Dare I say the word...Korea??

 

I realize that what I have to say can be left unsaid...but life is so busy.  Here I sit in the midst of receipts, files, thank you cards, my camera, yellow sticky notes with names of books I want to read on it,  a dog at my feet and a large, towering basket of towels to fold behind me...or on other words, chaos.

Oh, and LOTS of dust!!!

Super bad Feng Shui.

Especially the receipts part.  I hate keeping track of all those things.

So thinking of better days...back to Korea.  Last day, the last night, we wanted to walk to the Han River that flows through Seoul and watch the sun set.  We ended up running towards the end because we kind of got lost in an underground tunnel trying to cross a very large intersection (thank heavens for Will and his cat-like sense of direction!!) and we were missing the sunset.  But once we got there and found some chairs and enjoyed the lapping sounds of the water and the incredible sight of all the buildings..it was fantastic!

We walked out to these two rainbow-light-flashing buildings which were only connected to the shore by a dock, and enjoyed the view.  I can't believe more people weren't doing the same thing!  It was so peaceful!  A Super -City of more than 10 million people and me and Will were two of five people enjoying the evening.

Maybe the other 9,999,995 knew something about the area that we didn't....

I had Will.  So nothing to worry about!

The buildings literally were make of light panels that put on a light show.

Looking back at our hotel..the JW...our view of the river was blocked by a building but I could see the N Seoul Tower from the window!

 The tallest building in the distance is the 63 Building...I think it's still considered the tallest building in Korea and is gold and sparkly in the light!

Incredible city.  I love imagining what people are doing in their homes.  Such a surreal thought.  People would be bored to know what I do!

South Korea Temple

Guess what?  I went to South Korea last year!  I know, I almost forgot too.

One of the things that I really wanted to do while we were in Korea was to go to the Seoul LDS temple.  I packed clothes for church and to go to the temple, but Will forgot.  His wardrobe was basically all Army issue and I don't think he was thinking past that.  

Fortunately, there are more "American" type stores on the Post he was working at and he found a white shirt, a tie and some slacks...do I say slacks because I'm old, or am I really just old so I say old things?  Pants, then.

Will got back to the hotel a little early and we were ready to go and walking out the door, address to the temple written in Korean and everything, when we remembered that we had put our temple recommends along with our passports and stuff in the hotel room safe.  So, thinking that we had dodged a bullet, we got them out of the safe and I scanned over mine and noticed that I had brought.l..14 thousand miles away...my old expired temple recommend.

Back into the hotel room...the Temple wasn't going to happen.  Leave it to me to complicate something so entirely!  I emailed our Bishop and he called the temple, probably at like 3am his time, to tell them it was ok for me to go in.  

If any of this sounds weird and foreign...recommends, Bishops, etc...I apologize...I forget sometimes that not everyone has the same vocabulary as me.

Our taxi driver couldn't understand the name of the church as we had it written down...the Church recently changed it's name in Korean, the way it is translated anway, and when the taxi driver repeated the name of the church to Will, he was thinking it was some sort of dooms-day church.

Nope. Not that one.

Until we turned into the temple grounds, I was sure the taxi driver still had it wrong.  If you were driving up this street, would you think there was a beautiful, large temple on it anywhere?

But there was...perched on the top of a hill and completely unseen from the street...and we made it with an hour and a half to spare...things aren't quite as busy as they are in the Provo Utah temple.  So Will and I roamed the temple grounds and took pictures. 

It was one of my favorite days!

---I am 40 years old and I need a personal shopper...someday I will realize that the best place to shop for travel clothes is NOT Sam's Club or Costco!  I'm anti-trying things on...you know, the fear of having to go up a size...so I always buy the big size and about 95% of the time I regret it...this was one of those days.

It really was a wonderful evening.  I had to laugh because while we were in the temple we used little translator sets with earphones because obviously, everything being said was in Korean, but there were times when I felt like I was watching one of those old kung-fu movies where what's being said doesn't match the moving mouth. 

And I could also hear what I was listening to being translated in to Russian for the lady sitting next to me.  Not a language I would expect to hear in Korea, for sure!

I got homesick for my sister Holly when I saw this coffee shop...a lot of the restaurants have western names, and/or themes...Korean's like USA and France, apparently!

Crispy, Crunchy, Brilliant, Chilly...Fall

Obviously, this was a while ago...try October 15th...

Me and Will in a convertible...enjoying one of the last beautiful, warmish fall days on a ride up Provo Canyon before the snow and cold take over.  

Thanks for the idea, dad!

Fall is my favorite time of year...especially when Will is home and he can take care of the tons and tons of yard waste that our yard creates.  I especially like going over to my sister Holly's house and standing outside their house and smelling the smoke from the wood burning stove they have in their family room.

I wonder if there's a candle with that scent?  Total nostalgia for me!

It's happening...Korea documentation has begun!!

I'm just going to commit!  Every time I think about my Korea pictures I get a pit in my stomach because it's been, what, like 2 months since we got home and I haven't shared, nor looked at all the pictures I took.

All 600 or so of them!

So, it's just a little daunting to me right now.  And life's just not getting any slower, either!  So here we go.  It may take a while, but I will try not to post every single picture I took even though it's so tempting because I LOVED, loved, LOVed Korea.  

The plane ride was the most scary to me.  Not because I'm afraid of flying, but because I'm afraid of sitting for so long that I get a blood clot in my leg and die.  Yes, they might try to get you to forget that you're squished by putting a little TV and choices of movies in front of you, and even feeding you snacks constantly, which got more and more Asian the closer we got to Japan, but sitting in the same spot in basically the same position for 11 hours gets a little old!  And painful!

