2 Trips- 2 Days

We visited two different cities in two days time on May 11th and 12th. On Monday, the 11th, we went to Cheonan to visit friends from our church in the states. They are the ones who opened our hearts to work in Korea. We had a good time of fellowship with them and with some of their students. We rode the express bus from Ochang to Cheonan. It was a very new experience for us. It was like a Greyhound bus that we rode and there were plenty of seats. We arrived at the bus station which was at the back of a shopping center named Yawoori (pronounced ya-oo-ree). We went through the shopping center to the city buses that parked out front. We caught the bus and arrived at Korea Nazarene University. Cathy and Terrill met us at the front gate and took us to their apartment. We dropped off our things and went on a tour of the campus. It has some very pretty buildings. We met a few other teachers there, also. We went back to the apartment to talk and get ready for lunch. While we were there, a Chinese couple came to visit. They were very nice. They are both studying to be English teachers. They spoke very good English, but their Korean was not very good. We all walked to the top of a hill at the college close to the apartment for a picnic lunch. We had a good time of eating, talking, and playing. Later in the day, we went to Homever and did a little shopping. We found some large bags that have words printed on the front that say plastic, metal, and paper. We use these for sorting the things we are throwing out. We have recycle bins for all of these things and everything else has to go in special trash bags that everyone has to use. These are sold at all of the local marts, but are issued by the local government. You have to use these bags for all trash. The trip home was uneventful, but we had to wait an hour for the express bus to ride home. We were the first in line, so we were able to have seats. Those at the end of the line had to stand up. We made it home late and we were very tired.

The next day we got up, went to school and took a small charter bus to Seoul. We were supposed to go and see a large fortress there, but since the day before was Buddha's birthday, they were closed. So, we went to the National Museum. It had several areas of artifacts and art, but was pretty boring for most of the students. We spent most of the day there. Later in the day we went to Nam San mountain. This is the south mountain of Seoul. It was a beautiful place. You can see some pictures below. They had a science museum that was like the Omniplex in OKC. The kids were really enjoying themselves with the different experiments and then we went and watched a planetarium show. We hope to go back to Nam San and spend some time there again.