Korean Adventures Day 6: Temple Day + 천안 (Cheonan)

On Tuesday May 12th we went to the temple with my grandparents at the Seoul Korea Temple! It was my first session with them since I got my endowments right before I got married.

After we got out, we met up with Sonhee's previous mission president and his wife and had dinner with them at a Chinese Restaurant. (another side note: Korean Chinese food is not anything like American Chinese food, but it also is not authentic Chinese food. Funny huh? :P )

Here are some pictures of us at the temple. The temple was supposed to be a lot taller when they had it built, but due to regulations about building height, they had to make it only 2/3 as tall as they had initially planned. The building height regulation was set back in the day so that planes could fly easily without interference in the case of an air war with North Korea.

we didn't even plan it but we were all wearing yellow that day :D

President and Sister Christiansen and Sonhee at the restaurant

Restaurant selfie!

After lunch, we got packed up and took the metro down to see my mom's side of the family in 천안. 

My sister bought these honey creme filled cakes to much on on our way down

Once we got there we had dinner with my grandma, 삼촌 (my mom's younger brother) and 숙모 (his wife) and my cute cousins (this was my first time seeing them in real life since I haven't been to Korea in the last 5 years). 

that's Heesu and Yearin. Aren't they adorable?

Heesu (age 4) is super friendly and outgoing. He didn't even needed any time to warm up to me and Max. Yearin (age 2) is a bit more shy, but by the end of the night she was more open to hanging out with us and playing games and what not. They're both super smart and I feel like they both know a ton for being so young!

My Aunt works full time and my grandma takes care of her kids for her during the day when they're not at Preschool and stuff. This is my mom and sister brushing their teeth. They play this little "game" of dentist, and they make it feel like they're at the dentist's office to make it more fun to brush their teeth. 

My mom bought them these cute outfits and brought them to Korea for them. So cute right? :)

There were a lot of people over at my Grandma's house during dinner and all and Max felt a bit of culture shock that night because he couldn't understand any of the conversations and felt like he couldn't participate much in conversations either. He described it like when he got into the mission field after being at the MTC for 9 weeks but still couldn't understand or speak as much as he would have liked haha. But he still learned a TON of Korean in the few days that he was there and was (and is) doing a great job at learning the language! :) The culture shock only lasted a few hours that night and he was back to normal the next morning. 

I seriously am so grateful that he is so open to the Korean culture and is so willing to learn the language and traditions. He's a super fast learner and remembers vocabulary words super well. He'll be super good by the time we go home, seeing as how much he's learned in the first half of our trip! The goal is that he'll be able to understand fluently and speak well enough by the time we have kids so that he'll be able to understand me when I speak only Korean to the kids and he'll speak English to the kids. Max is awesome and is super smart, so I'm not worried at all that he'll be able to get to that level soon. 

It was a long but fun and eventful day! More blog posts to come (even though they're super late it's better late than never right? ;) )

Korean Adventures Day 5: A Real Traditional Korean Meal

On Monday May 11th, we didn't do a whole ton, just some getting used to the time zone and chilling during the day. My mom had a doctors appointment so we went with her there and just entertained ourselves until the appointment was done. (Side note: my mom is healthy--she just wanted a physical check up and wanted to get it done in Korea)

That night my 작은아빠 and 작은엄마 (my dad's younger brother and his wife) took us all out to dinner at this fancy traditional Korean food restaurant. They served like 6 courses or something of traditional food that the King would have eaten back in the day. It was super delish and we were all so full at the end!

My Aunt, Uncle and us waiting for our the next course to come out

After dinner they took us to go see the Han River, but it was so cold and windy we didn't stay for too long. Apologies for the poor picture quality--it was so dark and I hate using the flash because it's not very good. 

shivering in the cold wind

the city and the Han River in the background

Group Picture

A glimpse of the scenic Han River Park bike/walkway

Korean Adventures Day 4: Church and Miracle

The first Sunday in Korea, we went to the 신촌 (Shincheon) ward with my grandparents. During all of my past visits to Korea we've always attended the 서대문 (Seodaemun) ward, but about a year or two ago that ward was dissolved and combined with the Shincheon ward. So it was my first time at the Shincheon ward and I didn't know a lot of the people there, but it was a good experience. The Shincheon ward building is about a half block away from the Seoul Temple, and the church is trying to buy more land in that area because they want to build a big stake center right next to the temple to model it more like the LDS temples in the U.S., which would be cool.

Anyways, below are a few pictures we snapped before we headed out for church! :)

When we were at church my grandpa translated the priesthood lesson for Max and during Sunday School I was able to translate for Max as well. Max was a great sport at church despite the language barrier. For Sacrament meeting the missionaries had a headset for Max and there was an older Korean missionary sister who translated the meeting into English for various foreign members and foreign investigators.

So cool story for the day:
Max and I decided to attend the Young Single Adult Sunday School class instead of the married couples one (we felt more at home in the YSA sunday school class because we were closer in age to everyone that was there). During the lesson Sonhee overheard an American couple talking about something to do with Spanish. Sonhee didn't know exactly what they were talking about but told them that Max spoke Spanish and asked them if they needed him for anything.