But I got to sit by Will the entire time and he gave me the window seat...and he didn't make me feel guilty every time I asked for diet coke instead of water...and he woke me up when they were passing out ice cream sandwiches!!

This picture is the only one I took with my camera in Japan.  We had a couple hour layover at the Narita, Tokyo airport.  My first impressions of Japan...hot and muggy and the tallest buildings I saw as we were landing were hundreds of metal radio/phone towers sticking out of the green trees.

I love imagining what the people are doing in their homes as we fly over.  Everything looked so tidy and clean and small.  Little houses all by themselves on little hills surrounded by tons of trees.  It looked so quiet!

We got to Korea fairly late...took a taxi ride at the speed of light (seriously!  I know their cars show km/h, but how fast is 120 - 130 km/h??  like 80 mph? which isn't too fast if the road is straight, but we weren't going straight!) I left nail prints in the door handle.  Will chatted with the taxi driver and found out how many kids he had and that they were in college and that if you litter anywhere in Seoul it's a 50,000 won fine (like $5,000) while me and another couple sat in the back and held on for dear life!

We stayed in a beautiful hotel!  I even made myself at home and unpacked my suitcases and put my clothes in the drawers and closet.

Sunday we took the subway to where Will and the other soldiers would be working.  We tried to figure out the subway system because that was how me an another wife who also came along would be getting around for the next week, and then Will and I took a taxi to church!

Awesome, awesome experience!  We walked into the apartment style building and followed the sound of the organ playing a hymn up several sets of stairs until we came to a room with about 50 people in it.  A nice man at the door handed me a hymn book in English and we found our seat near the back.

I had to sing quiet because my English words didn't quite fit in...like pronouncing a strong s or t sound at the end or beginning of a word and I was completely heard by all!  Will was singing in Korean of course! 

I only understood two words that entire hour.  Old Testament and New Testament.  Other than that, I enjoyed the peaceful feeling and smiled at the little kids who were staring at me!  And to make my uncomfortableness worse, I only brought warm clothes thinking that it would be chilly...but it wasn't, of course, so I had to ditch my sweater and I hate my arms and not being covered by 3 layers at all times...not that the kids were judging me, but I already felt self conscious.  Ugly American.

After the meeting they invited us to stay to a yummy lunch.  They moved all the chairs, set up tables and started bringing out bows of food from the kitchen!  Of course we found the missionaries there and there were also several people who spoke enough English so that I could understand.

That was my first experience with authentic Korean Food (Will makes good Korean food, but he's not Korean, nor in Korea when he makes it!)  It did have a couple of things in it that I was a little concerned about, like twig looking things, which I still ate :?...It was so good and, it was free!  And I have to say that I used my chopsticks better than I ever have in my life, which usually doesn't happen.

We sat across from an older couple who have an apartment in and travel to NYC a couple times a year.   It was interesting to hear their take on the economy in the United States.  They were exactly right too.  Most of us in this country want something for nothing...why work when you can get it for free??  They were all so kind and welcoming and wanted us to stay and come back next Sunday, which we both would have loved.

I know this is getting really long, but all these little memories keep popping into my head and they're ones that I don't want to forget.

The nice lady we talked to while we were eating was amazed that I liked Korean food, especially the sesame oil and kimchi, and she asked Will why he didn't marry a Korean girl!  Honestly harsh!  But as we were getting ready to leave and thanking everyone for lunch and welcoming us, this same little lady held my hand, and twisted my wedding ring around on my finger...not even conscious that she was doing it, and I probably will never see her again, but what a lovely, beautiful Korean lady.  .  Will said it's kind of normal for Koreans to hold hands.  He had an experience of that on his mission when his Korean companion tried to hold his hand.  Normal to Korea, yes.  Not Will!

So we left the church, got back into a taxi and headed to North Seoul Tower to meet another couple.

I don't think there's a way to describe how HUGE Seoul is.  It goes on and on and on.  I don't think there's a picture that exists that can do it justice.  It's amazing!  As far as the eye can see!  Solid! Packed!  These were taken from the top of N. Seoul Tower...kind of like the Space Needle in Seattle.

This was our hotel...from way far away...I made my zoom lens work itself to death!  When I looked out our hotel window I could see the N Seoul Tower across the river...it took me 3 days to finally notice though!  Will told me that we were lucky to have the view that we did.  Usually Seoul is almost totally smogged in, but it had rained the day before we got there leaving us beautiful views...of millions of buildings!

People from around the world post messages of love on blocks and on locks (picture is down further of that) and they're displayed all over the building and on the grounds around the tower.

I just noticed the cotton candy being made on the other side...I knew me and Koreans had a lot in common!  This was a dance/arts presentation outside the tower.  Will was so sad when he saw that I didn't get any pictures of the super duper sharp sword wielding guys fighting and slicing bundles of bamboo and stuff  in half with one swing.  Just so you know...it was awesome!

Watching these guys made me dizzy.  They were spinning their heads around so that the streamer on their hats would circle around their head.  And they did it all while dancing and playing instruments...with precision!

Will and me..(in my ugly shirt without my sweater, awake when we're used to being asleep...)...as we walked down the winding road to take another taxi ride...oh, have I got stories of taxi rides and taxi drivers from this trip!  

I think the rest of the day we spent walking around Seoul at a couple of the shopping districts which were OVERwhelming!  So much stuff that you would never need or want or think that it even existed, but it was there by the tons.  We went on the busiest day of the week...wall to wall bodies.

I got to experience some once in a lifetime things this first day.  I'm so glad Will got to spend it with me.  He even introduced me to Milkis...think milk mixed with sprite.  I searched for it everyday after that!

OK, so only 19 pictures in this post...sorry computer!