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Birthday In My Birth City

February 10, 2016

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I turned 28 on the last day of January. This was the first year I celebrated my birthday in my birth city. I now live just seven miles from the place I was born.

A couple of weeks ago David and I tried to find it. The address I had from my adoption paperwork didn’t quite work with today’s streets (in 봉천동 관악구). We thought we may have found it but couldn’t be sure. We didn’t know enough Korean to find out how long the hospital had been in business.

I was born at 33 weeks and weighed 2 pounds, 11 ounces. My 20-year-old unwed birth mother could not pay the incubator fees, hadn’t heard from the father in a while, and chose to put me up for adoption. As we were walking around the neighborhood, I thought how scared she must have been to be alone and in labor so early. I’m thankful for her bravery to choose life.

Even more, I’m thankful for my family who chose me, love me, and call me theirs… And for a Heavenly Father who orchestrated it all.

I never intended for Korea to be a place of pilgrimage. And I wouldn’t have believed it if you told me I’d be living here one day. Finding more information about my roots is not a void I am trying to fill. However, while I’m here – why not? I filled out some inquiry paperwork for the Korean side of the adoption, and we’ll see what (if anything) comes back.

I’m still figuring out my place and purpose here, but I am grateful for the adventure!

Suncheon Bay and Yeosu

December 11, 2015

Leah

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David’s school has a working relationship the Korea Foreign Schools Foundation. This group is so very generous and offers cultural trips to teachers twice a year! We were so excited when we found out we made it on the list for the trip over Thanksgiving weekend. It was a quick trip; we left Friday morning and returned Saturday evening. The foundation organized everything – transportation, lodging, and food. It was nice to just be along for the ride!

We left Seoul on the KTX speed train. Some of our friends clocked the train at the top speed of 184 mph! Even though the snow didn’t stick in Seoul on Thanksgiving, we passed fields and mountains loaded with snow. Just 2.5 hours later, we arrived in Suncheon Bay (순천만).

After a delicious Korean BBQ lunch, we spent a short 30 minutes at the Suncheon Open Film Set, the largest film site in Korea. The place consisted of three villages representing the 1950s to the 1970s. I haven’t seen any Korean dramas or movies yet, so I didn’t recognize any of the sets.

Next, we took the tour bus to Suncheon Bay Ecological Park (순천만자연생태공원). This wetland preserve had the largest reedbed in Korea, mudflats, and plenty of wildlife, including the rare hooded crane. We took a ferry boat ride and hiked around the grounds.

We spotted a couple of otters! You can see the back of one in the middle of this photo:

The tour guide said reeds like this are used to make a special type of broom that lasts 30 years. Suncheon Bay is a government protected area, so I don’t know if these particular reeds are used or not:

The foundation put us up in an incredible hotel in Yeosu (여수) called The MVL (which stands for Most Valuable Life). The rooms had gorgeous views of the bay. We thought one feature was funny… the bathroom had a curtain that opened like a window to the room. The purpose was so you could watch the sun rise and set as you bathe.

We had dinner and breakfast at the hotel. The buffets were to die for. Soups, Korean food, sushi, seafood, pastries, fruit… We ate so. much. food. Here was the first (of probably three) of my breakfast plates:

After checking out of the hotel, we loaded our bags on the bus and then walked to the Yeosu Maritime Cable Cars (여수 해상케이블카). This attraction opened in December 2014. We rode in the special “crystal” cars that had glass bottoms. The views were beautiful as we traveled over the Dadohae Marine National Park and Dolsandaegyo Bridge.

After our cable car rides, we walked to Odongdo Island (오동도). We had less than an hour there. The weather was much warmer in Yeosu and the greenery was beautiful.

Dragon cave:

This is called a turtle ship, a Korean warship. The ship was loaded with spikes and cannons. Both cannons and flames were fired from the dragon’s mouth:

After another huge lunch, we headed to the train station to return to Seoul. We had a wonderful time with our 23 friends! Thank you, KFS Foundation!!!

• For more information on the Suncheon area, visit www.suncheon.go.kr.
• For more information on the Yeosu area, visit www.ystour.kr/en/main.jsp.

Seoul Lantern Festival

November 18, 2015

Leah

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There are special events ALL the time in Seoul. We’ve had a couple busy weeks and the weather has been rainy off and on, but there was a clear night last night so we went to check out the Seoul Lantern Festival!

