China 5 - to Korea

After two days of heavy rainfall,  by Tuesday afternoon there was enough flooding on the streets that Bert and his colleagues were unable to leave the plant. He sent me this picture of the street.

They had to stand around for hours at the plant until the flood subsided, but finally made it back around 8:30 pm. Bert was asleep within 20 minutes. We didn’t have supper, but that was fine – I fasted that day anyway, feeling like my belly needed a rest from the excessive amounts of food we’re expected to consume.

The next day, Wednesday June 19 was a big day for me! When Bert and the other two were picked up to go to another tool shop, I was taking a taxi to the Shenzhen airport to fly to Korea!

Did I mention what a beautiful airport this is? From their air, it looks like a massive airplane. Inside it looks like a giant mesh stretched open, bathed in sunlight.

The flight wasn’t full so I got two seats together and could stretch out a bit for the 3 ½ hour flight. With typical travel waiting, delays, and times zone changes, it was 6:30 pm when I landed. I was so excited to see Peter! If he hadn’t waved and hurried toward me, I don’t think I would have recognized him! It's been eight years since he lived with us and I tutored him in English.

His wife, Seon Hwa (“Sonny”) is very sweet, and speaks some English too.
The drive to Peter's apartment in Seoul took about an hour. He parked the car and we walked a few blocks to the restaurant for a delicious Korean Pork Barbeque meal.

The narrow roads were lined with many restaurants and little shops, and a lot of business people going out for dinner. After our meal, the streets were lined with many drunken business people staggering out from restaurants and little shops!

We went up to see Peter’s home briefly. (I have to stop calling him Peter, because that’s not his name here.)  They apologized for how small it is, but I think it’s perfect for two people with no children. They gave me presents! Two mugs for Bert and I with Korean writing, a lamp shaped like a house with a traditional ‘keewha’ roof, and a portable fan they thought I might need in the humidity. The battery of the fan can also be used to charge my phone. Then they drove me to my hotel and helped me with my bags into my hotel room; Peter already had the hotel key. The room is small but very modern. And the the toilet is also a bidet!

Thursday I was awake by 4:30 unfortunately. I spent the time unpacking my bags and watching an Australian TV channel until the restaurant was open for  a buffet breakfast (included!). Peter came to collect me at 9:00. We took a taxi to an older part of the city that many tourists enjoy. The old houses were made with ‘Keewha’ style roofs. Some are people’s homes, and some are little boutique shops lining the streets.

Unfortunately, most of them were not open yet, and Peter/JunYeop felt bad for bringing me there when everything was closed!  There was a little café open, and we had some fancy tea and Sonny had iced coffee. (Yes! They serve COLD drinks when it's hot here!)

I was excited to meet JunYeop’s parents for lunch. His dad had picked a restaurant that serves a traditional Korean meal in a 175 year old house that once belonged to a king as his 2^nd home. It was surrounded by beautiful gardens.

Peter/JunYeop's mother doesn’t speak English. His dad understands most of it. Sonny speaks a little, but neither of them had ever spoken English in front of the parents, and were shy. As we ate, I wanted to tell his parents how much we had enjoyed having JunYeop live with us, and how our whole family loved him, and missed him, but I kept getting choked up at the thought. And as we took pictures in the garden, I knew they were leaving and I had to say something other than “Thanks for the meal!” but instead  of saying anything coherent, I said, “He was 'my son' for almost a year, and I missed him!” then dissolved into blubbering, making it very hard to communicate anything at all!

I was still wiping tears when we got into a taxi. The driver was chatting with Peter/JunYeop as he was putting a CD in the player and JunYeop said it was traditional Korean music. I immediately recognized the tune and told him it was a hymn we sing in church. The driver said, in perfect English, “Oh! Are you a Christian too?!”  He said he teaches English in the evenings and drives a cab as his second job. He told JunYeop in Korean that he is seeking a job as an ambassador. He took the CD out of the player, put it in its box and handed it to me as a gift. So I am weeping again at the wonderful God who blessed me with a CD of music played on a traditional Korean Kahya Geum, and a sweet memory of the Christian taxi driver who gave it to me.

We spent about an hour at the Korean War museum and by then we were feeling quite drained by the heat and humidity, and decided to take a rest until dinner. We stopped in the grocery stored which is on the 3^rd basement level of my hotel, and I enjoyed simply looking at the difference between grocery stores here and home. I bought a couple of items to take home and went up to my room to sprawl on the bed for a couple of hours.

At 7:30 pm we went for dinner in an area I called Korea Las Vegas, not because there was gambling but because it was  so brightly lit and bustling with activity.

It’s another popular spot for business people and also with tourists, I presume, because most of the signs were in English. We ate at a Beer& Chicken place and reminisced about fun times we had in Canada. JunYeop still has pictures on his phone from then! Sonny couldn’t believe how long his hair was, and his beard!

Afterwards, we went for a walk downtown, a busy, bustling place, with street vendors, buskers, business people, tourists and couples milling about. It was still quite warm out, and very muggy, though JunYeop was complaining about it more than me. (He insists it doesn’t get hot in Canada. I think 2008 must have been a cooler summer than usual.) There is a creek that runs through Seoul, which of course has a history of activity around it, at one time being the centre of activity, then a shanty town and an eyesore, but has now been changed into a lovely meeting place, where people can stroll on both sides, cross over on large flat steps, eat their lunch, enjoy the man-made waterfall, and escape from the noisy streets above.

We followed the creek quite a way which ended near some sculptures and statues and finally at the gates to the now-empty King’s Palace.

Tomorrow we’re going on some kind of a tour, and I’ve been told to have a late breakfast, in preparation for a late lunch.

11:52 pm, Thursday, July 20, Lotte Hotel,