Trip Updates #7--Wednesday

Mornings in the cafe are amazing. Leah and Aaron are on the phone with Karen. Robert and Kellie are on the computer talking face to face with Jill and Dutch. Anthony is on the phone talking face to face with Alyson. Todd and Leeanne are on the phone with the kids. And we are all together.

School is still in session here. The kids that went to English Village are required to do a report and take pictures to get an excused absence. (That explains the first "take a picture with my child," just not the next seventeen.) At breakfast this morning (bacon & eggs) Sayone showed us Hanul's homework. She has written one page about English Village and has one page of pictures. She is taking pictures of her and Sarang with me and Samantha at her home and walking down the sidewalk together. She is also taking a picture of her and Jeff at English Village. So now our pictures will be all over school. Hanul's backpack could have been Kortney or Rylee's--a Hello Kitty bag with notebooks and folders, a pencil box and even a fundraiser form.

English Village today was for kindergarten, which means ages 4 to about 8. And, yes, in America that's ages 2 to about 7. "Immigration" was a little different this morning: at the end of the line were the kids who still had a good hold on mom's leg. Once we were downstairs in the sanctuary for the opening, kids were running everywhere. One of my yellow team kids ran past a few adults to the stairs and no one seemed to notice. So, yes, I got to chase kids up the stairs. While I was trying to help get the kids in the right teams, the rest of "the Americans" were up in the cafe sharing "steps to Peace with God." Todd later got to share with the other American girl there who is a Mormon. She did not make a decision, but what a seed could have been planted.

After lunch Leah and I were going back to our classrooms to get ready for the second class. One of the Korean workers chased us down. "Where are you going?!" Leah told him we were getting ready for class and he seemed okay with that. The funny thing is that while he was chasing us up the stairs, there were little kids all over the stairwell with no teachers. He didn't even seem to notice them. Leah and I were both pretty frustrated. There could be kids unattended all over the building, but by all means know where the Americans are at all times. Our classes were very different than Monday. The Korean teachers translated more since the kids were younger. And we got to use coloring sheets--the magic of crayons!

After English Village, we went "home" to change and meet back at church. About 10 minutes before we were to meet back, some of us got the message that we were supposed to be dressed nice. So we then were trying hard to come up with nice outfits. (It was the shoes that posed a problem: we weren't supposed to wear sandals, but some us had to and it was fine.) I was kind of frustrated they wouldn't tell us until the last minute. And when we are getting ready we are in 6 different houses and can't just call each other to spread the word. Todd had a good perspective on it though. They are used to an older group who comes to work with adults. We are a younger group who is working with kids. We are dressed like everyone else at English Village, so we don't think about being dressed wrong in the evening.

They took us to tour Voido Full Gospel Church--the largest Christian church in the world. Twelve thousand in a service, seven services each Sunday (translated during the service into several languages), twenty-one churches that receive video broadcasts and 765,000 members.

Then we went to 63 Square. Until recently, 63 Square was the tallest building in Korea. There are 63 main floors and three basement levels. Pastor Won told us the building was designed by a Christian man: designed in the shape of praying hands with 66 floors for the 66 books of the Bible. 63 Square is a world in itself. First, we went to an Imax Theater and watched a film about the history of Egypt. The fun thing was watching the actors' mouths: I don't know what the original language of the film was, but it was dubbed in Korean and we had headsets for English. The words never matched the actors or even happened at the same time.

After Imax we went to the 59th floor for dinner at "Walking on the Clouds." Again, the fanciest restaurant I've ever been to, where the waiters push your chair in and your meal comes in courses. First comes the appetizer...French pastry. If you think French pastry implies snails, you'd be right. I ate only the pastry crust. I've eaten a lot here, but the snails helped me find the line not to cross. Samantha, Aaron and Luke ate them and Todd tried one. The next course was French onion soup. I was so excited! Ms. Won sat across from me. It was the first time she had ever tried onion soup and the look on her face said onion soup was as appetizing to her as sushi to me. Next was the main course, your choice of steak or fish. The fish and veggies were amazing. Then came a salad with kiwi dressing and a fruit plate. Total cost for us, the pastor's family, the two men from the church who drove and the man from the church who paid was $900! After dinner we went back to the main level and went to "Sea World." The aquarium was great! (I'm telling you, 63 Square is a world of its own!) Then we went to the Sky Deck on the 60th floor and took pictures of the city at night. There is one area where the floor is clear, so you can see the ground. It was an incredible evening!

The church has given us the site-seeing trip of a lifetime. It has been amazing, but we are itching for a chance to shop, to bring something home with us. I don't love shopping, but this could be once in a lifetime.

More interesting facts: U-turns are not illegal here. In fact, intersections have left-turn lanes and u-turn lanes. Elevators in America hold 6 to 8 people. Elevators in Korea hold about 20, even though they are the same size.

More later. . .