When Adam and I were given the green light to go to India for 3 months, one of the big things that we wanted to do while we were over in that part of the world was to visit Adam’s mission in Seoul Korea and to spend some time touring the country with the kids. Therefore, we decided that maybe it would be best to try to hit Korea on our way home.
This idea proved beneficial in three main ways. 1) It would allow us as much time as we wanted to visit Adam’s mission and not take away from any of our time in India. 2) If we could work it out right – we could have Adobe pay for our flights to Korea since it is technically “on our way home” from India and a good place for a layover. đ and 3) It would also allow us to break up our flights a bit and NOT be on a plane for 25-30 hours straight – saving us our sanity! So for months we looked into flights from India to the USA via Korea and eventually found some cheap flights that fit into the budget that Adobe gave us for our return flights! Score! It truly was a dream come true for us and the airline was awesome about letting us do an “open lag” for 18 days without charging us anything extra! So our plan was set!
The flight from India to Korea was about 12-14 hours if I remember right and we had two stops along the way. One in Bangkok Thailand, and the 2nd in Hong Kong, and then we flew into the Incheon airport in Seoul Korea from there. I don’t remember much about the flight but do remember that it took an awfully long time to figure out how to get from the airport to our home stay (a 3 bedroom apartment I had found near downtown Seoul on airbnb for a really good price), and that we had McDonalds at the airport for dinner (with REAL hamburgers!) and then took an hour long bus ride to our apartment. It was pretty late at night in Korea (about midnight) but we were all so excited to be in Korea and loved looking out the windows at the city lights and watching Korean TV on the bus. We couldn’t understand a thing anyone said on TV, but it was so sooo fun to watch as everything was so different. I remember specifically watching a Korean soap opera where everyone was eating sitting on the floor, and then later when the parents on the show went to bed – they just went behind a screen and went to sleep on mats on the floor! The culture in Korea is just so so different.
We met up with our apartment host at the bus stop near our apartment and then had to walk about a block with all our luggage to get to the apartment. We were pretty much pro’s at this point though and even though we still had 6 or so bags, we were able to manage pretty well. Adam would usually take our largest bag and a backpack, while I would take two medium sized bags strapped together, and then Brans and Harry would each take a smaller rolly bag. Daws would then pull Adam’s laptop bag and then one of us would hold hands with Ady as we walked! Adam always took the front, and then I would take the rear to make sure all kids and bags were following in line and everyone accounted for. It worked out pretty well!
Getting to our apartment from the street was more of a challenge though when we realized the apartment was on the third floor with no elevator! But we eventually got all the luggage up after multiple trips and all was well. Our host was really nice and explained how everything worked and where everything was, and then he also gave us a little welcome gift of a selfie stick that you can attach to your camera to take pictures of yourself or group. Nice! He was a very thoughtful and kind man and really did a great job taking care of us.
The apartment was smaller than it looked in the pictures, but it had a kitchen and 3 separate rooms, and a washer and dryer, and was in a great central location, and clean, and was perfect for our needs. Plus it was only just over $100 a night which was significantly cheaper than staying in a very basic hotel – where rates were between $150-$200 a night for ONE room (and we’d need at least two). Housing in Korea is ridiculously expensive, so we felt very blessed to have found such a great place for a great price. It was also only a one minute walk to the subway which was super convenient! We ended up spending our first 8 days at the apartment and had a great time!
Our first day in Korea landed on a Sunday, and so we got up pretty early in the morning to get ready for church, and give ourselves enough time to take a 45 minute subway ride to the other side of Seoul where we hoped to attend the Won Dang Branch where Adam had first served as a missionary. The kids were pretty excited about taking their very first subway ride!
I on the other hand was a little nervous that we would ever figure out how to get there because I couldn’t for the life of me read any of the signs!
Adam was awesome though and it was like he’d never been gone with how well he manipulated the subway system and got us to where we needed to go. And his Korean. Wow! That is all I have to say. I was always mucho impressed whenever I heard him speak. It was like he hadn’t missed a beat! And people were always complimenting on how well he spoke. Especially considering he’s been home from his mission for over 16 years!
This guy in the green is giving us the look that we got from most Koreans, “What are these Americans doing here and why do they have so many kids?” đ
Adam was pretty much as giddy as a school boy when we arrived at his old church building and told us how they had actually JUST built this church when he had served here as a missionary back in the day. He actually served here twice and remembers when there was a rented floor of an office before this was constructed. He couldn’t wait to see if we would run into any of the old members he knew.
This is what the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” looks like in Korean. Pretty cool!
We were able to enjoy Sunday School with the missionaries and some investigators when we first arrived – where Adam translated everything for us, and then he also translated again for us in Sacrament meeting. He didn’t catch everything, but really did an outstanding job and really got the gist of most of the talks. He truly amazed me!
Then after church the branch had a big member social where they invited us to have a big meal with them in the chapel/gym. They made some yummy noodles – which we all loved and then some traditional Korean side dishes – mostly different types of kimchee. It was a great first meal to have in Korea and eased the kids into the new and different food. And we loved talking to the members and missionaries and hearing how the work is going forward in Korea.
These two sisters were awesome and loved talking to Adam about his mission here so many years ago!
We loved seeing how all the members worked together to feed everyone and clean up afterwards. Everyone worked so hard and served so lovingly and willingly.
And the kids loved running around the chapel and playing tag with the Korean children. At first I was really worried the kids were being too roudy in the chapel (as running around in our chapels back home is a big no no) but here in Korea, the churches don’t have separate recreation rooms so the chapels are also used for all types of functions.
Unfortunately we didn’t get to see too many of the families Adam was hoping to get to see, but he was really happy to at least run into one family that he knew. The man on the right in the black suit was just a college student when Adam was here 16 years ago. He’s the bishop now. His dad is one of the pioneers of the Church in Korea and plays the voice of Heavenly Father in the Korean Temple video. Next to the bishop is the the old ward mission leader, Bro. Choi, when Adam served in the branch as a missionary, and was a man that he had loved and looked up to. It was so nice to be able to meet him and his family and hear stories about the “old days.” All of these kids were not even born back then!
Sure was a wonderful afternoon spent with the good members and missionaries of the Won Dang Branch.