. We gave them a yoyo, kaleidoscope, candle, American flag, pin, a couple books, and pens. I read one of the books to Joo Won, and Seo Yeon was able to read some of the words.

 

 

 

 

 

We had to be back at 9:00 to deliver our luggage to the holding room for our Busan trip, and we were sad to say goodbye to our new friends.  We so enjoyed our time together.  Min Jong drove us back along the Han River, and we saw the lights of the city and Lotte Tower for the first time.  So pretty.  I couldn't get a picture to do it justice.

Some of the funny mistakes we had using the translator app:
1.  Min Jong told us that they had only lived in their apartment less than a year and that they had lived in Seoul before that.  I asked him why they moved, and he spoke several sentences into the translator app, but when he stopped speaking, only one word appeared on the screen: "wife".  He pointed at it and nodded and we all laughed. What he actually said was that his wife wanted to move in order to get better educational opportunities for the kids.

2.  We told him that Korea is beautiful, and he said something which the app translated as, "When people visit Korea, they say diseases are beautiful." We had a good laugh about that one and never did figure out what he was trying to say.

3.Another one we never figured out: "What will I do with this phone after I break up with you?"

4.  On the way back to the hotel, the drive didn't take as long.  He said, according to the app, "It's night, so you are out of shape." What he meant to say was that it's night, so traffic isn't as bad.

5.  One of our favorites was when he and Mike were talking about sports, and Min Jong was trying to say something about Mark McGuire hitting a bunch of home runs, but he said Jerry McGuire instead.  Mike said, "You mean Mark McGuire; Jerry McGuire is a movie."  Min Jong laughed so hard he actually fell off his chair and was rolling around on the floor.

There were a couple times where the translator app was so off that it was embarassing. It translated something Min Jong said as, "I'm a homosexual" which made him yell "No no no!" and it translated something I said into a very vulgar phrase, which was not at all related to what I said.