Korea Kim

An young ha seo!! It's so wonderful to be home! I had such an amazing time in Korea!!! It's such an awe inspiring country. I made memories that I will cherish all my life. I took over 200 pictures, so it was hard to narrow it down to just a few to share with you. I wanted to explain the song as well. It is called "Honey" by Kara. They are a group of 5 and this song is one of the number one pop songs in Korea right now. I heard it a few times while I was there and saw their cute music video...I have to warn you though, it gets stuck in your head really quickly!! I played it once and Taysum has been singing it over and over!! There is acutally a lot more English around than I thought there would be. It seems like all the pop song's choruses are in English. There are also a lot of American stores over there, like this 7 Eleven. Some of the others are: Pizza Hut, Outback Steakhouse, Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, Quizno's, McDonald's, Burger King, Dominoes, Papa John's, Haagen Daaz and those are just the ones I remember!

I wanted to experience all things Korean that I could, so here is a picture of me trying Kimchi. I am a COMPLETE wimp when it comes to spicy food which is about 75% of Korean food!! I knew it was going to be spicy, but I couldn't go all the way to Korea and not try it! They have it with EVERYTHING! They thought I was quite amuzing...my face was red, my mouth was on fire...yeah...you get the idea!

I made a wonderful new friend named Jake Park. He works for our Eleutian team in Korea. He is such a great guy! He invited me join his family for Family Home Evening. He showed me around a bit on the way to his house. He took me to a National Park called Sky Way. We drove up the hill and you could see the gorgeous mountains and the lights of Seoul. The orange lights along the mountain lights up an ancient wall similar to the Great Wall of China. There is a walking path along it as well. When I saw this, I can't describe the feeling I had! It was such a humble power, but a power that was stronger and deeper than anything I've known! It was so stirring! Their history spans over 5,000 years!! I felt it a great privilege to be permitted a small glimpse.

This is my new buddy, Im Bom (sp?). This is Jake's son and he is Bailey's age. He also has a daughter who is Taysum's age so it made it really nice to be around little ones. He also has two teenage daughters.

This is a picture of me at a HUGE-NORMUS mall called COEX.

They had street vendors all over the place. They were connected to a truck, so when they were done for the day, they could just roll down the sides and drive home. At night they were all lit up and believe it or not, they even had some seating inside!!

I had the awesome privilege of attending the Seoul Korea Temple! It was the highlight of my trip!! It was so beautiful and very humbling to listen to it in Korean! Lukily Jake and his wife were there to help me!

This is a drive by shot of Olympic Park.



Koreans love Bar-B-Q!! We ate at this place called KOBA (KOrean BAr-B-Q). That's where we were eating with the picture of me eating Kimchi above. (This is actually a different place) We were at this table all together and they just bring you raw meat and you cut it up and cook it yourself. The pipes take the smoke away. There is a lot of communal eating in Korea, so at this place we didn't even have our own plates...just a bunch of side dishes and everyone grabbed what they wanted from where ever they wanted! It was actually pretty good!

OK, this is a Singing room! They love karaoke (sp?) over there and have these singing rooms all over the place. At first I just wanted to watch, but they chose a song for me "Open Arms" by Journey and made me sing it. I really got into it and had a blast!! They even score you and I scored 100 twice! :)

The last day was our "Korean Culture" day. We went to all sorts of places. The first place we went was the Korean War Memorial Museum. It was a very sobering place. In the entry way, they had a list of all the names of people who had died in the Korean war and how many each country lost. The US lost over 30,000...the next closest country was just over 1,000. (I don't think that's including Korean people) Jake expressed more than once his grattitude for the sacrifice of the US. This was my favorite display. You can't see it very well, but in the center is a sculpture in the shape of a tear drop (the name of the display is The Drop) The plaq says: "In remembrance of the Korean soldiers and UN military participants who lost their live in the Korean War, the respect towards the warriors (1,300 Identification Tags) has been embodied as tear drops. The iron thorns [there was barbed wire wraped around it] symbolize the horror, suppression, and danger of the tragic war. The circle on the sand below represents the waves of the drop." On the celing it hangs from is the UN symbol. Then surrounding the display were displays of a soldier representing each country that fought. It was so incredible!

This shot I'm especially proud of. I thought it was so cool, but most any time I saw a display of flags, the Korean flag and the US flag were right by eachother. The tower in the middle is Seoul Tower which is the center point of Seoul...I don't know...I thought it was pretty cool how it turned out :)


Next we went to the palace where the ancient Kings of Korea lived. It is all a museum now. The President of Korea lives in what is called The Blue House (the roof is made of blue tile) which you can see from the grounds of the palace and we also drove by it. So, this is the throne that the king sat on in the counsel room...it was so beautiful and the detail was amazing!! We also visited the Korean Folk Art Museum and a Bhuddist temple.

Then we went to Jake's home and had dinner with their family. They are moving to Ten Sleep soon and he has promised to come meet my family! I can't wait until they are here! They are such a wonderful family!!!

The grand finale for the night was going to the top of Seoul Tower...words fail! It was so amazing!!! You could see the whole city and nothing but lights as far as you could see!

So, I finally got home to the good ole' USA and the first thing that happens....I get in trouble! I saw this sign that said "Welcome to the United States of America" and it was so wonderful and inspiring to see...I wanted a picture of it...well it was at customs and a guard came up to me and told me that I couldn't take pictures in that area. I felt bad, but only for a moment ;)

So, I'm sorry this is just kind of slapped together...it's been hard getting back into the swing of things and work has really begun to pick up. I wanted to get a post up before I start forgetting things. I apologize for the lack of eloquence and the multiple spelling mistakes, but you are welcome at my house at any time for... "the rest...of the story" Thank you a million and 12 times to my angel sister who watched my kids and for Mom, Dad and Uncle Tyler for helping out so much! The Carpenters who fed my family and all the thanks in the world to my most wonderful husband who encourages me to spread my wings and makes all this possible!!! I love you with all my heart, Ken!! I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be home with my very own family!