The festival started November 5 and is on display until November 22 this year. The lanterns begin at Cheonggyecheon Plaza (청계광장) and go a little over a kilometer down to Supyogyo Bridge. You can see them illuminated from 5 to 11 pm. This is the seventh year Seoul has hosted the lantern festival and the theme is “Illuminated Seoul Tour.”

These are so much more than paper lanterns! (They’re not paper… or there’s some sort of coating, anyways.) See for yourself:

Can you believe the detail and dimensions of this one?

Some people paid to customize floating lanterns. I guess you make a wish and send it down the stream:

There were several exit points along the way. We indulged in some street food:

One of the treats we got was a pancake folded in this paper cup. I got a kick out of the writing on it. “Espresso of Street. When I walk on the street with my coffee, I feel so good and happy. Magical thing! It’s a cup of coffee.” Ha!

And what lantern festival would be complete without… Mount Rushmore?

These photos weren’t even half of the displays! There were several Korean cartoon characters, a giant make-up display, illuminated bridges, and more. It’s definitely worth checking out! (Plus, it’s free!)

For more information, check out these websites:
• visitkorea.or.kr
• visitseoul.net

Which one was your favorite?

Sixth Grade Retreat in Daecheon

November 6, 2015

Leah

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Every year the school has a Week Without Walls where middle school students spend time learning outside the classroom. A friend asked if I’d be willing to help during the sixth grade trip.

We traveled three hours south to a small retreat center on Daecheon Beach (대천) in the coast city of Boryeong. It was a short trip; we were gone three days and two nights. The place where we stayed was beautiful with fall colors and a porch that overlooked the Yellow Sea.

My friend Ji and I were the cooks. The menu was simple, but I had never put together quantities like that before! We served around 80 people. I have a whole new appreciation for cooks and caterers. We made around 180 sandwiches, 300+ pancakes, and hard boiled 180 eggs in two batches.

We spent most of our time in the kitchen, but were able to slip away twice to explore the beach. One afternoon we finished the sandwiches early and spent a couple of hours in a coffee shop a short walk away. We had the place to ourselves for a while!

It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed myself. I always love time near the water.

We laughed at this sign on the trip back to Seoul… merge right, I guess?

I can’t find website information on the retreat center itself. We stayed in the group area that had the kitchen, 14 bunk rooms, and an auditorium. They also have small cabins available for rent. Our time there was the latest in the season they had ever stayed open and they had to do special work on the heaters before we arrived. If I find out the name, I’ll update the post.

Apartment Tour: Korea

October 20, 2015

Leah

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Here’s a tour of our cozy place in Seoul. We live in a villa, which sounds quaint and romantic, but in Korea, that means a small apartment building. Most villas we’ve seen have two to six apartments.

So, flashback to July – we were in Ankara and I thought I would be efficient and pack our luggage in a way that we wouldn’t have to touch the majority of it until we got to Korea. That was wishful thinking. I had forgotten how stressful it is to pack most of your worldly possessions into a few suitcases. We went through MANY rounds of revisions and paring down. After three weeks in the States, we arrived in Seoul with five checked luggage pieces, two rolling carry-ons, one backpack, and one guitar.

This is what our home looked like the first day we arrived. I am sharing this to remind myself to rejoice in how far we’ve come since then:

We are fortunate that the school furnishes our apartment with the essential pieces. They also stocked our kitchen with new dishes, silverware, pots, and pans.

Here is our entryway. The air conditioner is on the left. We keep our shoes in the built-in dolap. The hall tree and shelf are both from IKEA. The orange sticky notes around the place are my labels of Korean words!

I killed most of my first round of succulents. I’m blaming it on the low light. We have only three small windows. Here are my succulents take two:

This is the view from the front door. The couch from IKEA (mentioned here) dominates so much space, but it’s comfortable and we live on it when we’re home. I like how it matches our Turkish rug!

The walls are concrete and are covered in a textured wallpaper. We tried every kind of Command hook out there, but nothing stuck. (The only hooks that held were from Daiso. You melt a dot of glue on the back with a lighter and stick it to the wall.) I had to get creative and hung our map tapestry (from GMarket) by sticking sewing pins through the wallpaper. Isn’t it interesting how the Americas are on the right side of the map?

Air plant in driftwood from Pida (피다):

Next to the couch is a door that opens to where our washing machine sits. We keep cleaning supplies and other storage items back here:

Behind the dining room table is the main bathroom. There’s no tub or separator wall, so we use a squeegee to push the water towards the drain after a shower:

Kitchen and dining area:

Stove and microwave:

Here’s the master bedroom. We call it the cave. There are no windows, so if we close the door, we could sleep for daaays. We are creatures of habit and purchased the same bedspread we used in Turkey from IKEA:

This is the bathroom connected to the master. (I can’t imagine anyone taking a shower in this tiny space!)

