Korea

So, I'm in Korea.

I'm here on a trip with school, taking a seminar for evangelism credit. We have been in sessions most of the time, with small chunks of free time every day. However, we are at a conference center at least an hour outside Seoul, in a tiny little town with no shops to speak. The conference center is on top of a hill in the mountains, so the view is beautiful.
(Pictures later. Never fear.)

Evidently, we are here during the annual three weeks of heavy rain. This year the rain has resulted in the worst flooding pretty much ever for Seoul. The flooding has mostly subsided, but some roads are still under water in Seoul. I am staying up in some mountains, and it has been rainy here every day until today, but not floody.

We have been pretty much secluded in the seminar house (conference center). By yesterday, we students started to get a little stir crazy. We came here wanting to experience the culture and see the sights, and we have felt pretty detached from the rest of the world since we've been sitting in lectures all day every day. We have had some adventures outside the seminar house, finally.

Yesterday, we got stir crazy and talked a staff person into driving us to a store. It turned out that he had a regular 4 door car, and there were 5 of us. So Skip sat in front with the driver, and the 4 of us girls (Lane, Lina, Malinda and I) piled in the back seat. We giggled for the whole 45 minute trip there, and then we wandered for 30 minutes, and then we piled back in the car for the ride back for class. The store was really just a department store, like Macy's, with a market in the bottom. But we were able to buy Cokes and candy.

Today, we had free time and scheduled touring. We were able to convince the grown-ups (group leaders/staff) to rearrange the schedule so that we could commence the tourism sooner. We went into Seoul and shopped, had lunch at Lina's favorite restaurant, and met a group of students from St. Paul (UM) Seminary to tour a palace (GteongBokgung Palace). After the palace, we visited a shrine to Catholic martyrs -- Decapitation Mountain. After that cheerful stop (at which there was a drink machine -- COKE!), we headed to Itaewon shopping district. Itaewon turned out to be more touristy and not as nice as the place we went earlier with Lina, who is the Korean student on the trip with us. For dinner, we went to a Chinese restaurant that is a favorite of the Korean professor with the St. Paul group.

Without Lina, we would not know what we were eating, how much things should cost, or how to interact with local folks. She pretty much rocks.

I'm tired. Tomorrow, the World Methodist Conference starts. We have to leave at 7:30am in order to make it on time for the opening worship at the church where the Conference is being held. We'll see how that goes. I'm pretty stoked about the World Methodist Conference, since there will be Methodist folks from around the world. Rock on, Wesleyan connectionalism.