The beginning of many Seoul posts

Seoul Later you will se a picture with me eating chicken...this is wehre I got it from.
yummm! lol squid!
Dr. Chau's Church
On the way to church Sunday Morning....more of Seoul.

Metal chopsticks

The beginning of our trip to Seoul Outdoor market
Dr. Chau's Church in Seoul...the largest church in the world...i listened to the service with headphones in English : ) Wow! you have never seen people worship God and until you visit a Korean church.
This is where I slept : )

The bathroom..the red thing is the bucket I used...and the hose is the shower/sprayer thing

Seoul Photos!!!!!!!

Thus the title of the blog...."barefoot in Seoul".... The "tic-tac-toe" boys
mmmmm! fish to the left...some super good beef stuff next to it, cucumber kim chi, and other stuff.. : ) Really good food!! this was at Yoon's Uncle's house.
MY first experience of Seoul, street vendor food. Best chicken I have ever had!
A market in Seoul...this was around the area where Yoon's family lived. Foregners don't usually come around this part...at least thats what Yoon said : )

Barefoot in Seoul

This past weekend I spent it in Seoul with my friend, Yoon's, uncle and cousins. It was quite the experience!! I loved every second of it. First off, it was raining and my flip flops were slipping on all the roads and stuff so yes, if you know me I just took them off and walked the streets of Seoul barefoot. lol

Ok so while in Seoul...I visited Dr. Chou's church. Its the biggest one in the world. There were 10000 people in the service I attended...there are 10 services a day with all of them packed. The church is amazing and very on fire for God. I loved it. Dr. Chao did not preach though..he actually just retired a few weeks ago. Also in Seoul I bathed with a bucket, slept on the floor, ate on the floor with a small table and tried new things. Yoon's fmaily was so hospitable. I love how they eat so healthy here. It is nice getting used to having watermelon for dessert. I am loving it. Also at their house I began my chopstick using training.lol I can use the wood ones but I am getting better with the metal ones. IT is awesome eating there because everyone eats out of all the same dishes. haha something else that is relaly funny is watching a petite, proper Korean woman eat. They just shove in the food and go for it.lol So different than America. with most of the food here you relaly aren't supposed to take like 2 or 3 bites but eat it all. Oh yeah, and if any of you come over here...lol don't worry about talking with your mouth open.
so some food I have...nothing oto drastic just anchovies, kim chi, and squid. It is all really good. Although, I am not too fond of the really fermented kim chi.

SOmething else that I am not used to is that everyone is the exact same ethnicity. Everyone is Korean. So different not seeing any other foreigners especially being from FL where it is so diverse. I get ALOT of stare being a westerner. lol I just laugh. I was on the subway when two boys sat next to me. They were probably 12 years old. lol They kept staring at me, whispering to each other and giggling. IT was quite hilarious. Then, I asked if they wanted ot play tic tac toe. Yoon explained to them what it was and they were excited to play. When we got off the subway they kept saying bye in english and giggling. BEcause they were so excited to meet westerners I decided to take a picture with them. They giggled again and started talking to each other in Korean. I have posted a picture of them : )

oh and I have good news! I finally learned how to say hello in KOrean!

It is hard not knowing ANY of the language..or even not knowing any of the characters. I am learning how to read though. It is dfinately not as hard as I thought it would be. well, there was a lot more to say but I am going to dinner. I will blog later...and post pictures! talk to you all soon! Love you guys!!!

Atlanta Photos at the Korean Consulate

I said I would post the Atlanta pictures so here they are!!



After several months of processing paperwork, a flight to Georgia and two trips to ATL by car, an intimidating interview, swinging doors in glass skyscrapers I finally Received my VISA!!!!

Pictures which were supposed to be in the previous post....

I made it!!

I have a lot to tell you all and pictures to share : ) First off my bags did not end up being overweight...due to some expert "Shane packing" as I was checking in at the counter in Fort Myers.

The flight to South Korea from Los Angeles was 13 hours....I slept immediately for nine hours straight. It was a perfect flight! Also on the flight I was requested to taste either octopus or an omelet for my first Korean meal...It was a really hard decision, seriously. However, I was hungry and if I started the octopus and it mad me sick, then I was out of food and would remain hungry....so i decided to go with the boring omelet..which turned out to be a scrambled egg with nothing in it....quite disappointing. I have to say though that the octopus looked really good....like teriyaki chicken.

When I arrived at 5 a.m. my bags were all in one piece and at the baggage claim. I was VERY thankful for that! Joseph In and his wife, Grace, picked me up at the airport....I guess I wasn't hard to miss seeing as I was the only American girl on the flight..not to mention my pile of luggage : ) After they picked me up from the airport, Yoon met us later and we all piled in the van. The traffic was horrible in Seoul so instead of stopping at a restaurant for a bite to eat, we stopped at a vendor on the side of the highway. The vendor made a super good omelet!! I am thinking it might even be better than any I have had in the States! In one of the pictures you will see Yoon eating the omelet, as well as, a photo of the highway where we stopped.

After four hours of traffic....we finally arrived at my two bedroom house. It is white with a pink stripe on the outside. Of course my famous words yet again..."I will post pictures"..I unpacked for a few hours whichwas a bit overwhelming b/c i have two small drawers of a night stand and no closet...together they might make one regular sized dresser drawer. Its all good though because I am using my suitcases to put my clothes in : ) Surprisingly everything is organized!

One of the other pictures you will see is me with Jeff and a shopping cart riding an escalator type thing. (Jeff and his wife, Rizza, are also teachers here) The grocery store I went to is MEga Mart..it had two floors and the wheels of the cart locked when going to the second floor. Its kind of neat! besides the neat elevator the food is quite expensive! Peanut butter is $5 and cereal is $6 and that is only the beginning...did I mention that I have to pay for the plastic bags that the food go into? so next time you go to throw away a publix bag remember that there are people in South Korea who actually have to pay for those things! Feel free to mail some if you like! lol

Last thing and most important is that I will begin teaching English on Monday to first graders who do not know any English...lol this will be very interesting. lol I will keep you all posted with how it goes! I am thinking I might need some extra prayers for Monday....