It turned out that there were two Chilean sisters that were visiting Korea and the American lady sitting in front of us was trying to find a Spanish speaker to communicate with them. The lady had served a Spanish speaking mission in the past but had forgotten most of her Spanish and neither of the Chilean sisters could speak very much English. So luckily Max was able to meet them before Sacrament meeting and talk with them in Spanish and get to know them! And during Sacrament meeting, Max listened to the English translation of the talks through his headset and then translated it into Spanish for the Chilean sisters! Crazy huh?

From talking to them we found out that the two girls were sisters and were already members. Their names were Sara and Tamara. Apparently when their mom passed away they watched some Korean dramas and were able to find comfort in watching them and they have felt a connection with Korea ever since, which is why they made a trip out to visit. It was a great to meet them even though it was only for a short period of time,

What are the chances that Max and I randomly decided to attend the singles sunday school class and what are the changes that Sonhee randomly overheard the American couple (who are actually the young single adult leaders in that ward) talking about finding a Spanish speaker? It was such a tender mercy and miracle that Heavenly Father had placed us right were we needed to be so that Max could use his Spanish to serve those Chilean sisters!

Below is a picture of Max in action as he translated the sacrament meeting talks into Spanish for the two Chilean sisters sitting in front of him.

Heavenly Father is so great! I'm so grateful that Max served a mission and is able to use the language and skills he learned on his mission to serve others! It's such a blessing that the church is true no matter where you go and no matter what language you speak! :)

Korean Adventures Day 3: The Beginning

So I know I never blog anymore, but I thought it would be so great if I blogged about our Korean adventures (since I'm not that great at journaling either) :P

To start off we got here on Thursday evening. The flight was pretty good, not too turbulent. After watching what seemed like a bajillion movies on the plane, we landed in Korea and my uncle and his wife came to pick us up! We got to my grandparent's house in Seoul and like always, we had a delicious feast prepared by my grandma.

We were all trying to eat as much as we could, hoping that it would wake us up and help us get used to the jet lag we were feeling! We crashed that night and woke up early the next morning and we all got our hair done the next morning (except for max of course).

It was funny because most Korean people have never seen hair like Max's. Everyone at the salon kept asking me if Max got his hair permed because it was so curly haha. (it's common for Korean guys to get their hair permed--it's weird, I know).

After we got our hair done we had lunch and walked around/shopped in the area we were at near Ehwa Women's University.

And then today we went out to visit GwangHa Moon--the main wall and palace area of the ancient Korean royal palace. It was super fun to see all the cool buildings of where the ancient kings used to live. It's sad to think that there used to be a lot more ancient palace buildings around, but a lot of them got destroyed during the Korean War. Stupid war.

Anyways here are some a ton of pictures from today! (these are merely a fraction of the pictures we took today...haha ;) )

This was before we left. Max wanted me to document how awesome and big his biceps were haha

Max and my cute grandma

 the start of our tourist-ing today :)

They made a memorial for one of the greatest Korean admirals in downtown Seoul a few years ago--it's pretty cool

They had these fun little floor fountains for people to play in too!

Max, focused while reading the narrative of the monument 

when in Korea, take pictures like the Koreans do! ;)

So near the statue memorial they have a little booth that lets you try on some old fashioned royal Hanboks and take pictures in a booth for free! It's funded by the city to promote cultural awareness in the city, which is pretty cool

This is the traditional King's outfit that Max is wearing.

what a good looking king :)

this is our serious picture haha

our 'royal family' picture :)

in the back you can see a golden statue of the Korean King who invented the Korean alphabet/written language

Max, embracing his role as 'king' 

Max acting like a king and me and my mom acting like his servants haha

              

another booth in the area had people write little life mottos/sayings in cool korean calligraphy

we bought one for our house that says, "family is heaven on earth"Awesome huh?

Behind you can see GwangHa Moon--the main door/entrance to the old palace, as well as Inwang Mountain. It was believed that Inwang Mountain was the vessle in which blessing and good fortune came to Korea. 

There were some guard dressed up in front of the gate. They did a flag changing like every 15 minutes, which was kind of cool too

This room was where the King would meet with his government officials

I absolutely LOVE korean ancient architectures--it's just so beautiful!

my pretty sister

I get my good looks from my momma!

behind is the building that all the king's parties was held at. So pretty!

I thought the ceiling looked really cool so i took this silly picture haha

this walkway was so short, even for a korean walkway 

Near the palace was a museum of Korean history that we visited. Outside was the Korean Children's Museum that had traditional Korean games. This is the anciently originated game of "hackysack". Max was pretty much a pro at it. 

This was another game of throwing sticks into a little vase looking thing

Max finally got one in on one of his last tries

Traditional Korean shoes--rich people had shoes made of silk and wood that were more sturdy, but this is the commoner shoes. It's probably the only pair of shoes in Korea that fit Max's feet haha

An old trolley/train thing

A replica of an ancient "pharmacy"

future pharmacists! 

I loved this section of the palace--the orange walls and brick were so pretty!

I told Max that one day I want to have a vacation home modeled after Korean palaces and I also want a wall like this. It's just so pretty I loved it! :)

Max found a 'royal rock'. It's probably a million years old. He saved it and brought it home in his pocket :P silly boy!

And then on our way home we saw this thing that looked like an ice cream cone. And we liked it. :)

Well that's all for today folks! We'll keep you posted on the rest of our Korean adventures!