Also connected to the master is a storage room. It was really humid in here during the summer months, but we may move more things into this area once the cold weather hits.

Off of the kitchen is a spare bedroom:

This bedroom has my wardrobe closet. We use the dresser in here for things like office supplies, electronic cords, and medicine. Our suitcases are in the corner for now so they don’t mold in the storage space. This room usually serves as our laundry drying area.

While I can’t say I adore our apartment, I am very grateful for it and appreciate having our own space to call home. We have what we need and live comfortably here. I’m also thankful we live in a safe neighborhood that is conveniently located to the school, shopping, and public transportation. Our longing for natural light may push us to move next year, but that’s a ways off and we’ll see.

What do you think of our new place?

Seoraksan National Park

October 17, 2015

Leah

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We spent an afternoon of our weekend in Sokcho at Seoraksan National Park. We did some unexpected hiking and climbed to new heights.

Seoraksan National Park (설악산국립공원) is a tentative UNESCO World Heritage site. It was easy to get to the park entrance from Sokcho; we took the 7–1 bus to the end of the line. (For anyone visiting from Seoul, T-Money cards do not work on Sokcho buses. Bus fare costs ₩1,200 per person.) Park entrance cost ₩7,000 per person. The entrance gate was crowded with people visiting over the Chuseok holiday.

The bronze Jwabul Buddha Statue sits near the entrance at over 14 meters high:

The park was beautiful. The weather still felt like summer, so it was a perfect day for a hike. First, we bought tickets for the cable cars. We scheduled our tickets for the 5:00 pm ride. (Tickets cost ₩10,000 per person. Buy ahead – they do sell out!) We vaguely heard about and decided to take the Ulsanbawi (울산바위) trail. It was around 4 kilometers long, and we figured that’d be a good distance to cover and make it back in time for the cable car.

Our hike started out easy. We wandered by pretty mountain views and Buddhist temples:

We saw a lot of Koreans in hiking gear, which we thought was silly. The beginning of the path was paved and flat. There were even bathrooms along the way. After a while, the trail changed to a rocky path and our ascent really began. We understood the walking sticks after that.

In the distance, we saw the granite peaks of our destination. And then it hit me. We were hiking all the way to the TOP of Ulsanbawi. Afterwards, we found out it has an elevation of 867 m.

The Gyejoam Temple (게조암) is a good halfway marker. There were some food vendors there, but we just topped off our water bottles from a spring. Also near temple is Heundeulbawi, the “rocking rock.” No matter how hard people push it, it can never be knocked over. If you have enough force, the rock does shift a bit:

Then, we hit the stairs. The 800+ stairs that are strapped to the mountain and take you up the top. This one was of the steepest climbs I’d ever done. It didn’t help that we hadn’t eaten anything but half a muffin. Thankfully, we had some granola bars and nuts.

After about 2.5 hours (the last hour was torture), we FINALLY made it! We were surprised to find a small souvenir shop at the top. There were men selling Korean iced tea for ₩5,000. At that point, it could have cost three times that price and I would have paid it. It was the best iced tea I’d ever tasted. It was a hard climb, but the views at the top – wow!

The climb back down the mountain took only 1.5 hours. We were booking it to make it in time for our cable car ride. Funny enough, we ran into some people who worked at the school we worked at in Turkey. Our time hadn’t overlapped, but we heard about them living in Korea from mutual friends. It’s crazy we had to hike a mountain in order to meet them!

I don’t know how accurate it is, but my phone said we climbed 140 stories to get to the top. Here are the death stairs:

After we finished the trail, we had some time to spare. We climbed down to the stream and soaked our feet in the cold running water. It felt SO GOOD! A Korean man saw us, thought we were funny, and had to get a photo with us. (Us probably meaning David and his red beard.)

We (finally) got some lunch at one of the many restaurants near the entrance. And then we took the cable car up to the Gwongeumseong peak (elevation 670 m). There was a cafe at the top and we snacked on hotteok and enjoyed the view.

It’s probably for the best that we didn’t do much research on the trail before we got to the park. If you do the hike, don’t be like us and eat a meal beforehand. There are several other trails in the park that we didn’t have time to do including one that takes you to a waterfall.

I’m not sure if we’ll be able to, but I’d love to make it back to Seoraksan to see the fall colors!