Korea's got Seoul

This past term Blake and I have had Wednesdays off together and we've tried to make the most of our time touring around and taking in the sights. Two weeks ago we decided to make the trip to Seoul which is the capital of South Korea. Seoul is actually where we arrived in Korea off the plane and also where we stayed for a week in training. Life has taken on a rhythm here and we're getting busier, continuously feeling more confident and sometimes forget how much we've learned. We sometimes have trouble remembering all the bumps and hassles of adjusting when we first arrived, but going to Seoul was like a trip down memory lane. While riding the subway in Seoul, we had a flash back to that first week when we didn't know how to make our subway cards work. We tried all the buttons, but the meter wouldn't let us out. There was a man working in a booth nearby and he was rolling his eyes at us and yelling something in Korea. It was pretty frustrating at the time, until we noticed that we were simply trying to exit through the 'enter' meter. Needless to say, we felt really dumb, 'stupid foreigners.' :) After that incident we didn't want to ride the subway much for fear of not being able to find our way back. This time, we were transferring and going all over the place! I guess we should take heed knowing that pride comes before a stumble- and we definitely don't want another toaster oven incident! ;)

While we were walking downtown, we stumbled across a Buddhist temple. This religion is huge in Korea and it seemed so odd to see people bowing down in front of these statues- not really something we see much of back home. You can't really get the full idea from the pictures of how big these Buddha's were. Absolutely massive! For those of you who don't know Blake well, he can be a bit of a bull in china shop in certain delicate situations ;) He kept wanting to get pictures of himself giving Buddha the thumbs down sign and talk to the monks- even though they don't speak English. At one point I turned around to see him (without thinking) 'hork' on the 'holy' ground. I thought we were going to get kicked out or put in jail!

While leaving, Blake gave some money to a beggar just outside of the temple and said 'Jesus' to him, but I don't think he understood. Sometimes it can be really frustrating to not be able to speak freely with anyone we want to.