In Seoul

Our halfway point was marked with a visit to Seoul, about 4 hours from Gwangju. What a beautiful city, with the mountains as the backdrop and tons of green space. It has the international feeling of other big cities around the world and we love walking through the streets discovering just a taste of what the city has to offer. Gwangju feels a world away, with all the Korean cultural flare that you would expect. We are stared at and treated like rock stars in Gwangju, in Seoul, you blend in much easier. Candace actually ate a steamed silkworm, and said it tasted like $*@! it smelled like it to, Mr Park ate the whole cup while the rest of us politely declined. The team had the opportunity to go out to clubs in an expat area and meet others from around the world who share their love of Korea. Today we are shopping in a market, then going to a temple to stay overnight, very excited about this.

Adjusting to Korea

After several home stays (I had 9 in the first 10 days) we are settled in Mokpo, our favorite city thus far. The Rotarians warmly met us and even had a welcome sign done during a night-time laser show in our honor. But I will back up a little, we had a tough time with one set of clubs when they chose to put the five of us together in an apartment with no family. It was the most disgusting place I have been in, the rotarians dropped us off quickly and left, no beds, towels, hot water and worse, it was filthy especially the bath, which I won't even go into. So we grabbed a cab and headed to a hotel, unfortunately, some convention filled all the hotels, so we were forced to go back and rough it for the night. When the AG came the next morning, I told him, I would be ashamed to put anyone there and we would not stay there another night. After much arugements between the AG and clubs we were told we would be with different families for the next two nights,....we are use to moving so no problem. The families we have stayed with have all been wonderful and word on the street must be that we like fried eggs and toast, because they are all offering that as an option. One family actually had French toast, I thought I was in heaven. While Nate is the adventurous eater and Chris will try just about everything, the balance of us are a little Squamish around foods that move and I have a problem with foods that are red, they tend to be super spicy. I have not had a diet coke since the plane ride over here and the team created a new drink which many seems to like a combination of soju and coke or soko as we call it. Candace is our model, with amazing poses at all the sites and Brandon is the superstar with his blonde hair and muscles the kids and women go crazy. We can sit crossed leg for long periods, don't complain about sleeping on the floor and are masters with chopsticks. But I will say we get excited when we see chairs in a restaurant or beds in a home stay. Sorry I still can't upload pics.