Yang-ju City

By the way, did you know that the name of my city (Yang-ju) literally means "western liquor"?? True story.

ANYWAY, so....my flight was uneventful. I got here and all my luggage was first out...yay!!! That's NEVER happened to me, in all my world travels! Yay for Korean Air (they serve GREAT food, btw). T, my boss, picked me up right away (again, so relieving to not have to search for a man I don't know!) and we drove the hour or so up to Yang-ju. We stopped by a LotteMart on the way so I could get some supplies and food. I basically just got cleaning supplies and bread, peanut butter, cereal, apples, and milk...all were desperately needed that next day! I pretty much went to bed right after I got "home"...I was completely bushed.

I spent Saturday morning cleaning and familiarizing myself with my apartment. I was thinking, jet lag whatever! But, at around 1 or 2pm, I lay on the bed for "just a minute" and woke up at 2am very disoriented! Cleaned some more and then decided to put on my big girl panties and figure out how to get to Barry, who was about 2 hours away by subway. Needless to say, I figured it out (the Seoul subway system is GREAT....gets you anywhere you could want to go, has both Korean and English, and is super clean...I think I'm going to love public trans!).

The OMPC team and I went to a Korean folk village...it's a lot like Williamsburg is for us. It was really cool to see how Koreans lived way back when. We also got to eat with one of the team members host families, and it was SO GOOD...lots of veggies and mushrooms, meat, rice, and my favorite, bibimbap! I love food!!

I ended up spending the night with the Morehead's and we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace the next morning. Holy hannah, I want to be Korean royalty! It was so beautiful, with gardens and ponds, water lilies and exquisite trees...tons of space for the queen and her entourage! My favorite part was the concubine's quarters though :) A couple friends and I went looking specifically for the "ho house", which was definitely not as cool as the queen's quarters, but still pretty nice. The history behind the palace is fascinating...built in 1395, destroyed and desecrated by the Japanese in the early 1900's, and then rebuilt (restoration is still actually going on) in 1990. Very cool.

After the palace, (and a really long trek to find the van), we had a traditional Korean meal that was wonderful...you sit on the floor on cushions, eat with flat metal chopsticks (harder than I thought), and the food just keeps coming for about an hour...yum!!! Then, full sated and almost waddling, we headed to a street market (I forget what it's called) that was filled with art and antiques...I only bought one gift though, because I'm practicing discipline :) The rest of the team went to a big mall while I hopped back on the subway to head home. A fast shower and a quick meal of cereal (this habit needs to stop!) and I was in bed with the lights out! Not a bad weekend, if you ask me!

Today I got to talk to a bunch of people, and I SO appreciate your support and encouragement. This has already shown itself to be a challenge. I didn't mention the tears Friday night as I fell asleep, wondering what on earth I'm doing half a world away from those I love. I know there will be more tears, but I honestly couldn't be here, doing this, without you. Many, many thanks. I'll be buying an air mattress in the next month or so, so any of you willing to brave a 14 hour flight, you are more than welcome!!!